Sulana nodded and thanked him for his help. She and Daven went back outside where Talon and Barek waited with the horses. She climbed into her saddle and checked around for nearby listeners. Satisfied their conversation was not being overheard, she spoke quietly to the others. "We have a problem."
Barek responded, "What? We have the ring. We caught the thieves. Mission accomplished."
"The thieves were hired," Talon interjected.
"Exactly," Sulana said. "By a sorcerer." She let that sink in. "This was no random theft. The thieves were hired specifically to retrieve the ring. That means this sorcerer knows what it is and what it can do."
Barek asked, "Why does that matter? He didn't get the ring."
Sulana shook her head at Barek's single-mindedness. The mission had been to retrieve the ring, and they had done that. As far as Barek was concerned, the mission was a success and returning to the Archives was the only task remaining.
"Not this time, but he may try again," Talon concluded.
Sulana nodded at Talon. "That's what I'm thinking too. We need to find out what he's up to. We can start with the village that was going to be the delivery spot. We need to go now before this sorcerer figures out we've intercepted the ring and disappears."
Talon held up his hand. "Hold on there, Sulana. That investigation is way outside our mission objectives. Our mission was to retrieve the ring and return it to the Archives. Confronting some unknown sorcerer of unknown skill could jeopardize everything we've just accomplished."
Barek nodded with a satisfied smile on his face. "Yes. Finish this mission first. Then maybe we go after the sorcerer."
Seeing that Talon and Barek were resolute on the issue, she looked at Daven, who shrugged his shoulders and looked down. "What they say makes sense, Sulana, but you're in charge."
Sulana was anxious to get to the bottom of the theft, but knew that Talon was right. Although she was in charge of this mission, his experience and perspective were not to be taken lightly. It was the reason he had been chosen to be her second in command. He was more a mentor than underling. Normally, he would be the one in charge of this group, but she had earned this chance to prove her leadership, and she was thankful for his respectful support.
Sulana exhaled harshly in frustration. "Delaying the investigation may mean we lose our chance to catch up with the ringleader, but you're right. We have no idea what we're up against, and it wouldn't hurt to have stronger sorcery on our side."
Talon nodded at her, encouraging her line of thought. Barek continued to smile, and Daven watched her face, waiting for her decision.
Sulana narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment, and then took a deep breath. "Fine. Back to the Archives then." She turned her horse toward the gate and rode out of the Governor's Complex. The others followed in her wake.
Chapter 8
The morning following my journey to the healer's cottage, I was determined to stop thinking about sorcery, channeling, and a certain pair of blue eyes. I threw myself into one of the Snow Creek Inn's remaining restoration tasks for a distraction.
I went to the stable, observed the current state of the stalls, and shook my head. They had been poorly constructed to begin with, and now the hinges were either crumbling into piles of rust flakes or pulling free of the gate's rotting wood. Half of the gates were held in place by loops of thin rope, which made it difficult to open and close the flimsy things.
The week before, I had been trying to close one of the ruined gates when it caught on the stable floor and sprang back to whack me in the forehead. I was so angry that I literally tore the gate off its hinges and threw it across the stall where it shattered against the stable wall into a pile of cracked boards and splinters. The two horses in the nearby stalls whinnied and ran in circles, kicking out and nearly crashing free in their distress. I'd had to speak soothingly to them for a while before they finally calmed down.
I stared at the gateless stall, ashamed that I had put off repairing it for so long.
Griz had completed most of the renovations on the inn building itself, but he had saved the outbuildings for last--a "last" that never arrived. I had been slowly working on finishing the repairs myself, in between helping Dela and her mother with the daily operations of the inn and my occasional Raven Company contracts.
As I surveyed the challenge awaiting me, I consoled myself with the knowledge that this week was much better than last week. Thanks to Raleb, I had plenty of money for the wood that was needed to rebuild the gates and stalls. The new boards stacked in a pile at the back of the stable would get me through the day, but I'd have to pick up some more wood soon.
I decided to replace the stall I had damaged in anger first. I settled into the satisfying work of demolishing the old stall and constructing the new one. I turned the new gate hinges I had purchased that morning over in my hands, admiring their craftsmanship and smooth movement. Burl the blacksmith did good work. These new hinges would outlast the old ones tenfold.
I had just finished hanging the gate and was testing how well it opened and shut when the light from the stable door dimmed. I turned to see a young man enter the stable wearing a black tabard, trimmed in grey, with the Raven Company crest over the left breast. He stepped around the old boards I had discarded when I demolished the old stall.
"Nice job, Mister Forester," he said with a smile.
It was Meldon, Raven Company's most recent recruit. Meldon was a lanky lad of about twenty years of age, with brown hair and eyes, and a face that made the girls smile and blush at him as he walked past. His fighting skills were coming along nicely on Borlan's steady training regimen, and he had proven to be a good bowman.
"Thanks, Meldon. What's up?"
"Borlan sent me over. He'd like to see you as soon as you have a moment. He has a lead on a contract for you." Meldon walked around me to inspect my handiwork. "Let me know if you want help with this," he said. "Things are slow at Raven Company and I could use a little extra work."
I thought about that for a minute. "Do you think you could take it on unsupervised, or would you need me to show you what to do?"
Meldon perked up, seeing that I was seriously considering his suggestion. "Oh, I have experience. I used to help my older brothers on my father's farm all the time. After a while, they trusted me to take on some of the repair jobs myself."
I scratched my chin and mulled over the idea of hiring him. If his help didn't come at too high a price, I could handle my responsibilities for the inn and make more on the Raven Company contract than I'd spend paying him to get this work done. That train of thought raised a question.
"Why didn't Borlan give you the contract?" I asked him.
Meldon shrugged and hesitated before answering. "Well, he said it was the kind of work you're best at...and he didn't think I was ready to do the job by myself," he finished with a disappointed sigh.
Meldon had only been with Raven Company for a couple of months, and his inexperience limited the kind of work Borlan was willing to entrust to him. In the short time I'd known him, Meldon seemed eager and conscientious, but he was also reticent to engage in any kind of confrontation. That quality was the true source of Borlan's concerns about his potential effectiveness as a guard.
"Tell you what. I think we can make this work for both of us. I'll see what Borlan has, and if it works out, I'll hire you to take over for me here while I attend to the contract. How does that sound?"
"That'd be great, Mister Forester!" he said with vigorous nodding of his head and a wide grin.
I laughed and slapped him across his back. "Call me Jaylan. Now, let's go see what Borlan has for me."
As we walked out of the stable, I briefly considered changing out of my work clothes and telling Dela I'd be gone for a few minutes, but there seemed little point of doing either. I wasn't going to be meeting a client, so the clothes didn't matter, and telling Dela I was headed over to the Raven Company offices would just lead to another argument. I decided to save the argu
ment for later, after I knew whether or not Borlan's contract would be worth it.
***
Borlan looked up from his lunch as Meldon and I walked into the front door of Raven Company. He wiped his mouth and glared. "I told you there was no rush!" he shouted at Meldon. He turned to me and spoke apologetically. "He didn't tell you to drop everything and run over here, did he?"
Meldon looked at me helplessly. I shook my head and chuckled. "Don't get yourself worked up, Borlan. I just happened to be at a good stopping point when Meldon showed up."
Borlan looked over at Meldon with chagrin. "Sorry about that, Meldon. Thanks for taking the message."
"Yes, sir. You're welcome sir. Should I go back to straightening up the armory?"
"Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, kid. Wish I had more work for you right now."
"That's alright sir. I'm sure things will pick up soon." Meldon hurried out of the room and headed for the basement door, which led down into the armory and the training area.
"He's a good kid. But I don't think his heart's in this work," Borlan said to me after he heard the door to the basement close.
"He might just need more experience to boost his confidence," I said.
"Maybe. You could take him on this job with you, if you don't mind sharing the fee with him," Borlan suggested.
"That's not a bad idea, but I may have a better use for him," I said.
Borlan looked at me in confusion. "What do you have in mind?"
I waved my hand and dodged his question. "It depends on this contract. What do you have?"
Borlan looked down at a message on his desk, and then back at me. "A teenage boy is missing down near Delta. He and some friends apparently went out into the forest last night. All the rest came back except this boy."
I frowned. "Why doesn't the father just go look for him?"
"The man apparently has more money than he has time to chase after a runaway son," Borlan reasoned. "Lucky for us."
"How much is he willing to pay?" I asked, my interest piqued.
"Five gold crowns. Two up front, three when you deliver the boy to the father." Borlan raised an eyebrow and watched for my reaction.
"That much?" I said in surprise. The sum was more than double what I had anticipated. Then I narrowed my eyes at Borlan. "What aren't you telling me?"
Borlan chuckled and nodded his head. "There is a bit of a catch. He wants the investigation kept quiet. No raising of alarms, no large search parties, and no fuss when the boy is found. He specifically requested that you not wear a Raven Company tabard," he added with a smirk.
Some of the men wore their black Raven Company tabard with pride, but Borlan felt the same way I did about them; we wished they weren't required attire for all official Raven Company postings. Lucky for me, a lot of the work I did required a low profile, so Borlan often exercised the Captain's Discretion clause of the tabard rule that allowed me to leave mine behind. The Customer Request clause was another such exception.
As much as I appreciated the reprieve, I still wondered why the search would be kept a secret. "Did he say why?"
Borlan shook his head. "No. I asked his messenger what he thought, and the man just said his master's wishes were made clear enough in the request and it wasn't his place to question them."
"Huh." I leaned over Borlan's desk and picked up the note. It didn't reveal anything Borlan hadn't already told me, except the client's name. "Are you familiar with this Jergen Overland fellow?"
"He's the owner of Overland Mercantile down in Delta." Borlan answered. "My cousin works for him down there. He never had much good to say about the man. Says he's a slave driver, but a good businessman."
"What do you think about this?" I asked him, putting the note back on his desk.
"Sounds like easy money to me," he said with a shrug. "You actually thinking of turning it down?"
"No. I'm just a little wary of people who seem to have more money than decency."
Borlan snorted. "I hear you, but don't worry about it. All you have to do is find this kid, and you'll be five crowns richer. Well, four anyway." Raven Company would get twenty percent for the referral.
I shook off my misgivings, took a deep breath, and nodded in agreement. "You're right. I'll take it."
I thought about the time of day and the fact that a search for a missing person should get started as soon as possible, while the trail is still fresh. "I should probably try to get down there this afternoon. I'll have to ride hard to make it there with any light left in the day."
Borlan nodded. "Right." He looked at me seriously for a moment more, and then lowered his voice. "I said not to worry, but I think this job has an odd odor to it too. Keep your eyes open while you're down there in Delta."
I smiled at Borlan. "I'll do that. I know better than to ignore my instincts on these things, particularly when you share them."
Borlan nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Good." He picked up a hunk of bread from his desk and waved it at me. "Now get out of here so I can finish my lunch."
I chuckled and headed for the basement door. I had some negotiating to do with Meldon before I rode out to see about finding a lost boy.
Chapter 9
I rode up to Overland Mercantile in the late afternoon. Patches' lower half was splattered with mud from our hurried journey down to Delta. His namesake knee markings were barely visible through the grime. The horse plodded slowly with his head down as we clopped up to the hitch rail at the front of the store, and he exhaled deeply when I finally dismounted.
Along the side of the building, two men were loading heavy sacks onto a large wagon that was hitched to a four-mule team. I waved in greeting and tied Patches to the railing before heading toward the store entrance.
The Overland Mercantile store was bigger than you would expect for a small town like Delta. The town of Delta was home to only about a hundred people, but the Overlands had taken advantage of their location near the head of East Teardrop River to become a commerce hub for the entire Lakewoods Province, which encompassed the northern-most territory of the Tanes Empire.
The store protruded from the front of a large warehouse. Behind the warehouse, a long dock extended out onto Teardrop Lake. The Overlands owned a small fleet of boats that moved goods across the lake when the weather was right, which shaved time off the long, circuitous land journey.
I opened the solid front door to go inside. The well-oiled hinges made no sound, but a tiny bell positioned above the door tinkled as I entered, cheerfully announcing my presence. Looking around, I could see open barrels with tools sticking out of them and stacks of crates displaying all manner of items. In one corner, a few crates were draped with white cloth, and some of the more exotic and delicate items were arrayed upon them. Lamp light sparkled on a series of glass figurines, which reminded me of Sulana and our strange adventure yesterday.
A tall, middle-aged woman with a friendly smile and intelligent grey eyes glided toward me from behind the counter at the back of the store. Her plain, woolen, shopkeeper's dress could not mask the aristocratic bearing of a woman of means. She glanced in the direction of my stare. "The figurines are made by a local artist. His work is known throughout the area. If you'd like one of them for your sweetheart, I can give you an exceptional bargain."
I pushed distracting memories of vaetric artifacts and a small blonde sorceress to the back of my mind and smiled back at her. "Thank you, but I'm Jaylan Forester, from Raven Company. May I speak to the owner?"
The woman's smile dissolved into a worried frown and she clasped her hands together. "Oh, I'm so glad you were able to come so quickly. I didn't expect to see anyone until tomorrow at the earliest! I'm so worried about Tam that I can hardly concentrate on running the store."
"You're the boy's mother?" I asked.
"Yes! I'm so sorry, Mister Forester. Where are my manners? I'm Greta Overland, but please call me Greta. My husband is Jergen Overland, and Tam is our son. Tam went out with his friends last night and never ca
me home. He's never done this before."
"Try not to worry, Greta, I'm here to help you find him. And please, call me Jaylan. Calling me 'Mister Forester' will have me looking over my shoulder for my father. So, what about the other boys? Did they make it home last night?"
"Yes. My husband went over to the Wright's home last night, and Tam's friend Alain said they had gotten separated in the forest. They assumed Tam had returned home without them." She dropped her gaze to the floor and frowned.
I could tell she wasn't convinced by the boy Alain's story. "You don't believe him? You think he's lying?"
She looked back up at me, her eyes wide. "I don't know what to believe! Those two boys are so close, I can't believe Alain would come home and leave Tam behind."
"Do you know where they went? Or what they were doing?"
She sighed and shook her head. "No, I don't. My husband was the one to speak with Alain and his father, and I'm afraid he can be a bit...intimidating. Particularly when he's angry, and he was certainly angry. It wouldn't surprise me if Alain said as little as possible. He's probably concerned about getting Tam in trouble."
I lowered my voice. "I don't mean to be insensitive, but I can't help but wonder why you hired Raven Company to deal with a missing boy." I watched her face carefully.
She took a deep breath and blew it out. Then she straightened and looked me in the eye. "My husband has a business to run. He can't waste the day traipsing through the forest looking for a rebellious boy." She bowed her head and mumbled, "Even if that boy is his own son."
"I'm sorry, but I had to ask," I said, and she nodded. "I gather Tam and his father were having a disagreement?"
She snorted. "Don't all teenage boys disagree with their father?" She grimaced and went on with a disapproving tone. "But yes, Tam has this fantasy of becoming an Imperial Guard and traveling the Empire. He has little interest in following in his father's footsteps."
I nodded. "I think I understand. Well, I should probably speak to your husband and then see what I can find out from Alain as soon as possible. I may be able to do a little searching today, but I'm afraid Tam may be spending another night in the forest."
The Vaetra Chronicles: Book 01 - Vaetra Unveiled Page 8
