She'd forgotten, and was annoyed with herself for forgetting. She'd been aiming for neutral ground by coming to Xavier, but apparently he had some loyalty to Renat.
"So what I can't figure out," he went on, "is why you're coming to me. You know full well the shipment isn't in the city yet, you don't work for Renat anymore, no one knows who you work for, you don't have enough money to buy anything off of it I'm sure, you have no ties to the city, we have the Hji at our door ever since you arrived—"
She stood. "I can see we have nothing more to say to each other."
"I'm afraid not."
Moon made her own way out.
On the street, her cheeks burned with embarrassment. What a fumble, and the story would likely make its way back to Renat.
But it hadn't been a complete failure. This whole time she'd thought Loviva was trying to fence a magical object. Xavier had unknowingly revealed the truth. It was not an object in Loviva's possession but a shipment being brought into Carnate.
She felt like a puzzle was falling into place. But she needed it to come together faster if she was going to screw Loviva over and prove her loyalty to Renat. Moon made for the Demon's Breath headquarters.
~*~
Renat wasn't feeling well enough to pace, so his knee bounced beneath the desk. He raked a hand through is hair one more time. The leather thong had long since dropped to the floor.
He had nothing to do now but wait. After Moon had gone, he had slept a little and then risen. All the day's runs had to be scrapped and remade, while still ensuring his clients got what they paid for. After that, his pace could slow because the work was less pressing, but still vital: he had to redesign their routes through the city, which guards they had paid off would be at which gates, where the Hji were in relation to his supply lines. Anything Moon knew, he had to assume Loviva knew too, and that was bad for business.
The changes had forced him to admit the reality to his crew. He was heartened, at least, by the fact that they were as shocked as he. In any case, the embarrassment of having to admit the depth of his mistake was nothing compared to the heartbreak he nursed.
He wished he could push her out of his head. After such a betrayal, why did he still mourn her loss? He mourned a trick, surely. Something he'd never had. Still, the loss steeped like vinegar while he waited to hear reports on how the day's runs had gone.
Moon was gone, vanished like only a Fade could, he couldn't rail against her anymore. But his true enemy, Loviva and her crew, were still out there.
Renat flipped over a piece of paper and began to scribble across the back of it. If he were going to take down Loviva, he'd need a meticulous plan....
When Gawin returned an hour later, he found Renat considering the long list he'd formed.
"No trouble, Renat," Gawin said, drawing up a chair so he could go into further detail.
Renat grunted. "Good. I'll need at least ten crew for a plan I've got."
Gawin's eyebrows arched in surprise. "...ten? What plan? We're stretched already scoping the way out of Carnate and keeping up with our regular runs." It went unsaid that Moon's usual work also had to be covered, and she had abilities that made her more valuable. It would take more effort to do what she had done easily.
"Then forget escaping Carnate. Pull everyone back in."
A long silence followed. Renat looked at Gawin over the top of the paper. "What?"
Gawin sat straighter in his seat. "Sorry, of course. What's the project? So I can choose the best people for it?"
"We're taking down Demon's Breath."
Gawin drew a breath but said nothing. "A turf war, sir? Now? When we're planning on leaving?"
"Forget leaving Carnate," Renat barked out, exasperated. "Loviva must pay for how she humiliated me."
"Of course, of course," Gawin said in a mollifying tone. "It's just...the tide could turn in the war at any time. If we do not act now..."
Renat swiped his hands across the desk, showering Gawin with papers. "Get...out..."
"Renat, I—"
"Leave, Gawin!"
His lieutenant did as ordered, leaving Renat glowering at his desk. His resolve did not waver. Someone had to pay for what had happened. Who cared about leaving the city if he was not doing it with Moon? They'd had plans together. He hadn't told her about leaving the city but that didn't matter. Their plans could carry on somewhere else. Wherever they were together, everything would certainly be fine.
He remembered their first weeks together. She showed up whenever she damn well pleased. It had been infuriating and erotic. He was simultaneously too busy for the interruptions and yet always willing to drop everything for her. Her timing was always impressive, that was sure. She appeared right as Gawin left or just as Renat was coming home.
It had been a heady time overall. He was still very much trying to prove himself, and came into bloody scrapes and near misses as his crew took down smaller competitors.
Finally one night, his crew stormed the Claw and Bone only to find Lady Orwell, one of Carnate's underworld queens, had fled, and Renat claimed her territory for his.
When he'd come back to that old place, he knew it was for one of the last times, for they would need new quarters for his expanding crew and territory.
She'd been on the bed, her legs crossed. Even this was a sign of her comfort. She'd always given off an illusion of comfort, or of boldness, but there was something different here, a gentle intimacy of one leg folded under the other.
"Do you know who Lady Orwell is?"
She'd nodded. "The crime boss who isn't actually a noble."
"She fled this morning. I control her territory now."
"Exciting."
The voice came out deadpan. He smiled. She wasn't from Carnate, she didn't understand what it meant.
"We're having a celebration tonight," he went on.
"Oh." She got up from the bed, intending to leave.
"You should come with me," he said, before he could chicken out.
She'd turned, considered him. "I suppose. Yes."
He hadn't realized his hopes had ridden on her answer. He grinned broadly. A triumphant night.
~*~
Moon did not recognize every name on the list of buyers, and she could hardly chase around the whole city looking for them. Also, anyone buying stolen magic artefacts was likely to be powerful, dangerous, and magically guarded. A Fade could only be invisible, not invincible, and she could not pass through a ward set by a powerful magic-user.
Luckily, even thinking this brought her back around to Loviva's. Surely a woman as established as her would have magic wards on her information? All this made Moon think she'd missed something the first time she'd been to the Demon's Breath hideout.
The idea of going back stressed her, but there was nothing for it. Renat won't be there, she reminded herself. She still stepped into invisibility much earlier than necessary, even though it made walking crowded streets difficult.
She gained entry to the manor in a similar fashion as before. Fades were rare, and one could forgive the guards their laxness.
A large shipment of magical artefacts could only legally be going to one place: the tower, where Sorcerer Amadou and his people fought the Hji. She leaned against a wall and examined the piece of paper where she'd jotted down Loviva's smuggling routes. She'd learned a lot about smuggling the past two years. Several of the routes and drop points looked normal. Loviva likely ran several fronts as well, where illegal product might be stored for a few days before being sold.
In the siege, profit had shifted from illegal goods to legal ones like food. However, if the guard found you hoarding large amounts of any food, they could possibly arrest you for a variety of infractions. That being said, several of Renat's storefronts had become suddenly legitimate businesses as they were known to be well-stocked. Not everyone was lucky enough to already have money when the siege began, and Renat had capitalized.
If the tower was receiving artefacts, they were likely be
ing smuggled in by the same routes Loviva and Renat's crews used. She could likely exclude Renat's territory. If Loviva was planning to lift the artefacts during transit, they likely were coming along one of the routes she used.
Moon changed course, folding the paper as she began walking back the way she'd come. One of the western entry points to the city was furthest from the Hji and had a straight shot through the city to the tower. Loviva's map had scribbled the route out, and Moon could guess that the guard had discovered it and it was no longer viable for the Demon's Breath. But that meant the sorcerers could use it to bring their objects into the city.
She turned toward that side of the city, and the western guardhouse.
~*~
The tower was surrounded by a winding garden. On each of the four points of the wall was a main guardhouse. Each quarter of the city was patrolled by one of these guardhouses.
The guardhouses were warded by magic, but not to the level of the tower. And much of the magic was reserved for the guard armor, the cells and the valuables.
She'd been to the southern guardhouse before, and the western one was much the same in layout. During the day, the gates were propped open, and she entered the main courtyard easily.
Invisible, she found the main offices. It was a square, two-story building built against the wall with the same stone. Clearly, the size of the guard had outgrown this building. A quick look through the windows showed her desks pushed together and papers overflowing in a central room. She guessed the upper floor had individual offices for higher-ranking guards. Posted outside the door was the week's schedule. She went up to it but could not flip past the first sheet, for it would be too obvious when the papers began to move by themselves. Though she didn't fear the guards, they were more observant and certainly more suspicious than the average citizen. A normal person's mind would never jump to a Fade, but with a guard you never knew. The other problem was that the guardhouse was never quiet. Someone was always on duty or practicing or walking by, even though the sun was setting.
But then a clanging sounded. Moon jumped out of her skin at the sound, but all the clerks on the main floor rose and stretched and started talking excitedly.
Ah, the dinner bell. She waited while they filed out, not bothering to lock the door.
The call to supper cleared out most of the yard. She waited, but knew this was her best chance. She went to the door on light feet. Giving a final glance around, she opened the door and dashed inside.
One or two light orbs floated near the ceiling, and candles did the rest of the work. There on the wall was the same schedule as the one outside, with guard names penned in and scratched out or moved around. She flipped through the sheets, until pausing at the third day from that evening. There, a large contingent of extra guards were scheduled, more than any other day. Their names had been circled with different colors of ink, pointing to different locations. Moon smiled. There were extra guards being stationed on just the route she suspected the artefacts would come through.
"Don't move."
Her spine stiffened at the male voice. Turning her head, she saw a guard, a wall sentry in full armor, filling the doorway. Damn those djinn-blood, they were silent as cats.
He couldn't see her, of course, but he had shifted partially, and his cat ears were alert. He had a helm under one arm, and she wondered if he was just coming back from duty or if it was standard for them to remove their helms like that.
Her hand still pushed the papers up at an awkward angle, an angle no sheet of paper would naturally take.
"Officer Piong? What are you doing?"
Shit. A woman had come down the stairs from the second floor.
“General Freas. I saw this door open by itself, and now those papers are hanging strangely.”
The woman, Freas, looked to the papers. Moon had heard enough. With Carnate on edge, she was likely to be executed as a spy. What would her defense be? "Well, my husband and I are fighting so I just wanted to help him take down his enemies..."
Moon dropped the papers and sprang for the open window. She may not have cat magic, but she could be lithe when she needed to.
Unfortunately, as she passed over the sill, the green flare of a spell activated, and a blaring alarm sounded.
The young guard streaked past her, shouting to the gate guards to lock down the guardhouse. Shit.
The general, Freas, stepped out of the door with more poise. She looked about the yard. Moon realized a second too late what she was doing. She leaped for the gravel path as the general cast a purple powder into the grassy area outside the window, where she had seen Moon's weight press the grass down.
There were people who made their way up in the world on money and connections and had no skills to speak of, but clearly this Freas was no such woman.
Moon made the path, but the purple powder revealed her. It did not exactly cling to her, but hung in the air everywhere but where she was, and showed her movement to the gravel path.
Freas shifted into a huge tiger with luminous golden eyes, throwing herself toward Moon before she had even finished shifting.
Moon dove, hitting the ground and skinning her knee and the heels of her hands.
The massive tiger growled, its eyes seeking. Moon realized the powder still clung to her, and the tiger could scent it. Stumbling back before the tiger could sense her, she knelt, threw an elbow up to shield her face, and snapped into visibility. She could only turn things invisible with her. She needed to be already holding or wearing something, and the powder had touched her after she'd turned invisible.
She was only visible for a flash of a second, and when she turned invisible again, the powder on her body turned invisible too. A necessary move, but it cost her. The great tiger and every other guard moving toward the office spotted her, and homed in on her position.
"Faaaade!" the general roared in a voice that was still half-tiger.
Upon hearing the word, the guards spread out into a new formation. They moved into two concentric circles, and converged. The largest gap was back the way she'd come, where the tiger had half-shifted. Its golden eyes were so bright and focused Moon almost believed they could see her.
The two circles of guards were closing in. If she wanted to fight her way through, but she'd have to kill at least two, and that was only hoping no one grabbed her while she was busy doing it.
So far, the general's only mistake was calling her a Fade. Fades had a monstrous reputation, and one or two of the younger guards looked shaky as they moved in. Maybe they would've all realized soon enough that it wasn't a normal invisibility spell when they couldn't smell her.
A light burning smell came to her nostrils. A skein of magic threaded from guard to guard. She couldn't tell if it was protective or to keep her in, but the magic was powerful. Of course the sorcerers provided for the guard, but there was also the magic of places, and connections, and in their own territory, the guards could combine to powerfully strengthen a spell.
Moon knew when she'd met her match. Regretfully, she pulled from her pocket a charm carved of red stone. It was powerful magic, and she hated to waste it when she should have been more careful. She only had three – a blue one that cast outward, a green one that cast downward, and the red, which would send her up.
The skein of magic thickened, and strips of it crisscrossed above her. She got over her reservations about using the charmed stone. Before the trap could expand over her, she cast the charm.
She'd never used one before, and was unprepared to be rocketed upward. Her head flung back as the spell encircled her waist and drove upward. Her shoulder clipped the shield the guards were casting. The shield shuddered as she ricocheted off. It did not grab her, but the hit sent her spiraling, and the charm's magic did not correct her course. She could not see the guards' reaction, because she spun wildly. Moon could not tell up from down as she tumbled upward, into the sky.
~*~
Ten minutes later, she had gathered her arms to her chest, and
her wild spinning had slowed. At first she'd worried the charm would carry her over the walls and into the Hji camp, but she didn't make it that far. She began a steady descent toward the ground. The pace was much slower on the way down. It was full dark by now, and she saw lights and fires and the blazing windows of the tower as she flew.
She held off cursing the cheapness of the charm until after she'd been deposited gently on the streets of Carnate. Then Moon fell to her knees and pressed her hands to the flagstones.
Three old women talking to each other over a fence were watching her. She must've forgotten to stay invisible at some point. Moon staggered to her feet. She was off-balance but grateful to be on solid ground once more. Her heart pounded against her chest. She took a few deep breaths, nodded to the old women, and set off down the street.
It was time to talk to Renat.
She pretended to feel confident as she made her way into Arrowhead territory.
~*~
Renat had spent the latter half of the day holed up in his room. If Gawin wouldn’t help him, he could find a new lieutenant. In any case, Loviva’s people would need somewhere to go once he killed her, and he preferred to absorb the gangs he scuttled. It made better business sense, and neutralized potential dissenters.
But finally he'd sat back with a deep sigh. The work was weighing on him, reminding him he hadn't slept. He looked longingly toward the bed, then he got up, shifted into his cat form, and went out the window.
The streets below were made for humans. Carts led by donkeys, carriages of the wealthy, shops selling pottery or clothing or spices... but the High Road was for shifted only. He crossed the distance between his room and mounted the High Road easily.
This section was prettiest, for the neighborhood had chosen to grow plants, not just on the road itself but above it, turning it into a shady tunnel. The city was almost completely blocked from view by large leaves and coiling vines.
He turned north. The High Road was busy this evening. Two lionesses napped in the last rays of sunlight. Further on, four juveniles play-fought in a wide space. Renat padded on, the road changing under his feet, sometimes rising and falling with the rooftops, sometimes creaking and swaying as the structure beneath became a bridge stretching the distance across a large road below. He left his neighborhood, and the verdant tunnel, behind. Now he had a sweeping view of the city every time he crested a high building, though often buildings blocked his view.
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