Was he playing games? Trying to provoke? The insinuation in his voice irritated Brune. His forehead creased.

  “Really? We looked around earlier. Didn’t see anything.”

  Vladnoch knocked his pipe on the side of the carriage, emptying the ashes. “So you don’t think it was Phia?”

  “I couldn’t say,” Brune said.

  Vladnoch put his pipe in his pocket. “Want to see what I got today?”

  He opened the carriage door. “Blue! Yes, you. Come here, Blue. That’s right, come. You must learn to listen when I talk to you.”

  A girl put her foot on the step. She was of a race Brune had never seen before; light blue skin, brown eyes, jet black hair.

  “Come here,” Vladnoch said, pointing to the ground with his stick. “Show yourself to Mr. Hargish.”

  The girl came down the steps, looking up and down the street as if she’d been transported to an alien planet. She was dressed in animal skins, her bare arms painted with ochre.

  She stood on the cobblestone, trembling.

  “A forest tribe from Arullia,” Vladnoch said. “Brave men. Every one of them fought to the death with our soldiers. Which is to say, they committed mass suicide and left all their women for us. Not a bad deal, is it, Blue?”

  She blinked at him and then looked at Brune, quickly looking down when he met her gaze.

  “Alright, enough standing in the rain. Go on. Inside!” Vladnoch turned her around and smacked her behind as she hurried back up the steps.

  “See you later, Hargish.”

  Vladnoch climbed into the carriage without giving Brune another look.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “VLADNOCH IS HERE,” Brune said, shutting the door.

  Endellion stood up.

  Brune hooked his finger at Phia. “Come here.”

  The cat girl sat frozen on her bed as if she was in shock.

  “Phia. Do you hear me? Come here.”

  For a moment, she stared into space like a frightened deer. Then her face slowly contorted into a hateful grimace. She gasped through her tears. “No... please, don’t make me go back.”

  “I’m not making you go back, Phia. I told him we hadn’t found you.”

  Phia looked at Brune, her mouth quivering.

  Endellion’s face was expressionless, but Brune knew her mind was churning beneath her placid surface.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t do it. If you’re not with me on this one, I get it. But let me know now.”

  “No—I’m with you.”

  “Good. We’re going to have to hide Phia.”

  Phia bounced off the bed and threw herself against Brune, crying into his chest. “I knew you loved me,” she choked through tears.

  “There’s no time for this,” Brune said, pushing her away. “Vladnoch suspects us—He might even already know we have you.”

  The room had two alcoves, each with a shelf and a window. Brune pointed to one of them. “As soon as they come, you’ll hide under this shelf.”

  “Okay,” Phia said.

  “I’ll put a cloaking spell on you,” Endellion said. “No one will see you except me.”

  “Make it as strong as you can,” Brune said. “Some kind of sorcerer is with him. Phia, whatever happens, do not look at them.”

  Brune fell silent. The shrill voice of the innkeeper’s wife resounded in the hallway as feet creaked up the stairs.

  “Down you go,” Brune said.

  The innkeeper’s wife spoke in a loud, tremulous voice. “I would have preferred you waited downstairs, Sir!”

  Phia hid in the alcove while Endellion murmured her conceal spell. Brune watched her vanish as he pulled the curtain closed.

  A knock at the door.

  “Mr. Hargish?” The innkeeper’s wife sounded as if she was being held at knifepoint. “Some visitors are here for you. I’m sorry, I–”

  Brune opened the door to find Vladnoch breathing down the hostess’s neck. Another presence, cold and shadowy, loomed farther down the hall.

  “Forgive me, Mr. Hargish. They insisted on following me.” Her face was pale.

  “That’s alright. What is it, Vladnoch?”

  “Something I forgot to mention. Thought I’d drop in.” He squinted his beady eyes at the hostess. “That will do, Madame, you may go.”

  Brune gave her a reassuring nod, and she hurried away.

  “I was about to go to bed. What is it?”

  “May we come in? My associate is with me.”

  A freakishly tall figure, enrobed in black, stepped within view of the door frame. Standing eye level with Brune, his sunken, ivory-white face was barely more than a skull.

  “This is Dhar Jattab,” Vladnoch said. “He’s helping me find Phia.”

  Brune’s initial impression had been correct: Dhar Jattab did not have eyelids. His bloodshot eyeballs stared with unblinking intensity, which gave him the appearance of being extremely offended.

  “Pleasure to meet you,” Brune said.

  The eyeballs scanned his face.

  Gods. Does he even talk?

  “Alright, then. Come in.”

  Dhar Jattab stooped through the doorway and cast his watery eyeballs around the room. The surrounding air was dark and chilly, as if his very body sucked in light and warmth.

  Vladnoch shut the door and looked around the room.

  “Make it quick,” Brune said. “I get cranky at bedtime.”

  Vladnoch casually walked to the window and moved the curtain. “Nice view. Mind if I open it?”

  Without waiting for an answer, he pulled the curtain back.

  If Endellion had looked, she would have seen Phia crouched under the shelf, covering her face with her hands.

  Dhar Jattab’s eyeballs stared at the space under the alcove.

  Vladnoch took his pipe from his pocket. “You’ll recall I mentioned how a cat girl was on sale today.” He looked at Brune and raised his eyebrows.

  What the hell kind of game was he playing? Brune felt a muscle in his shoulder twitching.

  “Yes. What about it?”

  Vladnoch stuffed tobacco into his pipe and looked at Endellion with an equally quizzical expression.

  “You don’t mind if I smoke?” He struck a match and puffed away, intensely focused on the glowing bowl, as if he’d completely forgotten the subject at hand.

  The sorcerer was as still as a corpse, staring at the space under the window.

  “Mr. Jattab believes it was Phia,” Vladnoch said.

  Upon hearing his name, Dhar Jattab’s eyes rolled in Vladnoch’s direction.

  “I’m not convinced,” Vladnoch continued, “but I lean in that direction. Just think of it: a virgin cat girl of incomparable beauty. What man wouldn’t fall in love with her and pay a fortune to possess her, if he had the means?

  “You see my point. It’s easy to imagine Phia falling into mercantile hands.”

  Dhar Jattab’s head tilted back, and he seemed to stare at the ceiling. But Brune knew what he was doing. The sorcerer was projecting himself into every nook of the room. The frosty tendrils of his magic groped around Brune’s ears.

  Endellion put her hand on the back of a chair. Rings were under her eyes. She was getting worn out from maintaining the cloaking spell’s integrity. Now she also had to block the sorcerer from worming into her mind. She wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.

  Brune strode over to Endellion. “Mind Shield!” he seethed, shooting Vladnoch a menacing look.

  The air around Brune and Endellion vibrated. After that, Brune only felt the light buzzing of the Mind Shield spell around his ears.

  “I don’t appreciate you bringing this freak into my private apartment to probe my brain, Vladnoch!”

  Dhar Jattab lowered his head and looked at Brune. “You! You dare speak to me with such insolence?”

  So he does talk!

  The sorcerer’s voice was surprisingly high-pitched and nasally.

  “Dare call me a freak. Do you know who I am?”

  “I don’t care who you are.”

  “Alright, alright,” Vladnoch said impatiently. “It’s nothing personal, Hargish. Just a precaution. You know how it is; can’t even trust your own mother in this world. Don’t think that I actually suspect you. I’m sure you two will carry out the commission. You both have an excellent reputation at the guild. I don’t really believe you’d put that in jeopardy.”

  He opened the door and glanced at Dhar Jattab. The sorcerer walked out of the room in silence.

  “My apologies for barging in,” Vladnoch said.

  Endellion collapsed into a chair as soon as Brune locked the door.

  “Are you okay?” Phia whispered, touching her shoulder. The cloaking spell had lifted.

  The elf rubbed her temples. “I’m fine, Kitty. That just took a bit out of me. I could feel his magic sweeping the room, looking for signs of a cloaking spell. It was exhausting trying to keep my spell clean so that he wouldn’t detect it.”

  “You heard of him before?” Brune said.

  “Dar Jattab? No, have you?”

  Brune shook his head. “How strong would you say he is?”

  “Well, I can say he’s drawing from an enormous source of magical energy. Much larger than mine… Not that that’s hard.”

  Phia frowned. “But you’re powerful.”

  “I have powerful equipment and spells.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “You can talk about that later,” Brune said, pulling the ring of keys out of his pocket. “Hold still.” He unlocked Phia’s bondage collar and removed it from her neck. Her hands were trembling as he removed the shackles from her wrists and ankles.

  “Oh, Brune,” she whined, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his stomach.

  He grabbed her shoulders to push her away, but she hugged him more tightly. Looking down at her soft golden head, his defenses were pulverized.

  He put his hands over her back. She shook with tears.

  It was enough to melt the heart of a dragon.

  Still, he was torn.

  Brune lived a rambling, violent, dangerous life. If Phia were his girl, what would he do with her? Leave her alone for months at a time while he went adventuring? Impossible. Take her with him? Equally impossible. It would put her in danger, and she’d be in the way.

  Besides, as far as the law was concerned, he was abducting Phia from fiancé. They’d be on the run as long as her uncle was still her guardian.

  In his younger days, Brune would have just fucked first and thought about it later. He’d ruined a few respectable maidens that way, but he’d never felt good about it. Doing the same to Phia wasn’t an option.

  No, he had deliver her into the life she deserved. And if he couldn’t give it to her, he’d just have to let her go.

  And yet, the idea of letting her go seemed the least possible of all.

  “Listen, Phia. This doesn’t mean you’re going to stay with me. But I won’t let you go until I’ve found a good place for you.”

  Phia hugged him more tightly, nuzzling her delicate golden head against his stomach.

  Brune’s limbs felt weak. He lifted one of them and stroked Phia’s head. “Maybe… We can return you to the Temple of Feron… If we can get things sorted out.”

  He gazed down at the top of her head. Is she even listening to me?

  Endellion watched with her usual detachment. “They’ll be waiting for us outside.”

  “Yeah. We’ll have to be sneaky.”

  “There should be a back door in this place. I’ll cloak Phia again, too.”

  Phia suddenly looked up at Brune, resting her chin on his stomach. “What about the carriage?”

  “We’ll just have to leave it here.”

  They waited until well after midnight. Brune and Endellion chanted a refrain to activate the runes on their boots and clothing that made them harder to detect through sight and sound.

  Brune watched Phia vanish as Endellion cast the cloaking spell on her. Then he opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

  The lamp burned low. He strained his ears but didn’t hear anyone stirring in the sleepy inn.

  The trio hurried into the hallway and down the stairs.

  But Brune paused when they got to the second floor.

  “Wait!” he whispered, gazing down the hallway. Then, over his shoulder: “Follow me.”

  Phia looked questioningly at Endellion, but the elf shrugged her shoulders.

  Brune stopped in front of Room 209. “Wait here.”

  He knocked at the door.

  Footsteps. A moment later, the door opened.

  Rogovold smelled of liquor and sweat. A mad look was in his bleary eyes.

  “Oh, it’s you,” he finally said, coming back to himself. “Come for that drink, eh? Well, I’m afraid I’m a little preoccupied at the moment. Tell you what, my friend—”

  Brune shoved the door, which smacked Rogovold in the face, and strode into the room.

  He glimpsed the fairy lying on the bed just as Rogovold lunged at him with a dagger. Brune’s heavy hand caught Rogovold’s shoulder.

  Rogovold grunted as his shoulder crunched under Brune’s fingers. Shoving him to the floor, Brune looked at the fairy. She was bound and gagged and beaten.

  One of her wings was broken and torn. Her body was bruised and cut.

  She lifted her head and looked at Brune, then dropped it back to the bed.

  “Her sigil,” Brune said to Rogovold. “Give it to me.”

  “You fuck!” Rogovold swung with his good arm, but the blade only grazed Brune’s forearm armor and fell to the floor. Brune grabbed him and pulled him close.

  “Look at me. Look at my face. I’m the monster, not you. You know what my grandfather would have done to you? He would have eaten you alive.”

  “You… You won’t get away with this… It’s robbery.”

  “I’m not warning you again.”

  “Alright! Alright.”

  Brune let Rogovold go and walked to the bed. The fairy looked at him fearfully.

  Rogovold fumbled at the coat rack. “I have it here,” he said in a shaky voice.

  “Bring it here then.”

  Brune turned to see Rogovold raising a wheel-lock pistol. It was an ornately crafted instrument inlaid with ivory and gold.

  Brune rolled his eyes. “Don’t fire that.”

  Rogovold’s hand trembled. He pulled the trigger. Brune covered his eyes as an explosion of smoke and sparks filled the room. The lead ball zipped past him, tearing into the wall above the bed. The fairy hugged herself and whimpered as she looked at the smokey air.

  Brune strode towards Rogovold and grabbed him by the shirt.

  “You should practice your shot before you fire that thing at an angry monster. I don’t need gadgets. I can make your head explode right now with a single word. For the last time, where’s the sigil?”

  Rogovold’s black curls whipped about as Brune shook him like a helpless deer in the jaws of a lion.

  And then he went limp. Brune let him slump to the floor.

  “Rogovold.” He nudged him with his boot. “Wake up, man.”

  “I’m not sure he’ll be waking up,” said Endellion, walking into the room. Crouching down, she put her hand under his nose. “Yeah, you probably gave him a heart attack.”

  Brune heard a disembodied gasp that was unmistakably Phia. “It’s the fairy!” The floor creaked as she hurried over to the bed. “Oh, she’s hurt!”

  “Shhh!” Brune said. “Keep your voice down. Made enough noise already. Where is that goddamn sigil?” He rummaged through Rogovold’s coat.

  “Hang on,” Endellion said. Prying open Rogovold’s fist, she found a small metal plate engraved with the enslavement sigil that suppressed the fairy’s magic powers.

  “Got it.”

  “Alright, let’s get out of here.” Brune traipsed to the bed.

  “Ow!” Phia yelped.

  “Good gods, Phia, can you make any more noise?”

  “You stepped on my foot!”

  “Well, keep out of the way, then. I can’t see you, remember?” He leaned over the fairy and pulled the gag out of her mouth. “Can you walk?”

  “I… can try,” she said in a tiny voice, even cuter than Phia’s. “Ohhhh,” she moaned, sitting up. “It hurts.”

  “She doesn’t look well,” Endellion said.

  “I’ll carry her,” said Brune, cradling her in his arms and picking her up.

  “Ow ow ow! Oh, my wing. It hurts so much.”

  “Sorry, I’ll try not to touch it.”

  “Wait!” Phia said. “Let me cover her.” A knitted blanket floated off the bed. Brune waited as the blanket wrapped itself around the fairy.

  “There,” Phia said.

  They slipped out of Rogovold’s room and crept down the hall, but the innkeeper met them on the stairs. The elderly fellow was wearing his sleeping cap and pajamas. He fell against the wall and clutched the railing.

  “We’ve just rescued this fairy,” Brune said.

  The fairy looked at the old man, shivering under the blanket.

  The innkeeper pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and inspected the fairy, shaking his head sadly. Then looked over Brune and Endellion. “What will you do with her?”

  “We’ll break her sigil and set her free.”

  The old innkeeper nodded gravely. “Good.”

  “Is there a back way out?”

  “Come, I’ll show you.”

  The old man led them through the dark dining room and into the kitchen, past enormous pots and pans. He ushered them out into a dark, dingy alley. The stench of garbage stung their nostrils. A stray beagle lifted its head and sniffed the air as the door shut behind them.

  “Hey… Something’s there,” Phia whispered, touching Endellion’s arm and pointing down the alley. A black shape, as indistinct as a shadow, appeared to be fleeing noiselessly.

  Endellion raised her hand. “Seek and hold.”

  The shadow dropped.

  Endellion opened her hand. “O, Spirit of the Owl. Reveal what is hidden from our sight.”

  A shiny pebble appeared in her hand. It floated away in the shadow's direction. Endellion followed.

  The pebble dropped into the shadow, and a lanky man in a black cloak appeared on the ground.