Chapter 108

Quickly crossing the shop floor, I approached Nazim with the store assistant trailing at my heels. An annoyed glance was all it took for the assistant to leave. My eyes went back to the door, which was only just swinging closed behind the oily individual.

“He felt weird,” I said under my breath, not wanting to rouse anyone else's suspicions.

Nazim bared his teeth a little. “Smelled odd too. The perfume he was wearing was thick, maybe meant to disguise it. I thought maybe he had just shit himself and come looking for an enchantment to clean himself. Are you sure that’s not all it was?”

I nodded my head vehemently. There were few things in life I was certain about, but the way his presence grated across my senses wasn’t one of them. “I’m sure. Can we see where he goes?”

My curiosity demanded we follow the man, but there was no way Mum would let me go anywhere unescorted — even if we were in one of the wealthier districts of Drevorn.

“Can’t hurt to follow him a little. We’ll need to keep our distance, though. Just so long as you know it’s probably nothing, and the moment I don’t like anything about the situation, we will be leaving as quickly as possible to return to the inn,” Nazim warned with a stern look.

I didn’t argue the point — mostly because I agreed with him. Plus, I did feel like stretching my legs and wandering a bit. I only had today and tomorrow to enjoy being outside of the carriage before we were once more on the road, this time headed south to Helenica.

The reasoning Nazim used with my Mother wasn’t something I had considered. Nazim wanted to make sure the man hadn’t been another Foxkin — mostly since I had sensed something weird — and he wanted me by him just in case they were trying to separate me from my bodyguard. The wolfkin had reassured my Mother that he thought it was nothing. Mum agreed to our little excursion — so long as it was a quick one and we were back at our inn before dark.

I doubted that the man was a Foxkin and figured we would just follow him for a couple of streets. Aunt Agnes raised an eyebrow as we left but said nothing while Mother whispered in her ear. At least if something did go wrong they had Blake and Meredith with them.

Heading out the door of the Enchanting Shop, I looked left and right, trying to spot the man. There were plenty of people around, taking their time to stroll from one store to another or enjoying some food. Carriages rolled up and down the street, mostly two seaters pulled by a single horse. Though, a few fully enclosed ones were present as well. Uniformed individuals with shovels waited on a few corners, the stains on the shovels indicating their job was to clean up after any horses who decided to release some droppings as they trotted by. They must have had something for the odour as well, as I couldn’t smell horse poo in the air.

Nazim turned to our right, motioning for me to follow. I realised he must be following the man's scent and was reminded how fortunate I was to have such a competent bodyguard. Once I had hashed out my stipend with Aunt Agnes, I would need to figure out just how much to pay the wolfkin — because the single aether coin, plus food and board he was receiving right now, was definitely not enough.

We turned right again at the corner onto a second street. The lamp post on the corner — currently unlit — even had the names of the roads we were on. I consigned the two to my memory. The enchanter’s shop we had just come from was on Stoker’s Road, and we had just turned onto Duchar’s Lane. As we quickly walked, trying to close the distance between us and our quarry, I wondered if the streets of Drevorn had reasons behind their names.

That thought fled when I caught sight of the man as he made a left at the end of the street we were on. The slicked-back dark hair and short stature were a dead giveaway — even from so far away. Nazim and I sped up some more, the terrace houses around us ignored as we crossed the road right after a carriage had rolled by before making the same left and turning onto a new street — Melenia’s Road.

We were less than a block behind the man now, and the streets around us were far less occupied. A couple turned into one of the gardens, approaching what seemed to be their own house, while a single carriage rolled by. Given the late hour — the sky turning orange in the distance as the sun had started to set — it seemed that most people were already home or on their way there.

When the man glanced behind him and spotted us, I knew we had been made. The length and speed of his strides hastened as he crossed the road again, heading down a little laneway. Nazim and I followed only as far as the lane entrance before the wolfkin came to a stop.

“He doesn’t smell afraid…” Nazim growled. I heard a hint of worry in his tone.

My worry turned into fear when I sensed a quickly flying stream of aether that blew past us and back the way we had come.

“He used aether,” I whispered to Nazim.

I turned towards where I had felt the aether go. Back the way we came, on the corner of Duchar’s Lane and Melenia’s Road, an enclosed carriage waited. That in itself wouldn’t have been too odd, except it didn’t continue on its journey — the driver watching us. I looked up at Nazim to see him staring further down Melenia’s Road. A couple was slowly approaching us, looking like they were just out for an afternoon stroll. Another flicker of aether passed by me, heading down the alley. The couple were beyond my range but it felt like it had come from them.

Nazim reached for his sword. “They have that same smell on them. Run!”

My heart pounded in my chest as we took off down the small laneway, stone walls closing us in from either side. From behind us, I heard the clatter of hooves against stone as the carriage started to move. The wind shifted, a light breeze blowing across our faces. My feet were still going when I felt Nazim’s hands land on me, and then I was in the air, flying up onto the wall to our left. My shoulder bumped into the side of the building, jarring me a little.

“Hide,” Nazim hissed.

I didn’t have time to argue, still trying to figure out what was going on. I activated my Royal Cloak of Shadows, pulling the darkness cast by the house I had just bumped into around myself. Crouching down, I became just another shadow on the wall. The aether flowed through my channels like liquid night as I called on Muffled Aura as well. Waiting silently, I watched from above as Nazim drew his sword.

Just as my bodyguard had suspected, the end of the laneway was cut off by three individuals. The oily individual was joined by another man and woman; these two dressed like servants rather than wealthy individuals. From the way we had come, the carriage we had spied clattered to a halt. A tall, thin man exited the wooden vehicle, his clothes at odds with the district. The man wore black leather armour over charcoal clothes. On his hip were a set of daggers and a long-knife that would’ve been a short sword in my hands.

The couple that had been approaching us from further down the street joined the adventurer. As a group, they began to close in on Nazim. My teeth ground together, seeing my bodyguard trapped in the laneway. If he was on his own, I was confident the wolfkin could have used his Celerity to evade the group and escape. With me nearby, I knew he wouldn’t leave. I just hoped he could talk his way free, or in the worst case, fight them off.

The group loosely surrounded Nazim while the wolfkin held his sword out, ready for a fight.

“Where did the boy go?” demanded Oily.

Nazim just bared his teeth in a snarl — sharp teeth designed for shredding meat, the only answer my bodyguard seemed willing to give.

Oily sneered and looked past Nazim to the other group. “Oscar, deal with this.”

I felt aether gather around the leather-armoured man's body. On instinct, I opened my mouth to shout a warning, only clamping down at the last minute. The blast of aether hit Nazim’s body and for a second nothing happened. The wolfkin staggered a moment later, his eyes widening in fear as he took a few quick steps towards Oscar before collapsing on the stones.

A scream bubbled up inside me. For the second time in under a minute, I swallowed my fear even as I thought my curiosity had just gotten my friend killed. Then I saw it. Nazim’s chest rose and fell in a gentle wave.

Is he just asleep? I wondered.

“Oscar, Finley, get him into the carriage. The rest of you, fan out and find that kid.”

The one in leather who had cast the spell and the man next to him walked up, picking up Nazim between them easily — a reminder that even regular adults in this world were incredibly strong — before carrying him back towards the open door of the carriage. The other three plus Oily himself started walking up and down the laneway searching for him. Two of them even scaled the walls to check in the gardens of the houses that flanked the small road.

More than once, eyes moved over me. Each time, I held my position, and each time their gazes continued along the wall, unable to find me in the darkness. They searched for almost a quarter of a candle before giving up. During that time, the sun had fully set. From my vantage point, I could see a young man walking down the road, pausing to climb each lamp post and light the lanterns at the top.

“What do you want us to do, Severin?” asked the servant-woman after they completed their third scan of the lane looking for me.

Severin licked his lips, making the soft skin of his mouth shine like his oily hair in the thin light of the lamp at the end of the lane. “He must have climbed down a few gardens and then run off. I’ll find out where he’s staying from Gerald’s Enchantments tomorrow. Pack it up and let’s go welcome our new friend into our home.”

In the shifting light, the facial expressions of the servants looked ghastly, like the dead welcoming a newly deceased into the fold. The group left the laneway together in ones and twos as they headed toward the carriage. Oscar and Oily climbed inside, the driver never having left the seat, before the clatter of hooves sounded with their departure. I waited a little longer before I crept along the wall, sticking to the darkness as much as possible while Muffled Aura drained away my aether. The cost of my Cloak of Darkness was so negligible I thought I could’ve kept it up for hours.

My hesitance and paranoia were proven to be correct: when I reached the end of the wall, I was able to look down and see the couple waiting around the edge of the laneway. They feigned at talking and touching beneath the lamp light, but I could see how they constantly scanned the street. Their eyes continually returned to the lane where they had ambushed us.

My aether continued to bleed away, and I was worried I would need to drop my Muffled Aura when the pair finally gave up waiting. Turning to head back the way they had come, they strolled down the street like they were just another couple.

Slipping down from the wall, I debated my options. I could try to run back to The Golden Purse where I could get Blake and Meredith. Backup sounded like a great idea, but the problem was, we had no way to track down where they had taken Nazim — none of us possessed the wolfkin's ability to track based on scent. I looked down the street, watching the faux couple stroll casually along as though they hadn’t just kidnapped my bodyguard.

Steeling my nerves, I slipped out into the street and started following them under my Cloak of Shadow, dashing silently from one splotch of darkness to another.

I’ll just follow them to wherever they’re keeping Nazim, I told myself. Then I can go and get back up so we can rescue him.

My footsteps were almost entirely silent, and I paused often in my pursuit, letting the pair stay well and truly ahead of me. They even glanced back a few times, their eyes shifting over the street and never once spotting me. As they turned into another laneway, a notification popped up in my vision.

Path Unlocked! Path of Shadowing (0/10)

Not the time! I griped, before double-checking my surroundings. With no sign of anything or anyone around, I stole into the alley after them like a shadow haunting their footsteps.