“You’re confident in that?” Vi asked, glancing over at Deneya. The world blurred at the edges of her vision with bright shifting light. She was usingdurroefor an illusion once more. This time Vi had experimented with basing the masquerade off the face of a real person and the body and clothes of a different real person—a hybrid of real to make something fake. According to Deneya, her work was as flawless as it was the first two times she’d seen it.
“Look at me. Do I look like a woman who has ever not been confident in her life?”
“No.” Vi refrained from bringing up Taavin’s mention of her cheating on an exam during their first interaction. She’d looked very uncertain then.
“Good. You play your part, I’ll play mine. We start with the two warehouses on the left side and work our way to Twintle’s.”
Vi didn’t quite like the plan. The idea that they would go to other warehouses under the guise of a surprise inspection before arriving at Twintle’s—theoretically giving Twintle’s men time to learn they were coming and hide any evidence of the Knights—still rankled her. But Deneya was confident in the best approach and Vi would give the woman the benefit of the doubt. She’d yet to disappoint her.
The first warehouse was on the far end of the docks; Vi could smell it long before they arrived. It belonged to a prominent fish trader and Vi resisted the urge to cover her nose as she perused the rows of fish nearly the size of her, laid out for bidding. She was more than ready to depart when Deneya issued them the all-clear.
The next warehouse belonged to a logger, barging lumber from the North. Vi stared up at the massive chunks of wood, knowing they mere fractions of the sentries she’d grown up in. She wondered how long until this man’s business was shut down due to the Emperor’s encroachment on Shaldan.
Finally, after spending the better part of the morning in the first two warehouses, they were on to Twintle’s. His was around the middle of the bustling docks, toward the richer side of town. Vi paused, staring out at the ships. Her eyes swung to the far corner, the oldest stretch.
On all of her maps, those docks had always been there. They were the humble start of the greatest port on the Dark Isle. They had been there… when the scythe left.
The vision Vi had on Meru was in the forefront of her mind: an Eastern man with hazel eyes, standing at those docks, bestowing a scythe-shaped velvet-wrapped parcel on a ship captain. That was the spot where the scythe had left this land and—
“Are you all right?” Deneya startled her from her thoughts.
“Wh—oh, yes.” Vi glanced back to the far end of the port.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.” She shook her head. “Just remembering something. Let’s carry on.”
There were two men posted as guards on either side of the narrow entrance to Twintle’s warehouse.
“Good afternoon gentlemen,” Deneya said lightly. The two men gave gruff nods, regarding them warily. Deneya leaned over, glancing at the ledger Vi held open. “I see this is… oh right, Lord Twintle’s storehouse. Of course.”
“What business would you have here, ma’am?” the shorter of the two men asked.
“You might not know me, but I am Denja, the councilor for commerce.” Deneya held out a hand and Vi slipped a piece of paper into it, just as they had for the first two warehouses. On it was Fiera’s handwriting and both the royal seal of Mhashan, and a much more recent Imperial seal. “Everything should be in order verifying my credentials.”
“Yes, councilor, how may we assist you?”
“I am performing inspections on warehouses today at the docks. Standard procedure to make sure all goods have been properly accounted for and the recent Imperial taxes levied against them.”
The two guards shared a glance. Vi couldn’t tell if they were genuinely surprised or not to see them and it made her shift her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot.
“We’re afraid the Lord isn’t present at the moment.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Deneya brought her index finger to her jawline. Feigning ignorance was not the woman’s strong suit. “He is traveling right now, isn’t he? But here or not, this is something none of the traders are exempt from. If you could just allow us inside, my assistant will catalog goods and I’ll cross-reference that against taxes paid yesterday.”
“Lord Twintle explicitly instructed that we were to allow no one in until his return,” one of the guards said hesitantly.
“As I said, no one is exempt.” Deneya put her hands on her hips. “Please don’t make me hike all the way back to the castle to get the Imperial guards and do this by force—none of us wants that.”
The guards had a quick mental conversation that ultimately ended in a shrug from the taller man and an indifferent expression from the shorter.
“All right,” he said. “But be quick about it. And we’ll need to escort you the whole time.”
“Very well.”
With that, they were inside.
The warehouse was a simple build—little more than a brick box. Windows lined the upper portion of the walls just under the roof, no doubt to let out the rising heat from the Western sun. But they were currently shuttered, which meant the building felt like an oven.
