Lily gave Calya a suspicious look before turning to Lowe. “She’s not from the Valley. She’s with Avenor Guard. I won’t?—”
“I’ve worked with the Guard,” Calya said, tone firm but even and polite, “and I’ve done business with Sylveren University. I’m here at the behest of my sister, Anadae Helm, and Prince Ezzyn Sor’vahl.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie, just a massaging of the truth. Name dropping, but names that signaled the morality of her cause. The particulars didn’t really matter except to make clear, “As far as I’m concerned, my main objective is opposing whatever the Coalition is doing here, regardless of who my previous business partners have been.”
The girl glanced at Lowe for confirmation, and when he gave an infinitesimal nod, she relaxed with a shaky exhale. “I already told Froley I didn’t know it was going to happen. They just came in the middle of the night and ordered everyone out. Took some papers and things, but they left in a hurry.”
“Who’s they?” Lowe asked.
“Treen and Aylton. They’re not from Sylveren. Treen got one of her Adept levels there, but they’re both from Grae U. Work for the Coalition.” Lily rubbed her eyes, voice bleak. “They sent most of us working here to the other site the same day you arrived. It was only me and Juni and Wisk left. Aylton came last night and used magic to make them go.”
“How did you escape?”
“Mr. Eren… he tried to save me. In his own way. I saw him leaving. The assistants all live on the floor above the workshop, and I heard him in his office late, so I went to look.” Lily bit back a sob, eyes glistening. “Followed him to the Pelf. He said I could go with him, but this, this is my home. I said no, and he told me to hide. Said he was sorry.”
“So you hid. Smart,” Calya said. “We wouldn’t know what happened otherwise.”
“I tried to go back for the others, but Treen and Aylton were already there with more people. I didn’t recognize them. I didn’t know what to do, so I came back here. The Coalition don’t fuck with Froley if they don’t have to.”
“Have you told any of this to Lieutenant Orren?” Lowe asked, and got another mulish shrug from Lily in response.
Calya frowned, mind skating back over what the young assistant had said. “You mentioned another site. Where?”
“We have a couple. I’ve only been to?—”
“East of the abandoned site we already found, toward the mountains,” Lowe said.
Lily swallowed hard and nodded once.
“Can you tell?—”
Calya cut herself off as Lily vigorously shook her head. The younger woman pulled aside the collar of her shirt, exposing a fading tattoo of the Coalition’s crest. “It’ll be gone in a few days if it’s not refreshed. But I can’t— They made sure to gag all of the assistants.”
Lowe’s expression darkened. He pulled Lily’s sketched map from his pocket and set it on the table. “Can you mark where it is?”
With a shaking finger, she traced a line from where the inn was marked with a simple dot to the edge of a grouping of squiggly lines. The boundary between the Valley of Sylveren and Graelynd; the Valley had unofficially ceded the northeastern coastal tip to Graelynd instead of following the natural line formed by the Grae-Run mountains. The spot Lily pointed to lay at the northeastern-most edge.
“There’s bigger maps in the workshop, if they didn’t take them,” she mumbled. “Sorry I can’t do better.”
“You did great,” Lowe said. “Thank you.”
Calya nodded her agreement.
Froley came back over, giving Lily a soft tap on the shoulder. “Go on over to the bakery. Roxy is making you something fresh.”
The young woman sagged with relief, hurrying away in case anyone thought of something else to ask of her.
Froley eyed the map still on the table as Lowe dug out a stub of pencil and roughed in the marks Lily had indicated. “There’s an old service road that runs up that way. Most of… part of the way,” they said. “Could save you some time.”
“Take whatever we can get,” Lowe said.
Calya only half-listened, her gaze caught on Orren’s men still hanging around in front of the Pelf. “None of that’s going to matter if we can’t get rid of them,” she said, heading for the door.
Lowe caught up before she was halfway across the road. “Do you have a plan?”
“Working on it.” She went straight past Orren, intent on the workshop.
The lieutenant noticed, breaking off conferring with his men. “Miss Helm.”
