I nod in response. I can tell him what’s on my mind later.
The door at the back opens onto another stairway that leads to a cellar. “No weapons,” the woman says, holding out her calloused hands.
I look at Ronan for confirmation before removing my sword and dagger. He removes a dagger from his waist and another, smaller knife from his boot.
The woman is satisfied. There’s no reason not to give up everything; it’s not like we can remove our magic.
I follow Ronan down the narrow stairwell to a corridor at the bottom. There are at least a dozen doors here. Though they’re windowless, there’s a gap at the bottom that lets light through. Only a couple of them appear to be occupied.
“Third room on the left,” calls the woman from upstairs.
Ronan knocks on the door, and a boy greets him.
He’s a teenager, twenty at best, with deep tan skin and black hair shorn razor short. His loose clothes swallow his lean buildand have a faint smell of fish about them. A dockworker, I’d guess.
“Mery?”
“Are you the man? I really hope it’s you. I’m late. Maxima will have my head if I’m late. You get that, don’t you?”
Mery gestures us into a small bedroom. It’s sparsely furnished, with only a simple single bed, a small dresser, and a single chair. Mery takes the chair and gestures for us to sit on the bed.
Which we do.
Together.
“We won’t be long,” says Ronan, carefully avoiding looking at me. “And you’ll be free to go once we leave.”
“Oh, thank Arnan. I want to help Vesper, I do, but it’s my job, sir. I can’t lose it.”
So the boy knows Vesper, then. This isn’t just some random stranger seeing someone who matches her description.
“When did you see her?” asks Ronan.
“Day before yesterday. It was just after the noon bells. I was making a delivery near the temple—the Vahlo temple, that is. They order from us more than the others. I was running with my cart through one of the back alleys, trying to get back before I got a boxing ‘round the ears, when I saw her. Her hair was cut short, and she was even thinner than usual, but it was her, sir. I know it.”
“How do you know her? Describe her to me.”
“I saw her at the docks. There’s a tavern there she comes to some nights. A couple of them, really. Before they took her, her hair was long and red. Now it’s real short. Almost as short as mine. Her earrings are gone too, but I was real close. I could still see the holes. Two up here—” He gestures to the top of his left ear. “—one over here.” The middle of the right ear. “And two each on the bottom. I know ‘em because I asked her about ‘em.She told me a story for each one. She worked hard to get the coin for ‘em all.”
He knows Vesper well, and from the way he talks about her, he admires her a great deal. Maybe even loves her.
“Who took her?” I ask.
“I don’t know who they were, begging your pardon, miss. But they come running after her. She ran into a door, and I pushed the cart to try to block ‘em, but they threw me back with magic. By the time I got back up, they were all gone. Not a trace of ‘em. I looked as long as I could, but I had to get back—”
“—to work. We understand. The alley and the door, they’re the ones you showed the guards? You’re certain of it?”
“Aye, sir. I know it real well.”
“Did you see the people who took her at all? Could you describe them?”
“Not well, sir. One of ‘em was wearing a robe. I thought they might be from the temple, but it were brown instead of black like they wear there. He was a big guy. She didn’t stand a chance, Vayla help her.”
A brown robe. An alchemist? Or maybe a priest of Kerensa, although Kerensa’s temple isn’t close to the temple of Vahlo.
But with the festival going on, it could be anyone from anywhere. Brown robes aren’t exactly uncommon in other kingdoms.
Ronan asks a few more questions, but it’s clear that the boy has told us everything he knows. He says something to the woman upstairs that causes her to release him despite originally limiting us to only ten minutes, and the boy gratefully rushes past us as we’re leaving.
