Delver Magic I: Sanctum's Breach, Jeff Inlo [buy e reader .txt] 📗
- Author: Jeff Inlo
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“I can help you with that to a degree,” the mayor responded in fashion realizing the negotiations for the fee had commenced. “I have reports from him as to where he went and who he spoke to for the first part of his trip. I don’t need you to look into that. He was in Pinesway less than four days ago. It’s where he went after that I want you to look into. I can also give you leads into that. He was following the trail of the tremor. He also spent some time in the Dark Spruce Forest.”
Chase grimaced at the thought. Dark Spruce had little of anything that interested him and a lot of what didn’t, especially wolves. The job was becoming less enticing by the moment. Again, he responded shortly.
“Dark Spruce is tough terrain. Nothing but trees clumped together.”
“Very few trails as well,” the mayor countered. “It’s a good bet if you find any markings, it will be our delver. Not many people have a desire to go through there. You won’t have to sort through multiple trails.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job.” The tracker sneered and for the first time his expression revealed a hint of true inner feelings. He had an obvious dislike for delvers, and had no mind to hide it. “I know about forests and I know about delvers, which brings me to another point. Ryson Acumen is full bred. If he wants to, he can lose me at any time. I can’t explain it; it’s just something about those full breeds. When they have a mind for it, they don’t leave a trace.”
“He won’t know you’re tracking him. That is, if you’re careful.”
“I’ll ignore that,” Chase responded. “The fact of the matter is he’s still a delver, and that makes things harder.”
The mayor waved his hand indifferently. “Fine, it makes it harder, but it’s what you do. Now do you want the job?”
If the tracker took time to consider the proposal, it was surely not long. Within mere moments, he responded firmly, a tone that made it clear he had no intention of haggling. “I’ll take the job, but I want forty pieces of gold right now. Another ten when I get back, thirty if I come across somethin’ I don’t like.”
The demand caught the mayor off guard. He expected the tracker to begin bargaining at half that amount. “That’s absurd! He’s only a delver. I’ve told you where he’s headed and where he’s been!”
Evan Chase stood firm. He did, however, understand his price was exorbitant. He made a simple explanation as to the height of his fee. “It’s not what I’m tracking that’s botherin’ me, it’s the other things that might be out there.”
“What are you talking about?” the mayor eyed him suspiciously. He wondered if the tracker might know of the elves that accompanied Reader Matthew into his office that morning. If he did, he would have Kendal’s throat slit. The assistant was the only other person that knew of the meeting.
Evan, however, made no reference to the elves, but he made it clear he knew something was very different about Connel.
“I’m talking about what’s been going on around here for the past few days,” the tracker said with a knowing expression. “And don’t make it seem like ya don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen ya traipsing out to places ya don’t normally go. You’ve been out to farms, and to the river. Ya normally don’t do that, which means ya know something. I don’t know exactly what it is, but something ain’t right. Which reminds me of another part of my fee, I want to look over the reports on your desk right now.”
“You can’t see those!” Consprite objected strenuously. “That’s official business. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Maybe it doesn’t and maybe it does. I still want to see ‘em.” He could have snatched them up without Consprite’s permission, but he wanted the mayor to hand them over.
The mayor fought desperately to find a way to deny the request. Thoughts of these reports spreading across Connel corrupted his thinking. He could only imagine the public outcry for his head if the town found out what he had been hiding. He fished for a way out. “Do you think you’ll find out why I want the delver followed by reading these? I can tell you that you won’t. If you want to know that …”
Chase interrupted the mayor’s declarations forcibly. “I don’t care about your reasons for having this delver followed, but I do care about the things I might run into out there. I know something’s goin’ on around here. I’ve seen tracks I can’t identify. I’ve heard things in the night that don’t belong to any animal in these parts. Ya can keep your reasons to yourself, but I want to know what’s happening around here. It’s a safe bet that if it’s happening here, it’s happening out there in them woods.”
The mayor grunted. He sat silent, contemplating other options, but Chase quickly took them away.
“If you’re thinking about finding another tracker, ya might as well forget it right now. Any tracker worth his salt is going to want the same thing I want. I’ve been talking to some of the others already. We know ya have an idea of what’s out there. You can tell me or you can tell someone else. The only tracker that’ll go out there without reading your blamed reports isn’t gonna to come back. He’ll take his up front money and leave.”
Consprite snarled. “Fine.” He picked up a clump of papers and held them out to Chase. He had no alternative. He figured the tracker would probably find out for himself sooner or later. His only hope was to bind the tracker to secrecy. “Here, read all you like, but keep this to yourself. That’s also part of the agreement.”
Chase concentrated upon the papers in his hand. His lips moved sporadically as he read. Reading words never helped him as much as reading the ground, so he never gave it much practice. He knew barely enough to understand the new reality of things, and now that he did, he cast a sideways glance at the mayor.
“This stuff for real?”
“Of course it’s for real. I saw most of it myself.”
Chase grimaced. “I don’t like it. Corpses walking around and monsters comin’ out of the water. I don’t like it at all.”
The mayor held his hands up in exasperation. “Do you think I do?”
“No, I suppose you don’t,” Chase grunted. “What about the money?”
The mayor had already conceded to showing the tracker the reports, he would not concede entirely as to the rest of the fee. “I’ll pay you thirty now and fifteen when you get back, whether you like what you find or not. That’s more than this job is worth and you know it.”
Again, the tracker showed little sign of truly considering the agreement, and his acceptance came nearly instantly. “It ain’t worth my own skin, but I’ll take it. It’ll give me a chance to find out what’s really goin’ on.”
“Good.” The mayor’s voice turned cold as he gave his final instructions. “Now I don’t want you sending any reports to me. I want you to keep everything to yourself. You come back when you know what the delver is up to and when you’re sure you know where he’s been. Don’t take too long either. If you think the delver is just surveying the land, then forget him and come back here. You’re also to report only to me. Is that clear?”
“Uh huh,” Evan muttered as he gave one last glance to the papers before throwing them back down on the mayor’s desk.
“What do you think it is?” Holli asked as her head swerved about on her arched neck. She did not like standing at the foot of this desert canyon wall. There was too much to focus on at once, too many places where attackers could hide. Small openings in the sandstone dotted the high rising edifice. A well placed archer could easily pick them both off without either of them knowing from where the fatal arrows had been launched. Thick ledges blocked her vision. Even now, warriors might be squatting low behind boulders, using small cracks and crevices to keep a watchful eye for an opportunity to ambush.
The threat of danger washed her fatigue away with the strength of a waterfall. The ache in her legs vanished, and she forgot her dry, sore throat which had become parched from breathing the dry desert air. Her vision became sharp as she surveyed all that stood before her.
Holli made no secret of her discomfort over approaching the sandstone mountain, but the delver had persisted and brought them to within arm’s reach of its very base. Her hand gripped the hilt of the Sword of Decree. A glistening light appeared just above the sheath for she had pulled the sword slightly from its cover, revealing a sliver of the blade.
Ryson, at first, paid her no mind. His body remained still. His head bent backward to allow him an upward glance at the face of the canyon wall. Rather than turning his head, he simply moved his eyes, from one small opening to another. He pulled his spyscope one last time from his pouch. He scanned several different openings and grunted in satisfaction. After pocketing the scope, he finally answered the elf’s question.
“I believe it’s a meeting place for them of some sort. It may also be a type of village for them to live, but I doubt any of them live here for long periods of time. From what I’ve seen and what Mappel told me, they spend almost the same amount of time alone as they do together.”
“Are they in there now?” Holli demanded with a tone which made it clear she wished to know exactly what dangers they faced.
Ryson turned to her for the first time since they arrived at the foot of the wall, and he saw her hand upon the hilt of the sword. Her threatening stance alarmed him nearly to the point of anger. “Yes, they’re there and don’t even think about pulling that thing out. In fact, I want you to take your hand away from it right now.”
Holli scowled at the delver. “It’s my job to protect you.” She spoke as if it were a rule never meant to be broken.
“It’s also your job to see that my mission succeeds,” Ryson shot back. “That means I have to meet with these algors. You’re going to make that impossible if you continue to maintain that threatening position.”
Holli’s glare darted from the sandstone mountain to the face of the delver. “It is not a threatening position. It’s a position of defense.”
Ryson shook his head. “I don’t care what it is. I want you to stop.”
“You would have me leave us vulnerable?” Holli posed the question with as much disbelief as annoyance.
“I will have you let me complete what we were set out to do,” Ryson stated abruptly. He bit his lip before continuing. With a heavy breath, he cleared his growing irritation. He renewed his request with a note of greater understanding, but with no less conviction. “Look, I know you’re only doing this to keep me safe, but we can’t have that right now. The algors are here, and they know we’re here. They’re not going to see us if they think you’re going to lop their heads off.”
Holli did
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