Darkfall

The scent of coffee lured us to the coffeehouse on the opposite side of the block, down near the traveller’s house.

“Anyone hungry?” Danello said.

My stomach rumbled. Breakfast had been a long time ago – and not much of it at that. “Sounds good. We might be able to find a fisherman there too and ask about paying him for passage.”

Aylin linked her arm through Quenji’s. “I haven’t had good Gevegian coffee in months, so let’s—”

A soldier in pynvium armour walked out of the coffeehouse.

Lanelle gasped. “Undying!”

“Be still.” I looked away fast, keeping my face down. My heart raced, and my feet wanted to follow, but running would get me noticed.

A regular soldier in Baseeri blue walked out next, and a boy in Healers’ League green followed.

Soek? He was one of the apprentices Vinnot had been experimenting on in the spire room along with Tali. He’d helped me escape, even tried to help free me when the tracker captured me, but we hadn’t seen him since that day.

The same day I’d lost Tali.

Soek stared at me, his eyes full of fear; then he looked away and shot a nervous glance at the soldiers escorting him.

What were they doing to him? He had to be a prisoner; he’d never help the Undying or the Duke. But why here and not the League?

Folks stepped aside, their heads down, and let them pass. The Undying walked with the same arrogance I’d seen in Baseer, as if he knew nothing could hurt him.

For a moment I wondered if there was any pain in that armour of his. If so, I could hurt him plenty.

“Eyes down,” Danello whispered into my ear. “You’re glaring at him.”

Was I? I looked away, face flushed, but I couldn’t help peeking again.

Soek and the soldiers walked to the traveller’s house. Soek glanced helplessly at me once more before following them inside. A plea.

People started moving again, and I caught a few loud sighs of relief. We darted into the coffeehouse and grabbed a table in the back where we could watch both the door and the dining room.

“Was that Soek?” Aylin asked, keeping her voice low.

I nodded. “We have to save him.”

“No, we don’t,” Lanelle said, face pale. “We have to get out of here right now. There are Undying here.”

I leaned closer. “We knew there was a chance we’d see Undying,” I half lied. I’d figured we’d see them once the Duke got there, but not this soon. Had he sent some in advance? “It’s just one, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything but guard duty.”

“Who’s Soek?” Quenji asked.

“A friend of ours. He was an apprentice at the League. Nya, he looked really scared,” Aylin said to me.

“He did.”

“You think he’s the only one here?” asked Lanelle.

“I don’t know. The League comes out to the marsh farms once a month for heals. They could be here for that.” I used to join Mama on those trips. Folks would ride in from all over Geveg proper for a chance at real healing.

The server headed over and we fell silent.

“Excuse me,” I said after he set our plates down. “Did I see a Healer leave here a few minutes ago?”

The server hesitated but nodded. “There’s a League group at the traveller’s house. Been here a few weeks, ever since things got bad over there.” He tipped his head towards the Isles.

“What is going on over there? I noticed the ferry wasn’t running.”

He glanced around and leaned a little closer. “I hear the whole city revolted, Baseeri and Gevegians. Each of the Geveg islands belongs to a different group now. The commander, the dockworkers, the aristocrats. Anyone willing to grab a sword and guard a bridge could take an island.”

“What about the Governor-General?” I asked, fishing for more information. “Isn’t he doing anything to stop it?”

“They say he died the first day. That’s what set off the riots.”

But why would Baseeri revolt against the Gov-Gen or the Duke?

“Are there a lot of those soldiers in that blue armour?” I said. “I’ve never seen them before.”

The server gulped. “Just the one. He came over with the Healers. That was the last ferry out of the Isles. Lots of smaller boats docked after that, but nothing since last week.”

Danello looked puzzled. “The Healers are just staying here?”

“Seems like it.” He shrugged. “They’re making good money, and it’s not safe to go back to the Isles.”

I’d met plenty of folks who’d take advantage of such a situation and see it as a way to earn some fast money, but not Soek. Maybe the soldiers were forcing him to do it.

“Is there any way into Geveg?” I asked.

“Not unless you wanna swim.” Another customer called, and the server hurried off.

“Did you see his face when you asked about the Undying?” Aylin shuddered. “I think finding someone willing to take us over there just got harder.”

We’d be fools to wander in blindly. We had no idea which isle belonged to who, or who we needed to speak to and warn about the Duke.

“We need more information about what’s going on over there,” I said.

Danello nodded. “How do we find out?”

“Soek? We need to rescue him anyway.”

Everyone looked at each other as if they hoped someone else had a better idea.

Danello sighed. “Yeah, we can’t leave him there. And he’ll probably know what’s going on better than anyone else here.”

“We’ll need a boat too,” I said. “Quenji, see if you can trade the horse or wagon or both for one, even for a day or two.”