Mage Bond by Eden Winters

Author:Eden Winters [Winters, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rocky Ridge Books
Published: 2022-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

Something seemed different, something Martin couldn’t name. People seemed more subdued, the city holding its breath, waiting. For what, he didn’t know.

He stared across the desk at Commander Enys. “What’s going on?”

“You feel it too?” Enys dropped his feet from the desk to the floor, waving a hand toward the straight-backed, uncomfortable chair he deliberately put in his office to encourage some of the more eager butt kissers not to stay.

Martin plopped down into the chair. “Something is off.”

“We’re receiving more missing person reports than even you can keep up with.” Enys handed a sheet of parchment across the desk.

Normally, the demons’ victims, if reported at all, didn’t warrant the attention of the city guards. Scanning the list made Martin’s blood run cold. “Children?”

“Yes. Two young boys, aged ten and six. Dock rats, no parents.” At least Enys’s voice wasn’t full of derision. He didn’t mean the term as a slight, merely used the word he’d been taught.

Unlike most citizens of the upper city. “Who reported them missing?”

“Some of the other children approached a school matron. She promised to pass on the word, even though she didn’t teach the boys in question.” Enys gave a weary smile, reclaiming the missive from Martin’s hand. “My niece, as it turns out.”

Surely the demons hadn’t started claiming children. Wouldn’t Dimitri have said?

“There is no reward, but my Esmerla does charity work down by the docks and knew the boys. I’d take it as a personal favor if you’d look into the matter.”

The descriptions weren’t very good, two young boys with brown hair and eyes. No one even knew their real names. The street kids all went by nicknames, the better to avoid the constables. It could have been half the kids on that end of the city. Martin looked up. “They had a pet dog. Did anyone find the dog?”

“No.”

Wherever the boys were, they’d taken their dog. Did they possess mage blood? “They weren’t taken to the Lady’s temple, were they?”

Enys leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over the expanding belly he’d grown in the time Martin had known him. “No one knows, but they didn’t seem the sort that would appeal as novices. Too lowborn, not pretty enough.”

Who in the lower city might talk to a guard? Oh, yes, though better not reveal Martin’s position to a certain tavernkeeper who might be privy to local gossip. “I might have someone I can ask.”

Enys gave a curt nod. “I thought you might. Usually, I’d send someone of lesser rank, but you’ve seen our typical investigators. They strut around, boasting much while accomplishing little. You? You blend. And you’re also not of the E’Skaara nobility, with your looks. Those in the lower city might talk to you when they wouldn’t talk to others.”

Too true, especially since Martin’s forays into the dock district made him familiar. He picked up the next parchment sheet on the desk. “How about this one? A countess?”

This time, Enys sighed. “Strike her off the list. They found her dead this morn, two blocks from the Lady’s temple.

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