Night Study by Maria V. Snyder

Author:Maria V. Snyder
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Harlequin Sales Corp
Published: 2015-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

18

LEIF

As he traveled to the Citadel, Leif’s thoughts kept returning to Irys’s comment about the twelve missing and four dead magicians. And Irys’s lack of intel about the attacks gnawed holes of worry in his guts, ruining his appetite. Irys could only speculate why—to regulate all the magicians. As for who, she suspected a group of influential and wealthy people was behind it, but she had no evidence.

The timing of the incidents matched with Yelena’s loss of magic. Almost right after she’d been shot with that damn poisoned arrow, the Cartel—Irys’s name for them—started their aggressive campaign against magicians. The only suspected member of the Cartel was Bruns Jewelrose, who’d hired The Mosquito to assassinate Yelena and supposedly the other four magicians. And perhaps he’d also targeted Ben Moon and Loris and Cilly Cloud Mist.

Unable to solve the puzzle while traveling, Leif forced his brooding thoughts to a different topic. Too bad yet another worry popped to the surface. Yelena. Through the super glass messenger, Irys told him the good news—that she’d returned to the Citadel with Ari and Janco—and the bad—she’d been arrested and interrogated by the Council.

Irys urged Leif to hurry so he could verify her story. Leif also carried detailed drawings that his father, Esau, provided to show the Sitian Council what Owen had been growing. Esau had refused to leave the glass hothouse until he had finished his investigation and found someone to properly care for the plants while they were gone.

Meanwhile, Yelena waited for Leif’s arrival instead of escaping. She wished to regain her positive status with the Council. But every day she remained in the jail, the greater the danger.

Sensing his mood, Rusalka picked up her pace. They rode on the main east-west route in the Featherstone lands. In two more days, he’d be home, but if he pushed it, he might shave off half a day. Of course that meant arriving late at night, when all the Councilors would be asleep, so he’d have to wait until morning to talk to them.

He grinned. Leif knew exactly how he wanted to spend those hours. In bed with his wife, Mara, who made the plainest housedress appear to be the height of fashion. Just wrapping his arms around her would ease the ache pulsing deep in his chest. And he’d breathe in her scent—the light aroma of ylang-ylang flower, combined with the sweet fragrance of the living green—and be home.

Instead of overnighting in an inn, Leif decided to stop to rest for just a couple hours. He’d find a merchant camp to join. The caravans tended to avoid the expense of a real bed and bivouacked along the road. With the warm season a few weeks away, many had started their first deliveries of the year.

A couple hours after sunset, Leif caught a whiff of molasses followed by the bitter tang of fear. Rusalka broke into a gallop as the shrill sounds of a horse in distress pierced the air.

When they turned a corner, a cloud of emotions struck him.

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