Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans

Author:Davinia Evans [EVANS, DAVINIA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Curfew?” Voski Tolan repeated, like she couldn’t believe what Zagiri was telling her.

Zagiri, still catching her breath from her frantic sprint back to the Chapel, had barely believed it herself, when the girl from the other day—the bravi hopeful with the wooden blade and good style—had come to tell her. But the girl had it from her father. “Merchants are being informed.”

“But not us.” Voski frowned.

The main door banged open, and two more runners came shoving through the press of gathered Little Bracken. One of them was clutching a written notice. “Being posted in the markets,” he reported.

Voski crumpled the paper in a fist with a snarl. At the rare display of emotion, the gathered bravi quietened even further. They were all here waiting for sundown, and the business that awaited. No parties or raids, no tracking other tribes or parading to draw ambush. They hadn’t been doing any of that for the past week.

Instead, they were smuggling alchemists down to the docks and onto ships waiting to receive them.

Zagiri glanced down at the stone floor, as though she could see through, into the hidden crypts holding nearly two dozen practitioners, suppliers, and their families. What had started with Corbinus had grown; Soufalla the Lyraec prophylactic specialist had been the first drop in what had turned into a steady trickle of desperate refugees.

Each one was a spark of victory, a life that the inqs couldn’t smother. But each one was also a prick of failure. If Bezim was so inhospitable that people had to flee, whose fault was that but the azatani’s?

Voski braced hands on her hips. “Right. Give me options.”

“Chance it,” Tein suggested immediately. “They can’t watch every street. We send small groups and decoy distractions.”

Voski shook her head. “Swanneck’s the problem still. Or the Scarp. They’ll be camped there like a spider in a web, bet your blade on it.”

Zagiri stepped forward; this was her plan and her responsibility. “We could leave it until tomorrow. Move them down in daylight?” It had been considered too great a risk before, but things had changed.

Tein frowned. “The ships sail with the dawn tide. We’ve spent money and goodwill on making these arrangements—”

“They’re already lost.” Voski drummed her fingers against her leathers. “I know we said the overland caravans were too slow, but it’s better than nothing.”

Tein tilted his head, considering that. “Caravans gather at the Western Hill depot. Still got to get them out of the city.”

With the inqs checking all departures at the city gate. But the depot, Zagiri remembered, was not far from the hippodrome. And she knew horse-mad azatani boys who stayed overlong at the races…

“Actually,” she said, and the argument broke off; Voski and Tein both looked at her. A bit daunting, but Zagiri forced herself not to flinch. “Some lads I know must have a way to sneak back into the city.”

“Lads you know,” Voski repeated, and looked around.

Zagiri was also scanning the crowd, but azatani bravi were thin at the moment, many kept home by nervous families.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.