He’d drilled Alexander mercilessly until he could easily close a cut Lenn had opened on his own wrist with a knife. It had been an intense night.
Alexander didn’t think he could fix something as complicated as ruptured eardrums, but he felt an imbalance in Dawn shift abruptly back to equilibrium at the same time she sighed and announced “Eye and Needle, that’s better.” She retrieved her hand, adjusting the leather where Alexander had pushed it back for more skin contact. “Any second now–”
The shield she’d put up over the alley entrance was struck by a brilliant white light. Instead of exploding into shards like Alexander’s would have, it stretched out, containing the energy blast until it shrank and died away. She then released the shield and drew cold into her gloves, frosting the steel plates.
Alexander snapped out of his shock and sent a pulse of energy across the road. A mirror of himself and Dawn appeared, mimicking their actions exactly. The man – was he some sort of hitman? – charged out of the alley and tore into the illusion Alexander had put up. Dawn took advantage and streaked across the street, striking him in the back and throwing him to the ground. Alexander saw the fog rolling back in, drawn to all the Tranquilus power they’d burned, and drew some around himself, reinforcing the stealth with an illusion of more fog, though the two disguises were corrosive to each other.
Green flared around Dawn, and she hurled the hitman over her shoulder, before hitting him with a powerful wave of motion that sent him flying directly onto the frost rune she’d inscribed on the wall.
Chilly, steel-gray arms slid out of the brick and gripped the man. His flesh flushed red with cold where the frost-flesh touched him. Alexander felt all his hair stand on end, a reaction to the Coalescence Dawn had just invoked.
She stroked over to the man and slammed her fist into the brick beside his head. Electricity crackled around her and the fog rushed back again. Alexander wondered what effect all this power would have on the fog bank long-term; they were making no effort to balance their forces and could only be making the root problem worse.
“Who are you?” Dawn snarled.
“Who wants to know?” the man spat back. His face was not pretty, with dark black tattoos covering most of it and scars running through those. His hair was black, but cut short, and his nose had been broken often.
Dawn gestured, and a third frost limb appeared from behind the man. It uncurled and placed its single, sharp talon directly above his calf. “Talk or I tell my Coalescence to exercise,” she responded, baring her teeth. Lightning crackled around her again, and Alexander felt the air lose tension, as if she was deliberately bleeding it off.
“Aron Stonespar,” the man growled, and Alexander was startled to hear the ring of truth in his voice.
“Who sent you to kill us?” Dawn asked, her voice amiable, though her eyes told a different story.
“Dunno. Some Kosmima bitch gave me a purse and a picture of the blond fella. Told me to ask some fairy bartender where he’d be. Nancy started getting all sniffly when I showed him the picture, though, so I had to track him down the hard way. You, I just wanted out of the way.”
Dawn glanced at Alexander, who nodded. Every word had been true. Why had a Kosmima woman told this hitman to get his location from a bartender?
“Describe the woman. How did you know she was in the Kosmima guild?” Dawn demanded.
“She rubydazzled me, that was my first clue,” he growled. “She was medium height, short blond hair, blue eyes. Real hardass chick.”
Alexander’s eyes widened in shock, and he stumbled backward. He recognized that description.
“where did she talk to you?” Dawn asked.
“Some inn over on the east side. Life Support.”
Roaring filled Alexander’s ears again, though he could still hear every word.
“She’s been hiring me from that bar for weeks. She’s knobbing the bartender there,” A lewd grin spread across his face. “Though I don’t think he’s appreciating it as much as he should, if you catch my drift.”
“So this bartender’s in league with the Kosmima woman?” Dawn asked.
“Guess so. We always do the deal right there in the common room.” He shrugged, and the frosty arms clenched tighter around him. “There’s always a group of them Kosmimas there. He waits on ‘em personally, doesn’t let his barmaid near.”
“No!” Alexander snarled, lashing out. A blast of frigid air frosted Stonespar’s hair and skin, and a barely visible ripple of force pressed him hard against the wall.
“Alexander, no!” Dawn shouted, one hand plunging into her pocket, the other extending toward Stonespar and the Coalescence.
Alexander felt something press against his force wave. It had to be Stonespar, so he pushed back even harder.
The frost limbs of the Coalescence abruptly dissolved into a whirlwind of white powder. Alexander’s push snapped, throwing him backward into the fog bank. He heard Dawn and Stonespar both scream, then there was an ominous silence, except for the peculiar swoosh of a Coalescence dissolving.
He got to his feet, the fog around him sharpening his sense of balance, and charged back toward the hollowed out section. He burst into clear air, but the dome was empty. He closed his eyes and let his hearing pour down the street, listening for Dawn, but no sounds reached his ears. Even through the dampening fog, he’d be able to hear something, surely.
He heard the sound of running footsteps from the alley, and withdrew his extended hearing. He opened his eyes in time to see Andrea leading a group of detectives out of the alley, each armed to the teeth. Andrea was holding an ebony staff, and every step she took was shocking loud and kicked up a huge cloud of dust. She had once again covered her fists with rose thorns, and her skin seemed to have transformed into bark.
“What’s going on, Cartwright?” Andrea demanded, keeping her eyes scanning about them, alert for any sign of danger. Te officers behind her fanned out, covering every possible angle of attack. “Someone sabotaged our doors so we can’t open the Kosmima ones, and all the others were barricaded. WE had to blast through to that alley. What’s the story out here?”
Alexander gulped, trying to work some moisture into his mouth. “Dawn and I were going to have a little match in the alley, so she could see what my style was. Two men attacked us; at first I thought they were friends of hers, helping out, but they started throwing lightning around. Dawn knocked one of them out and I captured the other, but he blasted through my shield with more lightning and we chased him down here. Dawn Coalesced a frost spirit to hold him and he gave us some information. Then something weird happened, and they both disappeared.” He closed his mouth, aware he was babbling.
Andrea growled. “She didn’t feed her damned spirit again, is what happened. She’s got a good rapport with a benevolent one, but it’s known to kidnap summoners. She’ll be back eventually, but that was damned careless. I need her right now. Did you get any good information before they got voided?”
Alexander bit his lip. “Well, he told us some stuff, but I can’t guarantee every word was true,” he said, knowing anyone with truth sensitivity could hear the lie.
“Most times we can’t, Cartwright,” Andrea said. “Spit it out!”
“He…he was hired by someone I suspect is Jenay Deen,” Alexander started. “There’s some kind of…a cabal, I guess,of Kosmima adepts. They’ve been hiring him for smaller operations for weeks.”
“Do they have a base or safe house?”
Alexander hesitated, and Andrea’s eyes narrowed. “Cartwright. You wanted this job. You swore to protect the citizens of Zydobe. You have a responsibility to report anything to me. Now tell me where the damned safe house is.”
“Life Support inn,” Alexander confessed, shoulders slumping. “Isaac is I league with them, according to this guy.”
Andrea nodded, then turned and issued orders to her followers. Pairs peeled off, going to surround Life Support and start a stakeout.
“Are you really putting everybody on this?” Alexander asked.
“They bottled up the entire Constabulary,” Andrea replied. “It’s top priority that we get these people contained. They’re dangerous to the public. And I have a hunch this is connected to the airships. Follow me.” She slid her ebony staff into a pair of canvas straps on her back, which wove themselves around the dark wood, and took off at a job down the street. Alexander followed, hoping they weren’t going to run very far. He had a suspicion Andrea could run up and down the levels of Zydobe all day, and would have fun doing it.
“Who stands to lose the most from the airships becoming successful?” Andrea asked, no sign of their exertion in her voice. Alexander, who was trying to push the fog away in front of them, grunted. Andrea laughed at him, and continued. “The Kosmima guild has a stranglehold on transportation. If the airships become viable, they’ll be able to move people at competitive prices and with the bonus of actually flying. They only take two people to operate, and I’m told they don’t require any specialized building materials.”
She took a turn, and Alexander realized they were headed for Jenay’s trinket shop. He found the breath to ask, “Are we going to stakeout Jenay? She’ll notice me, won’t she?”
“I’m counting on it,” Andrea replied, slowing her pace as they reached the cluster of trinket shops. “She’ll see you and not look for anyone else. Hang out conspicuously on that bench and make a note of any other Kosmima guildmembers she talks to. If you can keep the fog off this street that’d be even better.”
Alexander gratefully dropped onto the bench Andrea had indicated across the street from Jenay’s shop, and firmed up his concentration on the fog. What had been a ragged clear area expanded and cleaned into a dome. He tried to make the center of the clear space shift over, so it wasn’t obvious that he was doing it. When he felt comfortable with his work, he looked around to find that Andrea had vanished. He looked for her for a few moments, but gave up and started focusing on Jenay’s shop. Andrea was an extremely skilled Fytevo and could blend in to any vegetation with ease, no matter what the weather was. Alexander tried to find a comfortable position on the bench and extended his hearing into Jenay’s shop, wondering how long this would take.
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