Linsha gave a scant nod and bent to examine the dead knights. “I am still going to Missing City, with or without him, to get those eggs.”
“I know,” Varia said, “And so does he.”
Linsha gestured to Callista to help her, and together they took two cloaks, a clean wool tunic, a pair of boots, a small pack full of trail food and utensils, a long knife, a sword, and a scabbard off the dead knights. Everything else they left because it was either too dirty or the wrong size. Body robbing was not something Linsha often indulged in, but this time she felt it necessary for their survival. She gave the dagger to Callista along with a cloak and the bag of food. She discarded her own filthy silk tunic, put on the warmer one, and secured it with the knotted belt Afec had given her.
Varia almost fell off her shoulder trying to see the knotted belt. “Where did you get that?”
“The Damjatt, Afec, made it. He gave it to help protect me from spells of the Keena priests. I don’t know how well it works.”
Varia chuckled in her throat. “Knot magic is very old. It is not strong, but I think it can ward off minor spells and abate more powerful ones. This Afec was a clever man.”
“Yes, he was,” Linsha said with fondness. She considered showing Varia the tome Afec had given to her then decided to wait. There wasn’t time to explain the whole of her misgivings. She pulled a boot over her bare foot. “Now what can you tell me about this army that is marching toward the Missing City?”
“They’ve already defeated one army of Tarmaks in a battle. They’re well organized, well led, and determined. They’re trying to break the grip of the Tarmaks on the Plains. They don’t really want the city, because their army is not big enough to take it. But if they can lure the main Tarmak army out and defeat it before the reinforcements arrive, they hope to free Duntollik at least.”
“Then they’ll be happy to know the reinforcements will not be here for a long time.” Linsha grunted as she pulled on the other boot. She jumped to her feet. “Time to go.”
The two women and the owl hurried to the dragon and climbed onto his back. Wasting no time, the bronze dragon crouched on the sand then sprang upward with a mighty leap that flattened his riders to his back. His wings swept down, and he was airborne, beating westward toward Missing City.
“Are you sure that is where you want to go?” he asked Linsha after a long silence. “I could take you anywhere. Even Solace.”
“The eggs are in the city,” Linsha said from the depths of her warm cloak. “I have seen them. I have also seen what the Tarmaks do to them.”
“So have I,” Crucible growled, resigned to her decision. “We’ll go get them.”
17
Into the City
Slipping into the Missing City was easier than Linsha expected. Although the Tarmaks patrolled the streets regularly and imposed a curfew on the inhabitants, there were not enough warriors to observe every back alley and hidden entrance into the city, and none of the Tarmaks knew the city as well as Callista and Linsha. Under cover of a steady cold rain, they came in through the ruins on the north side where the old city wall still lay incomplete. They found shelter in an abandoned house not far from the more populated Port District. They were lucky to find a house with a cellar, and while the food and stores had been cleaned out long ago and the roof of the house leaked, the cellar was dry and out of prying eyes.
Linsha wanted to start out right away to find the building where she remembered the eggs were housed, but Lord Bight said no. It was night outside and the Tarmaks would be patrolling for curfew breakers. What the four of them needed and needed badly was rest. They were all exhausted from the long journey. Everyone would think better if they had some sleep. Linsha was too tired to argue. They found a few old sacks and some moth-eaten blankets and bedded down on the cold earth floor.
Lord Bight eyed the floor and the thin burlap bags, then he winked at Linsha and stepped back to shapeshift. When the light died away, an orange tomcat stood before them. Purring happily, he snuggled in between Linsha and Callista and settled down like a furry bed warmer.
Linsha chuckled sleepily, “Dragons.”
Linsha woke the next morning to a weight bouncing on her chest and a soft hooting noise coming from somewhere close to her face. Her eyes opened and she saw what she had longed to see every day she woke alone in the Akeelawasee—two large dark eyes surrounded by creamy feathers and a ring of darker feathers that looked like spectacles. Varia saw her eyes open and bounced again on her chest. Against her side and arm she felt the warmth of the sleeping cat.
She smiled sleepily at the owl. “Do you know how much I missed that?”
“A great deal, I hope, but I wanted to tell you Callista’s gone.”
Linsha sat up. “What?” She looked all around the cellar and did not see the courtesan anywhere. A dim daylight filtered down through the floorboards and from the open cellar door, but there was no sign of the young woman. Her cloak and sandals were gone. “Did you see where she went?”
“No, I was still asleep. I admit I did not hear anything.”
“Where could she have gone?” Linsha scrambled to her feet and snatched a cloak, preparing to go out and find the courtesan.
All the rustling movement and voices woke the cat. He sat up with a big yawn and surveyed Linsha with golden eyes. What are you doing? he asked in her head.
“Callista is gone. I’m going to find her.”
Give her time. She’ll be back. Yawning again, he curled up to continue his nap. She knows the streets well, and she is not as obvious as you are to the Tarmaks.
There was some sense to what he said, so Linsha sat down beside him to wait. She would give Callista about an hour, then she would go out to find her.
Linsha promptly fell asleep again with Varia perched on her knee keeping watch.
The woman and the cat slept for nearly two more hours before Callista returned. Walking softly down the stairs, she gestured to someone behind her to follow her down. She slipped quietly into the cellar.
Linsha woke instantly and prodded Crucible the cat awake.
“Linsha, I brought a friend I thought could help,” Callista said, waving at her cloaked companion to come closer. The person under a long, heavy cloak nodded to Linsha and pushed the hood back from her face.
Linsha smiled and jumped to her feet. The woman before her was in her late forties, as far as Linsha knew, of medium height, and wore her long red hair tied in a tight bun behind her head. Although she worked as a baker and was well dusted with flour from the baking that morning, for fifteen years she had been a member of Falaius’s circle of Legionnaires working undercover in the city as a spy and a gatherer of information. The woman recognized Linsha as well and greeted her with pleasure.
The three women sat down together on the bags. Varia took a perch on a nearby empty cask, while the cat crawled into Linsha’s lap and lay there quietly purring.
“I’m sorry if I gave you a start this morning,” Callista said, “but I wanted to catch Mae before she left the bakery this morning. I thought she could tell us what is going on in the city right now.”
The Legionnaire shook some rain off her cloak and nodded. “I’m so pleased to see you alive, Lady Linsha. The last we heard, you were being carried away on their ships.” She stopped, poised in mid-thought. “Does this mean the Tarmaks have returned? There were no ships in the harbor, but—”
Linsha hastened to reassure her. “Callista and I escaped. We came back a different way.”
“Thank the gods for that. We know the return of the Akkad-Dar is imminent, but we are hoping for more time.” Mae hesitated, looking from one woman to the other. “What? What you grinning about?”