I slept through the morning and afternoon, dreaming of dancing. At first my mind conjured joyous visions, but when the music stopped, Seneira wasn’t there and I saw myself standing all alone in the desert, and wondered if that, too, might be an aspect of the path of the wild daisy.
I awoke in pain again, though this time the source wasn’t my left eye; it was the palm of my right hand. When I looked down, I saw a slightly raised circular area about a half-inch in diameter, right in the centre of my palm, as if a coin had been embedded under the skin and someone had attached a string to it and was tugging at it. I rose out of bed, jostling Reichis, who swore several times before returning to the snoring cacophony he calls ‘napping’.
The raised area on my palm still pulled. When I followed the tugging sensation, it led me to the window. After a few seconds of moving around the room and discerning the different sensations, I had a theory about what was happening. I put on my clothes and headed down the stairs and out the door.
The tugging led me away from Seneira’s house and down the street, through alleyways and across a bridge. After about ten minutes of this, I found the source of the pull: Dexan Videris was waiting for me, sitting on a bench in the middle of a small public garden.
‘Thought you said you’d find me,’ I said.
He shrugged. ‘This is easier.’
I looked down at the skin on my palm. ‘You did something to me. Yesterday when we shook hands, you pressed some kind of charm into my palm.’
‘It’s just temporary,’ he said. ‘Should fade away on its own in a couple of days.’
‘Nice trick,’ I said, wondering how it worked.
Dexan grinned. ‘Just one of the many skills I have to impart to you, my young apprentice.’
‘Dexan, I …’
The grin faded. ‘You’re not coming?’ He rose up from the bench. ‘Damn it, Kellen, this is a good offer!’
‘I know it is,’ I said, keenly aware of how much better my life would be if he could help me ward off the shadowblack attacks, teach me more tricks and ways to survive in the borderlands. The problem, though, was that I couldn’t bring myself to abandon Seneira. Who was going to help with her attacks?
‘Ah, hell,’ Dexan said, seeing my expression. ‘I can tell from that dumb look on your face that nobody ever taught you the third rule of spellslinging.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Never let love make you stupid.’
‘Is there a kind of love that doesn’t make you stupid?’ I asked.
Dexan chuckled. ‘Guess not.’ He put a hand on my shoulder. ‘All right. Listen, kid, if you’re going to try to help that girl, there’s something you should probably know.’
‘What’s that?’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘I’m breaking my own rule here, but that kid, Revian? The guy that girl you’re all nutty over is actually supposed to be with?’
‘What about him?’
‘Stay away from him. More importantly, stay away from his family.’
‘Why?’
‘Because they’re up to something big.’ He nodded towards the north end of town. ‘That mansion they live in, up on the hill? After Ler’danet tried to end you and me, I decided to go see if I could put a little hurt on them back, only that place is surrounded with some of the most powerful wards I’ve ever seen. Somebody like you or me ends up in there? Our magic won’t be worth spit. I doubt even Ler’danet or the other house mage can cast spells in there.’
‘That doesn’t mean—’
‘Come on, kid, don’t be dumb. Nobody in the borderlands buys that much protection against mages when they’ve already got their own working for them, unless they’ve got a real reason to worry about magic.’
‘So you think they’re the target?’
Dexan shook his head. ‘No, don’t you get it? I think they’re the ones that hired whoever put the shadowblack on the girl and her brother, only they figured they wouldn’t have to pay since they were protected, so now whoever did the girl infected her fiancé too, because that was the only way to force the parents to pay up.’
‘But then …’ I grabbed at his arm. ‘You could help us. If we find out who they hired, we can—’
Dexan shrugged me off. ‘I told you before, kid, never mess with another spellslinger’s livelihood. Especially if they’re more powerful than you; it tends to get you killed.’
‘All right,’ I said. ‘But what if … if I find a way to deal with whoever cast the curse, will you stay and remove the shadowblack from Seneira and her brother … and Revian too?’
Dexan looked uncertain, then glanced at the setting sun. ‘I’ll make you a deal, kid. I’ve still got some packing to do, so if you can get this mess sorted out before tomorrow night, I’ll stick around and help the girl and whoever else I can.’ He stuck out his hand. ‘Deal?’
I started to shake his hand, and to ask, ‘Okay, but how will I find you if—’
The sudden sharp sensation in my palm answered the question.
‘Just follow the pain in your hand, kid,’ Dexan said as he walked away. ‘It’s like I always say: love hurts.’
By the time I got to Seneira’s house, everything had changed. Rosie was back, and for once she and Ferius didn’t look like they were about to kill each other. Apparently she had followed the trail of other victims and discovered something none of us expected.
‘This isn’t the first time the Seven Sands has seen an unexplained outbreak of the shadowblack,’ Rosie explained. ‘It’s been happening for several years, here and there, rarely in the same town or village. Always far enough apart to keep anyone from looking too closely.’
‘Until now,’ I said.
Ferius nodded. ‘The question is, why?’ She looked over at me. ‘You trust this Dexan fella? The oldest scam in history is to make somebody sick and then offer the cure.’
‘Well, I never trusted him,’ Reichis said, coming down the stairs with some kind of silver ring stuck around one paw.
‘That belongs to me,’ Rosie said.
Reichis shook his paw repeatedly until it flew off and bounced across the floor. ‘Tell the Argosi she can have it. Feels way less comfortable than it looks.’
She gave him a scathing look. He hissed at her. They went back and forth wordlessly while I considered the matter of Dexan Videris. The man had saved my life and invited me to become his partner, but Ferius was right: if someone had been going around infecting people with the shadowblack, wouldn’t the first person we should suspect be the guy claiming he could cure it? Only … ‘It doesn’t make sense. If Dexan’s been doing this for years, why would he suddenly become so sloppy? Why target Seneira’s family and then say he can’t cure Tyne?’
‘The paths of thieves and deceivers twist and turn in unusual ways,’ Rosie said, pocketing the silver ring she’d retrieved from the floor.
‘There’s something else too,’ I said. ‘Mamma Whispers said the threads pulling at whatever’s been happening here go all the way back to the Jan’Tep lands. Dexan’s been on the run from our people for years.’
Ferius rubbed at her eyes. I wondered if she’d been sleeping much lately. ‘So that brings us back to Revian’s family, with their Jan’Tep house mages and this mansion you say is warded against spells.’
‘Your thoughts go in circles, sister,’ Rosie said. ‘We must investigate further into these older incidents of the shadowblack and determine if –’
The front door burst open and Beren came inside looking exhausted and terrified. ‘Where’s Seneira? Is she back yet?’
Rosie went to him. ‘Breathe deeply, brother, and calm yourself. Tell us what’s happened.’
‘It’s Tyne. He’s got sicker and he keeps asking for Senny.’
I only realised then I hadn’t seen her since last night. ‘Where is she?’
Beren looked at me. ‘So she hasn’t come back? She promised me she’d—’
‘Back from where?’ I asked.
‘Revian’s family sent a carriage this morning and a messenger saying he was terribly sick, that he was begging to see Seneira. They said they could get her there without anyone seeing, and we didn’t know Tyne was doing worse …’ He turned and started for the door. ‘I have to go get her! She needs to be with her brother, not –’
Rosie grabbed his arms, squeezing so tightly I was worried she might actually hurt him. ‘Go be with your boy.’ She looked back to Ferius and me. ‘We will retrieve your daughter.’