Mira crossed the marketplace, intent on buying more quarrels for her crossbow, with Bandit trailing after her as always. She prided herself on her powers of observation, but she suddenly realized that after exiting the crowd, someone was walking right next to her, matching her pace exactly. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw that he was as average a person as average can be. He wore the same clothes everyone else wore, he wore his hair the same way most other men in Stonekeep did, he walked the same way everyone else did, and he only wore a belt knife, the same way everyone else who was inside the walls did. She had a feeling that this wasn’t random, so she slowed her pace a little bit, thinking of letting him get in front of her, but he slowed his pace as well. The alarm bell in her head was ringing louder, so she stopped and pretended to look at a dress in a shop window. The man stopped right beside her as if the two of them were together. Both Mira and the man pretended to be looking at the dress, but they were actually watching each other from the reflection in the window. Bandit growled and showed her fangs.

  “It’s a nice dress,” the man said, “but I think you’re more the type to wear pants.”

  “Who are you and what do you want?” Mira said in a low voice. She had her arms crossed over her vest, ready to draw a knife from her sleeve in an instant. She couldn’t use it very well, but it didn’t matter if he never saw it coming.

  “The name’s Ykaens, and I mean you no harm.”

  “That’s what everyone says when they mean you harm. What do you want?”

  “To talk. I understand you witnessed the death of a certain priest,” Ykaens said. “There weren’t very many people present for that, and all of those present showed extraordinary talents.”

  “Present for what?”

  He just gave her a look that said he knows everything and there was no use in denying it. “I see a lot of myself in you, Mira. You see, it’s my job to find and root out exactly these kinds of things before they become problems, but you beat me to the punch. That says a lot about your skills.”

  “Thanks for that, assuming it was me,” Mira said. Trying to catch him off guard, she quickly asked, “Who do you represent?”

  “The King of Mithram, of course,” Ykaens said. Everything he said was said in a way that wouldn’t carry above the ambient noise, nor would it draw any attention to him whatsoever. “All cards on the table. The king and prince both see your potential and the prince would very much like to have you work for them rather than falling in with the wrong people.”

  Mira liked the idea of doing her own thing, and had no plans to join some organization, even if it was a good one. She definitely didn’t want to get caught up in the kingdom’s conflicts. Recent events had shaken her up quite a bit more than she let on, too.

  “I’m only a little girl. Can’t you find someone older? Stronger?”

  “His mind is made up. You know, I’d really like to hear the story about how you managed to acquire a raccoon as a pet,” Ykaens said with the same neutral intonation he always used.

  Mira could hear the threat, though. He may not actually kill Bandit, but he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She had the feeling he was a person who usually knew he was holding all the cards, but he didn’t use the word “pixie.” Maybe he didn’t know as much as he thought he did. Maybe she could turn this to her advantage, she thought. Besides, she didn’t have to tell him anything she didn’t want to. Definitely nothing about a certain sorcerer. If Ykaens knew about her involvement with a sorcerer, he’d have probably sent the army instead. I got on her nerves sometimes, but we had a solid friendship, and that was something Mira would never betray.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have the strength or skill at arms to help your patron,” Mira said. She was baiting him, testing the waters.

  “I have a great many things I can teach you, and I have the feeling that you already have skills I don’t know about. I like subtlety and witty banter like the next spy, but I’ll spell it out for you. You’ll swear fealty to the Prince of Mithram, I’ll teach you the fine art of spy craft, and you’ll get a lot of money to do so. If you choose not to, I won’t kill you, but I’ll make your life so difficult you’ll have to leave the kingdom.”

  So, he did have some scruples. In all, what he proposed didn’t seem so bad to Mira, despite the not-so-veiled threat. It could certainly be worse, and she was curious to know what he could teach her. Deep down, Mira had grown up to be completely powerless, and the idea of having the most powerful friends in the kingdom was extremely appealing. And there was the money. Mira liked money, and she didn’t want to actually have to work to get it. That was too much like becoming her father.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “So, when do we start?”

  -----

  Prince Kimorel sat with his father, King Korban Mithram V, in a very ornately decorated private sitting room in the palace in Mithram. The harbor was visible and a cool breeze blew in from the sea. King Korban set his golden goblet down on the table before him and regarded his son steadily. All of the pleasantries they had just traded slipped from his face. Prince Kimorel sat up straighter in his armchair, knowing his father was no longer in the mood for pleasant banter.

  “Tell me about this business in Stonekeep, son,” King Korban said.

  Prince Kimorel took a moment to organize his thoughts. “It appears that Sivash Surekeel was secretly a Subjugator, and he nearly succeeded in taking the city.”

  “The merchant? The one you appointed to the Council of Elders?” the king asked.

  “The very same.”

  “Are you sure he was a Subjugator?”

  “Without doubt. He was found in a secret sanctum offering tribute to his demonic masters and surrounded by a bunch of drug-crazed cultists with demonic mutations. He even had a necromancer in league with him who made undead minions out of the sacrificed townsfolk. There were scores of them. If he remained undiscovered long enough, he would’ve had enough to overrun the city,” the prince said.

  “Yeah, that sounds like a Subjugator, all right. Who was his benefactor?”

  “He lived in Stonekeep for all his life, but documents found and decoded in his home suggested he had a lot of trading partners in Fellton. I think he got his training there,” the prince replied.

  Both men sat quietly for a moment.

  Prince Kimorel cleared his throat. “It’s noteworthy that a family of smiths were responsible for finding and destroying that coven, too. My men and I only got there in time to finish off the stragglers and clean up the mess.”

  King Korban’s eyebrows rose to hear that. “How many men did the Smiths have?” the king asked.

  “Five, plus a couple of unarmored girls.”

  “You jest.”

  “No, father. That’s not all. The great majority of the undead and cultists were killed by fire. The fire was concentrated and controlled and posed no threat to the structures above, which a wizard could do, but the rock was actually melted in a couple of places, indicating there were either multiple wizards or there was a Mordonian among them,” the prince said. “Ykaens is sure his old friend Whizzbang had a role in it, but he may not know everything.”

  The king said a word foul enough to make the prince blink before he could help himself. King Korban didn’t often use foul language. Prince Kimorel had to admit that he was thinking that same thing at first. A period of silence followed as both men thought. Now that the prince had divulged the worst, he decided to give his father some good news. He needed some good news badly.

  “For some reason, I’m not concerned for the safety of the kingdom, father. Whoever the Mordonians or wizards are, if they really exist, they’ve never caused so much as a rumor among the people there. They only acted to prevent a disaster. Also, Ykaens is sure everyone in the Smith family is as good and honorable a person as that family’s been since the founding of the city. They’re widely known to be honest in all things, as always.”

  “That whole city’s related to the Smiths in one way or another, and it’s always been a good thing. You’re fortunate to rule over Stonekeep.” The king paused and thought. “You’ve given this some thought on your trip here, I see. Do you have people watching them?”

  “Of course. I’d have to be crazy not to give this to Ykaens’ personal attention. He understands the situation. He has others watch from a distance while he’s working this from another angle. There’s no telling what a Mordonian can really do, and I’m determined not to let a threat like that develop under my very nose.”

  “This doesn’t add up,” the king said darkly. “We’ve been led to believe that the Mordonians were monsters, but there hasn’t been a confirmed report of their foul sorcery in at least a hundred years.” The king stroked his graying beard as he thought about it. “How did they beat that Subjugator? They couldn’t do it with five knights unless they had a true priest with them.”

  “I thought something similar. Maybe the wizard protected them from the Subjugator’s dark magics, but they could’ve had a priest among them, too,” the prince said. “No one’s heard a whisper of preaching in the whole city, though, and the Executors would have dealt with anyone serving a god other than theirs, with or without our approval.”

  “You’re right, of course. The Church of the Overgod wouldn’t allow any competition,” the king said. “The Prelate, Rhadam IV, will move quickly to destroy any prophet of the One God if there is one.” He paused for another minute as he thought it over. “You know, those bastards act more like a spy network than a church. The histories are scribed their priesthood, too. It could be that we’re all being misled.”

  “I’ve had the same thoughts, especially when they clubbed my councilor’s daughter and granddaughter to death a few years back. Ykaens now thinks that was an act arranged by Surekeel to gain influence in the Council. How do you want to handle this?”

  The king thought about it for a long time.

  “Keep people in place to watch the wizard and the Smiths. We can dispose of them quietly if necessary. I think, though, that it’ll be the actions of the Church of the Overgod in the coming months that will show us what’s really going on. For now, we watch and wait.”