On the southern banks of the Brad river, Mei finished describing her brother to a fisherwoman and asked, “Have you seen him?”

  “Naw,” a freshly folded net was tossed into a boat, “I ain’t seen anyone like that.”

  Mei held in a sigh. “Were you here last night?”

  “Course I was.” Another net was grabbed. “My Bobbi said the darkie mage was putting on a show and I didn’t want to miss him making a fool of himself.” Yellowed teeth were flashed. “Only made it for the water flinging though. Right impressive that was.”

  No one had missed Maggie and Huan’s fight. Thanking the fisherwoman, Mei shouldered her rifle and headed east along the riverbank, keeping out of the long grass that flourished right up to the city’s southern wall.

  So far everyone she’d talked to had said the same two things: they were amazed at the magic and fireworks and they did not recognize Huan. It wasn’t surprising. Novel spells and explosions easily outshone mere human faces, and it didn’t help that, after a morning of business as usual, anything Mei would have used to track her brother down had been trampled into mud.

  She should have known that Huan would go after Dwayne. After all, Huan’s backer wanted rare and powerful magic and the License Key metal plate fit that description. To be honest, going to Sen Jerome’s was always going to lead to a dead…

  Mei stopped, her eyes fixating on the long grass. She’d caught something glinting out of the corner of her eye, but now the all was still and dull.

  She shook her head. It was probably a puddle or something. Even as winter progressed, Bradford’s signature rain refused to go. There was no need to go in and make sure, not when her brother’s safety was at stake.

  Mei continued on, reaching a breached barge whose crewmembers were sitting on crates around a boiling pot of water, drinking hot tea. Both were young, somewhere between Mei and Huan’s ages, and had the same curly, dirty blond hair. Maybe they were brother and sister.

  Those crates were very familiar.

  “This is a fireworks barge?” Mei blurted out.

  The pair startled. One crewmember raised his barely bearded chin in challenge. “Yeah, what of it?”

  “Did you see what happened there?” Mei pointed to where Maggie had fought Huan.

  “Oh, yeah, we did.” The other crewmember flashed her two missing teeth. “It was awesome! I never seen mages fight like that.”

  “What’s this about…” the boy winced at Mei’s uniform, “ma’am?”

  “Did you see anything after that?” Mei asked.

  “No, we didn’t.” The boy crossed his arms. “We ain’t got time for pointless questions.”

  Mei bet Charlie never heard those words. “I’m with the Indigo Tower.”

  “Oh, you are?” The girl elbowed the boy. “That’s who paid for last night’s job.”

  The boy scowled. “That don’t mean she can interrupt our breakfast.” The girl punched him in the shoulder. “Ow! What was that for?”

  “For being rude to customers.” The girl stood up and, despite wearing the greasiest pair of trousers Mei had ever seen, attempted a curtsy. “I apologize for my brother’s rudeness, ma’am. We didn’t see much last night, ma’am.”

  “Except those two flying people,” said the boy.

  Mei’s attention snapped to him. “Flying people?”

  The girl flicked her brother’s ear.

  “Ow!”

  “You didn’t mention no flying people last night,” said the girl.

  “You didn’t ask!”

  “Which way did they go?” Mei asked.

  “They flew east,” the boy pointed, “onto a dinghy.”

  Mei frowned. “Dinghy?”

  “A ship’s rowboat, ma’am.” The girl looked thoughtful. “You know, if they kept going downriver, maybe Walsh saw them pass.”

  Her brother scowled. “You can’t send her to Walsh. Walsh lies.”

  “What about?”

  “Meeting me for dinner for one.”

  “Who’s Walsh?” Mei asked.

  “His was the firework barge most downriver last night.” The girl lowered her voice. “I heard he saw someone jump out Sen Jerome’s last night, ma’am.”

  Mei went very still.

  “Like there’s anyone that stupid,” said the boy.

  “Right.” Mei cleared her throat. “Where can I find Walsh?”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Down river, ma’am,” said the girl. “He’s too lazy to tow his barge back up here when there’s no work.”

  “I bet he was with Randall,” said the boy.

  His sister flicked his ear.

  “Ow!”

  “Stop it.”

  After thanking the two, Mei continued east. On the river to her left, what remained of the autumn trade pushed its way upriver. The largest boat she could see, a pleasure craft currently lacking passengers, did so with the aid of long poles and a water Qe magic. That was the kind of work Maggie and her new magic ball thing could do now although there was no way that would happen. Maggie had enjoyed the fight far too much. The boat’s name was Ziegler’s Boon, which meant it was owned by one of Dwayne’s enemies, Andreas Ziegler.

  While Dwayne and Lady Pol had eliminated Ziegler’s ally Baron Thadden from the list of who could be backing Huan, Mei wasn’t so sure. Thadden, Ziegler, and their allies had definitely had something to do with Juanelo’s death, putting the windsong in a position to get murdered. The main argument against their direct involvement was that none of them were with the Church, but that wasn’t enough to completely eliminate…

  Mei stopped and peered into the long grass. No glint this time, but the grass had moved oddly, against the wind. Now, there was nothing. It could have been vermin, a fell rat or a benzrab, both of which liked the city and the water, but the movement had felt too big for that.

  Maybe she’d exerted herself too much last night. Maybe this was exhaustion.

  Mei continued on, walking until she was uncomfortably close to East Gate and Sen Jerome’s. This morning there were a great many white surcotes crowding the Gate, manning the walls, and swarming any boat that dared to pass beneath the fortress. There was no way she or the spy could get back in there now.

  She found another barge beached on the riverbank, its two-man crew, one young and red-haired, the other blond and bearded, poking at a cooking fire.

  The red-haired one spotted her first and sat up. “Ho, there! Does the Indigo Tower have need of us again?”

  Mei went completely still. As the Tower’s only guard, she was the only one who wore its colors, and she hadn’t even been there to arrange for the firework barges. She’d left that to Fran and Maggie.

  “Ha, you’re surprised.” The man grinned. “It’s a hobby of mine, recognizing Her Majesty’s hands on sight. Join us, have some breakfast. We owe you that much, Head Guard Mei Ma. I’m Walsh.”

  Mei had skipped breakfast to come out here and the fry scones and bacon sizzling on the griddle looked quite appetizing, but she ignored her stomach’s growling and shook her head.

  “No, thank you. I’m looking for someone.” She described her brother. “Have you seen him?”

  “Can’t say I have,” said Walsh.

  Not surprising. “Were you here after the,” Dwayne had instructed her to use a specific word, “‘demonstration’?”

  “I was. Randall here was too, on their own boat not mine.”

  Recognizing the name, Mei kept her expression blank. No reason to get involved in a lover’s spat. “A dinghy with two people should have passed you.”

  “Oh, them! Yeah, that was weird. I mean no one but us bargers knew about the fireworks, and last night was no time for a romantic drift-”

  Randall chuckled. “Like that’s stopped you before.”

  Walsh mock glared at them. “-but I guess mask parties know no season.”

  Mei frowned. “Mask parties?”

  “Yeah, some nobles like to pretend they have no face or something.” Walsh sat up. “What’s this about?”

  Maggie hadn’t mentioned that Huan had been wearing mask, but Mei had seen he and the wind dancer wear them. “Did they go through East Gate?”

  “Yeah, I saw them go.”

  “Oh.” Mei grimaced. “So you didn’t see where they went.”

  “No, I saw.” When Mei’s eyes widened, Walsh shrugged. “For some reason, the Gate wasn’t manned so I just drifted through. This barge is theirs.” He gestured at Randall. “Mine’s still on the other side. Too many monks.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “They joined up with a Mage cargo boat.”

  “Mage?”

  “Magisterium, I mean.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. Like I said, it’s a hobby.” Walsh leaned back on his elbows. “So, why is the Indigo Tower interested?”

  “We just are.” Mei bowed. “Thank you.”

  Leaving the barge behind, Mei turned west to head back to Bradsbridge. She’d head over to the Magisterium for lunch with Fran and Maggie then see if she could get a list of boats and hopefully find out which one had been out on the river last night. This revelation was nearly enough to eliminate Thadden, who barely had any influence within the-

  A soft thrumming, barely hidden by the rustling of grass, snagged Mei’s attention. She whirled around, her hand flying to her dagger, to face a heavyset young man who had an arrow half nocked and pointed down.

  “Li Mei.” The man’s accent was rough, rural, but his Tuquese was laced with Imperial enunciations. “You are hard to stalk.”

  Despite the fact that she could probably reach cover before the hunter could put an arrow in her throat, Mei didn’t take her hand away from her dagger because he wasn’t alone. To their right, eating a sage apple with every sign of enjoyment, was a young woman whose hand lay just fingertips away from a long loosely wrapped package.

  “Who are you?” asked Mei in Tuquese.

  The hunter let his bowstring go slack. “Yeh Hui.”

  His partner said nothing.

  “Why are you here?” Mei asked. “To capture us?”

  “No.” Yeh dropped his arrow into his hip quiver. “We’re here to talk.”

  Mei was going to have to take his word on that. Even with Yeh’s arrow put away and his partner’s sword sheathed, there was no way she could take down either of them and be able to defend against counter attack. That was assuming she could take down Black Tiger - that had to be who that was - at all.

  She let her hand fall away from her dagger. “I don’t have anything to say to the Empire.”

  “Li Mei.” Yeh bowed his head. “She who is Li Huan’s guardian, who has accepted the role of Head Guard of the Scaled Tower. You are in conflict.”

  Mei scowled. “I am not”

  “You wouldn’t be,” Yeh raised his head, “if your brother had not committed criminal acts.”

  Mei’s lip curled. “People like you and Momin made him do that.”

  “You know that is not true. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that the difficulty of resolving this conflict on your own. Just as I was born to protect the Black Tiger Shun Yue You, you were born to protect your brother Li Huan.”

  Mei stared. “What are you talking about?”

  “I am merely pointing out that your relationship to your brother bears a certain resemblance to that of a vassal’s to their lord. Such relationships are endangered by the following question: what if the protected is not worthy of protection? In those cases, it is unfair for the protectors to decide, and others must step in.”

  “You want to kill him. For me.”

  “Allow us to take on that burden.”

  Mei’s hand went to her dagger. “It is not yours to take.”

  “Since the moment he touched the White Tiger Mask, Li Huan has lied, stolen, and murdered. He is not worthy of your protection, Li Mei.”

  Huan had done those things but, “He’s my brother. I will not let you kill him.”

  Yeh’s body sagged. “I understand. We will go then.”

  Mei stared. “You don’t want me?”

  “We stay our hands as you are only the wielder of the hand cannon, not its maker.” He bowed. “You have chosen a hard path, Li Mei. May you recover from its thorns.”

  Then he turned and let the grass swallow him. The bench was already empty save for a sage apple core left.

  As for Mei, she didn’t continue on until the red faded from her vision.