A Jewel Bright Sea. Claire O'Dell

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СКАЧАТЬ ordered two of the guards to take up positions ahead. The others remained to the rear, while Raab himself dismounted. All of them had their weapons drawn and ready.

      Maté too had a blade in hand as he crept into the undergrowth to their left. Once, twice, he stopped and sniffed. Then suddenly he plucked up an object from the ground. He beckoned to Anna.

      “What is it?” she said softly, once she had reached his side.

      “Our first tangible clue.”

      He said the word tangible as though it were a magical word.

      Anna crouched amongst the vines and bushes and examined the clue. In his palm lay a short length of wire. Maté’s eyes were not upon the wire, however. She followed the direction of his gaze down and to the right.

      Vines and bushes grew thickly here, but they could not hide the signs of battle. All those leaves crushed, the branches trampled, the dirt churned up…. She sniffed again and caught the unmistakable scent of rotting flesh.

      Theory number three. The buyer—or that possible third party—had lured Sarrész and his guards away from the temple and its open square into the forest, where they were forced into a single file. And here, within sight of the shore, the ambush had taken place.

      “Where are the bodies?” she whispered. “Or did they take prisoners?”

      “I doubt they bothered with prisoners,” he said. “No, they dumped the bodies in the ocean, though they missed one or two, which accounts for the stink. Sloppy work,” he muttered. “Though truth be told, I don’t see why they bothered. Our friend was here, however.”

      Was. Silently she uttered a curse on Aldo Sarrész’s soul. Three months chasing after the man, only to find him murdered at someone else’s hands. Lord Brun would not be pleased. Not pleased—dear gods, what an inadequate phrase. Anna shuddered at the thought of how Brun might express his displeasure.

      Meanwhile, Maté continued to examine the ground. The attackers had strung metal wire across the path to dismount their quarry, he told her. They had attacked using crossbows to take down the rest. The guards had fought hard, but all signs pointed to the party being overwhelmed and everyone slaughtered. Even three days later, splashes of blood marked the leaves and brush.

      “Someone dragged a body here,” he murmured. “We might get a clue…”

      Before she could ask which body, or what kind of clue, Maté plunged into the thicket of bushes, hacking at the vines with his sword. The guards were muttering openly now. A sharp comment from Raab silenced them, but Anna could sense their nervousness. She could hardly blame them.

      She checked the knife in her boot, the other at her wrist. Not that that made any difference. When Brun had first announced their mission, Maté had insisted she learn the rudiments of what he called practical defense. How to hold a blade. How to throw a knife. Anna had spent her afternoons with a newly hired set of tutors for magic, and her early mornings with Maté in the stable yard. All very good, but she was a scholar and the daughter of a scholar, not a warrior. A shudder passed through her, despite the close, hot day.

      After a long interval, Maté returned. His eyes were bright, and he had that same odd air of anticipation she had noted before, back at the temple. “I found only the one body,” he said softly. “Not our friend. But there are other signs I want you to see before our horses and guards trample over them.”

      He headed back into the underbrush, beckoning her to follow. Anna hurried after him, swearing under her breath. A short distance ahead, the trees stopped abruptly.

      They stood at the edge of a lonely inlet, little more than a notch in the coast, with a few dozen yards between them and the rushing surf. A wind blew steadily from the ocean, lifting the sweat from her face. Then a flicker of movement caught her eye—tiny crabs popped up to the surface, only to disappear as soon as she spotted them.

      “Look,” Maté said quietly.

      He pointed at the ground. Deep prints dug into the dirt and sand, heading straight for the ocean. Other footprints overlaid the first pair. They had converged from all different directions, and though wind and rain had smoothed the open shore, the sands closest to the trees still showed traces of a struggle. She glanced around quickly. No sign of blood here.

      “They took him prisoner, then,” she murmured.

      “Nothing quite so simple. Come with me. I have something to show you.”

      With rising excitement, Anna followed Maté onto the open shore. He took a path that angled away from the confusion of footprints, then circled around cautiously until they came to a point where the sands were still damp from the tide.

      More footprints.

      A single line of footprints that arrowed directly toward the sea, remarkably clear even after three days and several tides in between.

      “What happened?” she whispered.

      “Our luck,” he answered with satisfaction. “We had a lovely high spring tide four, five days past. That means wet sand that takes a good set of tracks, and no more tides since to wash them away.”

      The daily rains had softened the tracks, but she could guess what had happened. At the edge of the high-tide mark, their quarry had swiveled about, leaving a muddle of prints. Something—a momentary loss of breath? The sight of his pursuers?—had caused him to take a step back, leaving a deep, clear print. Then he had taken off again, straight for the ocean.

      Where the tide had washed away all traces of what happened next.

      Damn you, damn you, Aldo Sarrész.

      She let her breath escape in a hiss that matched the soughing of the waves. Cursing a dead man would do her little good. Besides, Sarrész himself didn’t matter, not really—only the jewel.

      So let’s find out what did happen to the jewel.

      She knelt and let her hand hover over the sands. Oh, that was strange. Traces of strong magic itched at her fingertips, and the signature—the magical signature—reminded her of sunlight refracted by diamonds, bright and blinding and filled with all the colors of the universe. Except… According to all the reports Brun had supplied, Sarrész was a mere dabbler in magic.

      She growled in frustration.

      “What is it?” Maté asked.

      “Magic,” Anna said. “Not Sarrész’s, however. I need to investigate.”

      “First let me call Raab and the guards. We don’t want any surprises. Pretend you are enraptured with the beauty of the prospect, Lady Iljana.”

      She wanted to argue—all her instincts yammered at her to investigate now, this moment, before the traces of that magical signature vanished—but Maté was right. They could not discard their roles yet. Not until they had recovered the jewel and bought their passage back to the mainland.

      Anna fluttered her hand to one side in agreement and, with some effort, arranged her expression into one she hoped passed for enraptured.

      She did not have to wait long. Maté returned with Raab close behind. They both surveyed the shore, then conducted a brief, tense conversation about logistics and the possible СКАЧАТЬ