“It is,” Gaspar said.
Gavin leaned back. He knew what Jessica wanted and understood why. She wanted him to have something to do, a sense of purpose. He thought he wanted the same thing, but would he really be able to find that sense of purpose while struggling with what he’d learned about himself—and about Tristan?
He didn’t know.
“Gaspar will get the rest of the details.” Gavin got up, pushed away from the table, and headed to the back of the room.
Gaspar shook his head slightly, annoyance flashing in his eyes. Jessica frowned but he ignored it.
Wrenlow was there, watching. “What is it?”
“I don’t like this,” Gavin said.
“I gathered that, but why?”
“I don’t really know. It’s just an instinct.”
“Does that instinct have anything to do with the fact that Jessica found a job for you?”
“It’s the type of job she found for me.” And he thought it was it was more than that, though maybe it was about his hesitation in staying in Yoran.
“Finding this child is beneath you?”
Gavin arched a brow at him. “When have I ever thought anything was beneath me?”
“Well, that’s true enough,” Wrenlow said, chuckling.
“Think about one of the first jobs you and I ever did. When we took the job to protect Liesl Daemon from attack.”
“We didn’t know that was going to be as minor as it was.”
Gavin snorted. “Seeing as how she was drunk when she came to us, we probably should have.”
“Her husband was also drunk when you knocked him out.”
“That’s probably what saved his life,” Gavin said.
“I doubt he would’ve attacked you had he not been drunk. Or me.” A look of irritation flashed in Wrenlow’s eyes that Gavin couldn’t quite decipher.
“Maybe.”
“They can’t all be like the job in Kevlin.”
“Oh, you mean the one that I failed?”
“You removed him from power. That’s not a failure.” Wrenlow grinned at him. “Sometimes, I think you have a different opinion about what you need to do than most people.”
“That’s not what I have. My issue is that my training has been of a particular kind. I know that training should be used for—”
“Helping people,” Wrenlow said. “That’s what you’ve always told me. And how you helped me.”
Gavin shook his head. “I can only imagine what Tristan might think if he learned about my priorities.”
“Does it matter?”
Gavin frowned. “I suppose it doesn’t.”
“It just strikes me as strange, that’s all.”
“That I’m objecting here?”
“That when it comes to something like this, something so objectively good, you’re pushing back.”
Gavin looked over to where Gaspar, Jessica, and Erica were talking quietly.
Could that be my issue?
Maybe his training had changed so much for him that he was unable to take a job that felt good. If so, that was a twisted fate.
“Maybe that’s all it is,” he whispered.
“I’m sure it is,” Wrenlow said, nodding as if that had decided everything. “Anyway, now that you’ve got that taken care of, why don’t you tell me why you went out to the forest again.”
“For some quiet.”
Wrenlow started to laugh. “I’ve never known you to go anywhere for quiet.”
“Fine. I went out there to see if there was anything more I can uncover about the sorcerer.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve never faced anyone like him before.”
He had encountered plenty of sorcerers, though none quite like this one. There was something different. Dangerous. He didn’t really know what it was, only that he had never even heard of the man. Either the Sorcerers’ Society had hidden his presence, or they didn’t know of him. That might be even more dangerous.
“There are a lot of sorcerers you’ve never faced before,” Wrenlow said.
“There are, but this one came looking for me. And he didn’t have any trouble finding me either.”
“That bothers you.”
“It should bother you too.”
“I don’t know that it should. I’m not nearly as troubled by things as you are.”
He leaned back and closed his eyes. Perhaps it really was nothing more than the nature of the job, but maybe it was that he had been beaten, trained, and taught that the kinds of jobs that he needed to take had to be a specific kind.
These days, most of his jobs had been smaller scale than what he had been trained for. As long as they paid, it didn’t matter. Lingering in the city had bothered him for a while, but he hadn’t revealed it to Wrenlow. Eventually, it would be time for them to think about moving on.
They had gotten comfortable within the city, but comfort meant complacency. Gavin knew far better than to become complacent. Those who did later ended up dead.
“I need to look for Tristan,” Gavin whispered.
“What if he tries to find you?”
Gavin shook his head. “He wouldn’t.”
He remembered returning to the training compound, finding the trail of blood, the body trapped in the ravine. He had seen the clothing, the boots, even the ring, all pointing to Tristan.
Now, years later, Gavin knew that Tristan had faked his death.
Why would he do so? Had he known what Cyran intended?
“Why not?” Wrenlow asked. “Would he simply allow you to go away?”
“I think he’d view finding him as another test.”
“Why would he test you in such a way?”
Gavin shrugged. “I don’t know.”
He looked around the tavern and watched as Jessica and Gaspar talked with Erica. He glanced at Imogen, who remained quiet as she watched the conversation from the far side of the room. Her fingers tapped in something like a pattern while she observed everything, but stopped when she caught sight of Gavin looking in her direction.
Eventually, he’d need to look for Tristan. But right now was the first time he didn’t necessarily want to go venturing anywhere else. He was content. Maybe that was what troubled him the most. Any time he had a sense of contentment in his life, something always happened to disrupt it or strip it away from him.
Taking a deep breath, Gavin closed his eyes. “I’m going to rest a little while.”
“Now?”
“Gaspar is going to get the details I need for this job, and I figure that between the two of you, you can look into anything she tells you. She has a marker that she says was left behind when her son was abducted. Why don’t you look into that, see if there’s anything you can find out about it?”
“What did it look like?”
“A series of triangles with a circle around it.”
“What?” Wrenlow sat up and cocked his head, looking at Gavin for a long time before turning to watch Gaspar and Erica. “Are you sure about that?”
“Pretty sure. Why?”
“I need to know what exactly it looked like.”
Gavin leaned over, and he traced the shape on the table. He watched Wrenlow as he did, and the other man’s eyes widened.