A couple staggered down the street nearby. The thin woman leaned on the man for support, and they both seemed intoxicated. It was a little early for such intoxication, though there were places within this city, much like in all cities, where people drank all day. He studied the thin woman, noting her cloak. The weather wasn’t quite warm enough for the heavy gray wool. Even the man was overdressed in a thick jacket and pants.
He remained in the shadows and headed past the pair. Their quiet conversation shifted, cutting off as he passed them, and he could hear them start to murmur.
Did they notice my bloodstained clothing?
He had managed to escape the manor house without killing too many, though that really wasn’t his greatest concern. All he’d wanted was to get out of there safely, and since he’d accomplished that, he figured the rest of it was a success.
As he rounding a corner, he glanced back. Was it just his imagination, or was the woman leaning on the man a little differently? He thought she’d had her arm wrapped around his waist with her head resting on his shoulder, but now it seemed as if she were upright, looking at him. Something was off. The years he spent training—and fighting—had taught him to trust his instincts and not to ignore when an alarm was raised within him.
Ducking around the corner, Gavin reached a nearby alley and slipped into it. As soon as he did, the couple appeared.
“Where do you think he went?” the man whispered.
“He couldn’t have gone very far.”
That didn’t sound intoxicated to him at all. Worse, it meant that they were following him.
How could they have been following me when I’d encountered them by chance? Unless it wasn’t a chance meeting…
He tapped the enchantment and leaned his mouth close to the chain. “Wrenlow, if you’re there, I’m going to need your help,” he whispered.
He tried to keep his voice little more than the barest of whispers, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself than he already had. If these two began searching the street, realizing he couldn’t have disappeared very far, they might still find him. He would have to turn this into his advantage.
Gavin backed into the alley, looking for some way up. The pitch to the roofs was such that it would be difficult for him to maintain his footing, but he might be able to find enough grip. He wouldn’t be able to move from building to building up there, but perhaps he could spy on them and get a better sense of who they were and who they were working for.
There wasn’t anything for him to grab onto. Just the buildings. Thankfully, they were close enough together that he could wedge his feet out from him. It was an awkward position, but as he pressed each foot against the sides of the narrow alley, he shimmied his way up until he could reach the rooftop. From there, he gripped it and pulled himself up. When he swung his legs over, there was movement at the mouth of the alley where he’d just been. He pressed himself flat against the rooftop and stayed in place.
“I could’ve sworn I heard something here,” one of them said.
“If he was here, there isn’t any place he could’ve gone.”
“Maybe he knows somebody in this part of the city.”
“That’s not the intelligence we have.”
“Maybe it’s wrong.”
Intelligence? Who are these people?
They could be constables, but Gavin had been careful to avoid drawing their attention. The moment he did, he wouldn’t be effective in Yoran any longer. The kinds of jobs he’d taken didn’t get reported to the constables, though, so he hadn’t needed to worry about that yet.
He stayed on the rooftop, leaning close enough that he could hear and hoping the angle of the roof made it so they couldn’t see him.
“We should keep moving.”
As they headed toward the alley, they stopped. Shouts rang out in the distance, and Gavin froze.
“What do you think that’s about?”
“Probably him,” the woman said. “We need to find him, and from there…”
Gavin couldn’t hear what they said next, but the message was clear. Somebody had sent them after him, and all of it was troubling. Now he had to hide from the recent target, as well as whoever was pursuing him. There was also the matter of how skilled the guard at the manor had been.
He waited on the rooftop. “Did you hear any of that?” Gavin whispered.
“Some of it,” Wrenlow said. “You have someone following you?”
“That’s the way it seems.”
“Why?”
“No idea.”
Gavin dragged himself along the roof until he reached the main part of the street. He was able to look out from here, and the location afforded him enough privacy that he didn’t think anyone could see him.
I’m hidden here, but for how long?
He didn’t want to stay up here all night. It got in the way of his dream of drinking some ale, relaxing by the fire, and filling his belly. “Do your digging and see what you come up with,” he said.
“There are plenty of different outfits working within Yoran. That’s why we came here,” Wrenlow replied.
“I know that’s why we came. It’s just…”
They hadn’t been here all that long before the first job offer had come in. Then the next. Each one was a little bit more complicated, and each one seemed to drag him deeper into some unknown challenge. Now he had no idea whether or not this was all some sort of test, but he didn’t want any part of getting caught up in the politics of the city.
“When are you coming back in?” Wrenlow asked.
“When it’s safe.”
“What if it’s not?”
Gavin grunted. “It will be.”
He listened to the sounds of the city as he lay on the rooftop. Wrenlow fell silent, though Gavin didn’t expect anything more from him. Not until he found anything. Likely he was reaching out to other contacts, searching for information about what had happened and who was after them. Hopefully, he would find something, but even if he didn’t, Gavin wasn’t entirely sure that it mattered. Maybe it was time for them to move on.
Yoran was just one more city, though maybe it was more than that. There were other cities and other places they’d gone, and there were plenty of ways for him to supply his trade. He’d found an easy benefactor here, but that wasn’t what had brought him to the city. He’d come to see his old friend Cyran Black but hadn’t worked up the nerve to go to him yet. There was too much history between them.
“I haven’t found anything,” Wrenlow said. “I’m going to keep looking, but I think you really need to come back in.”
“And I told you that I will.”
“Maybe this has something to do with our benefactor.”
“Maybe,” Gavin said.
“I’ve been digging, you know.”
“I suspect you were.”
There was a pause. “You’re not angry?” Wrenlow asked.
“Why would I be angry?”
The rooftop was uncomfortable. Gavin shifted and nearly rolled off. Were it not for him positioning his feet off to either side to catch himself, he might have.
“I don’t know. You get… touchy… about things sometimes. Especially if you think I should be doing something else.”