Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

Chapter Four

By the time the two men ahead of Niccola reached Verde's stall, their discussion was exclusive enough to require more subtle eavesdropping. Niccola stopped at the next stall over—she had to buy garlic anyway—and tuned into the debate while she stood in line.

"I'm telling you," said Verde, his voice a bass rumble that carried even through the bustling crowd. "If it's a beast, not a Talak, you're going to want wayfinders on its tail as soon as possible. The Pereiras have done work with diredeer before. Might be tricky, but it can be done."

"You know how my mother feels about taking risks with such high potential for publicity. Taking any wayfinders off the missing-persons search will reflect poorly on the whole intervention as far as she's concerned. And what will happen if it's a beast and they do find it? The inter-realm council prohibits the killing of any beasts from the deep Talakova unless there's confirmation that they've killed."

Verde snorted. "I'd say there's evidence enough."

"Tell that to my mother."

That drew an indistinct grumble from Verde. Niccola nearly missed the vendor's call for her to step up next. The conversation next door hinted that the unknown man had influence in this realm, though exactly what kind, she couldn't tell.

"Madeira's City Guard tried that four years ago," he replied to whatever Verde had said. "It went terribly."

"What are you proposing, then?"

"Are you asking what I would do personally, or how far my handcuffs extend?"

"Then I'm asking what force it would take to break those handcuffs. And what death toll this realm will rack up if they stay unbroken until the bloodbath forces your mother's hand."

Niccola paid for her purchase and drifted closer. The conversation dropped below hearing level, but it had set her mind spinning, trying to puzzle together who the unknown man was and what was going on. By the sound of it, his mother was making calls on the response to the threat in the Talakova. He himself had ideas on how to intervene, but his hands were tied, and he couldn't or wouldn't untie them. Niccola couldn't figure out why.

When the conversation resurfaced again, it had changed.

"The other angle to consider is what response will be the optimal one if this is a rogue Talak we're dealing with," said the unknown man.

Verde frowned harder. "We haven't had outright predation by Talaks in decades. Your grandmother's education campaign on entry rituals made a landslide's difference in forest trespasses. It's why I think it's a beast."

Unable to stay out of the discussion any longer, Niccola stepped into view around the stall. Verde's bushy eyebrows jumped up, and he gave her two fingers of greeting and a smile that didn't displace the wrinkles of concern on his dark forehead. The other man turned as well. Had he detected her presence, or felt his dragon do the same?

"Fair weather to you, Verde," said Niccola, realizing she should make herself known for the person who couldn't see her. "I heard talk of rogue Talaks."

Verde grunted, though fondness creased the corners of his eyes. "'Course you did. Always after the most controversial conversations."

Niccola flashed him a grin for the joke—a half-joke, really. She'd gotten good at filtering market gossip down to its most interesting components, and Verde was usually the first to know about it. He liked her quick reasoning, she admired his steady wisdom, and they got on well.

"I might lend a hand in the controversy, then, if I may," she said. "Given everything I've observed, I'm personally on the side of this being a Talak."

Verde's frown-lines deepened again, but the unknown man straightened up in interest. "What makes you say that?" he said.

Niccola smiled. This was an area she could speak to with confidence, and it felt almost too good after moons of being stepped on. The urge to dump enough information to give herself away was nearly overwhelming. Instead, she picked her words. "The crows are roosting higher in the trees than usual. I've only ever seen such behavior when there's a Talak in the fringes; most understory beasts don't bother with crows. It's rare to see them so skittish."

"And it's not a seasonal variation?"

"They normally move down the trees for winter—at least that I've seen. I haven't observed much normal caching behavior either, though, and there are more birds in town than usual."

Verde looked back and forth between the two of them, like he had nothing to contribute. The other man was quicker on the ball. "Could there be any impact from the seasonal harvest? Just to rule out possible confounding factors. Harvest patterns have been altered quite severely by concerns about the threat, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with the patterns of crows to track the correlation."

That was an excellent question. Niccola eyed up the man more closely, pleased that they seemed to match wits. "That's certainly a variable," she said, "though I haven't spent enough time close to the Talakova's edge to know the harvest patterns."

"Yet you know the crows."

"Better than most, you could say."

"To the advantage of our greater question." The man's smile was warm, and not at all antagonistic despite his probing. He took care to turn towards her whenever she was speaking, making it clear that he was listening even as his eyes remained focused on the middle distance. "Also," he said, "I don't believe we've met?"

"I don't believe so, either. Fair weather." Niccola crossed an arm over her chest in a formal greeting. "Niccola Landau."

The family name was a false one, adopted when she'd learned that standard Calisian greetings included family names. She had taken care to select one common enough to limit probing. While it was linked to a barrower line, the lineage had spread far enough that many of its branches were magic-less.

"Isaiah," returned the man.

Niccola's eyes skipped to Verde to gauge his response to the omission of a family name. He didn't seem phased. Either this was a different custom for reasons she wasn't aware of, or Isaiah had another reason not to disclose. This was going to make it difficult to track him down—and she had no casual way to steer the conversation towards anything resembling family relations.

"I'm curious to hear anything else you've noticed about the crows," said Isaiah, undermining that thought regardless.

Niccola noted the show of trust in her knowledge, even if it was likely Isaiah was just using her for information. She wanted to prove herself worth more than that. But their conversation was attracting a crowd, and she was supposed to be a serving-woman. It would be suspicious to show how much she knew about crows.

"I should give a disclaimer," she said, deflecting. "My word isn't necessarily representative of the state of things."

"If your reasons for doubting that word include unfamiliarity with baselines in this part of the forest, I've been told crow behavior is remarkably similar throughout the Ring of Thirty."

Niccola froze. Isaiah's smile remained easy, but she could not tell if that had been an insinuation that she was not Calisian, or simply a coincidence of wording. The slight tilt of his head felt telling.

He was controlling this conversation. He had to be. If he was highborn like she suspected, he had no reason to listen to a serving-woman for anything other than the information she carried. Niccola was tempted to walk out on the conversation. To excuse herself under the guise of her servant's attire, and prove that ascription of worth before Isaiah had the chance to do so himself. There was little that chafed more than the loss of agency that followed when others decided for her that she wasn't worth their time.

But he bore a family resemblance to the woman who'd stolen her life and sister. The woman she was trying to find. And she did not yet know enough about him to track him down after the end of this conversation. If keeping him here meant disclosing more than she wanted to, perhaps that was a line she'd have to walk.

Isaiah had picked up on her pause. "Though as you said, it might be difficult to gauge given differences in harvest patterns," he said. "So I understand if you're not comfortable adding weight to your words."

That was her way out, only she couldn't let herself take it. Making a snap decision lest she pause for too long, Niccola forced a smile. "I admit I remain comfortable in most of my observations. If I may compare to an example, I remember what changed among the crows when Madeira dealt with hauntings by a hemlock wolf four years back." She spoke carefully so as not to betray that she'd been eavesdropping before joining the conversation. "Beasts of any size tend to stir up the understory, which brings down crows after they pass. There is also the question of carrion. Beasts tend to leave at least skulls in the forest, which draws scavengers, crows included. Talaks leave none. When the concern lies with disappearances, I would worry that Talak predation was responsible, if only from that fact alone. As I said already, the crows have been staying high in the trees."

"A fair point," said Isaiah. "Though it is also true that a gloam-cat would both leave little trace, and bring whatever remained of its prey to deeper parts of the Talakova. Deeper than our wayfinders have a policy of venturing."

"Which brings us back to the crows. I stand by my observations of their behavior, though I will continue to claim no certainty on the correlation if there are confounding factors involved. I can only say which side of the argument I lean towards."

"And for that, you have my thanks." Isaiah didn't seem about to press her further, and Niccola's mind hissed again that he wanted nothing but the information. "I never regret hearing other opinions and observations on situations such as these, and this is no exception. If you don't mind, I would like to take what you've said to the City Guard to pass on to our wayfinding families. Do you have any objections?"

He could do whatever he wanted so long as it didn't interfere with her. "None. If I may ask—"

"Then I should be on my way." Isaiah found and touched a hand to Verde's arm, and received a squeeze on the shoulder in return. He turned back to Niccola. "I apologize. I would love to continue this conversation, but I have compensations to attend to before the sun goes down, and I'd rather not wait."

"Be gone with you," said Verde. "Can I offer something to the little one before you go?"

"I am sure she won't decline," said Isaiah wryly, as the dragon curled around his shoulders perked up like she'd noticed she was being talked about. "Verde, your euphemisms won't hold for much longer. I did warn you."

"Or perhaps that's just because you always let me spoil her," said Verde with a cheekier grin than Niccola normally saw from him. The dragon scrambled to her feet at the sound of a paper bag's crinkle. For the first time, Niccola realized one of her wings was smaller than the other, and bent in on itself in a way that meant she would never fly. It did not stop her from scrambling down Isaiah's arm like a spider. She took the treat delicately from Verde's fingers and dashed back with a delighted chirr, then a head-bob that looked for all the world like a trained thanks.

Niccola wanted to intervene again, but now that Isaiah had excused himself, she could not stop him without overstepping a boundary. There were too many people watching.

"Best of luck with the compensations," said Verde.

With a final smile and thanks, Isaiah took his leave.

Niccola spun to Verde the moment Isaiah was out of earshot. "I came here to talk to you about public warnings and the prince's intent to marry, and ran into this instead. Verde, who was that? I've never seen him in the market before."

Verde's face ran through a sequence of expressions from startled to amused. "Ask me about the prince's plans to marry, you say? You missed your chance to ask him yourself. You had him right here."

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro