Ulsper had trained for situations like this. When Saer Lon's smuggler friends had discovered one of the wine bottles missing, it was only a matter of time before they began searching the building for an intruder.

There were two options: either he send Suthe out as the scapegoat, or take the blame himself. Either way was dangerous. The Imperial Guard was still searching for him, and there was a chance he would be recognized. But Suthe would raise more suspicion, as a Montese girl who couldn't understand a word of Shun Dwo, hanging around the premises of a woman who couldn't speak the girl's language either. Once that discovery was made, it would be easy to surmise that she was a druith in hiding. Suthe, who innocently marveled at the foreign food Nem Koel brought to them and grew impatient at things out of her control, was yet unprepared to face this troublesome product of her untamed curiosity.

"All righ', I s'pose ya caught me," Ulsper slurred as he staggered towards the smugglers, faking drunkenness. He forced his native Esper accent into the Shun Dwo he spoke, hoping the others would be put more at ease if they thought he had a poor understanding of their language.

Saer Lon looked ready to smash the bottle he held over his head.

"What is this?" one of the smugglers, a man with a mole on his wide nose, demanded.

"He's harmless," Saer Lon tried to amend. "Just a drunk who won't remember any of this in the morning."

"You weren't supposed to be accepting boarders during shipments!" the woman beside Saer Lon hissed. "Do you want us to get caught? He's gotten into the goods!"

Saer Lon stepped forward and snatched the bottle from Ulsper with a growl. "The cloaking mix won't evaporate for a few hours," she said, holding out the bottle so her companions could take a sniff. "I just put the powder in this evening, so this still has all the taste and smell of water. We can still pack it in the crates and send it through the checkpoint without suspicion. The worst thing is that we're down a bottle and this man will wake up too sick to move in the morning."

Ulsper caught the hesitant look of the first smuggler, and faked a sigh. Some more convincing theatrics were needed.

"Gi' it ba-a-ack," he complained, reaching towards Saer Lon with a pout and a hiccup. At her warning glare, he decided to tone down the antics, lest Suthe end up laughing at the ridiculous scene and give her hiding spot away. The girl had promised silence, but she had also drunk enough disguised alcohol to cloud her better judgement.

"He's a Sylterran, too," another smuggler said, and his accusatory tone made Ulsper wary. "A foreigner.  What if he attracts those Imperial Guards that've been roaming around lately?"

"They're looking for someone like him anyway, aren't they?" the woman said. "A spy, of some sort. Betrayed his country. Extremely dangerous."

All eyes in the room turned to Ulsper, and he tried his best to look as harmless as possible.

"D'you said I was a spy?" Ulsper said, leaning against the wall. "Nahhhh."  He waved his hand. "I trade. Jewelry. Lookin' for some nice ol' Pretian designs but can't find 'em. They gotta be rare y'know? Then I can sell 'em for more expensive."

The youngest of the group, a boy in his mid-teens, blinked in surprise. "Are you looking for Enji?" he asked, and was rewarded with a punishing slap on the back of his head.

"Don't mention him, boy," mole-man snapped. Ulsper exchanged a glance with Saer Lon, but she looked just as confused.

"Enji, y'said?" Ulsper ventured, careful to slur his words. "That a person?"

It was no use. The older man's warning had silenced the boy, and he now looked fearfully between Ulsper and the other smuggler, biting his lip.

Ulsper looked back to Saer Lon, and she flicked her gaze down for a second, a silent acknowledgment of his request. She'd ask the smugglers about the name later.

"Tie him up for now," the man with the mole ordered. "We need to send these bottles past the clockwork soldiers before the mix loses its effect. Then we'll figure out how to deal with him. And I swear, Saer Lon, if you've jeopardized this mission because of this man..."

"Dont you dare try to threaten me," she snapped back. "I know who I can trust. He's harmless, but I'll agree to have him tied up for now."

"Aw, c'mon," Ulsper protested, but let himself be led to the opposite side of the room to be tied up with his hands behind one of the wooden pillars. Sure enough, his weak resistance was rewarded with a loose knot--at least until the man with the mole came by a moment later to check his cohorts' handiwork.

"You call this a knot?" he snapped at the other two men, while Saer Lon and her female companion continued to load the ceramic bottles into the crates they had brought with them. "Do you want him to get out and report us?"

Ulsper hid a wince as the man reworked the rope, yanking harshly and cutting at Ulsper's wrists until it was tied to the man's satisfaction.

"There. That's how you do it."

The smugglers drifted away, the boy mouthing a sorry over his shoulder before going back to finish their work. Ulsper sighed and flexed his hands experimentally, testing the rope. From the feel of it, it was a complex stonemason's knot from one of the royal quarries. Untying it would be difficult.

He waited, feigning boredom, discomfort, and finally drowsiness as the smugglers continued their work. All the while, he strained to catch the words of their conversation, but they spoke in quick, hushed tones that were indistinguishable from across the room.

At last, Saer Lon spoke, loud enough for Ulsper to hear.

"Uhi, Yera, you two leave first." Saer Lon pointed at the man with the mole and the other female smuggler. "Keep an eye out for any clockwork guards on patrol. Hintoro and I will follow with the cart." She nodded at the boy, who gave an uncertain nod back. "Pey Ro will meet us at the second gate and then I'll circle back here and cover our tracks. If anything goes wrong, split up and meet at the Three Mountain Bridge tomorrow evening."

"And what about him?" Uhi grumbled, jutting his chin in Ulsper's direction. He scratched the mole on his nose before continuing. "Is there something you can do to get rid of him?"

"I'll let him have the rest of this," Saer Lon said with a sigh, holding up the half-finished bottle Ulsper had returned earlier. "That should fix his memory well enough without us having to get our hands dirty. You out of all of us should know how well it'll work."

Uhi grumbled something indistinguishable about that, but didn't dispute her. He muttered to the other woman, Yera, and the two of them stepped outside and shut the door soundlessly behind them.

Ulsper slowly began undoing the knot around his wrists.

"We'll take the crates out to the cart now," Saer Lon told the smuggler named Pey Ro. "Follow after us in a few minutes."

The knot was well-tied. Ulsper frowned, trying to feel for the characteristic loop that would loosen the rope a little.

Saer Lon and Hintoro snuck out into the night with their crates of contraband, and Ulsper caught the quick glance she sent his way. Hopefully, she would take the opportunity to ask the boy about the name he had mentioned earlier.

The front door clicked shut behind them, and now it was just Ulsper and Pey Ro...and Suthe, if she was still conscious, behind her pillar on the opposite side of the room.

The last smuggler eyed Ulsper warily, and he gave a lazy smile in reply before pretending to find the ceiling utterly fascinating. The stonemason's knot was still refusing to budge. That Uhi had tied it well.

Finally, Pey Ro crept to the door and slipped out after the rest of the smugglers. That just left...

"Ulsper!"

Suthe staggered out from behind her pillar, and Ulsper had to admit he was a bit impressed the alcohol hadn't completely gotten to her yet. Sure, she wasn't walking in a straight line and seemed to have some difficulty focusing on him, but she hadn't passed out. Perhaps adrenaline had gotten her this far.

"I'm so so sorry," she gushed, crouching down beside him. "I didn't know they'd find the bottle missing, but it was just water..."

"I think you've realized now it's a bit more than that," Ulsper replied, raising a brow.

She brought her hands to her cheeks in embarrassment. "What was it? It it didn't have any taste or smell."

"Its a type of extremely potent alcohol, disguised with a cloaking powder mix to sneak it through clockwork checkpoints. Scorpion wine, most likely." Ulsper yanked at the knot, finally finding the slip to loosen the rope.

Suthe frowned. "Scorpion? That sounds gross. I suddenly don't feel too good..."

Ulsper disentangled himself just in time to scoot out of the way as Suthe began to retch.

"Well, now you've done it," he said drily, watching as her dinner ended up all over the floor where he had been sitting moments earlier. "If Saer Lon wasn't angry with you before, she'll certainly be once she sees what you've done to her nice wooden paneling."

"Ohhh..." Suthe groaned in despair.  "I didn't mean to..."

Ulsper let out a breath. Perhaps he'd been too harsh in his teasing, when Suthe was suffering like this.  Hesitantly, he reached out a hand and patted her back.  He meant it to be reassuring, but it only felt awkward to him and he stopped after a few seconds.

"Come on," he said, standing up and helping Suthe to her feet. "Let's get you back to bed.  No more late-night adventuring, okay?"

Suthe's lips were turned in a despondent frown as she nodded.  "I didn't mean..."

"Shh.  I know.  It's okay."  He looped her left arm around his shoulder and used it to support her as they progressed slowly back to their room.  Suthe stumbled often and he ended up doing most of the walking for both of them, but finally, they made it.

"I didn't mean to," Suthe mumbled again as he helped her down to the sleeping platform.

"So you've told me," Ulsper said gently.  "Mistakes happen, Suthe.  It'll be okay."

His words finally seemed to put the girl at ease, and she closed her eyes with a tired sigh.  A few seconds later, she was asleep.

Ulsper watched the steady rise and fall of her breathing for a moment before standing back up and facing the door.  Saer Lon most likely wouldn't come back to the building for a while, but he needed answers and couldn't risk missing her return.  Treading softly, he stepped back out into the main building and shut the door behind him.

He trained while he waited.  Though he had set a regular practice schedule for his time in Fai, he hadn't stepped outside the building in a week.  It was easy to get sloppy if he wasn't always using his skills.  He missed spying down from rooftops the most.  The second-floor window at the front of Saer Lon's establishment was a poor substitute for the thrill of jumping across tiles and balancing along gutters.

He cleaned up the mess Suthe had made too, wiping up the spot near the pillar and tossing out the mostly-empty bottle of disguised alcohol.

His efforts proved useful, as Saer Lon was only very angry when she finally stormed back through the door several hours later.

"What were you doing?" she snapped, thrusting an accusatory finger at Ulsper's chest.  "Are you insane?"

Ulsper held up his hands innocently.  "I was covering for Suthe," he explained.  "Her curiosity had gotten the better of her.  But I figured of the two of us, she would be the more suspicious."

Saer Lon gave a derisive snort.  "That's not saying much."

"No," Ulsper agreed, "But it might have gotten us some answers.  What did the boy say about that name he mentioned?"

Saer Lon pursed her lips, reluctant to change the topic so soon.  Ulsper could tell she still hadn't fully forgiven him, but she finally spoke.

"Ever since Uhi reprimanded him, Hintoro was tight-lipped about it," she said.  "I only managed to get that this Enji person deals with rare gems and artifacts, and trades between Fai and Sang Bur.  His family used to be part of the royal mines.  But that's all I could get."

Ulsper let out a frustrated breath.  "I need a full name, at least, Saer Lon.  How else are we supposed to find him?"

She shook her head.  "For some reason, Uhi's drilled secrecy about this person into Hintoro. I was lucky enough to get that much out of the boy--especially when we were trying to be quiet and avoid clockwork soldiers."

"Secrecy, huh?" Ulsper echoed.  "Well, at least we won't have to worry about him mentioning a suspicious Sylterran boarding at your place."

Saer Lon frowned.  "Uhi will keep quiet, but Yera's another matter," she warned.  "Yera only cares about things that could be to her advantage.  With the reward out for your capture, if she puts together the clues..."

"Then we'll have to leave," Ulsper said, pressing his lips together at the discouraging possibility.  "Got it."

He sighed and held out the rope that had been binding his hands earlier.  "I believe this is yours."

Saer Lon held out her hand and he dropped the rope into it.  "Thanks.  Go to bed, Ulsper.  You've done enough damage for one night."

Ulsper cast a dubious glance to the lightening sky outside the windows.  "It's nearly morning."

"Then good morning.  Go to bed."  Saer Lon huffed in irritation and turned for the stairs to her room on the second floor.

Ulsper watched her go, studying the way the rope trailed from her hand and hit against the steps as she ascended to the balcony level.  He frowned, feeling like he was forgetting something.  But when nothing came to him, he finally admitted defeat and turned back to the door half-hidden behind the stairs.  Perhaps he was more tired than he realized, and the thought would come to him once he'd gotten more sleep as Saer Lon suggested.

~~~~

Hi everyone!  @Amanda-Mae was kind enough to make a gorgeous new cover for this book, and I feel like my motivation has been refreshed as well!  It's always nice to have a change every now and then. Thank you Amanda!

Hope you enjoyed this new chapter.  Let me know what you think!