Magus of Eldrid stood before the entrance to the jail. Soldiers scoured the premise, but they investigated what Magus had already confirmed. Dead guards. Vanished prisoners. The Imperator lifted the note he’d received earlier that night, somehow smuggled into his bedroom without anyone noticing. He ignored the large, blocky lettering in Thanese to instead read his Signifer’s translation.

Come to the dockyard jail. Find it empty. Let this be my proof of trustworthiness. Await my next orders if you would claim the Vagrant’s head with your blade.

Magus rested his hand upon the hilt of his sheathed sword, and he drummed his fingers across its gold surface. No evidence remained at the jail, just corpses cut with a far-too-familiar crown of blood. His own informants had unearthed nothing. Sinshei’s confessionals heard only the mildest of admiration for the mysterious killer making a name for himself within Vallessau. The bastard had nearly killed Regent Goldleaf, and could have murdered his son if he’d felt so inclined. He was nothing but trouble, and what Magus wouldn’t give for a face-to-face confrontation, and to crush the bastard beneath his shield.

“What game are you playing at, little spy?” he wondered aloud before returning to the castle for a proper night’s rest. Until the Vagrant made a mistake, it seemed waiting would be his only recourse.

CHAPTER 26

SINSHEI

The wide courtyard atop the capital hill sported several amenities for the royal family, and it was to its archery range Sinshei traveled in search of Regent Gordian Goldleaf. She arrived just in time to see him loose an arrow, and presumably his aim was perfect, for the arrow sank directly into the eye of an old woman bound to a wooden stake thirty yards out. Two soldiers rushed to untie her dead body, while two more dragged a bound-and-gagged man from a small procession waiting alongside the castle wall out of sight.

“A fine shot,” Sinshei said as she stood to his right.

“The movements keep it interesting,” Gordian said as he reached into his quiver. “Real targets in battle don’t sit still.”

He was trying to sound calm, and failing miserably. The attack on his family had unnerved the regent severely. The cynical side of Sinshei wished to remind Gordian he had never fought in battle, and likely never would, given the wealth and prestige of his Goldleaf family name. But she had come to the archery range seeking to make allies, not enemies, so instead she gestured in the direction of the prisoners.

“Who are they?” she asked, as if she didn’t already know the answer.

Gordian pulled back the string and sighted another arrow.

“Heretics. Criminals. Maybe the homeless. Does it matter?”

The arrow sank into the old man’s chest with a meaty thunk. His body sagged, his pained scream muffled by his gag.

“Only a few such crimes deserve execution,” she said.