Dead Man's Shadow, Chapter 1

The marketplace on the west end of Barcino was the perfect place to go if one wanted to disappear. An everchanging mass of humanity surged through the streets, forcing the market to expand across multiple adjacent streets to accommodate it. People from all walks of life mingled and interacted on the crowded market streets, and even the most distinctive of faces would blend into the background if not watched carefully. Clandestine rendezvous of all sorts would take place here under the light of the sun, those involved relying on the hundreds of others to keep their secrets.
It was this kind of meeting that Elena Hunt was trying to prevent. She wound her way through the crowds, just another face among many. Not even her Avalon heritage was enough to give her away in this large of a group. All around her, merchants called out their wares, trying to attract the attentions of those around them. Shoppers called back, filling the entire street with a cacophony of sound that lost all meaning when considered as a whole. When her companion leaned in to speak to her, he practically had to shout to be heard.
“I think they’re moving that way, towards the carpet shops,” Quin guessed. “Maybe the fabric will help muffle some of this noise.”
Elena grinned at him. “What, is it bothering you already?” She followed Quin’s gaze to see the two robed priests that they had been tracking for nearly a day now. They were getting close, but this could very well be the last opportunity they would have to catch the priests.
“Yeah, it is.” Quin shook his head. “I don’t like crowds.” He came to a momentary halt and stretched up to look over the crowd. “Looks like they still have the bag. We might not be too late.”
Relief flooded through Elena. That bag was the reason that they were here. Its contents had been stolen from the Explorer’s Society archeological dig that Elena’s friend Frida Rosario had been running in the rugged lands just outside of the city. Elena and Quin had been helping her with the dig and had tracked the thieves at Frida’s request. She couldn’t recover the bag herself for fear that additional items would be stolen.
“They still only have one bag,” Quin observed. “No decoys or any attempt to hide it.”
“Well, even if they could stuff something that big into their pockets, why bother? The Inquisition is powerful here. No one would be stupid enough to try and interfere with their plans.”
“No one except us.” Quin stopped peering over the crowd.
“Well, it’s not like they can hate us anymore than they already do,” Elena said with another grin. “We’re already heretics just because we’re not Vatacine, and being members of the Explorer’s Society doesn’t help our case at all. We might as well do something to deserve their hatred, rather than just be something.”
The two of them worked their way closer to the priests. As the Avalons drew closer, they saw that the priests were definitely moving with a purpose. Wherever they were trying to get to, it was important. As Quin had mentioned, only the female priest carried a bag, slung carefully across her shoulders. The light-colored bag bulged with its contents, but would be strong enough that it splitting would not be a possibility.
“Stay back here,” Elena warned. “No need for both of us to get spotted.” She reached into the sleeve of her sundress as though to scratch an itch on her upper arm. Instead, she grabbed the knife that she had hidden there and carefully withdrew it as she moved towards the two priests. She tucked her hands before her, relying on the bright fabric of the dress – which was a bit longer in the hem and sleeve than was appropriate given the temperature of the day – to conceal the weapon in her hand. She wished that she could have used one of her axes to help her with this part of the interception, but there was no way she could have hidden one of those in her dress. The crowd surged around her, and she allowed it to press her forward, directly at the priests. Once she had been pressed so closely that she could reach out and touch them, she did just that. Quick as a snake, Elena grabbed the bag with one hand and cut away the strap with the knife. A single quick tug yanked it free of the startled priest.
“Hey!” she screamed, turning to look and grasping at the remnants of the strap. Elena was too quick. She dashed off into the crowd, shoving aside those few who were too slow to move aside. The priest’s shouts of, “Thief!” followed her, but she did not slow. She only glanced over her shoulder for an instant, confirming that both priests had begun to follow her.
Perfect. Now to disappear.
Elena made a beeline towards the nearest side street. She needed to get out of the priests’ line of sight for a few moments if she was to truly vanish. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Quin was falling slightly behind, but still managing to keep pace with her. If the priests saw him running as well, it would be unclear if he was trying to catch her. She returned her attention to running, trying to force her way through the crowd.
Unfortunately, the priests’ shouts had drawn the attention of some of the local guardsmen. Elena counted three of them – easily visible in the crowds due to their bright yellow-and-purple uniforms – moving towards her from the front. She changed direction as quickly as she could, ducking into a shop on the corner of the market street. She dove through the shop patrons, weaving her way past the tables and shelves containing some kind of carved wooden charms. She burst her way out of the other side of the shop, finding herself on a slightly less crowded cross street. She ducked to her left, staying close to the buildings there as she raced towards another intersection that she could use to throw off her pursuers. She heard them exit the shop behind her, and she wasn’t sure whether to curse or grin as she redoubled her pace. Rough voices called for her to stop, but she ignored them.
Ahead of her, one man turned to face her, his eyes quickly flicking up to those pursuing her. His gaze hardened, and he reached out for her. Elena tried to veer around him, but he grabbed her arm before she could get out of his reach. She winced. “Sorry about this,” she told him in Castillian. She swung the bag in her hand at him in a solid arc. The heavy weight slammed into him, and sent him sprawling with a grunt. The moment he had let go of her, Elena began running again, apologizing over her shoulder as she did.
Elena reached the next intersection and turned down it, using the brief moment she was horizontal to her pursuers to steal a glance at their distance from her. One of the three guards had stopped to help the man that she had struck, but the other two and the two priests were gaining. Quin was moving back into the shop that they had just emerged from, probably to link up with her later. Elena’s speed carried her out of view of each of them in moments, and she returned her concentration to running. She reached the crowd and allowed herself to be swallowed up by the throng. She slowed her pace, trying to blend in a bit as she moved through the crowd. She skillfully wound her way through, moving with the crowd and hopefully throwing off the priests a bit. She knew for a fact that it would not work for long, so she moved her way towards the nearest shop, which seemed to be selling clothes. She allowed the crowd to push her into the shop, noticing as she did that one of the priests was fighting his way through the crowd towards her. It was time to be sneaky.
Taking advantage of the momentary cover of the shop, Elena slunk away from the door and away from the sea of watching eyes. Once she was out of sight of the priest, she grasped the top of her sundress and ripped it down the side from neck to hem. More than one person in the aisle with her gasped in shock, and she saw a few sets of eyes bulge, but those looks of shock quickly turned to confusion. Under her dress, Elena was wearing a nondescript shirt and practical trousers over sturdy boots. She also had a brown satchel slung over her shoulders. She quickly knelt, opening the light-colored bag she had stolen from the priest. Reverently, she scooped its now twice-stolen contents out: a smooth obsidian box, about a foot long in each direction, discovered in the middle of the Syrneth ruins that Frida was excavating. The box did not appear to do anything, but that was irrelevant. The mere fact that it was a Syrneth artifact was enough to make both the Explorer’s Society and the Inquisition interested in it. She transferred the box to her own bag and then moved around the displays of clothing, moving her farther from the door. She straightened up on the other side and began to move through the shop again.
From the aisle she had just abandoned, she heard the priest reach what was left of the sundress and the bag. Upon a demand for an explanation, one of those on that aisle began to speak, but Elena did not wait around. She moved around the aisles in a loop, slipping back out onto the crowded street as the guards and other priest were entering the clothing shop. This time, she did not try to move quickly, instead letting the crowd take her where it would. She allowed herself to vanish into the mass, becoming only one face among many.
After a few minutes, she caught sight of Quin moving through the crowd. She caught his eye and turned her head to the right, towards the nearest non-market street. Quin followed her glance, then nodded once. The two of them began to move in that direction, slowed substantially by the crowd. Behind them, the female priest emerged from the shop and tried glancing through the crowd. She began moving towards the same side street that Elena and Quin were moving towards, but it may have been a coincidence.
Eventually, Elena emerged from the crowd and stepped onto the side street. This street was far less busy, though both the open-air café and church on the street attracted a fair number of visitors. Quin emerged from the mass of people behind her and moved to catch up to her. The two of them quickly moved down the street, towards the church. They were only a short distance away from the intersection when the female priest also exited the crowd and glanced around with an air of suspicion, but not alarm. It seemed that she did not know that Elena had escaped in this direction, but that could change at any moment. Struck by a sudden idea, Elena took Quin by the arm and pulled him to the wall of the building across from the church. She smiled at him, then drew him into a full kiss, holding him to her as though they were simply a lovestruck couple out for an afternoon walk.
To his credit, Quin only acted shocked for a moment. After drawing out the kiss for perhaps a minute, Elena glanced sideways to see the female priest slipping back into the crowd of the market street. It seemed that her ruse had worked. She released Quin and stepped to one side of him, glancing around the street while he composed himself. No one on the street was looking at them suspiciously.
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I didn’t want them to spot us.”
Quin cleared his throat, and he was failing to keep a pleased grin off of his face. “No need to apologize.”
Elena looked at him sideways, then gave his arm a friendly jab. “Don’t get used to it. Come on, we need to lay low for awhile. That church should do fine.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve already forgotten about it.” He fell into step just behind her, and Elena heard him chuckling to himself. She rolled her eyes, but allowed a grin to spread across her face. Quin would be as good as his word, and would know not to read anything into the kiss. The only thing she could expect from him would be a few stories that he would undoubtedly tell the others at the dig site.
Never a dull moment, she thought. Never a dull moment.