Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (9 page)

The trail led all the way to No-Man’s Land. I was about to call it quits because I really didn’t like that area, when the tracks suddenly stopped at an old overgrown opening in a wall of brush. A fresh black squirrel was sitting right at the base of the opening. From the fur I’d found in my trap, I was betting this was my animal. Seemed my luck had taken a turn for the better.

Looking around quickly and seeing no one, I snatched up the squirrel and booked it out of there. I was curious who had stolen it in the first place, but I was also a little giddy thinking about the thief coming back and finding their plunder gone.

My catch thrown over my shoulder like a prize, I headed back into town. On my way in, the guard at the Gate bought one of the rabbits from me, saying it was his nephew’s birthday. I gave him a good deal since I knew the guards didn’t make much money and started towards the market. I’d sell the remaining rabbit to one of the merchants that would use every part of it for things such as clothing and food. Then Kelsie and I would have a nice meal off the earnings.

I entered the market area, surrounded by booths. It was nearing the end of the day, and merchants were closing up shop for the night so I didn’t have long. Just the same, I wanted to browse a little.

The shop I was headed for was on the very end, so I started with the shops and booths nearest me and began looking through stuff.

The market held a variety of products. Most of it was salvage from the waste cities that Ackspecs brought in when off-contract. Glassware was popular, but rather expensive since it was hard to come by.

Other merchants carried gadgets and technology, like communicators, which are basically two-way radios that only cover five kilometers.

I frowned and turned up my nose as I passed a rickety-looking booth that was selling cheap, pathetic imitations of some of Kelsie’s designs.

At the booth directly next to the shop that was my destination, I saw metal works. Some blowguns and homemade weapons among other things. On a display in the middle I saw a set of knives. Well made from the looks of them. I’d wanted to get Kelsie something for her birthday coming up and wanted it to be practical. I’d feel safer when she ventured outside the Gates with me if I had trained her in the skill of fighting with knives.

Picking one up, I balanced it in my hand. It was thin, and had a small handle like it was made for a girl’s hand. It was perfect. I was about to see how much it was when I saw the shop owner next door shutting his door and locking it.

I dropped the knife back into its spot and sprinted out the front.

“Tom! Tom! Hold up. I’ve got a good rabbit here and figured you might want to take it off my hands,” I called out, closing in on the shop owner.

He turned around, startled. “Oh, Drake. Had me going there for a moment. Good timing. I was almost on my way home.”

He looked at the rabbit I was now holding in my hand. “Sure. I can always use more clean meat. The fur is going for a lot now, too. Selling the squirrel too?”

I shook my head. “No, keeping that for Kelsie and me.”

He nodded, staring at the rabbit with a calculating look. “Let’s see here. Three and a quarter for it?”

I turned on my bartering face. “Hoping for more like three and seventy-five.”

“Getting a bit rich there for me,” he responded.

We went back and forth, settling on a number. He opened his shop, giving me the money, and we went our separate ways.

“Drake. Hey, Drake!” I heard behind me after I had left the marketplace. I turned around and saw a messenger boy panting behind me, bent over double and heaving now that he’d caught up to me. I walked back to him and stopped, waiting for him to catch his breath.

“Yeah? What can I do for you?” I asked him after a moment, when his panting had slowed.

He held up a finger for me to wait for a second. I waited, starting to get a little impatient. I hoped he didn’t plan on me tipping him well if he kept me waiting all damn night.

“Sorry. Ran all over trying to find you,” he said, still sucking air. “The Magistrate’s wife wishes to see you. She says it’s urgent.”

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Um. Okay. Thanks. Here you go.” I handed him one of the small carved stones that served us as currency that I had just been paid for the rabbit.

He grabbed the money and walked off.

“Kids. Where are their manners nowadays?” I asked the empty street in front of me and headed over to the Magistrate’s house.

When I arrived I found the Magistrate’s wife waiting for me and looking weary. She was older, what served as older in our society anyway. Early forties. Her face was stressed, and her eyes a little bloodshot. Hell, being married to that pompous hot-air bag, I couldn’t blame her.

“Drake, so good of you to come so quick. I’m sure you must be busy, being the best Hunter we have. My husband says wonderful things about you.”

Now that’s a load of bunk. But whatever. I simply feigned humble acknowledgement. I did have to fight a cringe at the “Hunter” part. She just probably didn’t know that it was offensive.

“I hear you can find anything? Is that true?” she asked. “Well, of course it’s true. Just last season you found that silver spoon with the crosses on it for Jessica.”

Great, here it goes. Just like everyone else, she’s going to ask me to find some rare item for her and I’ll have to do it because she’s the wife of the Magistrate.

I gave her a plastic smile. “Yeah, that one was a challenge.” In fact, “challenge” was a severe understatement. I’d almost returned from that three-week trip empty handed. “For the most part I’m good at finding stuff.”

She offered a weak smile. “Good. I have a favor to ask of you.”

Uh-oh.

“Can you follow my husband?”

Okay. Didn’t see that one coming. I expected her to ask me for some rare herb or material or a serving platter like she saw in some ancient cook book. This was unexpected. “Pardon?” I said, probably looking confused.

She hastened to explain, throwing a look over her shoulder to ensure no one was near. “My husband. The Magistrate. I’m worried about him. He hasn’t been himself lately. He’s moody and angry.”

I gave her an empathetic look. The gears in my head started to kick into overdrive. This fit with what I had thought earlier, that he wasn’t himself.

She continued. “Can I trust that you’ll keep this absolutely between you and me?”

I nodded.

“He leaves twice a week, for the last three weeks. Same days, same time.”

I frowned. “Leaves? Where does he go?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt stupid. If she knew where he went, she wouldn’t need me, duh.

She sighed, her face taking on years. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s for another woman, though. That’s what I need you for.”

That thought had never even crossed my mind.

“He heads out the back Gate. On the north side of the island.”

I looked up, interrupting her. “There’s nothing out that way. Just the water.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. I want you to follow him. I worry.” Her eyes started pleading with me. “Please. I’ll pay you whatever you want. I know this isn’t your normal duty and you’re busy getting ready for Ash season. Please.”

I went over my schedule for the next few days in my head. I didn’t really have anything important to do, aside from usual Ash season stuff. The worry on her face was wearing me down. “Okay. I’ll check into it.”

Her face shone with relief.

“You said he leaves the same days and same times, right? When’s the next one?”

“In an hour. He leaves in an hour.”

I set up my rate with her. I was tempted to pad it a little since I didn’t like being a tracker for a pompous air-bag. But in the end, I gave her the normal rate since she looked so worried. She begged me to keep this quiet. Especially if it was nothing. She didn’t want him to find out I was following him. I felt bad for her, even if it was the Magistrate we were talking about. She’d never been anything but nice to me, and I respected her for it. I hurried up and bid her goodbye.

I debated going home to tell Kelsie I was leaving town for a couple hours, but thought better of it. I didn’t feel like talking to her just yet. I already had my light with me and a knife. Everything I needed.

And a squirrel. Dammit.

Hurriedly, I headed home to toss the animal in the icebox. I slipped into the house, being quiet in hopes of avoiding Kelsie. The house was dark, though, meaning she wasn’t home. That was odd. I shrugged and headed back out the door for the Gate.

Going down the main street was the quickest way to get to the Gate I wanted to use. Rounding a corner, I nearly ran straight into a couple of behemoth Sorters pulling a trader’s cart. With a growl, I jumped clear of it and continued sprinting.

The Magistrate should just be walking out the Gate right now. I didn’t want to go out the same Gate as him since that could draw attention. That meant that I had to take one of the Gates to either side.

I chose the one on the east and had to sprint to make up time. It was a couple of kilometers to get from that Gate to the North Gate. Once I got close to the Gate, I slowed and went stealth, using trees for cover. When I saw his wide silhouette, I kept my distance, staying on the edge of the trail, ready to dive for cover if he turned. Right about the time we were fully out of sight of the Gate, he paused and turned around.

I dove for a bush and dropped prone. I stuck my head up to see if he had made me. Hell, I couldn’t tell. He wasn’t there anymore.

I waited a few precious seconds more. Then, rising to a crouch, I silently crept out of the bush and made my way down the trail. I was watching his footprints. They stopped, turning to look, like I had seen him do. Then they made a large step to the west and disappeared.

This was getting suspicious. First he heads out a Gate that goes nowhere and alone. Then he checks to make sure he’s not being followed. Then vanishes, as if into thin air. I scowled. So much for this being an easy job.

I started looking all around the prints, being careful not to step on any of the ones I found. The ground was still a little moist from the heavy dew that morning, and his tracks were easy to see. Up until they vanished, of course.

There.

Directly to the side of where the prints stopped, there was a deeper indention. The corner of a print was sticking out from under a leaf. I lifted the leaf, finding the back half of the print under it. The rest of the foot would have been on a pile of leaves. A perfectly arranged pile of leaves.

I started trying to dig through the leaves, finding them held in place by something. Curiosity piqued, I stepped forward to get a better grip on one. I stepped onto the pile and down I went.

I really need to stop falling. I’m going to break something one of these days.

To my surprise, the fall wasn’t very far, and at the bottom was a thick pile of leaves and brush for padding. At least I knew where the Magistrate had gone.

I looked around, pulling my small light out of my pocket. A tunnel led out from the pile of leaves. The tunnel was nearly identical to the one I had stumbled into that led to the pit with the bones. I had wasted enough time trying to find the Magistrate so I crouched into the tunnel and moved as quickly as I could.

It seemed like I crawled forever, my knees ached in protest. But I knew this was the way the Magistrate had come since there had been no exits or side tunnels. Finally I saw the end, but a little way before it there was a ladder on the side of the tunnel. I climbed up it to a little hatch. Turning off my light, I slipped it back into my pocket. I got to the hatch and pushed a shoulder against it. Luckily, it opened out, unlike the one at the other end.

I was met with darkness. While I had been in the tunnel, darkness had fallen. Completely. I slowly raised my head up, holding the trapdoor up just enough for me to see out.

I saw lights not far in front of me, lighting up the area well.

There he was. The Magistrate. He had taken the tunnel up to the inside of the well-lit Gate for the Briln Water Guild. He’d climbed right out, like he owned the place.

OF ALL PEOPLE, THE Magistrate? This was the worst person to find me. He hated both Drake and me with a fiery passion. Me, mainly because he thought I was some sort of spy for my father, who was the Magistrate for the Briln. He’d never bought into the whole “my father tried to kill me” thing.

My throat was dry with nerves. I liked excitement, not suspense. I wanted blood-pounding, action-packed adventure. Not trying to avoid detection inside a trader’s cart inside my own guild. This was the stuff that Drake was good at. Not me.

“Do you have coffee?” the Magistrate was asking.

The trader mumbled an unintelligible response.

“Two kilos? Give me all you’ve got.”

If I’d have been in a situation where I could’ve said anything, I don’t think I would have been able to. Coffee was a rare luxury. It was extremely expensive. Drake made really good money being the top Acquisitions Specialist on the island, and even he could only afford for us to each have a cup or two a week. Here the Magistrate was buying a fortune’s worth of it. And all of it at that, which meant we weren’t going to be able to get any.

My heart was beating out of my chest as I heard the trader rummaging around in the top of the cart. Finally he seemed to find it all, and we were on our way again. But I still had no plan on how to get out.

The cart lurched roughly as I heard Drake’s familiar voice cursing the Sorters for taking up the road. Holding my breath in fear that he would stop at the cart, I was relieved when he continued on his route.

That was a close one.

The Sorters’ feet thumped hollowly, as we must have started across the wooden bridge that spanned a large ditch. The bridge wasn’t very wide, it didn’t need to be, though it was pretty long. A plan hit me, and I delicately but quickly pulled back a corner of the tarp to look around as much as possible. We were halfway across the ditch now, and I couldn’t see the trader. He must’ve been on the other side, which was perfect. I braced myself and slid out of the bottom of the tarp and rolled on the bridge boards until I dropped off the edge and into the mud below. Knowing the trader had been sure to hear the thump and likely assume that he’d dropped something, I wasted no time picking myself up from the meter and a half fall and ducking under the bridge out of sight.