“Do you know what the Kassian army’s plans are?” Ava felt more than a twinge of guilt at manipulating this woman, who had obviously been manipulated enough.
She didn’t think anyone had ever been in dread or afraid of her workings, and she wondered if whoever had created the ornament under her boot had deliberately added dread and fear to it for some kind of sick pleasure.
She felt a frisson of fear at the thought of who would do something like that if they didn’t need to.
“The soldiers can’t be gone soon enough.” The woman’s gaze cut to the alleyway entrance to the square.
“Will they be gone soon?”
“They don’t tell me much.” The woman looked down at the fabric in her hand and then leaned closer. “Just what they need to tell me for my cooperation. I’ve been told to say they’re going to fight the Rising Wave on the plains, and they’re just leaving a small garrison here, but I know they’re lying.”
“They are liars,” Ava agreed.
“Yes.” The woman nodded, face serious. “They’re planning to hide a lot more soldiers under the town, in the cisterns.”
The information was like a jolt to Ava’s system. “Why?”
The woman shrugged. “To fool the Rising Wave?” She brushed a sudden tear from her cheek. “They’re going to use this town as a battleground, and they’re making me keep quiet about it.” Her gaze strayed to Ava’s boot and the charm beneath it.
“Are you the mayor?”
“I am. I am not a good mayor.” The woman brushed another tear away.
“You are a good mayor,” Ava assured her. “And the Rising Wave will not hurt your town if they can help it.”
“They won’t?”
“No. You can trust them to be as careful as possible. Is there a way to trap the Kassian units in the cisterns when they hide down there?”
The mayor nodded. “There are only two entrances. That’s the only reason I was told about their plan. They needed the keys.”
“Can you tell me where the entrances are to the cisterns?”
“Yes, of course.” She gave Ava clear, concise directions and then stepped back, as if unburdened.
“You’ll find the Rising Wave is a better ally than the Kassian. Thank you for your help.” Ava reached out and covered the mayor’s hand with her own. The mayor’s fingers had the embroidered fabric in a death grip.
“Thank you.” The mayor’s eyes strayed back to Ava’s boot. “I’m more grateful than you can know.”
Ava tugged the fabric out of her hold, keeping it hidden in her fist. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
The mayor blinked at her and then looked down at her empty hand. Flexed her fingers. “Nice to meet you, too. I was . . . meeting someone—”
“They couldn’t come,” Ava said.
“Oh.” The mayor laughed, the sound light. “I was dreading it, to be honest. I have so much to do.”
She walked down the alley and disappeared, and Ava carefully lifted her boot and crouched down.
“You all right? We saw Haslia.”
She looked up to find Oscar and Deni moving toward her. She nodded and took a piece of fabric out of her pocket.
“What was that?”
“That woman who just left has been spelled for the last five weeks at least and is finally free of it.” She picked the necklace up, careful not to lose any of the charms.
“That’s what kept her spelled?” Oscar went on his haunches beside her.
“Yes. One charm for every week.” She captured the charm that had rolled off in the same wrapping, and then began to roll it up.
“What do we do with it?” Oscar eyed it with alarm.
Ava didn’t know. “We can’t let anyone touch it. Maybe melt it down?”
For now, she tied it securely and placed it in a side pocket of her pack.
“So, apparently the Kassian are going to pretend to keep a small force here, but there’ll be a larger force hidden below in the cisterns.”
Deni gave a half-laugh in astonishment. “The cisterns?”
Ava lifted her hands. “How many troops would they have to have?”
The Rising Wave seemed massive to her. Did the Kassian have so many more soldiers they could afford to keep a large cohort in reserve in case the Rising Wave made it through to Bartolo?
“Not enough to keep another small army hidden, I would have thought.” Oscar turned his head to look toward the square.
They all started moving back that way until they stood together amid the bustle.
“You go do whatever you do, Avasu. Oscar and I will keep watch.” Deni patted her shoulder.
They could both sense the urgency she was feeling herself, Ava saw. Something was happening, the Kassian had some plan that she couldn’t discern, and she needed to find out what.
She nodded and made her way through the crowds, stopping at the stalls and buying a few small items with the money Luc had given her for this reconnaissance mission.
If the trader was alone, after she had handed over the money, she offered them a small square of fabric and talked a little about the Rising Wave, and how to help the columns if the battlefield came to Bartolo.
The traders interacted with the most people, so she’d decided they were the most efficient recipients of her workings.
She didn’t have much persuading to do. There was already a feeling of ill-will toward the Kassian forces, even though Bartolo was a Kassian town.
They were behaving more like they were in an occupied territory than a friendly local city.
She kept the Kassian soldiers in view as she walked around, making sure to avoid getting too close to them.
They were boisterous and loud, and making her mission a lot easier.
When she was out of small squares, she walked away from the tables and Deni and Oscar drifted out of the crowd to stand beside her. “Let’s go find an inn for the night, and make it one that’s hosting Kassian soldiers.”
“You get anything?” Oscar asked.
She shook her head. “Just the same gossip. We need to find someone who actually knows what the plans are, and that means a Kassian officer.”
And they had better be quick about it. Ava didn’t know what the Kassian were plotting, but she knew the Rising Wave was at stake.
Chapter 33
“So why is your hair so short?” The Kassian officer leering at her from his booth in the inn’s dining area had to shout to be heard over the noise of his fellow soldiers.
“I had lice and had to shave it off a few months ago,” Ava said.
He laughed uproariously. “Do you want to come up to my room?” He did something with his eyebrows that Ava thought was supposed to be suggestive, but he was too drunk to pull it off.
“Certainly. Let’s go.” She hopped down from the stool she was sitting on, and Oscar reached out to grab her by the shoulder.
“We’ll be just outside the door.”
She nodded, keeping her eyes on her target.
Oscar released her and she didn’t look back at either him or Deni as she helped the officer up the stairs.
She had never tried a working on someone who was drunk, and she didn’t know if it would help her or turn out to be a waste of time.