What more did Matthew know?
“You obviously want to help me,” she said, trying a different tactic. “You can tell me. I’m not going to go run off and report you.”
She almost slipped up and said that she hadn’t reported him when she had first seen him in the city.
Matthew leaned back, fidgeting for a moment and looking over her shoulder again. “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of this. And had I known what the job was going to be . . .”
Jayna just frowned.
Maybe she should’ve pushed before, trying to figure out just what Matthew had gotten himself involved in, but his job had been his own.
He had helped her, as well. And then she had wiped his memory.
“You should just know that it’s dangerous,” Matthew said. “That’s enough.”
“It’s more than just dangerous,” Jayna said to him.
“Of course it is. War is dangerous.”
“You’re a thief, Matthew. There should be no reason to get involved in a war,” Jayna said.
“There is when you can get answers,” he whispered.
He jerked his head toward the door, jumping to his feet. “Just be safe, Jayna. Promise me you won’t get involved in all of this.”
“In all of what?”
“Don’t let the Society bring you into this.”
“And how are you into this?” Jayna asked, leaning toward him.
“Sometimes the jobs demand certain things,” he muttered and flicked his gaze around. “Don’t come back to this place. It’s too dangerous.”
“For you?”
“For you. You can have your ale, but don’t use any magic. If you do, just tell them you’re a dular. That will give you a pass.” He glanced toward the door again. “I need to get moving. I really wish I could talk to you again, and I’m sure I can find you in the city . . .”
He darted off, heading toward the door, leaving her sitting next to Eva, frowning.
“It might’ve been easier had you not used the enchantment on him,” Eva said. “He might have been more helpful.”
“Or he might have caused more trouble for me,” Jayna said. As she looked at where Matthew had disappeared, she couldn’t help but worry that might be the case now. “He thinks he can protect me.”
“What if he can? There’s something strange about him.”
Jayna nodded. She had wondered if Eva would have any way of detecting that. “Not strange. When I claimed his memories, I saw something. I don’t know what it means, but he is somehow tied to the El’aras.”
“He’s not El’aras,” Eva said.
“Are you sure?”
“He’s too short.”
Jayna snorted before looking around the tavern again. “You think it’s only about familiarity?” When Eva looked at her with a frown, Jayna realized she was not making a whole lot of sense. “This place. And bringing us here.”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s something here.”
“Can you look into it?”
Eva frowned again for a moment before nodding. “You always give me the good assignments.”
“I never figured you for one to turn down investigating a tavern.” She looked around. “What exactly do you think he got himself pulled into?”
“I can’t even imagine,” Eva said.
“Something with the dular,” Jayna said.
“Do you think it's the dular, or do you think it’s something else?”
Jayna shook her head. “I don’t even know anymore.”
And because she didn’t know, she was left to worry about Matthew along with what was taking place in the city, and just how dangerous all of it was.
She leaned back, cupping the mug of ale, thinking about what Matthew had told her.
War.
That was what troubled her.
Here she thought the difficulty between the Sorcerers’ Society and the dular was more of a disagreement. From the way Matthew made it sound, that was not the case at all. It was far more formal and serious than that.
What if it was tied to the twelve followers of Sarenoth?
The communication with Ceran had been so infrequent that she didn’t know any longer. She couldn’t help but feel as if that might be part of the reason he had wanted her to stay here.
Jayna took a deep breath, letting it out. “I think we’re going to have to get involved.”
“I’ll do whatever you think,” Eva said.
That surprised her. Eva wasn’t usually so accommodating. “This is not going to be easy.”
“When you’re around, Jayna, it never is.”
7
There were dozens of antiquity shops within the city of Nelar, and all of them carried items that could be useful in their search, but not all of them were equal in their proprietors, nor in the type of enchantments found within. Jayna had explored many of the shops during her time in Nelar and had come to learn there were a variety of store owners, much like there were a variety of dular throughout the city.
She looked over to the small, squat, stone building with only a hint of moss growing along its surface, taking a deep breath and trying to ignore the humidity pressing in upon her. The simple closed door before her carried a few markings to indicate what it sold, but not much else otherwise. She hadn’t been here for a while, but the last time she had, she had found that Eva knew the store owner much better than Jayna would’ve expected.
“Why here first?” Jayna asked.
“Because Telluminder is the most likely to know what we’re looking for.”
Eva held her hands off to her side, squeezing them, though no blood dripped from her palms, as it often did. She took a few deep breaths, and though she bit her lower lip, no smoke breathed out from her either.
“You’re hesitating,” Jayna said.
“I’m getting myself in the necessary mindset for this.”
Jayna watched her, frowning for a moment. “Why do you need to be in the right mindset?”
Eva shrugged. “Telluminder can be particular. And this type of questioning requires a certain touch.”
Something was off with Eva, though Jayna couldn’t tell just what it was. For whatever reason, she could feel some aspect of Eva’s irritation, something that suggested she wasn’t quite herself.
“Why don’t we just get in there and get this over with?” Jayna asked.
“That is what I’ve been saying,” Eva snapped. Eva glared at her for a moment before shaking her head. “You think these people want to talk to us.”
“You don’t think they do?”
“I know they don’t. They only want us to leave the city. They feel like we’re interfering.”
“Well, I suppose, in some ways, we are interfering.”
“You might be interfering, but I’m not.”
Jayna just shook her head and nodded to the door. “Let’s go inside.”
The door to the shop remained closed, but Jayna could feel energy coming from inside. It wasn’t sorcery, not necessarily, and she wasn’t typically alerted to the power of the dular. Maybe it was some other kind of magic, though in her time in Nelar, Jayna hadn’t seen many other kinds, other than from the El’aras she had rescued.