Half Magic | Book 2

Two: Markings and Mysteries

A few of the staff paused to gawk at me. I didn't spot the man, but I did see an open back door and I took it.

The darkened streets were nothing against my eyes, and I saw him right away.

"Wait!" I called. The man looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide and he spun around.

"What do you want with me?" he asked, his voice ripe with fear. It was the same voice that called our server away when we were asking her about the wordweaver.

"You were watching us, why?" I asked, thankful that the man had stopped running. We stopped between two buildings and I heard the footsteps behind us as Schula and Nassir came closer. They stopped before the human would be able to detect them, but plenty close enough to hear everything we said.

"You came after me, so I ran," he said.

"You ran so I came after you," I murmured. "I wasn't trying to scare you, I just want to find the witches."

Silence stretched between us, I probably looked just as surprised as he was. We were at a stalemate.

"You're not human, are you?" he asked cautiously.

A tired smirk crossed my lips as I sighed. "No, I'm not."

"I'm warning you," he said. "We're under the protection of a powerful witch."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," I said. "I'm looking for the witches, I have to find a friend."

"You're a witch friend?" he whispered. "That's how you knew the mark at the door..."

"Yes," I said excitedly. "Are you a witch friend too? Do you have any clue as to where they went?"

He shook his head, and some of the excitement left my face.

"It's not always safe to be a friend of theirs," he murmured. "I will tell you what I know, but not here."

"Where?" I asked, my heart pounding.

He nodded his head back to the eating house and I followed as he rounded not to the kitchen door, but a cellar that took us under the main building.

Schula and Nassir were careful to stay out of sight so as not to scare the man off again, but I could tell they stayed in hearing range.

He unlocked the door and we went inside. He closed it behind him and turned to me with a grim expression.

"I don't know much, I'm warning you now. I don't know where they went, but I know one who left," he said.

I nodded. "I'm looking for Mila or Gilly, they traveled together when they left. Do you know either of them?"

A long shot, but I had to try.

"No," he said, his eyes darting around the room. "I know the witch Vara. She's a family friend. She put a mark on this place before she left to protect me as best she could in her absence. My home as well. She made a promise to my mother you see, to watch out for me and my sister. But if my boss found out there was witchery here, he'd have me out of a job. He's... not as accepting of them as we are."

I nodded, a common story. Useful when you need them, but they better stay out of sight when you don't.

"So you have no idea where they went?" I asked.

"South," he said. "That's all I know."

The same way Mila went. I sighed, then had an idea.

"The wordweaver, he knows something. Do you know how to find him?" I asked.

"Kinza?" The man scratched his chin. "He's not the most easy to find, but I know he knows something too. I just don't know what it is. You're not the first to seek him out. I can tell you where a few of his other common spots are, but that's about as good as I can do."

"I'll take what you can give me," I said. "Sorry for scaring you before, my friends and I have just been looking for a while now and this is the closest we've come to an answer yet."

The man nodded and went over to a small desk with ledger books and inkwells on it. He took out a piece of paper and scrawled several things on it before handing it to me.

"I know he frequents these places, you should start with that first one."

I looked down the page at two eating houses, an entertainment theater, and a gambling house as well as directions of how to get to all of them.

"Thank you," I said, not taking my eyes off the page.

"Don't thank me," he said. "But if you find them, tell Vara that the children are alright."

I smiled at that. "You must have been close."

He shrugged and looked away. "As close as anyone can get to a witch."

I snorted, and that earned me a half smile from him.

"I see you know what I mean."

"I do," I smiled. "I'll go now, I won't come back and add suspicion for your boss. But if I see Vara I promise to pass on your message."

He smiled at that and walked us back out of the cellar. He nodded once at me before going back into the kitchens.

Schula and Nassir came from around the side of the building, Schula looking over my shoulder at the paper. "What do we have here?"

I rolled my eyes, knowing that she had heard the conversation and I simply passed her the paper to read for herself.

"We have a start," I said. "Lets go back and make some plans."

Schula and Nassir nodded, and we walked under the stars back to our rented rooms.