Of Kings and Killers (Elder Empire Sea #3) - WIll Wight Page 0,57

a fake envelope with a false seal. No one would suspect him of being part of the Guard, and if any Independents did stop him, he could tell them exactly who he was without raising any suspicion.

He was just going home.

The sun had vanished over the horizon when Jakson slid off his horse. She had worked hard, and he patted her side to let her know he appreciated it. He could still ride in this light, but it was best not to risk the shadows.

Each rise of grass by the side of the road had dark shadows that could conceal a rock or a pothole, and the paving-stones in the road itself were worse.

Come to think of it…

He squinted at the road. Some of those shadows were stretching toward the sunset. Had someone spilled something on the road? Ink? It could even be blood.

The thought chilled him, but as he looked closer, he saw that these were nothing more than shadows.

Shadows stretching toward the sun.

A chill rose up his spine as sixteen years of Elder stories rose up in him at once. He leaped back on the horse, turning the other direction, heading back toward the Capital…

A great black mouth opened beneath him and he fell.

When the mouth snapped shut, Jakson was no more.

Emeralda had worked for the Blackwatch for almost three decades. She knew when she was being followed.

Many Watchmen liked to joke that they developed a kind of Reader’s sense after years in service, a sort of tingling developed by thousands of close calls with men and Elders alike. She was feeling that tingling sensation now as a man that looked like a down-on-his-luck farmer took up the whole dirt road with his ox-cart on the way toward her.

There was nothing to him alone. He could just be an unfriendly man, not acknowledging the woman he was pushing off the road.

It was the way he seemed determined not to look at her…combined with the boys behind her, who leaned too casually against the low stone wall that kept one side of the road from collapsing. And the “blind” beggar with an empty alms-bowl who tapped his cane randomly against the ground as though to illustrate his blindness.

This is an awfully popular dirt road all of a sudden, Emeralda thought.

She had worn no uniform and no one had followed her this far, so there were only two reasons for a group of men to be encircling her here. One, they were simple bandits doing bandit things, and wouldn’t that be a stroke of luck? She’d pull out her pistol and they’d go on their way.

Two, they knew what she carried.

The sealed letter in her pocket, disguised as a deck of cards, was intended for Jorin Curse-breaker’s eyes alone. If she couldn’t put it in his hands, then it would go to no one.

Just to see what would happen, she pulled her pistol.

The farmer jumped down from his cart, his oxen pulling to a halt. The boys behind her cried something, and she turned to keep them in view. The blind man pulled down his blindfold to peek at her.

She pointed the gun at him, and he smiled, showing rows of rotten teeth. He showed her what he carried in one hand: a compass. Rather than north, its needle pointed to her. “Don’t haunt us, miss. Made a bargain, we did.”

Kelarac.

Emeralda knew how the Soul Collector worked. He would have granted this beggar a paltry wish in exchange for following that compass, which no doubt pointed toward the Intent of the Imperial seal.

No Elderspawn would know what this message contained. Only some powerful Elders, or the Great Elders themselves, could unravel the Emperor’s Intent without destroying the message.

They must have been ordered to stop any message bearing the Imperial seal.

Though she knew it was hopeless, Emeralda switched her pistol to her left hand and drew her saber in her right. Another pair of men emerged from the forest, in clothes just as shabby as the others.

She would kill two or three, and then—if the rest didn’t break and run—she would die as she’d lived.

Fighting Elders.

Most people didn’t know that the Alchemist’s Guild was dealing secretly with the Magisters, but Rina did. She had been working with Nathanael Bareius, and he trusted her with these secrets, including negotiating secret meetings.

So when a Magister met her at one of their rendezvous points outside of Rainworth, bearing a message for Jorin Curse-breaker, Rina promised she would deliver it. The Magister trusted her with