A Clash of Shadows by Elí Freysson Page B

it the work of a sorcerer?”
    “No one knows for certain,” the woman said. “Accusations fly in every direction, but no one has been arrested.”
    “Still, two men were found on a path in the forest,” the older woman said. “Struck by the steel of men. Something happened in that forest,” she added darkly. “And someone in this land knows what it was.”
    They seemed to want to continue their original discussions, but she put more effort into faking surprise and unease.
    “I... I am headed north. Where was this, you say?”
    “The area is named Bytna,” the older woman said. “It’s a small cluster of houses an hour’s ride to the north. But the monster was last seen by the manor, some way east of there. The chancellor’s men have encircled the building out of fear of it returning.”
    “Do you think the route is safe?”
    “People say the demon quite literally vanished, so perhaps it has gone back where it came from for good. But I would not venture near the manor. Swerve past it, and in the day time at that.”
    “Now now, girl. There was a man just earlier asking very similar questions,” the passionate fellow said and pointed north. “Won’t you go find him and compare your findings? He had a grey bag hat and a grey jacket with wide sleeves.”
    Perhaps that’s not a bad idea, Katja thought to calm her feelings at the rudeness. She had perhaps already drawn too much attention anyway.
    She excused herself, returned the mug and walked slowly north. She looked for hats in the ocean of heads. She poked the occasional passer-by and repeated the description she had been given and it wasn’t long before a scribe with a long beard pointed her to another sipping house close by.
    Katja jogged past people and beasts and arrived at the place. The house was small and the stools out front were virtually unoccupied. She saw no grey hat so she walked towards the door, a moment before it opened from the inside.
    And there he stood.
    He was her own height, sturdily built and with a torn ear and broken nose.
    It was him. The Brotherhood man she had first met in Baldur’s City. The one who had stabbed her to near-death in the forest.
    He seemed startled for a moment, but recovered quickly.
    “Oh my,” he said smirking, “good to see you again.”
    The fear from that night now broke out as rage and Katja reached for the sword. He slid his hand under the jacket he wore, but indicated the crowds with his eyes on her. It reminded her of Serdra.
    Broad daylight. And people all around.
    Once he saw she wasn’t going to attack him the man relaxed a bit. He looked at a stool, seemed to think for a moment and then sat down opposite Katja.
    “Are you out shopping?” she asked coolly.
    “Are you?” he replied and smiled with one corner of his mouth.
    They locked gazes. Katja couldn’t pretend she was here by coincidence and he seemed to know she wouldn’t believe it about him either.
    There was a strange honesty in this meeting, after all the secrecy.
    They continued staring at one another. The man was outwardly calm, but she thought she saw tension. He was ready for anything.
    “You stabbed me,” she said harshly. She felt a bit foolish for it, but somehow felt it had to come out.
    “I certainly did,” Vajan said and smiled again. “Did you know that that earns prestige within...” He looked around. “Well, within the group? It’s rather amazing how much they hate your lot, considering that most have never met one of you. It’s rather humorous, actually.”
    “They?” Katja said. “Aren’t you one of them?”
    “Eh, some don’t feel that way. Since there isn’t incontroversial evidence that I can trace my lineage back to Vendyha’s power families.”
    “So you get excluded, poor thing?” Katja asked, but couldn’t put much mockery in her tone. Sitting here and talking to him was so strange. She was so accustomed to hiding. But here the enemy sat before her eyes, beneath a bright sky. And they