“He was hanging out with Elania last night, of course,” Noria called out in a teasing tone. “She showed up here in a tight black dress right about an hour before closing time and told him she needed some help with making dinner. I’ve never seen him close up shop so fast!”
“Zum Donnerwetter!” Comenius exclaimed as I chuckled, a pale pink flush splashing across his cheeks. “Do you have to say that so loudly in front of everybody?”
“What?” Noria shouted over the chiming of the cash register. “I can’t hear you over the sound of all the money I’m making for you!”
I couldn’t help it – I laughed. “She’s one of a kind, isn’t she?” I teased, giving Comenius a consoling pat on the shoulder.
“You could say that,” Comenius said dryly, turning his gaze back toward me. “So what brings you here today, Naya? Did you drop by just to say hi?”
“I wish.” I sighed, glancing out the window at the sparkling blue bay. Hanging out with Comenius at his shop sounded like paradise, but that wasn’t in my future for today. “I actually came by to talk to you about the silver murders.”
“The silver murders?” Comenius’s pale eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown. “What about them? Has someone else been poisoned?”
“No, no, nothing like that.” I glanced at the doorway as the last customer exited the shop. “Is there any chance we could sit down for a moment and go over this?”
“Of course.” Comenius waved Noria from behind the counter, and we settled into the wicker chairs grouped together to form a seating area a little ways off from the front desk.
“So what’s going on?” Noria asked, concern in her dark eyes. “If it’s something to do with the silver murders it’s got to be serious.”
I sat back in my chair and told them about how I’d run into Inspector Lakin, and how he’d just come from interviewing Sillara’s lover. I filled them in on the details we’d found, telling them about the disappearances and how none of the victims’ families had received any ransom notes.
“How strange,” Comenius said. “So these shifters have all been disappearing?”
“All within the span of the last year or so,” I confirmed. “I was thinking maybe we could pick through those old Shifter Courier papers you have and see if we can’t dig up anything else useful.”
“Of course.” Comenius turned to Noria. “Would you mind getting them for me?”
“Sure thing.” Noria hopped to her feet, then disappeared around the counter and into the back.
“So,” Comenius said. “How is your training going at the Palace?”
I groaned. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“That good, eh?” Comenius’s lips twitched. “The Chief Mage must be putting you through your paces.”
I snorted. “Yeah, for a very small amount of time every week. The rest of the time I’m running around the Palace or the city doing grunt work for the Mages Guild in exchange for all the wonderful training I’m not getting.” I sighed in disgust. “I probably get the least amount of training of all the apprentices at the Guild.”
Comenius frowned. “Yes, but at least you’re finally learning how to use your magic. And more importantly, you’re alive. I think that’s worth having to put up with a teacher who has limited time to train you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Figures you would take the Chief Mage’s side.” But Comenius was right. If Iannis hadn’t decided to claim responsibility for me and make me his apprentice, I would have been executed for the crime of having a magical talent without being born into a mage family.
Technically, I did have a mage family somewhere in the world, but I had no idea who my father was or any family he might have. So I’d been born into Solantha’s Jaguar Clan, and since my late mother’s older sister, Mafiela, was the Clan Chieftain, I’d been accepted into the clan without question, the secret of my birth kept from all but my immediate family. Unfortunately my aunt Mafiela couldn’t stand me, because in her eyes I represented the bastard who’d knocked up my mother and ruined her chances of getting a proper mate; so when my mother had died I’d found myself on the streets not too long after that.
So much for family.
No matter how I looked at it, I owed the Chief Mage everything, and I knew I should probably be more understanding of his position. But shifters are emotional by nature, and I had feelings for him that I did my best to suppress, feelings that were constantly being hurt by his absence and neglect. It didn’t help matters that once or twice I’d been convinced that he had feelings for me too. And it definitely didn’t help that our Master/Apprentice relationship didn’t allow for those feelings.
By Magorah, but I wished I could put my emotions aside the way Iannis did so effortlessly. My life would be much easier.
“Here we go,” Noria called, coming back into the room with a stack of old papers in her arm. She dropped them onto the low wooden coffee table with a loud thump, then plopped back down into her chair. “So, where do we start?”
We divided up the papers amongst ourselves and aside from a few customers here and there, spent a mostly uninterrupted hour going through them, checking for any references to shifter disappearances. As I half-expected, we only found a handful – the article regarding Tylin, and two more concerning clanless shifters who just so happened to work in Shiftertown.