Valek and Ari were in the safe house resting when Trevar, Adrik, and Maren arrived.
Clearly annoyed at being sent away, Trevar related the story. This was what they’d been waiting for.
“Trevar and Adrik, report back to Kenda,” Valek ordered. “Give her the address of the house, she’ll know what to do. The rest of us will follow Star.”
“But we can help,” Trevar protested. “We’re not?—”
“Goons?” Ari supplied.
“Uh. No, no. It’s just… We’re quiet. Unobtrusive. Light on our feet. We...”
Valek waited.
Trevar sighed. “Yes, sir.” He and Adrik grabbed their bags and left the safe house.
“Did he just call me fat?” Ari asked.
Maren laughed. “Oh, yes, he did.”
“He’s still young,” Valek said. “Wait until he’s learned how to fight. Then you can show him the error of his ways.”
“Then he’ll know you and Janco really are a couple of goons,” Maren said.
“You’re not helping,” Valek mock growled.
“How about this? Ari can fight Trevar without a shirt on, that way he won’t be accused of being fat. But you’ll need to invite General Ute to watch the match; I hear she has a thing for the captain.”
Ari turned bright red. “Shouldn’t we be going?”
Amused, Valek thought about the growing rivalry between Trevar and Adrik, and Ari and Janco as they hurried to catch up. Newbies verses the old pros. He suppressed a chuckle. Calling Ari and Janco, who were twenty-six and twenty-eight, old was an exaggeration. However, they had more experience and skills than the two young bucks. They deserved more respect. After dealing with Star, Valek would set up a training exercise for all of them.
They followed Star’s group to a small city in MD-7 named Crooked Nook. It sat just outside the northern edge of the Snake Forest. Not only did Star have a residence there, but offices and a warehouse full of black market goods. Janco hung out in the local pubs and discovered most of the town patrol were on her payroll. Lovely.
“Are we going to do a raid on these places?” Janco asked one night.
“Not yet. I want to see where else she goes,” Valek replied.
Star then traveled west along the Snake Forest to Sectown in MD-7. Even though the town was half the size of Crooked Nook, her operation was similarly impressive.
“Wow,” Janco said, returning from the pub. “She practically owns this entire place.”
“It’s quite the operation,” Maren said. “Did you know all this was going on in this part of MD-7?” she asked Valek.
“No. I don’t have enough agents to place in every single town in Ixia. I usually rely on the town patrol to alert me if there’s any trouble.”
“Well, there’s the hole in the loop,” Janco said. “All these little forgotten villages are close to the Sitian border. A perfect hiding spot for Star’s operations.”
The man wasn’t wrong.
“It’s a loophole,” Maren corrected.
“That’s what I said.”
After Sectown, Star headed south with only one person. They crossed into Sitia late at night. She traveled to a small village in the Featherstone Clan’s lands, close to the border, called Robin’s Nest. The Citadel was only a few days southeast of their location. Valek could rent a horse and be with Yelena in three days. The temptation to let his companions finish the job dug its claws into his heart.
They changed into Sitian clothes and blended in with the citizens. It was an open secret that Robin’s Nest was used as a staging area for black market goods and was a sanctuary for those who had escaped Ixia. The amount of people leaving Ixia had slowed to a trickle over the years since the Commander’s takeover. And they were mostly magicians. But it appeared the route from Robin’s Nest to Sectown was well traveled in both directions.
Janco returned from his nightly reconnaissance of the local taverns.
