The Foolhardies 172 The Inquisitor

"Call me Rita," she insisted in a soft voice.

After b.u.mping into the Justiciars, their leader, the young woman called Rita insisted she and her team help me in my search for the drow intruder. So, I led them back down the steps and into landing I ignored before. From here, she instructed her people to branch off and search other areas and reminded them to, "Leave no stone unturned."

Some climbed back up the steps while the others went down to search the palace's courtyard. Rita remained with me. So did the tree man I'd b.u.mped into earlier.

I think he was there to keep a watchful eye on me, and from the cold-eyed stare he sent my way, I got the feeling he didn't like me one bit.

"And you're certain you saw this drow escape through here?" Rita asked me again.

"I'm sure," I said, pointing two fingers at my eyes. "I've got good eyesight…"

"I see," she replied.

We continued our walk across the first landing of the palace walls in what I imagined was a leisurely stroll. It was as if she wasn't the least bit worried that our intruder might escape. Still, I couldn't exactly ask her to pick up the pace. I got the feeling her bodyguard wouldn't take kindly to that.

I sighed and hoped either Luca or Al had better luck than me.

The wind whipped at her long silver hair as it pa.s.sed, forcing her to brush it back behind her ears.

I took this moment to examine my new companion some more.

She was about my height and looked to be my age, but maybe she was a little older. Her silver hair was braided at the top in a crown-like fas.h.i.+on but fell in waves over her chest. While her companions wore armor, Rita was dressed in a pale blue robe that hung off her shoulders and clung tightly to her sporty frame. On her neck was a silver necklace whose pendant was shaped into a silver key.

Rita was beautiful—different from Aura's fairy beauty but not quite like Ashley's girl-next-door vibe. No, her face was that of an actress in some historical epic or one of those fantasy movies that have gained popularity recently. She looked timeless and graceful with expressive eyebrows and big doe eyes the color of amber.

Her full lips were moving, speaking words I couldn't hear right away on account of my teenage boy's brain and its special brand of idiocy.

Noticing that I hadn't replied to her, Rita slowed to a stop and glanced my way.

"Well?" she asked. "What do you think was the reason this drow infiltrated the summit?"

"I…" I was forced to stop walking myself to think about her question. "It could be a number of things… sabotage probably."

Her eyebrow rose about half an inch high.

"Is that your best-educated guess?" she asked.

Rita had a way of speaking that I found very familiar. She spoke like Arah whenever she was trying to prompt Ty into understanding a lesson but with a British accent.

"Well," my mind flashed on the masked face of Aura's brother and the tragedy that disfigured him and killed the rest of their family, "it could be something else… something more sinister."

I didn't dare say 'a.s.sa.s.sination' out loud. I didn't want to jinx it.

"The Patriarch of the Trickster Pavilion has many enemies," Rita noted as she resumed our walk. "More so now than ever before…"

"What does that mean?" I asked as I trailed after her.

We were nearing the stairs that led down to the Garden of Mana. Hopefully, Al would be down there and he'd have the drow secured and ready for interrogation.  

"The buildup of military power has led other clans to guess at the Patriarch's intentions… but that speech earlier made it clear that he intends to achieve unification, doesn't he?" she reminded me. "That alone would be enough to alarm those who seek to maintain the status quo…"

It was the exact same thing Chris Pint mentioned to me earlier, and it seemed everyone was paying attention to our clan now.

"Hold on… I didn't see you inside the hall earlier," I said. "You couldn't have heard his speech."

She pointed at her own eyes. "Ah, yes, you did mention that you had good eyes."

A knowing smile played on her lips that made me more than a little uncomfortable.

Don't give yourself away just to impress a pretty girl, idiot, my brain whispered.

I chuckled nervously while scratching my head. "Y-yeah… I would have noticed someone who looked like you."

There was no need to remind her about my eyesight because I could put two and two together too, and it was easy to guess who this Rita really was. After all, Aura did say the Inquisitor of the Justiciars was coming for a visit. So, no, I didn't want to reveal myself to another Sense Knight, particularly one Chris Pint warned me about.

Then I realized what I'd just said and felt the heat rise out of my cheeks.

"You're blus.h.i.+ng," Rita teased.

"I'm not," I said defensively.

"Don't worry about it… it's cute," she said in such a casual way that I felt dumb for feeling embarra.s.sed.

We descended the stairs to the garden while Rita continued her explanation about the situation the clan was in.

"Many of the smaller clans would prefer the conflict does not spread out to them, preferring instead this deadlock that's lasted for five hundred years," she explained. "Whenever one of the bigger clans gets the idea for unification, these smaller clans often band together to ensure the bigger clan rethinks their lofty goal."

"Sounds like cowardice to me," I said while feeling a surge of pride for the clan Patriarch and his vision. "All this death and war spills out into Mudgard and causes all kinds of problems for us humans too…"

"That," she glanced at me with a curious look, "is exactly what the Pilgrimage claims… you wouldn't happen to be a sympathizer, would you?"

I quickly shook my head. "No… I'm not interested in a Fayne for humans either, although I honestly don't know much about them beyond that."

She seemed satisfied with my response because she continued down the steps without another word regarding it.

"Well, drow do look the part to be doling out evil plots," I joked.

She laughed a short but tinkling laughter that sounded nice to my ears.

"But sometimes the more obvious is usually the real threat," she said.

We reached the bottom and followed the pa.s.sage of wood and artistically repurposed foliage into a huge backyard that was reminiscent of the secret gardens one found around mana pools.

It was a landscape of tiny hills and shrubbery and young redwoods combined to form a serene s.p.a.ce that was as inviting as it was colorful. Flowers of all kinds poked out of well-trimmed brushes exuding their scents to the surrounding air. At the center of this garden was a pool, and although it didn't glow like mana pools did, the freshwater gleamed underneath Idunn's light.

At the other end of the garden, Al and one of the Justiciars, the female dwarf companion of Rita, were standing side by side and debating about something.

We crossed the wooden walkways and reached them just in time to hear their dialogue on the merits of adding a rock garden to the Garden of Mana.

"I guess you struck out too?" I said after I raised a hand in greeting.

"Well, technically, I did find someone just not the one we were looking for," he said, pointing toward his new companion. Then he looked over to the two Justiciars with me, his eyes lingered on Rita. "Looks like you found someone interesting too."

"More or less," I shrugged. "You think Luca got it right then?"

Al shrugged back. "Why don't we go ask him?"

Our new party of five left the garden and made our way around the Palanquin Palace to reach the front courtyard.

As we pa.s.s the main doors to the antechamber leading into the Patriarch's Hall, I heard the loud cheers coming from inside.

"Looks like things were going well in there," I said right before I turned toward Rita and asked, "Don't you need to be in there?"

"Perhaps later… I'm finding this chase a little more exciting than having to chaperone two alpha males into playing nice," she admitted.

Al and I shared a shrug before we pressed onward to the palace gates.

The closer we got to the gates, the more we noticed the obvious disturbance there. A group of palace guards was gathered just inside the gates, standing in a loose circle around two people who were sitting on the ground.

Worry and fear filled my brain, and I found myself running toward the crowd.

"Excuse me," I said as I slipped into the circle. "Coming through!"

When I finally reached the center, I saw Luca sitting on the gra.s.s while a guard healer urged him to drink a vial of healing.

"Luca!" I yelled as I rushed to my brother's side.

He looked up at me and then sighed. "He got me, Dean… snuck behind me just as I reached the gate and then whacked me in the head with something heavy…"

The healer raised his eyes toward me and reported that my brother had a concussion. He then showed me the back of Luca's head which was bleeding just above the neck.

I cursed at the sight of yet another new injury for Luca.

"I'll be taking him to the guard's infirmary for a more thorough checkup," the fairy healer insisted.

"I'll go with you," I said quickly.

"Dean—"

I cut Luca off before he could protest and repeated what I said last, "I'll go with you…"

Luca sighed and allowed himself to be carried on a stretcher which meant he must have really gotten hurt because my little brother hated stretchers.

Before they took him away though, he apologized to me and Al.

"I don't know how he got behind me… I was sure I was behind the shadow we saw…" he admitted.

A thought struck me then. One I dared not say out loud. But what if the drow wasn't alone? What if there were more of them?

"It'll be okay, Luca," Al a.s.sured him. "We'll find the guy. We've got more help now."

Luca was so out of it that he didn't even notice our companions until Al mentioned them, and I watched as his eyes grew to saucers at the sight of Rita who, admittedly, looked like a G.o.ddess visiting us mere mortals.

After Luca was carted away, I turned to Rita and apologized for leaving abruptly, but she simply shook her head and said, "I understand… your brother's important to you."

Before I got a chance to follow Luca, however, she reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a tiny scroll in her hand.

"Since you answered all my questions pretty well tonight, I figured I would reward you with a gift," she said, handing me the scroll in her hand. "Beware of shadows and their ill intent."

I pulled open the scroll and read its contents, and it wasn't until I finished reading it that I felt the shock showing on my face.

"What's wrong?" Al asked.

I pa.s.sed him the scroll for him to read. At the same time, I trained my eyes on Rita.

"How accurate is this information?" I asked with all urgency.

"I am the Inquisitor of the Justiciars," she said finally, although I'd already guessed that much. "Information has a way of finding its way to me… it seems your deductions were spot on, someone's plotting foul deeds tonight."