“Sorry about the cramped quarters,” Rori said. “But Dade wanted privacy, and the weather has gotten a bit iffy. Though it’s only been a few spits of rain so far, it looks like something bigger might be coming.”

  “No worries, I’ve always wanted to be this close to Brand,” Ian quipped.

  “Just keep everyone away from my leg.” Baxter sat with his leg propped up across the bench. It made the tight space caused by having eleven people inside the wagon that much tighter.

  “I seriously cannot believe we are letting you take up that much space on the bench! Trill healed you. There’s nothing wrong with your leg!” said Sean.

  “Tell that to my leg. It still aches.”

  “Jeremy is coming later today. He’ll make sure everything is fine,” Kedra said.

  “With your leg that is. There’s nothing can be done about your head,” said Ian.

  “You are all comedians of the highest order. Later you can wow the conclave on one of the stages,” said Dade standing in the center. “In the interest of finishing this before the lack of elbow room starts making us all grumpier, let’s cease the chatter and get down to business.”

  “Yes, sir,” responded everyone except Kedra and Nolan before they all fell quiet.

  “The conclave has been going on for several days now and, while I don’t know how the Cunāe feel about it, from my point of view it has been a success. But we still have several days left in which we can hopefully build on our gains. To that end, I need everyone to report. I realize most of you have already told me everything, and hopefully the important information has been shared with others, but as Nolan always says, ‘Better to make sure than assume.’ I’ll start.

  “I spent some time with some old army buddies of mine who are now Cunāe. I learned a bit about the mountain retreat. It seems that while the lake area and the building that was there were not off limits to clans that weren’t in the conspiracy, it was used primarily by them. Which doesn’t mean much for us. However, I did get someone to give us a lead on who was actually in charge of the whole thing.

  “And that would be?” asked Brand.

  “He didn’t have a name, and it isn’t worth rehashing all of the details as to how the information was obtained. But the gist of it is this, rumors amongst the clans say that there is a man who travels from clan to clan giving the leaders information. No one sees him come or go. In fact, no one sees him at all, but people have heard him speaking in secret meetings held in wagons. A couple have seen shadows of him on the windows as they walked by.

  “A good guess would be teleportation or maybe some sort of illusionary projection,” said Nolan. “Whoever it is goes out of their way to make sure nobody sees him besides trusted clan leaders.”

  “It’s a lot of superstitious nonsense for the most part. And probably nothing we couldn’t have guessed on our own,” continued Dade. “But there is one thing that we need to follow up on. On one occasion there was something of an emergency and a man by the name of Regi admitted that he had a way to contact this mysterious person. Regi was not the clan leader, but possibly a second in command. At any rate, the method was used in secret, but it evidently worked. Finding this Regi is now one of our priorities.”

  “It’s possible you are talking about Reginald Kitchens. He was the right hand in Clan Lanowith, I think,” Rori said. “He was also a complete ass. Just the right type to be involved with this stuff. Though I don’t think anyone ever called him Regi. Jaelle will know for sure. I’ll ask her as soon as I see her.”

  “Do that. That’s all I have. Sean and L’nova you go next. Again, let’s just hit the high notes. If people want longer renditions later, you can do that on your own time.”

  “Okay,” said Sean. “L’nova and I happened across Saxon. If you don’t remember he was the last man standing when L’nova fried the people on horseback that were charging Rori’s clan. We tailed him and he met up with another man and a woman. Wergen and Trill followed the woman, I’ll let them tell that part. L’nova and I split up and I followed Saxon. She followed the other man. Which in the end didn’t matter as they both disappeared into thin air. I had Wergen go back and look over the area later, but there are just too many people here to expect tracks to last for long at all.”

  “The point is,” said L’nova, “not just that Saxon is here, but he clearly has a crew, and they are up to something. I cannot swear that they didn’t see us watching them, but it seems unlikely. Either way, they are being secretive and taking no chances.”

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  “Agreed,” said Dade. “If anyone sees Saxon, follow him as best you can. L’nova and the others can give descriptions of the other two people later. Wergen, you finish up your end of it.”

  “We followed the woman and got her to chat with us for a bit. Her name is Grace. Or at least that is what she told us. Something I wholly believed until she also gave us the slip. Went into a tent and never came out again,” said Wergen.

  “There was no other way out of the tent besides the entrance we were watching,” added Trill. “Either she teleported, turned invisible or turned into someone else. Who knows really? The point is she’s tricky.”

  “Aye,” said Wergen. “She told us Saxon was with Clan Trion. Only when we went to where she said the clan was staying, they were not there. We eventually did find the clan, but they’d never heard of Saxon.”

  “Again,” said Dade, “sounds like people we should be looking for and keeping an eye on. Let’s find them. Who’s next?”

  “Well, speaking of old faces popping up, Honoria and I do believe we saw Nika here at the conclave. No offense to Rori, but she was both stunningly beautiful and at the same time she looked like she would just as soon kill everyone in sight,” Ian said. Then turning to Honoria he added, “No offense to you.”

  “I take none,” said Honoria. “She was as you say. Incredibly sexy and incredibly deadly at the same time. Like the spider that mates and then eats its partner. I find pity for the next man she latches onto.”

  “Actually, she and I already bumped into each other,” admitted Rori, “and I agree with both of your assessments. She openly said that she was only here to find a new sucker to use.”

  “And that sucker, wasn’t you?” asked Sean.

  “She tried to make it me, but I wasn’t falling for it. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”

  “Okay, let’s move on,” said Dade. “Ian, you have anything else?”

  “Honoria and I played with the locals. We had a bit of an archery contest. Made friends, etc. But we didn’t get any info out of it like you all. We’ve been back with several of the people involved since then. We’ll ask them about Saxon, Regi and anything else that comes up. But I don’t expect much. Mostly they are just people who like bows and arrows.”

  “Who won the contest?” asked L’nova.

  “We both won,” answered Honoria.

  “Okay, Baxter and Rori. You are up,” Dade said.

  “I’ll take it Baxter,” said Rori.

  “That’s fine. It’s your story anyway,” Baxter replied.

  “I was attacked by another assassin. A man named Yossamir. In addition to his hands literally being on fire, he could hurl the fire at you too. I had no idea how to defeat him, but it didn’t matter. The woman in the green outfit with the giant hammer came flying out of the crowd.”

  “For those of you who have not heard the story of the first time Rori encountered her, he can tell you that later. Based on what she said and gestures she made, we believe she is a follower of Lutrell,” said Dade.

  “I’ve done a bit of research on it,” said Brand. “I’d like to talk to Rori a bit more about it, but I think she might be one of Lutrell’s justicars. A paladin who acts like a sort of embodiment of law enforcement.”

  “Excellent,” Dade said sarcastically, “just what we need. Rori continue.”

  “Between her, me and a timely swing from Baxter we defeated him. She then took his unconscious body and literally leapt off into the distance. If you haven’t seen her in action, the whole hammer thing is most impressive. I’m glad we are sort of on the same side.

  “It’s also possible that I know who she actually is, but I don’t want to out her publicly. She’s gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. I’d like to talk to her first about it.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” said Dade.

  “Do we get to hear about how Baxter broke his leg?” asked Ian.

  “No,” said Baxter a bit too firmly.

  “Okay then.”

  “Anyone else? Nolan?” asked Dade.

  “I’ve got nothing to report just yet. Though I’ve got an idea I’d like to run down.”

  “Need any help?”

  “No. I can handle it alone.”

  “Brand?”

  “I’ve been poking around but nothing yet. I heard L’nova mention something about a book swap. But I can’t seem to find it. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong area or maybe it’s just the wrong time of day. When is it supposed to happen?”

  “My understanding is that it takes place all the time,” she said. I’ve tried to get out there a couple of times, but I keep getting sidetracked.”

  “It does go on all during the conclave,” said Rori. “But there is actually one day in which there is a large gathering. You should confirm this, but I believe that it is tomorrow.”

  “Does anyone else have something?” Dade asked. When it became apparent that nobody did, Dade continued. “Kedra has something that we’ve saved for the last. Kedra?”

  “I had the good fortune of meeting several Cunāe women,” said Kedra standing up and switching positions with Dade in the center of the cramped wagon. “Amongst them were several who had the pleasure to have had previous dealings with Cinder Black. I’ll skip the slimy details, but the important part of their tales is that when they saw him, he was already working with Manda.”

  “Such a shame,” said Trill. “I had hoped our speculations were awry. She seemed such a nice girl.”

  “Hold that thought,” said Kedra, “because it’s a bit more twisted than that. These ladies clearly recognized Manda. They could describe her perfectly. Only they encountered Black and Manda about six years ago.”

  “Six years!?” said Wergen. “There’s no way. She would have been but a young lass.”

  “She was obviously hiding her age,” said Brand. “Or perhaps she’s got a bit of elvish in her.”

  “Either way, it is clear that we were duped,” said Dade.

  “Hmm,” said Kedra, “and when I see her again, we are surely going to have words.”

  “And on that note, we are done.”

  Though the meeting had been short, the temperature in the packed wagon had already gotten overly warm. As everyone filed out into the cool evening air, they broke up into groups further discussing and analyzing the various events and information.