The Knife's Edge

Chapter Twenty-Three

LAKEWOOD

Fireworks exploded in the night sky.

“Come join us, Darius!” a group of girls called in unison.

With a smile and a bow, Darius declined, for something more interesting caught his

attention. A laugh rose above the others. Cari stood behind the counter of a nearby apple stand.

Darius dodged through the crowd, and with a nimble twist ended up right in front of the stand. He rested an elbow on the counter and added a wink.

“Happy harvest, Darius,” she said shyly, but her light blue eyes were not shy.

“Evening, Cari.” She looked sweet, but somehow different. Her heart-shaped face was framed by dark wavy hair. He liked how she wore it down and loose, unlike the others girls who pulled their hair back. He realized in that moment that she was no longer a girl.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

Darius looked back. He eyed her until she blushed, then he laughed and she did the same. Appearing out of nowhere, a batch of girls swarmed in from all sides. They tugged at Cari, giggling and coaxing her to join them.

Darius turned on his most charming smile. “Evening ladies.”

“Darius,” Vivian said as she arched an eyebrow. “What sort of trouble are you causing tonight? Come, Cari,” she said, and before he knew it they had linked arms and were tugging her away.

He sighed, snatched an apple off the counter, and tossed a copper onto the empty stand. Turning, he moved into the crowd when he was hit hard. Knocked from his feet, he landed in the dirt.

Dazed, he shook his head as a hand extended before his face. He looked up into the face of a young man roughly his own age. His disheveled dark hair matched his brows, and his angular face was smudged with a thin layer of dirt and a weeks’ worth of unshaven stubble—not much more than I can grow, Darius conceded in the back of his mind.

The man’s deep-set, green eyes were the only clear feature. “Are you all right?”

Darius took the hand and stood. With his other hand, he deftly checked to make sure his bag of coins was still there. Cutpurses were rare in Lakewood, but they were not unknown.

“Quite all right,” Darius replied, brushing himself off and taking another sidelong look at the young man. “You look a bit travel worn,” he said, and thought it an understatement. He bowed. “Darius is my name. What’s yours?”

“What does that matter?”

Darius shrugged. “I just want to know, that’s all. Not many visitors to Lakewood. Don’t get your hackles up.”

The stranger looked embarrassed. “Gray,” he said, shaking his hand.

“Good,” said Darius, “Now that we have that settled, what brings you to town?”

“A friend. I’m looking for him.” Gray ran a hand through his hair, as if nervous.

“Is he a newcomer?”

“Yes, I was told to talk with a man named Mishif? Can you direct me?”

“Bah,” said Darius. “You don’t need to talk to Mishif.” He put a hand on his shoulder, drawing him in. He noticed Gray’s tattered gray cloak and its insignia of two crossed swords. “First off, he’ll talk your ear off, and go on about regulations so long that you’ll realize you’ve spent a month standing in the same spot, and your friend has off and left town. And second, because I know everyone in Lakewood, including the newcomers.”

Gray looked relieved. “That’s excellent! So then, you know a man named Mura?”

“Hm,” Darius paused, finger to his lips. “Nope.”

“But you just said...”

“I never said I was good with names,” Darius replied, raising his hands defensively. “But if you give me a description, I’d be glad to oblige.”

Gray narrowed his gaze. “All right, he’s probably a hand shorter than you.”

“Good start,” said Darius nodding.

“...And he dresses in gray and black, and he will likely be worn from travel. He will be unshaven, and he wears his gray hair pulled back loosely in a knot.”

“And he looks like he can chew leather and clean his teeth with sharp steel?” Gray’s eyes brightened.

“Yes!” he said and then paused. “Well, I suppose that sounds like him.”

“Don’t know him,” said Darius as he cuffed Gray’s arm. “Just sounded like a good description.” Gray looked as if he were ready to hit Darius in the jaw. He laughed, shaking Gray’s shoulder to ease the tension. “Hey, come on, relax.”

“I don’t need to relax, I need to find this man,” he said and turned away, once more looking over the heads of the crowd. “It’s important.”

“Hey you, stop!” A voice cut through and Darius looked up as a guard’s helmet bobbed over the heads of the crowd. The guard pressed his way through the throng of revelers, causing a commotion. He was heading straight for them.

Darius spoke quickly, watching the guard’s approach over Gray’s shoulder, “Sorry, my friend, but this is where we part. I wish you the best of luck in Lakewood and for the record, I meant no harm.”

“What are you talking about? Where are you going?”

The guard broke through the last set of men and women. Darius twisted, his fingers dangling at his side anxiously. He looked for a way out but saw none. The guard was tall and would surely see his departure. Suddenly, there was a scuffle and a man tripped, falling into the guard’s path and slowing his advance.

Now’s my chance. He gave Gray’s shoulder a parting grasp, and then slipped away, ducking through a gap in the crowds. Thanking Lokai for saving him yet again, he hurried away. But curious, he paused before he had gone too far, and looked back.

The guard grabbed Gray by the arm, and pointed angrily to his sword. Gray fought but the guard hauled him away. What? He wasn’t after me, he was after him.

Who was his new friend?