Wings of Justice (City of Light Book 1) Read online

  I peeked over the heads of the cattails and saw the other two black-clad archers a hundred yards from me. They were looking in my direction, and I ducked back under the cover of the reeds a second before their arrows flew over my head.

  I stood with my newly acquired bow ready and shot at one of the men. Growing up playing the throwing game had made me a quick study with the bow, so I wasn't too surprised when my arrow found the man's stomach. I ducked down below the cattails before I saw if he had fallen, but his scream sounded horrific.

  I crawled on my knees for a few dozen yards and wondered if the last archer was doing the same. Once I felt I'd moved far enough from my earlier position, I nocked another arrow and steadied myself with a slow breath. Then I sprang to my feet and swept my bow across the tops of the reeds. The man wasn't where I thought he would be, but I saw his movement out of the corner of my left eye. I angled my body away from him, turned my bow, and let loose the arrow without actually aiming. His own weapon twanged a half a second before mine, and I felt the fletching blow past my ear.

  My own missile also flew wide, and the two of us stared at each other for a quarter of a second before we realized that we needed arrows in our bows if we wanted to kill each other. The man had his arrows in a quiver at his side, and his fingers fumbled with the ends. I carried my arrows in my right hand, and, even though my arms were trembling, I was quicker than my opponent and had my bow drawn before he had nocked his arrow. My shot flew true this time, and the shaft pierced his skull between the eyes.

  "Shit," I cursed. The exchange had happened so fast. I should have asked the man to surrender when it was obvious that I held the upper hand in combat. Then again, I doubted Captain Ocellina would reprimand me for defending myself. She would be angry that I had gotten myself into this mess in the first place, but not about a split-second decision that saved my life.

  I placed another arrow against the string and glanced around the shore. I was confident that these were the same four archers who had attacked me at the shipyard, but I didn't see the magic-using assassin. I guessed that he was back at the building.

  I ran to where the body of the man I had just shot lay. He was dead, and I found no money or identification on his body. His face looked tan, so I wondered if he worked on one of the base levels.

  I walked over to the third assassin and cursed when I saw his dead body. The arrow in his stomach shouldn't have killed him that quickly, but he had a dagger in his lifeless hand, and his throat was still gushing blood. Whoever these people were, they seemed committed to their quest to keep me from capturing any of them alive.

  I grabbed a few more arrows from the dead man's quiver and walked back toward the shipyard. I'd gone from feeling like a caged chicken to a hawk in just a few moments, and I didn't want to bring my sisters back here unless I had someone alive. I might not be able to capture the fifth man, but I didn't want him to escape. I could just imagine the look on Fallon's eyes if I told her that a man had used impossible magic to knock me out of the air.

  The shipyard fence stood five hundred yards further along the shore, but the bamboo barrier prevented me from seeing anything other than the top quarter of the main building. There were no enemies on this side of the fence, so I crept across the remaining few dozen yards of mud and then picked up to a run when the ground began to turn into hard dirt.

  I reached the bamboo wall and listened. I heard no noises on the other side, so I slung the bow over my shoulder, put the arrows through my belt, and used my Alula to jump up the side of the fence. My gloved fingers hooked onto the sides, and I pulled my head over the ledge for a peek into the home of the discarded boats.

  There were dozens of black-garbed men running out of the building. Each carried a bamboo crate on his shoulder and had to lean under the weight of the box. They were exiting the main entrance of the building, which faced south, and I viewed them at a north-easterly angle. They seemed to make a right as soon as they exited the doors, and I couldn't see their final destination.

  I guessed that the men were loading the crates onto a cart on the west side of the building, and I was about to drop back to the ground so that I could circle the fence when I saw the man with the shotgun exit the building with six other black-wearing assassins. I could compare their heights, and I realized that the man was much taller than those standing next to him. His torso was incredibly broad. He held the blunderbuss over his left shoulder and pointed his other hand toward the north side of the building.

  "They haven't returned with news of the Potentia's death. Go find them." His voice was dark and sounded larger than his body.

  The other men nodded and reached for flintlock pistols at their belts. My eyes focused on each man's weapon, and my heart raced again. Who were these people? A single pistol would have cost me four month's pay, and that wasn't even factoring in the cost of the expensive mining powder and the lead bullets.

  I dropped down and retreated from the edge of the fence. There were too many of them now, and they carried guns. I needed my sisters, but first I needed to get enough space between the shipyard and my planned ascent. I started running and didn't stop until my lungs screamed and my legs shouted for a rest. A glance over my shoulder confirmed that I was over half a mile away, and I doubted that any magic or bullets could reach me.

  My cloak spread out behind me, and I saw the cloth begin to turn into feathers around my shoulders. Then I leapt from the ground and let the magic pull me into the air. I spared another look toward the shipyard, but the black-garbed figures were smaller than ants.

  It would be a few minutes before I would make it to the nearest nest, and then a few minutes before I could explain what had happened. I felt frustration blossom in my chest, and I prayed to the Priestesses that I would return with more Potentia before the shipyard was cleared of evidence.

  I flew toward the nearest nest and repeated the prayer like a mantra.

  Chapter 7

  "And the man used magic?" Ocellina asked for the third time.

  "Yes, ma'am," I said again with a nod.

  "Was that before or after he shot you with the blunderbuss?" Fallon sneered, "or after you said you killed the four archers with your knife?"

  "Two with the knife and then two with the bow. I know that what I am saying seems farfetched, but that is what happened."

  "I believe you, Anelia, but we have no evidence to open an investigation." The beautiful ebony-haired captain gestured around the empty interior of the shipyard building. Besides the boats sitting in the trench on the other side of the building, there were no crates, no glass vials, no dead bodies, and no blood on any part of the brick floor.

  "They must have cleaned it all up and moved the crates. It took us almost half of an hour to return."

  "You said you jumped out of the office window. That window isn't broken, and there is no glass anywhere inside the office or outside on the floor of the shipyard. Did they replace the glass and frame in thirty minutes?" Fallon asked. I had sent guards to bring Ocellina and Fallon, but they arrived almost an hour after I'd stormed the empty shipyard with Captain Titiana and four of her Potentia.

  "My nest has searched the banks of the Ver Lake and found no bodies, or blood, or arrows." I hadn't heard Titiana walk up from behind me, and I almost jumped at her words.

  "Thank you for searching." Ocellina nodded at the other captain. Titiana also had black silky hair, but she wore it cut as short as a man's. The woman was also shorter than my captain, but her brown eyes held the same fierce intelligence. It also looked as if the woman had never once smiled in her life.

  I guessed that she and Fallon got along just fine.

  "Sisters, I did not make up this tale." I felt my heart slam into the back of my rib cage. "Why would I just jump into the lake and invent this story? I wish I still had the injury on my arm as proof, but all I have are my muddy garments, the cut sleeve, and the bow that I obtained." The two captains showed no emotion when I spoke, but my wingmate looked as if she wa
s chewing on glass. The cut that the long-haired man had made on my arm had healed as I flew toward Captain Titiana's nest, and I'd marveled at the power of my Alula. My wound was minor, but it would have probably taken me a month or two to scar over before I donned the magical garment.

  "There is other proof to your story, pigeon." Titiana didn't smile, but there was a flash of laughter in her eyes that made me think she wasn't quite the hardass that I'd guessed. "The ceiling of the office was damaged by buckshot; we found some of the lead embedded in the brick. But even if we had not found that, I would have still believed you because you are Potentia." As soon as the words left her mouth, I felt my heart relax from its sprint. The imagined weight on my shoulders lifted, and I filled my lungs without despair.

  "If the pigeon's story is true, then how did these black-garbed citizens escape with the crates?" Fallon crossed her arms and continued to glare at me.

  "That is a good question, Fallon, since there are no wagon tracks in the dirt. I'm sure that you and Anelia will have an answer for Captain Titiana and me before lunch." Ocellina's mouth curled into a half smirk, and I saw Fallon's hands tighten around her biceps.

  "Yes, ma'am," Fallon said. "Leave it to us."

  "Good," the beautiful woman said to my wingmate. Then she turned to Titiana, "If you don't mind us investigating this? It sounds like it is connected with another of our cases."

  "I don't mind at all, but we don't have much intrigue here. Just brawls between cowpokes and farmers over beer and women. Can I have one of my wings assist?" Titiana asked.

  "If that is alright with Anelia. This is her case now."

  "That is fine, we would appreciate the help," I said. A wing consisted of two wingmates. Each nest comprised a few hundred guards, six wings, and a single captain. I didn't want to spend more alone time with Fallon if I didn't have to.

  "Excellent, I'll pair you." Titiana nodded at Ocellina and then walked toward the outside of the building, where her four Potentia were looking for evidence of my story.

  "And I will begin my morning. I want reports from both of you before I finish my lunch," our captain said.

  "Yes, ma'am," Fallon and I said as we saluted the beautiful woman. She nodded again and walked away from us.

  "You just hampered our real investigation, pigeon." Fallon shook her head at me when Ocellina left the building. If my wingmate's voice could have throttled me, it would have.

  "This is part of our real investigation."

  "Oh yes, the little notes you took from the glassblower's house. Let me see the paper again?" Fallon raised an eyebrow and sneered.

  "I told you that they were ruined by the lake water. Damn it, I am not lying."

  "No? You may have the captain fooled, but I see you for what you really are." The older woman had taken a step toward me, and her pointer finger dug into my chest above my breasts.

  "What is that?" I tried to speak confidently, but my voice came out as a squeak.

  "Just a poor street urchin that got lucky."

  Her words hit me harder than the man's magic had. I looked away from her piercing blue eyes and tried to keep the world from spinning. Fallon was right, I had gotten lucky.

  "There were thirty other pigeons more qualified than you. Yet you were selected."

  "So were four other girls. I don't understand why you are so upset." I couldn't meet her eyes, and my words were softer than a whisper.

  "Because I wasn't partnered with any of those highly qualified pigeons, I was given you. It is obvious what is going on."

  "Huh?"

  "You don't even know? Fuck, I won't spell it out for you, idiot. Let's just get on with the case. The captain said it was yours, so what do you think we should do next?" Fallon spat the question into my face.

  "They must have moved the crates. We need to figure out how." I'd already been thinking of my next step.

  "How many crates did you say?" Fallon asked, and I guessed that she was trying to get my statement multiple times so that she could pull any inconsistencies out of it. It was what they taught us to do in training, and Fallon had been a Potentia for fifteen years.

  "There were stacks of a hundred or more. I didn't get an exact count initially because I didn't know they were all filled with the vials, or even that the vials mattered," I repeated to her.

  "Did you witness a hundred black-clothed citizens moving the crates?" she asked in a mocking tone.

  "No, I didn't stay to watch long-"

  "Because of the four men with pistols. Yes, quite the story." She shook her head. "Let's say you are telling the truth; these men carried the crates out the south door and then wrapped around the west." She gestured for me to go with her, and we walked out of the building. There were a handful of guards patrolling the fence, and I saw the five other Potentia gathered an earshot away.

  "There are no oxen or horse tracks. I don't even see any footprints in the dirt, and the terrain is soft. We aren't making an impact, but look," the woman stomped her heel into the ground, and it made a large divot, "a heavy man carrying a heavy box on his shoulders would sink into this dirt."

  "I agree," I said. "But that is what I saw. Could there be magic at work?" I asked.

  "No, unless I want to believe that part of your tale as well." Fallon shook her head, and then she glanced behind me. "Here comes the assistance you asked for. Try not to embarrass me any more today."

  I turned to greet the two Potentia from Titiana's nest. I'd met them both when I first flew into their office and blurted out my story, but we hadn't a chance to introduce ourselves before their captain ordered us to make haste toward Ver Lake.

  "Ahh, she sent her best. Hello, Fulvia and Hostia." Fallon moved in front of me and joined palms with the two women.

  "We are hardly Titiana's best, but we have no open cases and would love to help you and your pigeon," the woman who I knew as Fulvia said. There were only three hundred Potentia, so it was common for the trainees to memorize their names, descriptions, nest assignments, and backgrounds.

  Fulvia was from one of the wealthy middle levels of Petrasada. She wore her brown hair in a long braid with a silver clasp at the end. Her heart-shaped face was pretty, and I knew that she had been a Potentia for eight years, even if the woman didn't look a day older than me.

  Hostia also wore long brown hair, but she was taller than her wingmate and had sharper features. She looked as young as Fulvia, but a few strands of gray ran through her mane. She was also born into the middle levels of the city and had served as a Potentia for twenty years.

  "We were trying to figure out how the man with the magic and shotgun lifted over a hundred crates out of the shipyard," Fallon smirked and nodded to the two women.

  "There are some farms and ranches around the lake. We thought we could interview the citizens. Perhaps they saw someone," Hostia said with a shrug.

  "But it was in the middle of the night. Most would be sleeping," Fulvia raised her eyebrows. "Titiana said that the pigeon is in charge of the case. What do you think, Anelia?" The three women looked at me, and I could see the warning in Fallon's eyes.

  I didn't think that the men carried the crates across the open plains of the base level. I also didn't think that they used magic to move them. There had to be another explanation, and I knew that I could figure it out if I just had enough time.

  Or I'd end up sitting out here as long as the old discarded boats in the shipyard.

  "The boats in the shipyard!" I gasped.

  "Yes, there are boats. It is a shipyard. What are you smiling about?" Fallon asked.

  "How do they get the boats from the shipyard or the building into the water?" I asked the three women. They glanced at each other for a few moments, and each of them shrugged. I wasn't surprised since they had all been born into wealthy families.

  "They use a cart with bamboo rollers to yank the vessel on or off." I'd only seen it done one time in my life, but the memory had appeared in my head when I saw the ruined boats in the yard. "They then p
ush it to the edge of the lake and can send it into the water."

  "Show us. I've never seen such a device in use. It must be a rare occurrence," Hostia said.

  "There have to be one or two in the yard," I said as I looked around. "I believe that is one over there." I pointed to the far end of the lot that was closest to the water. The four of us walked the three hundred yards and then stood in front of the contraption. It looked similar to an oxcart, save that the bottom was made of long, cylinder-like wheels and there were more bamboo rollers on the concave top of the wagon where a boat's hull would rest.

  "I see," said Hostia. "So they could have loaded up a boat and then pulled it to the lake?"

  "The edge of the Ver is only another hundred yards. It would be easy for the men to tug it that far."

  "This one doesn't look as if it has been moved," Fallon said. "It looks heavy, even without a boat on top."

  "Heavy might work for them." I felt my lips curl into a smile. "They could have loaded a boat, thrown the bodies on, rolled it over the shipyard to get rid of their tracks, and then pulled it into the lake."

  "Clever, if that is what they did." Fulvia nodded at my words and circled the boat cart. "It looks as if the spot behind this device had something resting on it. Come look."

  The three of us stepped to where Fulvia pointed and saw the divots in the clay. There were patches of ground that were discolored, and weeds grew out from the edges of the dirt in a strange outline. There had definitely been something sitting there, but it would have been hard to notice if we had not been standing within a few feet of the spot.

  "They took the boat out to the lake and docked at one of the three other piers. We are probably too late to catch them in the act, but I bet we can pick up the trail," I said.