JUNE ZEILRAN knows one thing: he is destined to live a quiet life in the servant's quarters as a half-blood in a territory of fairies. When the Imperial High Queen offers him a job he cannot refuse, he is thrown into a world of secrets and murder t...
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2407 Rab 30, Jyda
Elen Zathana was one of the most paranoid people June had ever met. Well...not really met. More like, stalked through the shadows every time he changed places. June understood where the man was coming from. He was a spy working for all sorts of people who were wealthy enough to pay him. Of course, he would be wise enough to look behind his shoulders every damn time he could.
Still, for June to succeed in his assignment, he would have to beat Elen at his own game. Hence, the spying through the shadows thing. Hence, June being stuck in a tavern for the past two hours pretending to be interested in his drink even though he was sure tasted like damp socks. Couldn't Elen choose a proper meeting place for once?
Thankfully, the man was home by the time June trekked from Edgerift to Thenaserine. He had shadowed the spy through the same places Bitina had come. Information rings, they were called. June was no stranger to listening in or being in places he wasn't meant to be in so blending in with all the spies and the information traders was no big deal.
Through the days of surveying Elen, June had come to a conclusion that the man was fond of cracking nuts with his teeth, clicking his tongue out of a mannerism more than out of annoyance, and moving in and out of places without much of a sound. From the looks of it, Elen was supposed to be staying in Thenaserine for a little while longer considering his contact for something he was chasing was having a hard time catching rides back to Lanteglos. Was that heaven's way of telling June to hurry it up? He did have to make it back to Carcalet in the next day or two.
June finally gripped his glass and peered at his reflection shining in the bubbly surface of the ale. He still sported dark hair, with the dye he was using a little bit more durable now. This wouldn't come off just by the moisture in the air. It would take a huge downpour to turn his hair back to white.
From the corner of his eyes, he kept his attention on Elen who propped a sheaf of the morning's prints against the table. Underneath the wide-brimmed hat these spies typically wore to hide their eyes, his mouth moved along with the words he was absorbing. June almost rolled his eyes. There's no denying the spy wasn't reading the prints. Elen was reading something else. No doubt, it's the letter he got from Bitina.
After snooping yesterday in the information rings Elen had frequented, June overheard from a pack of poachers and bounty hunters that someone who snuck into a dead lady's house and stole a crucial information source had dropped it somewhere in the Commons Square. Incidentally, that's where June had found Elen the other day. When and where he obtained the letter was beyond June.
Nevertheless, Elen had read the contents of that letter. He knew something the High Queen was desperate to keep hidden. That's where June comes in.
The back of his chair creaked when he leaned back, tipping his cup between his fingers but never really looking at it. Tonight. It has to happen a few hours after sundown. June resisted the urge to smile. All of the things he was counting on were converging. Elen has the letter. He's planning on passing it to other people who might have a better use for that information. And he's planning to do that this evening.
