The Jack Hansard Series: Season One

Episode 9: Quiet Eyes

I ran, crashing wildly through the crowd. Snarls and growls followed in my wake - what's a few trampled toes and elbowed faces? - I was too intent on my goal to pay them any mind. I reached the spot where I'd seen her and spun round in desperation.

"Where'd she go?" I shouted, frantically. I threw myself into a nearby cluster of people, certain she must be hiding amongst them.

"Watch yourself, mate," said one of the surly men as I broke through.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and screamed into his face: "The girl. Did you see her?" With a stunned expression, he dumbly shook his head.

"What girl?" said a less easily fazed member of the crew.

"She was right over there! She has these... eyes." I floundered. Their blank faces told me I sounded as mad out loud as I did in my head. I shoved past them and into a new stream of people.

"Slow down, twpsyn!"

A tug on my coat had me stumbling. Another step and I was flat on my face. I groaned, little sparks of pain igniting in my wrists and knees. Small but heavy work boots came level with my face, and then Ang's piercing grey eyes came into view.

"Ye want a hand up, gwas?"

"Please," I mumbled.

She walked out of sight, and began to kick me in the side. "Get up," she said. "Get up, get up, get up."

"Ouch,stop that." I picked myself up, and rubbed what was probably a blossoming bruise.

"What you chasin' after, anyways?"

I scanned the swarming crowd distractedly. "That woman. The thief. You know."

Ang looked confused for a moment, then my words sunk in. "Where?" she hissed. "Wait 'til I get my hands on that light-fingered ast."

There were too many people. You could have your eyes trained on one figure and lose sight of it in an instant. It's the kind of crowd I usually love: easy to hide in.

Like currents in a river, people meander around markets in streams, weaving in and out and creating eddies where the two opposing courses meet. The best traders are islands and the currents move around them, even if the island decides to go for a walk.

People knocked my shoulders as they pushed by. I'm more of a pebble than an island. But the lady with the quiet eyes, she might as well be a grain of sand.

I laid a hand on Ang's bristling shoulders. "We're not going to find her now. It's too easy to disappear here."

"Well, we'll un-disappear her," Ang seethed. "We'll make her regret-"

"Later, Ang. Let's go back to the stall, make some money. We've got three days here, and plenty of people to speak to. Someone will know about her."

"Y'reckon?" she said, doubtfully.

In truth my sense of self preservation had just caught up with me. Chasing after that woman? Was I mad? We already knew from past experience that she must be powerful - she had the ability to hide from scrying stones and she'd bested a big old shellycoat on its home turf. I'd sworn off further attempts to try and locate her. Not worth it.

"She might have a reputation," I said, despite myself. "People with reputations incur a lot of gossip."

"Like that Mercer."

"Yes, like- What do you mean?"

"Heard others tellin' tales about him. When I was looking o'er his goods and saw mine own bluecaps there. Lots o' gossip about him, it seems. What's his reputation?"