Empire of Shadows

24.

Anubis paced.

Lio tried to stop her by grabbing her shoulder, but she shook her head and stooped to examine the river bank. Vasco nervously stutter-stepped forward, crossing his arms before awkwardly changing positions. His hands needed something to do to distract him so he took up a terrible old habit of picking at the calluses on his palms.

"I know he's here." Anubis picked up a small knife from the mud, holding it up to the others. It was one of a pair, the other one having been thrown into an Inquisitor back in Dastberg. But it proved that Ketil had been here at one point.

Anubis dropped the knife. "He's been pulled from the river."

Jameson stooped by the carcass of a horse, examining the boot still stuck in the stirrups. "You don't suppose the river could have washed it up farther?"

"No." She looked to him with a sigh. "This is as high as the river will reach, unless it has rained heavily in the past few days—which it hasn't. Also, this knife was buried pretty deep in the mud."

Vasco shrugged in response, "not to mention the fact that there was a net spanning the entirety of the river and the horse was caught in it—judging from the net still wound on its legs—so that means he at least wound up caught in the net and therefore on the shore. But that doesn't solve the question of if he's dead or not, it just means he was here."

"I have interrogated some of the men at the village." Lio knelt beside Anubis, his hand briefly brushing across hers. "They say that two days ago was a festival day. No one was attending their nets, but one man was watching to make sure no thieves stole their catch. No one told me who."

Anubis straightened up, wiping her hands against her thighs and staring out at the river. "Then let's find the one man, yes?"

"And what do we do if Ketil is dead?" Raziel whispered. "What happens to our mission then?"

They were all silent.

"He's not dead," Vasco whispered, picking at a particularly thick callus on his left hand. "He can't be."

"And if he is? He's the only reason we were assigned to this mission, if he dies—" Raziel made a gesture that was a cross between a shrug and exasperated flourish. "What are we going to do? Place Jameson on the throne?"

They all looked to the man who was uncomfortably dragging the toe of his boot through the mud. "I don't think that would be for the best," he whimpered.

Dante glared at Raziel.

"None of us are Polarian, we don't know anything about Polaria, and furthermore..." he trailed off, eyes unfocused. "I don't even have a furthermore! Just look at us! We don't belong here. We shouldn't be here, this is outside of anything we've ever done. Let's just go home."

"No." Vasco's face hardened, barely hiding the small wobble in his voice. "We are not abandoning Ketil and we are not abandoning the riesun back in Rajsend. I don't care if it seems like all is lost, we have not lost everything. We still have this hope that we can change things. Everyone who has died at the hands of the Inquisition, doesn't have to die in vain. We've lost so much to tuck tail and run. Ketil knew that and we can't turn our backs on him! He wouldn't do that to us!"

The others were silent.

Jameson placed his hand on the man's shoulder. Vasco's eyes were watering but he desperately tried to hide it. He wiped his hand over his face quickly, chewing on the inside of his cheek until it drew blood.

"I'm with Vasco," Jameson whispered. "We can't go back. If I go back, I'm dead. Inspector Boucher will find me and kill me and I can't let that happen. And if we go back, what about the Inquisition? What will they do to you?"