Chapter 29

Eastmarket District, Oldtown

Goldeneyes woke suddenly. Something was amiss. The window that overlooked the street was open. She stiffened in her cot. Had she left it open? Or was it the Shadow walker? Superstitious dread had dogged the edge of her mind ever since her watcher had brought news about him walking the streets of Oldtown.

“You are jumping at shadows. Control yourself,” she muttered.

A voice came to her out of the dark. “Be at ease, goblin. I mean you no harm.”

For the first time since she was a cub, Goldeneyes squealed in pure terror.

A figure stepped out into the light. Her mind went blank with disbelieving irony when she saw the stained worker’s clothes and the red kerchief. She had sent a team out to capture the one being that terrified her. Had she been able, she would have strangled old Silverbirch on the spot. She moaned in despair. This was what came from ambition. She had killed her entire clan with her poor decisions. Her grandmother’s sister had given her counsel when street gossip filtered down about the Leprechaun’s demise.

“The Shadow Walker now involves himself in Oldtown’s affairs. Beware, he is not like any being you might have met. He has no desire for power or status or wealth. Do not test him if you value the clan. He will have no desire or reason to harm us unless we cross him. If you give him reason, he will not stop until every one of us is in a renderer’s vat. Even the Sidhe walk carefully around him.”

“Have you come for me?” She hated how her voice wavered.

At least die with some dignity.

Then realized that her fore-mothers would have cut her throat had they known she possessed such fanciful notions—dignity be damned, survival was everything.

“Not unless you are stupid. I mean no harm to you or your sisters and grandmothers. I want information, that is all.”

His quiet voice shifted her mood from panic to resignation with a bright sliver of hope. She allowed herself to foster it. It made no difference if he was playing a cruel trick. If he meant her dead, she was dead.

“Very well. What do you need to know?” She leaned back against her pillow. Her hand slipped under the quilt feeling for the dagger strapped to her leg.

It was gone from its sheath.

Of course, he had taken it. A giggle of hysteria erupted before she could bite it down. That it was gone, more than anything else, cemented the fact of her helplessness.

“I am searching for a certain Daoine, a renegade sorcerer. He has a thing I want.”

She gained a bit more hope. “He is under the protection of Silverbirch. I dispatched two of my sisters to tend to his needs. But, I do not know where the guild master has hidden him. The old guild-master keeps his secrets close.”

He nodded, apparently deep in thought. “I have another question, Mistress. You seem a sane being. Goblin-kind have ever been conservative. Why have you taken up against the old dragon banker?”

The question was so beyond her understanding that she couldn’t get a grasp on it. “What do you mean, taken up against the dragon banker? No being is that foolish or foolhardy.”

“Someone has cast a hex on the bank. I suspect that someone is the guild master. You and your clan are in the plot up to your necks.”

.Goldeneye had thought herself numb from the shocks that kept mounting this night. She had known Silverbirch was up to something, but never in a thousand years would she have imagined he was stupid enough to attempt moving against the dragon bank.

Her agile mind raced to the logical conclusion of his outrageous statement. She moaned again. Her clan would be the obvious scapegoat if he failed and fail, he would. The old dragon’s vengeance would be truly horrific. The very deviousness of the trap was magnificent. Then she thought there was no way the guild-master was smart enough to come up with it. Other beings were hidden behind the scenes. That thought frightened her even more. Her quick, agile mind raced for a solution. She needed an ally. The obvious choice was standing in her bedroom.

“Master, to my shame, I did not know any of this. How can I work myself and my clan free from the snare that my ignorance has gotten me into?”

“Well, Goblin, fair trade. I will make a bargain with you.”

Her curiosity surfaced through her terror. “What do you want?”

“First, when this is over, I want you to adopt a friend of mine into your clan. Second, tell me everything you know about this fiasco from start to finish and third, lend me one of your sisters to guide me.”