A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) đź“•
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- Author: Guy Antibes
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“Secret police?” Lissa asked once they were out in the street.
“Sound carries in the fog, so speak quietly or whisper,” Potur said.
“Why didn’t we come during the day if he knows we aren’t who we say we are?” Lissa asked.
“He is a drug dealer. If you didn’t notice, the shop sells candy, and he gets a lot of genuine business and drug business.”
“You are a drug runner?” Trevor asked.
“I come here just often enough to use that as my cover, but there are drugs illegal in Khartoo that are legal and common in Jarkan. Most of them are for pain and others… you don’t have to know about them. I get them from the garrison dispensary. They will buy more in the town. I’ve been supplying him for years. I have gotten some great information through his network.”
“He is a spy too?” Lissa asked.
“You can be a little more discreet if you want,” Trevor said.
“It is a ticklish thing because of his wife, but she legitimizes what he does. In Khartoo, anything can be legal if the bribes keep coming.”
“And the wife likes the money?” Trevor asked.
Potur nodded. “As well as her brother, but I’d rather go through Mak than through his brother-in-law even if he is likely the contact. Getting too close to the final contact is like delivering honey to a bear,” Potur said as they arrived at their inn.
“You gave him a good enough deal to pay off Mak and his contact?” Trevor said.
“Precisely. If you go directly south to the ocean and then back again, you shouldn’t have a problem being on your own,” Potur said. “I’ll see you here day after tomorrow. Get yourself a diver’s outfit. It is waterproof, warm, and black. Plenty of people wear the outfit in Khartoo. You can go out in the open tomorrow, but the day after, you will have to assume you are watched. Once you set foot in a boat heading to the magician’s enclave on the west side of the bay, you are on your own.”
Chapter Sixteen
~
W hen they walked around on the miles-long wharf, Trevor’s jaw dropped. There were clusters of piers all around the bay. Boats of all kinds bobbed on the waters. Trevor guessed that most were fishing vessels.
There were lots of people wearing the diving outfits that Potur described. They walked into a shop with a few of them in the window.
“I’d like one of those,” Trevor said. “How much are they?”
The shopkeeper quoted an outrageous price. Trevor tried to get her down, but she refused. They left the shop, frustrated. He stopped two young men, adorned with their own versions of the outfit.
“I’m from outside Khartoo,” Trevor began. “I went in there,” he pointed to the shop, “but they don’t have anything I can afford.”
“You look like you are from the mountains. That is a custom shop. All their suits are made to order. If you want a ready-made suit, go to that place.” One of the young men pointed to a more modest shop with more of the suits in the window.
Trevor bowed to the men, who just laughed and went on their way.
“You didn’t have to stretch to play the part of a naive young man in a strange city,” Lissa said.
“I suppose so,” a humbled Trevor said as they walked to the other shop.
“I’d like to buy a diver’s outfit,” Trevor said.
The clerk looked up at Trevor. “How much are you willing to pay?”
Trevor smiled inside. That was the kind of question he wouldn’t answer, but the sort of question he liked to hear. He responded by giving a price one-tenth that the woman in the custom shop had quoted.
The shopkeeper sputtered and countered with a price eight-tenths of the custom shop. They were getting closer to the fifty percent range when Trevor asked to try on the suit the man would sell him. There was another sputter. The man went into the back and pulled out four boxes. “Outfits have a close-fitting tunic, trousers, a jacket, and a hooded cloak. These will give you the best fit.”
Trevor tried them on, and everything was too short, especially the trousers. He’d look like a fool. “I’m sorry.” He put a coin in the shopkeeper’s hand. “Here’s something for your trouble.”
He walked back to the custom shop. “How soon can I get an outfit made?”
“Tonight is the soonest. We don’t have another order today.”
“I’ll pay eighty percent of what you quoted me. Your merchandise is much better than the outfits in that store.”
The woman looked at the other shop. She gave him a price ninety percent of what she originally quoted, but she would throw in a black knit hat. Trevor agreed.
“I’ll be here tonight.” He stayed and let the woman take measurements, but he made sure the sizing included his wearing the cuirass underneath the jacket. When he left the shop, he heard the woman call out to someone in the rear. “Hot order,” she said.
Trevor hoped he hadn’t been taken, but he couldn’t walk around with his ankles showing. They found a few stands around the docks selling seafood prepared in different ways. Trevor had never tasted saltwater fish, and he liked what he ate.
As they sat at rickety tables watching passersby, plenty of men and a few women were wearing the diving suits. Some looked worn, and others looked brand new. He noticed that some of the men brandished swords, but they were always worn at the hip under the cloak, and the jacket, with the coat, unbuttoned halfway up to fit the hilt.
It looked uncomfortable, but Trevor recognized a
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