Page 61 of Ties of Frost

“I’ve gleaned several bits of interesting information. What did you learn? And talk about?” Hopefully it wasn’t obvious I cared less about what they had learned than what they had discussed. I doubted they’d tell me the latter, though.

“We have a lead, but we wanted your opinion, so we went looking for you.”

The corner of my mouth pulled up, and I tried for my most flirtatious tone as I asked, “How did you find me?”

Zidra blushed. “You know very well how.”

Sajen chortled and leaned back in his chair, observing us as if thoroughly enjoying himself.

“I assume you know how as well, then?” I asked.

“Indeed.”

Did his crooked smile mean what I assumed it did? “Any thoughts on the matter?”

“The route is unexpected, but the destination is not.”

Sajen’s approval bolstered me.

Zidra slid down in her chair. “What matters right now is Rouven.”

“Agreed.” I drained my tea and stood. “But I am out of tea and out of coin to pay for more, so shall we discuss this back at the Haven?”

“Out of coin?” Zidra stood, and Sajen followed suit. “How? That old woman—”

“Was incredibly generous,” I said mildly. “I’m sure thecopper coins she gave us were incredibly precious to her. They don’t go as far in a port city as I imagine they would in her village—”

“You spent it all ontea?” she demanded.

I opened the door for her and Sajen. “Of course not. This wasn’t my first stop. I can’t loiter in an establishment without buying something. That would be terribly rude.”

“And that poor woman thought her donation would enable us to help more people,” Zidra muttered.

Sajen pressed his lips together, poorly hiding his amusement.

“It did!” I insisted. “Because my purchases enabled me to talk to several people, and those people gave me information that may help us help others. Maybe indirectly,” I admitted in response to Zidra’s narrowed side-eye. “But getting you healed means you’ll be able to help more people, and I have some interesting tidbits on Rouven and the league.”

That got her attention. She went from reluctantly trailing after me to striding ahead of me so quickly I had to rush to keep up, even though her legs were much shorter.

Once we were back in our room at the Haven, we tossed pillows on the floor and sat in a circle.

“What did you learn?” Zidra asked before I’d even fully settled.

“What did you two talk about?” I parried.

Her gaze flicked to Sajen, then fell to the wood-paneled floor. Sajen’s relaxed posture and neutral expression revealed nothing. Neither spoke, and finally I had to acceptthat whatever they had discussed, they weren’t going to tell me.

Which made me suspect they had discussedme, but it seemed I would never know. Annoying.

“We spoke to an ice elf ship captain who recently sailed down the coast,” Zidra said. “He said there’s an inlet partway up the Glacori coast that is covered in powerful ice magic wards and traps. The mouth of the inlet is sheer cliff faces, though, so there’s nowhere to dock. We’d have to fly in.”

“It seems dangerous, but worth checking,” Sajen said.

“That fits with what I learned.” I related the information about Old Frostbite.

“That settles it,” Zidra said. “We need to find a ship that’s leaving soon and will sail past this inlet.” She started to get up, but I held up my hand to stop her.

“First, though, I need to tell you about something Laine told me.” I repeated her story about Merchant Carlower and my suspicions about night elf involvement.

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