Page 72 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Sarna glanced over her shoulder at them. She hadn’t so much as flinched. “Sorry about that,” she said, without much interest, as if it happened all the time.

“No harm done,” Crow sighed. Then she looked at the mirror. Her expression darkened.

Patros was on the other side of the mirror. But the only clear part of the image was his face. Everything around him was a dark blur.

“That’s him?” Sarna asked.

“Yes…” Crow said, moving closer. “But where is he?”

Sarna squinted at the mirror. Her fingers flexed on the edge of it, and the image flickered, then changed. The images came in short bits and pieces, never too much at once. A room with stone walls covered in disintegrating tapestries appeared, then a window with a dark forest visible in the distance on the other side of it.

“He’s outside the city?” Crow said, frowning.

“Do you recognize any of it?” Sarna asked.

Crow shook her head. “Can’t you get a better view of anything?”

“He’s using some kind of dampening spell to keep people like me from getting too close to him. This is as good as it’s going to get.”

Crow frowned, dejected. “He could be anywhere.”

Sarna released her grip on the mirror. It fogged over, then returned to its natural state. “I’m sorry. I wish I could do more.”

Crow rubbed a hand over her face. She took a breath. “There is one more thing I wanted to discuss, actually.”

At that point, Crow pointedly turned her back to Vaara and spoke to Sarna too quietly for him to hear. Whatever she was saying caused Sarna to glance up at Vaara. He supposed Crow was inquiring about how she might make his binding stronger, or otherwise retain further control over him. He didn’t know why she bothered to hide it, as if he wouldn’t know what she was doing.

He was relieved when Sarna shrugged and seemed to offer no valuable advice. Crow merely nodded, disappointed yet again. They said their goodbyes.

Sarna waved from the back of the shop. “Come back and visit me again sometime, mysterious stranger,” she said with an arch smile.

He merely nodded to her as they left.

* * *

Vaara wassurprised when Crow brought them to a lavish hotel in the center of the city.

It was a massive place with cavernous ceilings, all gold and velvet and spotless marble. Everyone else in the lobby, and in the large sitting room adjacent to it, stared at them as they entered. Stared athim, that is. He saw a few of them move their hands over their purses as he passed. Crow, on the other hand, somehow fit in as easily here as she had at Garros’s camp.

He kept his head down. He didn’t doubt that they’d hold him down and call for the watch if they suspected what he was—customer service be damned.

Crow stopped beside the front desk. “A room for myself and my bodyguard, please,” she said.

The man behind the counter looked Vaara up and down. Vaara didn’t lift his head enough to meet his eyes.

“Of course, lady,” the man said, but then there was a pause, as if he was deciding whether to confront them over Vaara’s questionable appearance.

Crow set a heavy purse on the counter. “You can take out however much it costs,” she said sweetly.

The man cleared his throat. “Of course, lady. My apologies.”

“No apologies necessary.”

Money and words were exchanged. Vaara only half listened to their small talk. Crow took the man’s hand before they departed, he noticed. He wondered what she was doing to him.

She guided Vaara down a hall toward the back of the building.

“What is this place?” he asked.

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