Page 148 of A Tower of Half-Truths
“Good,” Neldren said. “And since even the wizard isn’t dressed like a dandy—”
Alain scoffed.
“—let’s hope they’ll assume we don’t have anything worth stealing. But, seeing as you’re hauling four passengers, I reckon they’ll try to swindle you into paying an outrageous toll. Unless you’ve got a couple of human-sized compartments hidden backthere, I’m afraid it’s too late for the others to run off and hide.”
Alain’s eyes widened.
“I have an idea,” he said. He grasped Mavery’s hand, closed his eyes, and began to whisper something she couldn’t quite catch. From the chill trickling up her spine, she had her suspicions. Ellice cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Look, I understand wanting to say your prayers,” she said, “but I doubt the gods are going to be much help.”
Mavery leaned close enough to catch bits of the incantation Alain was reciting. It was intimately familiar. She turned to Ellice.
“Take my hand.”
“What?”
“He’s not praying, he’s casting a spell that’s going to turn us invisible, more or less.”
“ ‘More or less’?” Neldren called from out front.
“Trust me on this.”
She extended her hand to Ellice, who skeptically raised a brow before taking it. As the sound of galloping horses drew closer, Alain, Mavery, and Ellice’s bodies turned incorporeal and glowed with Ethereal light—just as Mavery’s had on that sunny afternoon outside Steelforge Towers. She could only hope Alain had enough arcana to keep them veiled until the highwaymen finished their business.
“Unbelievable,” Ellice gasped. Her voice was a distant echo. “Can they hear us?”
“No,” Alain said, “but I’ve modified the spell so that we can still hear them.”
“Should you need an anchor, I’m right here.” Mavery intended to squeeze his hand, but as their bodies were completely weightless, she felt nothing. She looked to Ellice again. “Don’t move.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” she muttered.
Evrard continued to breathe shallow, rapid breaths, despite Neldren’s mutterings about the importance of remaining calm. Mavery turned her gaze to the window, where a trio of highwaymen came into view.
Their leader, riding a bay horse, was a Nilandoren man with skin the color of rain-slickened shale. It was impossible to placehis exact age, but his salt-and-pepper beard and thinning hair suggested he was older than Neldren. Flanking him on a pair of roan horses were a man and a woman who had to be siblings, if not twins; they shared the same shade of chestnut hair and sharp features. The woman, like their leader, wore a shoulder holster bearing a pistol. The man had a longbow slung over his back.
“Afternoon,deydan,” Neldren said.
“We’re not in the Motherland,stranger,” the leader said sharply. He stopped his horse beside the driver’s seat. “We’re inmywoods, and I’ve never seen either of you before. What’s your business here?”
“Just passing through.”
“With an empty coach?”
“We’re—”
“I’d like to hear it from your partner.” He narrowed his eyes at Evrard. “Tell me, boy, what are you doing here?”
“We’re…we’re passing through, just like he said,” Evrard stammered. “We have a customer to pick up in, er…in Archstone.”
“Do you, now?” The leader leaned forward, resting his hands on the pommel of his saddle. “You see, ever since I became the toll collector of these woods, I’ve made it my business to know all the stagecoach drivers in this corner of the province. So, explain to me why, instead of hiring a local, your ‘customer’ would hire a pair of strangers who’re almost a half-day’s journey away.”
Beside Mavery, Alain’s body reappeared for a split second before turning incorporeal again. Her breath hitched, but none of the highwaymen so much as glanced inside the coach; they were focused solely on Evrard.
Alain’s transparent eyes squeezed shut, and his brow furrowed. The spell had run its course, and he was now prolonging it with his arcana. Mavery recalled the toll this had once taken on his body, though he’d been sleep-deprived after a long day of spell practice.
“I received the job in the mail, I didn’t question it. Er…sir,” Evrard said. Though his voice trembled, he was doing better than Mavery had expected. “How much is the toll? Whatever it is, we’ll pay it and be on our way.”
