I stopped beside the pasture on my way out, checking to see if anyone followed me. A few servants hustled between buildings, but no one paid me any attention. The cold hung in the air as if waiting for a breeze. I fed Kiki and the other horses some apples.

Smells? I asked Kiki.

Big snow.

When?

Half moon.

Three days. Valek and I would need to leave sooner than planned.

Kiki come?

Of course, and Garnet, too.

She sighed with contentment as I scratched behind her ears. When I felt certain no one watched me, I headed toward the south gate. I joined in with a group of town residents returning home for dinner. With my Ixian wool cloak covering my adviser’s uniform, I blended right in. My group hurried over the grass field surrounding the walls. The Commander had ordered all buildings within a quarter mile of the castle be destroyed when he had gained power. He also renamed Jewels-town, named in honor of the former Queen Jewel to the rather unoriginal Castletown.

Once we reached the edge of town, the group dispersed as the others headed for their homes. The symmetry of the town with its neat rows of wooden buildings conflicted with the asymmetrical style of the castle complex. The logical array of businesses interspersed among residences made navigating the town easier. Each district had a name matching the merchandise sold there. Peach Alley would be located in the Garden District.

A few townspeople bustled about, all intent on some errand. I walked as if I had a purpose so I didn’t attract unwanted attention from the town’s guards, who watched the streets.

The colors of the buildings thinned toward gray as the sun set. My perceptions shifted, and I felt as if I had entered into a colorless shadow world. The buildings transformed into a watery representation of a town populated with ghosts.

I stumbled over some unseen curb and snapped back to the real world. Dismissing the strange spell, I rationalized hunger as the culprit. I picked up my pace, determined to find the right address before the lamplighters came out. Peach Lane seemed devoid of life, and only when I went around to the back alley did I see signs of habitation.

A glow of firelight came from number forty-three. Keeping to the shadows, I approached the back door. I pulled a thread of magic and scanned the area. Inside the house I felt Porter waiting with two young girls. They were nervous about being found, but I didn’t sense any duplicity.

I paused as the realization of how much I depended on my magic dawned on me. Not only with searching for attackers, but with Kiki, too. Could I completely stop using my magic? It would be much harder than I thought.

The door opened right after my light tap, as if Porter had been hovering near it.

He pulled me into the room and closed it behind me.

“Did anyone see you?” he asked.

“No.” I looked around the room. Small and tidy, the sitting area had a couch, a chair and three dogs getting nervous attention from the girls. The girls perched on the edge of the couch with their backs straight. They wore students’ uniforms, which consisted of a simple jumper made of red linen. White-faced, their gazes jumped between Porter and me.

“You said I could help you?” I asked.

“We’re taking a big chance trusting you.” Porter picked up a half-chewed roll of rawhide from the floor. He clutched the dog’s treat in his hands as he stared at me. “You must promise not to tell Valek or anyone else about all this.”

“I can’t promise until I hear what ‘all this’ is.”

The rawhide popped and cracked in Porter’s hands. He glanced at the girls and sighed. His wide shoulders drooped with the release of his tension, and he gestured to the empty chair. “Have a seat. This is going to take a while.”

As soon as I sat down, one of the dogs came over and put his head in my lap. Peering at me from between his gray shaggy hairs, he pleaded for attention. I stroked his smooth head and scratched behind his ears. The dog’s tail thumped on the floor. The smell of wet dog and wood smoke mixed into a stuffy odor.

Porter tapped the roll on his leg as he talked. “I’ve set up a network of people throughout Ixia to help me in smuggling children out of the country.”

I leaned forward in alarm, thinking about Mogkan’s kidnapping ring and how he had taken children from Sitia to Ixia to abuse them for his own purposes. “Children?”

“They seem like children to me.” Porter gave the two girls a grandfatherly smile. “Adolescents who have just discovered their magical powers.” He pointed to the couch. “Young people like Liv and Kieran. I’ve been helping them to escape to Sitia before their powers are known to others. But I believe something has gone wrong.”

“What?” I prompted when Porter appeared to be lost in his own thoughts.

“I was in MD-7 last month. General Rasmussen has a nice wolfhound I wanted to breed with my bitch. While there, one of my contacts who works in the general’s stables told me the last person I sent through the network never arrived. And two others he had sent on never made it to the border contact. They have all disappeared.”

My stomach twisted around my heart. “Do you think Valek has killed them?”

“I don’t know and I can’t risk asking around. If my network has been compromised then I won’t be able to send Liv and Kieran. Eventually they’ll get reported.”

I hadn’t thought it possible, but the girls’ faces turned whiter. Considering Porter’s story, I said, “Tell me how your network operates.”