Chapter 1

Inquisitor Zenia Cham crouched atop a parked wagon, observing the brick

square in front of the Temple of the Water Order. Observing and waiting.

Pedestrians ambled through the area, buying from vendors, ignoring

beggars, and tossing pebbles into the dragon fountain for luck. Two boys

waded through the water, scrambled up the statue, and giggled as they stuck

their fingers into the dragon’s nostrils in an attempt to plug the streams

shooting out of them.

Zenia almost yelled for them to get off the fountain—that statue

represented the Blue Dragon founder of the Water Order and deserved respect

—but she had a greater criminal to catch.

“He’s not going to come back here,” her colleague whispered from behind

her.

“You’re doubting my ability to read a criminal’s intentions in his

actions?” Zenia arched her brows and smiled over her shoulder.

Rhi Lin leaned casually against the wagon’s dormant smoke stack, but she

also scrutinized the square from their elevated perch, her dark brown eyes

missing little. “I’m doubting anyone would be stupid enough to return to the

scene of his crime. Twenty minutes after committing it.”

“Judging by the nervous way he kept glancing over his shoulder, he knew

we were following him. And his hand strayed often to his purse full of stolen

coins. Those were hesitant touches. I believe he knows he won’t escape and

that he’s decided to return the offering to the temple charity plate in the hope

that we’ll let him go.”

“Your rock tell you that?” Rhi glanced at the front of Zenia’s robe.

Zenia’s dragon-tear gem wasn’t visible, but her colleague knew well that

she kept it on a chain around her neck.

“I didn’t need magic to deduce our criminal’s motives.”

“So, you’re guessing.” Despite the skeptical curve of Rhi’s lips, she

leaned forward onto the balls of her feet, her fingers curled around her bo staff. She was ready to spring into action.

“We’ll see.” Zenia smiled and turned her attention back to the square.

It was a guess, but after more than ten years as an inquisitor, and five

years apprenticed to an inquisitor before that, she believed in her guesses. Her

deductions. They typically proved correct.

One of the twin bronze-and-wood doors to the temple opened, their

massive size and height making the blue-robed figure that stepped out appear

diminutive. But the white-haired Archmage Sazshen was anything but

diminutive, and when she yelled at the boys to get off the dragon, they leaped

down and sprinted away so quickly they tripped over their own feet.

Repeatedly.

Sazshen gazed calmly after them, then around the square. Her square.

Uncharacteristic nerves trotted through Zenia’s belly as she realized the

temple leader, who was also her employer and mentor, might witness her

failing. What if she had guessed wrong? Sazshen would think it odd to find

her protégé sunning herself atop a wagon for no reason.

Rhi touched Zenia’s shoulder. “There he is.”

Before Zenia spotted their target, Rhi sprang from the top of the wagon.

She landed lightly on the brick pavers, her soft shoes not making a sound as

she sprinted through the pedestrians with her bo in hand. People hurried out

of the way, though she wouldn’t have knocked anyone aside. Rhi was five and

a half feet tall and as stocky as a dwarf, but she had the uncanny agility of an

elf.

She weaved through the crowds like a dancer, the six-foot olive-wood

staff a natural extension of her body rather than a clunky weapon, and if

people hadn’t made exclamations of surprise as she ran past, her target never

would have heard her.

But the gaunt man in tattered clothing glanced back and jumped, spotting

her sprinting toward him. Rhi had been circling as she ran, perhaps hoping to

herd him up the steps and into the temple’s great hall. But he took off down

the street instead, heading toward the wagon where Zenia perched.

She hopped down, not with as much agility as her colleague, but she was

ready when the man approached, bystanders scattering to get out of the way.

Zenia lifted her arms and stepped toward him. She had no great magical

attacks she could throw at him, since her gem only lent her powers that were

useful in sussing out clues and tracking down criminals, but she prepared to

shout a mental command into his mind, a compulsion to stop and surrender.

Before she sent it, he saw her and halted so quickly he tumbled to his

knees in front of the dragon fountain. Sheer terror flashed in his eyes, making

Zenia feel like some tyrannical troll that ate those who trespassed in its

territory.

The man was so gaunt and clad in such tattered clothing that a part of her