Asher Converse's Arc

Chapter 29 of 30

The night JD stayed, Asher slept better than he had in weeks. But sleep changed nothing about the fight. His crew still didn't know when the enemy would come, and the new moon crept closer. So he called them down to the hidden room beneath the warehouse. Kael, Rowan, Tucker, Chalam. JD came last and shut the secret door behind him. Asher looked at JD. "You hear men plan lies. You've hunted this one before. So hear him. Tell us when he moves." JD leaned against the wall. "It doesn't work like that. I hear thoughts near me. Not across the town." "Then we bring him near you," Asher said. Kael's hand rested on his knife. "He won't walk in and think out loud for us." "He might," Rowan said. He'd been quiet, arms folded. "He's been sending men to find the trapdoor. They keep failing. He's running out of nights." Rowan lifted his head. "The rot in the grove smells worse this week. The seal's slipping. He has to open it under the new moon or wait a year." Chalam nodded once. "Rowan's right. The dark moon gives his magic the most pull. He comes then or not at all." "Three nights," Asher said. "Three nights," Chalam agreed. JD closed his eyes. He went still. The room waited. Then he opened them. "There's a man upstairs," JD said. "Sitting at the end of the bar. He's been counting how many of us went into the storeroom." JD's jaw tightened. "He's thinking about my brother's bracelet. He's the one who took it." Everyone moved at once. Kael was up the stairs first. Asher grabbed his arm. "Don't spook him," Asher said. "If he runs, we learn nothing." JD held up a hand. "He's not planning to grab it tonight. He's counting. He wants to know how many blades wait down here before he comes." JD looked at Asher. "He'll come the new moon. He just told me, without meaning to." Asher let go of Kael's arm. "Then we have our night." They went up in ones, careful, spread across the room. The man sat where JD said, a plain cloak, a cup he didn't drink. Tucker slid behind the bar and poured, easy, smiling like it was any night. The man watched the storeroom door. He didn't watch Tucker refill his cup with something to slow him. By the time the man's head dropped, JD had read all of it. The hour. The plan. The lodestone Chalam used to reseal the pit would fail under the dark moon, and the man knew it. Asher stood over the sleeping enemy. For weeks they'd waited blind. Now the waiting was done. "Chalam," Asher said. "Wipe the last hour like you did the door men. Send him back thinking he learned nothing." Chalam raised his staff. "We know his night," Asher said. "Now we set the trap."