As Dwayne got dressed, Mei waited with the carriage. On the other side of the street, people dressed in loose scarves of various colors had started shopping and eating and doing errands in stark contrast with her side where nothing and no one stirred. She’d seen people dressed like that before back in Walton.
Akunna stomped out of her apartment. “It’s like he ain’t never worn a dress before.”
Read more: Chapter 25: Xa-chou-ti-tsang-chin-ciada, Lion’s BeardMei pointed across the street. “Have you seen any windsong go in there?”
“Yeah, all the time.” The maid’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“I’m looking for one.” Mei hadn’t even considered searching the Plague District since mages should be able to afford better, but they hadn’t found Juanelo anywhere else so it was worth a shot.
“If you can’t find one there, you can’t find one anywhere.” Akunna glared at Dwayne as Rodion helped him out of her apartment. “Finally.”
“Thank you for helping me.” Dwayne reached for his empty hip. “If I can repay you in any way-”
“Just make sure you give me that dress back in one piece. No blood or tears.”
Dwayne cleared his throat. “I, uh, also apologize-”
Akunna’s raised hand cut him off. “Don’t. Just go.”
“Okay.” Dwayne allowed Rodion to help him into the carriage. When Mei didn’t follow, he frowned. “Are you coming, Mei?”
“No, I’m going there.”
Dwayne followed Mei’s finger to the waking Vanurian Quarter. “Oh. You think…?”
Mei nodded.
“Then good luck. I’ll see you back at Sanford. Let’s go, Rodion.”
When mage and steward were safely away, Mei said good-bye to Akunna, crossed the muddy street, and entered the densest part of Bradford she’d seen yet. The Vanurian Quarter’s streets were much narrower than those in the Bilges, leaving little room for carts and stands and so sellers sold wares right out of their doors and windows to buyers who had to sidle past each other to go down the street. Mei had to do so herself as she resisted the siren call of the sweet and savory and then found herself very lost. Apparently, only having a vague notion of where Juanelo had lived was not enough to actually find him. She’d need a sign so she looked up.
As numerous as the leaves in a trees, the signs on the buildings of the Vanurian Quarter promised food, drink, pens, something to do with lips, and so much more, but what caught Mei’s eye as she stumbled down the street was a sign graced with a green three-tailed maned panther. While the whole thing wasn’t at all familiar, its parts looked very familiar, and so by the time she’d made her way to the open half door that lay underneath the panther, she wasn’t surprised to find a lean bald woman in fitted green windsong leathers.
The windsong glanced up from her fingernails, saw Mei’s uniform, and straightened up. “If your noble employer wants something delivered anywhere in the Queendom cheaply, neatly, and discreetly, then you’ve come to the right place.”
“I don’t need that.” Mei pointed up at the sign. “That’s your provisional license symbol?”
“Yeah.” Toni crossed her arms. “Why?”
“Have you ever seen a windsong with a stamp of a yellow bird with a big tuft of feathers on its head and a short tail?”
The windsong took a moment to assemble that image in her head. “That sounds like Juanelo’s mark.”
Finally, Mei was close. “Do you know where he lived?”
“Did?” Toni leaned forward. “Why past tense?”
“Juanelo is dead.”
“By Phons.” Toni’s fingertips formed a sign and fell into praying hands. “He was doing good work. They’ll miss him around here.”
“Where did he live?”
“I’ll draw you a map.” Toni pulled out pen an,d paper. “The Ybarras live a few blocks to the south of here and it’s an absolute maze, and… Oh, Phons… They don’t know, do they?”
“I’ll tell them.”
Mei thanked the windsong, took the map, and made it all the way to the street corner before she processed what the windsong had said. Juanelo Rincón Ybarra had had parents, siblings, maybe even cousins, and what she had to say was going to wreck their world.
Admaeus Speaks 