* * *
“Will you tell Gloriana I’m going out to look for Maddy?” Sylvia pleaded to Aurora ten minutes later, after she had gathered her things from the room she had rented.
The innkeeper nodded, but it was Jamesfeld who shuffled over to sit with the little girl by the fireside and began talking to her in a low murmur. Sylvia slipped out of the door without another word.
Despite her worry and anger over Maddy, the day was clear and bright, and the warm summer air wove lazily through the lanes as she headed toward the city’s main gate.
Sylvia didn’t think the Gate Keepers would have a record of Maddy’s departure, but they were sure to know where the girls’ parents had gone. It would at least give her an idea where Maddy might be headed.
Surrounded by a three-foot-thick stone wall, Lightcity was as protected from the wilds as any of the other Four Cities. Keeping citizens inside wasn’t a priority, as the empty lands with their roving beasts were enough of a deterrent for most.
She wasn’t sure how she would begin to track Maddy once she had some direction. She wished her friend Ven were here, but he was back in Meadowcity. Not only would he have made good company, but he was a skilled tracker; he made a fine living off what he caught in the wilds.
The main gate suddenly loomed above her, jerking her out of her thoughts. She had walked halfway across the city without knowing it.
Several Gate Keepers stood at attention on either side of the open gate, their attention focused on the wilds outside. Both massive wooden doors were flung open to the wide plain before Lightcity, until nightfall, when the doors would be barred shut against the wilds.
It took less than a minute for the young Gate Keeper to find the entries in his log-book after Sylvia gave him the names Jamesfeld had told her.
“Magda went to Skycity, and Roald to Riftcity,” said the Gate Keeper.
Sylvia wasn’t at all surprised when he also told her he had no record of Maddy’s departure. She didn’t say anything further, not wanting to incriminate Maddy just yet. Leaving the city was certainly something that could get her in trouble with her parents who were training her, but it was the city council who regulated their trade. If they found out she was breaking rules before even becoming a fully trained Rider, it could jeopardize the girl’s career before it even began. Sylvia was reluctant to jump to conclusions until she spoke to the girl.
After thanking the Gate Keeper, she headed back into the city, not yet ready to set out into the wilds, nor knowing what she wanted to do next. She barely noticed the shops and villas she passed as she walked, only the stones at her feet, and the bits of decorative glass embedded alongside them.
She thought back to her own Rider training, which had involved many maps and drawings at first—nothing very exciting until her father had led her on her first expedition out into the wilds. But she had waited. Perhaps Maddy hadn’t heard all the stories of disappearances and danger Sylvia had while growing up. Sylvia had heard enough of her father’s tales of near-misses—the tales that made her mother go quiet as he told them. But now her father was safely retired, and Sylvia kept those kinds of stories to herself, not wanting her parents to worry. Perhaps she would tell a few of those stories to Maddy once she found her. It seemed like she needed a good scare.
Finding herself nearing the inn, she turned away, not wanting to face Gloriana, Aurora or Jamesfeld just yet. Instead, she went back to Gloriana and Maddy’s villa. She didn’t go inside, but lingered at the door, thinking.
If she wanted to head to Riftcity or Skycity, she would leave by the main gate—it pointed west. Maddy must have left her villa right after Gloriana left for the inn, knowing Gloriana would be involving other Riders, and wanting to escape before anyone could stop her.
The feel of the sun-warmed door on her back was pleasant as she surveyed the surrounding neighborhood, thinking. She peered down the alley to her left, and with a small jolt, realized what she was looking at. The next lane over was a wider, main street lined with shops—which led to the warehouse district and out of the city near the quarry.
She pushed herself off the door and headed down the street, passing one glassworks shop after another. She kept her eyes from straying toward the fabulous displays of glasstech that Lightcity’s glassworkers were famous for—though she had been thinking of getting her father a new firestarter for a Summer’s End gift. It would have to wait.
There were few people about; most citizens were already well into their day’s work, and those who weren’t showed no desire to rush on this clear summer day.
Past the shops stood the warehouses where the glassworkers stored the raw materials used to make their fantastic creations: compounds, chemicals, and the raw limestone from the quarry used in glassmaking.
She was almost positive no one would have seen Maddy go out this way, but Sylvia was beginning to think that this was exactly the way she would leave the city if she wanted to be stealthy about it.
The gate at this end of the city was less ornate, but no less formidable. It towered high above the city’s wall, its doors flung open wide to the east. Gate Keepers were posted here, too, but there was no official record of the people who passed through—there were too many that went in and out to work in the quarry, and Riders didn’t normally leave this way.
Sylvia stopped to speak with the Gate Keepers, though her hopes were not high.
“A girl about your age?” the whisker-faced man posted on this side of the gate inquired after she had given him the description.
“A little younger, yes,” Sylvia replied reluctantly.
He reached up to smooth his mustache and thought about it. “Can’t say I’ve seen ‘er,” he finally concluded.
Sylvia huffed a little. No, it wouldn’t be that easy.
“Who’re you looking for?” a bald head poked around the gate, revealing a tall but thin Gate Keeper posted outside. “A girl?”
Sylvia nodded.
“What are you talking about, Morten?” the skinny Gate Keeper said. “‘Member that girl with the loaded pack headed out about an hour ago?”
Morten let go of his mustache and peered around at his fellow Gate Keeper, who continued. “‘Member I said she looked a little young to be a Rider?”
Sylvia straightened, her shoulders stiffening, but said nothing. “Ohh, now I remember,” Morten told her, resuming his mustache stroking. The other Gate Keeper rolled his eyes at Sylvia good-naturedly, and returned to his post, but kept one eye on the conversation and one on the wilds beyond the gate.
“She went through without a word,” Morten went on. “I said to Brown, here,” he jerked his thumb at his companion. “I said, ‘no manners these days in these young ones’. Not so much as a ‘Good morning’ or, ‘Hello’ or a wave, even.”
Sylvia snorted at this. “Do you know which way she went?”
“North,” he replied after a moment. Sylvia looked to Brown, who nodded in confirmation.
“Well,” Sylvia said, more to herself, “That settles it.”
Brown and Morten exchanged a look.
“Good morning, gentleman,” she called, and strode north out the gate.
Three