Tamsin found the trail first, three days after Keston's refusal to accept help. One of her runners, a boy who worked the inn district near the harbor, mentioned an old man matching Keston's description meeting a foreign merchant twice in the same week, always after dark, always in the same quiet corner of a tavern that catered to travelers rather than locals.
"He's meeting Lien," Tamsin told Mercer, finding him in his office late in the evening. "I didn't want to believe it at first, but the description's too specific to be coincidence."
Mercer's stomach dropped. "Are you certain?"
"The boy's reliable. He's pointed me toward good information before." Tamsin's expression carries genuine worry now. "Mercer, whatever your uncle's planning, he's doing it directly with the man who orchestrat
