11 The chase

Minuscule. The chances were minuscule. Despite that, Cael wanted to find this man. After all… Maybe if he was more suspicious, he would've caught the spy the moment they've first met. Now he likely would be on high alert, while scouting the city's defenses, Gianni's forces and passing all that information to the enemy.

So, as hopeless as the task felt, Cael wanted to catch the spy again. Every day from now on, he would take a break from training after lunch, when he was still fresh, and walk around the city. He preferred to go near places that a spy might be interested in: the city gates, the soldiers' barracks, the granaries, and others.

There weren't many mages in the city beyond the Oliveira family. Most mages ruled their own estates, or gathered in their liege's court. Cael's father had a baron vassal and six knights, and except for Marco, they all have been busy elsewhere.

This left only free mages, as they were called. Those who refused to swear fealty to anyone and traveled where they pleased, sometimes stopping in courts of other mages to work. The alchemist Leonardo was like that, and besides him, there were many mercenaries and monster hunters.

But amongst normal people in Sanremo di Mare, they were exceedingly rare. Every mage with a rank above zeroth stood out if Cael focused on sensing mana. He couldn't feel mana farther than twenty paces away, but it was much more than a commoner would be able.

This was how Cael had found him. The spy's mana stood out in a crowd, even if the man himself looked as ordinary as before. He chatted with an apple trader, examining her produce.

Cael looked around. The marketplace, not very populous at this time of day, had a single guard, whose job was to catch pickpockets. Usually, there were two, but Cael knew his father had been gathering as many people as he could at the borders.

The spy had bought an apple and went to another stall. Cael walked up to the guard, watching the spy with a corner of his eye. He didn't seem alerted yet.

That changed when the man turned around and spotted Cael, who just approached the marketplace guard. Cael's eyes met the spy's, and Cael saw surprise shining in them… and then realization, as he glanced at the guard near Cael.

In the next moment, the spy changed his course, and with a calm, but brisk, pace walked towards the nearest corner.

"Soldier, alert others that there's a spy running away!" Cael threw at the guard, and without waiting for his response (with how dumbfounded the man looked, Cael would have needed to wait a long time), ran after the spy.

He weaved between passersby with agility that he, like his other skills, spent last week improving. At the same time, he read a spell under his breath.

"<Oh, winds that dance through the leaves, let my steps be as swift blowing breeze!>"

He finished it just in time—the spy was about to hide behind a corner. With the Windstride spell to speed up his steps, Cael quickly began to shorten the distance between the two of them.

They have left the marketplace and now ran through the city's maze-like streets. The spy was only a few paces away now, close enough for Cael to shoot an Arcane Arrow at, or charge and tackle him down.

Close enough to hear part of the spell the man was chanting.

"<…in your shadowy embrace!>"

This spell was not in his father's library. Cael slowed down a little as he felt the enemy's mana pour into a form. If this was an attack, he didn't want to run straight into it.

The next moment, he was grateful for his foresight. An ink-black cloud exploded outward from under the spy's feet, blocking the view of the entire street.

"Damn!" Cael felt the spy and his mana getting farther and farther away every second. One more, and he would leave the range at which Cael could sense him.

Cael thought about what to do. Charge ahead? What if the cloud was poisonous? The wind began to disperse it, but that would take too much time to happen.

He had to be smarter. Cael knew the city had only one gate, and therefore, only one way for the spy to escape completely. Since he knew he was exposed, getting out of the city before the news spread to all the city guards seemed like the most logical option to Cael. He might catch them by surprise now, but later they will be on high alert.

Cael hoped the spy thought the same way, because now Cael had a plan.

He turned towards a side alley, jumped over a fence, crossed a small garden (carefully avoiding stepping on the growing vegetables), breezed through another street, turned through another corner and, yes! The spy was just there, running towards him—towards the gates.

Cael grinned. 'You thought you could outrun me in this city? The city I grew up in?'

The spy scowled and, without a pause, turned into another narrow alleyway, and another. He pushed crates and barrels left on the street under Cael's feet, jumped over fences, trampled citizens' gardens, even so, the distance between the two of them rapidly decreased.

But Cael knew he really won when the spy turned into another alleyway. It was in the city's poorest district. The houses here were wooden, not stone or brick, and the pathway between them was just trampled dirt. But this particular alleyway, Cael remembered especially, because of the house that had walls painted a fanciful blue.

Also, because the alleyway ended with a dead end.

Cael slowed his footsteps, smiling. He sensed the spy behind the corner, and sensed that he stopped, too. The man knew he was done… But Cael doubted he would go down without a fight.