Pali and his family had finally arrived in Eto. He hoped that this was where Salis was. Thanks to some news and strange rumors, he was hopeful, even if some rumors involved the rescue of people, which he sadly could not see Salis doing. Of course, he knew that the rumors might simply have combined two people into one.

The problem now was investigating the rumors. Since not even the Toa Mirr military, which had patrols out every night searching, could not find whoever was attacking criminals and soldiers finding the perpetrator themselves would be even less likely if he did this as well.

Pali had one advantage that the Toa Mirr garrison did not. He knew Salis' behaviors and tendencies, well many of them at least. He could not be sure how much she had changed in the last year but he was not too worried about that at the moment since it had only been about an hour since their arrival and they had had only barely settled in at an inn in a less run-down section of the city. Even so, he had already found out that it had been several days since the last attacks on any soldiers or unsavory characters.

It made sense that Salis would be doing nothing because their innkeeper had warned them about the increased patrols at night and that anyone found outside late were often arrested or at least beaten.

"This is going to be such a pain…" Dario said as the carriage pulled to a stop at the market close to their inn.

"I know," Ferra said, "listening to your whining for a few more days will be a real pain."

Dario shot Ferra an angry look.

Pali shook his head. It was sad how used to their bickering he had become.

"This is the best way to pick up information," Pali said. "Set up shop and ask about any rumors or hearsay while making some money."

"But this city stinks. Can we not set up shop in that village we passed on the way and let Meric come here do her snooping?" Dario said.

"You know that will not work, Dario. Meric would have to travel an hour each way and it would prevent the rest of us from helping as well." Pali said.

"She could at least have taken me with her to the more wealthy part of the city."

"She did not take you because you would have done something stupid," Ferra said.

"Probably," Calren said in agreement.

"I would not have! I have lots of experience dealing with government types." Dario said.

Pali knew that Dario would have been the best in the group that could deal with officials thanks to his real family being wealthy landowners but they were pretending to be peasants so that kind of skill would only lead to suspicion.

"It is exactly that reason that we cannot let you go. I imagine that most of the people here are familiar with the local landowners and higher ranking members of Toa Mirr society. Someone that they do not recognize that is educated would bring up suspicion." Pali said.

Pali was not sure if this were true, but he agreed with Ferra that Dario would make more problems than he would solve so he had used the best excuse he could find.

"I know, that is the fifth time you have told me. But I still think I should have gone with her to give some advice." Dario said.

Pali stopped the cart and gladly turned away from the children. He looked around for a moment, hoping to see if he could find someone that might be in charge of the market. He saw no one.

"Excuse me." He said, calling down to a woman sitting behind a stall close to him. She appeared to be middle-aged. Her face was worn and already had a fair amount of wrinkles. Her dark eyes appeared to lack any energy or brightness, not unlike most others he had seen in Toa Mirr.

"Yes?" The woman said after she looked him over.

"Could you tell me who is in charge of the market here?"

"No one. If you can find a spot, you can take it jus' so long as you pay tha' tax when the patrol comes through." The woman said and then spit on the ground. "Take all my money they do." She added, Pali barely able to make it out.

"Thank you," Pali said.

The woman waved him off and said nothing more.

Pali shrugged. He had noticed the people of Toa Mirr were all like this, but he would be too if he had to live here.

Pali looked around the market. It was already crowded with stalls thanks to their late arrival. It was not vital for them to set up their shop today and they could walk around town asking questions if they did not.

In a few minutes, Pali found an open space and parked the wagon there. It was obvious why the spot was not occupied thanks to its distance from any of the entrances to the market. There was also a decent amount of trash and other refuse nearby, making the area smell much more than the rest of the area.

"Oh, please no…" Dario said when he realized why Pali had stopped. "Did you have to park by that?"

"Yes, Papa," Ferra said, showing one of her rare agreements with Dario. "The smell is already starting to make my head ache."

Calren nodded his head vigorously in support of the other two.

Pali was starting to agree with them. The smell WAS horrible.

"Maybe you are right." He said and began to pull the wagon out of the spot.

As he did, so he noticed a group of peasants laughing at them.

"I will try one more market." He said to the others. "If we do not find a good spot, then we will wait until tomorrow morning to try again."

"The rest will be like this," Dario said. "This late in the day there is no way any good spots will be left."

Pali knew Dario was probably right, but he also knew the boy was saying it only because he wanted to get out of running a stall. He viewed it as being below his position and hated every moment they had done it in the smaller towns and villages.

"I still think we should try at least one more time," Pali said, wanting to do it more for tormenting Dario than for believing there would be an open spot.

"I hope Mama is having more luck than we are," Ferra said as they left the market.

"She probably already has taken over the city," Calren said with a smile.

"I can see that," Dario said.

"She is an amazing woman," Pali added.

"Oh, Papa," Helnion said, grinning at him. "Why do you wait to say those things until she is gone?" Helnion poked Pali in the ribs.

Pali blushed.

***

Meric was finally at the main barracks for the Toa Mirr army in Eto. She refrained from looking at the surrounding soldiers, most of whom either giving her lustful looks or jeered at her.

"What would a fine woman like you be doing here?" She heard a husky male voice say to her.

Meric looked to her right and saw a soldier standing close to her. He was not much taller than she but was well built and carried an air of command around him. Since she was still not very familiar with the rank insignia of the higher ranking soldiers, she was not sure what his rank was but judging from the quality of his armor and the cleanliness of it she knew his rank had to be fairly high, though his younger age meant it was probably not too high.

"I am looking for information on a bounty," Meric said.

"A bounty?" The officer said. "Bounty hunting is not something women should do."

"Is it illegal for women to be bounty hunters?" Meric said, a bit of anger creeping into her voice. Oh, how she hated men like this.

The man raised his hand and took a step back. "No, No. I just think it a waste for women to get themselves killed."

The man took a step forward. "Let me start over. I am Major Grthan, commander of the Fifth Patrol of Eto."

Meric looked at him for a moment. She did not want to become familiar with the man, but she might get more useful information out of him than she would if she asked someone of lower rank.

"Meric."

"Ah, Meric. An uncommon name. Do you mind asking my asking where you hail from?"

Meric was tempted to see what he would do if she told him the truth.

"I would rather not say." She said.

"Oh? Being secretive are we?" He said and eyed her again. "No matter, as long as you do not do anything illegal I do not care where you come from."

The man, Grthan, walked closer to Meric and then turned towards the building in front of them.

"Now, I believe you came here to get some information on bounties?" He said.

Meric nodded.

"All right. I will be more than happy to get the bounty reports for you." He said and began walking towards the entrance of the building.

"Is there any particular work you are looking for? Bandits? Runaway slaves? Murderers?" He said when they entered the building. He then motioned towards a door to their left and began walking towards it.

Meric reached inside a small bag at her waist and pulled out two folded sheets of parchment, then handed them to Grthan. He took them and unfolded them before looking them over.

"I see you are after some serious prey." He said when he had given them a quick look. "The Night Trickster and the Terran girl."

"Do you have any information you could provide for me?" Meric said.

Grthan opened the door and motioned for Meric to enter. She did and Grthan followed.

The room was not large but was lined with shelves filled with scrolls and the occasional book. It was not well lit but Meric saw a light crystal on the far wall.

Grthan went to the crystal and placed it in a slot in the wall, lighting it up. Meric noticed that the crystal was chained to the wall.

"Since you have chosen two of the more well-known bounties, I will not have to search for any records as I am familiar with these two criminals. The first is the Terran girl. At first, I was not convinced that she deserved such a high bounty but after hearing several rumors that she had killed several bounty hunters, and a noble, I think she was deserving of it. The family of the nobleman she killed has increased her bounty to ten thousand."

"Any word on where she is now?" Meric asked.

"No. She was in one of the large canyons north of the lake and was heading west but no one has seen her since she reportedly left there. I imagine she is heading out of the country or hiding out near a village somewhere."

"What about the Night Trickster?"

"Fully deserving of their five thousand gold bounty, I say. Using strange magic and tricks on soldiers before killing them. I think the Night Trickster is the same person as the Ghost Stalker. Some have even suggested that the Ghost Stalker might be the Terran girl thanks to several rumors that the Ghost Stalker is the size of a young girl."

Meric knew about the Ghost Stalker but there were only rumors and they did not even have a bounty so she was uncertain if the Ghost Stalker was even real.

"Do you think that is true?"

Grthan laughed. "Would it not be amusing? One person with three different identities? Not to mention that it would be a small girl that had done all the killing, even if she is a Terran."

Meric nodded. She knew how good Salis was with a bow and sword so it would not surprise her if the girl had done all of this considering only the more wealthy and soldiers in Toa Mirr would have received any formal training with weapons.

"And the whereabouts of the Night Trickster?"

"They have not been active for the last few days so I am not sure if they are still in the city. If they know what is best for them, they will not become active again." Grthan paused and thought. "Now that I think about it, I have heard no new rumors about the Ghost Stalker for the past few days either, but with our patrols having increased most criminals have been staying off the streets."

"Can you show me the areas where they were seen?"

Grthan nodded. "Yes. Let me get a map."

Grthan turned from Meric and headed to one shelf where he looked through several scrolls, unrolling each before looking at the next.

"Here we are." He said, holding up a large scroll. "I believe this is the most recent map of Eto."

Grthan then walked to a small desk that sat just under the glowing crystal and placed the map there. He then unrolled it and placed weights on each corner to keep it from rolling back up.

Meric joined him at the desk just as he finished.

"From what I can remember, the sightings took place in these areas," Grthan said and pointed to several spots.

"All of them are on the East side," Meric said.

"Yes, but the city is large and by the time we started looking for them seriously they stopped. We have been searching all the inns and hostels but there are too many places to hide and there are so many suspicious-looking people that it would be a waste of time stopping every one we felt was up to no good."

"You should do a better job keeping your streets clean."

"We prefer to let the commoners do what they want as long as they do not involve the state."

Meric was disgusted. She had seen how poorly the city was run. The only thing she had seen the soldiers do was collect "taxes" and bully the people, and she had only been in the city for a few hours. If they were like the soldiers she had seen elsewhere in Toa Mirr than it was likely they did much worse than this.

If Salis was the one that killed the soldiers she probably had good reason to do so, and if the killings associated with the Ghost Stalker were also because of Salis then she imagined those were probably justified as well. Salis may not have been the most likable child, but Meric had never seen her hurt someone, on purpose that is. Still, considering what the girl had probably been through in the past year, the possibility that she had changed for the worse was there.

"What of the Ghost Stalker? Do you know of any places they have been?" Meric asked.

"I could not say. There are so many murders in the city it is hard to place a rumor to a real crime, but because I think the Night Trickster and the Ghost Stalker might be the same person I have looked into it a bit."

Grthan pointed at the map and made a circle around part of the southern part and eastern part of the city.

"The Ghost Stalker appears to have a much larger area, but it overlaps with the Night Trickster's area."

"Can you tell me what the earliest rumor is?"

Grthan thought. "No. There are so many of them and they have spread so much that it has proven difficult to find out when they started, but I believe the Ghost Stalker was around for a few days before the Trickster."

Meric nodded slowly.

"Do you have any other questions?" He asked.

"None at the moment," Meric replied.

"Good!" Grthan smiled and clasped his hand together when he said it. "Then do you care if I ask a question?"

Meric resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow. What kind of questions was this man going to ask her? She hoped they were not about her likes or other things men liked to ask her when they were interested in courting her.

"Go ahead," Meric said, hoping she would not have to suffer through too much flirting with the man.

Grthan rolled the map on the desk back up and then walked back to the pile of maps where he deposited it picked up another map which he placed on the desk.

"Have you been to the western parts of the country lately?" Grthan asked as he unrolled the map.

Meric became suspicious, but she knew it was too early to tell if she should be worried.

"Why do you ask?" She replied, deciding she should reveal as little as possible.

"Oh, it is just that there is an even bigger bounty over there and was wondering why you would pass that up for a child and rumors."

"I did not think myself strong enough to fight those capable of taking out a heavily armed group of soldiers."

"Smart of you." Grthan straightened himself. "Now, if you have no more questions I assume you will be leaving?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you would not like to stay and perhaps eat a meal with me?"

"I am afraid I have other things I need to attend to."

"A shame. Maybe some other time?"

"I will consider it." Meric lied.

"Good!" Grthan walked to the door and opened it. "Do you mind if I walk you out of the compound? Many of the soldiers do not know how to behave towards women."

"I can handle myself."

Grthan frowned. "Very well."

Meric hurried out of the room. Grthan smiled again at her as she passed him, but she nodded back. The rest of the walk away from the compound, Meric was careful to watch everyone around her. Like before many of the soldiers jeered at her or attempted to touch her in unwanted places, but she could easily evade them.

The moment she left the compound she let out a sigh of relief. She hoped she would never have to be surrounded by her enemies like that again.