Page 90 of The Iron Hex

Carth somehow raised his eyebrow even higher. “Right... let’s say I did know where a memory witch was... how could I guarantee you wouldn’t execute her the minute you saw her? That type of magic is illegal, you know.”

Oh, Hugo knew. “The woman I am with would rather kill me before I could kill another witch, one of her own people.”

They locked eyes as Hugo said “another,” Carth instantly seeing Hugo for who he was. He gave him a hard stare and Hugo desperately hoped that the admission, small though it may actually be in a wild town like Luwha, was enough for the innkeeper to trust him. “There’s a woman in town, she runs the Crooked Carp,” Carth said eventually. “She’s got a map.”

“Where’s the Crooked Carp?”

“Heart of the town, near the mines,” Carth answered.

Shit. “And you can’t just give me the map she has?”

“Nope.” Carth clicked his tongue. “If I could, I would. But I’ve never even seen one of ’em. Tell Emilia that you need someone to help with a boil on their stomach. It’ll get you what you need.”

“Okay, well... that’s a lead. Thank you. If the Iron Retinue comes by just... tell them you’ve never seen me?” Hugo asked.

“Fine,” Carth said. “But if they force a search of the place, I can’t say no.”

“That’s perfectly reasonable,” Hugo said, pushing past the tavern keeper’s hand and walking into the building.

When he opened the door to their room, Eira had already gotten dressed and was waiting for Hugo, a bright smile on her face. Hugo dropped the bags of pastries without saying a word before leaving the room and rapping on Evangeline’s door.

“Get over here now,” he said, turning back into his and Eira’s room and shutting the door.

“What’s wrong?”

“I know how to get to the witch,” Hugo said, tearing open the bag and handing Eira a chocolate pastry.

“That’s great!” Eira exclaimed, biting into her croissant as Evangeline blearily walked into the room and locked the door behind her.

“You woke me up, you rude man,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

“I know where to find the witch, but six members of the Iron Retinue just rolled into town, and three of them looked like Soulless Knights,” Hugo continued.

“That sounds bad,” Evangeline said mildly, flopping into the chair across from Eira and digging through the bag before grabbing the plain pastry Hugo had bought for himself. He couldn’t eat right now even if he wanted to.

“Where can we find the witch?” Eira asked, focused on her solution and ignoring the clear and present danger Hugo had just outlined.

“Itisbad,” Hugo said insistently. “It makes me wonder if we should leave town and find a memory witch somewhere in Corisia instead.” He looked at Eira, gauging her reaction to what he’d proposed. They could slip out of Luwha right now and avoid what was nearly guaranteed to be a lethal fight, but Eira’s memory would stay gone.

Evangeline, for once, didn’t speak as they both watched Eira pick at her croissant.

“I don’t want to leave without getting my memory back,” Eira said, lifting her eyes and looking at the both of them.

“This fight could very likely kill us all,” Hugo said.

“Not if we plan well and ambush the Iron Retinue soldiers,” Eira retorted.

“Even then, there were six of them I saw... and that doesn’t include any city guards that may come after us as well.”

“He has a point, Eira,” Evangeline chimed in. “There are probably nonpersecuted memory witches in Corisia that we could find. I think we all know that Corisian witches are less powerful, but perhaps they could still figure it out? You know that’s not what I want, but... I want you alive more than I want your memories back.”

“I find it funny that both of you, who haven’t had to deal with the turmoil of not knowing what your entire life was like before three years ago, even think you get an opinion here,” Eira snapped, rage flickering behind her eyes. Hugo had seen that rage before once, and only once—the night of the uprising. He felt sick as he recalled that conversation, one of the few things he wasn’t ready for Eira to remember.

“Hugo,” Eira said. “I’m going to go and get my memories back. With or without you.”

The guilt hit him like a brick. They’d brought her all the way here, gotten her hopes up, just for them to talk about ripping it away.

“Fine,” he said. “We’ll go. We just need to get a map from a tavern owner in the town center, and then we’ll have our way to get to her. But we have to be smart about it.”