Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Chapter Rating: T

Warning: None

Collection Summary: No matter where or what they are, their lives are always entwined. KaiShin stories in fantasy settings.

Chapter Summary: A promising lead in the investigation of Toichi's murder takes Kaito and Shinichi to the home of the secretive Ebon Mages.

Chasing Shadows

[Castle Verse]

Part 11

Their last few days in Ebon passed mostly without incident. They revisited their favorite dining places and bought several more souvenirs for people back home. They did, however, realize that Shiho's disappearance had been noticed.

There was a sudden if subtle increase of uniformed city guards wandering the streets, and people were being stopped and questioned at random. Kaito and Shinichi themselves were accosted for questioning no fewer than five times by just as many different mages, and they both suspected that their rooms had been searched while they were out.

It was nerve-wracking to be sure, but, as far as they could tell, they were not under any more or less suspicion than any other outsider was at the moment, and the people who had questioned them had all been decently cordial if not actually friendly. And as nothing in their luggage was incriminating, they pretended they hadn't noticed that their possessions had been searched.

Still, they were both glad when it came time to pack up and join the caravan of various merchants and other tradesmen leaving the city. There was an unusually large number of them due to the recent festival.

It took nearly the entire day for everyone in the traveling party to get out of the city as every person, vehicle, and piece of luggage had to be examined by an Ebon mage before he, she or it was allowed through the city's magical barriers.

"Does this happen every time someone wants to leave?" Shinichi asked Ethan as they waited in the very, very long line.

Ethan shrugged, looking mildly puzzled. "Oh, well, they always check you then ask you for your token back, but the whole procedure is usually done by just one or two mages. But I guess I've never been part of such a large party leaving at the same time before. They must have brought in more mages to help expedite the process."

"I suppose that makes sense," Shinichi said more than a little dubiously as he counted nearly two dozen mages at the front of the line. If all those extra security mages were here to help speed things up, however, they were doing a poor job of it as the line was moving at barely above a crawl. It was either that or the typical process was a truly slow one indeed.

At around lunchtime, several wheeled carts selling simple, easy to eat foods and chilled drinks came by. After an entire morning of waiting in line, the refreshments were a godsend. Kaito, Shinichi and Ethan bought a handful of small pies, some sweet and some savory, half a dozen bags of roasted nuts, and cups of hot, sweet tea. They ate their purchases slowly for lack of anything better to do before going back to their seemingly endless waiting.

Finally, as the day dragged into late afternoon, it was their turn to be examined. A few of the security mages asked them a few questions while others, Shinichi suspected and Kaito knew for certain, cast a range of detection spells over them. Then they handed over their respective tokens and were waved on through.

With the hour already growing late, the caravan's wagons and carriages had been pulled up into a circle just outside the city's barriers, and people were already setting up camp. A series of large campfires sprang to brilliant life as the sky darkened to purple, and the aromas of various campfire foods filled the air. The three Oyumi representatives found a ready welcome in the bustling camp. They offered their help with setting up and cooking where they could and eventually ended up sitting at the largest of the campfires, eating and sharing stories with other travelers. Afterward, several people brought out instruments, and the night air filled with music.

The atmosphere was positively festive, and they all had a very enjoyable evening before they retired to their respective bedrolls.

Early the next morning, the entire camp packed up, and the caravan began making its slow and winding way out of the mountains.

Young Lady Shina had been asked if she wanted to join some of the other women in the caravan in one of the more comfortable wagons. Upon Kaito's urging, Shinichi had accepted the invitation and spent quite an unexpectedly informative day listening to several energetic young women sharing stories of both their own experiences in Ebon and their travels in other lands. As they were all related in one way or another to merchants and traders from a wide range of places, they were all frequent travelers, and Shinichi made several mental notes of updates he needed to make to some of the castle records about the current state of commerce in and between some of the kingdoms for which the castle's information was rather outdated.

When they stopped to make camp again, Shinichi bid his new friends farewell and set off to find Kaito. He had just spotted his magician's head of messy, dark hair when a child bumped into him. He looked down, saying a quick apology, and stuttered over his words as he recognized Shiho. Her hair was still black and she was dressed very similarly to the other youngsters in the caravan, but it was definitely her. Their eyes met, and the girl inclined her head ever so slightly.

Then they introduced themselves to one another like they were perfect strangers: him as Kozuki Shina and she as Haibara Ai. Then the little girl mentioned that she was hungry, and Shinichi offered took her to where Kaito and several of their fellow travelers were busy toasting meat skewers over one of the campfires and passing out the finished skewers out to hungry campers.

Kaito greeted Shinichi with a peck on the cheek and handed him a skewer before 'noticing' the child half hidden behind his legs.

"And who's this young lady?" he asked, giving no sign at all that he already knew the girl.

Shinichi introduced them, and Kaito fetched another sizzling skewer for her.

"Be careful," he told her. "It's quite hot."

"Thank you," the girl said with a credible portrayal of shyness.

From then on, they began seeing quite a lot of the girl. She presented herself as the daughter of one of the traders, and generally everyone took her at her word. There were simply too many different, unrelated parties in the caravan for anyone to think twice about exactly which one the girl belonged to. Though it probably helped that she wasn't the only child.

Unfortunately, several members of the caravan began peeling off halfway through the mountains as they were headed in different directions and needed to take different routes. As the number of travelers in the caravan diminished, Shiho's presence was bound to become more obvious and, by default, more suspicious. If she was too noticeable, she would be remembered, and if she was remembered, her former captors might be able to track her down again.

Shinichi mentioned his concern to Kaito one morning as they were preparing to set out again.

"Now would be a good time for that plan you said you had," he said.

Kaito cast a look skyward, frowning. "True. It should be about the right time too. I'll check. If everything's going according to plan, we'll need to get away from camp with Shiho for a few hours tonight. Pass along the message when you see her."

Burning with curiosity but knowing full well that the secretive magician wouldn't explain one second before he was ready to, Shinichi agreed.

So it was that, as the camp settled down after dinner for the usual songs and stories, the three of them slipped out of camp separately and met up in amongst the forested ridges all around the campsite. Those who saw Kaito and Shinichi leaving probably assumed they were off to find somewhere to be alone together.

"We need to find higher ground," Kaito said quietly as he led them farther and farther from the camp. "Somewhere without too many trees. I saw a good ridge when we were setting up camp. It shouldn't be more than an hour's hike from here."

"I hope you actually know where you are going," Shiho replied dryly. "Otherwise we are all going to break our necks, and it will not matter what plans you have."

Kaito chuckled. "Have a little faith."

True to Kaito's claim, they reached a high, rocky ridge roughly an hour after they had set out. Climbing up the ridge took some careful maneuvering in the dark, but they found the top of it to be a bare and fairly flat plateau of rock. From their new vantage point, they could look down over a sea of bristling, black trees to where the caravan's campfires blazed, a scattering of orange stars in the darkness. All around them, the jagged peaks of the mountains loomed cold, hard, and unforgiving.

"So what now?" Shinichi asked, tearing his gaze from the distant campfires to look at Kaito, who had summoned eighteen balls of blue mage fire and begun arranging them in a pattern above their heads. It took Shinichi only a second to deduce that the magician was lining the blue flames up to create two letters. His initials. A signal then? But to who?

"Now we wait," Kaito replied.

Shiho looked skeptical. "That's all?"

"Yep."

The girl looked to Shinichi, who shrugged helplessly. He had no more idea of what was going on than she did. So the three of them sat down on the rocks and waited, their faces cast in an eerie glow but Kaito's blue magical flames.

Kaito heard it first—probably because he had been listening for it. He stood up quickly, and that was when the other two heard it too. It was an odd, rhythmic sound like the flapping of enormous wings.

Shinichi recognized that sound. They were wings all right, but not the wings of a bird or any other mundane animal. And suddenly he knew exactly what Kaito had planned.

Understanding what was coming, Shinichi caught hold of Shiho and braced himself just as a powerful wind kicked up around them and a gigantic shadow descended upon their ridge. Ruby scales glittered purple in the blue light of Kaito's flames.

"A dragon!" Shiho gasped, eyes wide and stunned voice barely audible.

Kaito greeted the dragon with a broad grin and a welcoming wave. "Aoko! Thanks for coming."

"This had better be important," the red dragon grumbled as she lowered her great, spiked head to peer at the three of them with large, luminous eyes. "This is a long way to fly even for a dragon."

"I know, and I really am grateful," Kaito assured her. Quickly, he outlined what had been going on then gestured for Shiho to come forward. "We need to get her as far away from here as possible as quickly as possible in a way that will make her hard to track. So I was hoping you would carry her back to our territory. You can drop her off at my place and let my people know she's my guest and that we're on our way. But we have to go back with the Oyumi caravan to keep our cover complete."

Aoko hummed her understanding and turned her glowing, cat-slit eyes to Shiho. She studied the girl for a long moment then nodded to Kaito.

"I can do that. Don't dawdle though. And I expect a gift when you return." That said, she extended a forepaw to Shiho, instructing her to climb on then lifting the girl to a spot at the base of her neck where she could sit between two of the dragon's spikes. Once the girl was secure, the dragon bunched her hind legs then launched herself skyward. In a flurry of crimson wings, she was gone.

It wasn't until several weeks later that Kaito and Shinichi finally returned to Clover Castle. There, they were greeted by an enthusiastic welcome. Of course, they were also greeted by the mountains of work that had accumulated in their absence, but Kaito declared in no uncertain terms that all business-related matters were to be left for the morrow. The castle chefs prepared a feast, and the entire evening was spent in celebration.

It was only the following morning that Kaito called Shiho into his office. The two remained closeted in their for the better part of the morning. Shinichi was more than a little curious what they discussed, but his own work kept him far too busy to dwell on the matter. It wasn't until that night as he and Kaito lay cuddled together in bed that he learned that Shiho had accepted Kaito's offer to become a member of his staff.

"There's a lot we still have to go over and a lot we have to learn about her, but she'll be a valuable resource, and, as long as she stays on my lands, we can protect her. She swore an oath of loyalty to me and mine, and she will be working with you to create a proper record of the unique magic she knows and has developed."

"Did she tell you any more about her background?" Shinichi asked.

"No," Kaito admitted. "But I think you're right and she'll tell us when she's ready. In the meantime, Aoko vouches for her sincerity. Dragons have good instincts about such things."

Overall, Shinichi decided, he would call their trip to Ebon a success. They hadn't found as many answers as they'd hoped to, but they had found more than they had expected. And they had acquired a new friend with a vast amount of knowledge and skill in spells that were new even to Kaito. The next step would be to find copies of those books and see what they could learn about the group of mages who had left Ebon twelve years ago.

-End of Chapter-