Page 97 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

I can hear you without that, he reminded me. How much did you manage to hear from me?

“Not much. Someone kicked me in the head.”

Radu sighed and tossed his own. His silky dark hair, at least as long as the average fey’s, shone in the sunlight. It wasn’t purple dipped, but other than that and being a paltry six foot in height, he could have passed for the guard I assumed he’d disposed of somewhere.

I’m sorry I didn’t reach you sooner, he said, but I only arrived last night. There was some trouble finding the thing, you see, as Mircea thought he’d put it in the safe at our Paris house, but it wasn’t there. Or the one in Rome or the chateau in the Alps. I finally found it in a desk at Hawk’s Nest—

“What?”

—and then had to make my way from the Cascades to Upstate New York the old-fashioned way, as the Senate blocked the portal system after that raid on the Circle’s HQ—

“Radu—”

—and then once I finally arrived, the damned—excuse me—our lovely consul wouldn’t let me go through. Her portal is still open, of course, but she’s angry that Mircea disappeared into Faerie and isn’t taking her calls—

“He’s lost in another world!”

Yes, so Dory tells me. I contacted her when I finally won through and heard all about her adventures. And now you and Mage Pritkin seem to be having a spot of bother here. I told him, nothing ever goes according to plan in this infernal—

“Radu!”

I guessed I finally yelled loudly enough to get his attention. Cassie, I already said you don’t have to scream.

Yeah, only I did; I really, really did. “What. Are. You. Doing. Here?”

What? Oh, didn’t you hear that part?

I gritted my teeth. I’d forgotten what talking to Radu was like. “No.”

Oh, well, just a moment. He began searching in a silk and velvet purse he wore clipped to his swordbelt, which didn’t look to be of fey make. But then, it didn’t look like the motheaten, tattered old relics in museums back home, either. It was a legit Renaissance-era purse that Radu had probably had in his wardrobe because he wore whatever the hell he liked.

I don’t know why men ever stopped using purses, he told me, casually reading my thoughts. They’re so useful. Pockets, he sneered. You can’t fit anything in those.

“Satchels are starting to come in for guys. Basically man-purses,” I told him, surrendering to the insanity.

Oh, yes, I’ve seen them. Huge, bulky, crossbody things, or else the dreaded “fanny pack,” he shuddered. Ruins the lines of any outfit you’re trying to—ah, here it is.

He held something up.

It flashed in the sunlight so brightly that, for a moment, I didn’t know what it was. And then I did, but I still didn’t understand. “What is it?”

The Ring of Water, Radu said, as though I should know what that was. Mircea sent it to you, or more accurately, to Mage Pritkin. He said it should help.

“Help how?” I asked, watching a sizeable sapphire glint in the sunlight. It was a pure, bright blue with no inclusions that I could see, and probably worth a mint, being set in a heavy gold band. But it meant nothing to me.

I’d never seen it before.

He didn’t specify. Just that he came across it long ago in England, and that it was one of the great relics of the ancient covens there. Oh, and there was something about stealing it from a vengeful witch; I don’t know. But it’s supposed to give the wearer great facility with the water element, which seemed appropriate here.

He looked around with some distaste.

At any rate, he called me mentally some time ago and asked me to locate it and bring it to mage Pritkin. But as I said, there was a spot of bother—

“Did he say how to use it?” I interrupted as it hit my palm because Radu could go on forever. It was as heavy as it had looked but just lay there, as inert as any other ring.

That likely wasn’t a good sign. If a talisman was powering it, I should have felt something, if only a background hum. But there was no sign of magic at all.

I tried to get more information, Radu fretted, but it’s difficult to communicate between worlds, even for us, and I assumed he would mention it when you were together at that dark fey city. You know, the one that blew up?

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