Page 76 of Ogres Don't Play

He squinched his face and started massaging shampoo very thoroughly into my scalp. “After the, um, final performance, the music guild representative came to the hall and informed everyone that, well, you were never authorized to reopen Singsong City’s hall, that you were never the true music master.” He rubbed my scalp with slightly more vigor than was comfortable. “But you’re connected to the most fearsome guild in the country, not to mention the ogres. You can certainly contest their ruling. But do you still want to be Singsong City’s music master? You could sing with the angels, or go to Lastlight to learn from the elven masters. Or do whatever ogre royalty does.” He sounded so longing when he mentioned Lastlight.

“Tiago, I believe in music, and I believe that Singsong City needs to be brought together as it only can be through music. I don’t need the music guild to tell me what my calling is. If they don’t let me use this music hall, even after Rook and his artisans put so much work into making it into the gleaming stone beacon it should be, I’ll make another hall. I’ll set up tents on the street if I have to. That’s actually a good idea, so I can bother people on the streets about their duties and responsibilities to further the unity and nobility of their beautiful city. Music shouldn’t be trapped behind the walls of a building. It should spill forth into every street and into every heart.” Man. I was getting as melodramatic as Richy.

He peered down at me with his hands on the back of my head. “You really believe that?”

“If I didn’t, I’d still be singing with the angels.”

The tension in his eyes increased. “You shouldn’t be here without the ogres to protect you.”

“I’ve got Gavriel. He’s very capable.”

Tiago frowned while his forehead gleamed with perspiration. “You’re in terrible danger, Music master.”

“Tiago, are you…” My words cut off as Tiago shoved my head under the water and held me down.

I struggled, but I wasn’t feeling great and couldn’t sing my way out of this mess. What was Tiago doing? Wasn’t he the one who’d warned the emperor about the assassination? But how had that arrow gotten through my shield if someone on the inside hadn’t broken it at the exact right moment? Tiago was on my side, on the side of music, but he was also trying to drown me in my sink.

His hands loosened and I came up gasping for air, blinking water out of my eyes while searching the counter with my fingers for a weapon. I came up with a butterknife that I turned to see Gavriel struggling with the elf.

Tiago broke a potion bottle on Gavriel’s forehead, dripping pink sparkles into his eyes. Gavriel immediately collapsed and started snoring, leaving me to face Tiago, the first musician I’d recruited for my music hall, the one who I would have sworn was the most loyal.

By the look on his face, he was even more horrified by what he was doing than I was.

“Is it a compulsion spell?” I asked, edging away from him, holding my butter knife. I didn’t want to hurt Tiago. He was the most wonderful guitarist, and such a patient teacher, and not nearly as snobbish as most elves.

He jerked, like he was trying to stop his hand from raising. He had a throwing knife.

“Tiago, it’s okay. I don’t take it personally. I know that you’d never willingly jeopardize Singsong City’s music. Who’s controlling you?”

His face contorted. “I was exiled from Lastlight for treason. I’ve spent centuries wandering without a people, finding solace in music. You’re more than a music master. You’re my music family. It grieves me deeply to end your life, but my soul is bound to a monster that I must obey.”

He lunged forward and slipped on the soapy water Gavriel had spilled all over the floor. His lunge was so excellent, so forceful, that he entirely flipped, cracking his head against the hard stones.

I stood there, clutching a butter-knife with my one good hand and staring at the two fallen bodies. What were the odds?

A shadow filled the doorway and then the next moment, a gorgeous elven woman with perfect posture stepped into the kitchen, giving Tiago a sneer of disappointed disgust. Her sneer was so familiar. Ah, the monster he’d been talking about. I’d expected someone with fangs, not a chignon so neat and tidy that not a hair would dare escape. It was the princess from theMayor’s box. Also the woman from the mayor’s office the day the stone wall fell on me.

“Why are you trying to kill me?” I asked, feeling more irritated than anything. Taking someone’s will was vile, particularly an excellent musician like Tiago. Monster indeed. And she was a princess. Wait. Was she related to my grandfather, and ergo me? I was starting to sense a motive.

“Yes,” she said with a sniff of her perfect straight nose. “Try being the unfortunate word.” She brought up her hands and blue lightning started flickering above the skin.

“Hold on a second,” I said, stumbling back and stepping on Gavriel. Oops. “Why don’t we discuss this? Whatever reason you want me dead, I’m sure we can figure out a solution.”

She sneered at me while the lightning over her hands was reflected in her eyes, giving her a creepy glow. “Yes, the solution is very apparent. You’re going to die.”

“Because you’re ashamed to be related to someone with a green tint? Is that it? Are you racist?”

Her sneer was so incredibly eloquent. No, it wasn’t the color that bothered her. “You have no understanding of the world you blunder through with no plan, no thought, no care. You should have died on the field with your troop years ago, but no, you had to awaken grandfather’s magic and ruin everything. Manipulating that much magic should have killed you, but the ogre in you is too strong, too stubborn to die. Fine. If you need me to personally intervene, then I shall.”

I shook my head and slipped away from her. “You planned the attack that day? You’d be willing to kill thousands of people just to get to me? You’re insane.”

Her eyes flashed and she really did look on the far side of mad. “It’s a matter of the state’s security. Our people need a strong leader that knows what elves should be, thatiswhat an elf should be. You’re…” Her sneer was so incredibly communicative, particularly with the lightning.

I looked down at my unbandaged hand. The green tint wasn’t that noticeable. I thought it was sort of pretty. I certainly wasn’t going to cover it up with a glamour unless my dad wanted me to. I looked up at her and scowled. “If you’re what an elf should be, as a race you should be exterminated. How many of your other relatives have you killed?”

She snarled and threw lightning at me. Gavriel grabbed my ankle and yanked me down before I could be fried, but ow! Now my tailbone was hurting. Also, the cabinets were now hunks of char, flaking ash.

“Stay down,” he said to me with a terrifying scowl on his face. There was something weird about his eyes. Probably the glowing gold that made him look like one of the bad angels.

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