Page 85 of Lux

And if I am a creature that Caspian glimpsed in the painting that upset him so, then what does it mean?

Nothing good. I weigh the possibilities over and over in my mind, and I barely notice when Altaris returns. Not until he loudly clears his throat and inclines his head toward the nearest building. “I am to take you around the back. Come now and be quick about it.”

Around the back, through an alley that is as neat and pristine as the main street and across a small, stone courtyard containing a fountain in the center and a row of benches. There, he leads us inside through a small door, far away from any prying eyes. A narrow hallway extends beyond it. It takes us up a flight of stairs and down another corridor, into an office.

There, a woman sits behind a stately glass desk. A pair of gold-rimmed spectacles are perched on her nose, and not a strand of her white-blonde hair is out of place. She could be a vamryre, sired by Caspian’s master, but her eyes are a soft shade of green. Not red or glowing.

“This is the specimen?” she questions, her gaze on me as she pokes her spectacles further up her nose. They magnify her eyes, making them seem enormous. Yet, there is a quiet undercurrent to her interest. It is unnerving.

It makes me uncomfortable.

“Yes,” Altaris explains, taking a black leather chair positioned near the desk—one of three placed in a row. “Darlings, this is Dinara Amaz. Formal introductions later. For now, come forward. Yes you, fae one.”

I stiffen at the sudden scrutiny cast onto me by both Altaris and the strange woman. Dinara. She eyes me, not like I am a piece of meat or a tool at her disposal to make a pile of coin. She looks at me as though I am a specimen. A book in the archive, butone with no cover, or title visible. The only way to decipher its contents is to peel them apart and scan them page by page.

“Yes, my dear. Do come closer.” Dinara waves me closer with a slim hand. She is small, barely able to see above the surface of her desk, but I am not fooled. There is a hidden grace in her posture that even Caspian picks up on. He inches closer to me, his thoughts guarded and on-edge.

Still, I approach the desk and sit on the chair she gestures to.

“Good.” She inspects me, her expression unreadable. Then she turns to Altaris. “You were right. This one is odd indeed, but I am afraid my price remains the same.”

“Non-negotiable,” Altaris snaps. Gone is the polish and poise. He is a haggling salesman, but for once he has met a price he is not willing to pay. A sum beyond any money, I suspect. Beyond any minor trinket, or heirloom he has gathering dust in his store. Something vital to him. Though he is a vamryer, he would rather die than part with it.

“Then we have nothing to discuss.” The woman folds her hands and plasters on a false smile. “Thank you for visiting D. Moure and Associates. Please take a complimentary mint on your way out.” She gestures to a bowl on a table near the door. Piled inside it are numerous small, white squares in clear wrappings.

Altaris scoffs. “Dinara, dear, I beg you to reconsider. Do you even realize what is at stake?” He sounds serious. This matters to him more than collecting contracts or shepherding his wayward vamryre does. Whatever he and this woman are bartering over, he wants badly.

So badly, he is willing to beg. Yet not badly enough…

“Either you have reconsidered, or there is no deal. Frankly, Altaris, you are wasting my time, and you more than anyone know how valuable my time is.”

The vamryre hisses. “You stubborn, selfish grimorer. The fate of the world could be at stake?—”

“You don’t give a damn about the world,” Dinara replies, smiling sweetly. “Neither do I. Now show yourselves out.”

Altaris stands, his chin in the air, eyes blazing. “You will regret this, Dinara. I hope for both of our sakes, you come to your senses before it is too late.”

He storms to the door.

I start to follow.

“Wait!” The woman’s voice has changed. Gone is her polite boredom. Her tone practically trembles with excitement and when I turn to face her, she’s leaning over her desk, her hand outstretched.

“Change your mind already, have you?” Altaris sniffs.

“This agreement will not be with you,” the woman says, her eyes swollen with interest from behind their golden rims. “She, however, has something interesting. Something I may take as payment. In your pocket. Let me see it, please. Yes, that one…”

My pocket? I reach inside the front of my dress and stiffen as my fingers brush a hard object. In the turmoil of the past night, I’d forgotten all about it. The fae stone dangling from a delicate golden chain. The one Caspian found for me.

“Someone has been snooping through items that do not belong to them,” Altaris remarks as I extend the object for Dinara’sinspection. He isn’t pleased, but Dinara nearly squeals with glee as she lunges for the stone, tugging it from my grasp. “Oh yes. Oh yes! This will do nicely. Nicely indeed. We may have a deal, after all, Altaris, do you agree?”

The vamryre grunts.

Dinara grins and raises her gaze to me. “Then we may begin. Take a seat, my dear.” She clasps the fae stone to her desk and shuffles from around it. I realize then that her already lacking height was aided by a cushion balanced on her black chair. She is even smaller than she first seemed. An adult woman in the slender, compact body of a fae Dawn.

“Face forward,” she tells me. “Close your eyes. This should be quick, I suspect. You talk in such terms of drama, Altaris, but she seems no less intriguing than any other fae.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Altaris snipes. “Just scry her mind and tell me what you see. I need to know all of the naughty bits. Every nook and cranny?—”

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