Page 30 of Magick and Lead
“He’s part of the peace delegation from Maethalia,” Kitty said. “You know him?”
I did know him. We’d spoken several times when I was across the sea, and every time he’d given me the damned creeps. Even though he’d helped me pass messages from Maethalia back here to Admar, I didn’t trust him. A coup had removed Essa’s family from power and killed her mother—and Kortoi had to have been a part of it. Which made him Essa’s enemy. Which made himmyenemy. The question was, what was he doing here? Whatever the reason, I highly doubted it had anything to do with peace.
“HE’S NOT MY HUSBAND!” the first lady screamed again, as many hands pulled her away down a hallway.
Bernstein entered our anteroom, clapping the door shut behind him and cutting us off from the scene beyond. Mopping his brow with a handkerchief, he gave us all a brittle smile.
“My friends, something has come up. I’m afraid we’re going to have to postpone the ceremony. I’ll be in touch to reschedule. I’m terribly sorry.”
He shooed us all out of the room as if we were a bunch of hens. In moments, I found myself on the West Lawn of the mansion, my head still reeling with questions.
What the hell had just happened? And what did it mean?
A valet was wheeling my motorcycle over to me. I took the handlebars gratefully, eager to be alone with the wind and the roaring engine, where I could think through what I’d just seen.
I almost gasped to find Kitty at my elbow. She’d snuck up on me, as silent as a ghost.
“Well,” she said. “How ’bout that ride home?”
I started to say no, but she gave me her big, pouty eyes.
“It’s an hour cab ride back to the city,” she said. “That’s if I can even find a cab at this hour.”
No doubt she’d plotted to be here with me, rideless, in hopes I’d take her in like a stray cat. But after what had happened inside, I was too disconcerted to argue. I just wanted to get the hell out of this place. With every second of delay, my unease grew.
“Fine,” I said, mounting the bike. “Get on.”
She mounted behind me, cinching her arms tight around my waist and wiggling her ass to get as close to me as she could. I took off like a shot, some devil on my shoulder, half hoping she’d fall off. But she held on, and we raced down the broad, tree-lined boulevards of the government district, back toward the city.
14
OLLIE
Ollie sat in the meager village square, on the porch of the town’s only inn, smoking a pipe, scrying in a cup of tea, and watching. He watched as the refugees from the other village were fed, treated for their injuries, cleaned up, and taken in by host families. He watched as Pocha and her crew of five Skrathan departed for Quorn, taking off with a majestic rustle of dragon wings, and he watched them return several hours later, bristling with irritation that their quarry had eluded them. He watched and listened as Pocha told Lure and Dagar what they’d seen in the village. The place was destroyed. Any survivors, gone. No sign of the witch and her horde.
And he watched as the conversation turned where he knew it would.
“Where’s Essa?” Pocha asked.
“Haven’t seen her,” Dagar shrugged. “I was with the little dragon all day. He only bit me once, so that’s progress.”
“Essa!” Pocha called.
Lure turned a circle, looking for her, and at last spied Ollie where he sat on his stool.
“Have you seen Essa?” Lure asked.
It was funny. Ollie had been here all day, and this was the first anyone had noticed him. It was a skill taught among Torouman, to be still and quiet and listen. But Ollie had perfected his ability as a child growing up in a palace where he was to be the loyal servant to a girl who was last in line for a throne she most likely would never sit upon. He was always forgotten. Always an afterthought. But he’d used his irrelevance as a superpower, a cloak of invisibility. He’d learned to listen. And watch. And he’d grown wise.
But he wasn’t irrelevant anymore.
He took one more slow draw on his pipe and then rose from his stool, stretching.
“Essa is gone,” he said. “She left this morning.”
“Left?” Pocha frowned. “For where?”
“For Admar,” he said.
