“If you were a normal Regent, the answer would be yes,” Grady admitted. “But your age might change things. Your family may have a right to know at least a little about what you’re investigating, in case it puts you in danger. So you should probably double-check with the Council.”
“What about the Black Swan?” Wylie wondered. “The Council must assume I’m going to tell Tiergan.”
“Probably. But it can’t hurt to verify,” Grady suggested. “They may want all communication with the Black Swan to funnel through Mr. Forkle.”
“I guess I can ask,” Wylie said, shoving some Panakes blossoms into his pocket as he stood and pulled out his home crystal. Stina and Biana did the same, right down to collecting some of the healing flowers to take with them—which was smart, considering how many lives the Panakes blossoms had saved.
But Dex stayed seated in the soft grass, and it was clear that he was lingering for a reason.
Sophie had no idea what he needed, but for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel any awkward worry about it. Even when Biana noticed—and frowned a little—Sophie just smiled and asked her to let Fitz know she’d hail him as soon as she caught up on a few other things.
And once Biana had leaped away—and Grady had wandered off to help the gnomes with the gorgodon feeding—Sophie almost wanted to hug Dex again, so they could marvel at how far their friendship had come.
But that probably would’ve been a little weird.
Plus, she didn’t want to distract him from whatever he’d stayed there to tell her.
“So what’s up?” she asked as Dex stood and offered a hand.
“I checked in with Keefe this morning,” he said, helping her to her feet, “to find out when he wanted to go to the Forbidden Cities so I could set up the cameras to watch for that guy he remembered. But Ro started shouting in the background about chaining him to a porch swing. So he said I needed to talk to you, and then he launched into this long speech about how we both needed to bring him back a bunch of biscuits to apologize for ditching him—at least that’s what I think he said. There was a lot of talk about Jammie Dodgers and Jaffa Cakes and Digestives—no idea what those are. But he said you’d know—or that you should, and if you didn’t, I needed to tell you to be ashamed of yourself.”
“Uh, except I grew up in America, not England,” Sophie argued, even though she actually had heard of a few of those cookies—biscuits—whatever she was supposed to call them. But she doubted Dex cared about human regional snack variations. So she focused on the actual important subject. “When do you want to go?”
He shrugged. “Totally up to you. I know we have a ton going on.”
“We do. But Keefe’s missing memories are super important too. So whenever you’re ready, we should get moving on that.”
“I’m ready,” Dex assured her. “I know exactly what I need to do. I just need to get there. We could seriously go now if you wanted.”
“Now?” Sophie repeated. “You don’t need any tools or—”
“Nope, got all the tools I need right here.” He held out his hands, wiggling his fingers with a proud grin. “And it shouldn’t take me long either. Five to ten minutes, tops.”
“I’m going to interrupt right there,” Sandor said, stalking over with his hand gripping his sword. “Because I know what you’re thinking. And no.”
“I wasn’t—” Sophie tried to argue, but Sandor shook his head.
“Yes, you were. And I repeat: no.”
“I agree,” Lovise added. “No one is going to any Forbidden Cities right now. Don’t even think about it.”
Sophie hadn’t been—at least not seriously.
But… now that they were making her really consider it, she had to ask, “Why not?”
The sun hadn’t set yet, so they had time before she’d need to go to bed.
And she didn’t have anything urgent to do—which might not be true the next day, or the day after that. Things changed quickly when it came to the Neverseen, and the Council, and all the projects they were juggling.
If they actually had a free moment, they should probably take advantage of it.
“You need more time to prepare,” Sandor told her, grabbing her shoulders and pressing down like he was afraid she might try levitating any second.
“Do we, though?” she countered. “You heard Dex—all he needs is five to ten minutes. And our clothes aren’t that elf-y.”
She gestured to her outfit: a blue silk tunic with embroidered purple flowers along the waistline, paired with black gloves, black leggings, and knee-high black boots.
It might not be “fashionable” in the human world—or maybe it was. She’d been gone long enough that she had no idea—not that she’d ever really cared about that kind of thing. But either way, she knew no one would think she was wearing anything strange.
And Dex’s gray jerkin kind of made him look like he was wearing a vest—which would probably blend in super well in London. Didn’t their businessmen wear waistcoats?
She’d also definitely seen enough pictures of London to teleport them there—though she wasn’t sure which part of the city to head for. They’d need to go somewhere with a lot of security cameras, so…
Maybe Big Ben?
Or the Tower Bridge?
Or that big Ferris wheel thing—what was it called? The London Eye?
“Stop thinking about it, Sophie,” Sandor ordered. “It’s not happening.”
“What if I say you can come with us?” she countered.
Bringing a seven-foot-tall gray goblin to London definitely wouldn’t be ideal. But if it got Sandor to cooperate…
“I’m sure Grady has an obscurer we can borrow,” she told him. “And you can wear one of his hooded capes, just to be safe. It’s London—it’ll be foggy and raining and you’ll blend right in. But just you,” she added, glancing at Bo. Bringing an ogre to a human city would be a terrible idea. “It’ll be such a quick trip, I’m only going to need one bodyguard.”
“Exactly,” Dex jumped in.
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Lovise told him, grabbing his arm and pulling him to her side.
“Fine,” Dex told her, “we’ll get you a cloak too—though it’s seriously ridiculous. The whole thing will be super fast. I bet if we’d left already, instead of standing here arguing about it, we’d be back by now.”
“The length of the trip is not the issue!” Lovise snapped. “It takes seconds to deliver a killing blow or to steal away a hostage. What you need is proper preparation! We cannot embark on such an excursion without scouting the area, planning escape routes, gathering the necessary weapons—”
“Eh, you’re forgetting about the power of spontaneity,” Dex interrupted. “It’s the easiest way to stay ahead of your enemies: Don’t plan anything. Just do whatever you need to do the moment you need to do it and leave them struggling to keep up.”
The glare Lovise shot him made it clear she was not a fan of being spontaneous.
“Dex has a point,” Sophie insisted.
“I have a better one,” Sandor said, crossing his arms and straightening to his full height. “I can end this right now by calling for your father and asking what he thinks of this plan. Is that what you want me to do?”
“No need,” Grady said behind them, and everyone whipped around to find him standing with a bundle of swizzlespice—and Wynn and Luna bounding around him, begging for the treats.
His eyes met Sophie’s, and between the deep creases across his forehead and the hard set of his jaw, Sophie assumed Sandor was about to be very smug.
But after Grady finished unleashing a shoulder-heaving sigh, he mumbled, “I can’t believe I’m saying this—especially since I’ve only caught bits and pieces of why this needs to happen, but… assuming there’s a good reason, they might as well go now. They’re Regents, so the Council won’t punish them for visiting a Forbidden City. And Dex has a point about spontaneity. The Neverseen would definitely expect us
to calculate a visit like this for days—or at least hours. Going so suddenly—especially for such a brief amount of time—probably is the safest way to do it. And as far as the humans go”—he tossed the swizzlespice to the begging baby alicorns and reached into one of the many pockets lining his pants, fishing out a small black orb—“I’ve learned to keep an obscurer on hand, since I never know when you guys might need one in a hurry.”
“You’re seriously okay with this?” Sophie asked as he handed the gadget to Dex.
“ ‘Okay’ isn’t the right word,” he told her. “More like… I’m resigning myself to the fact that among a number of less-than-ideal options, this one might not be completely horrible. But I’d recommend going soon, before I change my mind.”
Sophie had to blink a couple of times to make sure she was truly awake and living this rare moment of cooperation.
“I trust you,” Grady told her, holding her gaze before he shifted focus to Dex and added, “and I trust you. And I trust Sandor to keep you both safe. And I trust that all three of you will be back in ten minutes. Not eleven. Not twelve. Definitely not thirteen. Ten—maximum. Which does mean that nine and under is perfectly fine.”
He unfastened his navy blue cloak and held it out to Sandor, who looked far from thrilled as he pinned it across his shoulders. The fabric barely hung past his thighs, but when he stooped, he looked kind of like an old, hunched man—with a quick glance, at least.
“And Lovise is going to need this,” Edaline said behind them, making everyone spin around again. She snapped her fingers to conjure up a bundle of thick black fabric and handed it to Dex’s bodyguard before moving to stand beside Grady. “That’s the longest cloak I own. You’ll still have to hunch, but it’ll only be for ten minutes—right?”
She directed the last question to Sophie, smiling when Sophie nodded. And Sophie was struck by such an overwhelming mix of shock, gratitude, and love for her adoptive parents that it nearly knocked her back a step.
Grady and Edaline had been through so much heartache, and yet they’d still welcomed her into their family, loving her despite all the stress and danger she’d brought into their lives. And somehow they’d gotten to a point where they trusted her enough to support a crazy plan like this?
It made her remember what Biana had said about Grady and Edaline being the family that mattered. And she found herself sprinting over and pulling them into a strangle-hug.
Grady laughed. “Don’t get too grateful there, kiddo. Remember, I’m only giving you ten minutes. Then I’m turning on the trackers that Sandor sews into your clothes and sending Bo after you.”
Bo flashed a rather ominous, pointed-toothed grin, and Sophie found herself needing to check with Dex. “You really can get it done that fast, right?”
He looked a little less certain than he had a few minutes earlier—but he squared his shoulders and told her, “I’ve got this.”
“You do,” she agreed.
“We do,” he corrected, holding out his hand.
Sophie gave her parents one more squeeze before she pulled away and reached for Dex, leading him through the pastures, toward the Cliffside gate.
She figured they might as well jump this time. Make it a true leap of faith.
And even though Sandor and Lovise were clearly less than thrilled with this development, they made no further protests—even when their small group stepped to the cliff’s edge.
Waves churned below, and a cold, salty breeze whipped through Sophie’s hair as she rallied her concentration and pictured where they were heading.
“Okay,” she said, grabbing Sandor’s hand as Lovise clung to Dex. “Let’s go to London!”
* * *
“What is this place?” Dex asked, squinting through the bars of the iron-and-gold gate, at the large stone structure beyond, which looked…
A little plain, if Sophie was being honest.
Sure, there were intricate columns. And rows of windows. And a very recognizable balcony. And Sophie was positive that if she went inside, she’d find an abundance of chandeliers and tapestries and antiques and paintings—not to mention the immaculate flower beds and pristine lawn behind them, along with a huge, fancy fountain.
But… after living in a world of jeweled cities and crystal castles, there just wasn’t as much sparkle as there should be—especially considering where they were.
She’d been planning to take Dex to Westminster Abbey, but as they’d crashed their way through the void, she’d realized that if they were looking for a spot in London with a lot of security cameras, Buckingham Palace was probably the best place to go.
“This is the queen’s residence in London,” she told Dex as she tried to find a less crowded spot to stand in, even though no one seemed to be paying them any attention.
Dex squinted at the palace. “Their queen is a white-haired lady, right? I think I saw some pictures of her when I was researching about the cameras.”
“Yeah, Queen Elizabeth,” Sophie said. “I don’t know much about her. Just that she likes little dogs and wears a lot of hats. And I think that flag means she’s actually here right now.” She pointed to the red, gold, and blue standard flying from a pole in the center of the palace, instead of the British Union Jack. “Same with the fact that there are four of those guys instead of two.”
She nudged her chin toward the four members of the queen’s guard, standing stolid and motionless in what appeared to be narrow blue houses. The soldier’s faces looked blank, but Sophie had no doubt their eyes were seeing everything, and it made her hope the obscurer was keeping them hidden—especially when she noticed their guns.
“So wait—the dorky guys in the red coats with the big furry hats are important?” Dex asked, covering his mouth to block a giggle. “And you had the nerve to complain about our Foxfire uniforms!”
“Hey—I never had to wear anything like that. That’s strictly a British soldier thing!”
“Soldier?” Dex repeated, frowning at the guards. “So… is that uniform supposed to be intimidating? Because I feel like if a dude marched up to an army of ogres wearing that, he’d mostly get laughed at.”
“Goblins definitely wouldn’t be able to suppress their snickers,” Sandor noted, his lips twitching with a smile.
“I think it’s supposed to be traditional,” Sophie told them, shrugging. “I don’t know. Like I said, I grew up in the U.S. Soldiers wear camouflage over there.”
Dex shook his head. “It’s so weird to me, the way humans divide up their own species. Don’t they realize they’d be stronger as a larger, united group?”
“I don’t think they care,” Sophie admitted. “They don’t know that they need to be stronger, you know? They have no idea that there are elves or goblins or ogres or trolls or dwarves or gnomes to think about.”
And Sophie was struck, in that moment, by how truly other she felt standing there, watching the crowds of tourists posing for selfies outside the palace, with buses and cars driving past and a light drizzle peppering her skin—and it wasn’t just because London was such a very different place from San Diego, where she grew up.
The air felt too heavy in her lungs—thick from all the pollution. And the smell of chemicals and car exhaust turned her stomach.
And the noise.
Even with her mind shielded from the bombardment of blaring human thoughts, everything was still so very loud. Shouted snatches of conversations. Sirens and car horns. The steady banging of some nearby construction project.
It made her truly appreciate how peaceful and calm the Lost Cities always felt, despite the problems her home was facing.
And yet, even with that thought rattling around her mind, she couldn’t help taking another look at the humans around her. And all she could see were smiles and hugs and laughter.
Humans definitely posed a challenge.
But… they were worth protecting.
Sandor cleared his throat, snapping her out of her strange musings when he warned them, “Y
ou’ve now used up one minute and thirty seconds of the ten minutes your father gave you. So I suggest you get to work.”
Dex nodded, leading their group along the perimeter of the palace, studying several of the black cameras before settling on one that jutted out from the wall on a hooked black arm.
“Can I get a boost?” he asked Lovise, who didn’t look thrilled about the idea of lifting Dex onto her shoulders so he could reach the camera more easily—and Sophie wasn’t in love with the position either, mostly because it would draw all kinds of attention to them if the obscurer stopped working.
Sandor kept one hand gripping his sword as he scanned the crowd for signs of a threat.
And Sophie stood there doing…
Nothing.
“Need any help?” she asked Dex, craning her neck to see what he was up to.
He’d pressed his fingertips against the camera, murmuring something under his breath that she couldn’t hear. And whatever he was doing made the camera flash.
For one nerve-racking second, Sophie was sure they would be spotted. But then Dex let go and told Lovise to put him down.
“Okay, we’re all set!” he announced, pointing to the panic-switch ring he always wore. “Now I’ll get an alert anytime their camera network records anyone who looks like that guy Keefe drew. Hopefully it’ll only take a few days for him to show up in the system. I’ll hail you the second I hear anything. And look at that—we still have at least five minutes to spare! Man, I’m good! Come on, Sandor, you can say it. Who’s the Lord of Awesome?”
Sandor gritted his teeth. “I’ll save any compliments for when we’re safely back at Havenfield five minutes early.”
Which definitely would’ve been the smart thing for them to do.
But Sophie had spotted a cluttered shop and decided that cheering up Keefe was a better use of that extra time. So with Dex’s help at a nearby ATM, she was able to make a very creative withdrawal through her elvin birth fund, and she used that cash to buy all the weird British biscuits that Keefe had requested—plus some called Hobnobs, and some called Custard Creams, and several bars of Cadbury chocolate, and a few boxes of proper English tea.
Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 8) Page 25