by Elsa, Sandra
Fist to chest in a salute, he said, “My honor, Sir.”
Jordan climbed into the front seat and we assumed positions in the back. I lay down with my head in Harrison’s lap and immediately closed my eyes. He ran his fingers through my hair and down my side while the other mages scrambled to their rides.
The moment the car pulled out, Jordan asked, “No question in your mind that was Flanders’ spear?”
“Not at all, Sir,” the driver responded, “about two thirds finished. If what they guess about the mess on the beach is correct, Flanders is lucky he’s alive. Might account for his unconscious state.”
“Will he get his magic back?”
“Stranger things have happened, Sir. Your nephew, for instance. He should still be a long way from recovering but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stronger.”
“Care to comment, Harrison?” I didn’t need to watch to know he rolled his eyes at the pointlessness of asking.
“Only to say it wasn’t us, Father.”
“He’s been with you.”
“Frankie has a lot of amazing friends.”
“That would take a mage. A mage with an unheard of talent.”
“Frankie has a lot of amazing friends,” Harrison repeated. “I don’t plan to give you the name or address of anybody I met through Frankie, so don’t waste your time.”
“Catching up with Jerry has been like trying to sieve oil from water.”
“He wants to stay with us. It’s not likely he’ll tell you anything either. You threatened him with treason. What possible reason could he have for helping you out?”
“His mother is still under my control—“
“And you wonder why you can’t convince Frankie to trust you.” Harrison did a poor job of keeping the disgust out of his voice. “You’d threaten your own blood—“
“I didn’t threaten her. I merely pointed out that she may ask him to be compliant.”
“She has. He refused. Face it, Father, we’re not pawns anymore. We have our own minds. I’m not sure I completely understand Jerry’s interest, and Frankie doesn’t trust him, but he’s been helpful to us from the night we picked him up. He’s willing to work. You always underestimated him.”
“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.” Jordan’s smooth tone suggested Jerry might be using them.
Harrison grated his teeth together.
I rolled my head and stared up at Harrison. “Don’t sweat it. We’ll just ask him. I’m sure your father employed his little, I know you’re lying to me spell when we first met. It’s bound to be in nullspace somewhere.”
“The suppression generator and your own pendant would have killed that long before it entered nullspace, whatever the hell nullspace is.” Annoyance carried clearly in his tone.
I felt the twitch of a swiftly employed spell as Jordan couldn’t resist trying to see if I was telling the truth and for the first time in my life I consciously snatched a spell and tucked it in a corner of null. “You’re right, of course, but there were a couple of other times.” I told him. “And that effort just added one to the inventory, thank you.”
“Aren’t you the clever little minx?” He sounded amused. “Fine. You’re right, Jerry’s a free agent with a fair reason to dislike me.”
“We’ll check anyway. Doesn’t hurt to be sure.” I closed my eyes again. “You might want to check Flanders’ known acquaintances. Both in District Seven and see if he knows anybody in Six-Two-Two.”
“Six-Two-Two?”
“That’s where the latest request for information about the first incident Frankie and I had down here, originated,” Harrison reminded him.
“Yes, of course.”
“And check anybody he might know who works in the registry. And Detective Alban, from HQ. Frankie trusts Rollick, and I trust Frankie’s instincts. She’s known him for over ten years. And somehow Alban took a personal interest in her when the Girlo incident happened.” I almost laughed out loud in sheer delight. Harrison sounded so professional. I doubted he’d ever heard of the Girlo incident before meeting me. “And now we spotted Girlo in this District, where we just happen to be. Seems a bit strange. Did they catch him yesterday?”
“Apparently not,” Jordan said, with a glance at his driver for confirmation. Dark-hair nodded and Jordan continued, “He is skilled in illusion, and as you yourself are apparently well acquainted with, being boxed in a District doesn’t mean you have to stay there. And I daresay you couldn’t even use illusion.”
Harrison stroked the hair behind my ear and said nothing, refusing the attempt to goad him into giving up more information. “Just promise us you’ll leave us alone, Dad. Even you should realize that attempting to control Frankie could be deadly.”
“Oh, I realized that early on in our relationship. Even before today’s little revelations. Do you think I wouldn’t drag you back kicking and screaming if not for her? If she hadn’t decided she liked what she saw I’d have had you within two days of your escape from the siphons.”
“Kinda figured you were waiting on grandchildren and hoping to mold them in your likeness.”
“Once again, it all comes down to her. Are you sure she’s willing to provide me with grandchildren. Seems maybe more the type to eat her young.” It was a turnabout from his previous assessment on my mothering abilities and he sounded more than a little smug. What was he up to now?
He was trying to provoke me into joining the conversation again. I let it roll over me. Except it didn’t, it stayed and niggled in my mind. What had he done?
“Frankie’s only tough and hardcore to her enemies. She didn’t accept me because she liked what she saw. She accepted me because I was lost and helpless like a newborn babe, sliced to ribbons from the glass I’d blown through escaping the siphon, and she took pity on me. It was an inauspicious start, but my talent told me to stick with her if I ever wanted to be happy in this lifetime.”
“And you’re happy now?”
“Blissful. It was a rough ride while we got to know each other…I have to thank you, by the way. If you hadn’t left her to crawl down that hill by herself, I never would have slowed her down enough to make her see past her hatred of everything mage.”
“It doesn’t bother you that she’s turned you into someone who can take a life?”
“In the interest of self-preservation, it doesn’t bother me at all. First kill did, I guess, if puking my guts out on the beach while doing everything she told me to do, like an automaton, is any indication. But I got over it. If somebody wants to attack me and mine, they’d better come ready for a fight.” I heard the threat in his voice. I doubted his father could miss it. I rolled my head and kissed his thigh.
“You managed to kill one man before she brought you down here for a shooting spree.”
“I wasn’t sure I killed him until Frankie told me about it. And I was so near dead at that point; I didn’t care what happened behind me, as long as I got out of there. I took a room to hide in, try to regain my senses and then a vision with a lovely pink aura parked in front of the motel I was staying in.”
“She doesn’t have an aura.”
“She does to me. Not magical talent. As already noted, I don’t see that. Pink is the color of soulmates to a matchmaker. I asked around about her, only to find out that she’d been looking for me. Had in fact been hired by the man who tried to kill me. When I learned she was a private investigator and most likely had pictures of me, I wanted to get them back before they fell into your hands. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid. Never even figured out they were siphons until Frankie told me.”
“You were set up.”
“I didn’t know that then. It came as a bonus that I had to interact with Frankie. Even if it was doing something guaranteed to tick her off. And to answer your original question, yes, we have discussed children. And yes, we’re both planning them, just as soon as our lives settle down.”
“And when do you foresee that happening? You’re both over thirty.”
“My god, you sound like Grandmother. Maybe you should leave us the hell alone so we can get on with our lives.”
Jordan leaned over the back of his seat and declared, “When you surrender your plans to me, you’ll have plenty of time to think about children.”
Finally goaded into joining the conversation I said, “We don’t plan to surrender anything to you. Without us, you can’t hope to continue your own plans.”
“Harrison’s talent would make the effort easier, but there are other means. More costly means to be sure but I will succeed.”
“You can only be talking about using machines to accomplish your will. I suggest you visit the antiquities museums. Machines killed our world the first time around. How, pray tell, do you intend to stop that from happening again?”
“I suppose you have a plan to deal with it?”
“We do.”
“Once it becomes known that it’s possible to live outside the domes, it will be impossible to control the masses.”
“They can only survive where they have water.”
“And do you think I’m the only one who will consider using science over magic?”
I shut my mouth. I hated it when he brought up valid points. Unicorns only went so far. What could we do to prevent rapid expansion? It would take a government and a watch. Probably a watch with far more lenient rules on their behavior than the good men and women of the current watch obeyed.
In fact it would probably have to be more of an army of enforcers. Men and women willing to do whatever it took to keep the world safe from repeating past mistakes.
“I see you thinking, Mrs. Kendrel. When you arrive at the obvious answers, maybe we’ll have something to talk about.”
“Why? Being voted into office three consecutive times by a bunch of apathetic idiots, doesn’t mean you’re the only person capable of running the world.”
“Then you’ve already hit upon it. I admire the way your mind works, Francesca, but do you really want the task?”
“Me? Dear god, no.”
“Harrison then?”
“No!” He answered for himself with the same vehemence I’d used. “There’s an answer and we’ll find it.”
“And who will prevent the ruination of the world?”
“Trolls.” I snapped out the first answer that came to mind.
Chapter 19
“Trolls?” Jordan Drover leaned back toward the dash as though by putting distance between us he could judge the facetiousness of my answer. I met his gaze straight on. “You try my patience, Mrs. Kendrel.”
Even the dark-haired driver twisted his head around. It was the first time he’d shown evidence he was listening at all.
“Why?” I asked Jordan. “I exist. Was I not fable until you met me? In fact a thousand years ago, you yourself would be a figment of someone’s imagination.”
The tight-lipped grin he gave me was accompanied by a narrowing twitch in his left eye. “Touché, Mrs. Kendrel.”
“But if you must know, I was being a smart ass. Why would I give you our answers to the problem?”
“I don’t believe you have an answer.”
“Do you think I care what you believe?”
His eye twitched again. “There will come a day when you care.”
“So what’s your answer? Firm government control. Death to those who don’t obey you? Dictatorship? Then you won’t have to worry that someone may stir up the people and convince them to vote you out of office.”
“I think you already know I don’t have sufficient control over the watch to accomplish that.”
“Nice. Not that you wouldn’t, but that you can’t.”
“They’ll obey me if it comes down from HQ. But even Hortimus questions some things.”
“Color me impressed. I always kinda figured Hortimus was completely useless.”
“You on the other hand seem to have considerable influence with them.”
“Hortimus doesn’t like me at all.”
“District Eleven barely acknowledged they knew you. We know that’s a lie. District Eight sang your praises, then stood by while Mage Jallahan took your belongings out from under my nose. Headquarters seems split, but those who like you, would do anything for you.”
“And those who don’t like me, have nothing to hold against me.”
“Chief Hortimus informed me you were foulmouthed and disgraceful and yet he sang your praises as far as your talent at what you do.”
“Did,” I said, allowing a surly tone to enter my voice. “Until some asshole insisted I meet with him on the slight chance I may have information about his thirty-three year old son who wanted nothing to do with him.”
“That worked out well for you.”
“Did it? I haven‘t had a paying case in over two months.”
“And still you’ve managed to kill over thirty people. You claim to love my son. Does that not appease you?”
“He’d have found me without your interference. He was pretty damn persistent. And before I left my home turf I rarely ever killed anybody. I didn‘t even kill those assholes in my office, though one of them definitely needed killing.”
Dark-hair caught my eyes in the rearview mirror, then flicked his gaze to his employer.
“I wouldn’t pay you if I didn’t want your opinion,” Jordan told him.
A curt nod acknowledged Jordan’s permission to speak before Dark-hair said, “The men in that office were ordered to capture if possible, but to not harm, and if things went poorly, to stand-down. Mr. Jamison had studied her sufficiently by then, we didn’t believe she’d damage anyone without cause, but Robards ended up with two bullets in him. He claimed she shot him twice without provocation--”
“Lying S.O.B. Kneecap nearly put us through the door, and that’s with me absorbing his spell, I’d guess he has some aspect of weather control, wind probably. The other guy tried twice--”
“I didn’t say we believed him,” Dark-hair said. “I was wondering exactly what he used against you.”
“Stopped him before he could cast, and there’s a lot I don’t know about magic since I spent so much time avoiding mages.”
“You don’t have his spells?”
“Nope. I never let him get them off. Cost me two silver rounds. Since I swapped out my nine for a forty-five loaded with silver while we dealt with your wolf.”
Dark-hair glanced at Jordan again. The president nodded, so the driver continued “What did you do to the Were?”
“Sliced him with a silver dagger, threatened him with silver bullets and tied his ass up.”
“With plain rope.”
“So I lied to him, shoot me. Kinda hoped he took enough silver from the dagger to keep him from changing if he figured out the rope didn’t contain any before we were gone.”
“He wasn’t watch,” Dark-hair said. “He worked for Mr. Jamison--”
“Worked for?”
“He quit.”
“Smart man. I suggested he find other employment if he wanted to be able to respect himself when he looked in the mirror. Guess he took my suggestion to heart. Of course I figured he was a watch lackey.”
“He was out of the room when you entered, so he didn’t see Hanson’s spell and he was already dealing with silver in his bloodstream by the time Robards tried his. Mr. Jamison would like to know exactly what he tried.”
“”Fraid I can’t help. I just told you everything I know.”
“You’re a private investigator, you don’t read lips?”
“Of course I read lips. Now ask me if I cared what kind of spell he was casting.”
“You don’t recall anything?”
“I recall he was aiming at me with his first one and if hand gestures indicate anything, both of us with his second.”
“What gestures?”
Rather than responding to interrogation with my standard, fuck-off-and-die, I actually concentrated on the day in question and dredged up what I could. “Three fingers up. Two down. S
ubtle movement, don’t think I was supposed to notice at all. Then he rotated his hand,” I paused to pull out details, “counterclockwise, then he pointed at me while he muttered--”
“Muttered?” Dark-hair prompted.
“Give me a damn second, there was a lot going on in the room. Three. Silicus. Whatever that means. Toving. It’s all Greek to me--actually I speak Greek and it means nothing to me. But I do recall those three words.”
“You’re certain?”
“I’m sure my school teachers informed you I have an excellent memory. There are a few things I just don’t seem able to retain, like names…nevermind…” They didn’t need to know my weaknesses. “I may not know what they mean, but yes, I’m certain of the words.”
“And the second spell?”
“Used his left hand because I’d kinda immobilized his right. He drew a circle with his middle finger, slashed through it with his hand, three dots across the top and a dash just below the circle.” Now that I’d put myself back in the room, the memories flowed. “He clenched his fingers together, figured the next motion would be a release and that’s when I shot him the second time. Words were, Mordicus. Trilom, So--”
“Stop,” Dark hair’s tone was terse and commanding.
Harrison’s arm squeezed my shoulder tight.
“Trying to kill me then?”
“Yes. And allow me to assure you he went against orders. Salas, the Were was actually in the room to observe them, moreso than to assist them. He made the decision to enter the fray when it became obvious you weren‘t going to be affected by a mage. He did relay your confidence that President Drover did not want you dead. We were heartened to find you did not consider our attempts to recover Harrison, a duel to the death.”
I was done handing them information. “So are Flanders and Robards acquainted?”
“Cousins,” Jordan said. I couldn’t believe he’d actually stayed silent while Dark-hair talked. Then again, Dark-hair was a member of his security team. Jordan was letting him do his job.
I took the new information and filed it away, then I laid my head back down in Harrison’s lap and continued the ride in silence. If the Were came looking for me, I’d have to give accepting him serious reconsideration.