Serpent's Touch (Serpent's Touch 1)

AMIRA

Iasked the taxi driver for a place to have breakfast and for a clothing store. He took us to Oxford street, promising us both. On the way, I asked him a few questions about the best way to get to Paris, and he helpfully listed the options from a plane, to the train, to the ferry.

The clothing stores turned out to be still closed. So we decided to have breakfast in a small café, waiting for them to open.

The waitress threw a curious glance at Kyllen, pausing at his hood.

“He can’t…um, look, you know,” I muttered an excuse for him. It wasn’t a lie. Kyllen couldn’t look at her. If he did, she’d be dead.

Compassion warmed her kind face. “Oh, I see.” She nodded, leading us to our table. “Would you like a menu in Braille?” She clearly assumed he was blind.

“Oh no. Thank you. I’ll just order for him.”

When she brought us our drinks a little while later—a coffee for me and a teapot with a cup for Kyllen—I asked her a few questions about the transportation, too. Since I had no phone or Internet access, I used helpful strangers to get information. Thankfully, the world was full of kind people ready to help. The café wasn’t overly busy, and the woman seemed happy to chat.

When she left, I leaned across the table to Kyllen, “I think a train or a ferry would be better than a plane, but there are complications with either.”

“Like what? What are the complications?”

“Well, we’re crossing the border to another country. They’ll be asking us for IDs, passports, some kind of travel papers.” I had none. Madame never had issues transporting her establishment to any country she wished, including me. I suspected she used magic for that.

“A plane is a flying machine?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Then I suggest we take a train.” Kyllen didn’t sound overly concerned. He sipped his tea, both hands wrapped around the cup for warmth. We had to get him some winter clothes the moment the stores opened. The poor man was clearly freezing.

“Why the train?”

“Because if I manipulate a train’s engine, I don’t risk plunging it out of the sky like a plane or sink it like a ferry.” That was a very convincing argument in favor of the train.

“I’m worried we may not even get onboard for you to manipulate anything at all.”

“Why is that? We have enough money to buy the tickets, don’t we?”

We certainly did. The issue wasn’t the money but the lack of documents.

“They check the passengers’ travel papers, I believe. Passports and such. They do that when people cross the border of another country.”

“How do they check?”

“I’m not sure how, but I don’t think you can manipulate anything in that process. It’s not as simple as the roulette wheel.”

“Why not?” He raised his chin in challenge. “As long as there’s any kind of mechanism involved, I can make it work the way that suits me.”

“Most of the devices used nowadays are electronic, not mechanical. They operate by sending electrical signals, not by springs and levers.”

He sat his cup down and leaned back slowly, spreading his shoulders wide. He looked as if I’d just personally offended him, and he was about to launch a defense.

“Look, I didn’t—” I started to explain, but he didn’t let me.

“Give me an example of an electronic device.”

“Well…” I looked around the room. “The two girls at the table by the window over there.” He turned in that direction, following my gesture at the two teenagers with cell phones. “They’re using smartphones, which are electronic.” I knew very little about the actual workings of a smartphone. I never owned one myself. Neither did I know much about the differences between mechanics and electronics. But I knew they weren’t the same.

Kyllen turned his head, sweeping the café with a gaze from under his hood.

“How about that thing?” He tipped his chin at the machine the waitress handed to a customer to process a credit card payment. “Is that electronic?”

“Sure,” I said, not too convincingly. I’d never used a credit card. Madame found cash easier to track and control.

When the waitress came back with our order—an egg sandwich for me and a bowl of fruit and yogurt for Kyllen—he pointed at the payment machine in the pocket of her apron.

“May I look at this device?” he enquired politely.

She blinked at him with a shocked expression, and I felt exposed as a liar for allowing her to believe he was blind. Silently, she handed the machine to him, keeping an eye on it.

“Hm.” He twisted it between his fingers. The screen of the device briefly lit up, then went off again. “Interesting.” He gave the machine back to the woman, who left promptly. “A curious thing.”

I dropped my shoulders, feeling deflated. Madame’s bracks might be after us. By now, the “fossilized” bodies of Rourke and his buddies must be discovered. What if someone connected their deaths to Kyllen? We might have Rourke’s people on our heels, too. Maybe even the police.

We had to get out of this city, but how?

“See.” I said to Kyllen. “Electronic devices are different.”

“They are.” He sipped his tea, reclining in his seat. “They’re much easier.”

“Easier?” I gaped at him. “How?”

“There are no parts to manipulate. All I need to do is send signals. No wonder electronic payment machines don’t exist in Nerifir. They’d be useless with how easily they can be manipulated by everyone.”

“But how do you know what signals to send?”

“I don’t. I just know what I want it to do, and I make it happen. Our bill is paid, by the way.” He grinned.

“What bill? The café bill? For breakfast?”

He nodded, plucking a strawberry out of his bowl, then tossing it into his mouth.

“But with what money?” I wondered.

“No money.” He shrugged. “I just marked it as paid. Can’t you see now how stupid these electronics are?”

“But the café management will figure it out.”