Cold Fire (Spiritwalker 2)

“My grandmother was not wrong!”

I crept out past a file of men coming to build on the half-finished rooms.

That night I went early to bed and slept hard. Bee came in late, and she dreamed, because at dawn before I even completed my yawn, she grabbed her sketchbook and drew with such focus and speed that I watched in awe. She filled two facing pages with a landscape of such splendor and detail that we might have been looking through a window: a calm lake surrounded by slender birch and sleepy pine, the flat landscape rimed with a thin carpet of snow; a rowboat tied to a rickety little pier; mist wreathing a wooded island. An indistinct figure stood on the pier.

She threw pencil and sketchbook onto the bed with a sigh of relief and scrambled up. “All right, now I can pee.”

I examined the sketch as she hurried behind the screen to the chamber pot and then back out to pour water from a pitcher into the copper basin. “Too much wine at last night’s dinner? What glittering notables did you associate with?”

She washed hands and face. “The professora was back last night. She asked after you again. Something about a story she wants to tell you about Uncle Daniel.”

I turned the page, but the next sheet was blank. “I want to hear it. She must be at the university. Bee.” She patted her face dry and looked at me, caught by my tone. “Bee, promise me. On Hallows’ Night, go to the law offices and ask for Keer. The maze that is troll town will hide you.”

She examined me, her gaze guileless and pure. “If you say so, I’ll do it. But I wonder how you can be sure.”

“Nothing is sure. But there are only twenty-nine days left until Hallows’ Night. I don’t know what the Taino can actually do. So right now, I think the troll town maze is the best chance you have.”

31

The week dragged past, for all I could do was wonder if Vai would meet with me and if the troll town maze could save Bee. If all else failed I would offer up Drake, but I wasn’t sure my sire would take him. I found a measure of peace by preparing a distillation of Daniel’s extensive notes on the legal congress presided over by Camjiata. Daniel had been a knowledgeable and astute student of the law, careful to note how the new legal code improved the condition of the general populace of Europa, and the ways it imposed restrictions.

On Mercuriday, the day before Jovesday, I stayed at the fencing hall after Bee had to leave for her language and protocol lessons. The fencing master had to scold me twice for too aggressively pushing in on an opponent, but the exercise calmed my foul mood.

I met Professora Alhamrai at the front door as she was coming down and I was going up.

“Peace to you,” I said by way of greeting. “Have you been in conference with the general?”

“He is out. In fact, I came to see you.” She fanned herself with a copy of my pamphlet. “I thought to invite you and your cousin to dine with me this afternoon. I would enjoy discussing your monograph. You may be interested in hearing about my meeting with your father.”

“I would be honored and delighted,” I said. It might also help the weary day pass.

“Gaius Sanogo will escort you. He knows how to reach my house.”

Visions of cells buried beneath Warden Hall bloomed in my mind’s eye. “The commissioner?”

She chuckled. “He will not be arresting you. He particularly enjoys showing up at this door to remind General Camjiata that the general does not rule in Expedition.”

I smiled. “Very well, then.”

o;We’s small fry compared to the fire bane and the leadership. That gal Livvy was at the meeting. She is in prison in Warden Hall with she grandfather.” He shook his head, mouth a sarcastic line. “And yet yee wonder why I cannot trust yee.”

There was no answer to that. Voices and footfalls neared from the main compound.

“I’ll return on Jovesday. That gives you two days.”

“Jovesday next,” he countered. “Nine days is soonest I can manage. If he agree.”

“Agreed.” Nine days was too long, but it was an offer. I drew the shadows around me.

Kofi sucked in a sharp breath. “Is that common where yee come from, Kayleigh? That ordinary women shall vanish that way? She is a witch.”

“Not the kind of witch you mean,” said Kayleigh. “My grandmother helped Cat twice. She never would have done had she found Cat to have a wicked soul.” With her stare she dared Kofi to contradict her, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. “Get the message to Vai.”

“I shall, because yee ask it. But yee’s wrong about that gal.”

“My grandmother was not wrong!”

I crept out past a file of men coming to build on the half-finished rooms.