“Ja, maku!” Kofi rubbed his head as he staggered to his feet. “What was that?”
Vai pulled away without releasing me. “My apologies, Kofi. I am overwrought.”
“That is not what I would call it,” said Kofi. “Yee’s going to get taken down for assaulting a warden. Not to mention arrested for being an unregistered fire bane. I did not know anyone could do that. Is they dead?”
Vai barely glanced toward the wardens. “Only stunned.”
“I never saw…” Kofi eyed my sword warily but did not mention it, as if it would be bad manners to call attention to an object of such power. The light that gleamed along the blade was beginning to fade as Vai’s cold magic eased. “What yee going to do?”
Vai’s arm tightened around me as he started walking, hauling me with him. “I really can’t think past the unfinished business I need to take care of.”
“Vai, that is not thinking.” Kofi hurried after us with hands raised as if to show himself unarmed, although I abruptly realized by smooth lines in his jacket and sleeves that he was concealing at least four knives. “A bucket of cold water first, and then a plan. ’Tis possible the wardens did not get a good look at yee, but we cannot risk it. We shall have to get yee out of Expedition. What a disaster. I told yee she was sent to trap yee.”
We reached the heavy curtain that separated the corridor from the main hall of Nance’s. Before Vai could grasp it, another hand swept it aside. Beyond lay a churning sea of shadowy movement, the growling murmur of a crowd whose brawl has been dampened by an unexpected change in the weather, and Beatrice’s shockingly familiar and beloved face.
“There you are, Cat! The general promised me we would find you tonight. Did I miss it? You two kissing under the lamp, I mean. If you call that kissing! I would have called it more of an act of sexual congress with clothes on, and if you think that’s the kind of thing I want to dream about, you are quite quite mistaken. I swear an oath I will never again be able to look at you in the same fondly affectionate but innocent way. I woke up blushing!”
My legs gave out. Vai caught me as I sagged against him. My vision hazed into a blurry smear of light, and I thought I was perhaps finally fainting. But it was an actual light, wavering beyond Bee’s black curls and dear face. An actual lamp, kindled by James Drake. The fire mage was standing on the speaker’s crate looking around as if searching the crowd for someone. For me.
Against me, Vai tensed.
The crowd quieted like a hungry beast before it springs. Drake jumped down. Holding the lamp, General Camjiata climbed on the crate with the lamp ablaze as a beacon. By its flame he surveyed the restless murmuring crowd. Or perhaps he was letting them examine him, with his mane of silver-and-black hair hanging to his shoulders, his broad frame, thick arms, and powerful hands, and the sheer penetrating force of his fearless presence.
“Will you let me speak?” the general called into maw of the surly beast. “For I have something to say, if you will hear it. I have something to say which you do not expect to hear.”
Vai’s grip on me tightened. “Is he your father? Your true father?”
“Why would you think so?” I whispered, trying to answer in a question, but I could not make words fit together. My sire’s masked face swam in and out of my mind’s eye.
His words struck my heart like a deadly bolts. “Because it would explain why the Hassi Barahals wished to be rid of you. How you escaped from the custody of Four Moons House. The riots in Adurnam to cover Camjiata’s venture into the city. How you got here with his help. You going out this morning to confirm the plans! Kayleigh was right. How could I have thought so well of myself to dream it was any kind of spirit thread pulling us together? That I could feel your soul reaching out to mine? That our reunion was meant to be simply because I woke up every morning thinking this might be the day I would find you? You were seen to be abandoned in the harbor. All part of the plot to infiltrate the radicals. How easily you managed it, thanks to me and my illusions.”
“If you would stop to think, you would know that’s not how it was. You’re wrong.”
“There’s the truth at last. I was wrong.”
Upstairs, footsteps thundered as the wardens called for reinforcements and jailers. They had made arrests.
“We have got to go,” said Kofi. He halted dead on Vai’s other side to gape like a fish at the sight of Bee in all her sumptuous, poet-defying glory.
She offered him a smile that made him choke and take a step back as she stepped forward. “Cat, I despaired of finding you, but the general assured me he knew exactly where you would be when the time was right.” She looked Vai up and down. “Stunning jacket. Are you coming with us? You needn’t worry about arrest once you’re under Camjiata’s protection.”
