Page 26

26

CHARLIE

E ssa and Ollie walked me up to the Gray Brothers’ black keep. As we approached, the shadow of the tower fell over us and the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. The pair of hulking, black-armored Lacunae knights who guarded the gates did not acknowledge us as we approached, and no eyes were visible behind the eye slits of their helms. Creepy bastards . As if to underline the point, the wrought iron gates swung open without word or touch as we approached, creaking on their hinges.

“You sure you’re okay visiting the Prelate on your own?” Essa asked. There was a new coldness in her voice. Could it be because I’d told her about Kitty? But surely that would make no difference to her. A princess—a future queen of Maethalia—would have no romantic interest in me. And yet the glint of pain as she looked away from me seemed undeniable.

Ollie was watching at me expectantly and I remembered Essa had asked me a question. In truth, I wasn’t looking forward to being with Kortoi alone. However, as a spy, the chance to interface with my contact again unsupervised was one I couldn’t pass up. I already had another set of notes in my bag, ready to deliver.

“It’s fine,” I said, “I met him once already. He seems like a decent enough fellow.”

A spooky bastard was closer to the truth, but I didn’t say so.

Footsteps drew our attention and we looked over to find a pair of figures in light blue Skrathan cloaks with their hoods up being escorted out of the keep by a pair of Gray Brothers. It wasn’t until they’d emerged from the gates that I glimpsed their faces. It was Laynine and Braimar.

The lead rider’s eyes went wide when she saw us. “Essa.”

“Laynine,” Essa said. “I didn’t know you were friendly with the Prelate.”

Laynine’s face had gone pale, but when she spoke it was with a measured calm. “Of course, cousin. The Irska of the Skrathan must have friendly relations with all important members of the royal court.”

“Of course,” Essa said, with an expression that looked more like an animal bearing its teeth than a smile.

With a polite nod to me and Ollie, she slipped past us. Braimar followed her, giving me a crazy-eyed glare as he passed. Of course, I refused to look away.

Ollie and Essa exchanged a glance when they were gone, as if mutually acknowledging the significance of Laynine and Braimar being here at the Black Keep. But when he turned back to me, Ollie’s usual calm demeanor remained intact.

“I wish I could join you,” he said. “But the queen asked me to bring Essa back and I dare not ignore her command.”

“Mind what you tell him,” Essa said. “He is a person who will use every scrap of knowledge he has to his advantage. And don’t eat or drink anything he?—”

“It’s fine. Really. I can handle myself,” I said.

Ollie nodded, satisfied, but Essa gave me a lingering look as I turned away from them and strode through the gates.

The gray-hooded brothers said not a word, but ushered me inside and into the same sitting room where I’d met Kortoi last time.

I’d barely had a chance to survey one of the ancient maps hanging on the walls when the Prelate entered in a swish of dark robes.

“The Ace returns,” he said grandly. He must have noticed the panic in my eyes as I looked behind him. “Oh, don’t worry, Charlie. It’s true there are many ears in this place, but I control all the tongues. Your secrets are safe here.”

I forced a smile. The Prelate seemed taller than I remembered him, and the glint in his dark eyes more wild. He gestured to a table where a tray of cigarettes, a mug, and a steel coffee percolator like the ones from the airbase sat.

“Please, sit.”

I remembered Essa and Ollie’s warning, but the allure of the Prelate’s hospitality proved too much. I sat and lit a cigarette, exhaling a great sigh of smoke while Kortoi poured me some of his strange-smelling coffee. When I sipped it, it was even more delicious than last time.

Only one cup though, I reminded myself, remembering how lightheaded the stuff had made me before.

I reached into my bag and took out a cork.

“Before I forget, I have another message for you to send back for me,” I said, twisting off the upper part of the cork. I’d hollowed it out and placed small scraps of paper inside it, each filled with notes.

“How inventive,” Kortoi smiled. “Certainly, I will pass your message along, just as I did the last one.”

I placed the top of the cork back on and handed it over, proud of my spycraft. These notes contained some more specific ideas about how dragons might be defeated based on my observations. It also contained a detailed list of targets within the city along with a hand-drawn map.

“My contacts in URA were pleased to know you are alive,” Kortoi said. “And they are most eager to receive your intelligence. Of course, I share a good deal of information myself, but there are things the Skrathan keep even from me. Alas, the crown doesn’t always trust my Brotherhood. Bad blood, I’m afraid. But given your vocation and your access, I imagine there are things you can observe which perhaps my brothers and I could not. Your leaders hold high hopes for what you might accomplish here. And when the time comes, I will be ready to help ensure your safe return.”

“I appreciate that,” I said sipping the coffee. It was delicious, and filled me almost immediately with a warmth that spanned from my toes to the top of my head, making the world swim.

“It’s a nice feeling, eh?” Kortoi said, perhaps noticing the flush I was feeling.

I nodded, sipping again, and my eyelids fluttered closed for a moment. When they opened again, his face seemed closer to mine, his eyes disturbingly large. “This potion is one we use in our rituals, Charlie. It’s a little taste of the void. That is what our religion is about, you know—we Gray Brothers. Bringing the void into this world. Here on the earth, we celebrate our little handful of young, happy gods. But the void is teeming with gods, Charlie. Ancient gods. The vast, night-black spiders who spun the webs that hold the universe together. Minds that never cease thinking. Mouths of endless hunger. Hundreds. Thousands. All of them powerful. All of them hungry. They want to live again, Charlie. They want bodies .”

I realized my eyes had shut and I force them open. The world was spinning so hard I almost vomited. Instead, I laughed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’ll see, Charlie. You’ll see…”

My eyelids fluttered shut again, but his voice continued, seeming to grow louder in my mind until it displaced every other thought, every other feeling. “Now listen. When you wake up you may not remember this. But I want you to know. To know, in the back of your mind, where all the greatest and most important knowledge lies. A new day is dawning, Charlie. And when it comes the wars of men will seem as trivial as a raindrop in the sea. The time is nigh. And you will have your part to play, Charlie. We all will.”