Page 23

“I’m sure Steiner will fill you in,” he says, pausing outside an iron door that’s across from the one Andor and I exited last night into the back orchard.

He knocks lightly on the door and gives me yet another patient smile, though it’s hard to read his face as anything but menacing with those two gold orbs staring at me, seeing but not seeing.

The door opens and a bleary-eyed Steiner is on the other side, a mug of something hot and steaming in his hand, the aroma rich and foreign.

“I have Lady Aihr to see you,” Sae Belak says in his whispery voice. “And her loyal hound. Do you have any findings on the new growth?”

Steiner rubs his chin and yawns. “Not yet. Perhaps tomorrow. I’ll find you when I do.”

“That would be appreciated,” Sae Belak says with a slight bow before leaving back down the hall, his robes fluttering behind him.

I look back to Steiner. “Good morning,” I say to him, suddenly feeling awkward. “I’m not sure how that gold-eyed man knew I wanted to meet with you this morning, but he insisted he bring me here.”

“Sae Belak? He knows a lot,” Steiner says mildly, and then steps back, gesturing for me to come inside.

Unlike the more tailored garments he was wearing at dinner last night, he’s now dressed in a black smock that covers him to his knees, burgundy red pants beneath.

“Andor mentioned last night after dinner that he wanted to bring you by the lab. I’m surprised he’s not here. ”

“I haven’t seen him,” I say, stepping inside the room. “Sleeping, perhaps? Everything is so quiet out there.”

Steiner smiles knowingly. “More like hiding. My father is grouchy if he’s woken up before a certain time. He’s a night owl. We all take our breakfasts in our rooms so as not to disturb him.” He looks down at Lemi. “And how is your dog with cats?”

“It depends on the cat,” I admit, lightly scratching my nails over Lemi’s head in a comforting manner.

“Do you want him to stay outside? I wouldn’t want him to run around your lab and knock stuff over.

He’s not used to being in delicate spaces.

” I can barely see the lab myself, it’s so dark inside this room, but I have a feeling everything that’s stocked on the shelves and laid along the tables is of high importance.

“It’s probably better for him to be in here, where you can watch him and where he’s safe,” he says pointedly, and I know he’s concerned about his uncle or father doing something. “Woo-woo is outside harassing the chickens in the yard anyway. Woo-woo is my cat.”

I nod and he strolls behind me and closes the door. For a moment I feel a flicker of fear about being shut in here in near darkness, but Steiner himself doesn’t seem like he could do me much harm.

“Do you always work in the dark?” I ask, nodding at the single small candle that’s halfway across the room.

“Sorry, I forget that not everyone can see in the dark,” he says, going over to a long, low desk and lighting a couple of candles that sit in a brass holder emblazoned with a stag.

“So, while I’ve got you here, do you mind answering some questions for me?

I’m fascinated by Eslanders, Freelanders even more so. ”

“Sure,” I say, folding my arms. “But we aren’t that interesting.”

“Ha!” he says, sitting down at his desk and pulling out a bound book with blank pages. “I suppose we’re so used to ourselves that we don’t know what it’s like to view ourselves from the outside. You’re interesting. Your dog is interesting. And Andor’s plans for you are very, very interesting.”

“He’s told you about them?”

“Not particularly,” he says, opening a drawer and searching with delicate movements.

“But it’s Andor, and he’s always thinking outside the box—even when the world outside the box can get you killed.

Ah! I think purple ink would be best for this.

Purple, like your hair.” He pulls out a vial of purple ink and a feather pen.

“Might as well start with my first question. Your hair. Does it mean anything? Were you born with it?”

“I take it that my hair color isn’t very common here,” I say.

“Not really. The lighter hair colors, the brighter hair colors, those are more of a Sorland trait. It’s been a thousand years since the first clans left Sorland and came to this continent.

Over many generations we grew taller, our skin grew paler, our hair darker.

Occasionally you’ll see someone with blue hair, or green.

But they tend to be dark in color. I’m just curious if your hair was like that at birth or if the suen gave it to you. ”

I frown at that. “I’ve had it since birth. Suen can change people’s hair color?”

“Sometimes,” he says. “I’ve been studying suen since I was twelve, since the day I first took it, and I’m still discovering new things. No one is really sure how it works.”

“Because it’s magic…”

“Some say it’s magic,” he says with a shrug, writing in long elaborate strokes, his writing an art form in itself. “Some say it’s science. I say it’s both. Whichever one explains it is the one I will follow.”

“So it’s equal science and magic?” I ask, curious as anything since the subject of suen ingestion was considered blasphemy in Esland, and the Freelanders didn’t seem to talk about it often.

Probably because no one could afford to buy it.

I could have made a killing selling it myself instead of to House Dalgaard, but I would have ended up dead very quickly. The syndikats hate competition.

“Until my experiments prove otherwise. Why, what are your thoughts on it? How do your powers feel to you?”

“I don’t have any powers,” I tell him, hesitating to finally speak the truth. “Suen has no effect on me.”

“That’s not possible,” he says just as there’s a knock at the door. “Come in!” he yells.

The door opens and Andor steps in. He’s dressed in a dark, long-sleeved tunic with a V-neck that shows off a dusting of chest hair and his dragon-tooth necklace, half of the shirt casually tucked into his straight-leg pants, tall boots on his feet.

His beard is groomed, his wavy hair pushed back off his forehead, and when he sees me, his eyes light up in a way that makes my stomach flip.

I probably just need breakfast.

“The Truthmaster said you would be in here,” Andor says, and I manage to tear my eyes away from his body to notice he’s holding two stone mugs in his hand, the steam and smell similar to the drink that Steiner has been having. “I brought you some coffee. Have you had it before?”

“No,” I tell him as he shuts the door with his heel and strides over to me, holding out the mug. I take it from him and peer down into a light, milky brown drink, feeling strangely shy suddenly. A feeling I can do without.

“It’s grown all over Vesland. We get it imported,” Andor says, sounding rather proud. “I put milk and sugar in yours since that’s how most people drink it.”

“Not Andor, though,” Steiner says with a laugh. “He thinks drinking it straight makes him more of a man.”

“Perhaps it does,” Andor teases. “You should try it. You could use a little hair on your chest.”

Steiner waves that comment away with his hand. “Some other time. You didn’t tell me that your thief here is untouched by suen.”

Andor frowns as he has a sip of his drink. I’m still holding mine, waiting for it to cool down. We don’t drink a lot of hot drinks in the Dark City; everything is already so hot as it is.

“What do you mean, untouched?” he asks.

“It doesn’t work on me,” I explain. It feels good to finally tell him this, like I’ve been harboring a grave secret.

“But that’s not possible,” Andor says.

“And I’m telling you it is.”

“No,” Steiner says, getting to his feet. “How have you survived getting dragon eggs all this time? You couldn’t.”

“Every thief we’ve ever used for our operations that has come back alive has had suen in their blood,” Andor says.

“We tried it the first few times with the unmagicked, but they died. Horribly. You need speed and strength and other suen-given abilities to do this job and make it out with your life intact.”

I shrug. “Well, last night at dinner you insinuated that all my success is because of Lemi.”

“That doesn’t explain how you’re still here, how you haven’t been blasted with fire or eaten yet,” Andor says. “What do you mean it’s never worked on you? Have you properly taken it?”

“Yes,” I say testily. “Don’t you think my aunt gave me some before I started the job? Suen works for her but it doesn’t work for me.”

“Maybe you didn’t have enough,” Steiner says, getting to his feet. “We can fix that.”

“Go right ahead, but I’ve had it several times.”

“How old were you? It doesn’t work if you’re younger than twelve or thirteen.”

“I was seventeen,” I tell him. “Eight years ago.”

Blazes, how time flies by.

“But how did you take it?” Steiner says as he starts rummaging through a shelf.

“In a shot glass,” I say, still remembering the horrid taste, how slimy it felt on the way down. I can almost taste it. I take a sip of the coffee drink instead. It’s sweet and bitter and feels good on the tongue, washing away the memory.

“That’s a lot,” Andor says. “You should have felt the first effects right away.”

“Yes, those would have been your dominant traits,” Steiner says, turning to face me with something short and silver in his hand. “They kick in minutes after first ingestion. Any extra suen after that won’t be as powerful.”

“Well, I didn’t have any traits, dominant or otherwise. I’ve taken it about four times. I kept on trying.”

“So you’re just…a commoner,” Andor says.

I glare at him. “I think I’d rather be called unmagicked.”

“And all your fighting…” he goes on.

“I was trained.”

“I can see that. And we’ll have to train you even better. Steiner, you’re going to need to get her better armor. All the upgrades.”

“First we’ll see what this does,” Steiner says, holding out the silver stick in front of me, my face contorted in the reflection on the rounded surface.