Page 219 of The Queen’s Shadow

“We often be operatin’ in a bit of a grey area.” Conrad said with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck. “When yuh dealin’ wit bad people, sometimes di right thing to do nah so cut an’ dry.”

“Please, let me try to help you. What do you need?” Princess Balveria pleaded, resting her hand on my arm.

I glanced down at her hand then back up to her dark brown eyes. We were nearly the same height, and she had a motherly quality to her, though, like all daemons, she didn’t look a day over twenty five.

“She has my mate. I need to know where she’s keeping him. We think she has him in The Court of Gluttony, but we can’t be sure. My plan right now is to hopefully get a large enough army that we can invade Gluttony without me burning their entire court to the ground to find him.”

Darianth scoffed but I raised my gaze to meet him, letting him see how serious I was. “I would rather not kill civilians, but if I don’t find him soon, I don’t know how much longer I can hold myself back.”

Balveria nodded seriously, glancing back at Sirocco. “I cannot imagine what it would be like to be separated from your mate. It is cruel.” Even Sirocco looked like he agreed, his gaze softening at his mate’s words.

“There’s also the issue of The Flute. They have a powerful artifact that can freeze us in place if they play the right notes. We need to find a way to neutralize this threat. We were hoping to use the library here to see if we can find anything that might help with that.” Dossidian added, and I nodded.

“Yeah. And that.” I agreed. Balveria nodded resolutely.

“Of course. You are all granted full access to the library. Feel free to ask the bibliomancers and prophets to help you find what you’re looking for. My eyes widened.

“Bibliomancers? You have bibliomancers here?” I asked, intrigued. I had just recently learned that I was a bibliomancer myself and had planned on using the skill to help with research. If they had their own team of daemons who were able to speak to books, it would free me up to continue on my mission to find Amon, while someone else stayed here to look for a solution that might help us with The Flute.

Balveria nodded. “Yes, we have several daemons on staff who help with patron queries.”

I immediately appreciated that the princess implied that the bibliomancers were employees and not slaves, even though we both knew that they were. I wondered if she paid them, regardless of Ash Nevra’s demands that all daemons be subjected to the slavery bond. I glanced at Dossidian excitedly.

“That’s incredible. Dossidian, would you be willing to stay behind to look for a way to neutralize The Flute?” I asked.

Dossidian smiled at me and nodded. “Of course, whatever you need, I am happy to assist.”

Darianth looked annoyed by this, but I ignored him.

“As far as the issue of finding your mate…” Balveria gestured to the cloudy crystal ball that sat between the two thrones. “We can use the orb to ask if you are on the right path.”

My heart leapt with excitement. “The orb can show us where he is?” I exclaimed, remembering how Sirocco had said they had used it to spy on us during our travels in the desert. Balveria’s face fell and she tapped my arm sympathetically.

“It cannot show us where he is. We can only peer in and see activities of people if we already know where they are. We knew where you were because Sirocco’s magick recognized Dossidian when you were travelling in the desert. We can ask questions though and see if you’re on the right track.”

“What do you mean, ask it questions?” I asked.

“The orb will answer questions with definitive yes or no answers for the most part. It’s a bit finicky, and normally will not answer a direct question, but if the query is broad enough, it is usually helpful in pushing the user in the right direction.

“Like a magic eight ball!” Jeremy grinned. Balveria frowned at him in confusion.

“I do not know what that is.” She admitted and Jeremy laughed.

“I don’t expect that you would. I don’t even know if Raven’s old enough to know what a magic eight ball is. In the human world, when I was a kid, there was this toy you could ask questions to. When you shake it, it will give you a yes or no answer.” He winked at me. “The toy was bullshit of course; it was just for fun. Something tells me that orb over there packs a little more punch.” He grinned, watching the swirling smoke churn in the crystal ball.

Balveria nodded solemnly. “Yes. The Orb of Heirisan is no toy. It is a powerful magickal artifact, one that we have guarded fiercely for millenia.”

“How does it work?” I asked. I was disappointed we hadn’t found the breakthrough I had been hoping for, but it was better than the big fat nothing I had been going off of up until this point.

“Come,” Balveria took my hand gently and led me towards the thrones. I floated with her over the stream, despite Darianth’s protests.

“Mother! You can’t let someone you just met use the orb.”

“Oh hush. She just freed your father without asking for anything in return. We can give her this much.” She scolded him and he looked to Sirocco, as if asking him to come to his defense. Sirocco shrugged, smiling again for the first time since he had trapped me in his illusion.

“You know better than to argue with your mother. After seven hundred years you would think you had learned that lesson by now.” He laughed, glancing at his mate with eyes so full of love and adoration it made my heart hurt.

“Here, Raven… may I call you Raven?” Balveria asked me, and I nodded. “Place your hands on the orb. Enter the mental state you need to find to access your power and connect with the orb’s aura. Explain what your end goal is, and then ask it a question. Much like the orb your human friend mentioned, it does best with yes or no answers. The smoke will turn green if the answer is yes, and red if the answer is no. If the question is too direct or there is no clear answer, the smoke will turn yellow.”