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“Is that what you want to do?”
“Yeah. Will you come with me?”
She was quiet for a moment, then nodded. “I think I have to. Everything seems to be changing so fast.
“It is.”
He glanced once more in the direction of the living room. “I need to let everyone know about Leto and about Greaves’s army.” He compressed his lips for a moment. “But what I have to do right now…” He couldn’t even speak the words.
She took a step closer to him. “You have to go see Endelle.”
“Yep.”
“Uh, just so ya know, I have to be there.”
He wanted to protest but she put two fingers on his lips. “My gut is screaming at me on this one, Thorne. I have to be there, but I’ll keep my distance and I won’t say a word. I promise.”
At that, he smiled. “You? Not say a word?”
Her smile was crooked. “Well, I’ll try to hold my tongue.”
If it had been any other moment, he would have teased her about that, but yeah, right now he had to finish this thing with Endelle. He’d put it off long enough.
He focused on the link with Endelle deep within his mind. He’d cast an internal shield all around it to prevent a dialogue from the time he’d gone AWOL and dropped down to Mortal Earth. He very carefully began removing the shield, in part because he hadn’t constructed one before and in part because he was afraid he’d hear nothing but Endelle’s resonant shouting in his head and he’d drop to the floor crippled with pain.
But as the last of the shield slipped away, he opened the link. Can we talk? he sent.
There was a long, long pause. Finally, Come to the palace. Now.
Thorne knew Endelle could have brought them both through security but because the silence told him she’d ended the discussion, he concentrated on his warrior phone sitting on his nightstand in Sedona. He folded it into his hand and called Carla.
“Central. How may I help?”
“I need a lift, for two, to the palace. She’s expecting us.” Well, she was expecting him.
“You got it … and … welcome home, boss.”
“Thanks, Carla.”
He thumbed the phone and sent it back to Sedona. He kept his arm around Marguerite and held on. Shit, he was nervous. There was so much that needed to be said and yet he hadn’t really thought through any of it—why he was so f**king mad and, more to the point, what he needed from Endelle.
The vibration began.
What is left when the smoke clears?
Truth.
Awful, horrible, painful truth.
Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth
Chapter 16
James of Sixth Earth worked to hold his present form. It had been Luchianne’s idea for him to interject himself into Second Society by taking on the persona of a short, gray-haired librarian with light blue eyes. But this shape required effort, since he was in many ways the opposite of this man, the one Alison had once said reminded her of an English country gentleman.
But that was because of the sweaters he wore, and maybe the bow ties.
Luchianne had thought that Alison would need a mild presence in order to accept his help and instruction. Perhaps she’d been right. He’d appeared to Fiona as well, when she’d been near death during the darkest part of a blood slave’s death-and-resurrection process. He had been feeding pigeons when he spoke to her. He’d done some good. Now she was alive and living with Jean-Pierre as his breh. Yes, he’d done some good.
But as he waited for the exact moment to return to Second Earth, on strict instructions from Luchianne herself, he almost trembled at what was coming. This particular encounter between Endelle and her second-in-command had shaken even the High Seers of Sixth Earth.
If this ended badly, all could be lost.
So he had a job to do, and as he felt Thorne and Marguerite begin their folding process, he thought the thought and passed through the ether mist of four dimensions until he reached Second. He dropped down lightly to a space five feet behind Endelle.
“Hello, Endelle. Mind your temper.”
* * *
Endelle turned around. “Shorty, what the f**k are you doing here?”
“Came to observe.”
“I have a bone to pick with you, ass**le. What the f**k is Greaves doing with a goddamn army of two million and how the f**k could you have let Leto build it?”
“Yes, it’s a bit of a pickle.”
She snorted. “A pickle? What the hell does that mean and just so ya know, I’m holding you, along with your f**king Sixth Earth friendship circle, accountable for having set Leto up like this. He’s almost dead, you know. Being your spy, and having to take dying blood for a century, has just about killed him. I hope you’re satisfied.”
“We had to have the information Leto provided, all of it, in order to plot our course. Luchianne has a plan, but it’s going to take some serious finessing. She said to tell you that Braulio would come by later for a little chat. Maybe he’ll have an answer for you.” He breathed heavily through his nose, then muttered, “Well, he’ll have something for you anyway, if not an answer.”
She was about to grab him by his skinny arms, shake him hard, and demand he tell her what the f**k was going on, but another voice, full of rocks, invaded the space. “Endelle?” She whirled back around and there stood Thorne with Marguerite, his arm around the other shorty in the room.
She stepped back until she stood beside James. “Thorne, I don’t think you’ve met our oh-so-useless Sixth Ascender Guardian. James of Sixth Earth, Gatekeeper of Third, may I present Warrior Thorne and Seer Marguerite.”
“How do you do?” James offered.
She watched Thorne and Marguerite exchange a glance, brows raised, and why wouldn’t they be? She hadn’t known James was coming, either.
She turned back to him. “Why don’t you tell us all just why you’re here right now?”
“Just to monitor and report.”
She glanced at Thorne then back to Shorty. “Wait a minute. Are you here to watch me take my second-in-command apart, because that’s what I’m about to do unless of course you’d like to get involved.”
“As you know, we have strict rules about interference.”
“Well, how very Star Trek of you.”
But James only smiled. He addressed the newcomers. “If you can, please continue as though I’m not here.”
At that, Endelle met Thorne’s gaze dead-on. “Yes, Warrior Thorne, why don’t we continue as though James, and even your woman here, don’t exist.”
