“Physically, I am well. Mrs. Turkens, I’m afraid for you. I’ve just come from Mugwort Alley.” Alora cut off abruptly, realizing how loudly she spoke in her rush to get it all out of her before they arrived. “I overheard something I wasn’t meant to. Ellie, the Urchins are coming for you.”
Ellie Turkens blinked at her in a fair imitation of her owls. Then her plum lips pursed. “Over what we discussed? Oh, that odious man.” She spun away from Alora and marched off, revealing she did indeed have quite more agility than most other eighty-something-year-olds Alora knew. Alora followed her into the kitchen. “It’s that fragile ego. It has grown so big and bloated over the years that one little prick of a word sends it tooting away like a popped balloon.Well,just let one of his shadowy underlings come and find me here.”
Alora watched with wide eyes as Ellie set three kettles to boiling atop the stove. Her gaze lifted to the violet wall across, to the amassed group of teacups hung from little hooks. They began at the ceiling and trailed all the way down to the floor. “What should we do?”
Ellie turned toward her, her expression softening. “Don’t worry about me, dearest. You should get out of here while you can. Go home and drink green tea with a dollop of pumpkin and cream. Sprinkle on a smidgeon of cayenne, if you can stomach it, to zap the zest back into you.”
“What? No, Mrs. Turkens. I won’t leave you to fight with an Urchin alone. I’ve seen their weapons, and I’ve seen what damage they can do.”
Ellie shook her head at her as if she could dispel the image. “Shh.Shh, Alora. What are you doing saying such things out loud? Do you wish to be next?”
Alora groaned in frustration. “I don’t care about myself! And even so, I’m starting to think I’m under some protection. At least as far as the next couple days are concerned. It’s you I’m worried for!”
The kettles took to whistling, which earned them a grin from their owner. “As I’ve said, you needn’t worry over me.”
Twilight had given in to night, and still there was only one lamp burning along the wall. It bathed the kitchen in soft lightthat didn’t extend beyond the doorway. Alora focused on those shadows, waiting for what she knew would come.
And it did.
Between one blink and the next, an Urchin stood there.
Alora startled and Ellie hissed a breath. A heartbeat later, the old woman held a kettle between them and him. “Your kind aren’t welcome here, Urchin.”
A rasping snort of disbelief left the masked man. Alora watched his attention travel between her and Ellie Turkens, his hood shifting. “Miss Pennigrim,” he said, tipping his head. “I didn’t expect to find another here. Least of all, you.”
That earned her a sideways glance from Ellie, which Alora promptly ignored. Instead, she glowered. She knew precisely who was behind this disguise. “It seems you cannot help but continue making mistakes, Urchin. Perhaps you should leave.”
He made a threatening noise, the effect of which was quite terrifying beneath the mask and stepped farther into the room. “I can smell your fear. Your agitation.”
“I amagitatedbecause you will not leave my bookstore,” said Ellie, and scowled fiercer than Alora had ever seen. If there was any fear to be smelled, she was sure it didn’t come from Ellie Turkens.
In response, the Urchin drew the baton from his belt. “If I have to dispense with the both of you, I will.”
“And when Master Merridon learns of why I cannot finish my contract? What will you say to him?”
Another pointed look from Ellie was all the reaction she received for her admission. An admission she contractually shouldn’t have made, but she needed to call the Urchin’s bluff before he did something drastic. Fragile egos, as Ellie Turkens explained, were something to be wary of.
The Urchin seemed to hesitate, his hand shifting along the edge of the baton. “I would only need to tell him that youinterfered with an important assignment. That you knew and witnessed more than you should. He would understand.”
“And whose fault is it that I’m here as witness at all? If you were as skilled as your cohorts, you’d have waited until Mrs. Turkens was alone. Instead, you burst through at the first stroke of night without a care for your surroundings. I don’t believe he would be so understanding.”
A hiss sounded from behind the Urchin’s shadowed hood. “It is a good thing then, that you won’t remember it all to relay it.”
He took another step into the room and raised his weapon, and Alora realized in that moment there would be no talking him out of what he planned. Three things happened in the following seconds, and they seemed to happen all at once:
A figure leapt through the doorway.
Ellie Turkens tossed a boiling kettle of water.
And Alora imagined the baton into a snake, but a fangless one, of course.
The figure turned out to be Mortimer, and in his raised hands was held a giant tome. He smacked it over the head of the Urchin with such force that the younger man went down to his knees. It was there that Ellie’s boiling water met him, and the screech emanating from behind the mask was otherworldly due to its enchantment. The baton dropped from his hand to slither dazedly away, curling around Alora’s ankle, soulless and knowing only she commanded it.
Alora opened her mouth to demand the Urchin never return or else face something much worse, but it seemed Mortimer hit him harder than she thought. The Urchin swayed back and forth a moment before he toppled forward onto the floor. He didn’t move again.
They all stared down at him in silence, watching for his continued breaths.
“The Encyclopedia of Continental Flora.My apologies, madam. I’ll pay for it.”
