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Hekima must do his thing, because the gallery is whisked away, replaced by a bedroom I recognize as belonging to the painter. The Enforcers scour the room like crime scene investigators until Filth snatches a single curly brown hair from the carpet and gives it a disgusting sniff.
“That’s it for now,” Gertrude says as the coliseum reappears around us. “To clarify, the Enforcers used that to find the dreamwalker.”
“Vampires can do that, use DNA to locate someone,” Felix explains needlessly in my ear.
“Furthermore,” Gertrude continues, “Kain and his team followed her for several weeks. They witnessed her breaking into the homes and apartments of various humans, no doubt revealing her powers to them as well. The Enforcers finally caught her red-handed and brought her here.” She looks at Kain. “Isn’t that correct?”
He shakes his head. “We have no evidence that she showed herself in the dreams of anyone but the painter. And some of the apartments she broke into belong to fellow Cognizant.”
Kit loudly clears her throat. “How is any of this news? We’ve all heard Bailey’s nickname of Freda Krueger.” She morphs into the burn victim and horror movie villain that inspired the nickname I dislike. “And we all know of Bailey’s reputation as a Cognizant private detective of sorts.”
Kain gets an unreadable expression on his face.
“When we need secrets stolen,” Kit continues, “we go to her. Obviously, she does her thing by dreamwalking. It’s like accusing me of shape-shifting.” She demonstrates by morphing into several random people and animals.
Gertrude gives Kit a nasty smile. “If anyone hired the accused to expose herself to humans, we should hold similar hearings for them.”
Expose myself? She makes it sound like I was hired to work in a strip club.
I’m unsure of the proper protocol here, but this has gone on long enough. “Maybe I could explain?” Before anyone can say no, I rattle out, “Nobody hired me to show my dream form to that painter or anyone else. I was hired to encourage him to work for a VR company—that’s all. Dreamwalking is usually performed while invisible, but I forgot to conceal myself that time. It was an honest mistake. It hasn’t happened since, and it won’t happen again.”
Actually, it almost happened today with Bernard, but they don’t need to know that. Everything else I said is absolutely true. Valerian, the illusionist who hired me for Bernard’s job, wanted me to “inspire” the painter to create masterpieces in VR. I think Valerian owns a VR company, likely the one where Bernard works.
“We can verify this claim and question the other victims,” Kain says.
Gertrude frowns. “It doesn’t matter. There’s physical evidence of her crime. If she were under the Mandate, it would’ve activated when she ‘forgot’ to hide herself in that human’s dream—assuming she’s telling the truth about that, which I doubt.”
“I think we should vote,” Kit says. “I’m sure Bailey will be exonerated.”
“I agree,” Kain says, “and there’s something unrelated to this case I want everyone to bear in mind.”
Gertrude’s frown deepens, but the other Councilors regard Kain with curiosity.
“As you know, we have a very puzzling investigation on our hands,” he says, causing hushed murmurs to start again. “And Bailey is a sleuth.”
I’m as much a sleuth as I am a ballerina, but I see no need to counter what he’s saying if it could help me.
“I don’t think anyone should worry about matters unrelated to her crime,” Gertrude snaps. “It’s time to put this to a vote. If you think the dreamwalker should die, as consistent with our laws regarding the exposure of our powers to humans, please stand up.”
Die? Is she kidding me?
My heartbeat skyrockets as the hooded figures rise to their feet one by one.
I’m so pucked.
Chapter Eleven
Except they don’t all stand up.
Kit and Kain sit down, and as I scan the room, I realize only a minority of this Council wants me dead.
Whew.
“That settles the matter,” Kain says. “Now I move that we vote to task Bailey with our investigation.”
“You know,” Felix whispers, “I’m getting a feeling that the whole exposure thing was a ruse to get you to comply with the next bit.”
He might be right. After dodging execution, I do feel quite ready to do whatever they want. Besides, this might be an opportunity I can’t pass up, for Mom’s sake. The Council has resources that—
“All for, stand up,” Kain says.
Most of the Councilors rise to their feet, including the ones who wanted me dead a second ago. Flip-flop much? Either way, it sounds like I just got some kind of a job thrust at me.
As people begin to leave their seats, I speak up. “Isn’t there something you’re forgetting?”
“What are you doing?” Felix shouts in my ear.
Everyone looks at me as if my hair has caught fire—something I can’t do safely in the waking world.
