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‘It was Sterrington,’ Zayanna said. ‘After you left the train, Atrox Ferox and I managed to have a word with her. She’d been told your real name by Lord and Lady Guantes. They were your arch-nemeses during that whole jaunt, after all. They’d also said you were a Librarian – working here, and everything. Darling, I was stunned! A real secret agent with me all that time, and I’d had no idea!’
‘I’m not a secret agent,’ Irene said, knowing that it wasn’t going to work. ‘I just collect books.’
‘Of course.’ Zayanna nodded solemnly. ‘Your secret is safe with me, darling.’
‘And with the whole of this tea-shop,’ Kai said. There was a stiffness to his posture that worried Irene. While she had managed to rescue him from what Zayanna so casually called a ‘jaunt’, for Kai it had been kidnapping, and imprisonment, and the threat of being sold to his kind’s worst enemies. He wasn’t sleeping well at night, he was too ready to throw himself into danger, and he thoroughly disliked talking about any of it. This sort of conversation would be rubbing salt into his wounds.
‘Oh, them.’ Zayanna shrugged. ‘They’re just people.’
Irene was lost for a moment, trying to work out whether that statement stemmed from sublime unconcern, a genuine lack of interest in ordinary humans, or a deliberate ploy to make her underestimate Zayanna. No, on the whole she thought it was simply Zayanna being Zayanna, and being Fae. To a Fae, the whole of humanity were fellow actors at best. They were the supporting cast or backstage sceneshifters the rest of the time. All Fae were convinced they were the heroes of their own stories. The dangerous thing was that in the more chaotic alternate worlds, the universe conspired to agree with them.
‘But are you a secret agent?’ Irene asked.
‘Not exactly, darling.’ Zayanna sipped at her tea. ‘Things went wrong, you see. After Venice, I had to report back to my patron. He said that even if Lord and Lady Guantes had totally messed up the dragon’s kidnapping, I shouldn’t have let all three of you get away like I did. He was really cutting about that.’ She shivered artistically.
It’s not as if you had that much chance of stopping us. Irene ignored Kai’s atmosphere of polar frost next to her and reached across to pat Zayanna’s hand. ‘I’m sorry you got into trouble,’ she said.
Zayanna looked down modestly, if the word ‘modest’ could ever be used in connection with her cleavage. ‘I knew you’d understand,’ she murmured. ‘So naturally, when I had to break ties with my patron, I thought of you.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Irene lied. She could think of quite a few things to say, but none of them would actually advance the conversation, even if they might make her feel better. ‘Zayanna, you do realize that I don’t actually . . .’ What was it that Zayanna had said she used to do for her previous boss? ‘. . . have any snakes that need looking after.’
‘We can get snakes, darling,’ Zayanna said reassuringly. ‘Do you prefer cobras or vipers? Or mambas?’
‘Can you collect books?’ Irene countered.
‘I’ve never tried,’ Zayanna said. ‘But there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?’
Irene was fairly sure there weren’t any Library regulations about Outsourcing Jobs to Fae, probably because the area was mostly covered by Don’t Associate with Fae in the First Place. But, she reassured her conscience, it would do for the moment, while she tried to find a better long-term solution. ‘Does Silver know you’re here?’ she asked.
Lord Silver was probably the most powerful Fae in London. He was the Liechtenstein Ambassador (Liechtenstein was a hotbed of Fae, in this particular alternate world) and a noted libertine and reprobate, regularly making the front pages of the more scandalous newspapers. He had also technically been an ally during the whole business of Kai’s kidnapping, helping Irene to reach the world where Kai was being held so that she could rescue him. Though that had only happened because Silver felt threatened by Kai’s kidnappers. He was another person whom Irene would like the earth to swallow up. But if he could take Zayanna off her hands, then she’d even send him flowers.
Zayanna pouted. ‘I’ve been trying to avoid Lord Silver, darling. I don’t really want to be indebted to him. I did think of asking him where you lived. But then I had a better idea, and I got this gorgeous little dog to help find you! I took him to your address and I’ve been tracking you since then. I think I’m going to call him Pettitoes.’ She drained her cup and put it down with a clink. ‘But I need to be serious too, darling. Someone out there wants to kill you.’ It was rather sad that Irene’s first reaction was not so much shock as resignation. Then she wondered whether there was a queue, and if someone was selling tickets. After all, in less than a year she’d managed to seriously annoy a number of people – the local werewolves, several local secret societies, one of the two masterminds who’d plotted to kidnap Kai (she’d actually killed the other), the notorious traitor Librarian Alberich, and probably all sorts of other people she didn’t even know about. And Silver didn’t like her very much, either. ‘Who?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Zayanna leaned forward across the table, trying to capture Irene’s hand in hers. When Kai interposed his hand, she grabbed that instead. ‘Darling – darlings—’ Kai looked as if he was biting into raw garlic. ‘You must believe that I want to keep you safe. What would I do without you?’
That was another frequent problem with the Fae. They wanted fellow starring actors in their private melodramas, both friends and enemies. Irene had to figure out a way to disentangle herself from Zayanna – and fast – or she’d get swept into some improbable new narrative. ‘I believe you,’ she said. Mostly. ‘But if you can’t tell us who it is, or when they’re going to try . . .’
Zayanna sighed, and Kai took the opportunity to pull his hand away. ‘It’s just a whisper of a rumour, darling. I’ll try to find out more. But it’s getting late. You’ll be wanting to go out on highly sensitive missions and dance the tango, won’t you? Can I come?’
‘No,’ Irene said firmly. ‘I’m sorry. It’s top secret. Where can we get in touch with you tomorrow?’
Zayanna took the dismissal surprisingly well. ‘The Carlton hotel, darling. I’ll be waiting. But I’ll stay here for the moment. This place has such a charming ambience.’ She gestured around at the gloomy shelves and at the rafters with their hanging bare ether-bulbs, then down to her dog. ‘Don’t worry about me. Pettitoes will keep me safe.’
Kai waited till they were out on the street and a couple of hundred yards away before saying, ‘Should we kill her?’
‘Zayanna helped me rescue you,’ Irene muttered. It didn’t make it any easier that she was considering that option as well. But simple inconvenience was not a good enough motive for murder. Even if it looked like being a really, really large inconvenience.
‘Yes, but the woman is Fae,’ Kai answered. There was a brittle coldness in his eyes, and his gait had shifted from a casual stride to a much more dangerous and purposeful stalk.
Irene tried to think of some intelligent, logical, helpful statement that would convince him to stay calm. Nothing came to mind. What could she say to a dragon who’d been kidnapped by the Fae in order to start a war? Already-existing personal bias was being inflamed by post-traumatic shock, and he certainly wasn’t going to have any sudden epiphanies in the middle of the street. ‘But I say you won’t just remove her,’ she hissed, resorting to the fact that she was his superior, and knowing how temporary and stopgap an answer that was. ‘Understood?’
Kai blinked, and the inhuman light – had it been there for longer than a moment? – receded from his eyes. ‘Understood,’ he said, his voice dark and low in his throat.
I’m going to have to talk this through with him later. And if I can’t get him to see sense . . . Irene had a duty to her work in this world. She also had a duty of responsibility to Kai. Something twisted in her stomach at the thought that perhaps the best thing she could do for him would be to see him assigned to another Librarian. Or he could even be returned to his father’s court, to safety among the other dragons . . .
‘I’m not sure I trust her, either,’ she said. ‘We have no proof that she’s telling the truth. But I think it’s better to keep her under close watch for the moment, till we can establish what’s going on. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all that sort of thing. Besides, if Zayanna is telling the truth, then we might be able to get useful information from her.’
‘It might just be simpler to wait and see who’s trying to kill us,’ Kai said.
