I looked around, but there were few people on the street; it was so late. No one turned their head to see where the voice at my waist-level was coming from.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m not sure how long it will last, so we should make the most of it in case it goes away.”
“All right.” So, the spells were holding so far—both mine and Cornelius’s. He could still talk, and I did not yet feel the full pain of separation from the sorcerer.
It had all happened so quickly and perhaps that was for the best. I didn’t have time to grieve for Sylvester and maunder over him. This was the easiest way, I told myself—a clean break, with no time to hem and haw about it.
As we set off for Oyster Lane, we attracted few curious glances. We were just two more cold, preoccupied pedestrians among many others. It didn’t seem long before I was down in the reeking lower roads of the city, picking my way through the damp, unpleasantly squishy refuse to get to the old tavern.
Cornelius kept silent, protesting only a little when I stumbled over an uneven cobblestone or turned a corner too abruptly.
The heartsickness had only just started to kick in when we turned onto Oyster Lane itself, thank goodness, and again seemed less than before. I suppose this meant the sorcerer still held the spell, like one of his cats’ cradles, rather than letting it fall and fail once I had disappeared to the Other House.
I wasn’t sure what this signified. Had he simply forgotten that he was protecting me and hadn’t thought to undo his working? Whatever his reasons, I was grateful for it and hoped that it would hold at least while I was in the city, before I traveled too far from him to sustain it.
“There it is,” I said, spotting the old tavern. Cornelius poked his head out to look.
“Smells like fish here,” he said with approval.
“Smells worse inside,” I said. I gave Colin a little shake, to see if he had perked up any. His eyes flickered, and he let out what could have been a groan or just a sigh.
“We’re here, Colin,” I said in the falsely bright, cheery voice you use for little children. “They’ll fix you right up.”
I hoped that some of the Snagged would be there. Basil had said they were there most evenings, and so my odds were good. When I knocked, however, the swift opening of the door startled me, and I almost fell inside. Cornelius let out a tiny mew.
Basil was standing just inside the door, clutching its handle, his normally pin-neat hair disheveled and his spectacles askew. He looked surprised to see me and my companion at first, and then his expression hardened.
“Come in, quickly,” he said.
I thought he was being unnecessarily dramatic, but I hurried through the door all the same and brushed some dew droplets from my cloak as best I could.
“I didn’t know you were coming again,” he said.
“You said any night,” I reminded him. “And I need to talk to you.”
“Tonight is not just any night.” He blinked at Colin. “Who is this?”
“Another Snagged,” I said. “More than snagged. I don’t know how much of him is left, to be honest. His name is Colin. He has been Clarissa’s servant for a while—one of the sorceresses. I don’t know how long. I do know that she has been slowly using up his heart, and I saw her take all of what was left of it today, with my own eyes. He’s pretty far gone, but I thought ...” I gestured helplessly. “Even if you can’t help him, he will be among others like him. At the end.”
Basil stepped briskly up to Colin and unbuttoned his shirt. He pushed his spectacles up his nose and peered at the skin revealed beneath the cloth. Cornelius tried to peer out of my pocket, and I had to push him down.
I was surprised to see that Colin’s chest was nowhere near as badly diseased as Jol’s, despite his heart missing. There was a bruise and a few threads of green spiraling out from it, but nothing more.
“Yes,” confirmed Basil, correctly reading my expression, “he’s not too bad as yet—when it comes to the mold, at least. That means she didn’t take him too long ago, and she has been using him up pretty quickly. Some of the Magic-Workers like to keep a source close by, almost like a pet, in case they need heart magic in a hurry.”
He let his spectacles drop back to the end of his nose. “I’m not sure if we can do anything for him,” he said. “He might not be too badly infected as yet, but there’s very little of him left, I’m afraid. We can’t take him with us.” He pulled a piece of folded paper from the pouch at his waist. “I have our contact’s name and location here. Getting out of the kingdom will be quite the undertaking, and the journey beyond ... he would never survive.”
“The journey?” I said quickly. “To where?”
Basil tucked the paper back into his pouch.
“I’m sure you understand that I have to be very careful with that information,” he said. “It could get us into a lot of trouble if it fell into the wrong hands, and our salvation depends on it.”
“Of course,” I said, cursing inwardly. He really wasn’t going to give it to me, the sod, was he? He had it stuffed away in his stupid little pouch of papers, it seemed, and I couldn’t get my hands on it without wrestling him for it. I briefly considered actually doing that, but there were so many other Snagged about that I would probably be overpowered.
“I am glad you brought him to us, just the same,” said Basil. “You said his name was Colin? At least he can be among friends for his final days. I assume his Magic-Worker discarded him?”
No, I stole him from her while she was trying to rip out my heart, too,I thought, but I got the feeling Basil wouldn’t be too pleased that a riled-up sorceress might come storming in looking for her lost property, so I said, “Yes.”
