Page 49 of The Innocent Sleep

An echoing blast from outside signaled the fireworks, and the beginning of the night’s celebration. Grianne rose, gesturing for me to follow her.

“Come,” she said.

“I would prefer not to.”

She looked annoyed and gestured more emphatically. “Come.”

Cats are well known for our stubbornness, and continuing to argue was a tempting idea. But then, she had explained herself when I asked her to, even as it caused her obvious discomfort. I didn’t want to aggravate her when she was helping me, and so I straightened my shirt and followed her out the door to the hall.

Any illicit thrill of being a guest in Sylvester’s home when he didn’t remember the true nature of our relationship had long since faded. Etienne had been easily convinced to keep extending the hospitality of the house, as I had proven myself to be a respectful and reserved house guest. Every week, he asked me for updates on my search for my missing wife, and every week, I answered honestly, with increasingly reduced details as I worked to conceal the fact that she was no longer missing, simply unavailable in any meaningful way.

The rest of the denizens of Shadowed Hills were polite if a bit distant from the stranger with no known noble house or affiliations who had taken up residence in one of the guest rooms and kept a low profile, mostly keeping company with two of the less-popular knights. I offered no advantage in the games they played—and those games, which had always been present, had turned more vicious under Titania’s lead. Everything was a challenge for position. Everything was an opportunity to gain or lose face.

Eira was the only Firstborn I knew of to have openly ordered her descendants to fight for power, but it seemed she had learned that form of love well at the feet of her mother.

There were still people missing, even beyond Janet. All my inquiries and attempts to search had failed to locate Dean or Rayseline, or Arden and her brother. Chelsea Ames and the Brown children were likewise unaccounted for. Walther was in Silences, serving as Court alchemist to his parents, well out of the way of Titania’s plans. It seemed she had done her best to split us all up, scattering us across the land she had claimed within her illusion.

Grianne led me down the hall to the great ballroom I had seen on the day of my arrival. It was full of people, or seemed so, from a distance; looking more closely made it quite clear that this party was sparsely attended, a celebration for the socially outcast and unfashionable. If every body in that room took to the dance floor at once, there would still be room to move easily through the crowd.

Sylvester was seated at one end of the room, looking as if he would rather be almost anywhere else. Simon was standing next to him, a goblet in one hand and the other resting on his brother’s shoulder, speaking to him quietly.

“Amandine went to Silences,” said Grianne, voice low. “Work.”

So she’d be away from the tower for several days, given the distance involved. It also explained Etienne’s current absence; he was usually the one tapped to transport people around the duchy when they were important enough to occupy such a key resource. As far as I knew, he couldn’t make the jump to Silences all at once. I could probably expect Amandine to be gone for most of the week.

Grianne watched my face, nodding with satisfaction when she saw me finish puzzling through the implications of Amandine’s absence.

“Guest,” she said, and gestured toward the ballroom doors.

I scowled at her. “Brat.”

She smiled, tapping two fingers to her temple in a mock salute before she somersaulted backward into the shadows and was gone.

She was, however, correct that I was a guest in these halls, and guests are generally expected to meet a certain standard of presence. I ran my tongue over my teeth to be sure the more feline aspects of my nature were properly suppressed, then strode into the ballroom, pulling my very best mask of disdainful detachment over myself.

The assembled revelers glanced my way, then away again as they recognized me as Sylvester’s vagrant houseguest. I had nothing to offer them, and so they offered me nothing in return.

Easily, I moved through the crowd, plucking a wineglass from the tray of a passing server and smiling at everyone in ducal livery. They were the ones most likely to be punished for having harbored me if things went poorly. I worked my way toward the Duke and his brother, pausing at a respectful distance to bow and wait to be acknowledged.

“Ah, my hopeless houseguest,” said Sylvester. “Rise, rise. Have you met my brother?”

Thanks to my own efforts, not in this reality, but I couldn’t say that, and I had no civil way to avoid the introduction at a celebration such as this one. Surely, the start of the Moving Day festivities was close enough to Mary’s command that I could speak to the man. I straightened. “I do not believe we’ve yet been introduced, Your Grace. Twin?”

“To the hour,” said Sylvester, radiating boredom. “Simon followed me into the world by a matter of minutes, and has never since shown patience.”

“A poor introduction, brother,” said Simon, and turned to fully face me, a practiced smile on his aristocratic face. “I am Simon Torquill, Baron of Kettled Time. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“And yours as well,” I said, keeping my own face impassive. “I am Rand, once of Londinium, of no notable family name, although I’ve been known to use ‘Stratford’ when necessity forced me out among the mortals. I’ve been enjoying the hospitality of your brother’s halls.”

“So I’ve heard,” said Simon. “The questing houseguest. You’ve managed to mislay your wife?”

“Not intentionally, sire, and not because I gave her cause to flee from me or anything of the like,” I said. “We are the targets of an unkind magic.”

Simon’s face clouded. “How wicked!” he said, and I heard no insincerity in his tone. “How could anyone be so cruel as to part a family in such a manner? I hope your quest is brief, Rand, and that she is back with you in short order.”

“May the root and branch hear your words and lift me up to meet them,” I said.

“Sylvester tells me you’ve been keeping company with his knights?”