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Remember we have a watcher, Azriel said, and tugged me forward again. You cannot give her any hint that we may have found the key’s location.
He was right; we couldn’t. I forced myself to keep the same slow pace even as my gaze scanned the nearest buildings. The building we were just passing was an old weatherboard home that had been turned into a pizza place, and then there was a small Mazda garage. The building beyond that was a large two-story structure that was painted a pale green and looked to be a mix of residential and commercial, with stairs leading to the upper floor nearest us, and a café at the far end.
The closer we got, the stronger the wash of energy became. Excitement and dread began to pulse through my body. We needed to find the key, to keep it safe from Hunter, and we couldn’t do one without jeopardizing the other.
I fought the fierce draw of the key’s closeness and slowed my steps as we reached the old building. I had to make a show of looking around for our watcher’s sake. The Dušan’s movements were growing stronger, and her head snaked up from my skin and stared upward. Knowing that the last two times she’d done something like this, she’d actually been telling me where the key was, I had no doubt it lay on the floor above us. But I couldn’t go straight there. I had to play the game first.
/> Azriel tugged me on. As we passed the last arch of the residential section and moved on to the café, the Dušan snaked around, her tiny claws digging into my flesh, as if in frustration.
I know, I know, and I wondered even as I said it whether she could hear me. I still had no idea.
Given she should not even be able to move or lift herself from your skin on this plane, Azriel said, it is entirely possible she could also understand even if she cannot communicate.
Why can she move here on Earth? Your Dušan can’t—can it?
No, it cannot. He mentally shrugged. Perhaps it is a result of your mixed ancestry, and the fact that you have always been not only sensitive to the elements of my world, but the more arcane arts here on Earth as well.
I made a show of looking through the café’s large windows. There were a number of tables scattered through the room, all decorated with checkered tablecloths in pale green and white and small vases of flowers, and along one wall there were a number of comfortable-looking sofas for those who wanted to relax a bit more.
“No crests inside,” I said, even as I mentally added, But it’s not like I can perform magic, so why would being sensitive to it matter?
I do not know. Dušan are not something reapers have ever been gifted with, so I am not overly familiar with what they may or may not be capable of. He mentally shrugged. But it is more than possible that—given your father was responsible for their creation—he endowed your Dušan with an ability to interact with this world.
Maybe. I walked on toward the intersection and the end of the building. The Dušan’s claws were digging deeper and beginning to sting. She was not happy we were moving away from the key. Why do you think my father gave you a Dušan if it’s not customary for reapers to have them?
Again, I do not know. Your father’s motives were never easy to understand at the best of times. Perhaps he merely wished to ensure the Mijai sent to protect you had the best possible chance of doing so.
He couldn’t have known you’d be the one, though.
Couldn’t he? He paused at the end of the building and looked down the side street. The building stretched before us, longer than it was wide. We turned the corner and continued on. Reapers and Aedh—even rebel Aedh—were not unknown to each other before this event. It is entirely possible he was aware that the most likely candidate to protect you would be a Mijai who not only had a dark and bloody past, but who was already familiar with this plane.
I guessed that did make sense. After all, he’d had me because he’d obviously known that he would need the help of blood kin to find the keys. It was entirely possible he’d also foreseen that Azriel would be assigned to keep me safe until they were found.
Smaller windows dotted this side of the building. I made a show of looking in each of them, but I really wasn’t paying much attention to what each actually revealed.
“Right,” I said, as we reached the end of the building. “Nothing there, so we’d better check the first floor. Is there anyone inside?”
Azriel’s gaze momentarily narrowed. “There are two people in the bedroom of the front apartment. I can use their memories to gain access.”
“Do it.”
A second later we were inside the building. I stepped away from Azriel and looked around. We were in a largish combined living and kitchen area and there were several rooms leading off it. One was obviously the bedroom, given that someone within was snoring very loudly, and the other was a bathroom.
Can you keep the occupants asleep? I asked, glancing at Azriel.
He nodded. They will not wake until after we leave.
Excellent. The Dušan was pointing toward the apartment’s middle front window. Given that there wasn’t a crest or coat of arms to be seen anywhere near it, it had to be outside, on the building itself.
Which meant we had to make more of a show of looking around. We might be doing nothing more than wasting time when we didn’t have a lot of it to waste, but we also just might be saving ourselves a lot of grief. Hunter couldn’t know we’d found the key. Not until we were ready to confront her.
I checked out all the rooms, then finally walked across to the middle sash window and lifted it. There was no veranda along this portion of the building, so I leaned out as far as I dared and looked up. There was some sort of crest or shield at the top of the building, but I couldn’t make out what it was from here. Not that I really needed to. The energy pulsing from it stung my skin almost as sharply as the Dušan’s claws. I called to the Aedh, slipped out the window, and headed up.
It was very definitely an Australian coat of arms, but not the one that was in use today. This one was very old, with the positions of the emu and the kangaroo reversed, and the shield holding images of a sailing ship, a sheaf of wheat, a sheep, and an anchor—images I guess were meant to represent both our origins and the two industries that had helped Australia grow.
I materialized a couple of fingers on my right hand and brushed them over the whole coat of arms warily. Energy bit me, sharp and dark in feel.
The shield portion of the coat of arms was the key.
