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“Yes.” I traveled so much that I couldn’t even keep the plants in my apartment alive, but I would figure outsomething.
“Good, good.” Dan patted me heartily on the shoulder. “Do you know how she’s doing? Thesergeant?”
“She’s a colonel, and she’s… receivingtreatment.”
“Oh, is she? She yells at me a lot about my posture and cleaning up my apartment. I assumed she was, like, a drill sergeant orsomething.”
“She wasonce.”
“I knewit.”
Fire engines wheeled into the parking lot, and uniformed men leaped off, issuing orders for people to get back. Dan went one way, and I went another, Maggie complaining loudly about her night thusfar.
I paused at the sidewalk to make sure I still had the vial. If I’d lost that, I would have lost my onlyclue.
It was still in my pocket. I held it up to the light of the fire to make sure it hadn’t been cracked. And twitched in surprise. Some kind of hieroglyph or sigil glowed red on the bottom of the clearglass.
“That wasnotthere before,” I muttered. No way would I have missedthat.
It was surprisingly intricate considering the diminutive size of the bottom of the vial. It reminded me of the books in my mother’s house, books I’d flipped through as a child, books on the elvenlanguage.
As the soft drizzle fell on the vial, the sigil faded. Was it heat activated? Ormagicactivated? I had no idea if that had been a magical explosive or a mundaneone.
The elf got away,Sindari admitted from wherever he was.She opened a storm grate, jumped through, and locked it behind her with magic. She ran into a passage flowing with water, and by the time I got into it, I’d lost the scent. And picked up odious other scents. Do your people defecate under theircities?
Sounds like a sewer passage.I thought those were all in pipes these days, but who knew where Sindari had ended up. I was too disappointed that he’d lost the elf to worry about it. It wasn’t his fault, but how frustrating that the person who’d bombed us, and might have had something to do with Willard’s mysterious disease, had gotten away. I would have loved to question her, ideally while wringing herneck.
It’s disgusting, not a fitting place for anambassador.
I know.I pushed my damp braid over my shoulder.Come back, please. If the elf is gone, we’ll have to search for answers the old-fashionedway.
Where?
I thought again of my mother’s books, of how much knowledge—useless knowledge, I’d often considered it—she had on elves. We’d barely spoken in years, and she had strong opinions about my choice to stay away from my daughter, so I didn’t enjoy spending time with her, but she might be able tohelp.
Maggie screeched again, sounding more like a Halloween banshee than acat.
My mother also liked animals. Maybe I could foist Maggie off on her while I hunted down Willard’ssaboteur.
To visit my mom,Ireplied.
You have amother?
Yes.
You’ve never spoken ofher.
We don’t have a lot incommon.
Does she liketigers?
It hasn’t comeup.
Strange.
Yes.
