AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah.” Lindsey fidgets. “But it’s so overdone it’s almost comedic. It wouldn’t be Quentin’s style to make them like they are and then flip them over to be evil. He’s probably setting them up to be killed tragically.”
Tammy pokes her. “You’re forgetting it’s not Q writing the story at the moment. No one is writing this. The world’s running away with itself like it might do once Q dies.”
“More than running away… Nesanth is affecting things.” I peer up at the darkening sky again. “If she truly is omniscient here or close to it, then she knows I’m still utterly clueless which noble is her.”
Lindsey taps her foot in thought. “The Galahir’s are too good. Even if they do have good motivations for the people, I don’t think they’d have a problem murdering the other nobles if they truly believed they had to do it in order to protect the citizenry from harm.”
“Are you sure?” Tammy scrunches her nose. “That woman came close to tears because she got frowned at. I don’t think she could handle ordering someone’s death.”
“Or she’s an amazing actress,” I say. “Lindsey, what do you know about Meritha Teredwyn?”
“Not much. She’s gotta be a new character introduced in the unfinished book.” Lindsey rakes a hand through her hair. “House Teredwyn does have landholdings in the south, so it’s not too weird to have someone from down there flee north.”
I stop walking upon catching myself leading. “No idea where we are or where to go. Lindsey, you take the lead to House Londuin, the noble artist.”
“Okay.” Lindsey turns in place, looking around. “Hmm. I’m not sure where we are either.”
“Don’t you know this city?” asks Tammy.
“I do but it’s only based on descriptions. Quentin never commissioned an artist to make a map. There are some fan art maps out there, but they’re not official.” Lindsey picks a direction and starts walking. “I’ll find it. Just need to spot a landmark or two.”
“Sounds good.” I fall in stride with her on my left, Tammy on my right. “Is it me or… I got the feeling Nielf deferred to her. It’s almost like he’s no longer the head of House Teredwyn.”
“Yeah.” Lindsey flaps her arms in a halfhearted shrug. “Maybe Quentin’s trying not to have all his major characters be guys anymore so he’s introducing her to take over. She did seem a little less timid than him.”
“Only a little.” I chuckle. “Total librarian vibes.”
“Who do you think would win in a fight between her or Sansha Galahir?” asks Tammy past a grin.
I cringe. “That’s a difficult one. Meritha would run away at the first sign of violence and Sansha would probably burst into tears at the mere thought someone wanted to hit her.”
The girls laugh.
“Ma, Meritha’s not in the prior books.” Tammy holds a finger up in triumph. “She could be Nesanth. Add a new character that no one knows what to expect from, she can’t get anything wrong and be sniffed out as an impostor.”
Lindsey shakes her head. “Then again, Nesanth is basically a goddess here. As long as she’s affecting Q, she could literally make people accept her as normal, or alter their memories of how the person she’s pretending to be are, so she doesn’t seem strange.”
“Too obvious.” Tammy frowns. “If Nesanth was trying to hide, she would impersonate an existing character, not make a new one. Stands out too much.”
“But who would think of her as a new character?” I ask. “Only outsiders. The people from this realm wouldn’t know about books or the TV series. Who would she be hiding from? Do you think she expected someone from our reality would chase her into this bizarre alternate world?”
Lindsey and Tammy sigh at the same time.
“Dammit, ma. Why do you keep doing that?” Tammy fumes.
“Doing what?”
“Every time we come up with an idea for who Nesanth is, you shoot it down with logic.”
I put my arm around her. “Not doing it to be annoying. We have to be correct. I’m just as frustrated as you are.”
And yeah. I am frustrated. Super frustrated. In all the years I’ve done this ‘job,’ my gut has always been there for me. Here, it’s just as stumped as my brain. There has to be some way to make Nesanth break her disguise.
The trick is going to be finding it before we run out of time.
Chapter Ten
Anvar
