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Stavros leans his hands onto the desk. “If you spot him, you alert the rest of us and keep your distance. Just don’t let him out of your sight. The Crown’s Watch is equipped to actually apprehend him; we simply need to get them moving in the right direction.”
His last words tug at my memory. I hesitate, frowning.
Esmae said something about being pointed in the right direction—Wendos had suggested that was what he was doing by “warning” her about Julita. But there was also…
After the carnage at the ball. He talked to that guy from the so-called Bug Club about a creature it was difficult to fully control.
You can point them in the right direction, but you can’t ensure they’ll act exactly the way you’d want. I conveyed the information as clearly as I could.
What information? Who was the “they” he was talking about?
Not the Crown’s Watch if he was only badgering Romild to mislead me, and not me since he couldn’t know I’m hosting more than one person at the moment.
The floor shivers under me and seems to pass a chill right up through my skin.
I wet my lips. “We know Wendos was manipulating Esmae, and maybe Julita and me too, but he was also talking about something after the ball… If the mess there wasbecauseof him and the other conspirators, it almost sounded like—like maybe they directed the daimon purposefully, rather than it being an accidental consequence. Is that even possible?”
The men draw up short. Benedikt barks a laugh but shuts his mouth at Stavros’s stern look.
Alek’s eyes darken with thought. “I’ve never read any account of a gift that would allow a sorcerer to control daimon. Even what some of the soldiers have been doing—that’s general magic for encouraging peace in any being, not something specific to daimon.”
“And it hasn’t been terribly effective on them either,” Benedikt remarks.
Alek nods. “They’re divine spirits, under the governance of all the godlen. No one gift should be enough to command them.”
My mouth forms a pained smile. “Isn’t that the whole point of scourge sorcery? To try to elevate themselves to the level of gods? If they’re drawing on major gifts from dedications to all the godlen…”
Stavros rubs his jaw. “I don’t know. We can’t say itisn’tpossible, but if there aren’t any accounts of even the original scourge sorcerers managing that, it seems incredibly unlikely. He probably merely meant that their other activities provoked the daimon.”
That wasn’t how it sounded. And it isn’t as if the Great Retribution left us with the most complete records of all the brutal sorcery that prompted it.
But every second I spend arguing about it is another second we’re not tracking down Wendos and his fellow delinquents.
“Never mind,” I say. “We’ve got a plan. Unless… Julita, is there anything you’d want to add?”
The men go silent as I wait for the answer, their stances tensing just slightly. None of them has mentioned her presence in me since my outburst yesterday.
Maybe after what I told them, they don’t know how to feel about her still being here.
But this was her mission first. She deserves the chance to weigh in.
A hint of gratitude colors Julita’s voice.I think you’ve got it covered, Ivy. I just want to see Wendos and whoever he’s working with destroyed.
“Destroy Wendos,” I say to the others. “Sounds like a good start to me.”
Alek tips his head toward Casimir. “You and I can go through the regular archives entrance so we’re not all seen coming out together.”
As they head for the door and Benedikt opens the secret passage, Stavros sets his hand on my shoulder. “You’re coming with me, Lady Thief.”
The adjusted nickname sends a strange flutter through my chest despite my annoyance with the second half. I’ve been elevated to a lady now, have I?
I assume he’s bringing me with him to the palace to report on what I witnessed. My pulse kicks up a notch as we stride down the hallway.
Instead, he leads me up the stairs to the fourth floor and over to his quarters.
As he locks the door, my forehead furrows. “What are we doing up here? Is there something you needed to bring to the palace?”
“Not quite.” Stavros motions me in and moves to a chest under the window. Whatever he starts rummaging through, there’s a lot of clanking and thudding.
