there. He gave a half-wink as if to say that I ought to notice how handsome he looked with a baby in his arms and didn’t I want him to have one of his very own?
With a smile, I mouthed,
Then everyone else saw me, and their exclamations of delight and concern bent me like a reed under the onslaught of a winter gale. I retreated to the bed and sank down. Vai and Bee hurried in to sit on either side of me.
“Love, how are you?”
“I’m hungry! I could eat a whole side of beef and have room for turnips besides!”
“We were so worried,” said Bee, wringing my hands until I grimaced and said, “Ouch!”
Vai brushed strands of hair off my brow. “Why on earth did you go to Tanit’s sanctuary on Hallows’ Night without telling anyone? We thought you had been taken by the Wild Hunt!”
“I don’t remember that part very well,” I said truthfully. “But I do remember that you asked me if I had anything I wanted to do. I want to build batey courts in Europa so we can have our own batey leagues and tournaments. Isn’t that a good idea? And in a few years we can go to the desert and destroy any of the ghouls that were caught on the other side of the gate. Without blood, no more will ever fall into the mortal world. If the last of them are hunted down, there is a chance the salt plague can be eradicated. Wouldn’t that be something?”
Bee pressed the back of a hand to my forehead. “Is she still feverish?”
“No, that’s exactly the sort of adventure I would expect her to undertake.” Vai flicked a finger along my cheek. “However, there is one thing we’ve all been waiting for you to explain, Catherine.”
Rory had been leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He sighed as might a long-festering boil when it is at last punctured. “You may as well tell the truth, Cat. When you called the coach and four and the eru into this world to help you hunt down and kill James Drake, you had to make a bargain with them that you would allow them to live in your household for as long as they wished.” He opened his eyes wide and raised his eyebrows, head jutted forward aggressively, in warning.
Blinking was all I could manage. “Oh.”
Vai said, “You can imagine our surprise when we brought you home from Tanit’s temple and found the coach, the horses, a heavy bag of gold coins, and the two of them in the stable.”
Bee leaned into my shoulder. “In the hay, indulging in a most ardent embrace. I thought it was sweet, although Andevai did not find it as amusing.”
“Did you not, my love?” I asked.
“We found them a room,” he said. I hadn’t known the man could blush like that!
“Do they bide here still?”
“They do,” said Vai, “and in truth, it is convenient to have them, for we could not otherwise afford to house a coach, much less stable four horses. I just find it a little odd.”
They both stared at me with the expressions of people who suspect the worst but feel you are not quite yet up to being accused of perfidy.
In the end it wasn’t just that I could wind shadows about me and sneak around where people didn’t want me to go. It was that I understood the importance of misdirection.
“Now that we have a coach and four, you can go to Noviomagus, Bee. We can go as soon as I’m stronger. Perhaps Chartji has some business for us to take care of there as well, so we can combine work and love! I am sure there are radicals to meet with, too, for it seemed to me that the prince and mage House in Noviomagus had not the least interest in listening to the radical cause.”
“That would be delightful,” cried Bee, blushing.
“Yes, for the first hour, until you fall simpering into Venus’s coils and I am left to mope about Noviomagus on my own, although that kindly steward I met at Five Mirrors House might be sympathetic to my sad plight.”
Vai frowned. “What manner of reckless mischief you can get up to on your own or together I don’t even like to think. Not that it’s any of my business, mind you, for I am sure you can do as you please,” he added as Bee opened her mouth to expostulate.
“You ought to be cautious, though, Bee,” I added thoughtfully. “Maybe you did dream of that fabric before Vai found it, and you just didn’t realize it. I know dragon dreamers are barren when they mate with men, but Kemal isn’t a man even when he’s in man form.”
“Cat!” Blushing, she clutched her sketchbook to her breast.
Vai was still vexing himself over my mention of the kindly steward. “I need to negotiate with the mansa of Five Mirrors House regardless on another matter. Viridor can meet me there. He and I have begun a correspondence regarding new pedagogical methods. I’ll send a dispatch to alert them. Kofi needs to see something of Europa, and I wish to introduce him around.”
So it was that twelve days later, with a light fall of snow dusting the ground, I set off to escort my cousin to meet a dragon with whom she had the intention of becoming romantically involved.
Bee was so charmingly nervous that she kept running back into the house for things she was sure she had forgotten. The coachman stood at the horses’ heads, chatting with Kofi. In company the eru had proven to be much more reserved than the relaxed coachman, so she waited by the door with one eye on the sky, as if making sure a blizzard was not about to drop in.
Shivering, I climbed in to warm myself with heated bricks tucked inside my fur cloak. I had just received two letters. One was from Doctor Asante, written in the manner of a close kinswoman desirous of getting to know better a beloved child from whom she had been long separated. I had read it ten times already. The other was a letter from Kehinde via Chartji, explaining that a printer had been jailed by the prince of Colonia and asking if I might lend my skills to a mission to rescue the man before he was executed for sedition. Colonia wasn’t far from Noviomagus. I could probably manage it by myself.
“You’re looking thoughtful, love. What are you considering doing that I don’t want to hear about until it’s over?” Vai arranged himself on the seat opposite with care, as if he believed a many days’ journey in the coach would not wrinkle his clothing simply because he did not wish it.
I smiled, for Rory and I had, between us and the coachman and eru, covered our tracks. “I can’t help but be reminded of the evening you and I met and married all in the space of an hour. Do you know, Vai, you’re so awfully handsome I suppose I might have been able to fall in love with you that first evening when you took me away from my aunt and uncle’s house, if only you hadn’t been so awful in every other way.”
He relaxed, stretching out his feet to tangle with mine. “My grandmother warned me it is rash and reckless for a man and woman to join their affections in marriage just for the sake of physical attraction. Marriage is meant to be arranged by the elders so no trouble comes of it. Falling in love with my good looks would have been a terrible mistake. If an understandable one.”
“I certainly had no chance to fall in love with your humble demeanor. Since I doubt you have one.”
He glanced at me through half-lidded eyes in the coy way he had when he had drawn out just the sort of teasing joke he loved me to make. Rory stuck his head in, gave me a kiss, embraced Vai in a brotherly farewell, and bounded away into the house far too eagerly.
“I was surprised when Rory decided to stay behind,” I remarked.
“You see, I did forget it!” cried Bee as she clambered in, plopped down next to me, and set a basket on my lap. “Sweet yam pastries, crescent rolls, rice and peas that Kayleigh made for Kofi, and a jar of Serena’s yam pudding. Rory has made me a bet that he will seduce her before we return.”
“Good fortune with that,” Vai said. “Serena is not interested in dalliance.”
“How would you know?” I demanded.
He flashed a smile, silently laughing at me. “She’s angling for a prestigious marriage with a very promising magister from Five Mirrors House. There are two powerful candidates to be heir, and the mansa there wants to move one out of the way so there is no trouble.”
Bee batted her eyelashes as her most dangerously honeyed smile lit her face. “If that is the case, don’t you worry about bringing such a powerful magister into Four Moons House?”
He looked at her blankly. “No. Why would I?”
Kofi stuck his head in. “I shall ride up front to see the countryside. Fair wild, I call this!”
“I want to hold on in back with the eru,” I said.
“No!” Bee and Vai spoke at the same time, as Kofi shut the door.
“You are so recently recovered, dearest,” said Bee. “It really is outside of enough that you are making such
