“Thank you,” I said at last, my voice unnaturally flat even to me.
She hesitated, eyes worried. “Is there…is there anything I can get for you?”
More wine, I thought. But I shook my head. Wine suddenly didn’t seem strong enough. I wanted to go home just then and raid my liquor cabinet, seeking solace in my own home and its bed, not this godforsaken Dark Ages fortress. The wine was going to make transitioning between the worlds harder, though. It wasn’t impossible but would hardly be as smooth as usual. No, it seemed I might be stuck here for a while.
“I need to see Volusian,” I said.
She stepped aside for me, and though I didn’t ask for it, she followed me solicitously as I headed downstairs, down to the keep’s dungeon. It seemed darker and drearier than it had last time, but maybe that was the wine. Jasmine’s cell was easy to spot because four guards stood in the hall outside it. I reached it, and through the bars, I saw Volusian standing in one corner, perfectly still, with his arms crossed over his chest. Jasmine sat as absolutely far from him as she could, her face equal parts fear and sullenness.
“What do you want now?” she snapped. I didn’t even look at her.
“Volusian,” I said. “I have an errand for you. I’ll watch Jasmine while you’re gone.”
Volusian walked forward, passing through the bars and coming to stand in front of me. “No doubt my mistress has a more urgent task.”
“Moderately. I want you to go back to Tucson and bring me the bottle of tequila I keep in my liquor cabinet. And don’t scare Tim.”
Volusian remained motionless in that way of his. “My mistress grows increasingly creative in her ways to torment me.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it.”
“Only in so much as it inspires me to equally creative means to rip you apart when I am able to break free of these bonds and finally destroy you.”
“You see? There’s a silver lining to everything. Now hurry up.”
Volusian vanished. With him gone, Jasmine grew bolder. She hurried to the front of the cell, holding the bronze bars as best she could with her bound hands. “When are you going to let me go?”
I sat down against the hall’s wall, opposite her. I wondered if she’d try any of her stunted magic with me around. “When are you going to stop asking?”
“You’re a real bitch, you know that?”
“Look, little girl,” I growled. “You do not want to mess with me tonight. I’m not in a good mood.”
Jasmine was undeterred. “I can’t believe you’re keeping me in here with that…that thing! That’s just cruel and sadistic.”
“Wow, sadistic’s kind of a big word. I didn’t think you’d stayed in school long enough to learn that kind of vocabulary.”
Her glower darkened. “When I get out, I’m going to kill you.”
“Then you and ‘that thing’ should get along beautifully, seeing as he spends all his time plotting my grisly death too.”
She nodded down to her bound hands. “I can barely feed myself, you know.”
“Barely isn’t the same as can’t.” But I did feel a little bad about that. Was I really going to keep her in cuffs forever? Yet, how could I not? Maybe I should investigate that potion Rurik had told me about. No…that wasn’t right either. I sighed, and spent the next half-hour listening to her alternate between insults and whining. It was better than thinking about Kiyo, though. All the while, I was sobering up, so when Volusian finally appeared and handed me over a full bottle of Jose Cuervo, I gave silent thanks that I’d purchased an extra-large bottle.
“Thanks,” I said, rising to my feet. I pointed to Jasmine’s cell. “Now-back to guard duty.”
I turned around without a second glance, Jasmine’s cries of outrage echoing behind me. Shaya, who had waited silently the whole time, fell in step with me as I walked back upstairs.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do for you?”
I eyed the bottle. “See if you can find some little glasses about this big.” I held my fingers out to the size of a shot glass. “And bring enough for…I don’t know. You, Rurik…hell, anyone who wants to get drunk with me. Even Ysabel.” I was feeling magnanimous tonight. Or, well, at least in a misery-loves-company mood.
Shaya’s face looked more troubled than ever, but I paid it little concern as I walked outside to a small circular courtyard in the castle’s center. This seemed to be a fixture in most gentry holdings. Dorian had a couple. I’d been told that this one had been green in Aeson’s time, filled with lilies and lilacs. Now, it was sandy and gravelly, lined with cacti, mesquite, and even some of the thorn trees that had given the land its name. At least the mesquite scented the air, and I decided one perk of the Otherworld was that those trees always seemed to be in bloom.
I sat down cross-legged in the middle of the courtyard, noticing that someone had started to set stone tiles into it to create a kind of patio area. It hadn’t been there last time, and I wondered if it was Shaya’s doing, just like the patches of grass she kept trying to grow around here. Not waiting for shot glasses, I uncapped the tequila and took a long swig, the strong liquor burning my throat.
Shaya returned shortly, Rurik following. His face was uncharacteristically serious. After a brief moment of exchanged looks, they joined me on the tiled ground. Shaya set down some tiny cups made of engraved silver. Not quite shot glasses, but they would do. I took the bottle and filled three of them up.
“To the Willow Queen and her child,” I said, holding my cup in the air. I downed it one gulp. “Damn. Wish I had some salt and lime.”
Shaya and Rurik exchanged glances once more-did they honestly think I didn’t notice each time?-and then followed my lead with the tequila. Rurik took his down stoically, but Shaya choked on hers.
“What…what is this?” she asked, once she was able to speak.
“God’s favorite liquor. I should have had Volusian run to the grocery store and get some margarita mix while he was out.” I paused, laughing at the thought. I poured another shot. “It’s made from a kind of cactus, you know.”
Shaya eyed the bottle askance. “Truly?”
“Yup. Huh. I wonder if we could manufacture this stuff. I’ve seen agave around. I bet we could set up some serious trade with it.”
“I’m not so certain,” she said.
Rurik was pouring another glass. “I don’t know. It might appeal to some.”
“Ah, Rurik. I knew we were kindred spirits.” I held up my empty shot glass, studying the way the half- moon’s light shone on it. My head was regaining its pleasant buzz again. “Do you think Maiwenn’s going to have a boy or a girl?”
“I don’t know,” said Shaya after several moments of silence. “There are those who can magically determine such things. But I haven’t heard of the Willow Queen doing that.”
“Probably not.” Kiyo would have told me. Or would he have? Maybe he would have held on to that news, keeping it as a special secret between him and Maiwenn. I poured another shot but didn’t drink it yet. Shitfaced was one thing; sick was another. “Back in my world, they would have known its gender a long time ago. They also would have been able to tell all sorts of things-its size, if it had any diseases, even if it was twins or triplets. There’s this machine we’ve got. You run a paddle over the mother’s stomach, and then you can see the baby up on this screen. Or, sometimes, even earlier, they can take a needle and suck up amniotic fluid to find out the same things.”
Rurik and Shaya were staring at me wide-eyed. It was a common expression amongst Otherworldly denizens whenever I began talking about human technology.
“I wonder sometimes if there’s any mystery or wonder left in your world at all.”
I glanced over and saw Ysabel’s form silhouetted in the doorway to the castle.
“Oh, sure. Plenty of it.” I gestured her over. “Come have a drink. I’m pretty sure I’m too drunk to kill anyone tonight.”
Ysabel hesitated a few seconds and then slowly walked over, sitting near Rurik and Shaya, as far from me as she could respectfully go. She grimaced slightly at the tiles as she tucked her flowing silk skirts underneath her. No doubt being on the ground went against her fastidious nature. Rurik cheerfully handed her a tequila shot. She sniffed it, and her scowl returned.
My mind was still on babies. “Seems like ultrasounds would be useful to you guys. I mean, what with the
