Ezra chuckled, and then grew serious. “The non-agonizing part depends on you,” he said. “Measure your words carefully today. You have set things in motion, and not everything is as it seems.”
“Welcome to my life,” I said. “Thanks for the talk, Ezra.”
“I should be thanking you. Be careful with Toson and the golem. Do not take either of them lightly.”
He waved a hand, and the secret garden vanished from sight.
When I could see again, we were in our apartment.
“Do you think he moves the Dark Goat, too, when he pulls off these super ports?” I asked. “Can you do that?”
“I think he doesn’t forget details like our transportation. I think Uncle Dex would be the closest to Ezra in teleportational skill. I still have much to learn.”
“I don’t trust her, Monty. I told her to be honest and she tried to BS me.”
“What do you mean?” Monty said, heading to the kitchen. “I really need a cuppa.”
“Ezra said she tried to find a loophole where there wasn’t one, for starters. All of a sudden there’s an obscure statute? Please, sell that to someone else. She wants to dust Toson.”
“Is it possible that she knows more about Red Mountain legalities than, say, someone who has no clue about their laws—like you?”
“She said he was her love, but is her sworn enemy. Words matter. The rage is right there, seething under the surface—trust me. I know the feeling of rage. The smell is familiar.”
“According to Orahjene, Toson killed her father, fed his essence to the Earth’s Breath and created a golem,” Monty said. “I could see her harboring some animosity toward her husband or anyone who took those actions.”
“True, I’d want to dust him based on that myself,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Something still feels off.”
“Quite. There is the small matter that her shift is complete, and she tried to mask it—quite effectively, I might add. If I were a less experienced mage, I would have missed it.”
“Her shift is complete?” I asked. “Then what is she doing? Waiting for us to flush out Toson?”
“Most likely,” Monty replied. “I highly doubt she will sacrifice herself for him. He betrayed her and killed her family. An offense under their law—punishable by death.”
“She’s going to wait until he makes his move, intercept him, and put him down?” I asked. “Do you think Ezra knows?”
Monty nodded.
“It’s not Ezra’s place to pass judgment. In the grand scheme of things, he is the answer to everything.”
“Well, that’s not morbid or anything, Darth Montague.”
“Orahjene is angry and wants revenge,” Monty said matter-of-factly. “She may have loved Toson, once, but that love is gone now, leaving only hatred in its wake. Like you said earlier—the rage is right there, seething under the surface.”
“My intuition tells me she’s going to try and end it all,” I said, pointing at him. “I think she’s going for the nuclear option—take Toson, herself, and anyone unlucky enough to be at ground zero.”
“That would be our city,” Monty said, “and us.”
“Some people just want to see the world burn. She may still love him, but can’t bring herself to forgive him.”
“Then it’s not love, Simon.”
“Regardless, I say we stop Toson and give him to the other Elders. Then we can do this clemency thing.”
“What if he doesn’t want clemency?” Monty asked. “Maybe he wants to end it all as well?”
“Well, then it all goes to shit, doesn’t it? I told you this whole case was a disaster. No…you had to fall for the ‘Obi Wan’ line.”
“For the record,” Monty said, sipping his tea, “we fell for the Obi Wan line, you more than I, since you are the Star Warriors fan.”
“Did you just say ‘Star Warriors’?” I asked, insulted. “It’s Star Wars…not Star Warriors. You don’t see me calling your low-budget TV show ‘Space Trek’, do you?”
“Only because you know better than to mistake an insightful, intelligently written, and ground-breaking example of entertainment,” he answered with a huff. “What ground did your Star Wars break? Oh, yes, I recall now…toy sales.”
“You said that wrong,” I countered. “Totally off.”
“I beg your pardon? Which part?”
“All of it,” I said, hunching my shoulders in my best Shatner. “I think what you meant to say was: I, know, better, thantomistake, a, groundbreaking, example, of, entertainment.”
He stared at me and sipped his tea in silence for a few seconds.
“It’s clear we need to visit Roxanne at Haven. You have most definitely suffered head trauma. How many stones hit your head?”
“Don’t, you, think—?”
“I think,” Monty said, cutting me off mid-Shatner, “that right now we need to focus on why Cecelia’s shortcut failed to work. I thought it was sound.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to blame little Cece for it not working? Whatever happened to ‘The teacher only shows what’s needed, not everything he knows’? Maybe a certain teacher needs to hit the books a little harder?”
“Of course not,” Monty answered. “Any failing on her part is directly attributed to my teaching.”
“Wow, I’m impressed.”
“Although, I do have to factor in for negative influences in her environment, like ill-mannered hellhounds and their bondmates, along with deluded lizards who believe they are dragons.”
“Really…you’re going to go there?”
“These influences are a clear and present danger to my apprentice’s learning.”
“You keep that up, and Cece is going to need to find a new teacher.”
Monty’s phone rang.
He put it on speakerphone.
“Hello? Tristan?”
“Ursula?” Monty asked, looking puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s better if I show you. Meet me at NP-1, now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“We have a major catastrophe in the making.”
She ended the call.
THIRTY-ONE
“Ursula doesn’t seem like the nervous type.”
“That’s because she isn’t. If she says it’s a catastrophe, rest assured, that’s a conservative estimate of the situation.”
“You know what I’d really like?” I asked as we sped downtown and the sun peeked over the horizon. “Just once?”
“Copious amounts of Deathwish coffee? Preferably delivered through an IV drip?”
“That’s not a bad idea, but then I couldn’t move around,” I said, giving it some thought. “No, I’d like to get a call saying ‘Hey, no need to
