Nick rolled his eyes. “This is a quillon dagger. That’s a knife with a sword handle. I like it because it has a good grip for stabbing.”
“Why do you say these things?” Jamie inquired piteously. “Is it to make me sad?”
“I didn’t have you cornered,” Nick went on. “You could’ve run. And this dagger doesn’t have an even weight distribution; it’s absolute rubbish for throwing. If I had any intention of hurting you, I’d have used a knife I could throw.”
Jamie blinked. “I will remember those words always. I may try to forget them, but I sense that I won’t be able to.”
“Good,” said Nick. “Like I said, that spell won’t protect you, and you have a habit of getting into trouble. You need to know things.”
There was a long pause, during which Nick eyed Jamie in what seemed to be a critical manner. Jamie eyed Nick in what seemed to be mortal fear.
“Do you want to learn how to use a gun or a knife?” Nick asked abruptly at last.
“Ahaha,” Jamie said. “No?”
Nick raked a cold glance up and down Jamie’s body, as if he was planning to skin him. “Well, you’re too scrawny to be any good with a sword.”
“I prefer to think of myself as slender,” Jamie told him.
Nick gave Jamie a blank look, then said, “Come on. I’ll drive you to my place and teach you how to throw knives.”
“What!” said Jamie. “Why?”
“Because I am a sweet and caring individual who is truly concerned about your welfare,” Nick drawled. “You coming?”
Jamie glanced at him and at Alan, and carefully did not look at Mae. It occurred to her, with a painful little shock in her chest, that Jamie didn’t want to go back home with her.
“Okay.”
Jamie didn’t want to be around her, and Nick hadn’t asked her to come. Mae had a vision of them all just getting into the car and driving away, leaving her by the side of the road. Then she turned and looked into Alan’s eyes.
“Do you want to come and take a walk with me?” he asked. “I know you must have some questions.”
His blue eyes were steady and so dark they looked like deep waters, like you could fall into them for miles.
“I do have a few questions,” said Mae.
“Okay, so here’s my first question,” Mae said as they walked back to the city center. “Who the hell is Celeste Drake?”
“She’s the leader of another magicians’ Circle,” Alan said. “The Aventurine Circle. I don’t really know much about it; her Circle never hassled us much. As magicians’ Circles go, I believe they’re not the worst. Not much interested in power squabbles, and a higher number than in most Circles have real uses for their power. I think Celeste herself is a doctor, and I know one of the Circle has a special interest in using magic for fighting; the time we heard that was the one and only time Nick has ever been inspired to do magical research on his own. There are a couple of historians who use scrying bowls to see the past.”
“Well, speaking as a feminist, I’m glad that women can lead—uh, groups of unspeakable magical evil.”
“Yes,” Alan said gravely. “It’d be shocking if the evil magicians were sexist. For one thing, that would mean they were stupid, and having stupid enemies would be a terrible blow to my manly pride.”
Mae laughed at him for being a goof and Alan grinned back at her, easy and charming. She elbowed him gently, and he didn’t break stride.
“So why are we feeding Gerald to the Aventurine Circle in particular?”
“I still have a few contacts in the Goblin Market,” Alan said. “Word is that Celeste’s looking for him. I imagine it’s to express her displeasure about the Obsidian Circle invading her turf when they came chasing after Nick. Her Circle’s based in London, you see.”
“And moving’s difficult for them,” Mae said. “Territory’s a big deal.”
“Every circle a magician ever draws is a reflection of the one circle of stones their group is named for. The sigils they wear link into the same circles, and bind them to each other. Some magicians’ Circles have their circles buried in the ground, some of them hidden in plain sight as old druids’ circles. They all guard them with their lives. And they hate the thought of another Circle coming near theirs. Black Arthur didn’t ask Celeste’s permission to move his Circle into her city. He took what he wanted and planned to crush anyone in his path.”
“That was kind of Arthur’s way.”
Alan nodded. “It’s left Gerald in a complete mess. A lot of magicians have left his Circle and taken different sigils. He had to move back fast, he’s recruiting desperately, and one of the big Circles is after his blood for trespass. And it’s all very convenient for us.”
Mae touched her new talisman. “The messenger who came to see me said that Gerald might have invented something like a second sigil. A mark to give him more power. How much stronger is the Aventurine Circle?”
“Don’t worry,” said Alan. “They’re strong enough.”
They passed under the shadow of the trees that marked their entrance into the north side of the city. Alan glanced up at them, the branches heavy with their dark green summer armfuls.
“These used to be called dancing trees.”
Mae smiled. “I didn’t know that.”
