House of Sand and Secrets (Books of Oreyn #2)(62)
“Where are you staying now?”
I explain that I am renting furnished apartments in the Grosner area, near the Mata Palace, and that my retinue of servants is currently on the somewhat smaller side. “I’ll be looking at new properties this week, and it would be better for me if I were not worrying about the bat.” How easily the words slip from my mouth. I am almost ashamed at my ability to play this part so well, so carelessly. A twinge. Mine. Or his, feeling my second-hand guilt.
“Doesn’t it have a job to do?”
I shrug. “As you say, it was merely an accountant. I can spare it for the immediate future.”
Carien smiles, and some of that hunted look fades from her skin. “I’ll have rooms prepared,” she says. “If you have him delivered to the house tomorrow afternoon that should be perfect.” She locks her fingers together to hold her greed in, but it seeps through in her voice. “He’ll make a wonderful subject.”
“Your husband … .” I falter. “You’re certain that he would never bring one home from the rookeries?”
Carien‘s mouth moves, just slightly, as if she is preparing to say something. An awkward moment fills up with her silence. When she speaks, she looks away, across the tea-house to where the urns are hissing loud enough to almost drown her voice. “I believe he had a house slave once, but that was long before we married.” She frowns. “I do not think he would repeat that.”
“How can you be so sure?” I say, turning my tea cup around in its saucer. “He wants the vamp-the bats’ status revoked – he wants to make animals of them. Perhaps the reason for his new proposal is simply that he wants no constraints on how many he owns, or what people would think of his actions?” The proposal is due to come before the House Council before the week is out. If it passes, all this will be for nothing. The law will change the rules of the game we are playing.
Carien’s eyes narrow. “You have very low thoughts.” She stands. “I must go.” Carien leaves without a goodbye, and after she has gone, I notice her tea is untouched.
Well, it was not perhaps quite the meeting I had planned, but I will have Jannik in her house by tomorrow, and he will be able to find where Eline Garret is keeping Isidro. Once he has given me a location, surely it will be nothing more than following Jannik’s directions and using my magic one last time before I give it up for good.
This new legal proposal of Eline’s concerning the vampire rights is another millstone we need to cut from our necks. Isidro was certain that it could not be passed, that my voice and Harun’s would be enough to stall the council in its vote. However, I need to go make sure that Guyin is sober enough to come out of his hermitage and take his seat in the Lord’s Council later this week. Whether or not Isidro is back, he needs to stand with me. We must make plans and I need to let Harun lead me in this, something I am loath to do. He’s not proved himself to be the most stable of allies, but he’s the only one I have and I am woefully ignorant as to how the MallenIve system works. I have never set foot in a Lord’s Council. It is not how we do things in Pelimburg.
*
The evening has fallen in silken drapes and the last of the sun has left the western horizon a smear of reds and deep pinks. Jannik and I are home. Or rather, in the thing that is pretending to be our home. He’s slumped in a long couch, legs stretched out. For the first time today, we are alone again. I curl next to him, revelling in this strange comfortable intimacy. With my knees and shins just touching his thigh, I can feel the welcoming slide of his magic between us. His tiredness is flickering in my head, his mental walls crumbling. “You should sleep.” I press a strand of sable hair back, tuck it behind his ear then let my fingers trail down his jaw.
Jannik sighs. “So should you.”
When I returned to gather Jannik and bring him home, I found the Guyin house in a flurry of wash cloths and pails and brooms, with Harun himself looking slightly stunned, if at least shaved and bathed and dressed in a clean suit. Jannik had found a portly but neat low-Lammer in his fifties to stand as head servant, and Master Gillcrook has the look of a man who would deal with House tempers with a genial firmness that would serve him well working for Harun.
“At least we’ve left Guyin in good hands,” I say. “Do you think we should have stayed there?” He’s not alone in the house, but I still feel a squirming pity for him. Jannik also had the entire contents of Harun’s wine cellar either sold or hauled off into storage. I can’t imagine Harun will take the news well when he discovers it.
“He would not have welcomed our continued intrusion.”
“I suppose not.” We’ve already involved ourselves too much in his affairs. A humiliation he may well never recover from. I run my fingers lightly down Jannik’s shirt, skating over the creases, and down along the black wool of his trousers.
When I reach his knee, he stops my hand with his own. “I believe you missed out on some of the more interesting details of last night,” Jannik says.
“That is true, and I believe someone promised me a review, of sorts.” I push away all the worries I have – of the Lord’s Council I have to go to, of Jannik’s impending meeting with House Eline, of what could be happening to Isidro right now – and concentrate on the feel of Jannik’s hand against mine.