Chapter 28

Ziola had been pale and tired after touching the Eye, so I left her in the safehouse to nap while I purchased food and checked the various dead drops I used to receive messages. Most of the notes were about a massive increase in Enforcer activity, but that was hardly surprising. One, however, had my stomach twisting and I stared at it blankly for several heartbeats. Halder was requesting a meeting.

Fearing that Ziola would try to follow me to the Silent Quill if she knew I was meeting Halder, I said that I needed to stop by my house and would return shortly. Thankfully, she didn't press for details and seemed content to curl up in the armchair with the pastries I had brought.

It would have been foolish to think Halder might forget my promised favor, but I had hoped he wouldn't ask until some vague time in the very distant future. That he chose now couldn't possibly be a coincidence. What if he demanded the Eye? I was no more comfortable giving it to Halder than to the guild at this point, but refusing the guild was a lot more conducive to long life than refusing Halder. My thoughts churned violently as I grasped for potential excuses I could give him.

I still hadn't come up with a viable plan when I turned into the close, grimy alley that housed the Silent Quill. The heavy door opened with a creak, and I moved cautiously down the stone stairs, the wavering torchlight sending shadows dancing across the rough walls. The same hobgoblin sat at the bottom, yellow eyes gleaming as he sucked at his teeth. Gods, his diet must be frightful.

"Pretty poppies," I said. Hopefully, telling me that was the current password wasn't Halder's idea of a joke. I really didn't fancy a closer encounter with the dentally challenged hobgoblin.

But he merely belched and shoved the door open. Senses on full alert, I paused just inside to scan the smokey, low-ceilinged room for threats. A few eyes flicked in my direction as I strode across the room, but most of the patrons continued their murmured schemes without interruption.

Halder was ensconced in his usual booth with a mug and a single candle dripping wax onto the otherwise clean wooden table. For some reason, my attention latched onto the wax as I recalled Halder had always been fastidious. I supposed that was an important attribute for someone who mixed poisons. With a mental shake, I looked up to find gold-flecked green eyes studying me.

"You've apparently done what they said was impossible." One corner of Halder's mouth lifted in a sardonic smile, and he raised his mug in a salute.

I licked my suddenly parched lips and said, "What makes you think I've done anything at all?"

Halder snorted and took a drink. "My contract for the Fae Council member was canceled when two items at Scepter Seraphim sprouted legs and vanished. I highly doubt an incompetent janitor at the auction house accidentally misplaced them."

So, Halder thought I'd lost him a lucrative contract. That wasn't good. Wait? Two? I'd only taken the Eye. After a moment, I remembered the dagger with the trapped elemental that I had left under the drinks cabinet. I guessed they hadn't found it.

I was still casting about for something to say when Halder continued. "The guild directors truly have their heads up their asses. They should be begging you to stay, not pestering you." He shook his head.

There was a time I had craved Halder's approbation and the thought of the guild begging me to stay would have stroked my ego. But Ralph's words about leaving the guild had been rattling around in my head and I realized that the idea was no longer unthinkable. I wasn't sure when that had happened.

I sat, blinking at Halder like a knobblen caught in the sunlight, when he asked, "Have they made you a master now?"

"No, they haven't."

He peered at me shrewdly. "You haven't given it to them yet. Having second thoughts?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." I hadn't told him much about the Eye on my last visit but couldn't think of a way around it now. Sighing, I told him about the poisoned harbor and dying sea life. "I can't imagine how the guild could have anything to do with toxic waste, but I don't understand why else the Eye would have sent me this vision."

Halder dropped back against his chair with a thump and a loud exhalation. "For someone so astute and well informed, you have a remarkable blind spot when it comes to the guild."

Crossing my arms, I gritted my teeth to suppress my rising irritation. "You said that last time we met, too."

"You heard about the alchemists who were dumping waste in the harbor, right?"

I nodded but didn't mention that I had been involved in finding their laboratory.

"They were a bunch of bumbling idiots. Good enough at alchemy" — he waved a dismissive hand — "but nowhere near clever enough to run an operation like that."

"So, who do you think was behind it?" I challenged.

He leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table. "One of the directors. My money is on Alford, but I didn't care enough to look into it."

Heat crept up my neck, and I dropped my gaze to the table. I had been so focused on learning about the Eye I hadn't given them a second thought. As far as I was concerned, passing Drex the location of their lab had fulfilled my part of the agreement and I promptly put them out of my mind. I felt like a fool.

"Still think the guild is the right place for it?" Halder asked with a cocked eyebrow.

I shook my head. Even before learning this, I'd been reluctant to hand it over despite Ziola's conviction that we should.

"Good. I'm calling in my favor. I'll broker a sale to the fae who first contacted me with the assassination contract. You deliver the artifact and we're square. As promised, no killing and no betrayal of a friend."

Icy fingers skated up my spine and I had difficulty breathing. "Do you think it's safe to give it to the high fae?" I asked.

Halder laced his fingers together and leaned forward. "Don't care. They'll pay well."

Numbly, I stood, my wits as scattered as fallen leaves in a windstorm. I didn't like the idea of giving the Eye to the fae, but if someone at the guild was involved with dumping toxic alchemy waste, perhaps that was a better alternative. I gave Halder a shallow nod before heading to the door.

When I returned to the safe house, I found Ziola rested and contentedly full of pastry. Her sleepy smile fell away, and her expression sharpened as I recounted my conversation with Halder.

"Surely he is mistaken," she said, twisting a lock of red hair and biting her lip.

"If a director was involved in that black market alchemy operation, it had to be an outside activity." I rubbed my face. "I've never known the guild to take on something like that."

"Giving it to the fae so Halder can benefit, seems like a really bad idea."

"As far as I can tell, all our options are bad." I dropped my head into my hands and continued, "I'm going to have to touch it again. This time, I'll ask if we should give it to the high fae." Every ounce of self-preservation I possessed argued against touching the Eye again, but I couldn't think of another way to decide what to do with it.

Ziola's brows drew together, and she squeezed my arm. She pushed the box toward me and pulled her sleeves down over her hands.

She gave me a brittle smile and said, "I assume it needs skin contact to work. If you start drooling and twitching, I'll grab the Eye and shove it back in its box."

I snorted a laugh. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

When I opened the box, the Eye's indigo and violet depths shimmered enticingly. Taking a deep breath, I formulated my question explicitly in my mind: What would happen if I gave the Eye to Halder's fae client? As my fingers brushed its smooth surface, an immediate coldness gripped me, and the world faded, replaced by a swirling vortex of color.

When it stopped, I saw stars, moons, and other celestial bodies aligned in a manner that amplified magical energies. A human woman wearing mage robes lay crumpled on the ground, surrounded by representatives of many races. Shifters, nymphs, brownies, trolls, gnomes, merfolk, fairies, and others were strewn across the landscape. A scroll burned fiercely among a pile of rocks.

The scene shifted to Sageport, where instead of horses, trolls pulled carriages and wagons through the cobblestone streets, while lesser fae drivers used their whips freely to keep the trolls moving. On another street, non-fae magic users were being hunted, their powers drained and harnessed by the high fae. Humans prostrated themselves on the pavement as high fae passed, and in City Center, naked shifters huddled in pens waiting to be auctioned on the slave block.

The coldness of the Eye's magic lifted, and I was thrust back into the present, gasping for breath. The weight of what I had witnessed pressed heavily on my heart. The room closed in on me, and Ziola's worried face swam into view.

"What did you see?" she whispered, her voice tight.

"A future we can never allow to happen." I placed the Eye back in its box.

"As bad as the first one?"

"Worse."

I guzzled two mugs of ale in quick succession and told Ziola about the vision.

"I guess that rules out letting the Fae Council handle it," she said.

"Someone on the Council or among the high fae would use it to go back to the Celestial Confluence and make sure the Great Pact was never signed." I shuddered and ran a hand down my face. "We have to make sure they never find it."

"Now what?"

"Now we eat. I'm starving."

She studied my face for several moments. "You feel alright?"

"I'm not drooling yet," I replied with a wink.

She planted her fists on her hips and glared at me. "I'm serious."

Free me, free me, free me. I can make you great, great, great.

"Do you hear that?"

Ziola froze and stared at me. "Hear what?"

I stopped smiling as icy fingers of dread wrapped around my heart. "It's whispering to me."

Her mouth fell open, and she blinked. "Whispering?"

I slammed the lid shut on the Eye and latched it.

"It doesn't want to be put back in the box. It likes being used."

"Is it still whispering?"

"As soon as I shut the lid, it stopped. Or maybe it didn't, but I can't hear it through the enchantments on the box."

"Don't use it again." She grabbed my arm and shook it, her brows pinched together.

"I won't." I picked up the box and started for the door.

"What are you doing with the Eye?" I could hear the alarm in her voice.

"I'm going to hide it. We shouldn't have left it here when we went out before."

She nodded, and we stepped out into the hallway.

"Meet me at The Stony Mug in an hour. Unless you're too full of pastry."

She stuck her tongue out and darted off down the corridor.

I secreted the Eye of Oris in one of the secret cubbyholes that I used to stash my clothing and knives when I shifted. Although I couldn't hear it whispering from inside the box, I felt a strange compulsion to take it out, like an itch I couldn't reach to scratch. I was glad to put some distance between us and as I got farther away, the feeling lessened.

By the time I arrived at The Stony Mug, the pressure was gone, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I waved to Ralph but headed straight for the small corner table I typically used. Dropping into a chair, I rubbed my temples and didn't look up until Talya set a mug of ale in front of me.

"Thanks, love," I said with a smile, ridiculously grateful it was Talya and not Shirley. I knew I needed to explain how things stood to Shirley, but I couldn't face it just then.

Talya studied me with shrewd eyes and said, "You're looking peaked. I'll bring you food."

"I'll wait until Ziola gets here. Then please bring us whatever you've got."

She gave me a knowing grin and winked before departing to deliver ale to another table.

A few minutes later, Ziola came through the front door and headed my way. Her supple body wove gracefully between the tables, and a sudden flush of heat spread from my groin. When I noticed that several other patrons had looked up from their meals to admire her figure, my fingers instinctively dropped to one of my knives. Before I knew it, the knife was halfway out of its sheath.

A large hand suddenly landed on my shoulder and a deep voice rumbled, "Down, boy."

I had been so entranced watching Ziola, I hadn't even noticed Ralph approach. By the gods, the woman was going to get me killed. I was never so oblivious of my surroundings, but I couldn't think straight whenever she was near.

With a sheepish smile, I re-sheathed the knife and cleared my throat. "I was just getting ready to cut my meat."

Ralph looked pointedly around the table that was empty but for a mug of ale. "Sure you were."

He held a chair for Ziola and said, "It's good to see you. I hope you're hungry; we've got a huge pork roast."

Ziola's cheeks were pink, and her green eyes sparkled as she sat and gazed up at Ralph. A pang of concern shot through me—maybe I was supposed to be holding chairs for her. It hadn't occurred to me and wasn't something I'd ever done before. Unfortunately, Halder hadn't thought to include books on fine manners on my reading list.

Before I could worry more about the gaping holes in my education, Alix arrived with a scowl firmly directed at me. He pulled out a chair with his foot, plopped into it, and planted his elbows on the table.

"There was an even bigger ruckus in City Center the other night. With an even bigger reward." He jabbed a finger at my chest. "Am I still visiting my dead grandfather?"

Ziola snickered as I gave Alix a bland look. "Poor old bugger is really quite needy. Such a shame he takes up so much of your time."

Ralph glanced back and forth between us. "I don't think I want to know what this is about. I'll send Talya over with food." He walked away.

Alix slumped but continued to glare. "You're losing me money."

"To be fair, the opportunity wouldn't even arise if it weren't for me."

Talya arrived with the food, and I immediately started shoveling it in. My shifter metabolism burned through food quickly, but my ravenous hunger surprised me. I paused with the fork halfway to my mouth and looked at Ziola. "Are you hungrier than usual?"

"No. But I did eat all those cakes."

"Have you two been up to something that would increase appetite?" Alix asked, one brow raised.

Ziola's cheeks turned red as I grinned and said, "I'm always up to something."

Alix just rolled his eyes.

"What's the word on the street about City Center?" I asked Alix.

"It looks like someone robbed Scepter Seraphim. That's the same auction house that was involved the last time. This time, the gargoyles didn't destroy neighboring property, however."

"Did they say what was taken?"

"Two magical items, but either Scepter Seraphim or the Enforcers are playing it close to the vest. No one else seems to know exactly what."

"Two?" Ziola interjected.

I'd forgotten to tell her about the dagger I'd left under the liquor cabinet. I still regretted not being able to get that out.

"Do the Enforcers have any leads?" I asked, trying to deflect attention from Ziola's comment.

Unfortunately, Alix was no one's fool, and his expression sharpened first on Ziola and then on me. But he chose to ignore it and said, "They mustn't. If the auction house is advertising a reward this large, they must be scrambling."

"Is Scepter Seraphim offering the reward, or the Enforcers?" Ziola asked.

Alix rubbed his chin. "The Enforcers have never done it before, so I assumed it was the company."

Given at least one member of the Council's interest in the Eye and the fact that they controlled the Enforcers, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had put up the money. "When did the notice go out?" I asked.

Alix swiveled in his chair to peer at me. "Where have you been for the last two days? You're the first to hear anything, and this news is all over the street."

I shrugged and shoved another forkful into my mouth.

"And when did you last eat? I never understand how you can eat as much as Ralph and stay so lean, but you're acting like you haven't eaten in a month."

Staring at my plate, I realized Alix was right. This was more than just being hungry. I'd spent many years without enough food, but I had never felt an emptiness like this gnawing through me. With growing disquiet, I wondered if the Eye fed on the user's own physical reserves, and this was my body's way to replenish. Jeremiah had mentioned that the Eye became harder to resist with each subsequent use, but not that it leached energy from a person.

Pushing that unsettling thought aside, I said, "Ralph's food is just good."

Alix stood and said, "Since I won't be chasing after that very nice bounty, I'm going home to spend the evening with my wife. Ziola, it was good seeing you." He turned to me. "I'd hole up somewhere if I were you. It's hot on the streets right now."