Our warlock reached into his back pocket, pul ed out his wal et, and from it lifted a card. Kamal took it, studied it, looked up incredulously. “You want me to trust my neck to…
a library card?”
a library card?”
“It’s special,” Sterling assured him. “Just put it in your pocket and say these words as soon as you leave the building.” He whispered in Kamal’s ear. “It wil make you seem harmless to al who lay eyes on you for the fol owing five minutes.”
“That’s not long.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “For chrissake, Kamal, how long is it gonna take you to run away from here?”
“Al right.” He pocketed the card. Fol owed us downstairs.
By the time we reached the center of the tannery I figured he was shutting the door of his house behind him.
But he’d be back tomorrow. Which boggled my mind. I couldn’t imagine how anybody could work here for more than a few minutes, much less the years Yousef had obviously put in.
I crumpled the new bouquet of mint that he’d picked for me earlier and held it to my nose. It wasn’t working as wel as it had before. Maybe I was getting used to its smel . Or maybe I was just too close to the piles of animal skins, stil wearing their layers of rotting flesh and feasting insects.
Either way, the stench made me want to hurl the last thing I’d eaten into the nearest pool of bloody-looking liquid.
I decided it would help if I concentrated on holding my sword safely at my side so that neither one of its razor-sharp edges could slice into Yousef or Vayl as I fol owed them. Cole walked close behind me, hugging the wal s of the tannery’s outer edges like the rest of us while he tried not to make any noise that would attract Kyphas and her gang.
We’d come into the tannery from the north. The vat we needed was in the southeast corner. That meant a careful hike between grunge-soaked wal s and ancient pools that contained everything from lime water to pomegranate juice to watered-down pigeon dung.
What would this place have been back in the States?
Maybe a succession of clear blue pools edged by lush greenery with fountains set every twenty feet or so to draw the eye on to some new pleasure. Or maybe a fish farm, its tanks heaving with healthy bass, the purity of its H2O so closely regulated that most countries would wil ingly run it through their taps. Here the vats crammed against each other like shackled prisoners, their contents reminding me of bottomless pits. I imagined if any of us fel in we’d drift downward forever while the chemicals ate the skin off our bones until al that was left was an eternal y sinking skeleton.
Sterling’s voice yanked me back to the job. “The kloricht are holding steady,” he said.
“Where is the plane portal in relation to us?” Vayl asked.
“If you’re at one o’clock, it’s at four.” Yousef kept up a steady, creeping motion, though I could see him shaking as he led us toward our goal. He looked over his shoulder once, to make sure we were stil fol owing. And the gleam in his eyes told the whole story. He couldn’t have been happier if I’d just cracked a dictionary over his head.
Behind him Vayl moved with the stealth of a born predator. I would’ve complimented his skil , but the headache was knocking harder now, and if I had to say anything I might puke. I glanced back to see if Cole felt the same. Uh, considering that he was winding a long purple string of gum between his teeth and fingers like taffy, probably not.
I nearly turned back to Vayl and said, “I can’t work under these circumstances. I need peace before a kil , man.” But then I imagined myself meditating and maybe downing a cup of chamomile tea before pul ing off my next hit. And that was so ludicrous that I nearly slapped myself across the face. Pull it together. You can do this.
And afterward, free margaritas for everyone! shouted my Inner Bimbo from her favorite barstool. Which she promptly fel off of. I glared at her.
This is why nobody listens to you, ya lush.
Teen Me was waving frantical y from the second-story window of Granny May’s house. Now why would she be up there? That wasn’t even the room I usual y stayed in. I looked around for somebody to ask, but my Librarian was sprinting down the road like she’d just heard there was a two-for-one sale at Borders. And Granny May’s bridge table? Deserted.
I stopped. “Something’s wrong.” Hey, no vomiting! Two points for me!
Vayl murmured to Yousef and we stopped at the edge of a smal alcove formed by the side of yet another deserted building, part of the medina’s outer wal , and a third structure that the tannery seemed to be using as a warehouse. Inside this capital U was lowercase U formed by one large tub. Our tub. But al I saw was a white blur as I pul ed back and ducked inside the abandoned home with Vayl, Cole, and Yousef. We huddled beside the open door, discussing our options.
Sterling spoke into our ears. “Demons are holding steady,” he reported.
“Why would that be?” I wondered aloud. “Why didn’t they ream us up on the roof? Why retrieve the map and then hand it back to us? What are they waiting for?”
“They’re demons,” Cole said bitterly. “Playing games like this is their favorite pastime.”
I didn’t reply. Vayl had been watching me like if he just held stil and stared hard enough he could see right into the workings of my brain. The thought scared me less than it would have a few months before. Until he said, “Jasmine?
Are you thinking that they already have the Rocenz?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. I’d only just realized that’s where my thoughts were taking me. How had he figured it out?
Cole said, “That’s ridiculous.”
“Not real y,” Vayl said. “In fact, it makes a great deal of sense to hand a treasure map over when you have already retrieved the loot.”
“But we’ve been watching the place. Kyphas hasn’t been here since she got the map.”
“No,” I said. “Because she’s had the Rocenz for a lot longer. The whole bit about getting the map? That was to fulfil her contract with us. She agreed to help us find the tool. And we’re about to. In fact, she’s leading us right to the spot where it’s been held since Roldan and his Gorgon rider took it from Sister Yalida over eighty years ago.” Sterling spoke up. “What are you saying, Chil ?” I replied, “You guys know about the canals?” Cole had been quietly translating al this time. Now Yousef tugged on my sleeve, shaking his head in confusion.
I said, “Thousands of years ago demons could travel to our realm a lot easier than they can now. Part of the reason was because the Great Taker had built al these canals between his world and ours. And no, they’re nothing like those placid little rivers you see every time Denmark advertises for tourists. Anyway, smal teams usual y made up of a couple of fighter types and a Seer or holy man eventual y sealed the majority of them. Except the ones that were wel disguised.” I paused, to wave my hands around the tannery.
“But the map,” Cole protested. “The dove!”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Probably taken from the dead hands of just such a crew. I don’t think the holy mark was meant to show where they’d completed their work. I think it was their guide, leading them to the place where they needed to make that seal real. I’l even go further. I think Sister Yalida was a member of that crew. And the story about her possessing the Rocenz was just part of a bigger tale, one in which she probably used the tool to find the canal that she and her comrades needed to lock. But they were kil ed in the process. Then their murderer, Roldan, hid the Rocenz in that very canal.”