"Moving right along to option two…"
"Well, there is another option standing alongside the first. The angel. I could-"
"No."
He chuckled. "Not even going to hear me out? Or afraid, if you do, it might prove a more enticing offer than you'd like to admit? He is an intriguing one, isn't he? So old and yet, in so many ways, such a child, a sweet, confused, beguiling child. How much of a child is he?" Another chuckle. "I'm sure you've wondered that as well."
"Are you trying to lead me into temptation?" I said. "Or just annoy the piss out of me?"
Kristof glanced over at me. "Has he gotten to the sex part yet, or is he still working up to it?"
I sputtered a laugh.
Trsiel strode over, eyes going wide. "What's going-"
"Dantalian is attempting private negotiations with Eve," Kristof said, stifling a yawn. "Private negotiations of a private nature, I'm sure."
Trsiel's cheeks reddened. "That's not-he can't-"
"Oh, he could, but he won't. And before you take offense, Dantalian, that's no reflection on you. Many have tried. None succeed. Eve doesn't whore herself for any cause."
"This is going nowhere," Trsiel said. "Asking for sex…? If he can't come up with something better than that-"
"There is something better than that?" Dantalian said. "My dear boy, your innocence is showing. Surely you-"
"Ignore him," I said. "This isn't about sex. It's about causing trouble. Sex is just a tool for achieving it. If I were a man, he'd ask me to go out and lop off a few heads in his name. Same destination. Different path."
"Would you prefer lopping off heads?" Dantalian murmured. "I hadn't considered that, but, yes, now that you mention it, I see how my request could be considered quite inappropriate for a woman of your nature. Lopping off heads would be more your style, so perhaps-"
"No lopping heads. No giving head. I'm not doing anything that would get you off… in any way."
A moment of silence. "Well, that limits things, doesn't it?"
"Eve…" Trsiel said.
When I looked at him, he jerked his head toward the door. I glanced at Kristof. He discreetly lifted a finger, telling me to wait.
"Those are her terms," Kristof said. "She will do nothing to cause chaos. If that is unacceptable, then I'm afraid our negotiations are-"
"She will visit me," Dantalian said.
I cast a frown in the direction of his voice.
"I have but a few years left on my sentence. She will visit me for a half-day each month until it ends."
"If this is heading back to the sex thing-" I began.
"It's not. I ask only for a visit."
Trsiel wheeled as Dantalian's voice glided past. "So you can spit poison in her ear? Try to turn her to your-"
"Evil ways?" Dantalian laughed. "Such melodrama. You do like your stories, don't you, Trsiel? The virtuous angel warrior and the nefarious demon battling for the soul of the innocent. Yet she's not so innocent. And you're not so angelic. Perhaps I'm not so demonic. But that spoils a good story, doesn't it?"
"He's not going to woo me over to the dark side, Trsiel," I said. "No more than you can bring me over to the light. I like it right where I am." I glanced back in Dantalian's direction. "Once a year."
"Every two months."
"Only an hour, then. An hour every two months or a half-day every six."
"A half-day every six, then."
I looked at Kristof. He nodded and I waved for him to begin the binding ceremony that would tie us both to our sides of the bargain.
Chapter 35
"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW FIRST?" DANTALIAN asked. "Where the amulet is? Or where your Nix thinks it is?"
"Back up," Trsiel said. "This amulet. If by some chance she gets it, will it work?"
"Of course it will work. I designed-"
"I meant will it work for her?"
"For anyone with demon blood."
"And if she fails to get it, is there any other way she can achieve her goal and take on human form? Some rite or mystical object she can use? When she first made the leap, she used a witch spell-"
I interjected, "Which will no longer work or she'd have used it long ago. Likely a side effect of her now being a ghost."
"Yes," Dantalian said. "As a ghost, she is restricted to ghost methods of possession. Without the amulet, she could only use full spiritual possession, through a necromancer."
I nodded. "Which any necromancer who's powerful enough to perform is also smart enough not to perform. So she's stuck with the amulet. Good. Well, then we should go after the amulet…" I hesitated. "No, the Nix is our primary target. If we get her, we don't need to worry about her getting the amulet or finding some other way to dimension-jump. We'll get her, and then…" I steeled myself, knowing what I needed to say, but having to force the words out. "And then Trsiel can retrieve the amulet and put it away for safekeeping. I-we don't need it."
I could feel Kristof's gaze on me. I didn't look, but knew that if I did, I'd see not relief, but skepticism, as he searched my face and tone, trying to figure out whether I was telling the truth or saying what he wanted to hear. I wasn't sure which it was, either.
"Okay," I said, facing the demon-or his direction-again. "So where is she?"
"I sent her to a building, one that once housed half a million scrolls, which later were said to have fed the fires at the public baths; a thousand years of knowledge destroyed to keep bathwater warm. And one wonders why humans-"
"The Great Library of Alexandria."
His laugh boomed through the room like a furnace blast. "You are quick. And that's where you'll find your Nix, in the ghost-world Great Library, searching madly for my amulet among those half-million scrolls."
"And the amulet?" I said.
"Oh, that's closer. Much closer. There's a tunnel under Glamis, connecting it to Castle Huntly. It's-"
"A legend," Trsiel said. "The tunnel doesn't exist."
"Nor does this room, my dear mongrel angel. Your sorcerer has bound me to tell the truth. If I say the amulet is in that tunnel-"
"Then it is," I finished. "But if it leads to another castle, I'm guessing there's a fair bit of tunnel to travel."
"Fifteen miles."
"Uh-huh. Care to be more specific, then?"
"Not really."
"You gave your word," Kristof said.
Dantalian's sigh fluttered around us. "That I did, and I will keep it. But she asked whether I cared to be-"
"Be more specific," I said. "Please."
"It's in a room, inside a drawer. I cannot be more specific than that. There are many rooms down there. When I hid it, I had no time for drawing maps. Search and you'll find it."
A soft laugh fluttered from behind us. A feminine laugh.
"Thank you, Dantalian," a lilting voice said. "I intend to."
I wheeled to see the Nix, her face pushed through the wall across the room, where she'd been listening on the other side. Dantalian roared. Trsiel's hands shot up, the sword invocation flying from his lips. The Nix pulled back to the other side. Kristof and I both raced into the hall, Trsiel at our heels, but the Nix was gone.