I nodded. “I’m the bait now.”
“Considering how badly he wants it, don’t think for a moment he won’t take your head to get it. It’s a bit more luminescent than I remember.”
“So it is. Have any thoughts on that?”
“A few.”
“I went to Glastonbury. Met some people there. I was wondering, given your friendship with Grand-mère, if you ever did a little poking around. Maybe in Glastonbury. Maybe in the agency records.”
Agent Greystock studied my face. “I might have. I love Felice. And you. What I might have discovered wouldn’t have helped anyone.”
“What did you discover?”
“That you are an orphan, which you already know.”
“And?”
“And…the rest seemed like fairy tales.”
“But isn’t that our business? Fairy tales?”
“That depends. Some people don’t want to be wrapped up in fairy tales. Some people carve their own paths, make their own way. They don’t need fairy tales to be extraordinary. What little I discovered…I’m not sure it would have helped you. I hope you understand my meaning. And if not, I hope you will forgive me.”
I did understand her. What did knowing about my parents and the link to Avalon really matter? In the end, I was still doing my job just like I would have anyway. I didn’t need a myth to define who I was. I was who I was because of people like Grand-mère and Quinn and Agent Greystock. Not because, once upon a time, my family line—which I knew nothing about—had been charged with some sacred duty. All it had ever done for me thus far was make me smell good. I had guided my own path thus far. And I was proud of what I had accomplished. Hell, Queen Victoria had just made me the new director of the Red Capes.
“I do,” I said then set my hand on her shoulder. “You should rest.”
“And you should have someone look at that arm.”
I nodded. She was right.
Exchanging one last glance with Agent Greystock, I rose and crossed the room to join one of the doctors. “Have a minute?” I asked.
He looked up at me.
I pointed to the bloody scarf around my arm. “Probably just a flesh wound, but just in case.”
“What got into you?”
“Same as this lot.”
“Sit,” he said then unwrapped the bloody gauze, motioning for me to pull off my coat. I was surprised how much it hurt to remove the sleeve.
The doctor frowned at the wound. He poured some fresh water into a basin then began cleaning me up. The scratches, made from four razor-sharp talons, were swollen and achy.
“This will hurt a bit,” he said then dabbed on some alcohol.
I gritted my teeth. “A bit?”
“Sorry. I lied. I meant a lot.”
Grabbing a blue jar full of strangely stinky salve, he liberally applied the ointment to the wound. When he was done, he wrapped my arm with a clean bandage.
“I am supposed to tell you to rest your arm and stay off your feet, but something tells me giving advice to this group is pointless. Just try to use it as little as possible. Your cut is very deep. If you take a fever, you need to come back.”
“All right. Thank you, Doctor…”
“Larson.”
“Larson. Thank you.”
He inclined his head to me.
I eyed my jacket. Until Grand-mère had time to give it a good stitching, it wasn’t going to be of any help. I left it behind. Pulling on my cloak, I crossed the room to Agent Rose who was waiting with Edwin and Harper.
“Clemeny,” Harper said, standing.
Edwin lay unconscious on the bed.
“Agent Rose told me Her Majesty asked for me.”
I nodded. “She wants you here. Rose and I are going to the tower now. I’ll send along some additional agents.”
“All right,” Harper said, barely meeting my eye.
“How is he?” I asked, glancing down at Edwin.
“Unconscious, but alive,” Harper said. “Clem…”
“It’s all right. I love you, and I care about him. Just watch out for the godmother. She’s awful.”
At that, Harper laughed nervously.
“We need to go,” Agent Rose said.
I nodded.
“Be careful, partner,” Harper told me.
“You too,” I replied, then Agent Rose and I headed across the room.
“That was kind of you,” Agent Rose commented.
“What else could I say? I let Edwin go. He and Harper found one another. Besides, I have someone.”
“That you do. Still, it’s not easy to let go of someone you once loved.”
I was just about to grab for the door when it swung wide open.
On the other side was His Highness, Prince Albert.
“Agent Louvel,” he said. “I heard the Red Capes were here. Are you all right?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Thank you. The others will convalesce here until we get this mess sorted.”
“Yes, the Queen informed me that—” he began but stopped cold when his eyes fell on Agent Rose. “Aurora,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Albert,” she replied, her words lacking her usual confidence.
The two stared at one another for so long it became awkward.
I coughed lightly.
“Right,” Agent Rose said. “We need to go. Good to see you, Your Highness,” she said, doing an awkward little half-curtsey before she beelined past me out of the room.
“Your Highness,” I said, then followed behind Rose who was walking quickly toward the door. I fell into pace with her and had just opened my mouth when Agent Rose lifted her hand.
“Not. A. Word,” she told me.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” I muttered with a grin.
“Oh, Agent Louvel, you have no idea.”
Chapter 24: Tinker’s Tower
The lift carried me and Agent Rose to the uppermost floor of Tinker’s Tower. Even from inside the lift, I could hear the clockwork mechanisms ticking. The Rude Mechanicals had fashioned a secret meeting room just below the clockface. The emergency headquarters hadn’t been used in my lifetime. But here we were.
The lift dinged, and Rose and I exited to find the Red Capes assembled in a room whose walls were lined with cogs and gears. A long meeting table stretched down the center of the room. Flickering gaslamps lit the space. Bronze-colored pipes led in every direction overhead. The furniture was dated. On the wall hung a painting of Queen Anne. But under that image was a round, bronze emblem with an R.M. encapsulated in a circle: The Rude Mechanicals. The longer I worked for the agency, the more I came to understand who they were. In a way, they were our founding fathers. Their society went back many, many years, picking up where other groups who’d sought to protect the realm had left off. The Rude Mechanicals guided and protected the monarch. But the Red Capes had become their sword and shield against the dangers in the kingdom. And right now, preventing a faerie unleashing havoc was the order of the day.
I scanned the room. Agents from every beat were there, even people I hardly ever saw like those who minded the mischievous mermaids off our coast and others who looked after angry spirits or even the undead. I spotted my closest colleagues, Hank, Cressida, and Agent Keung amongst the crowd. I nodded to Keung. He’d done well getting the word out to the agents.
Everyone came to attention when Rose and I entered.
“Everyone, please take a seat,” I said, motioning to the table.
Agent Rose retreated into the shadows, leaning against a pillar not far away. Above us—or maybe it was all around us—the massive clock of Tinker’s Tower ticked.