Lord Thorane bowed. "Thank you, milady. Lord Gryphon. Lord Amber. Your new positions also entitle you both to Council seats. I will expect to see you there each and every session."
"Well, hell!" Amber exclaimed. Even Gryphon frowned.
My lips twitched. "I'll enjoy the company," I murmured.
They glared at me.
Lord Thorane watched us with amusement. "Believe me when I say that it will be in your best interest for everyone to see you serving the Council and the Queen Mother in this small manner."
"We understand," Gryphon grated. "One last question, Lord Thorane. Whose territory was New Orleans before?"
"Mona Louisa."
Ah, came the pleasant realization. Her punishment for trying to kill me. "Well," I purred, "there's some definite satisfaction to that."
"Let's's look at the Book of Holdings," Jamie said exuberantly.
They gathered around me eagerly as I opened the pages.
Page one held the deed of a mansion located on the French Quarter with my name printed on it.
"See, I told you. The French Quarter," Jamie crowed.
The original date of the deed was 1768.
The second page was the certificate of incorporation for a company called Louisiana Power and Electricity.
"A utility company. Steady income," Aquila observed.
The third page was a certificate of holdings in three thousand gold bullions.
"How much would that be worth?" Tomas asked.
"A lot," Aquila murmured. "You never wish to trade that, milady. That is your golden nest egg. Even better than dollars."
"You seem to know a lot about commerce, Aquila," I observed.
"I was a man of business before," he replied modestly.
"Hurry up and turn the pages, Mona Lisa," Jamie urged.
Someone knocked on the door. A footman entered and came straight to me. "A note for your eyes only, milady."
I extracted myself from the crowd busily reading the Book of Holdings and in a quiet corner opened the note.
My dearest Mona Lisa,
Forgive me for dampening your glorious moment of jubilation but I must tell you what is urgent in my heart. You must by now have found the folded note I left for you. Indeed, it is the whereabouts of your brother. That information came from a private diary that I have kept during my long service as a midwife.
Last night, as I was leafing through it, reviewing as I often do, the names and placement of each baby I was obliged to hand over to the care of humans, I detected the presence of a foreign scent lingering over your brother's entry. Upon closer examination, my eyes detected the fingerprints of an intruder of unknown origin. An alarm rang in my heart. I have a sickening sense that your brother's life is about to be intruded upon. I do not know for certain, but I believe it has something to do with your coronation and new status as Queen. As you know, power always draw flies of evil. You must hurry and find him before they do.
With warm love,
Sonia
"You own three casinos," Jamie shouted to me. His excitement dampened upon seeing my somber face. "You don't approve of gambling?" he asked.
"Close the book now," I said. "We must go to New York right away."
Chapter Twenty
It was good to be a Queen. The High Council authorized a private jet for our exclusive use. An hour later, we were winging our way to LaGuardia Airport. But my heart wasn't able to enjoy the luxury, the gold trimmings, the gourmet meals and drinks, the king-sized bed that came with a private shower on the jet—all befitting the status of a new Queen. Neither did anyone else. The mission in our hearts leadened the flight.
"I need your help, Chami," I said as we were descending. "Are you able to gain entry into a locked building quietly and unnoticed?"
Charm nodded, confirming what I had suspected. All of us could easily break down doors and smash windows with üttle effort, but Chami employed stealth in his practice. He killed quietly.
"Good," I said.
Chami's blue eyes glinted enigmatically. I knew he thought I wanted to employ his deadly assassin skills.
"Gryphon, Amber, and Chami will come with me," I said to them. "Aquila and Tomas, you will stay behind to watch the rest."
"I would like to fight for you, milady," Tomas said. "May I come?"
"You job watching over the others and our Book of Holdings is just as important a task," I told him gently.
Tomas nodded unhappily.
At LaGuardia we were met by two stretch limousines complete with two chauffeurs. Hats, uniforms, and all. They looked fine, but looks didn't matter so much as the tact that they could be bought. I couldn't afford the risk. Pulling a stack of crisp one-hundred-dollar bills, I said to the chauffeurs, "Take this and split it between you. You can go home now. We'll do the driving."
"What about our limos?" the taller driver protested.
"We'll take good care of them."
The two looked at their money, then looked at each other and smiled. They walked away, not even bothering to say good-bye, busy counting their money—three thousand dollars exact.
"Aquila, how good are you at the wheel?" I asked.
"I believe I drove one of these things when I was eighteen. That was about a hundred years ago."
"Good enough for me. Take this." I handed him another stack of Benjamin Franklins and whispered the name and address of a hotel in his ear.
"Got it," Aquila said.
Tomas herded Jamie, Tersa, and Rosemary into the limousine and off they went, jerkily, joining the traffic stream.
I got behind the other wheel, and headed toward the Midtown Tunnel, the skylights of Manhattan looming before me.
The East Village was quiet and the orphanage was even smaller and older than I remembered it to be. It was a simple red-brick, three-storied affair with drab, weary windows. A few sad shrubs huddled around the cracked stone steps as if they had passively absorbed the emotions of the many little lives that had lived in the orphanage. It was a time of true quiet, those few hours before dawn when all slept, even the criminal elements.
It was a simple matter to blend in the shadows and wait quietly as Chami pulled out a small case of tools and fiddled with the back entry lock for a few short moments.
Chami twisted the knob and like magic, the door silently swung open. We slipped inside and I led the way to the lower office. It was locked as well, and just as easily breached by Chami. I made my way to the cabinet files.
"What are we looking for?" Gryphon asked quietly.
"A boy with the first name of Thaddeus who would have first come here on January 5, 1989, or close to around that time."
Amber and Gryphon began helping me search the countless old folders. Chami, to my surprise—for I hadn't imagined such familiarity with such modern human technology—booted up the computer. The screen illuminated the room with an eerie blue glow.
It was a frustrating, unproductive task. All the files in my cabinet were of children in current residence. I moved to the next cabinet—there were five in all—but it only dated as far back as children who had resided here ten years ago. Amber finished the three rows of his cabinet file and moved on to the next one.
It was Chami who finally found it. "Milady," he called softy, and indicated the computer screen. I took the seat he vacated and read the information eagerly.
A boy named Thaddeus, with black hair and dark brown eyes, had been taken into the orphanage sixteen years ago, wearing a silver cross with his name engraved on the back of it. My heart pounded and a sudden surge of moisture blurred my vision. I swiped my eyes with my sleeve and read on. He had been adopted three weeks later. I committed the name, address, and telephone number of the adopting couple, Henry and Pauline Schiffer, to memory.