Interesting, but I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to complicate things.
“I can see a pattern between us,” Alexis said. “Like a cat’s cradle? I see the firefly things-”
“Spirits,” I cut in.
“Spirits moving around. They leave trails in their wake. It almost looks like strings from my hand to your arm, and from my head to your mouth…”
“That’s essentially it,” I said. “Ty?”
“I see something. Yeah.”
“Look beyond it. Same idea. Hold your focus, but move that focus. Like crossing your eyes by focusing on a finger that you’re moving closer to your face, but in the other direction.”
“There’s… a lot of noise,” Ty said.
“A whole city filled with connections,” I said. “Look for the big stuff.”
“Big?” Alexis asked. “There are blotches, but they could be the spots on my eyes from looking at lights.”
“Like I said before, a mix of bullshit and confidence go a long way,” I said. “Trust that it’s right.”
“Okay, trusting… what am I looking at?”
“You’re looking at maybe ten of the major players in one place,” I said.
“Ten?” Ty asked.
“There are ten major players?” Alexis asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Something’s wrong.”
It took us another five minutes to get close enough for Nick to drop us off. He stayed where he was, waiting to reunite with the other Knights, minus his buddy, who was tutoring Tiff in some basics.
From there, it was another five minutes of walking.
I could see it, using the sight. More clear than before. The tower. It overlapped with the manse.
The rest were gathered on or around the steps leading up to the manse.
“Diabolist,” Isadora said. She stood there on the street, in full sphinx mode. I glanced down the length of the side street. Nobody present.
“Greetings, Isadora,” I said. It seemed like a safer bet than ‘good evening’, because I wasn’t sure this evening would be.
“Hello,” Evan said.
“No shitting way,” Ty said. Under his breath, he said, “She’s beautiful.”
“Shh,” I said, under my breath. My mind was working overdrive.
Alexis was silent, which I was grateful for, but I did hear the scratch of her lighter.
Conquest was inside with five others. Fell was liable to be one of them.
Outside, I could see the sphinx and a number of women with white masks and rings that blazed red. The Drunk stood a distance away, beside a man with a long, crooked stick, who was busy feeding a carrot to a large gray horse.
Diana the Astrologer wasn’t here.
“This is the one?” one of the ring-wearers asked.
“The Thorburn heir, yes.”
The woman with the mask and glowing ring stepped to one side, as if trying to get a better look at me. “I remember the last Thorburn diabolist to visit Toronto. Your grandmother?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I was just a child, watching through a crack in the door while she talked with my mother.”
“Talking about what?”
“Something about her children and the University.”
“Did it go well?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “No, it didn’t.”
I nodded. That was vague, but I didn’t want to look ignorant, and if she wasn’t going to volunteer details there, she probably wouldn’t if I pressed her.
“I’m Blake Thorburn,” I said. “I’d like to ask your name.”
“Names are dangerous to give, and it’s impolite to ask when we’re already taking pains to protect our identities.”
“Okay,” I said. “My apologies.”
“Apologies taken and accepted. You can call me Elder Sister, or elder for short..”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “And… the horseman is the Shepherd, I take it?”
“You won’t get much out of him,” Isadora said.
“He have something against me?” I asked.
“Vow of silence,” the sphinx told me. “Some believe it gives you more power. If you don’t say anything at all, outside of rituals, then you don’t leave room for even the smallest breaks in the truth.”
I nodded.
“He’s apparently vexed with you,” Isadora said. “Any particular reason why?”
I saw the connection flicker into being, raised a hand to cut it and Ty off before an answer could be given.
I knew the answer, regardless. The Shepherd collected the dead. I’d collected Evan. Stuck one foot in his territory.
I glanced at the horse. It wasn’t an Other, but it wasn’t quite a normal horse either.
“You have friends,” the sphinx observed. “And a familiar. You’ve been busy.”
“I have been,” I said. “You’ve been working behind the scenes. Forming a coalition?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m suspicious things are about to get messy,” I said.
“We’re here to keep that from coming to pass,” Elder Sister told me.
“Then cooperate with me,” I said.
“We already received one appeal to cooperate with you. We said no,” she said.
That would have been Priss.
“I wonder if your new helpers know the danger you pose,” Isadora said. “Do you know the dangers of being in a diabolic cabal, strangers?”
I remained silent.
“If you aren’t one now, you’ll become one. The forces we’re talking about, they insinuate themselves into the fabric of reality. They forge new connections, to draw themselves to people. I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve seen it happen again and again. The book consigned to vaults finds its way to mortal hands. The beast we hoped to leave alone in deep waters is stirred by a wrecked ship. When you gather in groups, you give them more opportunities. More flaws to reach for and exploit. You reek of it. That wrapped thing you hold reeks of it. Filth.”
She managed to inject a surprising amount of force into that last word. She paced closer, until she was a claw-swipe away from us. One heavy sweep of a forelimb and she could end all of us.
There wasn’t a lot we could collectively do when faced with something that was easily ten times our size, but I managed to stand my ground. Fifty percent courage, fifty percent me not being steady on my two feet.
“You are tainted by association, diabolists. Each of you throwing off more taint with every step and action you take. But when more are tainted, and they interact, they taint each other, and the effect lingers.”
“One diabolist is more agreeable than a group?” I asked.
“Zero is more agreeable than one,” she said, her voice low, her eyes glaring.
Ouch.
“Good thing those guys aren’t diabolists,” I said.
“It is a good thing,” Isadora said. “If that changes, we will eagerly do what others have done in recent history. Remove you from the picture before it becomes a problem.”
“Irony is, there aren’t many other actions you could undertake that would make me snap and cut loose,” I said. “I won’t threaten you and say ‘Leave them be or else’, because that would be dangerous and crass.”
“Yes it would,” Isadora said.
“I won’t say it,” I said, emphasizing the ‘say’. I stared up at her.