The Conjurer's Riddle

by Andrea Cremer

  Linnet gazed at her. Then she burst into laughter.

  Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest, quite put out. “For someone who thinks marriage is a prison, you seem in rather good spirits.”

  “I’m not going to marry him, Charlotte,” Linnet gasped through her laughing. “Of course I’m not.”

  “Then what are you so angry about?” Charlotte wasn’t going to let Linnet avoid further explanation. “And don’t try to tell me you’re not upset with him. It was obvious that you are.”

  Linnet reached beneath her mask and wiped tears from the corner of her eyes. “Thank you, kitten. I needed that. And, yes, I’m furious with Lachance. He has a talent for making me furious.”

  “What did you agree to?” Charlotte asked.

  Linnet sobered a bit. “When I first learned about Lachance’s idiotic proclamation I tracked him down with the intention of sending him straight to Hades.”

  “You didn’t truly want to kill him?” Charlotte frowned. As tense as their meeting with Lachance had been, Linnet and the pirate seemed to share an understanding of some kind.

  “No.” Linnet took Charlotte’s arm and they walked on at a much gentler pace. “But I wanted him to know that I did not enjoy being wooed via gossip and exaggeration.”

  “What did he say?” Charlotte glanced at her.

  “He said he’d be much happier to woo me privately.”

  Charlotte kept looking at her.

  “Ugh.” Linnet elbowed Charlotte in the ribs.

  “Ow!”

  “That’s what you get for thinking I’d give him any sort of quarter,” Linnet said. “When I rebuffed his advances he made another offer. He promised to end his pursuit of my hand in exchange for a kiss.”

  “One kiss?” Charlotte thought that hardly constituted a great demand. “That’s all?”

  Linnet walked more stiffly. “We’re nearly at the inn. Tell Meg and Grave to ready themselves quickly. It’s not as though Lachance’s ship is docked in the canals. We have a long walk ahead of us.”

  Charlotte ignored Linnet’s change of topic. “Why not just kiss him?”

  “We’re done talking about that, kitten.”

  “But—”

  “We’re done.”

  • • •

  “A pirate ship, Linnet?” Meg asked, her voice sharp but quiet.

  Charlotte, Meg, and Grave huddled with Linnet outside the servants’ entrance to the Poisson Noir.

  “You need to be smuggled, Meg,” Linnet replied. “Pirates are the best smugglers. They’ll take us to the Outer Banks. From there we’ll travel to the Spanish. I have contacts on the coastal islands that can provide a hideout. The Empire pays little attention to the isles, and Ott doesn’t know about my connection to the place.”

  “Very well,” Meg said. “But first we have to leave the city. I don’t believe Ott was making empty threats this morning. He’ll have people following us.”

  “I’m certain he will,” Linnet answered. “But Lachance is notoriously secretive about the locations he weighs anchor. We’re the only ones who will be provided means to reach the ship.”

  Meg nodded her approval.

  “If you’re ready?” Linnet waited for any other concerns. When none came, she led them into the night.

  Their escape route began in the Garden district. Moonlight gleamed pale off the broad leaves of hanging vines, and the air was redolent with jasmine. They passed gurgling fountains and sculpted hedges. A waterfall that tumbled over boulders until calming into a long reflecting pool had been constructed against the outer wall, and it was to this feature Linnet guided them. As they approached the tall stack of rough rock, two figures emerged from behind the waterfall. Linnet went to them, and after the exchange of a few hushed words, one of the men waved for them to follow him, while the other stood guard.

  Charlotte stayed close to Grave as they squeezed through an opening in the rock. Since their return from the bayou, Grave had been calm, and when Charlotte told him all that had transpired and suggested that they leave New Orleans, he’d agreed without hesitation.

  Does he have any fears or worries? Does he trust me so completely? Will he just as easily give his trust to someone else, someone who might use it for ill?

  The gears, wheels, and pumps powering the waterfall banged around them as they skulked through the interior of the structure toward a large pipe. The pirate tossed his mask to the ground before he moved on, as did Linnet. Charlotte was happy enough to leave her mask behind. She’d grown weary of not being able to read expressions or gauge reactions. And sometimes the masks made her skin itch.

  The tube was similar to that between the Sintians’ Warehouse and the Daedalus Tower, only much less accommodating. To fit meant crawling on all fours in complete darkness, which made it seem like they made no progress at all.

  Charlotte felt like she’d been crawling for an hour when she saw firelight gleaming beyond the pipe. The pirate at the head of their group disappeared, then Linnet, who was just behind him. When Charlotte reached the end of the pipe, her heart stuttered. There was no more ground in front of her. Only a tangle of pipes and tubes suspended in a giant cavern.

  “Charlotte!” Linnet’s whisper drew Charlotte’s gaze down.

  Linnet and the pirate stood on a narrow platform below the pipe.

  “Grab the rope.” Linnet pointed to a thick rope that dangled to Charlotte’s right.

  Charlotte took hold of the rope and swung her body out of the pipe. Her weight caused the rope to lower until her feet hovered just above the platform. She released the rope, landing lightly. While Grave and Meg followed Linnet’s instruction, Charlotte looked out from the platform.

  Once again she was inside the Iron Wall, but unlike the repurposed Daedalus Tower, this was the true interior of the wall, filled with the pumps, filters, pipes, gears, and wheels that kept the city running. And unlike the Tower, the hollow space here wasn’t limited to three stories. Charlotte peered down into dark waters a long, long way down.

  As she searched for a safe means of descent, which she wasn’t finding, Grave came to stand beside her.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Charlotte couldn’t answer; she could only continue to seek a ladder or stair concealed in the metalworks while her heart pounded.

  “I’m certain it’s safe,” Grave told Charlotte, who’d failed to answer his question.

  Charlotte half turned to ask how he knew what she was looking for, when Linnet leapt from the platform. Charlotte almost screamed before she saw the harness buckled around Linnet’s shoulders. Linnet sailed from pipe to pipe, belaying her way to the bottom of the wall. She disappeared from sight, but a minute later the harness came reeling up to the platform. Charlotte felt wooden when the pirate pushed the harness toward her.

  “Wait a moment.”

  More than happy to let Meg go first, Charlotte took the harness and turned to hand it over.

  But Meg was talking to Grave. “You see the way down.”

  Grave looked over the platform edge. He nodded.

  “Does it pose a threat to you?” Meg asked him. “Does it make you afraid?”

  Grave’s brow furrowed, but he studied the drop and its web of metal before answering. “No.”

  Exasperated, Charlotte shook the harness at Meg. “I don’t know what this is about, but we shouldn’t keep Linnet waiting.”

  “Hush, Charlotte.” The snap in Meg’s voice silenced Charlotte at once, and stung more than a little.

  But Meg’s attention had already returned to the pale boy. “Then why are you waiting?”

  Grave tilted his head, regarding Meg with curiosity. He nodded again. Then he turned and jumped off the platform. Charlotte shrieked, reaching out to catch him . . . as if such a thing were possible. He landed atop a pipe ten feet below without even a single
quiver of his muscles. He leapt again. In two bounds, Grave was halfway down the wall.

  “By the mighty forge,” Charlotte breathed.

  “I do not bear him ill will, Lottie.”

  Charlotte startled at Meg’s words. Meg knelt at the edge of the platform, watching Grave’s descent.

  “I need you to trust me,” Meg said. There was a kindness in her eyes that Charlotte found familiar. The soft expression, so rare since Meg had returned from the temple, made Charlotte’s heart pinch. “I ask things of Grave only to understand him better. We must know who he is. Our ignorance will not keep him safe.”

  Though Charlotte’s pride resisted it, she let go of her indignation. “I suppose we must.”

  Meg’s answering smile was shadowed by sadness, and Charlotte saw for a moment that the sense of things lost, innocence, comfort, trust, cut her friend to the quick as much as it did herself.

  A whoosh sounded nearby and Charlotte yelped in surprise when Grave landed on the balls of his feet, balancing easily as he stood above the girls.

  “My apologies,” he said to her. “That was very rude of me.”

  He dipped down and picked Charlotte up, before pivoting and jumping over the edge once more.

  If Charlotte had been able to draw breath, she would have screamed until her lungs burst into flame. Instead she hung on to Grave’s neck in silent terror as he carried her from pipe to pipe, his feet touching the metal cylinders so briefly it was as if he flew. Charlotte’s limbs were trembling when he set her down on a ledge beside Linnet. A small boat was moored nearby, bobbing in the dark water.

  Meg landed on the ledge soon after, having buckled herself into the harness to make the descent. She sent the harness back up to the pirate, and Charlotte wanted to knock her into the water. It didn’t matter what she wanted, however, because she couldn’t seem to move.

  When Charlotte felt certain her legs wouldn’t give out, she cast a worried glance at the descending pirate, who would soon join them. She garnered nothing from his expression when he landed, though Charlotte couldn’t determine if that lack of response to Grave’s unusual talents was due to the seaman’s apathy, or the shaggy ginger-and-gray beard that hid most of his face. Apparently it would not be masks alone that kept Charlotte from reading a person’s expression.

  Linnet displayed a similar disinterest in Charlotte’s unorthodox arrival at the bottom of the wall.

  “Get aboard the boat, Grave,” Linnet said. “We’ll cast off soon enough.”

  Grave moved to the boat and Linnet grabbed Charlotte’s elbow, drawing her aside.

  “Did you know he could do that?” Linnet asked, her whisper sharp as a blade. “You should know that I do not like surprises.”

  “I didn’t know.” Charlotte was still too shaken to be aggravated by Linnet’s harsh tone.

  Linnet sighed, but the look she gave Charlotte showed sympathy. “I take that to mean there are likely other things he can do that you don’t know about either.”

  “Likely, indeed.” Charlotte didn’t want to be this weary at the start of what was surely to be a long, arduous journey. But the ever-present reminder of Grave’s latent abilities, any of which could be summoned up without warning, made her want to bend over from strain and exhaustion, like she would have when hauling around a sack of parts from the Heap.

  Grave’s skills and strengths, even if unexpected, should be assets to their cause. Yet the ever-increasing unknowns surrounding Grave chafed Charlotte, and clearly presented an obstacle to Linnet as well.

  “Such sorrowful casts to such lovely faces,” Meg said quietly. “Is not our imminent escape cause for rejoicing?”

  “If I wasn’t concerned with wasting time, I’d knock you senseless,” Linnet snarled at her. “This is not the time for demonstrating your little pet’s newest tricks.”

  Charlotte had to bite her tongue so she wouldn’t laugh aloud. Where Charlotte, even when angry, felt twinges of guilt for harboring resentment toward Meg, Linnet’s threat had given voice to all of Charlotte’s building frustration.

  Meg answered in a placid tone. “He’s no one’s pet. I know as little as you do, or anyone else for that matter. Yet I seem to be the only one who wants to find out more about Grave’s true nature.”

  “Linnet has a point,” Charlotte said, coming to Linnet’s defense. “We’re not alone. What if that pirate spreads news of what Grave just did?”

  Meg didn’t answer, but Linnet sighed.

  “As much as I appreciate your support, kitten,” Linnet said to Charlotte, “you needn’t worry about Sang d’Acier’s men. Any waggling tongue is like to be cut out, and they all know it. Our payment is as much for silence as transport.”

  Linnet returned her hard gaze to Meg. “That truth doesn’t excuse the foolhardiness of your game.”

  “It’s not a game,” Meg replied. “And the sooner the both of you realize that, the better off our cause will be. It pains me that I must remind you we’re fighting for the same side.”

  Meg’s words carried the weight of the exhaustion Charlotte had been feeling. Even so, that awareness didn’t altogether reassure her that Meg brought only goodwill toward Grave.

  When it became clear that neither Charlotte nor Linnet intended to respond to Meg’s admonition, she shrugged and climbed aboard the boat to sit beside Grave.

  Linnet uttered a tiny growl of disapproval, but gave Charlotte a gentle push toward the boat. “Let’s go. And don’t hesitate to nap on the way. You don’t have to do any rowing. And, dear kitten, you look exhausted.”

  AT FIRST, CHARLOTTE thought it was keening seagulls that woke her. But then she heard the bark of angry voices and scuffle of feet from somewhere not far off.

  She sat up, blinking at the bright sunlight that spilled in through a porthole nearby. The seagulls’ cries came in with the sun’s rays and salt air.

  Charlotte was sitting in a double bed, tucked into an alcove to the side of the room. The bedclothes were luxuriant, silky and as fine as any she’d seen.

  “Ah, she wakes.”

  The rich male voice sent shivers down Charlotte’s spine. The speaker was seated in a high-backed chair, his booted feet resting on a table. Charlotte relaxed when she saw Linnet sitting in another chair nearby.

  “Welcome to my ship, the Perseus,” Lachance said to Charlotte. He swung his feet down and strode to the bedside. Dropping to one knee, he lifted Charlotte’s hand to his lips.

  “When I saw you asleep I insisted that you must not be disturbed,” Lachance told her. He was still holding her hand. “My cabin is far more comfortable than the quarters belowdeck.”

  Comfortable was a poor description of Sang d’Acier’s private quarters. The cabin walls were paneled in gleaming mahogany; one featured recessed bookshelves packed with leather-bound volumes, while another was home to an assortment of weapons—sabers, poignards, rapiers, longswords, muskets, pistols, and a few things Charlotte couldn’t name. A simple but finely crafted writing desk sat in one corner, a jewel-encrusted globe in another. Lachance had an obvious talent for piracy.

  “Leave her alone,” Linnet muttered. “Don’t you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk like that?”

  “Talk like what?” Lachance dropped Charlotte’s hand and flashed a smile at Linnet.

  Linnet, however, appeared unaffected. She gave him a flat look and stood up.

  “How are you, kitten?” she asked Charlotte. “I’m sorry if waking in a strange place gave you a fright, but it was obvious you needed the rest.”

  “No, I—” Charlotte scrambled from the bed, putting a fair distance between herself and the pirate captain. “I’m fine. Where are Meg and Grave?”

  “They’re sleeping belowdeck,” Linnet replied with a pointed look at Lachance. “Where we’ll be from now on.”

  “You wound me, ma sirène,” Lachance sighed.
r />   “Trust me,” Linnet smiled at him. “When I actually wound you, you’ll know.”

  Lachance laughed. “I have missed you.”

  “Give it time.”

  The shouts outside the cabin had grown louder, and Lachance began to frown.

  “This sounds like more than bickering between sailors.” He donned his hat. “Excuse my sudden absence, mesdemoiselles.”

  When he’d gone, Linnet pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. “You might have to throw me overboard at some point.”

  “Linnet,” Charlotte began, knowing she was about to cross into dangerous territory. “Do you really . . . does he not . . .”

  Linnet’s hands were on her hips. “Just spit it out.”

  “He’s so . . . alluring. He could be Aphrodite’s consort,” Charlotte blurted. She could feel her cheeks reddening. “I have no interest in Lachance, but he’s beguiling . . . by Athene, Linnet, don’t make me keep talking about this!”

  “You started it,” Linnet replied.

  “I just want to understand,” Charlotte muttered.

  Linnet didn’t reply, and when Charlotte looked at her friend she was startled by what she saw. Linnet had turned her gaze toward the tall and broad windows that framed the rear of the cabin. Her eyes were soft, but her expression was strained, even fearful.

  “I do feel it, Charlotte.” Linnet’s words were so soft, Charlotte wasn’t even sure she’d truly spoken. “But—”

  The cabin door banged open and Lachance strolled in. Two sailors came behind him, dragging a limp figure between them.

  “My men would like to keelhaul this one.” Lachance stepped aside, and the sailors dropped their captive on the floor. “I’m inclined to let them. Though I wouldn’t give the order without some regret. He’s managed what I believed impossible. I’ve never had a stowaway.”

  Charlotte stared at the unwelcome passenger with alarm. Was he one of Ott’s men? Had he sent a message back to the city of their whereabouts before they’d set sail?

  “It’s not like you to hesitate, Lachance,” Linnet said. “Why now?”