Word and Breath (Wordless Chronicles)

by Susannah Noel

The part of his psyche that had been hurt by her inability to believe he was the Librarian was partly assuaged by her expression now. Wide-eyed, questioning, trusting—as if she never doubted he’d have the answer.

  To his chagrin, he had to disappoint her. “I don’t know. I don’t think we can at the moment. We need more information. But at least it’s a start.”

  “Yeah.” She wasn’t smiling but there was a glint of hope in her eyes he hadn’t seen before. “At least it’s something.”

  ***

  Mikel didn’t like Connor at all.

  When Riana returned after her talk with the Librarian and told Mikel they were going to attend a meeting that evening, Mikel had been pleased they were finally moving forward with rescuing Riana’s sister. He was more than willing to meet with members of the Front, and he was prepared to help in any way he could.

  He might not like that he wasn’t in charge of the situation, since he was uncomfortable putting himself at the mercy of others, but he didn’t have any options here. This was the only way to help Riana. So he hadn’t complained when he was told the Librarian had appointed someone to lead their little rescue operation.

  Mikel just wished that person hadn’t been Connor.

  He wasn’t disposed to like bookish sort of men anyway, and there was something about Connor’s quiet, self-deprecating manner—and the way everyone else still looked at him like he were someone to respect and admire—that bugged him.

  His real aversion might have more to do with what he sensed between Connor and Riana.

  Riana and Mikel had come together to the basement of a grungy drugstore where they were holding the illicit meeting. Everyone else was already present when they walked in.

  Tava he’d already met and respected. Kelvin had been one of the armed men in his apartment the previous afternoon—a competent man if not a particularly articulate one. Donn and Posen were unknown quantities, both men holding low-level positions for the Union in offices they might need to access to find Jannie Cole.

  But Connor he’d disliked immediately. As soon as he’d seen the look Riana and Connor exchanged.

  It wasn’t a romantic look or a passionate one. It wasn’t even a particularly happy one. But it revealed a history between them, a bond that went farther back than he’d expected. A knowledge and trust that was so ingrained as to be unconscious.

  She knew Connor and trusted him in a way she’d never trusted Mikel.

  And Mikel was evidently petty enough to resent Connor for that.

  It was a surprising part of his nature he’d never suspected before. He wished he’d responded in another way.

  But there it was.

  He didn’t like Connor.

  And Connor was obviously in charge here.

  Mikel’s one consolation was that his distrust and resentment was clearly returned. Connor was meticulously polite to him—shaking his hand and thanking him for his help.

  But Mikel wasn’t deceived for a moment. Connor might be genuinely trying to give Mikel a chance, but it wasn’t a successful attempt.

  Connor didn’t want Mikel anywhere near Riana.

  There was too much at stake here to start some sort of alpha-male challenge or try to prove his place in Riana’s life, so Mikel shelved the animosity and concentrated instead on the mission at hand.

  Connor evidently was following the same strategy because, after his first greeting, his attention was entirely focused on business.

  “Thanks for coming,” he said to the room at large. He was propped up on a crate, looking oddly incongruous in his glasses and corduroy jacket. “This is the group we’ll start with. If we need more help later, we’ll recruit it. We try to keep meetings small—for obvious reasons. With this kind of activity, the fewer knowing the details the better.”

  He looked at Riana with the explanation at the end, and Mikel’s eyes moved sharply from one to the other.

  Riana sat cross-legged on the floor, looking almost like a girl in her jeans and braids. Her face was pale and strained, though, and her eyes focused up at Connor anxiously.

  Mikel saw Connor’s eyes soften as he gazed at her, and a new flicker of thought entered his mind. He mentally filed it away for later processing and didn’t let it distract him from his observation of the meeting.

  “So what are we going to do?” Riana asked.

  “We obviously have to find where they’re keeping Jannie before we can try to get her back.” Connor tugged on the hair at the back of his head. It wasn’t a nervous gesture as much as a habitual one. “Donn, have you made any progress since your last report?”

  Donn was a big man—as tall as Mikel and probably fifty pounds heavier. He wouldn’t be much help in physical tasks, being so out of shape, but Mikel knew that wasn’t why he was here.

  “I’ve been digging into financial records,” Donn explained. He too was talking mostly to Riana, although his eyes shifted over to Mikel occasionally, including him in the explanation. “For the last day, I’ve been looking for...researching...” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying to find out information on you.”

  Mikel gave him a half-smile to put him at his ease. A lot of people were naturally nervous around Breathers, and that wasn’t something Mikel wanted to encourage here. “I’d hate to know what you found out.”

  “Not much,” Donn admitted, grinning back. A good-natured man and not a stupid one. “Soul-Breathers might as well be ghosts, as far as Union records go. Anyway, I was working on that—in an attempt to find you, miss.” This bit was directed at Riana. “So I don’t have any new information. I’ll keep looking.”

  “What will you look for?” Riana asked. There was hope in her eyes—not much, but more than Mikel had seen there before.

  “Patterns of unexplained expenditures. It’s never a very organized investigation and doesn’t always turn up results, so I’d suggest you not put all your eggs in my basket.”

  “We won’t,” Connor said. “Posen does paperwork for the Department of Detention. He’s going to look into recent prisoners of the Union here in Newtown.”

  “Do you really think they’d keep paperwork on Jannie, if they’re the ones who have her?” Tava asked.

  She’d alluded to what Mikel had been afraid of all along. If the Union didn’t have Jannie, then they were back to square one.

  “The Union keeps paperwork on everything,” Connor said. “It’s just a matter of finding where they file it. The Union is our best bet. Either they kidnapped Jannie or they’ll figure out soon who did. Our surest way to find her is to go through them.”

  Riana nodded, the lines around her mouth relaxing slightly.

  “Which brings us to the other angle,” Connor continued, turning to look squarely at Mikel for the first time since their initial meeting. “Tava tells me you can open a connection with people without their being aware of it.”

  Mikel inclined his head, looking the other man evenly in the eye.

  “Will you do it with Largan?”

  Mikel arched his eyebrows. Connor didn’t waste any time. He wouldn’t have expected such directness from the man. “No.”

  Connor frowned, and Riana turned to look at Mikel with obvious surprise and disappointment.

  Mikel explained to her, “I don’t think I can do it to Largan. He never lets me get close enough to touch him. And he’d be suspicious if I tried. He might be a bureaucrat, but he’s smart and careful.”

  “There’s no way you could arrange an accidental encounter?”

  Turning back to Connor, Mikel answered his question. “I could try, I suppose. I can’t read his mind, though. Tava must have told you. All I can do is sense a general impression from him, assuming he hasn’t already put up his guard. He’ll have to be very distracted to not know I’ve done it.”

  “Could you tell if he’s lying or not when he says he doesn’t know anything about Jannie?’

  “Maybe. But I don’t think I should risk it.”

  Mikel was determined to play nic
e for Riana’s sake, but he wasn’t going to be pressured into anything against his better judgment. He didn’t back down from Connor’s cool stare.

  “But Mikel,” Riana whispered, clenching her fingers in his sleeve.

  He looked down at her, pleased she’d reached out to him the way she had, even if it was only beseechingly. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you get your sister back. And, if we run out of options, I’ll try this. But one of our few advantages is that they still assume I’m loyal. Rousing Largan’s suspicions would kill that advantage for us.” He turned back to hold Connor’s gaze. “I’m telling you the truth. It won’t take much to get Largan to doubt me.”

  It was a sign of either his intelligence or his practicality that Connor accepted him at his word. “We need to find out whether the Union knows anything about the kidnapping, so we don’t waste our time unnecessarily.”

  “Largan has an assistant,” Mikel suggested. “Not nearly as clever or suspicious. He also suffers from a case of Breather hero-worship. He’d know if the kidnapping was done by Largan’s office. I can find out from him.”

  “Good. That leaves Smyde, from the office of Readers.” Connor cleared his throat. “We have a couple more Readers on our side, but we can’t risk compromising them since we’ve lost Jenson.”

  Mikel’s eyes cut over to Tava, whose expression hadn’t changed.

  “Do you have any way to run into him?” Connor asked.

  “Maybe.” Mikel thought quickly. “You think he’s involved with whatever they want from Riana, since it seems to be about reading?”

  “I have no idea,” Connor admitted. “But we might as well find out. You did say he was the one who originally assigned you to tail Riana, before Largan took over the assignment.”

  “I can ask Largan to bring Smyde in for a meeting because I want to question him about Riana’s routines. I’ll say I need more information to find her. It might work.”

  “Good. Thank you.” The gratitude was obviously not easy for Connor to express. “So tomorrow we’ll start work on collecting information. If we find out the Union doesn’t know anything, we’ll consider other possibilities.”

  “What about me?” Riana asked. She was still holding onto Mikel’s sleeve. He doubted she was even aware of it, although he was brutally conscious of her touch, even through the fabric. “What can I do? I can’t just sit around and wait anymore.”

  Connor’s eyes flicked down to Riana’s hand, noticing her clutching grip as well. “You’ll be with me.”

  Mikel stiffened at the implication but managed not to let it show.

  “We have some work to do,” Connor added.

  “Oh. The Old Language.”

  Mikel glanced away, clenching his jaw and willing himself to relax. She and Connor must have discussed something earlier that afternoon—something she hadn’t shared with him.

  He couldn’t expect her to tell him everything. She had been open with him about not fully trusting him.

  Just because he’d uprooted his entire life for her didn’t mean she had to return the favor.

  Her life had been uprooted by things she couldn’t control. He wasn’t going to resent her for keeping control of the little she could.

  Maybe she’d tell him after the meeting.

  “All right then.” Connor glanced around the room. Then up toward the entrance at the top of the stairs. “We should end this meeting soon. It isn’t safe to meet too long. Listen. Do not discuss any of this with each other outside of our meetings. That’s the way they stop being secret.”

  Mikel’s shoulders stiffened even more. He’d go along with whatever plan they decided, as long as it was what Riana wanted. But he was the most powerful person in this room, and he didn’t take orders from anyone.

  Certainly not Connor.

  If Riana wanted to talk things out with Mikel, then that is what they would do.

  As the others started getting up, Riana finally seemed to realize that her hand was fisted in Mikel’s sleeve. She released her fingers, gently smoothing out the wrinkles in the fabric. “Sorry,” she murmured, glancing up at him self-consciously.

  “Don’t be.” He was genuinely trying not to put any romantic pressure on her, but the words came out warmer and more nuanced than he’d intended.

  She blushed slightly and got up. When he stood up beside her, she said in a low voice, “Thank you for helping us this way.”

  He wanted to brush her gratitude away, but he realized it was important to her to say it. “You’re welcome.”

  “Do you think we’ll be able find her?” Her eyes were huge and anxious and beautiful. Mikel thought he might drown in them.

  He had absolutely no idea if they would find her sister. If he gambled, he’d have wagered against them. But there was only one answer he could give Riana.

  “Yes. I think we will.”

  Eleven

  Largan arrived at his office the following morning to be greeted by a message from Mikel.

  It was enough to ruin the rest of his day.

  Mikel said—in the flat, dry tones he always used with his employer—that he needed to meet with Largan that day.

  Largan’s morning had already started off badly, having been forced to leave his wife in a considerable amount of pain and then spend his whole commute on the phone with the capital. The last thing he wanted was to meet with the arrogant Soul-Breather.

  But he called up Mikel anyway, before he’d even gotten his coffee.

  “Do you still want me to find Riana Cole?” Mikel asked him, after picking up on the fifth ring. “Or has my assignment been canceled because of your...other difficulties?”

  His bored, self-satisfied tone made Largan sneer at his empty office. If he canceled Mikel’s assignment, the man would get paid for doing absolutely nothing. Those were the regulations in situations like this. Largan didn’t want to waste the money, and he definitely didn’t want Mikel to get a free ride at his expense. “Nothing has changed. Your assignment is still the same. Find the girl and extract the information from her.”

  “If you want me to find her, I’m going to need more information than I have.” Mikel didn’t sound particularly disappointed. Just bland and business-like. “I’ll come in around noon to meet with you.”

  Largan stiffened and desperately searched his desk for a mug of coffee that wasn’t there. Merely to be recalcitrant, he replied, “I have plans at noon. I might be able to fit you in around 11:15, if it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “It is. I also need to talk to someone who worked with her. I don’t have a clear enough sense of her habits and routines to even begin the search for her.”

  “Didn’t you follow her for more than a week?”

  To Largan’s displeasure, Mikel didn’t react defensively to the obvious challenge. “I saw what she did last week, but that’s not enough to go on in this situation. Do you want me to find her for you or not?”

  Largan needed Mikel’s help. He had other people searching too, but Mikel had resources and skills that no one else had. “She didn’t have many friends at work. I can probably bring her supervisor in, but that’s all I can offer you at the moment.”

  Mikel paused. “I suppose that will have to do. 11:15.”

  Then he hung up, without even a farewell.

  Largan muttered to himself to relieve some of his irritability and got up to get the cup of coffee his assistant was supposed have brought him.

  When he came back, he called Riana’s supervisor. Smyde wasn’t pleased about coming in at the whim of a Soul-Breather, but Largan didn’t give him a choice.

  When he hung up, Largan looked at the piles of tedious work he needed to do today and briefly considered crawling under his desk to hide.

  At 11:17, he hadn’t gotten done nearly enough, and he wasn’t going to put up with Mikel’s thoughtless lack of punctuality. He went out to the main office to tell his assistant to call the Soul-Breather and demand he get his ass over here immediately.

 
; Mikel was already there.

  He was talking to his assistant, leaning against the desk and looking as sleek and polished as ever in some sort of trendy black coat.

  He always made Largan feel like a lazy slob.

  His assistant was staring up at Mikel with an idolization that nauseated Largan. He could only guess what nonsense had been spilled in his gullibility.

  “Have you drawn up that report?” Largan barked, startling his assistant.

  “Yes, sir,” the young man said, fumbling with a file before he could hand it over. “It’s here.”