“Just the morning and lunch then.”
“No,” MaLeila said.
Tsubame sighed and said as though dealing with a small child, “Now you wouldn’t want me to tell Fathi that you angered me and influence him to forget these peace talks, would you?”
MaLeila started to say that she didn’t care if the peace talks went up in flames, but then she remembered what she got out of this deal. And if she ruined them, if they messed up because of something MaLeila had done and could have prevented, it would give the council certain grounds to take back their promise to give her access to every known magical library there was.
MaLeila sighed, tugging her arm from Tsubame, but following her onto the elevator with her maids regardless. She resisted looking at the smug smile on Tsubame’s face the entire ride, and when they were in her suite Tsubame promptly went to lounge on the buttery leather sofas in the large living room where there was tea and coffee on a glass coffee table with a tall clear vase of water with floating candles.
“Which one do you prefer, MaLeila? Tea or coffee?” Tsubame asked taking one of the cups.
“Coffee I guess,” MaLeila said.
Tsubame nodded and poured the girl a cup of coffee while asking, “Cream and sugar?”
By that time MaLeila had come to sit across from the woman and said, “I’ll do it. Most people put too much in it.”
Tsubame nodded and slid the cup across the table to her while pouring herself a cup of coffee also. MaLeila made her coffee, keenly aware of the fact that the woman was carefully watching the way she made her coffee even as the woman made her own. She sat her spoon down on the platter under her cup and took a sip, all the while watching Tsubame watch her.
MaLeila sat her cup back down and waited for Tsubame to say something, but the woman was perfectly comfortable with the silence between them. It unnerved MaLeila. Being around Tsubame was like being around Devdan the first few months he would pop up for a visit. He would always watch her like he wanted to kill her, could kill her, but hadn’t decided if that’s what he wanted to do with her yet. When she told Devdan that after they rode on the elevator with Tsubame the first day of the talks, he admitted that’s exactly what he had been thinking and that he hadn’t known she picked up on it and that the only reason he hadn’t killed her was that he didn’t want to hurt her mother. MaLeila hadn’t been able to pry out of him what had stopped him from killing her after her mother died. Regardless, Tsubame made her feel that way, especially after the woman told her she had decided what she would do with her after MaLeila and Marcel had dinner with her.
Finally, Tsubame sat her coffee down and began to stir it with her right hand as if she was restless and needed something to do. Then she said, “You know, when I first learned of you, I thought we were as different as night and day.”
“Learned of me?” MaLeila asked.
Tsubame nodded. “I might have first met you when I fell out that portal, but I didn’t learn of you until much later and dear, there’s no shortage of stories about you in this world. Mostly about no matter what the council has thrown at you, you’ve shoved it back in their faces, given them the proverbial fuck you and pissed off the powers that be by your unorthodox manners. I upset the status quo like that in my youth. It eventually made me queen, but it didn’t win me any friends. I had to win the friends much later and it was much harder to win those friends when I was already at the top than it would have been for me to win those friends if I had tried on my way to the top. In my defense though, I didn’t know I would end up queen.
“You, on the other hand, seem to have a little sense. Give the council what they seemingly want and get what you want out of it. A devious little plan if you ask me, especially when we both know that your powers have no effect on me,” Tsubame pointed out.
“You don’t know that,” MaLeila said. She had only tried one attack on Tsubame. For all she knew, Tsubame was only immune to MaLeila’s wind magic. MaLeila wasn’t sure what the woman’s magic aligned under, but she assumed that the woman might be like Devdan, so closely attuned to yin magic that yin magic didn’t easily work against her, especially when the attacker was weaker. Or that the woman’s magic aligned with a magic that had a strength over wind like moon magic. Either way, she had been prepared to only use magic and abilities that aligned with yang if the time came to fight her.
“Call it a hunch,” Tsubame said. “Regardless, I’m sure you didn’t tell the council that particular fact before you so readily agreed to fight for them. Yet you did so in such a way that they have to keep their end of the bargain so long as you try to help them.”
MaLeila hadn’t thought of it like that at all and when she told Tsubame as much, the woman said, “I know you didn’t. I said you’re smart, but not quite manipulative yet. You don’t have the heart. You’re like a lot of young people in your world. You don’t like fakeness, so you’re brutally honest, sincere, even if it’s not politically correct. But that’s the reason you’re always in so much trouble. All unlimited and untapped potential, but no guidance.”
MaLeila wished Devdan or Bastet were with her, that she hadn’t stormed off in annoyance at them for not taking her uncertainty about Tsubame seriously. The woman was no longer looking at her like she wasn’t sure what to do with her, like she was playing with her until she figured it out. Now, she looked like a predator ready to pounce.
“Guidance?” MaLeila asked narrowing her eyes.
“How do you attract honey bees, Miss Samara?”
MaLeila blinked. That was unexpected, but she replied anyway. “Honey?”
“No. That’s how you attract pests. You don’t want pest. You want bees. And you attract bees with flowers. Sweet smelling flowers filled with nectar. It doesn’t matter what flower to the honey bee. They just want the nectar to make honey. That’s how you have to court the magical world. Give them what they think they want from you. Be the model sorceress on the surface and make them work for you, not for them. Charm them,” Tsubame said. “How do you think that in a matter of seven months I made my way into a man’s bed, influenced him to kill his benefactor and got us to peace talks? Not through being abrasive about it.”
“I thought you said you weren’t very subtle.”
“Most of the time,” Tsubame corrected and then continued, “Getting into bed with a council representative was a good first step.”
MaLeila blanched and said, “Marcel wasn’t a power play against the council.”
“But it could be, if you take advantage of the perks now while they’re so consumed with stopping Fathi and ignoring the real threat,” Tsubame suggested.
MaLeila decided that being around Tsubame was like that time she fell from one of the cliffs at the grand canyon while fighting off a sorcerer with a strong affinity for earth magic, not knowing which way was up or down, left or right, just the feeling of falling.
“That’s all nice and dandy,” MaLeila said, “but I’m not the one aiming for world domination here. That’s you. And you’re practically telling me exactly how you plan to do it.”
“World domination is no fun if no one knows you’re aiming for it, if no one knows who you are and you have to rule from the shadows,” Tsubame said.
The way Tsubame answered reminded MaLeila of the way Devdan answered her questions when he was trying to get her to back off. He gave a quick unhesitating answer that was probably part of the truth, but not the whole truth and meant that the answer he wanted to give would either hurt her feelings or was too personal for him to divulge. She wasn’t sure what Tsubame’s reasoning was, but if the woman wanted to tell someone who might potentially pose a threat to her and she was so convinced that MaLeila’s magic wouldn’t work against her, why hadn’t she just gone straight to the council?
Rather than ask her, because MaLeila was sure she wouldn’t like the answer and that Tsubame was aware of that also and was trying not to scare her off before lunch, MaLeila said nothing as Tsubame called her maids and told them tha
t she needed some fresh air to clear her head.
“Will Fathi be okay with this?” MaLeila asked as they started to head out.
“You ask me that as if he’s my master and has me on a leash,” Tsubame said with a smile. “And while that may be true, he has me on the leash that I put on my neck and handed him the reins to, while holding the key in my pocket.”
They went back to the market, where Tsubame picked up creams and butters and spices for their lunch all the while complaining that the maids cooked too blandly, to which one maid, a mouthy woman named Saha, said that until now they hadn’t had access to anything that would make their food more palatable.
While the woman was bartering prices with Saha, MaLeila made her way over to the jewelry, looking at the pieces with intricate shapes and designs. She picked up a thick green bracelet with green leafs and vines with pink and white blossoms stamped in the middle on opposite sides. When MaLeila look closer, she noticed the design was shaped like a tiger.
Tsubame came up next to her and glanced at the bracelet.
“I haven’t seen that crest in a long time.”
“Crest?” MaLeila asked.
Tsubame nodded, taking the bracelet from her. “It an old crest from a magic family that’s long since died out. It’s not an official artifact of the family but someone likely saw it and copied the design. It happens.”
“Official artifact?”
Tsubame nodded. “An item with the family crest magically imbued, usually by a member of the family. Everyone has one. And families used to exchange them to show alliances. But once families started trading fake ones and people started managing to steal them, the practice was done away with to make way for a more binding agreement.”
“Marriage?”
“Yep,” Tsubame said. “It is a nice bracelet though. No harm in buying it if you want. Although you should make something with your own crest.”
“I don’t have a crest,” MaLeila said though she had seen many particularly since the peace talks where she interacted with three of the most powerful magic families in the world, the Russians, the Chinese, and the British. The crest of the Hou Clan of China was a red and green dragon coiled around a pink lotus flower with ancient Chinese symbols written around the perimeter. She had seen the crest of the Romanovs of Russia but hadn’t been able to make it out. And Irvin had long since shown her their crest: a hexagram, with what looked like a British crown with a cross on the top and words in ancient Latin.
“Then you should make one.”
MaLeila huffed. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“I’ll show you,” Tsubame said as they began to make their way out the market.
On their walk back to the hotel, the woman explained how the crest should represent something her. It could represent her magic, her ideals, philosophy.
“I have a lot of those,” MaLeila said as they waited for lunch back in the suite.
“But it’s the one most important to you that should count.”
“And what about you? What’s your crest?”
Tsubame reached into her hair and pulled out a simple crystal comb. On the corner was a sun and in the inside of that sun was a crescent moon with a star tucked into its curve.
“What’s it mean?”
“Dominion,” Tsubame said promptly. “All the forces of nature can be combatted by another force and all animals have a natural enemy who can defeat it, but you can’t defeat the sun or the moon or even count the stars.”
“That’s an interesting way to look at it,” MaLeila replied. She had thought it was representative of the mixture of magic that might run in her family considering the sun and moon were the prime symbols of yang and yin magic respectively. “What about this comb? Where’d you get it?”
“It was given to the matriarch of my family by her lover. It’s said that as long as he’s loyal to her, the comb will never break,” Tsubame said. “But that’s neither here nor there. I want you to come with me.”
MaLeila followed the woman to one of the doors off from the living area and when they were inside MaLeila guess it was Tsubame’s bedroom. There was a large trunk at the foot of the bed but Tsubame passed right by it and went to the wardrobe.
“Open it,” Tsubame urged.
MaLeila looked at Tsubame warily, causing the woman to shake her head, smile, and open the wardrobe herself. Inside was a mannequin with a fuchsia satin kimono dress with a billowing skirt, wide sleeves, and gold satin sash.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” Tsubame asked and without waiting for MaLeila to respond she said, “I wore it in my younger years, but I think it would better suit you now.”
MaLeila opened and closed her mouth, her guard suddenly back up again now that Tsubame was offering her such an extravagant gift that MaLeila was sure was worth several thousands of dollars.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“I’ve already told you,” Tsubame said.
“No. You haven’t. If I recall, you said it was a game, but this feels like more than a game.”
“Oh?” Tsubame asked tilting her head to the side.
MaLeila looked at Tsubame, running through everything that had happened. First there was the woman essentially telling MaLeila all her plans, how she operated, what she would do to begin to bring the council to her side. Applauding MaLeila’s intuition and telling her how to use her relationships to her benefit. Then there was the strange trip to the market and the woman teaching her about the crests.
“Honey bees and flowers,” MaLeila said as it dawned on her, eyes widening.
“I knew you were a smart girl.”
“You’re sick if you think I’m going to willing side with you. I don’t know what you’re up to but—“
“But at least I’m honest. At least everyone knows what I want. At least I don’t bully people into giving it to me albeit I am a little manipulative, but who isn’t to get what they want. And right now I want you to be my prodigy. Because it would be one thing to ascend to a global throne. I’ve done that once before, but it’s another to help someone else along the way, to see the look on the faces of your enemies when they find out that they were openly tricked and that they have to bow at your feet,” Tsubame declared, eyes alight with excitement.
“You’re crazy,” MaLeila said turning her back and starting to walk out the room. She couldn’t fight the sorceress yet, but when the time came she was going to get much satisfaction from it.
“You’ll be back,” Tsubame assured. “For right now, I’m the lesser of two evils and Fathi isn’t one of the evils I’m referring to.”
“Obviously you’ve never dealt with a teenager because when you tell them they’re going to do something, they’re going to damn well make sure to do the opposite. And the last thing I’m going to do is join you,” MaLeila declared.
“But that’s the fun sweetheart. Watching you all resolute, determined not to fall into my hands and then watching in dismay as you willingly do it anyway. You’re not going to go far. You can’t get away from me. When I look at you I see myself and one day, you’re going to look at me and see everything you ever wanted to be,” Tsubame said in an assuring tone.
MaLeila didn’t know she had been backing up until she hit the door after Tsubame finished. The woman’s almond shaped brown eyes staring at her as though ready to consume her. MaLeila had no intention of sticking around to let her.
18
MaLeila hadn’t expected the magic council to come to a middle ground with Fathi and Tsubame so quickly. She had been prepared for the negotiations to take weeks longer. Actually, she had been prepared for the negotiations to fail and her ending up in an epic fight with Tsubame. But come to an agreement the Magic Council and Fathi, who was surprisingly adept at politics (MaLeila suspected Tsubame had been subtly pushing him in the right direction), did with the stipulation that they’d revisit their agreement in three years. All in all, it seemed very anticlimactic. And when things felt anticlimactic, MaLeila had
come to learn that the climax was yet to come.
Until then, Tsubame had suggested they have a get together, a celebration of her lover’s new agreement and integration into the politics of the magical world. MaLeila knew Tsubame wasn’t stupid enough to think council would let Fathi openly rule as long as he didn’t expose the magical world. It wasn’t how the magical world worked and undoubtedly, they were setting him up to fail so that they could set up their own puppet government with a worthy family, probably one they could control. Whoever it was would definitely be someone with no ties to any of the more powerful families. MaLeila would have had to be blind not to see it, the back and forth pushing and tugging between the representatives of the magic council and the leaders of the magic families. In some ways they each gave each other their power. The magic families used them as the middle men to keep the rival families in peace and from warring with each so the families could focus on retaining their power, and in return the Magic Council knew all the families’ dealings able to use the information as blackmail in the event that a particular family didn’t want to cooperate and risk the power structure. MaLeila wasn’t sure who had more power in the structure, who could risk disturbing the delicate power structure and come out on top. And depending on who could risk it, MaLeila was sure, would decide who Tsubame used to try to make her climb to the top.
The celebration was somewhere in between modest and extravagant in the same conference rooms that they had been having meetings all week, where all the families and council members put on pleasant smiles and gave polite and cordial greetings like they hadn’t been almost at each other’s throats for the past few weeks. MaLeila stood off to the side, not sure what to do with herself as she nursed a glass of sparkling wine. She had thought about planting herself next to Irvin while he made rounds, but people would get the wrong idea if she did that. She also could have attached herself next to Marcel or Bastet, but she didn’t have the patience nor the energy to bother trying to act like she wanted to be around the council.
The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Awakening Page 18
