His thoughts ricocheted around in his head. What is she doing here? He didn't think they were supposed to leave Deathbird, though his knowledge of their rules and the Pact was quite limited. But either way, he knew Priyanka would want to know what Tamako was doing.
The attendant grabbed his arm when he tried to go through the door. The black-eyed maetrie said, "You can't go in there."
Zayn shoved his bracelet in the attendant's face. His eyes narrowed, the smooth skin across his forehead wrinkling the barest minimum. He released his grip and looked back to the crowd haughtily.
When he went through the door to find a smaller room with only a half-dozen tables, he felt many eyes upon him and wondered if he'd made a mistake. But the Goon had always taught him to act like he was an owner, even if he was only a janitor, so Zayn thrust out his chest and strolled into the room confidently, and they went back to their games.
Zayn strolled around the tables looking for Tamako, but she was nowhere to be found. He switched on his sensing imbuement and was immediately rewarded with the sound of her talking to another maetrie behind a row of curtains in the back of the room.
The room boss, a maetrie with his black hair pulled into a bun at the base of his neck, handed Zayn a long-stemmed glass of clear liquid. He leaned in close and spoke in a whisper.
"There are no spectators allowed here. Please choose your game quickly, or return to the general gaming area."
Zayn gave a nod of understanding, spied an open seat at the table closest to the curtains, and took it. Seven sets of maetrie eyes looked back at him. They performed the impressive feat of smirking without moving a muscle on their smooth faces.
The table boss moved next to him. "Your bracelet."
Zayn held it up. The table boss waved a black box over it. "How much?"
His gut clenched. He had no idea what the coinage structure was. He tried to look annoyed as he said, "Whatever everyone's playing with."
The table boss let a tight-lipped smile curl onto his lips. "You don't have that much."
He thought about getting up at that very moment, but he could hear Tamako in back still talking. He needed to know what she was saying.
"Then everything I've got," said Zayn, hoping Priyanka would forgive him if he lost it all.
The table boss set a meager stack of chips next to him. The others had multiple stacks twice as tall as his. He'd never been inside a human casino, but he was starting to recognize the signs of a high-stakes room. What was worse was that he didn't even know what the game was going to be, so he stared at the center of the table for clues.
The center of the table was walled off with a hole in the front large enough to put his arm in. Various shiny pieces of metal were scattered about the area with loops that made them look like oversized metal novelty rings.
"Wagers, please," said the table boss.
Zayn had never heard the word "please" sound less like a request and more like a nihilist's beat poem.
As everyone set a stack of bone coins into a small square, Zayn realized the bet would consume nearly all of his coins. The other betters seemed amused by his presence, and he found their eyes drifting across him constantly.
Beneath the table, his knee bounced nervously. He tried to use the moment to concentrate on Tamako's conversation, but the impending contest left him hearing only snippets: nothing of the sort, you have my word, and it appeared she was being truthful.
"Wagers set," said the table boss. "Prepare for battle."
Everyone's arms went flying through the holes like trains into a tunnel. They grabbed the metal implements quickly, like children fighting over favorite toys.
By the time Zayn realized what he needed to do, the metal items were taken by the others. He put his arm through the hole, his naked fist looking out of place.
"This wager's match is deathhead scorpions," said the table boss.
The name, while imposing, meant nothing to Zayn, but what twisted his guts even more was the uncomfortable glances between his competitors. The maetrie were notoriously stone-faced, but the announcement of the scorpions left many throats swallowing.
"Remember," said the table boss, "if your elbow leaves the battle area, you are out."
A thin maetrie from three down looked Zayn straight in the eyes and said, "The agonizing pain from the sting lasts for years and the only remedy is death. There is no shame in removing your arm from the table."
"Though there is wisdom in removing your head from your ass first," quipped Zayn, to the amusement of a maetrie woman across from him.
The table boss said, "The match may begin."
The hole in the center of the table disappeared as a platform rose from below. Zayn heard their chittering even before he saw them. There were at least two dozen black scorpions the size of his palm. His plan had been to use the game as a cover for listening to Tamako's conversation, but now that he saw them, he realized how foolish he'd been in joining the table.
As soon as the center section was level with the table, the scorpions spread out, moving unerringly towards the eight competitors. The purpose of the metal implements became abundantly clear as the other competitors did battle with the scorpions. Within seconds, a thin maetrie on the other side of the table yanked his hand out of the center, forfeiting his stack of coins but saving himself from further damage.
Zayn had little time to observe, as two scorpions came skittering towards his unprotected hand. Using his speed imbuement, Zayn darted his hand forward, flicking the nearest scorpion across the table, then dodging the stabbing stinger of the second.
The deathhead scorpion he'd flicked landed on the arm of the maetrie three to his right, the one who had taunted him at the beginning of the game, stinging him immediately. His competitor yanked his arm out so quickly that he fell over backwards in his chair. His high, reedy screams brought attendants from a hidden side room. They gathered him up, and he was carried out of the room, but not before Zayn noticed that his arm was already puffed up like a gray sausage.
Two more of his competitors removed their arms from the arena, shaking their heads with distaste at the brutal stakes of the game.
There were only four remaining, and by chance, they were each at the points of the compass. The maetrie across from Zayn had four dead scorpions in front of her, killed with a metal spear no longer than a finger.
Zayn had acquired a tiny metal shield, which he was using to block stinger thrusts. Half the scorpions were dead, but the remaining ones were more wary, making their attacks in groups of three, rather than one at a time.
He was caught in a dilemma. If he stayed in the match and was stung, he'd probably be sent back to Varna, to live out the next few years in misery. But if he removed his arm, they'd make him leave the room since he had no more coins, and he wouldn't hear what Tamako had to say.
So Zayn split his faez, half to the sensing imbuement and the other half to speed, keeping out of the way of the scorpions, knocking them back into the middle rather than killing them.
"...hasn't left his realm in decades..."
Two scorpions came dashing towards his hand. He blocked one stinger into the other and bent his arm away from their thrusts.
When four scorpions attacked the maetrie on his left, he removed his arm from the battlefield. This caused a problem for Zayn, as the remaining scorpions were being herded towards him by the maetrie across from him. She had angular cheekbones and a sneer that could have been etched in granite. She was clearly the fiercest competitor, having killed the most scorpions, undaunted by the threat of their stingers.
The curtains behind him rustled. Zayn sensed Tamako was leaving. He switched his focus to their conversation.
"...they've scattered through the known realms like a virus. It would only be..."
Zayn was so intent on Tamako that he almost missed the maetrie across from him dropping her spear and flicking a scorpion across the field. Before the deathhead scorpion could land on his arm, he yanked it out of the h
ole.
The match lasted for only a few seconds longer, when a half-dozen scorpions converged on the maetrie to his right, and he withdrew his arm, leaving the maetrie woman across from him victorious.
Zayn's gut sank as his stack of coins was collected and given to the victor.
The table boss wasted no time, touching him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, you'll have to leave now."
As Zayn got up from the table, he collected the two remaining coins and shoved them into his pocket. The maetrie woman across from him gave him a nod of respect, which was bittersweet considering he'd lost nearly all the money in the account.
Before he left, the curtains parted for a moment, and Zayn caught a glimpse of Tamako talking to another maetrie, this one with a glowing tattoo on the side of his shaved head.
Back in the main area, Zayn's adrenaline caught up with him, and his arms shook for a good thirty seconds before he could control them again. The screams of the maetrie who'd been stung would haunt his dreams for the foreseeable future.
He wandered around the tables until suddenly Lady Sebella was by his side. He almost forgot that it was Priyanka until she said under her breath, "How did you lose all the money so quickly? I said to play cautiously."
He didn't want to say Tamako's name in the open casino, so he hung his head down. "I'm sorry, my dear Sebella. I made a foolish bet on black, and it came up on a five, and this is all that's left."
Her expression went from anger to recognition at his coded words.
"We're going home," she said, marching towards the portal.
Zayn tucked his chin to his chest and followed Priyanka. Once they went through the portal, back to her office in the Spire rather than the Honeycomb, she said, "Were you implying you saw Tamako?"
He nodded, then proceeded to explain what had happened. It was strange talking to "Lady Sebella" because Priyanka let her human expressions color the maetrie's face during the explanation. The raised eyebrow and inhalation of breath at the mention of deathhead scorpions was followed by Priyanka pacing away.
"That was a huge risk you took," said Priyanka.
"I realize now, but I thought it was important. The risk of a few years of pain was worth it?" His hands trembled again at the price of the match. He was asking as much for himself.
"For the maetrie it's a few years," said Priyanka. "For a human, you would have endured pain for decades."
Zayn was left speechless.
"But," she said, nodding her head, "you did good work."
"I didn't think Tamako could leave Deathbird," said Zayn.
"With the full council's permission anyone can leave, though anyone can also leave if they're clever enough, but I assume that Tamako was sent because the Black Council is also concerned about what has happened," said Priyanka.
"May I ask what you learned?"
A hint of a smile colored her lips. "A source inside the Diamond Court claims the Gurken has not left his realm and that no one has hired him. I'm inclined to believe they're lying, though I have no proof. Also, someone is plotting against the Halls. I don't know what they're after, or what they intend to do, but the pieces moving are worrisome enough. The surveillance of the Metallum Nocturne is even more important now."
"What do we do next?" asked Zayn.
Priyanka looked into the jungle interior of her office. "You and your team keep watch. I have some thinking to do."
Chapter Fifteen
Thirteenth Ward, January 2015
The sting of the night air
After the trip to the Diamond Queen's casino, Zayn was relieved to focus on his studies. The end of the game had been too close a call, and it left him shaking when he thought about it. The instructors had warned him that his hubris would cost him, and up until then, he thought he could handle it, but that game was a window into how much more dangerous things could get.
To shake his lingering unease, and to keep their imbuements honed, Zayn convinced his team to take a few laps on the parkour course that Allgood had introduced them to the year before.
Though it'd only been a year since he'd first run it, Zayn found the purple course not as challenging. It helped that he'd run it enough he had every jump memorized. Even in the dark, with only the distant light of the city reflecting off the cloud layer, he never felt in danger. Instead, he felt a sense of great joy.
Zayn sped across the rooftop, close on Skylar's heels. They were playing follow the leader, which required matching the leader's—which in this moment was Skylar—every step, twist, and leap. Keelan had come up with the game on a previous visit, and they'd taken to it like a calf to milk.
To an onlooker, Zayn imagined that it looked like they were running on trampolines, the way they bounced off brick buildings and soared through the air with ease.
Skylar did a back handspring off the roof to a lower one, landing into a cartwheel. Zayn matched her even though he thought the flipping was a little excessive, since real-world situations wouldn't require such moves, but it was definitely fun.
The others came behind, hollering and whooping like a pack of nimble hyenas. While there weren't any businesses or housing around, Zayn had seen some people in the nearby industrial park, gathered around burn barrels, and he wondered what they thought of the noise, though he supposed if they'd chosen to live in the city of sorcery, they shouldn't be surprised by anything.
When Skylar's lap finished, they took a break on the building where Zayn had fallen. He thought it appropriate as a reminder of his failing.
Vin had his leg at an obscene angle as he stretched.
"A man your size shouldn't be that limber," said Zayn.
"A man my size should absolutely be this limber, as it keeps me from being hurt. Big people need to stretch more," said Vin, with a too-proud grin.
"Hey," said Portia, "us little people need to stretch too, especially for—"
Skylar rolled her eyes as she said, "Sex, yes, we get it."
Portia placed her palm over her heart. "I am very hurt that you would say that. I was going to suggest something else, but, uhm, your rude interruption made me lose my train of thought."
Portia stuck her tongue out playfully at Skylar, who returned fire with her own, adding crazy eyes and shaking her head.
"Come join the fun, Keelan," said Vin, when he noticed Keelan standing on the edge of the building, looking at the soft glow on the bottom of the clouds.
He glanced back, a wry smile on his lips. "Sorry. Just thinking about home. I still ain't used to the big city."
The others looked to Zayn as if they expected him to say something, but he feigned interest in adjusting his running shoes.
After a long pause, Vin cleared his throat. "I think it's the greatest place in the world. Though it took a little getting used to. Always feels like there's crazy right around every corner."
"It's not the city itself," said Keelan, gesturing ahead. "It's, I don't know, like looking at a picture of home rather than being home."
Zayn's heart tore at his cousin's words. He'd hoped having him in the group would help Keelan, but it seemed that it wasn't working.
He caught Skylar looking at him and realized that he'd let his emotions cloud his expression. She looked back to Keelan.
"I know the transition from your team to ours has been difficult," said Skylar. "And I can't say that I was happy about it at first, but you've been a great addition to the team. I'm glad you're with us."
"Me too, amigo," said Portia. "You're alright for a Southerner."
There was a pregnant pause, when everyone looked at Vin. He threw his shoulders in a shrug. "I already told him how happy I was he's here."
"You mean you made a pass at him," said Skylar with a wink.
"Well, of course. I'm not blind, am I?" joked Vin.
Keelan smiled back. "I regret that I had to say no. As it were, even if I was inclined, I wouldn't for the sake of the team." He put his hands on his hips. "I'm sorry to be all maudlin. I appreciate what you're all tryi
ng to do. I do feel welcomed, but you know, these things take time. I'm sure by the end of the year, I won't want to return to Varna."
Mention of their hometown brought dark glances from the others. Vin and Skylar looked to Portia as if they expected her to say something.
"Fine, I'll ask. It's as good a time as any," said Portia. "What's the deal with Varna? Why do you two, and the instructors, get all weird when that place is mentioned? And why does a little town in Alabama have so many students in the Halls, and all of them in the Academy?"
A tightness coiled around Zayn's chest. He'd avoided this conversation for nearly two years. He knew it couldn't last, but he didn't know what to say.
"You can't help us with it," said Keelan.
"We don't even know what it is, or why it matters," said Skylar. "But we're your teammates, we'd like to know."
"Keelan's right," said Zayn. "There's nothing you can do to help us."
He had in the past debated telling them his plan, but decided that it was unfair of him to burden them with his problems. Especially since their patron knew about it and had let it continue to exist. How could they help?
"We're your teammates. We have a right to know," said Portia. "It's this secret you two carry around with you. If you want us to be a better team, tell us. Maybe we can't help, but maybe we can better understand."
Zayn started to open his mouth, but Keelan signaled for him to be quiet. "It's better you don't know."
But the way they crossed their arms told him they weren't going to take no for an answer.
"I can tell you this much," said Zayn, spreading his hands at his cousin in apology. "The patron, the instructors, they all know about it and do nothing, for good reason. Because there's nothing you can do."
This didn't seem to satisfy them, so he continued. "Have you ever noticed we go see Instructor Allgood about once a month?" They nodded. "We go to receive poison, or antidote, however you look at it. If we don't, then pretty soon afterwards, we die."
"That's awful," said Skylar, mouth twisted with disgust.
"Tell us who is doing this and we'll hurt them for you," said Portia, with fists at her sides.
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