“I don’t know that any of that stuff is true.” Noria scowled. “So far all the data you’ve gotten has been passed down by mages or people allied with mages. You’re just falling for enemy propaganda.”
“I don’t know about that.” I felt guilty raising my doubts, but I couldn’t back down. Something didn’t feel right about this. “I’m going to have to look into it more before I make a decision.”
Noria tossed her fiery mane of curls. “Do what you want, but I’m definitely joining up once I finish my studies.”
“Noria!” Annia punched her in the arm. “Don’t say things like that in public.”
Noria shrugged, pulling a device that looked like a cross between an amulet and a gadget out of her pocket. It reminded me of the jammer she’d given me earlier. “This thing’s been muffling our conversations,” she said. “So I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Comenius’s eyes widened as he leaned forward to get a better look. “Did your friend Elnos help you with that?”
Noria grinned. “Pretty impressive, right?”
“Yes, actually.” He slumped back in his chair. “It makes me wish that I could work with technology.”
Noria patted Comenius’s hand. “Hey, maybe sometime I can bring something by the shop for you to help me with.”
Comenius pursed his lips thoughtfully. “That would be interesting.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Com, you’re a hedge-witch! You and technology don’t go together.”
Comenius frowned. “Maybe, but if any of Noria’s inventions do end up helping the Resistance, I would like to contribute. You know I support the idea of equality amongst the races just as much as you do.”
“Exactly,” Noria chimed in. “Which is why you should ditch the mages, and join the Resistance.”
“Maybe Naya’s got a different plan in mind,” Annia suggested, arching a brow at her little sister. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes.”
I wrinkled my nose at the uncouth metaphor, and Anna grinned at me.
“Hmph.” Noria jutted out her bottom lip, but she didn’t argue. “I guess so.”
“Besides,” I said, spearing a broccoli floret with my fork, “I want to find out what exactly Yantz was really up to, before anything else, and I’m more useful on my own than in the Resistance. Yantz mentioned that someone called the Benefactor was giving him orders, and I mean to find out who that is.”
“That’s true,” Comenius said. “From what you’ve told us, we still don’t understand why all the shifters who were targeted had to die, or exactly how the poison was delivered to them. I hope the new Shiftertown Inspector finds the answers. There could be other players involved who are still in town.”
That thought nagged at me as I walked the six blocks back to my new apartment in the Heights – a middle-class complex in Rowanville that was a few steps shy of luxury, but still pretty nice. It was on the other side of the artsy district, so the buildings I passed by were covered in New Age murals, and the sidewalks were humming with artists and street performers. I paused briefly as I watched a human caricature artist draw a portrait of a lion shifter child, and felt a pang as I wondered if someone close to this child would be the next victim. It was too soon to tell whether or not Yantz had someone in place to continue the poisonings without him. Then again, according to Yantz the poisonings were part of a grander plan, so maybe they’d already moved on to its next phase. The idea that there was a next phase made my stomach turn – I needed to find out what was going on before things got worse.
I turned the key in the lock on my apartment door, then flopped down on the purple corduroy couch just inside the living room and stretched out. I’d only moved in four days ago, so the walls were still bare of decorations and boxes still needed to be unpacked, but the place was mine and I was happy with it.
I’d briefly considered moving into Roanas’s house, as I’d found out that he’d left it to me in his will. In fact, I’d spent my first two days of real freedom roaming the place, packing up things in boxes, smiling and crying as I looked through photo albums. But in the end I hadn’t been able to do it – the ghost of his presence would have haunted me forever if I’d stayed there, and I’d never be able to move on. I needed my own space, my own life.
“Delivery service!” an unfamiliar voice called, jolting me out of my morose thoughts. I sat up, apprehension and curiosity warring within me. I wasn’t expecting a package from anyone, but the freckled face of a young boy wearing a green and white uniform peered up at me as I peeked through the peephole, confirming that he was from Solantha’s main courier service.
“Hello,” I said as I opened the door. As I moved to take the package, the courier’s scent hit me, and I stiffened.