The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

He did not approach her immediately after the end of practice. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen.

“So His Highness does come to watch a practice from time to time,” said West to Iolanthe as he gathered up his things.

“His Highness, as always, does as he pleases.”

Wintervale was disappointed that Titus had slipped away without a word to anyone. Kashkari offered himself as Wintervale’s crutch on the way back, an offer Wintervale accepted with tepid gratitude.

Normally, when Iolanthe found herself sharing a sidewalk with Wintervale, she would slow down enough to walk beside him. But today she needed to speak to Titus to find out what had unsettled him so.

Using her thirst as an excuse, she passed Kashkari and Wintervale, striding so fast that poor Cooper could barely keep up.

At Titus’s door, before she could knock, a hand settled on her shoulder. She jumped. But it was only Titus.

“I have been behind you all this time,” he said quietly.

He ushered her inside. And once the door was closed, he set a sound circle and applied the sort of anti-intrusion spells that would kill a charging rhinoceros, making Iolanthe’s brows rise almost to her hairline.

Clutching her to him, he kissed her cheek, her ear, and her lips. “Take a dose of vaulting aid. I am taking you to Paris right now. No need to pack anything. Whatever you need you can buy new there.”

“What?” she cried. “What is going on? You are shaking like a leaf in the wind.”

An exaggeration on her part, but his fingertips did tremble.

“West could be the Bane.”

She stared at him. “You are not making any sense. Did you say that West could be the Bane?”

“I saw the Bane up close, remember? Believe me when I tell you that West resembles the Bane almost exactly, if you subtract the effects of aging.”

“But West didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s been at Eton for as long as you have. You can’t expect me to believe that for four years the Bane has been walking among the students of a nonmage school.”

“I do not know how to account for that. All I know is that you cannot stay here a moment longer.”

“But I stood next to him for two hours and nothing happened to me.”

“Yet. Anything could happen any minute.”

That she didn’t doubt, though she remained unconvinced that he was right about West. “I’m not opposed to erring on the side of caution. But for me to disappear without a word to anyone, leaving all my belongings behind—it would appear suspicious, wouldn’t it?”

He frowned but didn’t reply.

“Besides, if it has become too dangerous for me to remain at school, then it is also too dangerous for you and Wintervale. And probably Kashkari too.”

He rubbed his temples. “What do you suggest we do?”

“We should speak to Kashkari and Wintervale both.”

“No, not Wintervale, not yet.”

“Don’t you think you are being overcautious?”

“No more than his mother is.”

Iolanthe couldn’t argue with that. “All right, then. We talk to Kashkari. He excels at keeping secrets. And a quid says he already has plans for leaving school in a hurry, in case of emergency.”

Kashkari, however, was nowhere to be found. He didn’t even show up at supper—it was Sutherland who helped Wintervale down to the dining room.

“Where’s Kashkari?” Iolanthe asked Sutherland.

“He is fasting. And there are some rituals he must follow while he’s fasting. He has permission to stay in his room tonight.”

Iolanthe exchanged a look with Titus. Kashkari’s native realm was not one that fell under the banners of the Angelic Host. But still, rare was the mage belief that looked to fasting as a means of becoming closer to the divine.

Mrs. Hancock also did not come to supper, which caused a bigger stir than Kashkari’s absence—Mrs. Hancock was never not at supper.

“I know it is unusual, but Mrs. Hancock is feeling a bit under the weather this evening,” explained Mrs. Dawlish.

Iolanthe had not been particularly nervous earlier, when Titus had been nearly undone by his belief that West was the Bane. But the unexpected and simultaneous absence of the two mages made her tense. She spoke little, and listened with only half an ear to Cooper.

After supper, as he often did, Cooper walked back with Iolanthe to her room, for a bit of help on his schoolwork. He opened a notebook and flipped through the pages. “Ah, here it is. Is this the word that means swift in Greek?”

Iolanthe took a look. “Okeia? Yes.”

“But when has Aphrodite ever been described as swift?”

It took Iolanthe two seconds to understand what he was talking about—most of her attention was on the footsteps in the corridor, listening for Titus’s return. He had gone to look for Kashkari again and she was beginning to worry about the latter.

“Wait a minute. Let me look at my notes.” She opened one of her own notebooks. “I think you copied it wrong. The word is actually okeanis, from the ocean, which Aphrodite is.”