I ran through my mental checklist: Beast and the cat securely locked in my bedroom and the inn wouldn’t let them out, the sound dampeners activated, the street-facing facade reinforced. Yes, that was everything. You could set off an explosion in the grand ballroom now, and nobody outside the inn would hear a single sound.
A rustle of fabric announced Her Grace’s arrival to the bottom of the stairs. She wore a dark green dress with a silk-like sheen, cinched to one side at her waist with a jeweled clasp and spilling down into a long skirt with a train embellished by glittering embroidery. Long matching gloves covered her hands and arms. A luxurious fur collar, dark hunter green with individual hairs gradually changing color to blood red at their tips, framed her shoulders. Black and green eight-inch spikes protruded from the collar, biological weapons of some long-dead alien predator. Matching small spikes decorated her elaborate bejeweled hair brooch. A necklace of emeralds, each the size of my thumbnail and framed in small fiery diamonds, graced her neck. She looked every inch exactly what she was: a ruthless, cunning animal of prey, armed with razor-sharp intelligence and unhindered by morals.
Caldenia saw my robe. Her eyebrows crept up.
Under ordinary circumstances, an innkeeper was an unobtrusive shadow, readily identifiable if the guests looked for her yet drawing no attention to herself. Our robes reflected that: grey, brown, dark blue, or hunter green, they served as our uniform. We had no need to impress. A bit of embroidery along the hem was as far as embellishment went. Yet once in a while, an occasion required that the full extent of our power had to be communicated. Today was that kind of day. I wore my judgment robe. Solid black, it swallowed the light. It pulled you in and if you looked directly at it for too long, you would get a strange sensation that you were plunging into a bottomless dark well, as if someone had reached deep into the abyss, scooped out primordial darkness, then spun and woven it into a fabric. Lightweight and voluminous, the material of the robe was so thin that the slightest air current stirred it, and even now, in a draftless hallway, its hem moved and shifted as if some mystic power fanned it. The robe was impenetrable. No matter what sophisticated scanner a being might employ to augment their vision, I would appear the same, a specter, a chilling cousin of the Grim Reaper, my face hidden by my hood so only my mouth and chin remained visible. The broom in my hand had turned into a staff, its shaft the color of obsidian.
There were few universal principles in this world. That most water-based lifeforms drank tea was one. That we fear what we cannot see was the other. They would look at my robe, trying to discern the contours of my body, and when the abyss forced them to look away, they would search for my eyes trying to convince themselves I wasn’t a threat. They would find no reassurance.
“Well,” Caldenia said. “This should prove interesting.”
“Stay by my side, Your Grace.”
“I shall, my dear.”
The wall parted before me and I strode into my ballroom. They all had their show. It was time for mine.
The weak murmurs died. Silence claimed the hall and within it I glided across the floor without a sound. As I moved, darkness rolled across the floor, walls, and ceiling, a menacing shadow of my power. The light dimmed. The constellations died, snuffed out by my presence. Watch me as I end your universe.
I reached the bulb. George didn’t step back, but he thought about it, because he unconsciously leaned back, trying to widen the distance between me and him. The darkness rolled behind me and remained there, an anti-sunrise blocking out the stars. Caldenia took a spot behind me on my left.
Nobody said a thing.
The floor parted in front of me and a thin stalk of the inn lifted a platter supporting a glass tea kettle half-filled with wassa tea. The light within the platter set the tea kettle aglow, making the tea sparkle like a precious ruby. Or like blood.
The Horde stiffened. Nuan Cee visibly braced himself.
“There is a killer in this inn.” My voice rolled through the grand ballroom, a too-loud whisper charged with power. “A killer I will now punish.”
“By what right?” The question came from the vampire side. I had ratcheted the pressure to the limit. All of them were already on edge. If I weren’t careful, they would erupt.
“By the right of the Treaty your governments signed. Those who attack guests within an inn lose all protections of their homeland. Your status, your wealth, and your position do not matter. You are in my domain. Here I alone am the judge, the jury, and the executioner.”
I turned, my robe moving lightly along the floor, and began to circle the tea kettle. A projection spilled out of the ceiling: me sitting on the divan, Dagorkun serving the tea, Caldenia picking up her cup.
“One of you made an effort to move through the inn unseen. One of you employed a device that hid his or her image.”
The tension was thick, I kept waiting for it to crack like a thunderclap.
“This device was stolen and duplicated. The original was returned to its owner. The duplicate was used to poison the tea in this kettle.”