She decided, as she perched on a ledge which might be a seat, that this sort of transport must be reserved for very small antiques. The compartment was cramped, with hardly enough room for the three of them, let alone the storage of large items. The engine was also incredibly noisy, which was good – Irene didn’t really want Mrs Jenkins listening in on this.
Vale himself remained standing, holding on to an overhead strap, using the advantage of his height to tower over Irene. Possibly in response, Kai also stayed on his feet, moving over to loom behind Irene’s shoulder supportively.
Irene wished that they’d both been poisoned too: perhaps then they’d be a bit more understanding about wanting to sit down.
‘Miss Winters,’ Vale said, retreating into formality, ‘am I to understand that you have the Fae-like power to glamour and delude the minds of others?’
Oh. So that was what had disturbed him. ‘No,’ she said, then qualified it with, ‘not precisely. And you’re probably wondering why I didn’t do such a thing before.’
‘Or why you suddenly revealed it now, after using it on me without my realizing it,’ Vale suggested, brows drawn together suspiciously.
Damn. It was a logical suspicion which she’d been hoping that he wouldn’t have. Why did he have to use those qualities that she admired against her? ‘I’m hardly that stupid,’ she said.
‘But you might have been that desperate,’ Vale answered. ‘An explanation, if you please.’
Irene sighed. She’d been hoping to avoid this. ‘All right. You know that I can use the Language to, in blunt terms, make things do things. I can’t change a door from a locked door to an open door, but I can make the lock on a door open itself. There are some subtleties to this, but I hope you’ll understand that I can’t explain everything in full detail and with footnotes. I can get away with telling my superiors that I explained some things to you, but there are limits.’
‘You show a sudden high regard for your superiors’ opinion,’ Vale commented.
She was suddenly furious, his words reviving Bradamant’s taunts on not involving others and doing the job – no matter what. ‘I’m not supposed to be sharing anything with you at all!’ She could feel her control slipping, which just made it worse. She should be handling this dispassionately like a capable Librarian, as Bradamant would have done. She shouldn’t feel this sudden lurch at the thought of ruining any sort of friendship with Vale. She was not supposed to be involved with him at all. With anyone. ‘Standard procedure is getting in and out, leaving no traces. Standard procedure does not involve investigating local murders, going to local receptions, getting involved with local secret societies—’
‘Or visiting local detectives,’ Kai put in.
Or forming friendships, Irene heard behind his words. She wished that she had a spare hatpin to jab into Vale. Or possibly Kai, who wasn’t helping. ‘Standard procedure tends to advise against high-speed chases in borrowed zeppelins, too,’ she said flatly. ‘Bradamant would have told you all this. Perhaps she’s the one you should have been working with from the beginning.’ Yes. Bradamant would never have got so . . . involved. ‘I still don’t understand why your, ah, foretelling urges pointed you at us rather than at her. If you’d been working together, you’d probably have managed to track things down a great deal faster.’
Vale simply stared down at her. ‘None of this explains your ability to control the minds of others.’
‘Well . . .’ Irene tried to think how to explain it. ‘When I use the Language to tell something to do something which is against its nature, the universe resists. This is why those stuffed animals are going to return to that state, probably quite soon. I hope Inspector Singh is there to sort that one out. It’s easy to tell a lock to unlock – these things are in a lock’s nature. It’s much harder to order something to behave in an unnatural manner.’
‘Such as having stuffed animals come to life,’ Vale agreed.
‘Well, that’s only mostly unnatural,’ Irene said. ‘After all, they were once living animals. I couldn’t require a building to jump up and fall on someone, but I could tell a roof tile to come loose. Do you understand me so far?’