Kell spun to find the shop’s owner standing there, shoulder tipped against a wardrobe, looking vaguely bemused.
“Fletcher,” said Kell.
“How did you get in?” asked Fletcher.
Kell forced himself to shrug as he shot a glance toward Lila, who’d had the good sense to stay in the hallway and out of sight. “I guess your wards are wearing thin.”
Fletcher crossed his arms. “I doubt that.”
Kell stole a second glance toward Lila, but she was no longer in the hall. A spike of panic ran through him, one that worsened a moment later when she reappeared behind Fletcher. She moved with silent steps, a knife glittering in one hand.
“Tac,” said Fletcher, lifting his hand beside his head. “Your friend is very rude.” As he said it, Lila froze mid-stride. The strain showed in her face as she tried to fight the invisible force holding her in place, but it was no use. Fletcher had the rare and dangerous ability to control bones, and therefore bodies. It was an ability that had earned him the binding scars he was so proud of breaking.
Lila, for one, seemed unimpressed. She muttered some very violent things, and Fletcher splayed his fingers. Kell heard a sound like cracking ice, and Lila let out a stifled cry, the knife tumbling from her fingers.
“I thought you preferred to work alone,” said Fletcher conversationally.
“Let her go,” ordered Kell.
“Are you going to make me, Antari?”
Kell’s fingers curled into fists—the shop was warded a dozen ways, against intruders and thieves and, with Kell’s luck, anyone who meant Fletcher harm—but the shop owner himself gave a low chuckle and dropped his hand, and Lila went stumbling to her hands and knees, clutching her wrist and swearing vehemently.
“Anesh,” he said casually. “What brings you back to my humble shop?”
“I gave you something once,” said Kell. “I’d like to borrow it.”
Fletcher gave a derisive snort. “I am not in the business of borrowers.”
“I’ll buy it then.”
“And if it’s not for sale?”
Kell forced himself to smile. “You of all people know,” he said, “that everything is for sale.”
Fletcher parroted the smile, cold and dry. “I won’t sell it to you, but I might sell it to her”—his gaze glanced to Lila, who had gotten to her feet and retreated to the nearest wall to lurk and curse—“for the right price.”
“She doesn’t speak Arnesian,” said Kell. “She hasn’t the faintest idea what you’re saying.”
“Oh?” Fletcher grabbed his crotch. “I bet I can make her understand,” he said, shaking himself in her direction.
Lila’s eyes narrowed. “Burn in hell, you fu—”
“I wouldn’t bother with her,” cut in Kell. “She bites.”
Fletcher sighed and shook his head. “What kind of trouble are you in, Master Kell?”
“None.”
“You must be in some, to come here. And besides,” said Fletcher, smile sharpening. “They don’t put your face up on the boards for nothing.”
Kell’s eyes flicked to the scrying board on the wall, the one that had been painted with his face for the last hour. And then he paled. The circle at the bottom, the one that said If seen touch here was pulsing bright green.
“What have you done?” growled Kell.
Fletcher only smiled.
“No hard feelings,” he said darkly, right before the shop doors burst open, and the royal guard poured in.
V
Kell had only an instant to arrange his features, to force panic into composure, before the guards were there, five in all, filling up the room with movement and noise.
He couldn’t run—there was nowhere to run to—and he didn’t want to hurt them, and Lila … Well, he had no idea where Lila was. One moment she’d been right there against the wall, and the next she’d vanished (though Kell had seen her fingers go into the pocket of her coat the instant before she disappeared, and he could feel the subtle hum of the stone’s magic in the air, the way Holland must have felt it at the Ruby Fields).
Kell forced himself to stay still, to feign calm, even though his heart was racing in his chest. He tried to remind himself that he wasn’t a criminal, that the royals were likely only worried by his disappearance. He hadn’t done anything wrong, not in the eyes of the crown. Not that they knew of. Unless, in his absence, Rhy had told the king and queen of his transgressions. He wouldn’t—Kell hoped he wouldn’t—but even if he had, Kell was Antari, a member of the royal family, someone to be respected, even feared. He coated himself in that knowledge as he leaned back lazily, almost arrogantly, against the table behind him.
When the members of the royal guard saw him standing there, alive and unconcerned, confusion spread across their features. Had they expected a body? A brawl? Half went to kneel, and half brought hands to rest on the hilts of their swords, and one stood there, frowning, in the middle.
“Ellis,” said Kell, nodding at the head of the royal guard.
“Master Kell,” said Ellis, stepping forward. “Are you well?”
“Of course.”
Ellis fidgeted. “We’ve been worried about you. The whole palace has been.”
“I didn’t mean to worry anyone,” he said, considering the guard around him. “As you can see, I’m perfectly all right.”
Ellis looked around, then back at Kell. “It’s just … sir … when you did not return from your errand abroad …”
“I was delayed,” said Kell, hoping that would quell the questions.
Ellis frowned. “Did you not see the signs? They’re posted everywhere.”
“I only just returned.”
“Then, forgive me,” countered Ellis, gesturing to the shop. “But what are you doing here?”
Fletcher frowned. Though he spoke only Arnesian, he clearly understood the royal tongue well enough to know he was being insulted.
Kell forced a thin smile. “Shopping for Rhy’s present.”
A nervous laugh passed through the guard.
“You’ll come with us, then?” asked Ellis, and Kell understood the words that went unsaid. Without a fight.
“Of course,” said Kell, rising to his full height and smoothing his jacket.
The guards looked relieved. Kell’s mind spun as he turned to Fletcher and thanked him for his help.
“Mas marist,” answered the shop’s owner darkly. My pleasure. “Just doing my civic duty.”
“I’ll be back,” said Kell in English (which garnered a raised brow from the royal guard), “as soon as I am through. To find what I was looking for.” The words were directed at Lila. He could still feel her in the room, feel the stone even as it hid her. It whispered to him.
“Sir,” said Ellis, gesturing to the door. “After you.”
Kell nodded and followed him out.