The bar was casual, out of the way of the financial crowd and not trendy enough for the hipsters. Welcoming, with caramel wood and warm brass and old red brick. The blond woman sitting at the end of the bar in her severely tailored sheath dress looked more polished than the place, but she laughed with the bartender and asked the hostess about her sister’s art exhibit.
“This really is your regular spot.” Sydney slid onto the stool next to Madison and ordered a dirty martini.
“I’ve been coming here since law school. Will used to tend bar to help pay for tuition. Then he decided he preferred this kind of bar to the legal kind. He wound up buying this place, what, two years ago?”
Will nodded as he set down their drinks. “Thinking about expanding the kitchen so we can do more than just bar snacks, too. My husband wants to have fancy sandwiches and some desserts.”
“It’s a great place. And you make a fantastic martini,” Sydney said.
“Thanks. Let me know if you get hungry. I’ve got some of that pickled asparagus you like, Mads.”
“Just send it out now. Maybe in a vat,” Madison said. “You know I can’t resist that stuff.”
After Will left, she turned back to Sydney. “It’s started. The Turning.”
“It has. Thanks for passing on your impression of Laurent, by the way. You’re right—he’s a good guy, if a bit naive about the world he lives in.” Rather than following Shara’s directive and going to Verenice for assistance, Sydney had done her own research into members of the Unseen World who might help her make her way through it. Madison had been a Prospero, and had left over the existence of Shadows, both of which factors made her perfect. The fact that Sydney had grown to genuinely like her had been an unexpected bonus.
“No problem.” Madison smiled her thanks as Will slid a platter with pickled asparagus and a variety of other small snacks over to them. “You should try the stuffed peppers, by the way. I didn’t know Laurent well growing up—he showed up just before I left—but he always struck me as one of the good ones. How’s working together?”
Sydney sipped her drink. “Fine so far. He’s good at strategy, which I appreciate.”
“You do love a plan.”
“The more the merrier.” She had a number of them. “We were the opening challenge.”
“I heard. House lawyers don’t count as ‘exposure to the mundane world’ for purposes of gossip, and you and your magic are good gossip right now. Did you really make them all dance? Please tell me it was something like the zombie dance from ‘Thriller.’?” Madison raised her glass in a mock toast.
Sydney laughed. “Sadly, it was a waltz, as a zombie dance didn’t occur to me when I was planning the spell. I wish it had. Any other good gossip?”
“Prospero hiring Ian is the other big one. No one can quite believe that he gave up his place in House Merlin, and everyone’s waiting for Miles’ head to explode over Ian working for Prospero rather than trying to establish a House of his own.”
“Does anyone have any ideas about what’s actually going on there?” Sydney asked.
“I haven’t heard anything that’s worth taking seriously,” Madison said. “Most of it’s conspiracy theory stuff, about how this is just Merlin outsmarting everyone and making a move to gain control of Prospero. Which, no. If she thought for a second Ian wasn’t loyal, Miranda would eviscerate him. With a spoon.
“Why—do you know anything?”
“Maybe. Ian’s not using the magic from Shadows, and I’d put money on that being the reason he’s left his House.”
“Just for that?” Madison held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sitting here with you because I fucking hate that system and won’t be part of it. But we all do have a choice.”
“Except that House Merlin founded Shadows back in the day and created the spell that makes the transfer of consequences possible. So I imagine Ian’s choice was a bit less of one.”
Madison nodded her head slowly. “That’s right. And I’ve heard that Merlin still handles their obligation in blood. One of the few older Houses to do so.”
“Obligation?” Sydney said.
Madison looked at her empty glass like she could will it to refill. “It’s what the official term for the sacrifices is. Blood obligation means they keep it in the family, rather than procuring an infant by other means.”
“Don’t look so uncomfortable. I honestly don’t give a fuck what they call it to make themselves feel better, or less culpable. There is no name that makes any of this worse than it is. But I do wonder if Ian knows who his House sent, and that’s why he has a conscience about it. Although even that doesn’t explain the alliance with Miranda, of all people.”
“There were rumors that it was his mom, actually. That something happened when Lara Merlin was born, something bad, and so instead of giving the baby up, Miles paid his debt with his wife,” Madison said.
“I would have been too young to notice someone like that being brought in, but that might explain it. Especially if Ian was old enough to remember her but not to understand.”
“Right. So, changing the subject to something less utterly horrific, gossip also says the two of you left the opening challenge together, quick, fast, and in a hurry.” Madison wriggled her eyebrows. “Are there good details? Please tell me if there are good details.”
Sydney smiled over the rim of her glass.
“There are good details, and you’re just not going to tell me. Got it. Anything else?” Madison ate the last piece of pickled asparagus. “I should just buy stock in this stuff.”
“See if you can find out if there’s anything I should know about Verenice Tenebrae.” Sydney wanted to trust her, but she also didn’t want any nasty surprises. Lawyers always knew where to find the nasty surprises.
“Did you meet her?” Madison asked. “She’s like something out of a myth, escaping Shadows.”
Sydney looked at her over the rim of her glass.
“Okay, fair enough. I guess you are too. But what is she like?”
“Strong. Maybe even mythic. But check her out for me anyway.” Sydney tucked money under her coaster and got up. “Breakfast next week?”
“I’ll let you know if I can’t. And, Sydney, take care.”
? ? ?
In the early part of the Turning, things progressed in about the fashion Sydney had expected: Houses fought challenges meant to settle thirteen years’ worth of grudges, of slights over dinner and bad breakups. Informal alliances of Houses—both candidate and established—formed and broke apart and re-formed as the first hints of where power might shift to when the Turning was ended appeared. The Unseen World was full of secret meetings, shadowed negotiations, veiled threats, and contingent promises. It was an exercise in intrigue as blood sport, with remarkably little actual blood.