“I know him,” said Caryl. “A regular through LA5. There was nothing on his latest entry form about a mission for the Queen. You are certain the Queen said Claybriar?”
Fuck, I thought. Out loud, apparently, to judge by the way every head swiveled around to look at me. Claybriar. Brian Clay. He was fey, he was fey, he was fey. What the double hell.
The duke turned his masked silver eyes on me. “Wherefore doth the lady ejaculate?” Teo attempted to stifle a sudden coughing fit.
“It’s Brian Clay,” I said to Caryl.
“That is Claybriar’s registered alias. What of it?”
“Brian Clay is the fake cop I’ve been talking about.”
She stared at me a moment. “If you had told me the man’s name,” she said crisply, “it would have saved me a great deal of confusion.”
The duke made an irritated sound. “Speak please to me.”
I turned to him. “Tjuan and I, uh . . . Viscount Miller and I ran into this ‘agent’ in another part of town,” I said.
“Provide more detail,” demanded the fey.
This was an awkward position for me for a number of reasons. “I . . . I defer to Viscount Miller.”
Tjuan studied me for a moment, his expression shifting subtly; then he turned to the duke. “This was a couple of days ago,” he said. “He was looking for Viscount Rivenholt. He said something about a missing woman.”
The duke sniffed. “I see.”
Caryl spoke up gently. “Claybriar is one of the few commoners who visits here regularly. He has never posed as a police officer before, however. May we ask the exact nature of his mission?”
“You may not,” said the duke. “In this matter, the Queen and I alone are authorized.” He gave “authorized” the same tone a new bride uses with the word “husband,” half-sincere and half as though it were all a crazy joke.
“Forgive me, Your Grace,” I said, “but don’t you think it would be easier for us to find Claybriar if we know his purpose here?”
“Mayhap,” said the duke, his silver eyes giving off such an intense radiance that I saw spots when I looked away. “But of less concern to me is your ease than my imperative to following Her Majesty’s commands.”
“Of course,” said Caryl. “When shall we report back on our progress?”
“Dawn and dusk, until the commoner is returned,” said the duke. “Advised are you to more seriously adhere on this matter than has done the commoner agent.”
Caryl escorted the duke back to the Gate, and everyone avoided looking at the Gaping Maw of Nothingness as he stepped through. Even so, there was a strange shudder in the air, and my stomach turned a flip. I was pleased to see that even Tjuan looked a bit queasy, and Gloria sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands.
Fascinated, I approached the Gate, averting my eyes from the void in the middle and focusing on the dark glassy arch that surrounded it. “Is it safe to touch?”
“It will do you no lasting harm,” said Caryl, “but it will make you feel very uncomfortable.”
“Can I try it?”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m just curious. I tend to try anything once if it can’t kill me.”
Teo snorted. “What can?”
I ignored him and reached out to the edge of the Gate, slowly, not quite finding the courage to make contact.
“So how should we go about finding this commoner?” said Gloria, still sitting on the living room carpet at Tjuan’s feet.
“He has a name,” growled Tjuan.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” said Gloria, and patted his shin. How he managed not to kick her across the living room, I can’t imagine.
“I’ll try calling Clay again when I—AUGH!” I didn’t mean to scream when I touched it. But try not screaming when someone cuts your elevator cable. That’s what it felt like: a horrible rickety noisy rushing and falling that left no room in my brain for anything but aaaaaaaaugh.
Even Tjuan laughed this time. I guess it was pretty funny, in the way it’s funny when a cat gets a luggage tag stuck to its tail and runs around the house like the devil is chasing it. In other words, funny to everyone but the cat.
I staggered back from the Gate and wondered why my ribs suddenly hurt. Oh, because Teo had slung his arm around them to keep me from toppling to the floor. Everything sounded muffled, and people looked like those old-fashioned sepia-toned photos with the edges darkened out. It passed quickly, and when my head cleared I was seated semi-comfortably on the floor. People were still laughing, except for Caryl, of course.
“Poor thing,” said Gloria. “Someone really shoulda warned her not to do that.”
“Nah,” said Tjuan, wiping his eyes. He looked like he had really needed that laugh. “That’s how it’s done. You do it when we’re all just messing around, so you know not to do it when you’re trying to push some wriggly-ass goblin through.”
There must have been a story to go with that, because Teo made a taunting oooooh sound, and Gloria reddened. Another point for Tjuan, because Gloria was quiet after that.