“The tuxedo is for your man, actually, in case they can’t get the stain out of his tunic,” she said blithely, wandering over to fuss with the small bouquet of flowers I would be carrying.
“Stain?” I asked, aghast. “What sort of stain? Alcohol? Dirt?”
“It’s nothing, really. I gather dragonweave, that material the men’s tunics are made of, is just a bit hard to clean when it comes to blood, that’s all. The tux is really just a worst-case scenario, so don’t worry at all. I’m sure they’ll get the tunic cleaned in time. And that handsome Gabriel had already fixed the broken noses.”
I closed my eyes for a moment or two, wondering if I should throw tradition to the wind and go check on Rowan. I hadn’t seen him since the night before, when he had kissed me and taken himself off to the stag party. “I knew they shouldn’t have let those other wyverns plan it. Clearly it got out of hand.”
“I gather,” Mrs. P said, pulling one of the carnations out of my bouquet and tucking it into her chignon, “that there were some words about the past, and the relative merits of a larger sept versus one of the newer, smaller ones, and things got a bit heated. But I’m sure it’s all better now, and you can hardly see Rowan’s black eyes. And that Constantine fellow’s sling is actually made of the same material as his tunic, so you barely notice it.” She paused in thought. “Although Kostya’s missing front tooth is a bit noticeable. Still, if you don’t look right at his mouth, it’s fine.”
“Oh goddess,” I said, dropping my forehead to my hands. “What an auspicious start.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, moving over to pat me on the shoulder. “It’ll all be lovely. The priestesses are thrilled to death to be here—that was very nice of you to invite us all.”
“Well, I’m very glad you’re here. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you at all since you and your Bo left Duat. You look radiant.”
“I am,” she said simply, and helped herself to the bottle of champagne that sat untouched before me.
“Would you mind answering a question?” I asked, relieved that I finally had a chance to learn the answer to a question that no one seemed to be able to answer.
“Not if it has anything to do with my time as hoochie-coo dancer. I’m saving all that for my memoirs, which Bo is going to help me write. He’s literary, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know, but I don’t see any reason why a guard to the lord of the Underworld shouldn’t be literary. My question goes back to that last day of the cruise.”
“Mmm, I do love champagne,” she said, sipping a second glass. “What about that day?”
“You said something about you were told to swap your Ka with Bael’s when you took the ring. Rowan and I tried to figure out what you meant by that, but we could never find a satisfactory answer.”
She gave a delicate shrug. “It means just what it says—I was told to swap my Ka.”
“Yes, but by whom? And how did you know where the Ka would be? I mean, most of us take it with us, or so I gather.”
“You are not allowing for the fact that Bael is a demon lord—he would not keep anything of value or power upon him lest his enemies gain hold of it and use it against him. His Ka, as was the ring, was kept in a strongbox.”
“Right,” I said slowly, giving her a long, hard look. “And how did you know that?”
“I was told, as I said.” She helped herself to a petit four, a silver pen that was intended to be used to sign the register, and my lipstick, tucking the last two items away into her small clutch. “Mmm, lemon.”
“Who told you?” I repeated, ignoring the petty theft.
She sighed and gave me a long-suffering look that she had no right to use upon me, not after all I had to put up with. “The First Dragon, of course. I’ve known him for, oh, ever such a long time, and when I told him that I was tired of the mortal world without Bo, he said he would help me since it would aid his descendants as well. So he sent me to Bael’s stronghold to fetch the Ka and the ring, and then he approached you, since he knew I’d need a dragon, and you were just drifting, and the rest you know.”
My jaw sagged a bit. “He approached me? Jian’s cousin! The one whose name I can’t remember! That was the First Dragon?”
“So I gather.” She rose and leaned in to check herself in the mirror.
“I can’t wait to tell Rowan. That and the reason he summoned Constantine to be there at the last challenge were driving us nuts. Until Rowan finally broke down and asked Constantine, but he, being a typical dragon, wouldn’t give us a straight answer.”
“Oh?” Mrs. P frowned. “Why was he there?”