Annia laughed. “Yeah, but he spends all his time catering to mages. Clearly their attitude has rubbed off on him.”
“I guess so,” I said as I continued to look through the rack. My fingers stopped at a set of dark violet robes with lace edging the collar and cuffs, and I grinned as I pulled it out. “Surely I can get away with this though, right?”
Annia snorted as she gave the robes a once-over. They had silver buttons that traveled from just above the navel to the high collar that would brush the underside of Iannis’s chin. A ridiculous amount of lace frothed from the collar, covering the topmost buttons, and although there was less of the stuff at the cuffs, I knew it would look similarly ridiculous. The paisley pattern that was subtly woven into the fabric was a nice touch too.
“If the Chief Mage looked about a thousand years older, these would be perfect for him,” Annia said.
“I’m not so sure about that,” I muttered. Based on what Iannis had told me this morning, he would look exactly the same a thousand years from now. Shaking my head, I put the garment back. We’d already spent half the morning shopping for ourselves – it was time to wrap this up and get back to the Capitol Building so I could start gathering information.
“Why so serious?” Annia asked twenty minutes later as we walked out of the tailor’s shop. Aside from the new red and silver robes I was wearing, I left empty-handed – the tailor promised to have the robes and my new ball gown delivered to the hotel room by mid-afternoon. “You looked pretty sour-faced when I met up with you at the café this morning, too.”
“It’s just that there’s a lot going on.” We stopped at the curb so we could hail a cab. I lowered my voice so that passersby wouldn’t hear, and explained to Annia about the bad news the Finance Secretary had delivered this morning.
“Well shit,” Annia said as a hansom cab pulled up. The driver, who sat behind the cab rather than in front of it, waved us forward, and we climbed into the cab and settled in for the ride. “Do you think the Resistance has actually managed to brainwash one or more of the delegates onto their side?”
“The Federation Capitol Building,” I called to the driver, then turned my attention back to Annia as he cracked his whip, urging the horses forward. “They converted Argon Chartis, didn’t they?”
“Well, yeah, but he’d already fallen from grace, so to speak, and was hungry for revenge. These guys are all either Chief Mages or have powerful positions in the Mages Guild. What could the Resistance offer them that they’d be willing to trade their cushy positions for?”
“More power?” I shrugged. “Perhaps they’ve managed to convince some disgruntled mage that the Resistance has the upper hand and is going to win. Otherwise, I don’t see why any mage would throw in their lot with them.”
“Yeah, well with the way things have been going lately, that might not be far off from the truth,” Annia said darkly as we rolled up the hill toward the Capitol Building. “I mean, you’ve already uncovered two separate conspiracies, Naya, and that’s in Canalo alone. How many other dangerous pots are the Resistance stirring across the rest of the Federation?”
“It all seems to come back to the Benefactor,” I mused, drumming my fingers against my thigh. “He’s the one stirring all these pots, and if we can catch him and take his spoons away, we might be able to stop this.”
“Yeah, well good luck with that,” Annia said as the cab rolled to a stop in front of the Capitol Building. “I have a feeling that with this bunch, finding the Benefactor is going to be like digging for a piece of dirt in a mound of soil.”
“You’re probably right.” I shook my head, then leaned in and hugged her. “Say hi to Fenris for me, will you?”
“Will do. Try to make it back home in one piece.” Annia winked at me, and I winked back before I turned around and let the driver hand me down from the cab.