Victor paused in front of the door to the office of the Minister of Sorcery. A smirk spread across his lips. “I know I’m not up half the night, snooping through Tower storerooms and stealing Mother-knows-what.”
Vi kept a sneer at bay, barely. She was too tired to deal with this petulant child. Vi took a step forward but Victor straightened. Even though she was higher on the slope of the hall, they were still eye to eye.
“Don’t question what I do,” Vi cautioned, “for it is far beyond the realm of what your mortal mind can comprehend.”
“Mortal mind? Just who do you think you are?”
“I am the one who has seen the end, and will see the beginning of your destiny,” she said ominously. It took everything in her not to have him flat on the ground, threatening him within an inch of his life. Only Taavin’s abundance of caution, and Vi’s fragile self-control, held her back. “Now get out of my sight.”
“With pleasure.” Victor didn’t back down, right until the end. He took three steps backward and turned.
Vi watched him leave, firing curses at his back. Somehow, he knew she’d been in the storeroom. That made it only a matter of time until Victor found Adela’s room. He was smart enough to piece it together, and all the pieces were secreted there.
The only thing that kept her from chasing after him was the knowledge that she had taken the key book on Oparium that contained Adela’s maps. Additionally, the journals were useless without the library books also in Vi’s possession. Trusting she was one step ahead, Vi knocked on the door to the minister’s office.
“Enter,” he said sharply. Vi did as he bid and found Egmun pacing the room. He stopped, spinning to face her, the moment the door closed. “I need to see it.”
“You’d do well to not make demands of me in such a tone. I’m not one of your lapdogs.” Vi was too tired to play along. He seemed genuinely taken aback.
“And you’d do well not to not risk this shaky alliance we’ve formed. You need the prince, after all.”
She didn’t. Taavin did. But Vi was dutifully following his instructions still. Here she was, keeping the world on the rails, while Victor could be off hunting for the crown. Her lead on him slipped with every moment she wasted on Egmun.
“Bickering will get us nowhere.” Vi pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “What have I done to earn such mistrust?”
“Nothing, and that’s much the problem. I have given you everything these past weeks. I’ve given you food, shelter, access to the prince, even the ability to rummage through my Tower without an escort.” Victor had run right to Egmun after tracking her last night. “And you’ve given me no indication other than your word that you have the sword at all.”
Vi narrowed her eyes, though her displeasure was mostly directed inward. She’d been too focused on her movements and hadn’t been accounting for the desires of others. The first night she’d seen Aldrik in the library, researching the North, came back to her.
“The Emperor is taking an interest in the Crystal Caverns, isn’t he?” she said softly, so as not to speak over the pieces clicking together in her mind. Egmun’s startled eyes said all she needed to know. The Emperor was interested in the Crystal Caverns because he wanted to go to war with the North and was looking for a secret weapon to bring with him. “You want to get there before he does.”
Egmun was silent for a long moment. Then, “Yes.”
“I’ll show you the sword.”
“You will?”
“Yes, but you must stay here and do not track me to its hiding place. I will know if you do.”
“You really have it?” His voice was hurried and thin, as if he was afraid the truth was something that could break if he spoke too loudly.
“I always have.”
Vi shut the door to the office firmly behind her and began down the halls. The spark had lit an inferno in her stomach, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in some time. She wouldn’t be surprised if steam was coming out of her ears.
She wanted to give chase down the hall and find Victor. She wanted to demand he tell her what he had seen of her movements, what books he had read, how close behind her he was. But that pursuit would have been futile.
Victor was a mortal, chained to fate, destined to heed the whims of two heartless gods. She couldn’t concern herself with him any more than she concerned herself with the rats that ran through the sewers underneath her feet.
The walk to the stables did little to calm her. When Vi arrived, she could feel the sparks crackling around her knuckles. She scanned the mostly empty stalls, looking for a woman she recognized.
“You look like you’re ready to murder someone,” Deneya said, emerging and wiping her hands on a rag that she returned to a belt loop. “Don’t think I’ve seen you like this since Norin. Welcome back.”
“I need the sword you’ve been working on.”
“It’s not ready.”
“It’s going to have to be.”
