I couldn’t deny I’d been speaking about him obviously, so I just stared at him, dumbly, when he offered an arm. Unlike with Graham Strangemore, I took Forsooth’s offered elbow a beat of my heart later.
“You don’t mind if we walk, do you?” he asked politely, motioning in the direction of the fountain. “I find I think much better if I remain in motion.”
I nodded, gave Graham a brief glance, then fell in step beside Forsooth. I was relieved when Strangemore made no attempt to follow us. I glanced back over my shoulder at him and saw him scowling at Forsooth’s back, half in disbelief. From his expression, Forsooth might have asked me for a date, right in front of him.
Oh, gods. I hoped Forsooth hadn’t been––
“You don’t mind, do you, Ms. Shadow?” Forsooth asked, a faint humor in his voice. “And no need to come up with afictitious ‘reason’ why you needed to speak with me. I could tell you were looking for a plausible exit from Mr. Strangemore’s attentions.”
I flushed a bit hotter.
“Thanks for the rescue,” I mumbled.
“Well, it’s not entirely that,” Forsooth confessed. “Unlike you, Ihadactually wished to speak with you. So it was perhaps less chivalry than opportunism.”
I felt myself tense slightly, but I didn’t speak. I glanced at the bear walking alongside us, its gold, tufted ears perked forward as it looked up at me, its brown eyes curious.
“…are you free most Tuesday evenings, Ms. Shadow?” Forsooth was asking, before I realized I’d lost the trail of his speech.
I looked away from the bear and up at the bear’s mage.
“Tuesdays? Tuesday next, you mean?” I asked.
“Yes. Well. Possibly,” he amended, a beat later. “We do not have what I would call a regular schedule.” Forsooth continued to stride over the conjured stone slabs in the direction of the fountain, his back straight, his arm held out politely where I gripped it, so I wouldn’t be too close. “A group of us meet every few weeks or so, at least when we can manage it. I would like you to join us, if you are able.”
“A group?” I frowned, sure I must have missed something important while I’d been staring at his bear. “Sorry. What kind of group? Do you mean an academic group?”
“Not exactly, no.” He came to a stop before we would have gotten close enough to the Fountain of the Furies to struggle to hear one another.
I slid my arm out from his when he turned to face me. He raised that same arm, and murmured words too quiet for me to hear. Magical light ignited along his fingers and palm down to his forearm.
With a wave of his hand, he tossed the gold and red light outward, and it formed an egg-like shield around the two of us, held together by a thin mesh of beaded strings of light. He’d cast a silencing spell with the shielding spell, and powerful versions of both. It not only cut off the noise from the fountain and party, but seemed to deaden any noise inside our bubble, too. I guessed no one would hear what we said to one another, or even be able to read our lips.
It felt a bit like what Bones had done to me in Ancient Rituals.
“Excuse the brief dampening spell,” he said, probably seeing the alarm on my face. “I’d rather not be overheard.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but I only nodded.
“Okay.”
“I would like to offer you a seat among a very small, carefully-selected group of strategists, Ms. Shadow.”
I frowned. Whatever I’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that.
“Strategists?” I asked.
He nodded, eyes solemn. “If you would like additional background, I can offer you texts following your introduction. For now, I’ll just say we have a particular interest in the workings of a different organization, which calls itself ‘Dark Cathedral.’” He paused, one eyebrow cocked. “I believe you have some awareness of them already?”
I stared at him, now struck utterly dumb.
I felt myself pale, my hands grow clammy.
Thinking about the implications of his words, I fought not to panic.
“Yes,” I managed carefully. “Yes, I’ve heard of them.”
I watched him nod, hands clasped at the base of his spine. I fought to remember my aunt’s memories before she’d died. In particular, I struggled to recall every particular of Forsooth’s appearances in her mind. I replayed his stern questioning of herabout whether she had any allegiance to Dark Cathedral in that hearing after my parents’ deaths. Had that all been a ruse? Did he somehow thinkIwas connected to Dark Cathedral, like my aunt had been? Could he really believe that, given what I was?
