She waved aside the hands attempting to clasp her own.
“Can you please be sensible?”
“I am not sure,” he admitted candidly. “I never have before. But for you, I will try.”
From the twinkle in his eye, she was not sure if either of those things was true.
“You know,” he went on. “It might not need to be anything as great as the key to the whole contract. Any new information on what magics the Turnbulls have been using, or how their ritual is worked, could be weapon enough for the City.”
“And if I found that, what kind of reward would there be?”
“I would have to ask. But if you delivered something that helped the City break the Turnbull contract, the reward wouldbe… breathtaking. Enough to cancel your debt entirely, I am sure. Perhaps even enough to get you what you want, O dawnflower of the river marches.”
“What I want?”
“To leave the Night City, of course.” Robin watched Emma stiffen. “Come, lady fox, what else would you want? We all long to return to where we belong, when we are far from it.” He seemed sincere, for once.
“And the Night City would let me go?”
“The Night City would hand over your freedom on a jeweled platter, if you can deliver what you’ve said. Especially now. It needs a good show of power. With things as they are—You’ve heard the whispers?”
“That something’s—not right, with the Night City. That it’s losing its grip. And people here are on edge.”
“They are. Things have been off, since just before the flood. Something was thinning the veil between mortal and magic. I don’t know what, but I do know something’s shaken the City. Enough that it would gladly take a victory wherever it can, especially over an old grudge. And reward richly for it.”
“I will find you the Turnbulls’ secrets. And you will get me home.”
He held out a hand. “Our new bargain. You would need to keep this secret, though. No blabbing to your sisters.”
“Understood.” Emma did not move yet. “And no frog legs this time?”
“No, indeed.”
Emma fought a grin. It was almost fun, dueling wits. She took his hand. “Then I accept this bargain.”
“Very well, O pearl among raindrops. See what you can find. Tell no one. And know that I await your discoveries most breathlessly.” He smiled, bright and sudden, like sunlight through leaves.
“Emma!”
The spiral staircase shook with the pounding of heavy boots. Saskia hauled into view, panting. “You have to come.”
“But my books—I haven’t tidied—”
Saskia’s hand closed around her arm. “We have to leave. Now.”
Emma flung a glance back to the stepladder. The messenger was gone, as she’d expected he would be. But her books had been stacked neatly on its rungs. So Emma let Saskia drag her away, trying as hard as she could not to stumble over the borrowed boots. Reading rooms flashed by, and still Saskia did not slow.
“Nancy sent a message. We have to get back,” she said, as though through frozen lips. “It’s the House of Foxes.”
“What about it?”
Saskia set her jaw. “There’s been an attack.”
CHAPTER 25
There was an awful stillness in the House of Foxes, like the moment before a scream. The fox maidens huddled in the hall. They barely glanced up as Emma and Saskia slipped in. After several minutes of tense waiting, the front door swung open again. Nancy went rigid, and one of the fox maidens let out a choked cry. Two male shapes in green uniforms carried in something on a litter. Something twitching and bloody. They deposited it on the floor, none too gently. A snarl rumbled around the room.
“You’ve done enough. Leave now.” The Librarian’s sister stood outlined in the doorway. The look on her face would have frozen mercury. The two carriers ducked past her. She slammed the front door after them.
