“It’s pretty recent,” she replies. “We’re supposed to be coming on the ship with you today. Or me and Aster are, anyway. Frannie’s going to mind the shop while we’re gone.” Her tone is absent, and it feels like most of her attention is focused on the rest of the room, peering around like she’s looking for something. “He didn’t leave a note to say where he’s gone?”
“Nothing in here,” the ogress calls from the living room. “Want me to check the shop? See if he left a note down there?”
I startle at the sound of her voice, ignoring Jack’s knowing smirk. Somehow, I forgot anyone else was here at all.
Reva. That’s the woman’s name. I remember Cap speaking to her a few times before over the scrying glass.
“We already checked down in the shop. There was nothing.”
Reva continues on, prowling through the apartment. She crouches by the kitchen table, inspecting the weird gold cylinder again. “This was different yesterday. Unopened.”
The man reaches out and runs his hand over her arm, and she turns to him, eyebrows shooting up. “It feels different how?” she asks him.
He doesn’t say a word in response, but she nods anyway.
“The magic’s gone. The curse, you mean?”
The guy nods, and she lets out a little ‘huh’.
“Are you a telepath?” Jack asks. He’s been remarkably restrained so far, barely speaking even though I can tell he’s fit to burst with questions.
“No.” She swallows, and my eyes catch on the movement of her neck. It’s remarkably delicate-looking for someone with that much hair. Surely it must weigh her down.
“He must have broken the curse on this thing last night.” She hefts the cylinder in her palm. “Whereishe?”
“Well, the window in his bedroom was open,” Jack tells her, causing them all to charge off into the next room.
Jack and I follow more slowly as Reva pulls to a halt in the doorway, sniffing the air with a wrinkled nose.
“What does it smell of? Something rotted. Wrong.”
Interesting. No human nose should have been able to sense that.
The man touches her arm again, and she turns toward him. “Say that again.”
Jack snorts. “As far as I know, he hasn’t said a word since we’ve been here.”
Reva ignores him, her face going pale. My feet carry me forward before I can help it, as though I’m going to catch her if she falls. But the silent guy beside her is there first, his arm around her back.
“Sorcery.”
She drops to her knees so suddenly I think she’s fainted after all. But she’s scrabbling around on the floor, looking under the bed and then the wardrobe.
“Frannie.” Her voice sounds reedy and panicked. “That box from yesterday. We need to find the box.”
Jack shoots me another look, which I answer with a shrug. Here’s hoping something will start to make sense soon.
But this woman claims to be Kit’s mate. And now that I look at her again, I’ve seen her a few times before in passing over the scrying glass.
It also seems like this lot speaks Yarrovian, which is one advantage over the two of us. If we’re going to find out if anyone knows where Kit has got to, we’re going to need to ask around.
The three of them set to searching every inch of the bedroom, pulling out drawers and checking behind the panel in the bathroom next door.
“It’s not here. Why isn’t it here?”
“Maybe Kit took it somewhere for safekeeping, and he’s on his way back now.”
“I can’t...” Reva shakes her head, cutting herself off. “He wouldn’t. That box was cursed. Why would he take it away? He knows how important it is and that I’d want to take it with me onto the ship.”
