“So can we trust him?”
“He’ll kill Vitoria on the spot. Based on those guides, it’s been beaten into the hunters practically since birth. They know how to take down the monsters. They have a little extra strength and speed, heightened senses for it. But page after page, their true task was always hunting the Phoenix.”
“But... wasn’t the Phoenix revered before the last Burning? She never used to be hunted.”
He lifted a shoulder. “All the manuals postdate the last Burning, obviously. Nothing survived. They made a hard right turn toward genocide five hundred years ago if that’s the case.”
“Any idea about why it’s been so long between the Burnings this time?” I asked casually, hoping he actually had a theory.
“Well, if we assume Vitoria isn’t the Phoenix, maybe they’ve already killed her some time back and just never knew it. Maybe this is all fearmongering.”
“Maybe,” I whispered.
“There was a journal.” Calder’s voice went quiet. “Hidden under a floorboard. Most of it was notes, hunting strategies, that sort of thing. It focused on the Ash. Some of the train routes up by Needlepoint Passage. But there were pages torn out. Recent ones based on the other dates. And in the margin of one page, he’d written something. Small. Like he didn’t mean to leave it there.”
“What did it say?”
“‘Thirty-four years of performing loyalty. How many more until I forget what anything else feels like?’” Calder met my eyes. “Performing loyalty.”
I sank onto the bed, processing that.
“Sounds like he planted that to be found.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Hunters are cocky. He wouldn’t think anyone would have the balls to enter his room. Plus, it was hidden. A standard search wouldn’t ever come up with that.”
“Doesn’t mean we can trust him.” I wanted that to be the end of it. Wickett Veyne, son of the Magistrate, enemy and threat. Neat. Simple. Safe. But thirty-four years of performing loyalty kept echoing in my head, and I hated that it made me wonder if the person I should fear most might be the one person who actually understood what it meant to hide who you really were.
“No. But it means he might not be the enemy we thought.” Calder tossed the apple core into the waste bin. “Now tell me what you found tonight.”
I pulled out the copied registry information, spreading it on the desk. “Two addresses. Known associates of Vitoria’s parents. If anyone knows where she might have gone, it could be them. Or they might know something about her we don’t.”
Calder studied the addresses, his expression darkening. “The Ruby District and the Tangles?”
“Strange, I know.”
“We can’t take the team,” he said.
“I know that too.” I rubbed my face, exhaustion making everything feel harder. “But we also can’t just disappear without them noticing. They’re not going to let us go out alone, not after what happened with Crimson. Not with twenty-six days left on the oath.”
“Then we need them occupied.” Calder leaned back, thinking. “Busy work that feels important enough they won’t question why we’re not with them.”
“And how exactly do we do that?”
“I have an idea.” His mouth curved slightly. “But it’s going to require patience.”
“Patience for what?”
His devilish grin widened. “You’ll see.”
Chapter 27
Syneca
When the Furies’ names are spoken and thunder answers, someone has committed an offense they believe to be righteous. Stay out of their path.
Three days.
Three precious, agonizing days had crawled past like dying animals, and we were all losing our minds with stir-craziness. I hadn’t done an ounce of paperwork in that time. The sprites had started storing the stacks in piles down the hall. Pip casually shifted it around from time to time so it looked like something was happening, but mostly I’d been ignoring it. I’d have never done that two weeks ago.
