Spy Glass

2

I GAPED AT VALEK. HE STOOD ON OUR FRONT STEP within killing distance.

“Opal.” My mother’s voice cut through my panic. “Don’t stand there like a simpleton. Invite your guest in.”

I stuttered a few words and backed up with numb legs. His smile widened as my mother approached. The need to warn her lodged under my ribs. My body’s functions had disconnected, scattering my thoughts.

“You must be Opal’s mother,” Valek said. He shook her hand. “Your cooking skills are legendary, Mrs. Cowan. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Commander invites you to cook for him in Ixia.”

The wrinkles on her face disappeared as she blushed, erasing years of worry and stress. “Please, call me Vyncenza, Mr…?”

“Valek.” His name erupted from my mouth. “What are you doing here?”

“Opal, don’t be rude.”

“Mother, this is Valek.” I gestured. “The Commander’s—”

“Security Chief,” he said. “And this is one of our finest vintages of Ixian Ice Wine.” He presented the bottle to my mother.

“Thank you. This is my husband, Jaymes.”

My father shook his hand. Ahir woke and jumped to his feet. He grinned at Valek in awe as he pumped his arm. The whole surreal scene swirled in front of my eyes like snowflakes.

“But, Mother. Valek is—”

“Practically family. Come in. Come in. You must be hungry. Jaymes, open that cognac your brother sent us. Ahir, fetch our good glasses.” She escorted Valek to the couch and hustled off to the kitchen as Ahir and my father hurried to complete their tasks.

Valek caught me staring. He smiled. “Relax, Opal. I’m not here on official duty.”

My heart resumed beating. “Then why are you here?”

“Since I’m practically family, I thought I should meet your parents.”

A stretch of truth only my mother could believe. Valek was Yelena’s heart mate, and Yelena was Leif’s sister; ergo, once Leif married Mara, Leif’s family, including Valek, would be part of ours. “What’s the real reason?” I asked.

“Later,” he said as my mother burst into the room carrying a tray loaded with food.

My father poured drinks and everyone settled in for a cozy chat. I listened to the small talk in amazement. Valek’s infamous reputation didn’t seem to bother anyone but me. And I should know better. Why would the Commander order my assassination when it was well-known my glass magic was gone? Unless he knew about my immunity? Only one other person in the world could make the same claim. And he sat next to me, sipping my uncle’s cognac.

But Yelena had promised not to tell anyone about my protection. Besides Kade, Zitora and Leif, no one else knew. Not my parents or siblings or friends. Not Valek. I trusted Yelena. Then why was he here? No idea. I would have to wait.

An eternity later, my mother finally stopped offering Valek our guest room when he promised to return the next day to tour the factory. I escorted him outside and down the lane to the gate.

“Spill,” I ordered.

Amusement flashed in his blue eyes as a smile quirked, softening the sharp features of his face. His pale skin almost glowed in the moonlight, an obvious contrast to the mostly darker-skinned Sitians, including me. Wearing a nondescript short gray cloak and black pants, he didn’t quite blend in, but he didn’t stand out, either. I gathered from his lack of disguise he wasn’t working undercover.

Valek scanned the empty street before he answered. “Yelena sent me to help you.”

“Help me with what?”

“No idea. All she said was you needed help. Are you on a mission for the Council?”

I laughed. “No. Unless you consider wedding planning an act of espionage.”

“Hmm… My napkin folding skills are renowned. I can make a swan in seconds.”

“Don’t tell my mother or you’ll be folding napkins for days.”

“Days?” Valek’s left eyebrow rose.

“The guest list is up to five hundred names with more being added hourly.”

“Sounds like quite the party. However it’s not the reason Yelena sent me.”

I suspected why, but wanted to make sure. “What were her exact words?”

“She said, ‘Opal needs your help.’”

“That’s it?”

He nodded.

“You’ve traveled all this way without asking her for more details?”

“Of course.” His tone implied I lacked intelligence for asking such a question.

So sweet. He had absolute faith in his heart mate.

When the silence lengthened, he asked, “Does this have anything to do with losing your magic?”

I suppressed my immediate annoyance over the word “losing.” Why did everyone insist on using that word? Losing something implied a potential to find it again. Same with “lost.” So sorry you lost your magic, Opal. As if all I needed to do was search for it. No. It was gone. Never to return. Unless I used blood magic and that I wouldn’t do. Besides being illegal, it was far better to be without power than be addicted to it. Than to kill for it.

“Opal?”

Valek’s voice snapped me back to the problem at hand. Yelena sent him for a reason. She hadn’t shared my secret with him, but she thought I should. “I need some time. Can we talk tomorrow?”

“Of course.” He bade me a good-night and disappeared into the shadows.

My night was far from restful. The decision to inform the Sitian Council about my immunity to magic flipped from yes to no and back again. My past dealings with the Council were rocky at best. Magicians who graduated from the Keep usually worked for the Council, but I had broken that tradition by going out on my own. This wouldn’t have been too big a problem, except I took my glass messengers with me.

The glass messengers that allowed magicians to communicate with each other over great distances in an instant. The glass messengers I no longer had the power to create, rendering a whole network of relay stations obsolete.

My new immunity could benefit the Council if they trusted me and if I trusted them. Big if. My tendency to keep certain abilities to myself had caused major trouble, resulting in the retirement of Master Magician Zitora Cowan, which left the Council with only two Master Magicians and the eleven elected members. One for each clan in Sitia.

The best course of action would be to stay far away from the Council. But what would I do? No glass magic and no desire to craft vases, bowls and tumblers. Planning Mara and Leif’s wedding for the next two and a half seasons would be torture. And I would know, having had personal experience with torture.

I had to face it. I couldn’t make this decision alone. Yelena had already figured it out, but why didn’t she come to help me? She was the liaison between Ixia and Sitia—a neutral third party and my friend. Instead, she sent Valek. The most dangerous man in the world.

A strange notion popped into my head. Was I the most dangerous woman in the world? I laughed. My few past attempts at stealth had mixed results—almost caught and almost killed. Not an impressive track record.

By morning, no sudden insight had flashed. Guess I would rely on my instincts. A truly terrifying prospect.

Valek arrived on time and was the perfect gentleman as my father showed him the factory and his laboratory. The half-completed experiments in the lab fascinated Valek. He asked many questions, and, by the end of the tour, Father helped Valek gather a slug of molten glass to play with. Wielding the metal tweezers in competent fingers, Valek shaped the slug into a lifelike daisy. I had forgotten Valek’s sculpting skills with rocks.

Blue eyes lit with enthusiasm, he said, “Opal, you never told me how extraordinary glass is.”

The few times we had interacted had been during crisis situations. No need to reminisce. Especially not with my parents nearby.

After my mother rushed off to prepare dinner and Father returned to puttering in his lab, Valek and I took a walk, heading in no particular direction.

“Have you thought about why Yelena sent me?” he asked.

“All night.”

“That would explain the dark circles under your eyes.”

Trust Valek to notice.

He paused. “But not why you look so…tired. Are you still having nightmares about them?”

Them, as in the seven glass prisons. Despite trapping those evil souls inside glass, their voices had haunted my dreams. The closer I had traveled to one, the louder the voice and the stronger the influence over me became. Valek had hidden them, telling no one their locations, but I could find them. Well, not anymore.

“No. Without magic my connection to them is gone,” I said.

“Then why so tired?” He kept his expression neutral.

“The incident in Hubal drained me. I’m still recovering.” The truth.

“I see.” He continued walking with a smooth stride. “I’ve read the reports about Hubal. Nasty business.”

“The records are supposed to be sealed. How did—”

“Because of Janco’s unfortunate and illegal involvement, I had full access to them.” Annoyance colored his tone.

Janco was one of Valek’s second-in-commands. “He shouldn’t get into trouble. I asked for his help. It’s not—”

“His fault?”

I nodded.

“Asking for help isn’t the problem. It never is. Janco should have brought your message to my attention, and we should have decided on the best course of action. Instead, he left without permission and without telling us where he went. Plus he made an illegal border crossing.”

“But…”

Valek waited.

“I hope you didn’t demote him.”

“What happened to him in Hubal was punishment enough. That blood magic is extremely potent. Yelena explained how it works, but I don’t fully understand why Ulrick and Tricky needed your blood.”

I glanced at him. Was he pretending to be confused? No way to tell. The man had the best poker face in the world.

“When I had my glass magic, if a magician attacked me, I could transform his magic into glass. Even if he didn’t attack, I could siphon…steal all his powers if I so desired. But Tricky discovered that I couldn’t drain him because he used my blood to increase his powers.”

“So your blood protected them from your siphoning magic?”

“Yes. At first, but when Zitora was dying and I was desperate, I realized my blood tattooed in their skin connected us. To draw off all their powers, I had to drain my own, as well.” I rubbed the scars on my arms. Not completely healed, the vertical ridges pulsed with an angry reddish-purple color, and resembled rungs on a ladder that climbed up the inside of my arms. A souvenir from Hubal.

“How much blood did they take from you?”

An odd question. And Mr. Stone Face only showed polite interest. “I don’t know. I lost track of the days. But I know they came every day with a suction device. Most of the time, I passed out before they were done.”

“According to Janco’s report, they held you for six days.” Valek’s comment seemed for his benefit instead of mine.

We walked for a while in silence. “At least one good thing came from your sacrifice. No more nightmares. And since you can no longer hear the souls in the glass prisons, it would be prudent for me to collect them, and rehide them so you won’t be in danger any longer.”

Surprised, I said, “You’d do that? Just for me?”

“Of course, you’re practically family.” He smiled. “Besides, my decision to spread them all over Sitia and Ixia was poor. With them together, I can monitor the prisons better.”

I gasped in mock horror. “You? Make a bad decision?”

He laughed. “All the time. Why do you think I’m so adept at escaping sticky situations? It’s because I constantly find myself in them.”

He was adept at so much more. I envied his skill and confidence. “The best decision you’ve made is hiding Gede’s prison in the snow cats’ den. No one is brave or stupid enough to go in there.”

Valek snorted with amusement. “So which one am I? Brave or stupid?”

“I didn’t mean—”

“No worries, Opal. Actually it was easy to place that one in the den. I left a fresh-killed steer a half mile upwind and waited for the cats to leave.” He crossed his arms and tapped a finger. “I’ll need a better location for all seven prisons.”

I tried to imagine the perfect hiding spot, but couldn’t think of one. Our aimless route led us into the Avibian Plains, and I scanned the area for Quartz.

“Let’s get back to our original subject,” Valek said. “Why Yelena sent me. Any ideas?”

Logic warned me not to tell him, yet my heart yearned to trust him. “I think Yelena sent you here to help me make a decision.”

“Emerald green.”

“What?”

“You should wear an emerald-green-colored dress for your sister’s wedding.”

“Valek, I’m serious.”

“So am I. With your dark hair and eyes, you would look stunning in that color.”

We had traveled far enough into the plains to trigger the Sandseeds’ magical protection.

Valek studied me as the power swelled then died. I hadn’t decided what I should tell him, but it seemed my unconscious mind chose for me.

He waited. When the magic didn’t cause me to panic and insist we were lost, he asked, “Are you related to the Sandseed Clan?”

“Not yet.” Once Mara married Leif, a distant cousin to the Sandseeds, I would be connected to them if they considered marriage a legitimate relationship. Or perhaps not. In that case and with enough time, everyone in Sitia would be allowed to roam the plains at will. “I don’t think so.”

He chased the logic. “Do you have special permission to travel the plains?”

“Without Quartz, no.”

“I see.” His gaze turned inward. “Does the Sitian Council know?”

“Nope.”

Understanding flashed on his face. “Ah…the reason for Yelena’s request. Who else knows?”

“Zitora, Leif and Kade.”

“My advice, don’t tell the Council about your immunity. Instead, come work for me.”