Chapter 25
I whipped my head around to find myself face to face with a gentleman bedecked in a black evening suit.
He was about forty, with a black beard and short hair, though graying at the temples.
His eyes were as black as his hair, and there was something very piercing about the way he studied me, almost like he could penetrate my very soul.
He grasped a wine glass in one hand, and a crooked smile lay on his lips.
I whipped my head to and fro. There was no one near me. “Are you, um, talking to me?”
“Who else?” he wondered as he strolled closer, so we stood only a few feet from one another. “You have a look in your eyes that doesn’t match the rest of the crowd.”
I blinked at him. “What kind of look?”
He tipped his glass in the direction of my face. “A look of innocence one doesn’t often find among these cutthroats of business. May I ask from where you hail?”
“I’m, um, well, sort of new to the area,” I told him.
The man chuckled. “You are a terrible liar, My Lady. Your face is as easy to read as the reports of my dives.”
Marc had mentioned the same thing. I really needed to work on not projecting all my thoughts for the world to read.
That would have to happen later, though, as I looked the middle-aged, slightly pudgy man up and down.
Diving and the man in front of me weren’t computing in my brain, and the computations were being printed out on my face.
He grinned in response. “No, miss, I don’t perform the dives myself. That’s what the eagerness of youth is for. I merely give them the means to dive.”
“What do they dive for?” I asked him.
He winked at me. “Anything I please, provided the owner is deceased.”
“Why’s that?”
The man looked askance at me. “You certainly are an innocent.”
Where are you, Marc? I asked myself as I shrank beneath his scrutiny. “Sorry. I just, um, I came from a, well-”
He shook his head. “There’s no need to apologize for your lack of knowledge.
In most people, I would find such naivety intolerable, but in you, my dear, it is refreshing.
As for your question, an owner would certainly demand a portion, or perhaps all, of the treasure.
Besides, recent treasures are hardly worth scavenging for.
The ones in ancient legends, however, are very much worth the effort. ”
The tales of yesteryear piqued my curiosity. “What kind of ancient legends?”
He smiled and tapped the side of his nose. “That would be telling, wouldn’t it?”
“Telling what?”
His eyes darted over the room, and he lowered his voice. “Many of my salvaging competitors are present. They would dearly love to be informed of my next search. Here.” He offered me his arm. “Let us go out to the garden. We’ll have more privacy there.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and scoured the large room once more. “I, um, that is, I’m sort of waiting for my friend.”
His arm faltered, but his smile didn’t. Still, there was something in those dark depths that didn’t sit well with me. “It seems it is I who should apologize for being so forward with you. I meant no offense.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to apologize. I’m just a little nervous.”
“Fate has been unkind to you of late?” he guessed.
I stared at him for a moment before I burst out laughing. My joyous sound caught the attention of the rest of the room, and more than one person gave me a disapproving look. I shrank beneath their attention.
“Perhaps some fresh air would be better than this stifling atmosphere,” he insisted.
“There you are, Mr. Crestmoor!”
The shout came from a middle-aged woman with ample body on her short frame.
She swept up to the man’s side and latched onto his arm.
“You are so cruel to me! I have been trying to speak to you all evening, and here I find you in this corner speaking with a young woman.” She paused and looked me over before she raised an eyebrow.
“I do not recall seeing you before, my dear. With whom did you come?”
Oh boy. My lips ran as dry as my brain as I tried to remember the name of our benefactor. “I, um, I’m with-”
“She’s with me,” Crestmoor spoke up as he smiled at me. “She’s my protege for the evening. I hope you don’t mind, Lady Worthington. I couldn’t resist inviting such a beautiful creature to your party.”
“Mind?” she cried out with enough volume to catch the notice of all the people around us.
“Why would I mind? You can invite anyone you wish, dear Mr. Crestmoor! She whipped her head to her right, and her eyes lit up. “If you’ll excuse me, darling, there’s someone else I must speak with!
You two enjoy yourselves!” And with that, she swept herself away.
Crestmoor moved closer so he stood by my side, and our arms almost touched. His sharp gaze lay on where our hostess had vanished. “Quite an interesting woman, if one doesn’t mind listening to mindless prattle.”
I cleared my throat. “Thank you for saving me back there with her question.”
He returned his focus to me. “Have you no chaperone here, Miss-?”
“You can just call me Thorn, and I had someone, but he’s a little busy right now.”
Crestmoor lifted an eyebrow. “Him? Then you have a date?”
I laughed and shook my head. “It isn’t that serious. He just wanted to show me what one of these parties was like.”
“I see. And what do you think of them?”
I swept my eyes over the room and sighed. “I’m not really sure. There’s a lot of good food, but it’s, um-”
“Please, Thorn, you are among friends in my company,” he assured me with his sly smile. “Whatever is on your mind, I beg of you to speak it.”
I sheepishly smiled at him. “I guess it’s hard to get a word in edgewise with this crowd. They really like talking about themselves.”
Crestmoor stared wide-eyed at me for a moment before he burst into low laughter. He gathered himself quickly and nodded. “You’re quite right, Thorn. The present company is very fond of bragging about their achievements.”
“But you’re not like that?” I guessed.
He took a sip of his drink, and his dark eyes sparkled. “I’m so well known that I don’t need to brag. Everyone is already aware of my achievements.”
“I’m not.”
He paused mid-sip and studied me over the rim of his glass. “Well, one would need to be in trade to know my name. What happens to be your business, Thorn?”
“I’m a, um, a professional singer.” Pirate Companion wouldn’t have given me brownie points among that crowd.
His eyebrows shot up. “Truly? I might wonder that since I don’t recognize your name, you have yet to reach the heights of singing in the Celestial Hall.”
“I, um, not yet, but I’m still trying.”
“I might wish for a demonstration,” he mused with a twinkle in his eye as he offered me his arm. “Shall we?”
I blinked at him. “Shall we what?”
“Go out into the garden. I wish to hear this voice of yours. I may be able to set you up with an interview with an agent. That is, unless you’re bragging is as epic as the rest of those in our present company.”
I shrugged and looped my arm through his. “I don’t see why-” The false magic over my arm shimmered like disturbed water. I jerked my arm out of his hold and tucked my limb behind my back.
Crestmoor lifted an eyebrow. “Is something the matter?”
I sheepishly smiled at him. “It’s, um, well, I really shouldn’t be that forward with you. I mean, we only just met, and I don’t want you to think I’m easy.”
“I see,” he mused with a crooked smile as he swept his arm toward the wing entrance. “Then allow me to escort you without the arm. The door leading to the rear garden is just down the central hall.”
I reluctantly followed behind him, clutching my arm to my chest. The mirage had returned to normal, but I couldn’t understand what had happened.
Marc had told me that only another magic could disturb the effects.
Was this man some sort of wizard? Did he understand what had just happened when even I didn’t?
I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief as he guided me through the maze of overly perfumed humanity.
Then again, what did I know about the people around me?
Perhaps there was a fangrel in their midst. Some of the people definitely had pale faces, and one or two smiled to reveal the sharp teeth of the dravenkin.
True to his word, a central hall led under the second-floor balcony and to the rear of the house. A large stone patio stood outside the pair of doors at the end of the corridor. I was relieved to see the place was crowded with people drinking wine and sharing in their mercantile exploits.
Many of those present raised their glasses to my guide.
“Hello there, Crestmoor!”
“How goes the diving?”
“Find a lost treasure?”
The last question brought laughter to all present. Crestmoor smiled and inclined his head to the crowd. “I believe my luck is changing.”
One of those present nodded at me. “Does it have anything to do with the woman behind you?”
He chuckled. “You know I don’t reveal any of my secrets, not even to the most venerable Warden of the Stars.”
I desperately wanted to know the meaning of the title, but we passed through the crowd and onto the lawn beyond the patio. We left the bright lights behind, and none of the people in their fancy shoes ventured onto the grass.
I was alone with my guide, and I felt a rising tide of unease the farther we traveled from the patio.