Chapter 26 Return
Return
We all stood in the entryway of the Black Tower, all of us but Varya carrying bags that held a lot more than they looked capable of holding.
Considering I’d brought next to nothing with me to the Tower, it was almost funny that I now wondered if I’d have room for everything I was bringing back.
Part of that was Varya herself, who hadn’t finished giving me clothing after Yule.
She pulled things out of her closet that she declared to be legitimate hand-me-downs, and insisted I go through and take what I wanted before she donated the rest to charity.
She told me also that I’d be doing her a favor, as she planned to clear most of her things out of the Tower over the next few weeks before she left for Russia.
Bones had heard back from his aunts, and Varya was set to leave for St. Petersburg as soon as she’d done more of her “housekeeping,” as she called it. She told me it would likely be halfway through January, or possibly a little later.
Bones wasn’t happy about that.
He wanted her to leave now, or within a few days at most.
He told her to have the drakai bring everything of hers to Russia and go through it all there. But Varya wouldn’t budge. I tried not to involve myself in that argument, but when she asked me, right in front of him, I admitted that I agreed with Bones.
I wanted her out of there, too.
She’d frowned when I said it, and Bones smirked at me, not hiding his pleasure that I’d backed him up, but I couldn’t tell if my weighing in made any difference at all to Varya, at least in terms of her actual decision.
I guessed it probably hadn’t. She seemed just as stubborn and immovable as Bones when it came to most things.
She hugged Alaric goodbye first, then hugged me, clutching me tightly and like she didn’t want to let go.
I struggled to release her, too. As much as I’d tried to not be alarmist, I really hated leaving her there.
I hated that she had no real protection, not from the Praecuri or anyone else.
I wondered if I could ask Valor about that, if he’d consider posting someone until she left to stay with her family.
Would you? Bones’s words rose quietly in my head. Ask him?
I looked over at him, still hugging his mother, and nodded.
Relief filled his eyes, along with a gratitude I couldn’t help but feel.
Gods. Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
I could have written Valor last night, and they might’ve had someone here already. I’d see about contacting him via mirror when we got back to Malcroix. Forsooth might be able to push things along if we explained the heightened risk.
I disentangled myself from Varya as I thought all those things, smiling at her when I saw her eyes had filled with tears.
“You’ll both come see me,” she said, squeezing my arms. “If not at the next break, then during the summer?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
Bones grunted. “Only if it’s in Russia,” he said, his voice a slight threat. “I’m not bringing Leda back here over the summer unless you’ve got Praecuri surrounding the place. And very probably not even then.”
Varya laughed for some reason, then hugged him next.
I looked at Alaric and nudged him towards the mirror.
“We should go,” I told him quietly. “Give them a moment.”
Alaric flinched, then looked back at where Bones hugged his mother tightly to his chest. Alaric, seeing them together, seemed to agree with me, and gripped his bag tightly in a hand, hitching the strap of his satchel higher on his shoulder.
Without needing to be prodded again, he walked through the massive, wall-filling mirror with the gold snakes and roses on the frame, and vanished.
It looked a lot like he’d fallen into a molten silver puddle.
I waited a few seconds so he could move out of the way on the other side.
Then I grabbed the handles of my own two bags, and picked them up. Even with the anti-gravity spells, they felt shockingly heavy. Given they both contained almost as many books as clothes, I suppose that shouldn’t have been a surprise.
I stepped up to the mirror, glancing back a last time at Varya as she clung to her son’s black, winter coat. She saw me looking and smiled, and I felt a pulse of sadness on her as I walked towards the tall mirror, even as I struggled with my own irrational fear that I would never see her again.
I told myself I was being stupid.
Still, I couldn’t help thinking about what that meant for me and Bones, if I already loved his mother enough to be desperately worried about her.
I fought to push away both thoughts as I entered the mirror.
Everything went silver, white, then black, and then I stepped out on the other side.
I found myself back in the same round, stone, tower room I’d been in before I left for the Bones estate in Exmoor. Alaric already sat in a chair by the fireplace, in the same room where I’d attended my first meeting for the Golden Sun.
Forsooth sat in a high-backed armchair across from him.
Two more leather armchairs sat vacant between them.
The theosophy master and professor smiled at me. His golden bear primal lifted its paw in a good-natured wave. I waved back at it, and smiled.
“You can leave your things by the door,” Forsooth said cheerfully. “I won’t take up much of your time. I thought we could have a cup of tea and share information for a few moments.”
I walked over to the door and dropped my two bags, and my satchel.
Walking back to Forsooth and Alaric, I was already talking.
“Could we discuss something else first?” I asked.
“Something a bit more pressing?” At Forsooth’s inquisitive glance, I launched in.
“Varya Bones needs protection at the Black Tower. At least for a few weeks. She needs clean protection, people you know, or who’ve been vetted by Golden Sun.
They can’t have any connections or sympathies with Dark Cathedral.
I was going to write my cousin, but I hoped we could do this quickly. ”
Forsooth’s eyebrows rose as I spoke.
I thought he would ask me why she suddenly needed protection, but he didn’t. When I took a breath at the end, he nodded at once, eyes shrewd.
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation.
“Feel free to write to your cousin, of course, but I would strongly urge you not to put anything sensitive in a letter sent by drakai. I think it would be better to have those discussions either in person or via mirror, given the amount of scrutiny on the school right now.”
I felt the worry in my bones begin to relax.
“That’s fine. Great, even,” I said.
“May I ask how urgent this is, time-wise?” Forsooth asked next, his voice polite. “Is it imperative that she have someone there for the remainder of today? Or would tonight be enough? Or tomorrow?”
“As soon as possible,” I admitted. “I should have thought of this earlier, but I really don’t think she should be there alone.
Even if the Praecuri did change all the chimaeras, Bones says there’s blood magic all over the house and it’s very possible that someone his father granted specific privileges to might have access through a back door, something the Praecuri missed. ”
“Very well.” Forsooth’s eyes looked grave.
“I am meant to see your cousin tonight, but I will endeavor to meet with him earlier. If the Praecuri cannot send anyone immediately, Corvid and I can stay at the Tower tonight.” He paused, clearing his throat.
“I take it other arrangements have been made at the end of those two weeks?”
I nodded, feeling more and more relieved. “Yes. Bones has her set up to go to Russia. Caelum, I mean,” I corrected. “She’ll be going to stay with her sisters.”
“Ah.” Forsooth nodded. “I would suggest not sharing that information in any correspondence, either––”
The mirror warped, catching my eye.
Bones emerged through the liquid glass.
He stepped out, looked around, spotted the luggage, then Forsooth, then me, roughly in that order. He didn’t say a word as he walked over to dump his bags next to ours, then saunter back to dump his long form in the chair next to me.
“Did you ask him?” he asked me.
“We were just discussing it,” I said. “Someone will be with her tonight. If not the Praecuri then Forsooth and Blackstone.”
Bones leaned over both of our armrests and and kissed me on the mouth, right in front of Forsooth and Alaric. He seemed utterly unembarrassed by his action, but I felt my face turn hot, enough that I guessed it must be bright red.
I cleared my throat, then looked at Forsooth without quite meeting his gaze.
“What was it you wanted to talk to us about?” I asked.
I fought to keep my expression still. I could feel myself reacting to not just the kiss, but an out of control quality I felt in Bones’s magic more generally, now that we were were away from his mother.
I wondered if part of it was him being out of his father’s magical space and away from the Black Tower, too.
Forsooth smiled at me, but his eyes, once again, turned grave.
“Ah, yes,” he said. “That.” He glanced at Bones, then at Alaric, before looking back at me. “We have managed to identify the person Mr. Bones saw in that ritual in Tunis.”
I frowned when he didn’t go on. “That’s good, isn’t it?”
Forsooth nodded, but something in his eyes looked noncommittal.
“It was necessary,” he conceded. “But it has unfortunately led us to other information. Her name is Rebecca Anne Whitehorse. She is from a royal family that, so far as we know, is completely unaffiliated with Dark Cathedral. She was taken from her parents’ home at two in the morning over a week prior to the night of the ritual.
” He cleared his throat. “It’s also now clear she was not the only Magical who went ‘temporarily missing’ that night. ”
I remembered something about that.
A rash of missing persons, but they’d all been found.
“Temporarily?” Bones asked, glancing at me. “Are you saying––”