Chapter 20 Syneca #2
We left Vitoria’s destroyed room to find the others had spread through the apartment.
“We found something. Hidden in her mattress,” I said, refusing to make eye contact with Calder so I wouldn’t see the judgment there. Maybe I was a little too convincing.
Lucette was beside us in seconds, Calder close behind. Pip was still in another room. They studied the single word with matching frowns.
“Crossing,” Lucette read aloud. “That’s it? Just one word?”
“Could be a location,” Calder said. “A meeting point.”
“Or a code word,” I added. “Something that meant something to her and whoever she was working with.”
“It could even be a surname,” Lucette said, eyes glued to the parchment.
“The paper’s interesting too.” Wickett held it up to the light so they could see the shimmer. “Fury made. Expensive. This is used for messages that need to stay secret.”
We all stood there, staring at the word like it might suddenly reveal its secrets. Lucette’s frown gave away her concentration. But there was nothing. Just a single cryptic term in an elegant filigree that meant nothing.
“We’ll figure it out,” Wickett said finally, pocketing the scroll with deliberate care. “For now, we keep it to ourselves.”
“You’re asking us to lie to your father?” Lucette asked, the draw on her words just enough to make it clear she approved.
“Let’s assume Pip will crack under pressure and leave her out of it,” Calder said under his breath as he looked toward his bedroom. He might’ve fooled them, but he wasn’t fooling me. He was trying to protect the sprite.
“Agreed,” Wickett said. “Until she needs to know.”
Pip came zipping out of Calder’s bedroom with a glass jar of small runes. Most of them were no larger than a coin, but the stones came in an array of colors, and I knew by the eager look in her giant eyes, that’s what drew her in.
“These are so pretty,” she said, dumping the jar onto the coffee table.
“We’re not here to appease your love of glitter, Pip,” Wickett said, his tone softer than it’d been with her all day.
“I know. But I thought maybe if Syn... Syneca looked through them, she’d know if any were missing. Maybe the Phoenix took some.”
“Considering they were in my bedroom, I think it’s best if I take a look,” Calder said, stepping forward.
Pip practically sank to the floor. “You? Your bedroom? Don’t you, uh, eat your runes?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing in a moment that was meant to be serious.
The charidryn were called rune eaters for a long time, simply because no one knew how their power worked, and they were a private people.
Ever since the rest of Calder’s race was murdered in a brutal attack, he’s kept all their secrets close to heart. Even though he hated the nickname.
Calder’s genuine smile at the blue-haired sprite made her cheeks flush. He winked at Pip before popping a rune into his mouth. “Midnight snack.”
I was pretty sure Lucette noticed him spit it out moments later when Pip’s back was turned, but she didn’t say anything. The sprite’s wings fluttered as she sorted through the colorful stones, completely oblivious. “How’d you even meet her? Vitoria, I mean.”
“Market day,” I lied. “She was selling protection charms. Terrible ones.”
“The threadwork was atrocious,” Calder added, settling into his chair. “Syn couldn’t help herself. Started correcting her technique right there in the middle of the Crook.”
“Someone had to. They didn’t work at all.”
Lucette leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “And she just... moved in?”
“Weeks later,” Calder confirmed, the lie smooth as honey. “Showed up with a bag and a chess set. Said she’d pay double if we didn’t ask questions.”
“Which you didn’t?” Wickett asked, tilting his head, a lock of long brown hair falling across his brow.
I shrugged. “Around here? Nobody asks questions if there’s enough coin. We needed help with rent.”
Pip picked up a small jade rune, examining it with those oversized eyes.
“The Circle probably knows about her.” She brought the jade stone to her mouth, tried to bite it, made a face, and dropped it back on the table.
“Mostly, we can’t talk about other people’s business.
Sacred trust and all. If I told you what messages I carried, I might be cast out.
But sometimes there are loopholes. Someone might know something. ”
My pulse quickened. Finding the red-haired sprite that summoned Vitoria was next on my list.
“That’s not helpful if they won’t talk,” Lucette said.
“Well, no, but sometimes sprites gossip about their own observations. Things they’ve seen that weren’t part of official messages.
” Pip sorted more stones, creating little rainbow piles.
“Like how I noticed Mrs. Deliana’s cat isn’t really a cat, but I’d never tell anyone about the messages I take to her shop. ”
“Her cat?” Wickett asked as Silas crept out from a corner shadow.
“You didn’t notice the cat? But you’re so observant,” she said, and, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was mocking him. “He’s definitely something else. He walks weirdly. But that’s just my observation, not business.”
The conversation continued, but I turned toward the window. Vitoria had stood here so many times these last few weeks, staring out at nothing. Or what I’d thought was nothing. Had she been watching for someone? She’d been so paranoid. What did she know?
My fingers found the half-melted candle on the sill, and I lifted it absently, lost in memory.
Tor’s parents were candlemakers, so we’d always had plenty.
She said they reminded her of home, though she never talked about the night they were all murdered by hunters.
A story that most of us had in our past and chose not to talk about.
Behind me, Calder was explaining to Pip that sorting runes by color instead of use was pointless, while Lucette asked pointed questions about each one. Wickett had gone silent, but I could feel his presence, that particular weight of his attention even when he wasn’t looking.
The candle’s wick flickered to life.
Just for a heartbeat, a tiny flame that danced and died before I could even gasp.
Vitoria.
She must have been able to see me. Keeping my heart and breath as steady as I could, I stared out into the rain-soaked night, begging her to step into view.
But there was nothing, of course, only that tiny flame.
Standing with the other Venatori in our home, there was no doubt she knew Calder and I were bound to hunt her.
“Find anything interesting?” Wickett’s voice came from directly behind me.
I set the candle down carefully. “Just remembering. She used to stand here for hours.”
“Looking for what?”
I turned to face him, letting him see the genuine confusion on my face. “I never knew. Whatever she was watching for, it never seemed to appear. Or maybe it did—and that’s why she did what she did.”
He studied me for a long moment, and I wondered if he could smell the smoke too. But then Pip shrieked with delight, having found a particularly sparkly quartz rune, and the moment broke.
“We should go,” Wickett announced. “Back to Chancellery House. It’s getting late, and I’ll be sending the hunters through for another search, anyway.”
“May I join them? Just to be sure nothing is missed?” Lucette asked.
Silas stepped toward me, hackles raised.
Lucette cocked her head to the side, staring at him. “You might want to rein in your ‘not familiar’. He looks irritated.”
“I think that’s just his face,” Pip said, adjusting one of the buns on her head as she flew toward the door. “He’s grumpy.”
As we gathered to leave, I paused as if I’d just had a brilliant idea. “Wait. Pip, I need to ask you something.”
Everyone turned to look at me.
“The red-haired sprite who used to come here. Could you find him through the Circle?”
Pip’s wings stilled. “Red-haired? There’s dozens of—”
“This one was specific,” Calder cut in, understanding immediately where I was going. “Always came at night. Blue suit with gold trim. Wore glasses that sat at the edge of his nose.”
“Gold wings,” I added. “Very formal. Very punctual.”
Pip’s eyes widened. “Oh! I think you mean Crimson. He does high-profile message work. Very exclusive clientele.”
“Why do you need him?” Lucette asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.
I met her gaze directly. “Because Crimson came here regularly to summon Vitoria.”
Wickett stepped closer. “You think this sprite knows where she is?”
“No. I think he knows who she was working for—and that person might know where Vitoria’s run off to.”
It was a lie, of course. Vitoria would never expose herself to a network of professional gossips. But the red-haired sprite had to know something, and he was my only lead to whomever had been pulling Vitoria away from us on all those nights. So, I needed to find him before anyone else did.
“Can you arrange a meeting?” I asked Pip.
“Tell him the Rune Weaver needs to discuss a matter of mutual survival. Tomorrow. Before anyone else thinks to ask him questions.”
Her eyes widened with understanding. “Before the hunters find him, you mean.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to.