Chapter 13 Invitation
Invitation
Forsooth’s dark eyes stared into mine, twinkling with those strange, star-like flecks. His hair, untamed and bushy around his head as always, framed his angular face. He wore a small smile, so faint, I questioned whether I saw it at all.
I couldn’t deny I’d been speaking about him obviously, so I just stared at him, dumbly, when he offered an arm. Unlike with Graham Strangemore, I took Forsooth’s offered elbow a beat of my heart later.
“You don’t mind if we walk, do you?” he asked politely, motioning in the direction of the fountain. “I find I think much better if I remain in motion.”
I nodded, gave Graham a brief glance, then fell in step beside Forsooth.
I was relieved when Strangemore made no attempt to follow us.
I glanced back over my shoulder at him and saw him scowling at Forsooth’s back, half in disbelief.
From his expression, Forsooth might have asked me for a date, right in front of him.
Oh, gods. I hoped Forsooth hadn’t been––
“You don’t mind, do you, Ms. Shadow?” Forsooth asked, a faint humor in his voice. “And no need to come up with a fictitious ‘reason’ why you needed to speak with me. I could tell you were looking for a plausible exit from Mr. Strangemore’s attentions.”
I flushed a bit hotter.
“Thanks for the rescue,” I mumbled.
“Well, it’s not entirely that,” Forsooth confessed. “Unlike you, I had actually wished to speak with you. So it was perhaps less chivalry than opportunism.”
I felt myself tense slightly, but I didn’t speak. I glanced at the bear walking alongside us, its gold, tufted ears perked forward as it looked up at me, its brown eyes curious.
“…are you free most Tuesday evenings, Ms. Shadow?” Forsooth was asking, before I realized I’d lost the trail of his speech.
I looked away from the bear and up at the bear’s mage.
“Tuesdays? Tuesday next, you mean?” I asked.
“Yes. Well. Possibly,” he amended, a beat later.
“We do not have what I would call a regular schedule.” Forsooth continued to stride over the conjured stone slabs in the direction of the fountain, his back straight, his arm held out politely where I gripped it, so I wouldn’t be too close.
“A group of us meet every few weeks or so, at least when we can manage it. I would like you to join us, if you are able.”
“A group?” I frowned, sure I must have missed something important while I’d been staring at his bear. “Sorry. What kind of group? Do you mean an academic group?”
“Not exactly, no.” He came to a stop before we would have gotten close enough to the Fountain of the Furies to struggle to hear one another.
I slid my arm out from his when he turned to face me. He raised that same arm, and murmured words too quiet for me to hear. Magical light ignited along his fingers and palm down to his forearm.
With a wave of his hand, he tossed the gold and red light outward, and it formed an egg-like shield around the two of us, held together by a thin mesh of beaded strings of light.
He’d cast a silencing spell with the shielding spell, and powerful versions of both.
It not only cut off the noise from the fountain and party, but seemed to deaden any noise inside our bubble, too.
I guessed no one would hear what we said to one another, or even be able to read our lips.
It felt a bit like what Bones had done to me in Ancient Rituals.
“Excuse the brief dampening spell,” he said, probably seeing the alarm on my face. “I’d rather not be overheard.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but I only nodded.
“Okay.”
“I would like to offer you a seat among a very small, carefully-selected group of strategists, Ms. Shadow.”
I frowned. Whatever I’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that.
“Strategists?” I asked.
He nodded, eyes solemn. “If you would like additional background, I can offer you texts following your introduction. For now, I’ll just say we have a particular interest in the workings of a different organization, which calls itself ‘Dark Cathedral.’” He paused, one eyebrow cocked.
“I believe you have some awareness of them already?”
I stared at him, now struck utterly dumb.
I felt myself pale, my hands grow clammy.
Thinking about the implications of his words, I fought not to panic.
“Yes,” I managed carefully. “Yes, I’ve heard of them.”
I watched him nod, hands clasped at the base of his spine.
I fought to remember my aunt’s memories before she’d died.
In particular, I struggled to recall every particular of Forsooth’s appearances in her mind.
I replayed his stern questioning of her about whether she had any allegiance to Dark Cathedral in that hearing after my parents’ deaths.
Had that all been a ruse? Did he somehow think I was connected to Dark Cathedral, like my aunt had been?
Could he really believe that, given what I was?
“You’re not… allied with them?” I asked doubtfully.
Forsooth smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“No, Ms. Shadow,” he said firmly. “I am not. Quite the opposite.” He cleared his throat, motioning delicately with a hand, like he had while casting. “Truthfully, we could use your help. I had some hope the benefit would be mutual, given your interests.”
“My… help?” I asked, confused. “What interests?”
Forsooth paused a moment, his expression grave.
“I would like to offer you a regular seat at our little gathering, if you feel so inclined,” he said next, his eyes and voice a touch fierce.
“In the short term, we are concerned with a number of disappearances in the Magical and human worlds. And, perhaps more of interest to you, our recent loss of Alaric Greythorne as a student at this institution.”
My heart leapt sideways at his words.
I fought to keep my mouth and eyes expressionless, but I’ve never been very good at keeping my feelings off my face, not while face to face with someone I knew. I took a breath, and glanced at my monocerus, which was pawing anxiously at the stone.
“If it helps,” Forsooth added, his voice kinder.
“I had planned to ask you to join us at some point, anyway. I’d intended to wait until at least next term, as you’re still so new to this world.
But when I happened to witness Mr. Bones’s instructions to you in my class the other day, regarding the disappearance of his friend, and your friend, too, I gather, it occurred to me that perhaps I needed to accelerate my timeline. ”
He paused, maybe to watch me process all of that.
He cleared his throat.
“I will say, while I don’t agree with his methods, Mr. Bones is likely correct in his belief that it’s not wise for you to show so much interest in Mr. Greythorne’s whereabouts. I hope you took his warning to heart, and attempted to be discreet this week.”
I thought about that. I felt my face grow hotter once I had.
“Not really,” I admitted.
If that bothered Forsooth, he didn’t let it show.
“I see. Well, perhaps hearing it from someone a little less overbearing than Mr. Bones will convince you to try a bit harder to contain your curiosity?” He quirked an eyebrow so that it disappeared under his bushy hair.
“I hope the promise of more, shall we say, actionable information from our little gathering might also make it easier to resist temptation.”
I felt myself flush hotter. When Forsooth stepped back a pace, I took a step backwards, too, still gripping the goblet Graham had handed me.
“Of course,” I said, trying hard not to feel foolish.
Great, now I had two mages who thought I was a complete moron.
Forsooth chuckled, abruptly enough, it was clear he’d heard me.
My face reddened more, but he waved me off, his amusement apparent.
“Quite the contrary, Ms. Shadow. I cannot speak for Mr. Bones, nor would I dare to try, but if he did think that of you, it wouldn’t be your intelligence I’d be questioning.”
Still smiling, Forsooth went on before I could answer, although I’m not sure how I would have answered that.
“You will await my note, then?” he asked, his voice back to cheerful. “We generally meet after dinner, eight o’clock, on the top floor of the Northeast Tower. We try to do so every few weeks, but sometimes meet or less more frequently, as the situation demands.”
His dark eyes grew more serious.
“I must unfortunately ask you to be discreet about my having invited you, Ms. Shadow, and about anything that might be discussed, as well as the identity of the other attendees, if you do decide to join us. If any of your friends happen to ask where you are going, it would be better to characterize the meeting as academic in nature. As your own supposition suggests, it’s the most plausible explanation for someone of your abilities. ”
Hesitating, he looked up towards the sky, his expression grave.
“I will make one exception to that discretion,” he added, voice thoughtful.
“You may tell Mr. Bones of our conversation, and the true nature of the meetings… should the topic ever come up between you. But only him. And kindly ask him to be discreet, if you do happen to tell him. Although I strongly doubt that warning will be necessary, in his particular case.”
I nodded, still a little flushed, and now even more perplexed.
I didn’t know how to tell him that Bones and I weren’t exactly on speaking terms, regardless of what he thought he’d overheard between us in class. And why would Forsooth trust Bones on this particular subject anyway, given who he was?
I was tempted to ask.
Forsooth must have seen the conflict and temptation on my face.
That, or he simply had other places to be.
Before I could ask him anything more, he gave me a low, very polite bow, and swept off in his dark, metallic-blue coat, hands clasped at the base of his spine.
His bear paused a second longer to lift a paw to me, looking all the world like it was waving either hello or goodbye or some combination of both.
I lifted my hand in return.
The bear growled and grumbled at me in a friendly sort of way, then lowered its paw and shuffled off after Forsooth, trailing gold and brown light behind as it went.
They were maybe ten yards away when the magical shielding around me dissolved.
Sound rushed into the vacuum it left, filling my ears with the crashing, watery sounds of the fountain, clinking glasses, thumping music, chattering voices, and shrieks of laughter from the surrounding party.
“Huh,” I said to myself, watching Forsooth disappear into the crowd.