Page 88 of Reap & Sow

“…Very well. This Gateway, then. You’re certain the bishop is hiding it?”

Eda nodded. “He must be. Somewhere safe. If we find it, we can prove he’s been keeping it for himself.”

“Mm. According to Tenelle’s reports, the thing was never successfully recovered from your family shop.” He noted Eda’s surprise. “Florian claims that while waiting for reinforcements, a demon crossed through and attacked his men. They were forced to retreat. Upon their return, they found the Gateway missing. The Blades in his company corroborated the story. Tenelle was obliged to accept it, but I believe this is what first roused her suspicions of him.”

Fire lashed in Eda’s chest. “That’s horseshit. Those men are on his payroll!”

“Perhaps. It’s all conjecture. The facts are these: The mirror is unaccounted for, and finding it is not enough. Fane must be connected to it—and Tenelle the one to discover him.”

He was right. If the Gateway could be located and the bishop with it, the commander would witness his guilt with her own eyes. The Patriarch himself couldn’t ignore such a condemnation.

Eda smothered a grimace. Should Tenelle take the mirror, Lich would consider Eda’s side of their agreement unfulfilled. How would she contact Mr. Night to finish their Pact then?

Debts upon debts.

She eyed Wolfram. “This plan involves getting Commander Tenelle to work alongside us.”

“Alongside you, who just broke out two prisoners from under her nose and flagrantly consorts with a demon yourself. Yes.” He smiled wryly. “Quite the predicament.”

“Can she be convinced?”

“I suspect her desire to unearth the culprit supersedes her pride, but I must pose the idea carefully. Your plan is sound: find the mirror, inform the commander. The Blades can lie in wait and catch Fane red-handed. Help us to stop this bishop’s bloodletting, and I will do my best to have the charges against you and your family dismissed, Miss Shaw. You’d be a free woman.”

Eda swallowed. If I let Tenelle have the mirror, Ben and Lawrie will be free. But that means spurning Lich.

Her mind spun furiously. She could see no clean way out of this, but finishing her business with Mr. Night once and for all was most pressing. “All right,” she said. “Tenelle must have some idea of where Fane might be hiding it.”

“All the attacks have taken place within city limits,” Kit said. “If the bishop controls the fiends, where do they go once they’re done sowing their terror? The mirror is their genesis. It must be somewhere in Blackbridge, away from prying eyes. Not on holy grounds, I’d wager.”

Wolfram nodded. “Templehouses boast warning fires and enchantments meant to draw attention to demonic activity. But…Florian is predictable. Tenelle tells me that he journeys only between Fell Keep, the Great Templehouse, and his local Crowgate parish.”

Eda bit her cheek. “Then somewhere between the three could be our Gateway.”

“Likely. The commander’s people cannot follow him everywhere. Not without alerting him to their observations. Perhaps a shape-shifting demon and a girl with a magic cape will fare better.”

She ignored his scathing tone. “We’ll find it.” We have to.

The High Governor’s expression was unreadable. “For your own sake, Miss Shaw…I pray you do.”

Twenty-four

Lich had not given Eda any way of contacting him. He’d only implied that his people would be waiting to hear from her, which she supposed to mean that she must go to him.

“The sewer system? Truly? Bit on the nose for a seedy crime lord. Where does he get off calling himself a lord, anyhow?”

Kit’s righteous indignation was almost funny. Eda gingerly lowered herself into the sewer grate he’d so effortlessly ripped out. “It’s just a silly honorific his people use to stroke his ego. Er. Don’t mention I said that.”

Once they had the Gateway, the Shaws could call on Mr. Night and fulfill their debt—Ben’s years or someone else’s, Eda wasn’t yet sure. She didn’t care to know what happened to the mirror after she and her brothers were free of it, but Tenelle would want it destroyed. Lich wanted it for himself. Deliver it to the former, buy our freedom. To the latter, avoid a crime lord’s wrath. Please one, piss off the other.

There was, she’d realized, a third option. But it meant playing puppet master when she’d only ever acted the puppet.

Eda descended the rickety ladder, cringing as damp metal slid against her palms. It was cool and dark as pitch down here. Hillock had brought her to the surface this way, but Eda was sure there must be other, less grim routes. She doubted that Severin Lich crawled through filthy sewer grates in his finery.

Kit flew down as a bird. Eda expected him to offer his hand when he transformed at the bottom; instead he grabbed her around the middle. She squawked as he set her down upon the narrow walkway, closer than necessary.

“Rather familiar of you,” she said, flustered.

“I can be more familiar, if you like.” His grip tightened. Eyes like beacons glowed in the dark.