Page 90 of Reap & Sow

“Worry not,” Kit crooned. “I shall play messenger, and I can be very efficient.”

“Hm.” Lich’s dark eyes pinned Eda to her chair. “I expect you to be present when we retrieve the Gateway, young lady. Wouldn’t want you sendin’ us on a wild-goose chase while you and your family slip away in the night.” He smiled, unfriendly. “Not that you’d be so foolish.”

Something bristling and dangerous ran through Kit as he leaned over her, staring at Lich with renewed focus. “What an interesting thing to say. It almost sounded like a threat.” His eyes flashed. “Not that you’d be so foolish.”

By the wall, Hillock’s hand twitched.

Lich stopped smiling, but he did not take back his words.

“I understand,” Eda said. “Wherever the mirror is, I’ll remain with it once it’s found, until your people arrive. The Gateway will be yours.” A promise like dirt in her mouth. “Can we agree that our business will then be done?”

Lich inclined his head. He smiled, closemouthed. “I don’t see why not.” Neither a confirmation nor a denial.

Hillock escorted them back through the darkness of the tunnels, leaving them where he found them. His lamp bobbed away through the dark until it was swallowed whole.

“Just to clarify,” Kit murmured, “you’re still planning on calling in the Blades when you find the Gateway.”

“That’s how we condemn Fane, so yes. Once we find the mirror, it’s only a matter of time before he returns to it. Tenelle need only be ready to catch him.”

“And you mean to also call in Lich’s men, like you promised him.”

“If Tenelle is lying in wait and happens to catch Lich’s people along with Fane…well. I suppose she’ll just have to make extra room in her cells.”

It was too dark to see his expression, but Eda heard Kit’s soft huff of glee. His nose brushed her hair. “All of them bagged up at once. You naughty minx. It’s positively unscrupulous.”

“You were the one who said I should forget honor and mercy when dealing with powerful people.”

“And I was right. Don’t mistake me, darling.” His breath tickled her nape. “I do so adore it when you scheme.”

They waited for darkness to fall over the city like a mourner’s veil. The moon was waning but bright enough to gild the riblike buttresses of the Great Templehouse and reflect off windows like sheets of ice. Within the high walls of the Botanic Gardens, it was dark and wild. Little ponds and flower beds hid beneath the tresses of pale willow trees. Leaves littered the ground in the swath of golden brown. The tangled branches overhead gleamed bare as bone.

These gardens were some of the best-kept parts of Blackbridge, patronized by its wealthiest denizens. But in the dark, it might have been some untamed forest rather than a walled garden, where any manner of creature prowled the undergrowth.

Eda would not be unnerved. She had Kit.

“Keep close,” he whispered before transforming in a rush of shadow. The black cat weaved silently over trickling streams and wilting flowers. Eda followed, wincing with every crunch and snap underfoot. She saw no reason to delay their search for the mirror when they were already in the city. Yet now that they were here, the prospect of failure tightened like a noose about her throat, threatened to choke her. They needed to find that Gateway and inform Tenelle. Time was already running short to fulfill her Pact with Mr. Night, and she would never be free of Lich nor Fane unless she could use the mirror to prove their guilt. Only the latter could lead her to it.

Ahead, the bishop in question walked along the garden trail. He was a pale specter in the night, sharing friendly conversation with the groundskeeper.

The short, aging man had been closing the southern gate when Fane turned up. He’d let the bishop through before locking it behind them. Eda and Kit had watched from atop the wall, having waited for Fane to leave the Great Templehouse. He must have meant to make his way back to Crowgate after the day’s sermon, but Eda did not expect him to cut through the Botanic Gardens like this. It wasn’t the most direct route.

“And why do we think that is?” Kit had pondered dryly.

To observe him now, the bishop seemed in no great hurry. They followed him for minutes more before reaching the northern gate. Fane turned to the groundsman. They spoke in low voices; then the bishop carried on alone. The groundsman closed the gate behind him.

“He’s leaving?” She shook her head, confused. “What did they say?”

Kit transformed and rolled his shoulders. “Fane asked the groundsman to be extra vigilant when checking the gardens in the coming evenings. Said he’s paying him enough. The man assured him he would.”

Eda pulse jumped. “He’s hiding it here.”

“Could be.”

“But Commander Tenelle must have noticed Fane coming through this way late at night. She has people watching him.”

“What does it prove? That he likes to take the scenic route home?” Kit took her hand as though it were his due, pulling her along after the groundsman. “He goes in one way, comes out another. Tenelle’s little spies can’t follow him closely without being caught snooping.”

Anticipation had her guts all in knots. “But we can.” The Blades might have already dismissed the gardens as a dead end, but Fane was wily enough to misdirect them. It remained to be seen if a magic mantle and a shape-shifting demon could go better undetected.