“Dreamstones are very rare,” Arachne said. “They form only in certain shadow realms in extremely unusual conditions, and once formed, they must be shaped. The process takes decades, and those who own such an item tend not to advertise. Finding one will be difficult.”
“But I’m guessing that you wouldn’t be suggesting this if you had any easier plans.”
“Easier, yes,” Arachne said. “Better, no.”
I thought about it, but only briefly. I trust Arachne, and if she thought this was the best plan, then I was willing to give it a try. “So any idea where I could find one of these things?”
“No,” Arachne said. “As you know, items like this come onto the market very rarely. Keep your eyes open, and I’ll do the same. In the meantime, I suggest you do what you can on other fronts. And be ready. If an opportunity does develop, you may have to move fast.”
| | | | | | | | |
I was still thinking about Arachne’s words when I left. I walked out through the tunnel mouth, then turned and watched the roots and earth fold back together with a rustling sound. Now that I knew what to look for, it was easy to make out the marks where the attack had failed.
I started walking south, climbing up out of the ravine and in a direction that would take me towards the ponds at the feet of the hills, and as I did I thought about what to do next. Technically, I was supposed to be back in Keeper HQ, but right now I didn’t feel like wasting any more time sitting behind an empty desk. I needed to be expanding, developing my options. Arachne’s suggestion of a dreamstone was a new long-term avenue to work on. I had something in mind involving Anne for another. For the third . . .
Suddenly I knew where I needed to go. I changed course, heading towards the road.
chapter 5
The hotel at Great Portland Street was busy with the coming evening. I signed in with the receptionist and had just started walking towards the lifts when I heard a voice calling behind me. “Mr. Verus! Excuse me! Mr. Verus!”
I turned to see a man hurrying towards me. He looked to be in his forties, with a receding hairline and one of those ring-shaped beards around the mouth and chin. A metal badge on the breast of his suit read FRONT DESK TEAM LEADER. “Mr. Verus,” he called again as he reached me, slowing to a walk.
I looked at the man and raised my eyebrows. “Ah,” he said. “You’re visiting room 638, is that right? A Miss Luna Mancuso?”
“And?”
“Well, there’s a bit of a problem,” the man said. “I mean, when she was first signed in, there was a young man who said he worked for the police. He told me that Miss Mancuso was under witness protection and wasn’t to be disturbed.”
“That sounds like good advice.”
“Well, um, of course we fully understand the situation and on behalf of our company we’d be more than happy to offer all available help—”
“I’m afraid I’m in a hurry.”
“It’s just that, um, the room’s in arrears,” the man said. “The advance payment was only for a week.”
“It’ll be settled when she leaves.”
“We do have a strict policy of not extending credit . . .”
I looked at the man thoughtfully. There was sweat on his forehead. “Did you try to force your way in?”
“Well, I mean, we do have the authority to enter the premises at all times. Particularly when the visitor is in violations of the terms and conditions of their stay. I mean, it’s company policy. All in the terms of service.”
“And what happened when you tried to execute your terms of service?”
The man’s eyes shifted away. “There were . . . some problems.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll bet there were.”
“So if you’re visiting . . . would you mind asking her to leave?”
“Thought you said you wanted her to settle the bill?”
“Well, that too,” the man said. “It’s just . . . very busy . . . the season, you know . . . company policy.”
I looked inquiringly back at the man, watching him sweat. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said, and turned towards the lift.
| | | | | | | | |
I reached Luna’s room and studied the door. There was a discoloured patch next to the card reader, brownish black against the plaster, rather like the kind of mark you’d get from an electrical fire. I swiped my keycard but the LED didn’t light up. I raised my voice. “Luna?”
Silence.
“Luna!”
More silence.
I put a snap into my voice. I knew she was listening. “Open this door, right now.”
Luna’s voice sounded muffled. “I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“I didn’t ask what you wanted.”
“It’s late.”
“Luna, you have exactly ten seconds to open this door,” I said. “After which I am going to blow it off its hinges and drag you out by your hair. Ten. Nine.”
No answer. I was pretty sure I’d shocked Luna into silence. “Eight,” I said. “Seven.”
“Wait!”
“Six.”
“I can’t get it—”
“Five. Four.”
“All right! All right!” There was a rattle of metal, and the door swung open.
The hotel room was cramped and messy. Curtains and blinds had been pulled across the window so that the only light came from the overhead bulb, and the floor looked like someone had been using it as a rubbish bin. Food wrappers, water bottles, clothes, bags, and shoes were scattered all over the carpet, and the bed was just as bad. The room had an odd musky smell, and the air felt close, as though it hadn’t been ventilated in a long while.
If the room looked bad, Luna looked worse. Her skin was pale to an unhealthy degree, there were bags under her eyes, and she moved without any of her usual vigour. Her hair was a crazy mess with loose strands sticking upwards—I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen it out of its usual ponytail. She was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a cardigan, and she stared at me mutely.
I didn’t know what to do, but my instincts told me not to let that show. I sniffed at the room. “When was the last time you showered?”
Luna hesitated.
“Go take one,” I said. “I’ll wait.”
Possibilities flickered where Luna argued with me, but as she kept looking at me they winked out. Luna turned, disappeared into the bathroom, reappeared, grabbed up some clothes with a sidelong glance, then went back in. I heard the click of the bolt, then after a few minutes, the hiss of water.
Movement in the futures made me turn. There was someone else in the room, and it was . . . Oh. That’s what that smell is. I moved towards the far side of the room, trying to pick my way through the piles of mess and mostly ending up just walking on it. Luna’s never been the tidiest of people, but this was a bit much even for her. Around the other side of the bed, wedged into the corner of the room, was a pile of dirty clothes. I reached down and pulled a sweater off the top.
A head appeared, with a reddish furred muzzle, two pointed ears, and a pair of bright amber eyes looking up at me. “So this is where you ended up,” I said.
Hermes yawned, showing lines of sharp white teeth before his mouth closed with a snap. Hermes is a blink fox that I met a couple of years back, and ever since then he’s sort of adopted me. I’d lost track of him after the fire that destroyed my shop, and even though my common sense had told me that few creatures had less to fear from a house fire, I’d worried that something had happened to him. It was good to see him again. “Glad you’re all right.”
Hermes sniffed at me.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You came back to mine and found it burnt down, found your way to Luna’s flat instead, then followed her here?”