"Since she sheltered you seven years ago, I'm assuming she's not a teenager, right?" he asked after I'd sketched the problem.
"She was in her late twenties when I knew her, which would make her mid-thirties now. Why?"
"Then she's way too old for the harvesters," Nick said, around a mouthful of what I hoped was chicken. "They wouldn't waste their time, especially not if she was weak to begin with."
Pritkin caught my expression. "He's talking about the people who make null bombs."
Nick nodded. "That's when—"
"I know what they are," I said numbly. The bombs were highly prized, as they concentrated a null's usual effect, stopping all magic in an area for a period of time—including mine. I'd found out about them only recently, as Tami had never brought the subject up. Not too surprisingly, considering that the process required to make a bomb drains nulls of their life force, thereby killing them.
"Don't worry," Nick said, slathering mustard on another roll. "Like most mages, nulls come into their full power when they hit puberty, making them as strong then as they're ever going to get. Harvesters like to get them as soon thereafter as possible, to maximize the amount of life force they have to give. Your friend wouldn't interest them."
"Why would the Circle want her, then?"
He shrugged. "Beats me. Unless she was privy to important information of some kind."
I shook my head. "Tami doesn't know anything like that."
"But she knows someone," Pritkin pointed out. At my bewildered look, he sighed. "The Circle doesn't know where you are—the fact that they were willing to put a steep bounty on your head says as much. Perhaps they are attempting to lure you into coming to them."
"You think they took her because of me?" The sandwich, which hadn't been great to begin with, was suddenly tasteless.
"It's possible," Nick agreed, warming to his buddy's suggestion. "Half the Council was in attendance when you flashed in, told off the Consul, seduced Mircea and stole Tomas out from under her nose."
"It didn't happen like that!" I said, appalled. And it hadn't. The Consul had been in the middle of torturing a friend of mine to death when I made a desperate attempt to rescue him. It had worked, a fact that still amazed me, but for a while there, I'd been in serious jeopardy—not to mention scared out of my mind.
Nick shrugged. "Well, that's the story that's been going around."
"If they are trying to persuade you to try another foolhardy rescue, they would need to find someone you would consider worth the effort," Pritkin pointed out. "But Tomas remains in Faerie, and is therefore unreachable. Your parents, as I understand it, are deceased, and your childhood friends are vampires protected by the Senate." He thought for a moment. "Or ghosts. But even the Circle can't harm the dead."
For a minute, I just stood there, blinking stupidly. What did it say about my life, when even my enemies had trouble finding anyone close to me? I hadn't seen Tami in seven years. Had it really been that long since I'd had a friend vulnerable enough to act as hostage to fate? I guess it had. Except for Tomas, and that was anything but a reassuring thought. I vividly remembered the sickening twist in my stomach when I'd realized why he had been scheduled for such a horrible and demeaning death, maybe because I was suddenly experiencing it all over again.
The Senate had had a lot of reasons for wanting Tomas dead, but the execution had been made a public spectacle mainly in the hope that I would come after him. And I had, right into the middle of a room half filled with their allies from the Silver Circle. Who had apparently been paying attention to the lesson. Had they immediately started looking for a replacement for Tomas? Had I doomed Tami the moment I freed him?
"If the Circle has her, can you find out?" I asked Nick.
"I can try," he said slowly, apparently just realizing that this might be a sensitive subject. "But if they want you to come after her, surely they'll publicize the fact that they have her."
"Not necessarily."
"But—"
"Whatever memo they sent out about Tomas, I didn't get. I only stumbled over him by chance, after the execution had already begun." He'd still been alive because he was a vampire, and not easy to kill. Tami didn't have that advantage.
"Be that as it may," Nick said seriously, "the Council was given an up-close view of the kind of power the Pythia wields. They aren't likely to forget it. If they are setting you up, they'll take precautions. Which would make any attempt to rescue her extremely—"
"You aren't going to rescue her." That, of course, was Pritkin.
"Not without some idea where she is," I agreed. When I'd gone after Tomas, the Senate had exploded a null bomb so I couldn't just shift in, grab him, and shift out. It was a good guess that the Circle had their own stash of the nasty things, waiting to ensure that any rescue attempt I made ended with me being the one needing rescuing. If I was going to do this, I needed a plan. And forming one required knowing where she was.
"I'll do what I can," Nick promised. "But about the Codex, I still say we ought to check with Saleh."
"Who's Saleh?" I asked, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
"It's too risky!" The glare Pritkin sent Nick would've melted glass.
"I'm Pythia," I reminded him. "Breathing is risky."
"Saleh deals in information. Esoteric, hard-to-get, valuable information," Nick informed me, despite Pritkin's steadily reddening face. "The problem is his price."
"I can come up with the money," I said, thinking about Billy and roulette wheels and big payoffs.
"He doesn't deal in money," Pritkin snapped, cutting off whatever Nick had been about to say. "Only in favors. And you don't want to risk owing him one!"
"I'll decide that!"
"We could at least talk to him," Nick offered mildly. I kept hoping his low-key attitude would rub off on his buddy, but so far no luck.
"If he knows something, I'll get it," the pixie said, fingering her tiny sword. It would have sounded comical, except that I'd seen what the thing could do.
Nick shook his head. "If we make him angry, we'll never get anything out of him."
"The fewer who go, the better," I added. "Most people don't like to talk in front of a crowd." Especially if one of them is waving a sword in his face.
Pritkin looked like he was about to explode. "Did you hear nothing I said? The Codex is likely useless for your purposes. And I am not taking you near that piece of scum!"
"You don't have to take me anywhere," I told him impatiently. "I'll take myself."
"You're not going." It sounded final.
"I already know his name," I pointed out. "How hard do you think it would be for Billy to locate him?"
"Do you have any idea what he could demand? He'll try to trick you—"
"Then it's a good thing we'll be along to make sure he doesn't," Nick said smoothly. He cocked a sandy eyebrow at me. "If you'll permit the escort?"
I glanced at Pritkin's face, which was bordering on purple, and sighed. Until I got some training in defense, a bodyguard or two was pretty much a necessity. Besides, I wasn't sure how to get rid of him. I said okay, even knowing I'd probably regret it.