Dane (9 page)

A gentle hand adjusted the coverlet over her. “Sleep now. Dream of that rich husband you gonna get soon.”

Eva nodded into her pillow. She‟d marry well into the ranks of this human society, and somewhere in heaven her maman would know and be proud of her success. But for herself, Eva wished for only one thing. To find her father. In heaven, she hoped her maman would understand it was something she needed to do.

A smile touched her lips. One like that of the beautiful Fantine, who‟d felled half the men in Rome and then gone on to do the same in ElseWorld‟s French Enclave.

“Pretty smile like that. You‟ll have your choice of men. But you‟ll marry human, not a satyr like ruined your poor maman,” Odette said, satisfaction coloring her voice. “You show these Roman curs who the Delacortes are. You make them pay.”

It was a maxim Eva had been weaned on. From childhood, she had been groomed to avenge the wrongs this world had done her mother.

“Rest, bebe. Odette‟s gonna keep you nice and safe.” She lapsed into voces mysticae then, the chants and protection spells that she‟d whispered over Eva for as long as she could remember. It comforted Eva to hear her familiar words, and she drifted off into a drug-induced sleep.

“That‟s it.” Bending closer, Odette gently pulled back the coverlet, then stared down at her for a long moment. She curved a palm along Eva‟s cheek almost reverently, then slowly ran her hand downward, over her throat, a breast, ribs, until finally her hand came to rest on her belly.

“That‟s my good girl. Dream of babies. And revenge.”

5

“Good Gods, I believe you are insane after all,” said Sevin, as their carriage drew to a halt.

“You‟re not the first to think so,” Dane replied.

Capitoline Hill was thick with monuments, museums, and Medieval and Renaissance palazzi. But tucked among them, the three brothers had found the address written on the nereids‟scroll. Dane had insisted. Staring from the windows of Bastian‟s carriage, he and Sevin studied the three-story brick and stone townhouse. Squeezed between taller and more stately edifices that shadowed it, it had a charm of yesteryear, and it reeked of ElseWorld magic.

“It‟s owned by the Council,” said Dane. “I can scent it.”

Sevin grimaced. “It seems fitting somehow that it‟s located here, near Tarpeian Rock, where men have historically been thrown to their deaths.”

Dane heard a snort of laughter from Bastian, who sat behind him on the leather seat.

“Really, brother, what are we doing here?”Sevin persisted, only half teasing. “I strongly suggest that you run while you still can.”

“You heard the Council‟s missive,” said Dane. “We‟re obligated to wed where our seed will find purchase and thrive. That necessitates a human wife.”

“We‟ve received at least a dozen such letters. It‟s not our obligation to populate this world with our kind,” said Bastian. “If you‟re concerned the nereids will report your whereabouts—“

“I‟m a deserter. Of course they will,” said Dane, cutting him off.

“In a few weeks, Trackers will come for me. But if they find me already wed to a human and breeding her—and if the whole matter was arranged by the Council‟s choice of matchmaker—what can they do? I‟ll have accomplished what their letter asked of us. They won‟t uproot me.”He shifted, reaching for the door.

“It‟s too great a sacrifice,” Sevin protested. “Why not go into hiding until they give up searching for you?”

“Because Luc turns eighteen soon,” Dane gritted. “My search for him can‟t wait.”

“Do you think we haven‟t searched for him all these years?”Bastian asked, his steel-edged words slicing the thick tension that suddenly stretched between them.

Dane opened the carriage door, his emotions roiling. Didn‟t they understand that he alone was responsible for Luc‟s disappearance? He‟d led his five-year-old brother to his doom. Therefore, he must be the one to make things right. “I know you have. But I‟m the one who lost him. I must be the one to find him.”With that, he swung down and headed for the townhouse.

Beyond its ironwork gate, two small girls played in the garden. The younger one noticed their carriage and approached the gate, a question in her eyes.

“Don‟t wait for me,” he called back to his brothers. “I‟ll find my own way home.”

“Come away, Mimi,” the older girl cautioned as he approached, shooting him a suspicious glance. His nose told him both were blends of fey and human.

The one called Mimi stubbornly wrapped her chubby fingers around the gate‟s grill and stared up at him. The question that had been in her wide doe-brown eyes now fell to her lips. “Are you here for a bride?”

Eva heard the merry stomp of children on the stairs as she climbed from her bath. She took the robe Odette held out and slipped it on, tying its belt. Only two hours had elapsed since she‟d taken the olive powder, but though her body still ached from the exercise of last night, she had awakened from sleep refreshed.

“There‟s a man in the garden!”Mimi shouted, dashing into the bedroom. “He came in a beautiful carriage like Cinderella‟s fairy godmother made!”

“You let him in?”Eva said, alarmed.

“Only because he had this,” said Lena. She handed over a crumpled scroll of parchment and its magic tickled Eva‟s fingers.

Odette came closer to help scrutinize it. “It bears the ElseWorld Council‟s seal,” she noted.

“And our address,” said Eva.

Waiting for their verdict, Lena tugged a strand of her long silky hair between her lips and began chewing it. When Eva had first found the girls on the streets of Rome, they‟d been abandoned and begging for water and food during the heat of summer. Lena‟s hair had been nibbled away to different lengths, as short as she could reach with her sharp fairy teeth.

Eva had rescued them, and they were now firmly entrenched in her home and her heart. And in typical fey fashion, Lena‟s hair had already grown halfway down her back in just the few months since they‟d come.

“Whoever he may be, he‟s definitely a client,” Odette pronounced at last.

“Then it was all right to let him in?”Lena asked hopefully.

Leaning down, Eva gently pulled the damp strand of hair from her mouth and smoothed it over one thin shoulder. With her thumb, she soothed away the frown between Lena‟s brows. “It‟s all right, cherie. But from now on, alert Pinot or one of us when clients arrive, oui?”

“But we are alerting you!”Mimi declared. Then she sneezed. One of her favorite occupations was investigating the items on Eva‟s dressing table and she‟d been sniffing a box of perfumed powder.

“I meant before you let anyone in,” added Eva.

“Good for nothing Pinot! He should have been on guard outside,”

Odette grumbled, making for the door. “When I find him, I‟ll smack his backside.”

“Have our visitor wait in my office.”Eva grabbed the woman‟s arm in a warning squeeze. “And none of your tricks.”

“I don‟t make the tricks. You make the tricks.”Odette winked, pulling away. Harmful magic had been outlawed in the Twelve Tables in the fifth century B.C.E., but Odette paid that no heed. Eva had grown up at her knee, weaned on her chants, tablets, and the strange little dolls she made.

The minute she left the room, Mimi climbed up to begin jumping on the bed. Her nose was dusted white with powder.

Eva clapped her hands. “Stop that for a moment and turn around, little ones. Has Odette been taking care of you?”

Both girls presented their backs for inspection and she smoothed the flat of her fingers over their shoulder blades, feeling for the bump of feathers through the fabric of their dresses. It saddened her that they must all hide their natures; but in this world, it kept them safe and was for the best.

“Excellent,” she said. “You‟re smooth as humans.”

“But I want to grow my wings!”shouted Mimi.

“You can‟t,” scolded Lena, shaking a finger at her in imitation of Odette. “Wings are bad. We must clip them so humans won‟t guess what we are.”

“Wing-y ding dings!”Mimi insisted in the high-pitched voice that only a young girl of five could achieve. “I want my fairy wings so I can fly!”She spread her arms on either side of her and jumped in circles around the bed.

Lena rolled her eyes, hugging the bedpost, but a tiny smile tugged at one side of her mouth.

Eva put her hands on her hips. “How do I look, girls? Shall I meet our new client like this, in my robe?”She made as if to leave the chamber.

“No!”The girls giggled over the scandalous notion, laughter changing even Lena back into a child for the moment.

“Well, then, you must choose a dress for me while I fix my hair. Go to my armoire and select something proper for a matchmaker to wear, will you? Vite!”

As if she‟d been charged with a duty upon which the fate of the world rested, Lena dragged a stool to the armoire and began rifling through the gowns that hung within it. Mimi hopped from the bed to the floor in a move that undoubtedly rattled the chandelier on the ceiling below stairs, and joined her.

While the girls argued over the merits of each gown, Eva slipped on her underthings behind a screen and then sat at her dressing table.

Quickly, she arranged her dark hair in a twist and stabbed it with an abalone comb to hold all in place.

Although she‟d come to ElseWorld with her own agenda, she must also satisfy that of the ElseWorld Council, which meant these appointments with clients they sent her from time to time. This would be her fourth such client in three months. Thus far, all had been male—one fey, one Elemental, and one a centaur, who walked on two legs except when affected by a full moon. She‟d managed to match them all with suitable human females, who remained blithely unaware of their new husbands‟ peculiarities thanks to carefully applied magic.

She didn‟t mind utilizing her skill in this way. It was the reason she‟d been allowed to come here after all. And it was the sole source of their income. If she balked at an assignment, the Council might summon her back through the gate. Odette and Pinot as well, which would leave Mimi and Lena here to fend for themselves. They all depended on her for their livelihood, and she must not fail them.

“I‟m ready,” she announced, turning to the girls. “Now, let‟s see—what have you chosen for me?”

When Lena and Mimi displayed their selection, their faces were so full of a need to please that Eva didn‟t have the heart to tell them how unsuitable it was. Hiding her dismay, she proclaimed it perfect for the occasion and stepped into it. Dressing on her own was far easier since the bustle had gone out of fashion two years earlier, though Parisian fashion plates in the ladies‟ journals hinted at its imminent resurrection. For now, the popular styles remained slim and tight-fitting with a train.

After she‟d hooked the gown‟s fastenings, she drew on long white gloves to disguise wrists that were chafed from the ropes of last night.

“Go! Both of you. Find Odette and Pinot. Ask them to tell our guest that I‟ll be down in just another moment.”

“Wait!” begged Mimi. “No gloves. Wear your maman‟s jewels.

Pleeese!”

“I‟ll go,” said the ever-obedient Lena, leaving the room to search for Odette.

Opening the enameled box on Eva‟s dressing table, which had fascinated her from the moment she‟d seen it, Mimi selected an assortment of rings, necklaces, and bracelets. Eva tugged off the gloves and waved her closer. “Hurry, then. Bring them.”

After she‟d been more than sufficiently weighted with sparkles and gems, Eva declared, “All right. It‟s enough.”She gazed at her reflection in the mirror, smiling ruefully. The emerald taffeta ball gown with its long train and abundant jewels was a ridiculous choice for morning. But the sense of pride she‟d given the girls by wearing this ensemble made it the perfect choice. What did it matter if her client thought her eccentric?

Those in her profession usually were.

Quickly, she and Mimi made their way downstairs and stepped into the small, stately salon that served as her office. Her newest client stood inside examining a mosaic puzzle box that had been her mother‟s and now sat on a shelf behind her desk among curios, children‟s fairy-tale books, periodicals, thick tomes, and other clutter.

His back was to her. It was broad, his shoulders wide. His hair was dark, and he was at least a head taller than she. And familiar. Her nape tingled with a strange, sudden awareness. Instinctively, she took a single step backward, contemplating flight.

Seeming to notice her arrival, he turned her way and paused, his silver gaze sweeping her.

Oh, Gods! It was him! The man from the olive grove.

Mimi skipped inside, but Eva only stood there frozen in the doorway waiting for recognition to fill his expression. Instead, there was only faint surprise. And humor. He was amused by her clothing.

But he didn‟t recognize her!

Dane sat across from the occupant of the desk, genuinely intrigued by her as he hadn‟t been by a woman for as long as he could remember. He hadn‟t given any thought to what he‟d expected a matchmaker and her premises would be like, but he was certain that if he had, he could not have imagined this. For there was nothing at all expected about this room and its bizarre occupants.

In the garden, he‟d been briefly interrogated before being invited inside by the diminutive, stocky man who appeared to have more than a few drops of pixie blood in him. In true pixie fashion, the fellow was fixated on matters of finance and had discussed the matchmaker‟s exorbitant fee even as he led him to this salon. A mulatto serving woman had arrived next, her face dour and suspicious. Her blood was so mixed that it was impossible to discern her ancestry even with his gifted nose.