Mei opened her eyes to the green contours and dark shadows of an interior canopy she didn’t recognize. Then she blinked and the contours and shadows became the green drapes over the bed Dwayne and Rodion had put her in. Judging by the lamplight streaming in from the window, she’d slept till nightfall, probably because of the heavy lunch Fran had insisted on bringing to celebrate Mei’s “moving into society.”
Read more: Chapter 23: Ri’mwe’iki’jie’mun’tha, Incandescent ScreenRolling out of bed, which took some effort as it was wider than her and her brother’s entire room in the Bilges, Mei planted stockinged feet on soft warm carpet and stretched her arms, completely failing to touch a wall as she. In addition to the huge bed and the wide space, the guardians of Sanford had provided a small warehouse of a wardrobe, two cushioned chairs, and a small table. These had delighted Fran to no end, which had convinced Mei to one day invite Mrs. Schofeld over as a thank you for all the good stew. At the moment, however, she had to hand Dwayne her painstakingly written progress report.
Over the past three days, Mei and Charlie had been searching city records and knocking on city doors in a process so excruciating that she’s found herself thinking fondly of the time she’d almost froze to death on a hunt last winter. It didn’t help that Mei had to rack back and forth from the Magisterium to Bradford to mediate Maggie’s persistent attempts to get Fran to work on the project again. Neither mage had asked Mei to do this, but without her, Fran finding some excuse to have lunch off-campus, which would cause Maggie complain and inadvertently extend the fight that neither she nor Fran actually wanted to have but were having anyway.
As a result, it was a relief that Charlie had called off the search to write on his own report and that Fran and Maggie were sleeping in separate rooms, the former at her aunt’s place, the latter at Tarpan, so nothing would be said to make the fight worse. Since it was Huan’s turn to guard, Mei could finally head to Boscage and continue her search for Juanelo on her way, by climbing rooftops and looking in windows.
Just as she finished donning her uniform, the door to her room burst open, and Huan ambled in. “Finally, you’re awake.”
Mei frowned at her brother, who was wearing his old tunic and scarf instead of his uniform. “It’s your turn tonight.”
“About that.” Huan leaned against her door. “I have a date.”
“So?” Mei strapped on her weapons. “I have work.”
“It’s not like that guy is getting any less dead. On a night like this, I bet that scrytive of yours is tossing back beers with his buddies.”
“He’s not.” Mei grabbed her report and Maggie’s sleep bomb. “I’m going.”
She tried to push past him, but her brother caught her by the elbow.
“Hey, wait,” he switched to soft commoner’s Tuquese, “look, I won’t be all night, just for a couple of hours. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Will you?” Mei’s own Tuquese sounded flat in her ears. “And why are you just leaving? Dwayne says that you do that all the time without telling him or Rodion.”
“Because,” her brother’s voice became a growl, “that steward of his is taking our little conversation from the other day very literally. Every time I’m late for my shift, every time I take a break, he docks my pay like I’ve committed some sort of sin.”
That hadn’t been Mei’s experience. That almost sounded like Rodion was suspicious of Huan, whose presence at Sanford did correspond with a cessation of thefts around Bradford.
But that had to be a coincidence. Mei cleared her throat and asked, in Souran, “Who is the date?”
“Does that mean you’re going to cover my shift?” asked Huan in Souran. “Because I’m planning to have a real good time.”
“I don’t need details.” Mei pulled her arm free. “Just be back soon.”
“I will.” He hesitated before leaving. “You’ll be watching the front door, right?”
Mei shrugged. “Sure.”
“Excellent. Wish me luck!”
He ran off, leaving Mei alone in the hallway.
This was fine. He should have swapped her for one of her shifts, but that would have been a hassle for such a short period of time. It was fine that that Dwayne didn’t mention Huan when Mei gave him her report, that Rodion didn’t mention that Huan when she stopped by the kitchen to grab a pastry, that Huan wasn’t at the front door to hand off his shift to her. It didn’t matter that Zelda had said that the thefts had stopped the last few nights, which were the same nights that Huan had been on night duty at Sanford. It didn’t matter that he never said “please” or “thank you” or “how are you?”
This was fine.
What wasn’t fine was how bright Sanford’s courtyard was now that Rodion had had the lamps fixed. Combine that with how high the courtyard’s walls were and the many, many windows of the house meant that the worst place to guard Sanford’s front door was Sanford’s front door.
Fortunately, she could see a solution across the street.
Admaeus Speaks 