“But what?”
She was silent for a moment. “I lost my keys,” she said.
I frowned. It seemed like an odd comment to make. Blackburn, however, simply laughed at this. “It still has the better of you, doesn’t it?”
I could see Ms. Fletcher flushing. “I don’t see what problem you have working with me. The man who tried to shoot the boy was working for someone else. We should be focusing on discovering what those sands do.”
“The problem is, Shasta,” Blackburn said, growing solemn again, “this operation was sloppy. When my people are sloppy, it makes me look incompetent. I’m not very fond of that.” He paused, then looked at her. “This is not a time we can spare mistakes. Old Smedry is in this town somewhere.”
Ms. Fletcher paused. “Him? You think it was him?”
“Who else?” Blackburn asked.
“There are a lot of elderly Oculators, Radrian,” she said.
Blackburn shook his head. “I should think that you, of all people, would recognize the Old One’s handiwork. He’s in the city, after the same thing that we were.”
“Well,” Ms. Fletcher said. “If Leavenworth was here, he’s gone now. He’ll have the boy out of Inner Libraria before we can track him down.”
“Perhaps,” Blackburn said quietly.
I squirmed. As I listened, I’d revised my earlier opinion of Blackburn. I didn’t like this man. Blackburn seemed too… thoughtful. Careful.
Dangerous.
“I’ve always been curious,” Blackburn said, as if to himself. “Why did they leave a Smedry of the pure line to be raised in Inner Libraria? Old Leavenworth must have known that we would find the boy. That we would watch him, control him. It seems like an odd move, wouldn’t you say?”
Ms. Fletcher shrugged. “Perhaps they just didn’t want him. Considering his… parentage.”
What? I thought. Say more on that!
But Blackburn didn’t. He just shook his head thoughtfully. “Perhaps. But then this child seems to have an inordinately powerful Talent. And there were always the sands. Old Smedry must have known, as we did, that the sands would arrive on the boy’s thirteenth birthday.”
“So, they used the boy as bait for the sands,” Ms. Fletcher said. “But we got to them first.”
“And old Smedry ended up with the child. Who gained the better half of the deal, I wonder?”
Tell me where the sands are! I thought. Say something useful!
“As for the sands,” Ms. Fletcher said. “There is the matter of payment….”
Blackburn turned, and I caught a flash of emotion on his face. Anger?
Ms. Fletcher raised a finger. “You don’t own me, Blackburn. Don’t presume to think that you do.”
“You’ll get paid, woman,” Blackburn said, smiling.
It was not the type of smile one wanted to see. It was dark. Dark as the footprints I had followed. Dark as the hatred in a man’s eyes the moment he does something terrible to another person. Dark as an unlit street on a silent night, when you know something is out there, watching you.
It was from this smile that I realized where Radrian Blackburn got the title “Dark” Oculator.
“You would sell the child too, wouldn’t you?” Blackburn said, still smiling as he removed his monocle, rubbed it clean, then placed it in his pocket. “You would pass him off for wealth, as you did with the sands. Sometimes you impress even me, Fletcher.”
Ms. Fletcher shrugged.
Blackburn placed a different monocle onto his eye.
Wait, I thought. What am I forgetting?