back up the stairs. I took a deep breath and darted over it, quiet as a shadow in my spelled shoes. But as I did, Mother Morevna’s voice stopped me just on the other side of the light.
“… she must be monitored to be useful.”
“This whole thing makes me sick to my stomach,” Mr. Jameson said. “And to have her right above me while I work?”
Who? Me? I thought. But I wasn’t above him.…
“Would you rather her…” Then her voice faded and came back again. “… on the walls with the guards?” asked Mother Morevna. “No, it’s best for us… keep her close. At least until we catch them.”
“What happens once we catch ’em?”
“We shall see when we do so,” she said. “Until then…” Her voice quieted again, too quiet for me to hear the rest.
I could tell that the conversation was drawing to a close. I slipped up the stairs and down the hall. But just before I snuck back into my room, I noticed something odd.
The door across from mine, the one that had always lain empty, now had a padlock.
CHAPTER 7
3 MONTHS
AND
18 DAYS
REMAIN.
The next morning, through the window, I watched Asa Skander set himself up a soapbox and a sign: ASA THE GREAT! MAGICIAN EXTRAORDINAIRE! I watched the crowd gather around as he performed all the usual magician fare. Colored handkerchiefs from his sleeves. Coins from ears. And all the while the workmen applauded. It was shocking, really, how well he seemed to be fitting in. I’d expected him to be blamed for the robbery, but the opposite was true. He was well-liked, and no one seemed to have anything bad to say about him. I was a different story. Who knew what rumors might be going around about me today, after what had happened with Trixie? I thought of Trixie’s eyes, blank white, her body rigid.…
“I said, what is the difference between spodomancy and haruspication?” Mother Morevna’s voice snapped me out of my daze.
“Sorry!” I said. “Spodomancy is… telling the future with soot? The patterns and so on?”
Mother Morevna nodded. “And haruspication?”
“Telling the future with… animal bones?” I asked.
“Entrails, not bones,” she said, peering over her reading glasses at me, half-interested. After all, this test was only pretense. Only to appease me and Mr. Jameson.
“Entrails, then,” I said.
She grimaced, her wrinkles deepening around her eyes and mouth as she gritted her teeth and put a hand to her abdomen.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“It’s the… illness,” she said. “It’ll pass… in a… moment.”
And it did. After a few minutes, her wrinkles smoothed, and gingerly, she sat up straight.
“I beg your pardon,” she said. “I just… have a lot to deal with as of late. The Sacrifice and the thieves and all that nonsense. Now then, where were we?”
“Actually, Mother Morevna…” I ventured. “I have a question. About the thieves.”
“Yes?” Mother Morevna raised her impatient gaze to meet mine.
“Are you sure they’re from here in Elysium?” I asked. “Because I… I think that maybe they’re not. They might not be, I mean.”
Mother Morevna was silent for a moment, but when she spoke, it wasn’t to address my question. “What’s that around your neck?” she said, an edge to her voice.
I realized too late that my penny, my Imbued Object, was hanging out of my blouse.
“It’s… uh…” I fumbled. “It’s nothing. I was just doing a little… extra research—”
“Let me see it,” she said. Obediently, I did. But having her hold it and examine it, I felt strangely exposed, vulnerable, powerless. She looked at the penny again, then at me. “Now, what all have you taught yourself behind my back?”
“Er… not much, ma’am,” I said. “Just… um… a wind spell, a fire spell, and a… a little bit of dowsing.”
Mother Morevna rose to her feet. “Come,” she said. She strode across the room and opened her door. She led me down the stairs, and I followed her, trying not to step on her long green skirts.
“Show me,” she said when we reached the sanctuary. “The fire spell. Show me.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pinch of dust. She put it and the penny in my hand and took several steps back, watching me intently.
Faintly, I heard Asa Skander’s voice outside. “Pick a card! Any card!”
I took a deep breath and put the pinch of pepper to my lips.
“Entflammt!” I said, and blew. A tongue of flame the size of my palm leapt out into the air. It burned there above the ground for a few