what are you doing?”
“This ball has a seal on it. It is a code of structures that must be passed through quintessence and altered, in order. This is how I read the code.”
“But—”
“Jess. Let me work! This isn’t like solving a child’s puzzle.”
He sat back, watching as her slender hands touched, spun, and changed symbols in the air. Finally, she took in a breath and said, “There. That feels right,” and pushed her hands together. The letters vanished, and she reached out to place her fingers on the ball.
The ball seemed to vibrate and then folded back with a sharp hiss. Jess expected to see a tangle of wires and cables and gears, but it was empty except for a small rolled scroll of paper.
“What is that?” Glain asked. She seemed as fascinated as Jess.
“The script,” Thomas answered. “The instructions that set the boundaries for the lion and give it the rules it must follow.”
Morgan nodded. “Exactly. What do you want the lion to do?” She reached for a pen that Glaudino had left on a stack of papers on the table.
“I want it to be our champion,” Thomas said.
It took another hour to puzzle out how to put the lion back together, but they managed. Jess was proud of his handiwork—or Thomas’s, really; he’d just donated his hands to the job. He sat back on his heels and looked at Thomas, Morgan, and Glain, and said, “Ready?”
“Ready,” Thomas said. “Let’s see if she works.”
Glain’s head suddenly turned in the direction of the outer workshop, and she took a step toward the door, then back. “Santi and the others,” she said. “They’re coming in.”
Jess nodded and reached the switch beneath the lion’s jaw just as the others crowded into the small workshop.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Wolfe asked. He sounded exhausted and, of course, irritable. He would be. They’d been a long time getting here, and no doubt there was a story to it Jess wanted to hear . . . but not now.
Wolfe was probably shocked when Thomas turned to him and shushed him, but Jess didn’t look up. He was sweating and feeling uncomfortably close to this creature now that it was no longer in pieces. “Here it goes.”
He pressed the switch and quickly backed up to stand next to Thomas and Morgan. “This will work, won’t it?” he asked Thomas. “A little reassurance would be nice. We don’t have room to run in here.”
Reassurance didn’t come from Thomas, but from the lion. The dull eyes took on a shimmer, then a baleful red shine. It turned its head to fix those unblinking eyes on Jess, and . . . made a sound low in that metallic throat that sounded almost like a purr.
Jess was used to hearing them growl, but he’d never heard that sound before. Before he could ask Thomas if that was a good sign, the lion’s head pushed forward and pressed against his chest, and the mechanical purring grew so loud, it vibrated through Jess’s body. He awkwardly patted the thing’s head. His whole body still felt tight and nervous. “Good girl,” he said. “Is it a girl?”
“Jess,” Thomas said. “It’s a machine. But I think I will call her Frauke. Do you like that name, Frauke?”
“It’s an automaton. It can’t like—” But the lion was turning from him to nudge her nose against Thomas’s chest now. Purring. It seemed beyond odd.
Morgan came next, and she smiled when the lion’s massive nose pushed at her. “Frauke,” she said. “It means ‘little lady,’ doesn’t it? It suits her.” She stroked the metal ears.
“If you’re finished making a pet out of this monster—” Wolfe said, and stopped as Frauke’s head snapped in the direction of his voice and the purring switched to a low, ominous rumble.
“No, no, Frauke. He’s one of us.” Thomas gestured to Wolfe, who looked back as if he thought they’d all gone mad. “Come, Scholar, she needs to learn who you are.”
Wolfe didn’t like it—at all—and that didn’t change even when Frauke’s growls changed to purrs. He suffered the nuzzling with a bitter expression of distaste before he moved well back, and pushed Santi forward in his place.
“Brilliant,” Santi said, and patted Frauke on the head. No hesitation there; he clearly liked the creature. Santi stepped aside to let Khalila crowd forward, and then Dario. “She’ll not only confuse our enemies, but confront them, too. No one questions a party of Scholars and High Garda walking with an official lion