I thought, staring around. I’m gonna need a bigger room.
And I did, most definitely. But I hadn’t had a chance to address that yet, the original one having been pretty damned costly. So, I’d made do.
Which was why the now rather small-looking space was crammed with shelves of guns, ammo, grenades, and a grenade launcher—easily enough to fight a small war. And cabinets of magical charms, potion bombs and spelled objects, sufficient to make a war mage drool. And decorative displays of more old school weapons mounted on the walls, with fans of everything from swords and pikes to knives and axes.
“The senate’s armory,” I explained, as Louis-Cesare moved forward, appearing as stunned as I had been when Ray had first showed me. “Or as much of it as I could steal, anyway. The room is also soundproofed, so we can talk freely.”
But Louis-Cesare wasn’t talking. Louis-Cesare was exploring, particularly the rack of swords, rapiers and cutlasses on a nearby wall. They’d just been piled up in dusty chests at the consul’s, because nobody really used them anymore, so I’d helped myself. And, of course, I’d taken the pretty ones.
I guessed I must have chosen well, because Louis-Cesare took down one of the rapiers and slashed the air with it a few times. Then looked up at me, his eyes shining.
“I used to have one like this as a boy. It is an antique.”
“Have that one if you like. I took it for you.” I sat on the chair. “I don’t do a lot of fencing.”
“I could teach you.”
“Maybe someday.”
I watched him slash the air some more, and make a few pretty lunges, with his body extended and his form perfect. He never looked so at home as when he had a blade in his hand. It almost didn’t even seem like a weapon anymore, after he picked it up, but more like an extension of his body.
“This is a work of art,” he said admiring the chasing on the piece that fitted over the grip. I thought it was called a knuckle guard, but wasn’t sure. “Are there any more like this?”
“I wasn’t paying that much attention,” I admitted. “You should go take a look for yourself. Haven’t you ever been down there?”
“No. But perhaps I should.” He made a few rolling motions with his wrist, causing the blade to glimmer and gleam as it slowly wove a pattern in the air.
“You might want to give them some time to restock,” I said. “I already took all the good stuff.”
“And this place?” he stopped admiring the sword long enough to look at me. “You made yourself an armory—that you could carry about with you?”
I shrugged. “Technically, the armory is in a pocket of non-space, so I’m not really carrying anything but the fixed mouth to a portal. But, sure. It sounds cooler your way.”
He just looked at me.
“I got tired of running out of weapons,” I explained.
He shook his head, and put the rapier back. And the next moment, I was enveloped in a warm hug. “I do love you,” he said, a smile in his voice. “And I am sorry, for not telling you about your father.”
“Okay.”
Louis-Cesare pulled back after a moment to regard me more soberly. “It isn’t, though, is it? You’re upset.”
“Yes, I’m upset. About that, and about what just happened with Zheng.”
His forehead knitted. “What just happened?”
Damn it, I knew it!
“You were negotiating for me,” I explained patiently. Or as patiently as I was able to manage right now. “I was sitting right there, not two feet away from you, yet I couldn’t get a word in—”
“I would never do that!”
“—edgewise.”
He frowned.
I pinched the top of my nose, because I was getting a headache. I was also getting a heartache, because this was something like the third time that we’d had this conversation, and I wasn’t getting through. I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to.
And what if I didn’t?
Louis-Cesare was watching me and he seemed to get that this was serious. I supposed that was something. I just didn’t know if it would be enough.
“I understand that we’re both used to being on our own,” I said. “To not having anybody to answer to, to making all our own decisions. But—”
“We’re not on our own anymore.”
I shook my head.
He sighed and sat down on the floor beside me. He rested his head on my knee, which was cheating, but I decided I’d allow it. The tiny room stuffed with weapons was