squid kindly sent us flying over the city in a destroyed rickshaw that was about to plunge Louis-Cesare—this is Louis-Cesare, by the way,” I added, introducing my husband’s ass, because that was all that was sticking out of the tumbleweed at the moment.
“Hello,” the bruiser told it.
I decided to let him loose so he could drink his beer, which he did very politely.
“Anyway,” I continued, “we were about to plunge to our deaths, so I shoved us both in here, figuring that it gave us the best chance to survive—”
“And where’s here?” the girl interrupted.
“A stationary portal in non-space, kind of like the phase that allows this city to exist, only much smaller. I had a mage put the doorway in my purse—”
“You carry a phased arsenal around in your purse?”
“You’d get answers faster if you didn’t keep interrupting me,” I pointed out.
“Then get on with it!”
“I’m trying.” I was also trying to hold onto my temper, because we needed them. But she wasn’t making it easy.
“Anyway, we survived the fall, obviously, so here’s the deal. Louis-Cesare and I were at the fights hoping to meet you. Zheng-zi said you might be able to help us out—”
“When are you going to get to the point?” she practically shrieked.
I paused. “And which point would that be?”
“Why we’re in what looks like the goddamned dead zones on the horn of some monster, that’s what!”
I looked at her in confusion. “That’s where the purse landed?”
“Auggghhhh!”
She actually said that. And then pulled at her hair with both fists in a way that had me wondering if she was deranged. Since her next move was to round on the dark mage, who had already downed three of the beers and was popping the top on number four, I was pretty sure the answer was yes.
“You said this wouldn’t happen!”
He looked at her over the top of his beer can. “Sorry?” It was sarcastic as hell.
Despite myself, I was warming to the guy.
The girl, on the other hand, clearly was not.
“Auggghhhh!” she said again, and proceeded to do some more hair pulling.
I watched her enviously.
Must be nice.
“Is there a problem?” I asked, looking at the mage, who seemed the most clear headed. “Because we were told that you guys are experts on—”
The girl laughed. It was not a nice sound. “We’re all going to die,” she announced. And then she, too, raided my fridge.
This is why I stock crap beer, I thought. People always drink it all anyway, so why keep the good stuff? She came out with a can, looked for a place to sit down, didn’t find one and plopped back onto the floor where she’d been.
I eyed her warily.
“See,” I began.
“We aren’t experts in anything,” the dark mage said, starting beer number five. “It’s all bullshit.”
“Excuse me?” I blinked at him politely.
“It’s a living,” the bruiser agreed.
“What . . . is a living?”
“He had this thing,” the girl said, her voice tragic. She suddenly looked like she sounded, with her long, dark hair everywhere and her eyes huge and staring. She drank beer, and wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. “Zheng-zi, I mean. A tattoo, one of the magical kind, you know?”
I nodded.
“Well, Ranbir had seen one like it before—”
“Who’s Ranbir?”
The dark mage lifted his beer can.
“That’s him,” the girl confirmed. “That’s my brother Jason,” she added, indicating the still unconscious dude on the floor. “I’m Sarah and that’s Ev. I mean, Evelyn.”
“Your name . . . is Evelyn?” I asked the bruiser, because I assumed that I’d misheard.
He sighed. “I get that a lot. It’s British. My mum was British.”
“Okay.”
“It’s usually pronounced Eev-lin,” he added helpfully. “Sarah keeps forgetting, because she usually just calls me Ev.”
“Uh huh.”
“You know, it used to be given more to boys than girls. It’s from the seventeenth century and means ‘desirable one.’ But I guess people thought that better fit a woman, and after a while—”
“I’ll give you a beer if you stop talking,” Ranbir offered.
Evelyn considered it.
He took the beer.
“Anyway,” Sarah said, eyeing them. “Zheng didn’t understand what he had. I was sort of surprised, as he’s triad—or he was, I don’t know about now—”
“He’s still triad,” Ranbir said. “It’s a lifelong thing.”
“Well, anyway, the triads all have tats, don’t they?” she asked, pushing messy hair out of her face. “So, I thought he’d know, but it was obvious that he didn’t.”
“Know what?” I asked.
“How the tat worked. This Eternity thing—”
“What Eternity thing? You mean the symbol they all wear?”
She nodded and pulled