Any Other Name (The Split Worlds) - By Emma Newman Page 0,59
weren’t like them. Then when you returned from Exilium Sam told us you knew about things one of your kind normally wouldn’t. Can you explain how?”
“I lived in Mundanus for a while.”
“That’s not usual for a female puppet,” Ekstrand said.
She swore under her breath. “Look, if we’re going to actually work with each other you need to stop calling me that. I have a name, it’s Cathy. It’s not my fault I was born into Society, it’s not my fault the bloody Fae are constantly screwing up my life. I’m a person, and not like all of the other people who live in the Nether.”
“I apologise,” Ekstrand said.
“Point taken,” Max acknowledged. She would always be a puppet though, regardless of how she chose to delude herself. “Can you explain why you spent time in Mundanus?”
“Look, let’s get to the point here, I don’t have time to justify myself to you both. We need to make a deal and quick, before someone notices I’m gone. I ran away from my family, I lived in Mundanus for about three years. Lord Poppy, the bastard, found me and dragged me back into Society. I had a plan to make a deal with you guys that day you took me, so I could escape before I was married off. But because you were so busy playing your Us versus Them game and wouldn’t listen to me, I’ve been married off to a man I hardly know. Now, if you want my help you need to get me out of the Nether and protected from Lord Iris, Lord Poppy and the rest of the so-called Great Families before my husband rapes me in the name of consummating a marriage, or I’m going to be a lot less inclined to help you. Clear enough?”
“We’ll get you out,” the gargoyle said, coming out of the shadows. “Right?”
Max gave it a steady stare, willing it to back off. “You’ve made your point, pup… Cathy. You hid from your family, so you know the best way to hide using the Charms and artefacts available to those in Society, yes?”
She nodded. “You want me to tell you how I did it?”
“Yes,” Ekstrand said.
“No,” Cathy replied. “I can’t do that.”
“But you need to help us so we help you,” Ekstrand said. “What harm could it do to–”
“No,” she repeated, more forcefully. “I can’t tell you, I’m sorry. It would break a promise. But I can still help. Do you want to speak to a particular Rosa, or just any?”
“We want to speak to the head of the Gallica-Rosa line or the Alba-Rosa line,” Max replied. They were complicit in the plot against the Master of Ceremonies, and the two most powerful families in the Londinium Court. It stood to reason that one of them would know something useful.
“If I tell you where you can find them, I want you to free me from this curse and hide me from the Fae in return. You can do that, right?” She was looking at Ekstrand. “I mean, you’re probably one of the few people in the Split Worlds who’d know how.”
“I could,” Ekstrand said. “But I’ll only do that when I know I no longer need you in Fae-touched Society.”
“But she needs to get away from them now!” The gargoyle’s voice was half-growl.
“One more word from you and you’re out,” Ekstrand said, pointing a long finger at him. He looked back at the puppet. “This is just the first step to finding out what we need to know. The information you provide will help, but not solve the issue. If I’m to free you from the ties of your blood, you need to work harder than that.”
“You’re all the same,” she muttered. “You don’t give a shit about people, we’re just the proverbial pawns on the chessboard.”
“It’s the way of the Worlds,” Ekstrand said, without sympathy. “There is far more at stake than your happiness.”
The puppet fidgeted for a moment and then said, “All right then, if you insist on being just the same as the Fae, how about this: I’ll tell you where to find the head of the Gallica-Rosa line but in return I want you to find all the information you can on an employee of the Agency. She was a servant, not a member of one of the Great Families, so it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Then if you need me to help with your Rosa problem, I will. In return you help me to get out