"No, I can’t. But if your Aedh is right about the void, then we can keep the book safe in the brief moments it is here on earth while leading the Raziq in a completely different direction."
I studied him a moment, contemplating his words, sensing the slight edge of excitement rolling through the heat that surrounded him. "I’m guessing this means there is a locator spell on the book, and that you’re planning to use it to lead them astray?"
He nodded. "We have managed to mirror the spell. Another Mijai has been assigned the task."
"But will the Raziq be stupid enough to fall for the charade for long?"
"The Raziq do not think much outside the box when it comes to human behavior. And the spell on the Dušan’s book has been created in such a way that humans wouldn’t be able to sense it."
"And yet they know a reaper is helping me, so you’d think they’d factor that into the equation."
He smiled. A real smile—the sort of smile that lit up his face and made my hormones do a weird little dance. "The Aedh, as a whole, have about as much respect for us as humanity does. In fact, at least humanity fears us. That is more than can be said for the Aedh."
"You like the fact that humanity is scared by the grim reaper image?"
"Of course not, and that is not what I meant."
"So what did you mean?"
"Simply that the Aedh rarely take our presence into account when contemplating whatever it is they spend their days contemplating. We are simply the messengers—the soul delivery people, if you will."
"Even the Mijai?"
"The Mijai only came into existence once the power of the Aedh began to wane. There was a need to be filled, so we filled it."
And it had been done out of their extraordinary sense of duty, I thought, rather than any real desire to fill the void created by the absence of the Aedh.
"It could be a dangerous task for the Mijai assigned the task of misleading the Raziq. They’ll be far from happy if they realize what is going on."