The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,32
dark green leaves offering up their hearts to the sky. Branches from other trees curved over the walls as if they wanted to enter the garden too. There were benches scattered about, and a stone bridge in an angular geometric pattern, leading to a little green-and-yellow pagoda open to the elements and guarded by a stone creature.
On the bridge was Shinyun.
In a major change from her usual, more traditional clothes, she had gone for razor-sharp tailoring and a blood-red business suit. The Svefnthorn was strapped to her back, its ugly twisted point jutting out behind her head.
This, Magnus thought, was a lot to deal with before coffee.
“Magnus!” Shinyun called to him sharply. “Stay there.” She glanced around. “Or I’ll have to hurt one of these nice little traveling folks. What does one call them? Tourists.”
Magnus weighed his options. They were grim. None of the tourists had turned to look at Shinyun when she spoke: he expected she was glamoured. He could try to lunge in with some warding magic, but at least a few mundanes were likely to be hurt or killed even so, and he wasn’t sure of the current extent of Shinyun’s powers.
He didn’t move as Shinyun approached. Quietly, he began to surround himself with wards. He could at least protect himself from another thorning.
“If you want to fight,” said Magnus lightly, “I’ll have to put you on my calendar. I can’t possibly do anything before I’ve eaten.”
“It needn’t come to that if you don’t do anything stupid,” she said. “I just want to talk.”
“If you want to talk,” said Magnus, “you’d better be ready to talk over breakfast.”
Shinyun drew herself up with dignity and said, “I am.” She brought out a plastic bag from within her purse. “Do you like ci fan?”
“I do,” said Magnus, eyeing the little parcels of glutinous rice. “I like them very much.”
A few minutes later found them seated on benches in the garden. It was a fine morning, sunny and breezy. The osmanthus flowers were blooming in Shanghai, and the wind brought their gentle scent, a little like peach or apricot. He chewed a mouthful of pork and pickled vegetables and felt a little better. Unfortunately, this reminded him that he was breakfasting with an unstable person, who had stabbed him the last time they’d met, with a weapon she currently had with her, and who, if Clary’s dream meant anything, might try to stab him again. On the other hand, at least he was pretty sure the breakfast was not poisoned.
Magnus popped another ci fan into his mouth and checked his protective wards. They were still in place. A charging rhino shouldn’t be able to get through them.
“How did you find me?” he asked around a mouthful. “I ask only out of professional curiosity.”
“We have been in Shanghai for months,” Shinyun said. “Obviously by now we’ve assembled a team of secret informants throughout the city.”
“Obviously,” murmured Magnus. If it turned out that he and his friends hadn’t been able to find Ragnor only because he was more successfully tracking them, he was going to be very annoyed. He hoped the others hadn’t encountered Ragnor on their way to the Institute or anything. On the other hand, he also hoped they didn’t come back before he figured out how to get rid of Shinyun. “So, uh—how’s your evil master? How are his evil plans going?”
“Sammael’s only counsel is his own,” said Shinyun. “I follow his lead without question. It’s very relaxing, actually.”
“So you don’t even know what he’s trying to do? Do you know why he wanted the Book of the White? Do you know why he wanted Ragnor?”
“Oh, that’s easy enough.” Shinyun took a bite. “He wanted Ragnor to find him a realm. And Ragnor did. A while ago. But by then he’d come to accept Sammael’s victory and became his willing minion.”
“His willing minion?” said Magnus, eyeing the Svefnthorn. “That doesn’t sound like the Ragnor Fell I know.”
“Sammael is not like other demons,” Shinyun said. She regarded Magnus thoughtfully. “You think I’m a fool, tying my fortunes to the Serpent of the Garden.”
“No, no,” Magnus protested. “Serpent of the Garden, he sounds very trustworthy.”
“It’s not a matter of trust,” Shinyun said. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay,” said Magnus. “What are you doing?”
“Here on Earth,” Shinyun said, “power is a complicated, strange thing. Humans grant one another power; it’s exchanged, it’s gained and lost—it’s all very abstract. But out there—” She gestured above her.