Cassandra Palmer 1(84)
Mircea smirked at Louis-Cesar's expression. «She grew up at one of our courts. Did you really think she would not grasp the situation? Now remove the mage,» he ordered Raphael. «We will talk business with our Cassandra in private.» Pritkin was wrestled from the room, and I for one was glad to see him go. If I never met another war mage in my life, I'd count myself lucky. I waited to see what the Senate's continued help was going to cost me.
«We will not turn you over to the Circle, mademoiselle.» Louis-Cesar's eyes, which were back to blue, shone with sincerity. I stared at him. Was he really that naive, or was it all part of the honorable-little-boy routine?
«But we may not be able to protect you if their ally wins the duel tonight,» Mircea added. «Rasputin would decide things then, and I would not like to see you in his power. The Silver Circle might kill you if you fall into their hands, but I do not wish to speculate about what the Black will do. It is to your advantage that we win, Cassandra.»
We looked at each other and had one of those moments of perfect understanding. Ah, enlightened self-interest: the coin of my old world. It felt good to get back on familiar ground. No talk of honor with Mircea; just plain business. «Did you train Tony or what?»
Mircea laughed delightedly. Louis-Cesar shot him an unhappy look before turning his eyes back to me. «Mademoiselle, until tonight, I did not truly believe that anyone could do what you can. But now that I know, I have hope again. The Pythia is the final arbiter of disagreements within the magical community, our Supreme Court, if you like. Without a strong Pythia, with the power to enforce her rulings, the problem between the light Fey and the Silver Circle may escalate to war, as ours with the Black already has. The structure of our world is fracturing.»
He glanced at the door and Mircea cocked his head slightly. «The spell is active. Even with enhanced hearing, Pritkin cannot eavesdrop. Tell her.»
Louis-Cesar looked at me and I got that feeling again of power sliding along my skin. His control was slipping. I thrust my bracelet into my pocket so it wouldn't go nuts. I didn't want to find out what would happen if it attacked him. «We believe that a challenger to the Consul, Lord Rasputin, is using the missing sybil in his bid for power. For months, Senate members have been attacked by their own retainers. In some cases those who have served them for centuries, who were thought completely loyal, have turned on them without warning. The guards in the Senate chamber who attacked you were some of these. Sworn to the Consul's own power, still they turned. Now we may understand why.»
Maybe I was missing something. I wasn't exactly at my best. «Okay, why?»
Rafe came forward and knelt at my feet. I petted his messy curls and felt a little better. He couldn't do a damn thing for me, but it was nice having him around. «Don't you see, mia stella? The sybil must have traveled in time as you did, and somehow she interfered with the bonding between servants and masters. It has long been thought that the Pythia experiences all times at once, instead of traveling only in one direction as we do. It may be that the missing sybil is gaining power as you have recently done. Only she has used the power for harm.»
«Wait a minute.» My head hurt. «There are so many problems with that statement, I don't know where to start. How do you interfere with a bond that close? And how about the fact that I'm not the heir? Pritkin made that pretty clear.»
«No,» Louis-Cesar said, «he made it clear that he did not wish the power to come to you. But obviously he fears that it has, at least in part, or he would not have tried to kill you. I apologize for that. If we had truly believed him that hostile, we would not have allowed him to stay. But we hoped he would confirm our suspicions.»
«Which he did, after a fashion,» Mircea commented. «He may not have said as much, but his reactions make it clear that part of the power the Pythia holds has leaked to Cassie, and therefore in all likelihood to the other heir as well.»
I shook my head. «But Pritkin said the Pythia can't possess people, so her heir wouldn't be able to either, right? And if that's true, it would really limit what she could do. Energy reserves are used up fast in other times, real fast. Especially if you do anything more than stand around. When I was, um, in Louis-Cesar, I didn't have that problem, but if she can't latch on to a human energy source, she won't last long enough to do very much.»
«She might not need long,» Mircea said thoughtfully. «The act of creating a new vampire is a delicate process. Any deviation can have very unfortunate results.»