The Dream Crafter(67)
Now, finally, life came back to his eyes, a spark that had been missing since she had come downstairs, and now that she saw it again, she knew what its absence had meant – that he had lost hope, that he was letting go. Now he was back in the game, and she was going to do everything in her power to keep him there. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes.” She tapped down her own fear and only let her determination shine forth.
“Well then,” He tilted her head up, brought his lips to touch her forehead in a move that was loving and grateful and damn near reverential. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
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Leaning against the brick wall, Laire once again looked around. Not that she needed to. For several feet in every direction, she had wards set up to alert her to any nasties, and beyond that she kept her magic at the ready, so high that the few people who had passed this dark alley near nowhere special had scurried past her, the magic level causing an instinctive desire to flee even though they had no magic of their own.
A tremor reached her through one of the wards, and Zemar approached from straight ahead, his own magic – if he had any, the enigmatic scumbucket – hidden or pulled back. “You honor me by choosing to accept my invitation.”
“Cut the crap, shithead. Why did you call me? Shouldn’t you be talking to Fallon? After all, she and your boss made the deal.”
If Reign’s right-hand man took exception to her language, he didn’t show it. He remained unflappable, elegant in the crisp, sharp lines of his suit. “If you had no interest in seeing me, why did you not approach Lady Fallon and tell her of our meeting?”
“Maybe I did,” she challenged, throwing in all the attitude she could into the words.
That only brought the closest Laire had ever seen of true emotion to Zemar’s face, the beginnings of a smile lining his full lips. “I think not. Because if you had, you would not be able to ask me the question that drew you here in the first place, a question you know Lady Fallon will never herself answer.”
Loathing against everything this thing was and stood for coated Laire’s guts, but damn him, he was right. She wanted to know. “You aren’t going to turn me against her.”
A scoff, a turn of the head before he brought that superior, know-it-all face back to her, and questions-and-answers be damned, she was about to blast it off him. “If I thought you were so weak to be turned in such a way, I would destroy you here and now. Your loyalty to her has saved you more than you know. Still, she is not your master, and your loyalty, while complete, is not unquestioning.” Zemar looked at his watch, a deliberate move to rile her up. “My time is precious. Here is the Spellbook,” he said, holding the book out. “You can take it and go, or you can ask your question.”
Laire grabbed the book, making sure she didn’t touch him in the process. He waited, one, two, and three, just as he was about to turn, she asked, “Why was touching Tenro the price? We both know what Reign could have gotten for this book.”
Zemar smiled, a smile that damned her where she stood. “Do you know what Tenro is?”
The path was taken, and she was committed. She wasn’t pulling back now. “I know as much as anyone.”
“Then you know nothing.” Zemar’s superior tone set her teeth to grind. “Tenro is no mere weapon, no inelegant hunk of metal. Boring. Beneath notice. No, Tenro is so much more. It has will and purpose. Tenro is no thing to be wielded. Tenro chooses its master, chooses who it will serve.”
As much as she didn’t want it to, Zemar’s explanation fascinated, and Laire pulled herself back to stop from leaning into the words. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Zemar settled into the story. “Lady Fallon wields Tenro because she, amongst the pitiful multitudes known as humanity, has the strength and force of will to match Tenro, and through her, Tenro will crush all who oppose its purpose. Tenro serves her, but make no mistake, Tenro has its own desires. Tenro chose Lady Fallon because she is aligned in those desires and has the strength to prevail.”
“You’re talking like it’s alive.” Laire refused to let herself shiver – not at the words, not at the reverential tone Zemar had taken as he’d talked about Fallon. She wasn’t going to give him that leverage.
“Not in the sense you are, or in the sense of my Master. Tenro exists beyond such terms. But do not doubt for a moment of its will or its desire.”
She’d heard enough. She’d heard enough, and it was time to bring this back to something she knew, like loathing for the creature in front of her. “So why did Tenro reject Reign? Couldn’t stand the evil bastard?”