The voice from below murmured.
“Don’t,” B said. “Please. Coming here, talking to you…this is hard enough without stirring up all those old memories.” He stood, slung his battered knapsack over his shoulder, and trudged toward home, lost in the fog of the past.
2
I’m impressed, Marla. I was sure you’d check us into some fleabag in the Tenderloin.”
Marla glanced over. Rondeau stood on the balcony of their suite in a posh hotel near union Square, beneath the darkening sky. He seemed happy and relaxed, and for an irrational instant, she was furious with him—didn’t he understand how serious things were? But of course he didn’t, not really. Because she hadn’t told him. Marla’s life was threatened on a regular basis, and he probably thought this was just more of the same, an ordinary assassination plot. She hadn’t elaborated, because she was ashamed of the position she’d let Susan put her in. Marla had never thought the woman was a real threat, and was paying the price for her carelessness now. She forced herself to answer him calmly. “The Tenderloin? Is that the meatpacking district?” She emptied her capacious leather bag onto the bed and started spreading things out.
“I don’t think San Francisco has a meatpacking district. But it’s the seedy part of town, lots of strip clubs, bars, stuff like that. Seems like more of your kind of place.”
“I don’t like going into strange dark alleys any more than you do, Rondeau. Back home, I know the dark alleys, and I know I’m the most dangerous thing that’s likely to be walking up and down in them. Now that I’ve pissed off one of the big local sorcerers—who’s maybe a body-jumper, if what the old man told you is true—I plan to stay out of the shadows as much as possible. But you’re right, I wouldn’t have picked this hotel. I let Hamil make reservations for me. He thinks room service is humanity’s greatest achievement.”
Rondeau wandered in from the balcony. “Do you think Hamil can keep a lid on things back home, keep Susan from casting her spell right away?”
“I hope so. They used to be friends, though she doesn’t completely trust him since he became my consiglieri. But I’ve got one advantage. Susan thinks she’s still acting in secret. She doesn’t know that I know her plans—I’ve got an informant on her staff—so maybe Hamil can stall her until I find the Cornerstone. I told him to do whatever’s necessary to distract her.”
Rondeau frowned. “What, you mean, like, sleep with her?”
“Conspire with her to overthrow me was more what I had in mind.” She shrugged. “Everybody knows I’m tough to work for, so maybe she’ll believe he’s willing to betray me.”
“Are you worried about her, Marla?” Rondeau said, pointedly not looking at her, riffling through a neighborhood dining guide that came with the room. “Susan, I mean. How bad is this, on a scale of pretty bad to catastrophe?”
Marla thought about how to answer that. She was doing her best not to dwell on the threat that hung over her, just to deal with it, but the fact was, she was frightened. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been frightened when she wasn’t in actual physical danger. “If I can’t stop Susan from casting the spell she has planned, it’s going to be beyond catastrophe. Her plans are dangerous enough that I’d just assassinate her, if I could, and you know I don’t like messing with the balance of power that openly.”
“So why don’t you?” Rondeau said. “Maybe coming here and finding the Cornerstone seemed like an elegant solution this morning, but since it’s turned out to be more complicated than expected, maybe we should fly back home and gear up for battle.”
“I wish I could. Susan has defenses. At the first sign of danger, she’d go deep into the basement of that skyscraper she owns—and the basement goes down even farther than the building goes up, from what I’ve heard—and fill every doorway and passage with traps, mercenaries, and thugs. It would take days to break through, and by then, it’ll be too late. I just found out this morning about the spell Susan has in mind, and she’s going to cast it in a day or two. I can’t kill her in time to stop it. She knows she can’t take me out head-on, so she’s spent the past year preparing a big magic to wipe me out for good. I can’t combat her spell, not on such short notice, unless I find the Cornerstone—I can use its powers to protect myself. But after I find the Cornerstone, yeah, we’ll go back home and wipe out Susan. She’s gone too far this time. I have better things to do than engage in all-out war, but she’s left me no choice.”