Time to Your Elf, page 18
“Corvin Hunter,” Corvin said with a nod. He had apparently not introduced himself when he had seen the man the previous day.
“When you came yesterday, did you land inside or outside?” Reg asked curiously.
Had he surprised the warlock by making a sudden appearance inside his house? Or had Corvin knocked on his door to ask for help after being dumped outside by Harrison?
“And why are you here?” Kareem said, ignoring Reg’s question and talking over her. He addressed Corvin. He was the man, after all. A warlock in the States would probably have assumed that Corvin was in charge too. Reg had found them to be remarkably sexist. “What brings you back to my home again?”
“Reg wanted to speak with you,” Corvin said, nodding in her direction. “She asked me to accompany her.”
Kareem looked in Reg’s direction, but didn’t seem to think much of her. He continued to address Corvin, eyes intent on him.
“You could not get back to the US and here again in a day.”
“I did. But not on a plane.”
“You said you had to catch a plane. That you needed help. You lied?”
“No,” Corvin assured him. “I was looking for a plane in order to get out of the country, but that’s not what I ended up doing. It turned out… there was no way I could get on a flight without papers or a significant amount of money, and I had not been prepared with either before I was sent here.”
“Of course you cannot fly without papers or money. You should have known that.”
“I didn’t come here by choice. I was brought against my will.”
“You are a warlock. I can feel that your powers are great. Why would you let someone do that?” His eyes flicked to Reg again. “It was her?”
“No. She brought me back today. With my permission, of course. Yesterday was… somebody with greater power than I.”
The man scratched at his scrubby beard. “What are your questions?” he asked, finally looking at Reg and meeting her gaze.
“Are you Horace’s owner?”
“Yes. I didn’t call him that, but… yes. Do you know what happened to him?”
“I was hoping that you could explain it to me. I know where he is, but I don’t know what happened before. What happened here before he was brought back to America?”
“You say he is in America?”
“Yes. He’s at my house right now. He’s safe, you don’t need to worry about him.”
“Of course I am very concerned. Everything that happened here was very confusing.”
Reg nodded. She found pretty much everything Harrison did to be confusing. “Can you tell me what happened? Did Harrison just show up here and demand to see Horace?”
“He did not so much demand…” Kareem trailed off, thinking about it. “He was suddenly here. Without coming through the door or setting off my wards or any kind of warning. He was not here, and then he was. Like…” he looked at Starlight. “Like one of them.”
Reg was going to say, “Like a cat?” But then she thought maybe he meant “like an immortal” and she didn’t want to reveal anything about Starlight’s previous life and history to him, so she kept her mouth shut. There were far more important things to focus on.
“What did he say?”
“He was here, petting Hassam. Horace.”
“Yes?”
“He called the cat another name. Not Horace.”
“Destine?”
“Yes. Yes, I think that was it. Destine. Why did he call him that? I thought that Hassam was owned by that other woman before me. That Haitian woman.”
“Francesca.”
“Yes. She was his owner before, was she not? She was the owner of the mother?”
“She owns Nicole. Yes.” Reg looked at Corvin, asking him in her mind whether she should give Kareem the history, to explain to him about the Witch Doctor being joined to each of the kattakyns and their efforts to keep the kattakyns away from each other permanently. Or as permanently as magic and physics would allow.
Corvin gave a slight shake of his head. Don’t tell him.
Reg shifted uncomfortably. She looked down at Starlight and petted him. He shook off her touch and jumped to the floor. Kareem said nothing. For a few minutes, they all just watched Starlight exploring the room.
“The man who came, he didn’t say how he knew Horace?” Reg asked. “That is, Hassam?”
“He did not say he owned him,” Kareem admitted. “I thought that must be why he was here and how he knew the cat. But… maybe I was mistaken. Or maybe he just knew Hassam casually, and the Francesca woman owned him.”
Reg nodded. “Did he say why he was here? Did he do anything? Or did he just take Horace away?”
“He petted him, talked to him…” Kareem shook his head. He put his hands out, palms up, in a pleading gesture. “I do not know. I could not understand it.”
Reg knew how Harrison behaved around Starlight and assumed he had been the same way with Horace. As if Starlight were an old friend, or an old enemy. An old acquaintance, anyway, one that he was apparently eager to talk to and engage with. Harrison always seemed too intimate with Starlight, too familiar with him. As if there were no social or species barrier between them.
“Yes. I know what you mean. Did he say anything in particular? Did he say that he wanted to take Horace away? Or to do something with him?”
“He just… petted him. Then took him. The two of them disappeared.” Kareem shook his head. “That is all. He picked him up and talked to him, and then he took him away.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Reg sighed. She followed Starlight with her eyes while trying to figure out what else she could ask Kareem. He didn’t seem to know anything at all. She had been hoping that he would be able to provide a little background and insight at least. But that didn’t seem to be the case.
She looked over at Corvin, who didn’t have any suggestions or questions of his own.
Reg was getting a prickly feeling from Starlight. He didn’t like it there. Was it because something had happened to Horace there? Because Harrison had been there and taken Horace away? But Starlight liked Harrison. They were friends. He wouldn’t have minded that.
But he didn’t like Corvin, so maybe part of it was Corvin’s presence there. And he didn’t know the other warlock.
Reg looked at Starlight and waited until he turned and looked her in the eye. The sense of unease grew. Not just a wariness, but a sense that something was very wrong.
She supposed she had done what they had gone there for. To talk to Kareem and see if he knew anything. Unfortunately, he didn’t. But Reg didn’t want to turn around and go home again so quickly.
She still had the gems. Maybe Kareem could help her with those. Reg reached into the pocket of her skirt and touched the bag of gems. She looked at Starlight’s blue and green eyes, remembering the lapis lazuli and turquoise among the other precious stones.
“Can I ask you something else?” Reg asked. “Changing the subject. Do you know… about gemstones in Egypt? Where they come from? Who mines them?”
Kareem blinked at her, slow and thoughtful, like a cat. “Who mines the gemstones in Egypt? What does this have to do with Hassam?”
“Nothing. Like I said, it is a change of topic. Just something that I thought I would look into while I was here.”
Corvin’s eyes were sharp, his attention fully on her. He hadn’t sensed her intention before that. Hadn’t realized that she had gone to Egypt for something other than just asking Kareem about Horace and Harrison.
“There are mines here,” Kareem said slowly. “I do not know much about them. They are mostly run by large corporations. Very few are privately-owned anymore. The mining for precious stones is done by big companies.”
“And where do the workers live? Are they in the city? Or do they have a camp or a village somewhere else?”
He stroked the patchy whiskers on his chin. “I do not know… they do not circulate in my circles. Why do you ask this? What do you want with miners?”
“I have… something that belongs to them. Something that I wanted to return to the rightful owners.”
Corvin’s consciousness was pressing against hers. She tried to push him out of her head. He wanted to know what she was talking about, what she had, what she intended to do. None of it was any of his business, and she was regretting that she had brought him with her. She hadn’t thought about how he was going to behave if he found out that she had precious gemstones with her. That she hadn’t gotten rid of them all on her previous mission. Corvin was just as greedy as anyone else. Though more for the power of the stones than their monetary value. Maybe he would be interested in their history as well. He liked all that history stuff.
Reg turned her head to glare at Corvin. It had always been difficult to keep him out of her mind. And now he was even more insistent. He gave a slight shake of his head. Because, of course, he didn’t want to be kicked out. He wanted more information. Much more than she intended to give him.
“I am not the right person to talk to,” Kareem told her, shaking his head. “Perhaps… I can find those who can help you. But it will take time.”
The stones were warm in Reg’s hand in the pocket of her skirt. They were eager to be returned to their rightful owners. Reg had brought them all the way to Egypt and she hated to go back to the US without dealing with them. The stones would not be happy if she just turned around and took them back home.
“You’re sure you don’t know anyone who could help me today?”
“Tonight?” Kareem shook his head. “Everyone is closing up their businesses and going home. That hour is past. Even if I had someone for you to go to, I wouldn’t be able to get you any help until the morning.”
“Okay. Well. If you can’t, you can’t, of course. I guess… maybe I’ll leave you my information, and then when you find something out, you can call or email me?”
He shrugged.
Reg dug into her purse, moving things around to look for her business cards. She’d had some nice ones printed when she had first come into possession of the gems. Not the cheap paper ones printed on a personal inkjet printer, but properly engraved cards on thick, glossy ivory stock. They looked and felt very sophisticated.
She found the card wallet and pulled one out. She passed it over to Kareem. It wasn’t until she reached out to him with the card that she saw the rings on her fingers. She didn’t even remember putting on the rings as she had looked through her stones and selected the ones to bring with her to Egypt. The rings should have been in the bag in her pocket, with the rest of the stones. She hadn’t intended to put them on.
Kareem took the card from her, but he wasn’t looking at it. He was staring down at the rings. Reg pulled back her hand and tried to fold her fingers into a position that looked natural and that hid the rings from sight. Of course, it was too late. Kareem had already seen them.
“Where did you get those?”
“They are not mine,” Reg said quickly. “I’m just holding on to them.”
“No, they aren’t yours,” Kareem agreed, his dark eyes getting darker and more suspicious. “Where did you get them?”
Reg didn’t tell him. “I am trying to find the rightful owners.”
“This is not something for someone like you to do. One would need to trace the histories of those rings. Where they came from. The genealogies of the true owners. Treasures like this, taken from tombs. Wars have been fought over them. They have traveled the world as men have fought over them.”
Reg nodded. “I know all that. But I can find out. I can find out where they came from and who should get them.” She glanced at Corvin and then away again. “I’ve done it before.”
“Not stones as ancient and acclaimed as these.”
Reg looked down at them self-consciously. “What is the difference? It is still the same thing. They were taken out of this country and traded between people who had no right over them. I want to make that right. Bringing it back to this country is what I need to do to cleanse them.”
“Simply bringing them here does not wash the blood from them! And there are thousands who could claim to be the rightful heirs to these treasures. You will never find the one person who should hold them. It needs to be carefully researched and negotiated.”
Reg had hoped that it would be easier. When she had jumped with Ruan, the stones had led her directly to the mines that they had come from. It had been easy to determine that the miners should be the ones who got the stones to try to care for their families, rather than the warlords, soldiers, and politicians who would have fought over them. But she had jumped to the location she had seen Corvin in, rather than letting the Egyptian stones guide her, so she had not arrived at the right place to find the rightful heirs of the gems and jewelry.
“I will have to look into it further,” Reg said. “I’m not making a decision today. Maybe when you get back to me with the name of someone who knows about mines in Egypt…”
“You cannot be allowed to take those stones back out of the country. You must leave them here. I will safeguard them until you return with more information.”
Like she would let him hold the stones.
Starlight’s wariness and distrust of the warlock was starting to affect Reg. It was not a safe place to leave the gems. She wouldn’t have been likely to anyway, not unless she’d had some reason to believe that Kareem knew about gems and was an appropriate guardian.
Even then.
Reg looked at Corvin, warning him mentally that they would be leaving soon, and it might be in a rush rather than a carefully prepared-for jump. She made kissy sounds to call Starlight back to her and put her hand close to the floor, rubbing her fingers together to encourage him.
Starlight looked at her hand, looked her in the eyes, and then walked directly over to her. He understood why she wanted to leave that place and he agreed. That made it easier. She wouldn’t have wanted to be chasing around after Starlight trying to catch him while avoiding any attempts by Kareem to keep them there. Or to keep the rings there.
Reg had the rings turned around facing her palm so that they were out of sight. She folded her fingers over into a fist and crossed her thumb over. It didn’t exactly do her any good, since Kareem had already seen them, but she hoped that if he weren’t looking at them, his emotions would cool. He could remember what he had seen, but if he weren’t looking right at them, hopefully those feelings would be transitory and he wouldn’t be drawn to the power of the stones.
Corvin stood up. “We should probably be leaving, Regina.”
“Yeah. It’s getting late. We’ll want to get home and have some supper. I have clients coming tonight.” She was babbling, pretending that it had just been an ordinary visit and that they had other things to do. She could feel Kareem’s anger and outrage building. She didn’t want to still be there if he blew his top and decided to act.
“You must leave the rings here,” Kareem insisted again, his tone sharp. “I will keep them safe until you are able to find the correct owners.”
“No. I’m not leaving them here.”
Maybe it would have been wiser to keep her mouth closed instead of broadcasting her defiance. Or pretended that she would give them to him, to allow her time to get ready for the jump and not botch everything up.
But Reg had always been a little bit oppositional. She hated people telling her what to do. Even if someone told her to do something that she wanted to do, a sure way to get her not to do it was to tell her she had to. Her instinct was to push back, to refuse to do anything just because someone told her to.
Reg picked up Starlight and stood beside Corvin. She was trying to quiet her mind, to picture home and to feel it with all her senses. It was not an ideal situation. She should be calm and relaxed in order to get to that meditative place where jumping across the ocean was just as easy as breathing in and out.
Corvin put his hand on her arm. Reg breathed raggedly in, unable to close her eyes because she had to keep looking at Kareem to make sure that he couldn’t reach her before she managed to jump. She couldn’t take her eyes from him and focus on something else, no matter how hard she was berating herself for it. Her body’s instinct for self-preservation and her knowledge of what she had to do to escape were at odds with each other.
Corvin said her name from somewhere far away and encouraged her that it would be a good time to jump. Reg breathed in and out again as Kareem came toward her threateningly.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Kareem was an old man, but he advanced on her quickly, pushing himself up from his chair and reaching toward her. Reg threw up a psychic shield around herself to prevent him from reaching her. It surrounded the three of them—Reg, Starlight, and Corvin. The warlock got closer, as close as he could to the shield. His face was an angry scowl, tight and hard and cold.
“You are a thief! You know that which you hold is not yours! You have no right to possess them or to use their power. I command you to turn them over to me. You cannot continue to hold them. You cannot take them out of the country. This is where they belong, and you know that. Give them to me!”
Reg shook her head. She kept the shield strong around her. She had fought people much more powerful than Kareem before. He was an old warlock, not someone who was used to fighting. He wasn’t an immortal or another siren. He wasn’t the most powerful wizard in the world. He couldn’t do anything to her while she was within the shield.
But unfortunately, neither could Reg. She couldn’t switch from holding the shield in place to jumping them back home. She could only do one or the other. Corvin would not be able to perform any magic outside the shield either, to hit Kareem with a spell that would disable him so that Reg could take them out of there. She hadn’t thought; she had just reacted, and now Reg wasn’t sure how to get out of the situation. She couldn’t do anything without dropping the shield, and she couldn’t drop the shield.
She swore under her breath, and then more loudly. There had to be a way out of it. Maybe Kareem would get tired and decide it wasn’t worth attacking her over. Maybe he would have a heart attack and keel over. Or a stroke. Or an anvil would fall out of the sky, through the roof of the building, onto his head and knock him out. Anything would do, she didn’t really care what it was.
