Treachery Queen (The Callistra Chronicles #1)

FIFTEEN

Chapter Fifteen

"I think Kalis is a dead end."

Seth rolled his eyes, fixing his rumpled coat hem. Pasiphae perched on the edge of the bath tub, eyeing him down through the mirror.


"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "We just haven't managed to get through to her."

"She's answered maybe two of our ten thousand questions." Pasiphae stood up. "Surely if we had more time with her—"

"Not possible," Seth interrupted. "There's only a ten-minute period each day where no one will enter her room. I researched this for months, Saf. It's dangerous to stay longer."

"It's been two weeks!" Pasiphae exclaimed, slamming her hand down on the ceramic tiling. "If we haven't managed to get through to her already, I don't think we're going to anytime soon."

Seth's only response was blowing out a loud breath. He was already moving out of the bathroom, running a hand through his hair, ready to leave.

This had become established routine in the two weeks they had been at Court. Some mornings Pasiphae would have to work the kitchen shift, but others she would pour over the news on a small portable screen that Seth left for her in the room. There hadn't been many large developments except for one: the Somnus was spreading faster.

By late afternoon—or what the clock said was late afternoon, since there would be a moon in the sky regardless—they would visit the human consort, Kalis, taking what looked to be a different path each time into the back of the palace. They visited daily, but there was never anything new.

Pasiphae was becoming restless. She had largely stayed out of the Unseelie Court's affairs since the first few days, but in effect, she had learnt nothing. Her conversations extended to "Thank you" and "Excuse me" at the mass dining tables every evening, and eavesdropping within the humans gathered nothing of importance. The days dragged past: days that she was wasting when she could have been helping her grandmother and everyone else left behind in Eo, where the sick numbers skyrocketed.

"Seth!" she hissed after him.

Seth cringed, gesturing at the door he just opened. "Later, Saf."

Grudgingly, Pasiphae clamped her mouth shut and hurried after him. Only once she was certain that they wouldn't be overhead, did she dare speak again.

"We need a new branch of investigation."

"Kalis is our best bet," Seth insisted. He kept his gaze forward, intent on his relentless stride. "We can't divert our attention."

"But what if it's not?" Pasiphae skittered in front of Seth's tracks, forcing him to stop and look at her. "Then what? We start from the beginning?"

Seth opened his mouth to respond, but then stopped, his gaze focusing on something over her shoulder.

"Is there a problem here?"

Pasiphae glanced back at the voice. She forced her face to clear the sneer it tried to take on.

A guard of no important rank stood before them, her hands moving to the weaponry holster.

"When isn't there a problem in this day and age?" Seth replied.

"Let me re-phrase," the guard said. "Do you have clearance for this area?"

Pasiphae rolled her eyes with pronounced effort, turning around. "Saulaces is on a sanctioned mission by Her Majesty personally," she preened. "Do you have clearance to be questioning us?"

The guard thinned her mouth and stepped aside, head bowed.

They strolled by.

"You're getting better at this—" Seth remarked.