Lillyanne Plume's Arc

Chapter 5 of 22

Lillyanne went looking for answers before she looked for a partner. She spent the morning at a library computer inside Prestige Hall, the columns and arched windows throwing bars of light across her keyboard. She searched every phrase she could think of. Blood-wax seals. Invitation games. The spyglass shape pressed into the wax. She found puzzle forums, magic tricks, and one dead blog from 2004. Nothing real. She moved to the stacks and pulled anything on secret societies, old carnivals, private tournaments. She read until her eyes burned. By closing time she had a headache and a page of notes worth throwing away. She walked the two miles to the postal depot in the dark. Marjorie was loading her satchel at the back dock, white braid over one shoulder, boots wet to the ankle. When she saw Lillyanne her rosy face closed up like a shutter. "I told you I was done," Marjorie said. "I need one name." Lillyanne stepped into the loading light. "I searched everywhere. There's nothing to find. You're it." "Then there's a reason for that." Marjorie hoisted the satchel. "Go home." "Be my partner." Marjorie stopped moving. Her hand went to the strap and stayed there. She looked at Lillyanne for a long moment, and something old and tired moved behind her eyes. "You think I haven't been?" she said. "Girl, I've been. I came back. I don't go back." "Then give me someone who will." "No." "I'm going." Lillyanne's voice cracked and she let it. "With a partner or without one. You said alone means dead. So if you don't give me a name, you're the one who killed me. Sit with that on your route tomorrow." Marjorie's mouth opened, closed. She set the satchel down on the concrete. She looked past Lillyanne at the empty lot, then back. "Scott Silrose," she said. "They call him Scott the Scarlet. He's won it twice. Tall, near-white hair, silver eyes. You'll know him. He lives in Charloton. Ask for him by the color." Lillyanne wrote it in her notebook. Her hand was steady. "Thank you." "Don't." Marjorie picked the satchel back up. "Hear me. His last partner didn't come home. Word is he killed her himself. Nobody agrees why. Some say she cheated him. Some say his heart made him do it. He's got a bad one now, from something that happened in there." She jabbed a finger at Lillyanne's chest. "You watch his hands. You watch his moods. You don't turn your back." "Understood." "No, you don't." Marjorie shouldered past. "But you will." Lillyanne stood alone on the dock with a name in her notebook. She had a partner to find. She just wasn't sure yet whether finding him was better than dying without him.