The walk through the interiardens of the estate was enjoyable, if brief. Lady Karsin’s servants took us through the gate and guided us along a path towards the back of the estate, trees and bushes of varying kinds f a wall blog sight from the mairance.

  I wondered how many visitors to the estates realized that the garden’s yout kept certain parts well out of sight.

  “You’ve been to the gardens before?” Montague asked as we walked behind the servant.

  “Twice, they are very impressive,” I said. “Especially with the rarity of some of these pnts. I’m surprised they’ve managed a dispy that’s pleasing to look at out of such a wide variety.”

  sidering some of these pnts shouldn’t be alive in this climate, very surprising. I’d tried to linger before to figure out why, only to be shooed politely out of the estate each time.

  The tower was our destination, standing tall over all the estate. Still made in a style go of fashion three hundred years ago, the entments were newer, keeping the grim edifice defensible. Looking up the nearly hundred feet to the steel-covered roof, I idly wondered if the arrow slits had anyone lurking behind them, keeping wat the activity down below.

  The gardeioraveled through was narrow and had little decoration. A swift way to get people from the side entrao the tower itself. There was no one else there except for a pair of guards at the base of the tower, muskets in hand.

  They guarded a metal door with far too many locks that took far too long to open. The servants took us into a small little room to wait, albeit a muicer ohan I’d waited for Lady Karsin in the past. There was aper, a table, even chairs that had cushioning and didn’t tilt! I was sure I’d been waiting iower’s old dungeon before today. The bes of traveling around with nobility, even sdal-stri nobility.

  The servant had left to fetch Lady Karsin, leavirying to make small talk with Gregory Montague.

  We were being watched, of course. The watg robably more due to me than Montague. I let him guide the versation, which immediately dovetailed into gossip, much of it tered on his father. I’d only known the meaning of Lord Montague’s disguise as Lord Thierry because of the publicity of that specific blowout being publiews when a duel between Lord Thierry’s son and Lord Montague’s sed son had resulted in the former nearly dying.

  I inquired about that subject as we waited for Lady Karsin.

  Gregory Montague’s lips quirked when I asked about it. “I watched it, being my brother’s sed. Charles loves dueling as much as he loves his service to our try. Far away from our father. I envy him, but the army life is not for me.”

  “Not as many lovers to pursue?” I asked.

  “Acc to my brother, that’s not an issue,” Montague said. “Holy, it’s because I couldn’t stand leaving the city. The thought of leaving my mother city, why it physically pains me, I love it so much!”

  A fact I might believe more if not for the grin on his face.

  “Keep your secrets,” I replied amusedly. “Throwing stones is something I hardly do in regards to our personal lives. I am curious about ohing, though. It’s doubtful Lady Karsin would appreciate you being here. Another member of a noble house showing up practically unannounced in her home? Yet they just let yht in.”

  “I share afternoon tea with the dyship as part of my family’s meeting with her Thursday. All that’s ged is I’m here a few hours ahead of schedule. Besides, my father could do without my prese his house and find someone else to vent his frustrations to. Perhaps Lady Karsin if he finally wears her down.”

  “Lord Montague is c? We just fialking about the duel held over his current marriage,” I said.

  “Oh, not Maria. Holy, she makes him happy and even mao do so without sharing some of his more odious political views. If he were trying to leave her, I’d be at the estate telling him what a brilliant idea it was in my best efforts to make him stay with her. No, he’s trying to wed Edward to Lady Karsin, uniting our two houses.”

  “Do you think it will work?” I asked.

  Gregory shrugged. “Maybe. Ret events might have been a good reminder about how frail her house’s standing is. If she dies, Desmond is only fourteen, and no matter how loyal and capable her household might be, he’ll be in a osition if she passes. And if the reverse were to occur, well then she must wed. Or adopt again, although I doubt Her Majesty will be so willing to let that occur a sed time. My father hopes to have a Montague heir, of course.”

  “Seem a rotten hand to be dealt, my lord.”

  He shrugged. “Such is the game. Show weakness, shore it up. Father has an eye on Edward iing all of this, perhaps hoping the curse will occur.”

  A curse? That hadn’t e up in the research I’d done on Lady Karsin. Of course, there would be gaps in that, but he’d mentio so casually.

  “I was unaware there was a curse on her household,” I said carefully. “She’s goo great effort to hide it.”

  Gregory looked at me in fusion for a few seds. “Oh. No, not an actual curse. Her lineage’s misfortune in these st few turies. The family line is down to just her and her heir at this point. Premature deaths and only a single line have been on, but despite the amount of death, they’ve made a good fortune in trade and keeping their owe in order. There’s rumors about a deal with devils, of course.”

  “There always are,” I muttered. I knew she and her heir were the only living members, which is why I suspected she’d been willing to deal with a low-life Infernal alchemist to begin with.

  She’d never been impolite in our dealings, but there were some things nobility could just not be seen doing unless desperation forced them to.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it anything more than gossip, but I’ve seen the records myself of each death. They do point to a rather nasty pattern.”

  “You have access to the death records? I hardly think they’d be something you went out of your way to find.”

  Greghed. “Oh, I didn’t have to look very hard for any of them. My family is the keeper of the royal records for Avernon, from back when the nobility living here wasn’t in vogue. It actually grates quite a bit on various ts and barons that a lowly lord has access to all the official records regarding them and their families. It’s the main reason for my father and Lord Thierry’s falling out after the marriage. Lord Thierry expected his son-in-w to provide him access to the various records for free and was very upset to find out my father wouldn’t.”

  “I imagi would be an advantage for all members of your family,” I said.

  It is iing that he would be so btant about his father’s goals when Lady Karsin’s servants were undoubtedly listening. Something he wao get to her, although I couldn’t tell if it was to irk his father or to help her.

  “Oh, he let us only into the records he approves of. Depending on the child. My access is by far the most limited.”

  “As he should, around su incible character as yourself, Lregory!”

  Lady Karsi into the room, two guards behiopping at either side of the door.

  Lady Karsin’s face had that agelessness of those with elf blood, although she didn’t have the typical rge eyes, and her ears were only slightly pointed. A pair of violet eyes stared out at the world, filled with pleased mischief I typically associated with people much less refihan the noblewoman I’d met twice before now.

  She’d settled for a simple dress once again, priceless pared to that old servant’s dress I’d gotten ruined a few days back. Very pin by the standards of nobility, but not when she moved.

  I had half-memories of a performance, watg with family back when ‘Infernal’ was barely a word I knew. Back when I thought there were no problems. Faded memories covered in nostalgia. I knew my aunt had not restrained her tongue around me even when I couldn’t uand the words. Still, it had been a delight, watg the performers on stage, dang with a grace that had seemed otherworldly.

  Just by walking from the doorway to the table, it felt like Lady Karsin put those dao shame.

  I curtsied, but Gregory Montague had gone past me, bowing down while taking Lady Karsin’s hand and kissing it. Sihe guards weren’t even twitg, I assumed this was normal.

  Montague suddenly grabbing Lady Karsin and spinning her around till she was bent over, him leaning overhead, robably not.

  “Lady Karsin, you look as beautiful as you did when I first met you ten years ago today. Even more so I’d argue, only growing more and meous with each rising of the sun.”

  “Oh, Gregory. Still trying to create a sdal with me that would make marriage with your brother impossible?” Lady Karsin straightened herself up, gently but firmly pushing away a disappointed-looking Lord Montague.

  I forced down a sudden bit of ahat tried to rise up in my throat. I suddenly felt very much like an afterthought to all of this, despite being the ohey had sent for.

  Lord Montague’s slightly dour expressio back to ecstatic within moments. “Oh, my dy Karsin. The fun goes away if you know what I’m doing. I know my attempt to do both you and my brother a service by wreg my father’s pns. Although I’ll not deny any attra. You wear over a hundred years much better than that harridan my father tried to fore.”

  “Lady Josephina? You know the sad thing is age didn’t make her like that. She’s always been a harpy even when she was 13.”

  I tried to cough politely, only to find it stu my throat. Do not feel intimidated, Malvia! They’re goddamn rading gossip about things that you could find on any er of the Quarter.

  At least affairs in the Quarter e the first brawl, bitten out throat, or swearing of vengeaween two families for life that ehe moment winter’s chill hem to huddle together for warmth.

  Lady Karsin’s attention turo me without requiring a cough. “Ah, Miss Fara. It’s so good of you to e so soon.”

  “Yes, well, I could hardly risk my reputation. Patients dying of toxins I cured them of would be a bck mark on my record.”

  My record had quite a few bck marks from when I’d started out, but her of them o know that.

  Lady Karsin turo faontague.

  “Lregory, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, my son’s health-”

  “-should take top priority, of course,” he finished. “I’d ask about ing along, but the fewer people to crowd little Desmond, the better. Tell him I said hello.”

  ***

  Montague didn’t o worry about crowding Desmond Karsin. Desmond Karsin was asleep, which was good because the first time I’d been here, he’d been lucid enough to ask his mother if I was going to eat his soul. It had taken forty minutes of talking to both his mother ao vince him that his friend Francesca Starling, daughter of a duke, was talking out of her ass when she cimed all Infernals dined on mortal souls. Only put in erms.

  Mortal souls were much more of a “once you’ve died and goraight to the hells” food. Trying to acquire them here was much more difficult.

  I didn’t want to find out what other things he’d been fed about Infernals by this Francesca, one of which robably that I would be attempting to seduce his mother. Nobles.

  Also, it helped because no one liked having blood drawn. I adjusted the tube piping as I pulled ba the plunger, drawing the blood out of him. He seemed very peaceful, the only movement that of his chest as he breathed.

  “I still remember when they used knives for this,” Lady Karsin whispered softly.

  She and two other servants were in Desmond’s room with me, the servants probably in case I somehow went insane and decided to try and kill the child. She’d insisted on sittio me, which roving very distrag. I was used t in solitude, not with another living persht o me, shifting around, breathing.

  “It still is, where they ’t afford these,” I replied. “Owning os me in a very small group of people within the Quarter.”

  I’d been lucky that these had survived the destru that had carved its path through my apartment. Truth be told, maybe whoever had dohe wreg didn’t realize what this was. Then again, sidering I’d found it in fallen behind a shelf in the limited time I had befetting in the carriage, perhaps I’d just gotten lucky.

  As it stood it was aremely slow one, not helped by the fact I was being as careful with this patient as I could be.

  Lady Karsin frowned. “That shouldn’t be the case. I realize things in the Quarter are never well, but I would think the charity hospitals would be better equipped.”

  “It depends on who mahem,” I replied. “Typically, if it’s not someone looking to grift, it’s an official from the city, and they’ve held a grudge since…”

  I trailed off, realizing that instinctive answers had almost givehing away. Katheryn Fara might possibly be low enough in the mulch of the Quarter to pusibly know about Ureet, but she wouldn’t bring it up casually.

  “Held a grudge since when Miss Fara?” Lady Karsin asked in a polite toill, my hackles were raised.

  “Just a theory,” I said, keeping a careful grip on the needle. Wear the mask. “Probably just my paranoia. I’ve been having a rough time tely, with far too many strangers suddenly intruding in my life. Including the one downstairs.”

  “Hrrm, you should be careful around that one, Miss Fara,” Lady Karsin said, grinning at me. “Known breaker of hearts, and has never been successfully tied dowe his father’s best wishes. Our brief versations have made me think there’s some ambition hiding inside you despite your best efforts, but best not to aim for that particur star.”

  “I have no i in Gregory Montague,” I said swiftly. “I met the mahan a few ho, going through my ransacked apartments.”

  “Really?” Lady Karsin seemed shocked. “That seems a little strange for him.”

  “I don’t believe he ransacked them, but I’ve hardly formed a favorable opinion of him.”

  “Very few do at first. Although, given how flustered you seemed in there, how is your opinion of me, Miss Fara?”

  I froze, calling on my sculpt to keep my face still. I was being made sport of. It’s the only thing that made sense. I didn’t trust myself to reply, merely fog on my work. The tig of the clock grew louder as I focused on the needle. Biosculpts I’d crafted could trol my expression. They couldn’t trol the flushing of skin. Please let that just be warmth from the small room.

  “Miss Fara?”

  “Just a few seds more, maybe half a minute,” I replied meically. I didn’t look away from the apparatus.

  After the needle was filled, I took the glove off my hand. Pulling the sample of blood out, I carefully poured a little into the palm of my hand, waiting.

  “I thought the substance was dangerous to your kind?”

  “It dilutes enough there should only be a slight burning,” I said. “Even a trace amount will still react, and it will be apparent, but I don’t o mix my blood with it unless I want to be theatrical. Truthfully, I just don’t want to cut myself again. I’m much less certain of my ability to keep the wound . It’ll hurt, it may even be a little singed, but it’ll be easier to care for than a cut.”

  I waited, ting until half a minute passed. There was ion on my hand but that of the liquid lying in it. After half a minute had passed, I grabbed a pin gss from the side of the table and poured the blood in. There was not even a mark on my hand.

  “Whatever your heir was dosed with, it isn’t Angel’s Sorrow. I rus although my current tools are limited, if you wao?”

  She nodded firmly. “Anything that you provide a sed opinion on would be appreciated. I should probably go keep Lord Montague eained, but I trust you with my heir.”

  Well, as long as two of her servants were here to keep an eye on me, I noted. Lady Karsin was already rising from her chair, preparing to leave the room.

  “Before you go Lady Karsin,” I asked quickly, making her pause. “I...this may sound foolish, but I have no idea why you called me here. It is clear from the start that your son has not suffered from another dose of Angel’s Sorrow. Why call me here?”

  She looked down at me for a few moments, seeming to holy struggle for the words.

  “You saved my son’s life,” she said early. “That’s worth more than the best money buy to me.”

  And with that, she left.

  I tiesting what I could uhe gaze of the two servants, I sidered why exactly I was here. Oh, the statement about trusting me so much for saving her son’s life had certainly sounded heartfelt, but that was easy to fake. I’d fallen for that act a few times before learning to ake those statements at face value.

  With her out of the room it was surprisingly easier to focus than it had been with her or Montague. The two servants were quiet, which helped immensely.

  So why was I here? It could hardly be my expertise or discretion, so there would be another reason. A test of some kind? I eyed both of the servants, who seemed disied in talk. A few casual remarks inviting versation got nothing but grunts of disi from both of them.

  They seemed as still as stone and with demeanors to match. They looked human, but if I were to pull the same trick I had on Golvar, would I find alterations uheir skin?

  I was being paranoid. Not everything was a trap or a trick. Besides, if it was a trap, Lady Karsin had used very obvious bait.

  On a whim, I said, “Quite a drum, isn’t it, Mr. Voltar? The boy is poisoned, but not lethally, right after someone assuredly tries to kill him. One would assume this is perhaps one of the boy's ill-behaved friends among the other noble’s children pying aremely poorly pnned and thought-out prank, no?”

  her of the servants so much as twitched.

  After a few more tests, I was forced to admit defeat. Not a difficult defeat to see ing, with most of my equipmeroyed and my reagents along with it. And I hadn’t figured out why I was here either.