The Smoke-Scented Girl by Melissa McShane Page B

his abilities. He opened the door and
indicated she should enter; she did so without hesitation.
    From the en-suite bath came the sound of
gurgling water and a voice loudly humming a popular music-hall
tune. “Evon? Did you find her? I was just drawing a bath—my
superiors were most assuredly pleased to hear about Speculatus,
though ‘pleased’ is probably too subtle a word for their reaction.”
Piercy, naked at least from the waist up, poked his head out of the
bathroom and said, “I— Evon! ” He slammed the door and added,
“Was it so impossible for you to declare in a loud and carrying
voice that we have company of a very feminine nature?”
    Evon put his hand over his mouth so Piercy
couldn’t hear him laugh. He looked at Miss Haylter and was
surprised and comforted to see her eyes lose that dead look for a
moment. “Piercy, put your trousers on and come out here to greet
Miss Haylter. Kerensa Haylter,” he said.
    After some banging and the sound of water
draining, Piercy emerged, fully dressed though not as sprucely
garbed as he usually was. “Miss Haylter, did you say? A pleasure,”
he said, taking her hand and bowing over it. “You have been a
difficult woman to find, and I say that with great feeling. Too few
cities are equipped with adequate laundry facilities, and some of
my clothes will never be the same again. So your name is actually
Kerensa? We wondered, Lore and I—”
    “Will you sit, Miss Haylter? Piercy, stop
babbling and get Miss Haylter a drink of water. One for me too, if
you don’t mind. It’s been rather hot for both of us.”
    Piercy stopped halfway to the jug, his face
ashen. “Are you all right?” he said in a low voice. “Evon, did
she...were you actually there ?”
    “I think Miss Elltis owes me a promotion for
that shield spell,” Evon said. He held the only chair in the room
for their guest, then took a seat on the edge of his bed and waited
for her to take a long drink before tossing back most of a glass
himself. He felt dry and itchy and wished he could have taken the
bath Piercy had drawn and then drained. “I don’t think we were
followed, though I’m not sure how I would have known if we were. I
didn’t see Odelia, at least. But she implied she had some way to
find Miss Haylter, so I think we should assume she will eventually
find her here.”
    “That’s not good, Lore. My superiors were
quite specific on the topic of Speculatus. They demanded that we
stay out of their way, and I am more than happy to abide by their
wishes on this point, if all their members are as virulently
antisocial as Odelia Cattertis. Pity you can’t—” He clamped his
lips tight on the end of that sentence, addressed to Miss Haylter,
and Evon glared at him. Miss Haylter seemed not to notice. “That is
to say, I sincerely hope we do not have to deal with Odelia and her
postulated companions,” Piercy finished lamely.
    “She wants to find me,” Miss Haylter
said.
    “Her organization wants your secret and they
won’t be gentle in extracting it,” Evon said.
    She turned her empty eyes on him. “And I
suppose you will be.”
    Evon was stung. “I don’t mean to extract anything from you. I simply want to talk.” He knelt
on the floor in front of her and put his hand on her forearm. “Miss
Haylter,” he said, “this spell isn’t under your control, is it.
It’s something that’s been done to you.”
    She nodded, turning her face away.
“Something,” she agreed, “though I don’t know what.”
    “You find certain people, and when you’re
close enough, the spell activates,” Evon guessed, spinning out what
they’d already learned with what he’d observed just an hour ago.
“You don’t choose the...targets. You burn them. And it starts over
again.”
    She nodded again. “It drives me,” she said.
“It goes away for a while. Six days, or five weeks—I never know how
long. Three months, once. Then the urge falls on me, and I have to
go where it drives me. I don’t