A Local Habitation
Page 45

“Marcia?”
“Toby? Oh, thank Oberon. I found Tybalt for you. He’s—”
“Marcia, I don’t have time for this right now. I need you to do me a favor, okay? I need you to go to Shadowed Hills, and tell Sylvester I need help. I’m in Fremont, and there’s something wrong with the phones here. I can’t call Shadowed Hills.”
“Fascinating. Do go on.” The voice was dry, amused, and distinctly not Marcia’s.
I paused. “Tybalt?”
“Did you expect that you would call for me, and I would refuse? Perhaps you did. Much as I appreciate your deciding to provide me with an afternoon’s amusement, I must say . . . ‘here, kitty, kitty’? Did you really expect this to have any positive result?”
“Tybalt, this is really not the time.”
“What did you want to discuss with me that was so vital you had to send a handmaid begging at the bushes?” His tone sharpened, turning dangerous. “I don’t take kindly to being toyed with.”
I rubbed my forehead with one hand. “All right, look, my methods were maybe not the best, but they got you to wait on my call, didn’t they? I’m guessing you didn’t do anything to Marcia?”
“She assured me her activities were entirely your fault.”
“Good.” Quentin was giving me a quizzical look. I turned away from him before he could distract me, and said, “Did she tell you why I’m in Fremont?”
“No. I assume that honor was being left for you. I do hope you’re giving my counterpart the troubles you normally reserve for me.”
Oh, oak and ash. That was what I’d been hoping not to hear. Keeping my tone light, I said, “Your counterpart. I assume you mean Barbara Lynch, the local Queen of Cats?”
“None other.” The danger bled out of his voice, replaced by amusement. “She must not know you’ve elected to phone me. We’re not precisely on good terms, she and I. Silly little thing should never have taken a throne. Why, with her delicate sensibilities—”
“She’s dead, Tybalt.”
Silence.
“She died last month.”
Now he spoke, voice a low, harsh rasp that was closer to a snarl: “How?”
“We don’t know. That’s the problem.” I closed my eyes. “You didn’t know.”
“How would I have known?” The bitterness and anger in his tone were undisguised. “She held a crown without a kingdom, thanks to that Riordan bitch.”
That was new information. “What do you mean, ‘a crown without a kingdom’?”
“There were no true Cait Sidhe in her domain, only our feline cousins and their changeling children. The others left long ago, when it became clear that Riordan held no respect for Oberon’s word.”
Oberon established the Court of Cats, gave them a political structure outside the standard Faerie Courts and Kingdoms. They ruled themselves, and no political power in Faerie had any say over them. There have always been rulers who didn’t want to listen to that ancient declaration. They try to tax the Cait Sidhe, subvert them, recruit them into their political reindeer games. It wasn’t much of a surprise to hear that Riordan was one of those.
Still . . . “You can talk to my cats.”
“Your cats are my subjects, and subject to my laws. The cats of Barbara’s Court weren’t. They couldn’t reach me.”
“Where did all the other Cait Sidhe go?”
“My fiefdom. Others. But Barbara remained, stubborn to the end.” His tone turned more bitter still. “I think she liked the perversity of it. Bowing at the knee to a daughter of Titania.”
“She’s not bowing anymore,” I said, with a sigh. “I’m sorry to be the one who told you. And I’m sorry about the ‘here kitty, kitty’ thing. It just seemed like the best . . .”
“Wait. She died in Fremont, and you don’t know what killed her.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still there.”
“Yes.”
“Are you in danger?”
I considered lying. Only for a few seconds, but still, the urge was there. Pulling his jacket closer around me, I said, “People are dying. Sylvester’s sending someone to get Quentin out, but I’m staying until we know what’s going on. I can’t run out on them.”
Again, silence.
“Tybalt?”
“You really are a little fool, aren’t you?” His tone was distant, almost reflective. “You still have the jacket I left with you?”
“I do,” I admitted.
“Good. I’ll be wanting it back.”
“I’ll try to stay alive long enough to return it. Can you put Marcia on? I need to ask her for a favor.”
His tone sharpened. “What favor?”
“Something’s wrong with the phones, and I can’t get through to Shadowed Hills. Someone needs to tell Sylvester we’re in trouble. Big trouble. Someone just tried to kill us, and they came pretty close to succeeding.” I paused. “He can probably call me from the pay phone in the parking lot. He should station someone there.”
“Consider the message relayed,” said Tybalt, in that same distant, thoughtful tone.
“What are you—”
The phone buzzed in my ear. The line was dead; he’d hung up on me.
Groaning, I turned and dropped the receiver back into the cradle. “Whatever’s wrong with the phones, it’s specific to Shadowed Hills. I got through to the Tea Gardens just fine.”
Quentin was once more pretending to review the employee files. He slanted a sidelong look my way, and asked, “What did Tybalt want?”
“To give me a headache. Still, he wouldn’t take the message if he wasn’t planning to deliver it.” I leaned over to take the folder from his hands, scanning the first page, and wrinkled my nose. Maybe the company dietitian cared about the fact that Barbara liked her field mice alive, but I didn’t. “Change of subjects. Does it say anything in here about where her office is?”
“Nope. Did you know that Colin had a doctorate in philosophy?”
I looked up. “What year, and where from?”
“Nineteen sixty-two. Newfoundland.”
“Any of the others have degrees from Canadian colleges?” I flipped through Barbara’s folder, stopping at the sheet labeled “education.” “Babs didn’t—her degree’s from UC Berkeley. Women’s Studies and English.”