Chimes at Midnight
Page 19

“I think the giant squid thing is pretty much normal for them, but no. According to Dianda, the Queen of the Mists isn’t King Gilad Windermere’s daughter. Which means she’s not legitimately our Queen; she’s been holding a throne that wasn’t hers for all these years, and no one did anything about it.”
“Which goes a long way toward explaining her policies regarding the Undersea,” noted Tybalt. “Most of the nobility on land was behind her, or was mysteriously absent. I doubt our sea-going cousins would have been so accommodating.”
Jazz yelped. I turned. She was sucking the side of her thumb. “Sorry,” she said, voice muffled by her hand. “I got distracted listening to you and hot glued myself to my unicorn.”
“Right. See, this is why I don’t think anyone in this house should be allowed to use power tools.” I shook my head. “Anyway, now we need to figure out how to prove that Dianda is right about the Queen. And we have to do it all in three days, since otherwise I’m going to be committing treason by correspondence course.”
“We all are,” said May. I blinked at her. She laughed, a little wearily. “Do you honestly think Jazz and I will be staying if you go? Oh, and Quentin? He may be fostered to Shadowed Hills, but he’s your squire. He goes where you do, unless you decide to leave him behind.”
“Which you’re not going to do,” said Quentin quickly.
“I have a Court to tend to,” said Tybalt. My heart sank a little, even though I had already known that would be his answer. Then, to my surprise, he continued, “It will take me some time to hand my duties off to Raj. When that is done, I will find you.”
I turned to stare at him. “What . . . ?”
“I am a cat, October. I have a sense of duty, because I am also a man, but no cat can be held down by duty forever. Eventually, we must go where we wish to be, not where we are told.” Tybalt smiled slightly at the expression on my face. “A simple banishment is not enough to see you quit of me, little fish.”
“Is it just me, or is getting hot in here?” asked May, causing Jazz to break into a peal of laughter. I wrinkled my nose at her, but I was secretly relieved. I would have either thrown myself at him or blushed myself to death in a few more seconds, and neither of those was a great option.
“You are all evil.” I slicked the wisps of hair that had escaped their net of ribbons back from my face with both hands, releasing the illusion that had been making me look human in the same gesture. “Okay. We have three problems. If the Queen of the Mists isn’t supposed to be in charge, who is? How do we find them? And how do we depose a sitting monarch who has her very own private army?”
“Remember when our biggest problem was ‘who turned the laundry pink’?” asked May. Then she sighed. “Yeah. Me neither.”
“Your guess is as good as mine on all of these topics,” said Tybalt. “Even in my misspent youth, I never attempted to depose a monarch of the Divided Courts. Only my father, and I doubt our means of succession would hold in the Courts of Oberon.”
“Probably not, but . . .” I paused. “Maybe we don’t need to guess about any of this.”
“What?” said May.
“What?” echoed Jazz and Quentin.
“Li Qin has a Library card.” I dug my phone out of my jacket pocket. “Maybe she can get me a temporary pass or something.”
Tybalt blinked. “That is a surprisingly thoughtful, nonviolent solution.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as I scrolled through my contact list, finally locating the entry for Li Qin Zhou, current acting regent of Dreamer’s Glass. She was the widow of Countess January O’Leary of Tamed Lightning, and the adoptive mother of Countess April O’Leary, also of Tamed Lightning. She was also the only person I knew who might be able to get me into the local Library.
The phone rang twice before Li Qin picked up, with a cheerful, “October! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today. Has Treasa turned up?”
“Not as such, no.” Duchess Treasa Riordan was technically the regent of Dreamer’s Glass. It was a real pity she’d gone and gotten herself stranded in Annwn, leaving Li Qin to mind her fiefdom. And by “real pity,” I mean “too bad she didn’t do it sooner.” “I need to ask for a favor.”
“Anything. I owe you.”
“Yeah, you do, but you might want to hear what I need before you agree to it. Can you get me a Library pass?”
There was a pause before Li Qin asked, “May I know why you need one?”
“Stuff. Important stuff. I’m not going to burn the place down or anything, I just need to look a few things up, and the Library seems like the best starting point.”
There was a longer pause. Then Li Qin said, “I know when you’re not telling me everything.”
“Fine. The Queen just exiled me from the Kingdom. I have three days to get out. I’m sure you’ll hear about it in short order, since neither Dreamer’s Glass nor Tamed Lightning were on the list of places it’s okay for me to go and hide. I need to get into the Library to find out whether there’s anything I can do to keep myself here.”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place? The Librarian owes me a few favors, and I suppose it’s time I collect. I just . . . have you ever used a Library before?”
“Not in the fae sense,” I said.
“All right. I’ll see what I can do. If I can get her to agree, I’ll call you.”
“Okay. That’s cool. I appreciate it.”
Li Qin laughed. “Of all the things I expected you to ask me for, Toby, a Library pass was not high on the list.”
“I’m full of surprises. Open roads, Li.”
“Kind fires,” she responded, and hung up.
I turned back toward the others. “Li Qin’s going to see if she can get us into the Library.”
“You didn’t say ‘us,’” said Tybalt, voice suddenly sharp. “You just said you needed a pass.”
“Oh, Maeve’s teeth. I’ll explain when she calls me back, okay?”
Tybalt nodded. He didn’t look completely mollified. I’d worry about that later.
“I still can’t believe the Queen is doing this,” said Quentin.
I wanted to hug him and say that it was all going to be okay. I wasn’t going to do that, though. I try not to lie to my friends. “Why not?” I asked. “She doesn’t like me. The murder trial should have tipped you off about that, even if nothing else did. I gave her an excuse, and she took it.”