Free Mélusine by Sarah Monette

what kept the Mirador from tearing itself apart. No matter how you felt about the hocuses sitting on top of the city like a pack of vultures, you didn't want the Virtu broken.

    Elvire just sat there and let me grapple with it, and finally I said, "I thought… I mean, that's impossible, right?"

    She spread her hands in a sort of helpless I-only-know-what-I'm-told way. "Well, they seem to know who did it, and if that's true, then I believe it. Do you know about Felix Harrowgate?"

    "Elvire, you know me. I stay away from hocuses."
    "He's Caloxan," she said, like it should mean something to me.

    "He's what?"

    "From Caloxa. Blessed saints, don't you ever look at a map? North. Past the Perblanches."

    "So?"

    "They had a king ."

    "Oh boy."

    "Yes. Exactly. And when their king was deposed, Lord Felix's mother took her child and ran south. I've heard that she was related to him."

    "To the king?"

    "Yes. In any event, she got as far as Arabel and was taken in by a wealthy landowner. She died, the landowner raised Lord Felix, and when he had two septads and three, he came to the Mirador."

    "And he's related to a king."

    "A dead king."

    "Fuck."

    "And he's very powerful. My clients are scared witless of him." She paused, gave me this look from under her eyelashes. "Nobody can find him this morning."

    "Fuck."

    "Lord Stephen left at dawn, riding east. That's all I know."

    "We're all fucked sideways, ain't we?" East toward the Empire. East toward the Bastion. East was a bad direction. "Thanks, Elvire."

    I did a little fishing for other things—you got to keep your ear to the ground in my line of work—but the news from the Mirador was really all there was, and I was out of Elvire's office before long. Philippe Wall-Eye said he had a hot tip for the dog races next Deuxième, but I told him to give it to somebody who cared.

    I made Mrs. Pickering one popular lady that morning. Seemed like half Midwinter was jammed into her kitchen, wondering what that hocus had been thinking of and what they'd do with him when they caught him. I sat in my front room and stared out the window, imagining the news traveling through the Lower City like a fire.

    And you know fear would be traveling right along with it.

    Felix

    They caught us a little after midday, as Malkar must have known they would. He made no attempt to outrun them, instead stopping at the top of a rise, dismounting, making me dismount, too. We stood and watched the riders approach.
    Stephen led them—although sometimes when I looked at him, he had a bear's head—and I saw faces
    that I knew among the riders: Luke and Esmond and Vida looking as if she had been carved out of stone. Stephen was black and lurid scarlet with fury; I was frightened to look at him.

    "My lord," said the dog, with a slight nod.

    "Lord Malkar," said the bear. "I expect you know why I have come."

    "I do, and I am prepared to offer you a bargain."

    "A bargain !" Red and yellow incredulity washed across the whole company.

    The dog nodded again, its jaws parting in a slavering grin. "Felix for my freedom."

    I thought I was going to faint, with the shock and panic and horror slamming through my skull. I knew Malkar did not keep his promises, but this I had not expected. The only thing at this point that seemed worse than staying with Malkar was being given to Stephen. Malkar's cruelty was at least a known quantity, and I had the protection of being useful. Or, rather, I had thought I did. Never trust Malkar. Never, never, never.

    "You want the man who broke the Virtu," Malkar said. "You must know—Victoria surely has told you—that it was not I. I do not have the power."

    Stephen nodded grudgingly, but his eyes were suspicious. I wanted to scream at him, tell him not to listen— never listen to Malkar—but I could not speak. I knew all that would come out were the whining howls of a coyote.

    "Felix is the only wizard in the Mirador with the power to break the Virtu," Malkar said, so