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Marla glanced over. Rondeau stood on the balcony of their suite in a posh hotel near
Union Square, beneath the darkening sky. He seemed happy and relaxed, and for an
irrational instant, she was furious with him—didn’t he understand how serious things
were? But of course he didn’t, not really. Because she hadn’t told him. Marla’s life was
threatened on a regular basis, and he probably thought this was just more of the same,
an ordinary assassination plot. She hadn’t elaborated, because she was ashamed of the
position she’d let Susan put her in. Marla had never thought the woman was a real
threat, and was paying the price for her carelessness now. She forced herself to answer
him calmly. “The Tenderloin? Is that the meatpacking district?” She emptied her
capacious leather bag onto the bed and started spreading things out.
“I don’t think San Francisco has a meatpacking district. But it’s the seedy part of town,
lots of strip clubs, bars, stuff like that. Seems like more of your kind of place.”
“I don’t like going into strange dark alleys any more than you do, Rondeau. Back home,
I know the dark alleys, and I know I’m the most dangerous thing that’s likely to be
walking up and down in them. Now that I’ve pissed off one of the big local sorcerers—
who’s maybe a body-jumper, if what the old man told you is true—I plan to stay out of
the shadows as much as possible. But you’re right, I wouldn’t have picked this hotel. I
let Hamil make reservations for me. He thinks room service is humanity’s greatest
achievement.”
Rondeau wandered in from the balcony. “Do you think Hamil can keep a lid on things
back home, keep Susan from casting her spell right away?”
“I hope so. They used to be friends, though she doesn’t completely trust him since he
became my consiglieri. But I’ve got one advantage. Susan thinks she’s still acting in
secret. She doesn’t know that I know her plans—I’ve got an informant on her staff—so
maybe Hamil can stall her until I find the Cornerstone. I told him to do whatever’s
necessary to distract her.”
Rondeau frowned. “What, you mean, like, sleep with her?”
“Conspire with her to overthrow me was more what I had in mind.” She shrugged.
“Everybody knows I’m tough to work for, so maybe she’ll believe he’s willing to betray
me.”
“Are you worried about her, Marla?” Rondeau said, pointedly not looking at her,
riffling through a neighborhood dining guide that came with the room. “Susan, I mean.
How bad is this, on a scale of pretty bad to catastrophe?”
Marla thought about how to answer that. She was doing her best not to dwell on the
threat that hung over her, just to deal with it, but the fact was, she was frightened. She
couldn’t remember the last time she’d been frightened when she wasn’t in actual
physical danger. “If I can’t stop Susan from casting the spell she has planned, it’s going
to be beyond catastrophe. Her plans are dangerous enough that I’d just assassinate her,
if I could, and you know I don’t like messing with the balance of power that openly.”