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love.” He shrugged. “If you have to give up the things you love to increase your power,
then what’s the point of having the power at all?”
Marla nodded. She thought about which kind of sorcerer she was. The answer was not
as clear to her as she might have hoped, but at least she’d finally thought to ask the
question.
Susan entered the hotel’s conference room in her usual elegant fashion. She was tall,
lean, blond, perfectly attired. Sitting down with the grace of a cat, she inclined her head
toward Sanford Cole. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said. She looked at Marla, but
pointedly said nothing.
Marla stared straight into Susan’s eyes—the left one was green; the right one, blue—
and smiled. “Good to see you, Sue. Thanks for coming all the way out west.”
“Neutral ground seemed appropriate,” Susan said. “I wouldn’t have come, but Hamil
assured me you were telling the truth, and that Sanford Cole did indeed wish to speak to
me on your behalf.”
Marla had to bite back a dozen responses. She wanted to accuse Susan of treason,
betrayal, idiocy, low morals, and pretentiousness, but she forced herself to keep smiling.
Susan really was good at what she did. Marla’s city simply wasn’t big enough for the
both of them, any more than one anthill could have two queens.
“This is Bradley Bowman, Cole’s apprentice,” Marla said.
“A pleasure,” B said, beaming. He was no longer an in-between creature, an ordinary
plagued by visions; now he was an initiate, learning from the best. It wasn’t an easy
path, but it was a path.
And it probably didn’t hurt his mood that he’d had sex with Rondeau the night before,
and probably this morning, if the sounds coming from the hotel room adjoining Marla’s
own were any indication.
“I enjoyed your films,” Susan said to B, cool as cut glass.
“Susan,” Cole said, getting to business. “You wish to erase Marla from reality in order
take control of her city, yes?”
“That’s right. I would run Felport far better, and since I know Marla will never step
aside, I have no choice but to stage a coup. The fact that she could not prevent me from
banishing her into nothingness without your intervention should serve to prove my
qualifications, I think.”
“The spell didn’t work when you tried it yesterday,” Marla said.
“Then you shouldn’t mind if I try it again,” Susan said. “I’ll just go and do it now, shall
I?”