Shifting Isles Box Set by G R Lyons

Author:G R Lyons [Lyons, G R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

SITTING IN her makeshift office at the agency, Asenna tried to focus on the files spread out before her, but she couldn't quite get in the right frame of mind to concentrate. She kept staring at the neat arrangement of icons she'd set out, all of them in perfect lines and rows.

“Gods, I'm just like him,” she whispered to herself.

“What was that?”

Startled, she looked up and saw Vorena sitting across from her.

“Bloody hells,” Asenna gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “I didn't know you were there.”

Vorena grinned at her. “Chief told me to keep an eye on you.”

“Figures,” she muttered, looking down at the files.

“So what did you say?” Vorena asked.

“What? Oh. Just…I'm just like him. Perfectionist. Compulsive.”

Vorena shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that. Might be just what it takes to catch him.”

“How so?”

“You can think like him.”

Asenna shivered, leaning back slowly in her chair. She stared at the files for a long while, then closed them all with a swipe of her hand across the screen.

“I can't even think at all right now.”

“Well, then, take a break,” Vorena suggested, sprawling out in a chair and crossing her arms behind her head. “Maybe we could–”

“Do you hear that?” Asenna asked, sitting forward.

“Well, technically, I don't hear–” Vorena joked.

“No, wait,” Asenna said, holding up a hand and listening. “The office just went quiet.”

Asenna got up and went to the door, opening it just a crack so she could peek through. Out in the main office, all the agents were silent, their attention focused on the front door. Opening the office door wider, Asenna stretched up to see over their heads.

Crawford crossed the main office from the entrance to the conference room, leading a figure dressed all in black with a hood up, obscuring the face, and followed by three men in the blue-grey robes of the Jaduan Siksani.

Vorena whistled. “Now there's something I've never seen.”

“Hush,” Asenna said over her shoulder, and watched as the group disappeared into the conference room. A moment later, Crawford came back out and headed straight for her.

She jumped back, startled at being caught spying, then opened the door wider and waited.

Crawford looked distracted as he came to a stop, not even uttering a greeting.

“Uh, Chief wants you in there with us,” he said.

Asenna nodded, silently following him. They stepped into the conference room, where the visitors were waiting, along with the chief, Malrin, and Lehinis. Once inside, Crawford locked the door, and they stood across the table with the others, staring at their visitors.

The Siksani were all young men, heads bowed and silent, their hands hidden in the voluminous sleeves of their robes. Standing just before them, the figure in black reached up to undo a clasp at its throat, whisking off the hood and cloak all in one graceful motion and handing it over to one of the priests.

Asenna stared, dumbfounded, at the woman who stood before her. Her gown was of a black so pure that it seemed to suck the light out

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