Web of Lies (The Hundred Halls Book 2) by Thomas K. Carpenter

Author:Thomas K. Carpenter [Carpenter, Thomas K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary fantasy, young adult, new adult, college
Publisher: Black Moon Books
Published: 2016-10-24T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

A few years ago, the Wild Sorcery was Pi's favorite place to get away when she was fighting with her sister. She'd seen the mages that frequented the bar, with their trinkets and spell tattoos, sipping frothy cocktails that looked like miniature cauldrons, and thought that was what she wanted when she joined the Hundred Halls.

The place hadn't changed much since she'd moved on from the idea. She sat at a corner booth with a view of the front door. The setup was a little on the nose, but it was still good practice.

Cheap mood lights cast a bluish glow across the tables, turning every face into a mask. Mages with little skill made glowing letters float in the air. Pi didn't know if they had patrons or were guaranteeing they would eventually succumb to faez madness.

Pi saw him right away when he entered. The crappy lighting revealed something about him that she hadn't realized before.

"Slyvan," she said, motioning toward the opposite side of the booth.

The maetrie's nose didn't so much wrinkle in disgust as sneer at everything around him. When he spoke, it was as if he were about to cough up a hairball.

"If this is what you think passes for a clandestine meeting, then I mistook you for a smart girl," he said, turning to leave.

"Wait," she growled, hoping to convince him to stop through sheer intensity. "Sit. Please. Give me a minute to explain."

His impeccable suit was practically a second skin on his lithe body. His revulsion to his surroundings made it shift constantly as if he expected to contract a disease.

Slyvan pulled a handkerchief out of an inner pocket and wiped the leather booth covering. When he was finished, he wadded the cloth up and tossed it into the corner.

"One minute," he said.

"When I first came to the city of sorcery, I thought a place like this was where real mages came to hang out. But once I got in, I realized that people with real power wouldn't need to display it with gaudy tattoos that sparkle or drinks with silly names like Gelatinous Shots, or Kobold Juice. It became clear pretty quickly that half the clientele were posers, pretending to be mages, or low-level wizards with self-esteem issues."

Slyvan's contempt was barely disguised as disinterest. He looked ready to escape at any moment, so Pi hurried to her point.

"Which makes this the best place to hide. No self-respecting mage or maetrie would be caught dead in here. Think of how much you detest this place. Could you imagine Radoslav coming in here?" she asked.

In the pause afterwards, he went through the stages of realization that she was right, while she worried if she was doing the right thing. She hated going behind Radoslav's back, but he hadn't talked to her much since she met the Ruby Queen.

"I might acknowledge the cleverness if it weren't like hiding in a dumpster fire," he said.

"Fair enough," she said.

"What do you want?"

Straight to the point. She should have expected it.

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