Wallace

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Amity and I stood in one of the conference rooms. Heaps of salvaged and scavenged materials lay piled behind us on the table, heaped on several of the chairs, and even stacked against the wall. A series of vertical blinds covered the balcony window, which stood half-open. They concealed us from any distant viewers while affording a good vantage point of the self-propelled wagon through the valley.

Amity stood with both sets of arms crossed as she watched the riders, "How is Val doing?" she asked, glancing up at me.

"She's doing better now, but she still sleeps most times. When she's awake and not shovelling food into her mouth, she's complaining about how bored she is."

"Please, you're telling me Val doesn't want to lay around in bed all day?"

"You're the one who forbade her any gymnastics."

"Mmm, okay, I can see that."

"Movies have kept her a little entertained, and she finally understands the stunt I pulled with Simon."

"Where you gave him all the Marvel movies up to Infinity War?"

"Yeah."

"Cassius explained that one to me," Amity smirked, "Have you considered that's why he's turned on us?"

"Nah, timeline doesn't line up. He would have sent the fey after us long before he made it through that many movies."

Amity jerked her chin at the wagon, "Why then?"

I shrugged, "Honestly don't know. The first time we met, I thought we might be able to get along. Simon gave me some assurances that he wasn't what the rumours said he was. I was less sure after our meeting in Pelignos, it seemed like maybe he was exactly what everyone said he was. But it felt like a future problem at the time. Something we'd need to deal with eventually. It wasn't until I saw that wagon parked in front of Amora's club that I realized how soon eventually would be."

"Have you asked Amora? Perhaps she knows something."

I shook my head, "Simon's kept himself insulated. All he did was provide a vehicle. The fey he sold it to probably didn't even realize the sale was notable, they were coming after us regardless, and I doubt they'd have read anything into one human causing trouble for another."

"Ah, but I thought Simon had never shared his propulsion technology before? And now, when he has a chance to give us a hard time, he's suddenly much more understanding."

"Hmm. That's true," I admitted, "But what does that teach the fey? That Simon dislikes competition? In any case, if they did figure it out, they didn't share with Amora."

"How much do you think Simon knows? Do you think he bugged the carriages?"

"No. If Simon could do that, he wouldn't have found the communication books quite so interesting. Besides, he put all that work into reengineering radio. Nah, no bugs. Trackers though? I think that's more likely."

"So as far as Simon knows..."

"Both carriages are still in the city. Granted, that does assume he set trackers, but I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption. Hell, I'd do it even if I wasn't planning to sell. It's nice to know where your stuff is, and these things aren't cheap."

"Do you want to steal that one?"

"I'd love to. But think for a minute. Say we weren't back yet. Say you hadn't come along- as far as Simon knows, you didn't -and these guys roll along, saying they're going to check out the city. Would you take a shot at them?"

Amity brought a hand to her chin and narrowed her eyes, still watching out the window, "Their appearance would certainly appear irregular. But my concern would have more to do with Simon poaching your salvage."

"That's our plan then. They must know we've spotted them, and it looks like they're going to come by the base. Flag them down and give them a hard time about poaching scavenge in our territory."

"And if they ask if we've heard from you?"

"Be evasive, feed them a line about having some problems with our comms books if they ask. Let them draw their own conclusions. If they decide we've completely lost contact but aren't willing to fess up because we want to save face, then great."

"If we're building a cover story, then why don't we send a party after you?"

"Well, it's true we haven't been able to hotwire anything. Though I suppose they've got no way of knowing that. It puts us in an interesting position. We're trying to deceive them, but the truth is we would have a hard time sending a team to the city if not for the fact we already made it back with a couple of vans," I spread my hands, "I guess we hope they believe the true parts, so they also believe the lie? My thinking is not to try too hard. If the situation were what we pretend it is, your concern would be with poaching. So focus on that. We don't need to complicate it."

"Should I use that as an excuse to turn them away?"

"No, no," I replied quickly, "We want them going all the way to the city. God knows what they'll think of what they find. Even if they've got tracers on the vehicles, they could spend a couple weeks sorting through that mess, trying to find us."

"Buying more time for Val to heal."

"Yeah. So give them a hard time, get some concessions, but ultimately let them pass."

"If these are Simon's people and not more fey, they're likely to have one of his radios," Amity observed.

"Try to get a peek inside if you can. It's not likely to be a small set, especially at this range. Odds are good we'll be able to listen in. Or at least detect the signal."

"And if I don't spot their radio?"

"Then he might already have reverse engineered the books. In which case, we won't have a lot to go on."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"What happens when they run into Agamemnon and the others?"

"Ah fuck. I hadn't thought of that. Well, if we're really lucky, they'll start shooting. But yeah, the jig is up if they have a chance to talk."

Amity stepped nearer the window and shaded her eyes, "Once they're nearer, we should be able to make out the figures within. Simon has a fair amount of fey under his sway. If we're fortunate, he'll have sent at least a few, to whom Agamemnon will hopefully respond poorly."

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Val was awake when I returned to the penthouse, and I was glad to see she'd made it to the bathroom under her own power. She stood before the mirror, clad only in one of my sweaters. With her hair loose and left to stream down her back, it looked as if she stood in a pool of purple silk, and she had her head bowed as she examined something on her chest.

"Something the matter?"

She glanced up, looking at me through the mirror before she turned around and pulled the hoodie to one side.

Back in the city, I'd drawn a little heart on her chest as we'd prepared to challenge Amora. She'd still been wearing the enchanted bodypaint when we'd climbed the tower to deal with the lightning god. I recalled seeing the wound where the bodypaint had been, but I hadn't realized how bad it had been.

Left in its place was a scar, in a perfect tracing of the heart I'd drawn.

"Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, Val."

"Don't be," she said with a smirk, "If you'd written what I wanted at the time, I'd have make me your bitch, branded on my back. That would be a bit much, even for me."

I covered my face with both hands and sighed, "I'm glad you're feeling better."

I heard Val's bare feet pad across the tile towards me and then a tug on my elbow. I let my hands fall away from my face, and she threw her arms up in the air, a sheepish grin on her face.

"High maintenance little princess," I muttered as I scooped her up.

She giggled and threw her arms around my neck, and I carried her back to the couch.

"I'll be getting the tattoo this evening," she explained, "Felicity just needs to finish preparing the ink."

"I suppose there's no point in asking if you're sure."

"It's been a week. I may yet have some recovering to do, but I am nearly there. And before you object, I have seen that carriage trundling through the valley. Besides," she grinned, leaning in to nip at my ear, "Amity won't be in any position to chastise me for my gymnastics once I've got the enchantment- Oh, don't look at me like that. You've had a whole week of cuddles, you big softie. Now it's my turn, and I want you to make me- Mmmph."

Okay. Definitely doing the mute button thing.

"I was going to say, scream," she insisted, her voice muffled by my hand, "Honest."

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The wagon arrived just after dinner.

Amity had brought up a meal, which Valentine ate ravenously, after which she went to see Felicity. That left me to observe from the balcony while Amity contended with our guests.

The group was an even mix of elves and fey. While it was possible a fey family would hire some elven mercenaries, the fact they were all wearing Simon's maid uniforms did a little to clue me in.

Amity had yet to give me any sign, but even twelve stories up, the radio mast was plain to see. The distance rendered it nearly invisible at first, but with them parked on our doorstep, I made it out easily enough. Positioned just behind the cab, it was bent backwards, the loop of cord on its tip hooked around a catch near the back of the wagon.

Its construction was similar to the one Simon had sold us, though where ours had three axles, this had only two. That did reduce the amount of cargo they could carry, but the shorter wheelbase would come in handy on rough ground.

I squinted. The angle was poor, but it looked like the design of the wheels had also been updated. Instead of the smooth iron banded wood, these looked like they had an actual tread.

Of course Simon keeps the good stuff for himself.

The conversation didn't go on long. Simon's pet maids didn't even pull their wagon all the way up the front ramp, and that was probably for the best.

Amity met them halfway, and it was only a minute before I heard voices raised in irritation on both sides. I couldn't make out the words, but their tone gave me the gist of it. The voices fell below the threshold of my hearing as both Amity and the passenger she was speaking with subsided.

The gynoid stepped back after a few minutes, and the wagon rolled back down the ramp. The driver took the wagon in a wide arc around the hotel and began heading north, to where a few wisps of smoke still rose.

They were still in sight, thought rapidly shrinking into the distance, when I heard a knock at the penthouse door. I called for her to enter, and Amity stepped in.

She swept the room with a furtive look, and I shook my head.

"She's with Felicity."

"Already?"

I spread my hands, "This is Val we're talking about. We're lucky she cooperated for this long."

Amity shook her head, "I suppose she's decided upon a design then. Has she shared it with you?"

"Yeah. A handprint."

"Ah."

"Ah? What do you mean, Ah?" I demanded.

"Have you spoken with any of the others much?"

"Not really, babysitting Val mostly. Why?"

"Phoebe showed me the banners she's been preparing."

"Banners? What for?"

"Wally, you're a lord. Even if you insist otherwise. You need a sigil."

"Oh fuck. What did Val do?"

"Your sigil," Amity explained, as the slightest of smiles tugged at the corners of her mouth, "Is a silver six-fingered hand on a purple field."

"Goddammit, Val."

"Cassius has even made some broaches. I believe Felicity will be enamelling them with the same sigil."

"I'm being conspired against."

"Yes, because most conspiracies end with the target sitting on the throne," Amity giggled.

"I swear, if you fuckers are working on a throne-"

"Don't be silly," she assured me, "An armchair from this hotel is nicer than any throne you'll see back in one of the cities. Though Valentine did lobby hard for you to use Baroness Constance as a footrest."

"How has the Baroness been acclimating?"

"I've still got her on garden duty, but only because the work still needs doing. She's still mostly useless, but she tries at least, and the initial humiliation seems to have broken her of her self-entitled behaviour. Val being away also seems to have helped her grow more comfortable as well."

"Oh?" I frowned.

Amity grimaced, "It seems Val- and this was before we left for the city -may have made a few comments to Constance. Comments that were a bit much, even for Val."

"See? Shit like this is why I don't want to be in charge. Dammit, I'll talk to Val. At the moment, though, are things at least okay with Constance?"

Amity tilted her head side to side, "It's as good as can be expected. Cassius called her my little helper monkey, and that sounds about right. Val's comments aside, she's at least come to understand she'll get treated the same as the rest of us, so long as she does her part."

"I suppose that's plenty, considering she used to run a city. I can't imagine it was an easy adjustment."

"Coming here was a godsend for the rest of us. Not a desperate measure to save our own lives," Amity agreed.

I nodded, "I'll give her a talking to once she's back from Felicity."

"Careful," Amity taunted, “Otherwise Val might just enjoy herself.”

“Did you come up here to give me a hard time, or are you going to tell me how it went with Simon’s people?”

“Oh right, I’d almost forgotten,” she teased, “There were six. Three fey, three elves. Their story, which I pretended to believe, was that one of Simon’s people saw the smoke and reported in to him. He sent this team to salvage what they could before everything was ruined. They seemed to buy it when I said we didn’t have any recent news from the city. We settled on the agreement that they’d not interfere with anything you were after, but that anything else was fair game.”

“That’s reasonable, it’s a pretty big city after all. Anything else?”

“No. With that settled, they weren’t keen to volunteer any further information, and obviously neither was I. I take it you saw the radio antenna?”

“Yeah. We shouldn’t have any trouble picking that up. Can you rig something up? Even if it’s encrypted, and I doubt it, we’d at least know when they’re talking.”

“Even if Simon believes us oblivious to his hostility, he will expect eavesdropping,” Amity pointed out.

I shrugged, “Yeah. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. Not like he’s got much of a choice. Either he lets us eavesdrop, or he’s got to wait till his team is back to get any sort of report.”

Amity nodded, “I’ll see what I can do. Any one of the car radios should be up to the task, though may need to be modified to broaden the frequencies it can reach. In the meantime,” Amity smirked, “I suppose you’ll have to decide how to discipline Val in a way that doesn’t excite her too much.”

I threw my hands up in exasperation, “Am I in charge?”

“Of course, you’re lord-”

“Good, then get the hell out of my penthouse and stop giving me such a hard time.”

“I bet Val would like you to give her- Okay, okay,” she relented, giggling as I threw pillows and couch cushions at her, “I’m going!”