“I might be able to help.” Elania’s musical voice drifted from the stairwell, and I turned as I heard her footsteps creaking on the wooden steps. She sashayed in a few moments later, and I was surprised to see her in a black top and pants rather than the tight, low-cut dresses she preferred. Over her clothing, she wore a stained apron, and the smudges of dirt on her usually perfect face and the duster in her hand told me she’d been cleaning downstairs.
“Help with what?” I asked as she glided over to Comenius. “The heat?”
“Yes.” She planted a kiss on Comenius’s cheek, then turned to face me. “My mother used to make an anti-aphrodisiac that was quite effective. Her customers were usually tired women who wanted to stave off their randy husbands. They would mix a few drops in their man’s beer when he came home from work, and unless said man had an extraordinarily powerful libido, he was content to leave her alone for the evening.”
“Huh.” I’d never even considered such a scenario between married couples, but I could understand an overtired housewife wanting to go to bed early every so often without spreading her legs. “Well, if you’ve got some, I’ll try it out.”
“It’ll only take a few moments to make,” Elania promised. “Let me just get washed up.”
She disappeared into Comenius’s bedroom, then returned a little bit later with the dirt removed from her face, wearing a long, high-waisted black dress with no sleeves. She tied a glittering purple apron over her dress as she went into the kitchen, then bustled around, chopping up herbs and boiling water.
Resigned to the wait, I sat down in the wicker armchair next to the sofa and turned back to Elnos and Annia. “So are you two already packed, then? Do you need help with any other preparations?”
“No, we’re good,” Annia said softly. There was a faraway look in her eyes as she stared at the opposite wall. “I’m not sure how long we’re going to be gone for, Naya. It could be a week, or it could be months. Part of me feels I’m being selfish by doing this, that I should be staying here to help defend the city and fight off the Resistance.”
“It’s okay.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. “You’ve done a lot already, between helping me with the Shifter Royale case and rescuing the Chief Mage. And depriving the Resistance of Noria’s talents has got to be worthwhile in itself. No one would dream of faulting you for wanting to go after your sister.” I turned my head to glare at Comenius. “Right?”
He sighed, looking away. “I suppose not,” he admitted. “And perhaps while you’re there, you may learn something useful that will help the Federation in their fight against the Resistance.”
“We are planning on gathering as much intel as possible,” Elnos acknowledged. “Comenius has agreed to receive my transmissions by ether pigeon and deliver any urgent information to the Mages Guild.”
I arched a brow. “Ether pigeon?”
He nodded, then held out his hand and spoke a few Words. Magic swirled above his palm before taking the shape of a ghostly, glowing blue pigeon. “Mages used to send these to carry messages between war camps, during the Conflict. They’re used much less often since the advent of telegrams, but the spell is far from obsolete.”
“That’s fascinating.” I crouched down to get a better look at the pigeon. It turned its head to look at me in that strange, stilted way birds have about them, and I could swear I saw it ruffle its feathers. But when I reached out to touch it, my finger simply passed through it, though a magical tingle skipped up my nerves. “So how does it work? And can it travel very long distances?”
“Not more than a few hundred miles, unfortunately,” Elnos admitted. “And imbuing it with the message you want to transmit is a tricky business. You certainly can’t send more than a few sentences. Thankfully, from what we’ve been able to determine, Noria is still in Canalo for now, so we should be able to use these.”
“But won’t somebody notice a glowing blue pigeon flying through the air?” I asked. “If someone catches you at the camp, you’ll be outed for sure.”
Elnos shook his head. “When the pigeons are launched into the air, they turn into a blue mist that blends in with the atmosphere, and they don’t regain their shape again until they arrive at their destination. Once they deliver their message, the spell is finished, and the pigeon will disappear. I’ll have to be careful I’m not seen when I send messages, and I won’t be able to receive them, but otherwise, this should work.”
“Well, it’s very brave of you to be willing to do that, and I hope you’re extra careful,” I told him. Should I warn him not to underestimate the Resistance? But no, Annia already knew how dangerous they could be. Between an experienced, wily enforcer and a resourceful mage, surely they would be all right. Besides, someone needed to go knock some sense into Noria, and I couldn’t go. Annia was the best person for the job, and who was I to stop her from going after her little sister?
“Here you are.” Elania brought me a steaming mug of faintly purple liquid. It tasted like lavender, mint, and something so bitter that I nearly gagged at the first sip. “Drink up.” She winked at me.
I downed the entire thing in one go, then sat back in my chair and waited.
“Well?” Elania arched an eyebrow. “Anything?”
I smiled apologetically. “It’s helped a little,” I said, and that was true. The ache had eased off slightly, and I didn’t feel quite so hot. “But not that much. I’m afraid my shifter metabolism is working against me in this case.”