Only Brahm was waiting to meet the three of us at breakfast the next morning. His hair was damp, his suit simple but elegant, his expression grim. Yet he welcomed my companions and me with a smile that seemed genuine. Hannah was either too hungover or too busy pouting to join us. Either way, I felt relieved. Brahm was much easier to talk to than his sister. If my plan was going to work, I would have to make some sort of deal with the Schulzes, and I preferred negotiating with Brahm. Perhaps he was as devious and calculating as his sister, but at least he could hold a civil conversation.

Servants had laid out breakfast in a buffet style on the side table. We filled our plates with bread, sausages, and eggs. I took a seat at the table, and a footman poured coffee. “How’d you sleep?” I asked.

Brahm folded his newspaper and set it aside. “Like the dead. And you?”

“The house could have burned down around me and I wouldn’t have known.”

Malita, wearing her freshly laundered day dress, pulled out the chair across from me and sat. Niffin sat beside her, his plate piled high.

“Did you two sleep well?” I asked.

Niffin waggled his eyebrows. “Very.”

“That’s good, because I’m afraid today is going to be long and tedious.”

“Oh?” Brahm blinked at me curiously. “You already have plans?”

“Well...” I poked a sausage, pushing it around my plate. “That mostly depends on you.”

He arched a single eyebrow.

“We’ve decided to accept Le Poing Fermé’s terms.”

His second eyebrow rose, joining the first. “So quick to give in, are you? Why don’t I believe that?”

Sipping my coffee, I fluttered my lashes at him. “You know me so well?”

“A woman who climbs to the roof of a speeding train and fights angry bandits on the railway is not one who easily surrenders. I suppose I could be wrong.” His brow furrowed. “Though that seems unlikely. I’m almost never wrong.”

Malita snorted. When Brahm glanced at her, she shrugged and stuffed a slice of bread in her mouth.

“I do plan on surrendering,” I said, “but with several conditions. Conditions I don’t plan on sharing with Le Poing Fermé.”

“I assume you’ll be sharing them with me, though.” Brahm set his elbow on the table, resting his chin in his upturned palm. “I’m dying to know.”

“You want me as an ally.”

He nodded.

“But the money you and your sister have already provided isn’t enough to buy my allegiance.”

He shook his head. “I certainly hope you wouldn’t be that cheap.”

“I’ll give you what you want, but on my terms.”

His smile widened. “Now we’re getting to it.”

“I need you to hire a Magician for me. A good one. The more powerful, the better. Someone up to Le Poing Fermé’s standards, if possible.”

Brahm grunted as though I’d punched him. He rocked back, eyes wide like a startled owl’s. “You don’t ask for much, do you? A Magician of that quality won’t be easy to find. And certainly won’t be cheap.”

I raised a finger. “But wait, there’s more. Our allegiance only works if the Magician can do all the things I ask of him or her. If not, our agreement is off.”

“But if he or she can...?”

“Then I’ll be your ally. But if and when you call on me to be of assistance, I reserve the right to refuse any requests I find morally objectionable.”

Brahm’s expression soured. “I’m not sure those are favorable terms. You’ve left yourself several large loopholes to wriggle through.”

“I need your help.” I shrugged. “But if we don’t do this my way, I’ll find another. You’re right that I don’t easily surrender, Brahm. You’ve seen my powers and what I can do. You can take what I’m offering, or you can reject them, but it’s the only option I’m offering you and your sister.”

“Le Poing Fermé only offered one option too.” Brahm pushed his plate aside and frowned. “Funny how you made that work in your favor.”

“That remains to be seen.”

I suspected Brahm could find ways to make my agreement work in his favor, too, but that was a problem for another day. One more debt added to an ever-growing pile. One more vulnerability I hoped to avoid. I’m not sure I’m starting out on the right foot, but I don’t know what else to do. Le Poing Fermé is holding my country hostage, and I can’t defeat them on my own.

I can’t tell you what to do, Grandfather said. But whatever path you take, I’ll be with you the whole way.

Like you have any other choice.

He chuckled. Nothing gets by you, does it?

“Meet me in the stables in a half hour.” Brahm stuffed his folded newspaper under his arm and stood.

“Does this mean we have an agreement?”

He paused, narrowing his eyes at me, analyzing. Whatever he was looking for, he must have found. His face cleared. “We do.”

“What about Hannah?” Malita asked. “Will she agree?”

His lips thinned. “Leave my sister to me.”

***

I found Brahm standing in the wide doorway of stables grand enough to put many of the fine homes on Inselgrau to shame, including my own. Built of heavy stone blocks and rich mahogany beams, the stables kept the Shulzes’ horses housed in luxury. Brahm, however, clutched the reins of a moth-eaten old horse that looked like he’d prefer to be doing anything else, such as quietly succumbing to old age in a nice sunny pasture, rather than standing in the courtyard, wearing a saddle and bridle. Adaleiz, also in full tack, waited next to him, shaking her head as if to say she thought this to be a bad idea. Examining the stables’ dark interior, I hoped to catch a glimpse of Gideon’s father and confirm he was being well cared for, but if the elder Faust was anywhere around, he kept out of sight.

Brahm tugged on a ragged flat cap that looked as old and tired as his horse. He had also changed from his suit into workman’s clothes. “Is there any chance you’d let me undertake this task on my own?”

“I’m to trust you to choose a Magician for me without my input?” I scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

“We may not even find your Magician today. The first thing I must do is talk to my connections and discover what they know. That would go easier if you weren’t there. They don’t trust outsiders.”

“I’m going, like it or not.”

“Without your friends?” He gestured toward the house. “Don’t you want their protection?”

What I wanted was to keep them safe as much as possible, and I believed it was safer for them to stay behind. “Haven’t I proved myself capable of protecting myself?”