Treachery Queen (The Callistra Chronicles #1)

NINETEEN

Chapter Nineteen

"I think the Mors might be taking magic."

Pasiphae frowned. "Taking magic? I guess when people die they take their magic with them."

Seth shook his head. "No," he said. "I meant taking magic—consuming it—in the fae sense. When the disease broke out in Airesi, our AIs—Artificial Intelligence systems—sensed strange transferences."

Seth reached for the electronic tablet, tapping in something as he talked. "It's coming here, Saf. Khotadi is taking Airesi's magic, and now Medeis' too, I'm sure of it. But no one knows how and no one knows who it's going to."

It hadn't been new information that Khotadi was somewhat at blame for the disease. Pasiphae was here for that exact reason. But using it to take magic?

"A few high nobles were talking about this," she said. "One of them was the head of cross-culture communications, surely if she doesn't know about the energy irregularities then not many are involved."

"Which makes our job harder." Seth shut off the tablet. "Less information to follow up on, and we're dry as it is."

Pasiphae resisted the urge to throw her chair over the balcony. She had just wanted to find one person who was feeding the disease to another in Eo. She had wanted undeniable records, with one event leading to another, and instead what had she found? A damn conspiracy, one that looked like it was going to lead to a second war.

"We need to work faster," Seth muttered, half to himself. "And talk about bad timing. If Morgana really thinks Pasiphae of Eo is in her domain, the security levels will be insane."

Pasiphae twitched uncomfortably.

"Does Khotadi have a foreign affairs centre?"

Seth squinted at her. "A what?"

"Foreign affairs," she repeated. "A place to hold records of Unseelie interaction with Airesi or the Isles. Maybe even with Wan. There could be reports from officials who have found something."

Seth shook his head vehemently. "Forget it. First of all, such a place doesn't exist. The fae use a hierarchical system unlike your strange democracy, so everything to do with Khotadi is controlled by Morgana." Seth flicked the screen, and turned the tablet around. "Second, it would appear the palace has gone into casual lockdown, so even if I do poison someone with a virus again, we are not getting anywhere other than ground floor."

"Let me see that." Pasiphae reached for the screen, but all she could discern from the symbols and letters were commands like enter and search.

"How do you make your viruses?" she asked, her eyes still on the scrolling text. "Do you think the Somnus operates on a similar level?"

"Magic and bacteria," Seth answered. He pressed an earpiece in. "And I suppose so. If it's truly taking magic, there's no doubt that magic was what created the Mors."

"It's not a natural disease," Pasiphae agreed.

Seth flopped down onto the bed, and pulled a face. "It's spreading on such an incredibly large scale that only someone with great power is capable of it. I didn't even create my virus—some incredible genius in the Seelie labs did."

Something was starting to whir together in Pasiphae's mind. "You know how each victim, regardless of faery or witch, has been found with a strand on their necks? What if it's been manipulated to— are you sleeping?"

Pasiphae marched over as Seth nodded with his eyes closed. "Good night."

"The night isn't going anywhere," she exclaimed. "You just said we had to work faster."