* * *
It could be said I was searching for trouble, but I didn't know who else to go to. Thaimon was my one real chance at saving Bane. How to find Thaimon, then, was my next challenge. I couldn’t do anything from within the Kettle itself, not without grossly underestimating what they were capable of when it came to hunting down unauthorized communications. In theory I could seek permission to contact Thaimon and the Kettle may allow it, however slim the odds of that happening were. But then I'd have to convince Thaimon to tell me, and he wanted nothing from the Kettle so he wouldn't help me on their behalf. Saving Bane might even be a dumb thing for Thaimon to do, so I needed to conceal it.
Thaimon had schemed and plotted to get to me the last two times, so I needed to do the same to get to him.
Finding Thaimon could very quickly turn into a game of needle in the mattress—impossible to know where he was until it was too late. While I might not be able to pinpoint his house, I may be able to tell the portal station by eliminating the areas I doubted he'd find desirable. Wraithbane had once said that in fifteen minutes, Thaimon had enough of an advanced start to lose him. That meant Thaimon had access to stations with a lot of portals. Not only that, but a station with reasonably direct access to remote locations. With this in mind, three stations jumped out. Singly they did not have an expanded web into the rural landscape, but two of them were very well tied one into the other and they had an expansive combined network. It would be excellent for losing a pursuer—however it could also be problematic for detecting a sticky padfoot.
This is where the third station came into play. It connected with smaller, presumably quiet stations. Thaimon could be in one of these quieter stations, or very near to them.
Now was when I had to think like him. He preferred his own space and the fine things in life, so he would have a rich place just off the main raceway. Near enough for entertaining guests, far enough to not hear the city sirens. I'd seen his preference in furniture. Good things, expensive things. Very refined.
I'd know the station when I saw it. It'd be classy, retro, and rich enough to stink like newly printed greenbacks fresh from a fat man's wallet.
I went station to station until I found one which had a homey feel to it, one that matched the posh furniture and setting I'd seen in the first-ever portal. Now that I stopped to think on it, I'd never seen the other end of a portal after that first day. Had it been thanks to the Bliss that I'd even seen it that couple of times?
I almost wanted to experiment, then I scolded myself. Bliss was a drug, not a toy.
My university town had been the first place I'd lived in which had had real alleys. Strange thing to think about, but I couldn't help admiring the alleys I walked by now, one or two per block just off the tiny streets. Tiny streets which could fit two cars side by side or one car parked half on the sidewalk and one car to pass beside it, tiny streets lined with three storey brick buildings framed with ancient mouldings. It was dark now, light came from antiquated Victorian streetlamps and bay windows onto a cobblestone street, like I was walking through a real-life Thomas Kinkade painting with swishing skirts and shopping bags thrown over one arm.
The streets seemed familiar somehow, and since I had no better plan, I just let my feet take me where they would until I entered the half-circle driveway of a place which strongly resembled a country club. Without thinking, I mounted the stairs and let myself into the main door. It was exactly as if I'd done it a thousand times before. Behind me the door closed stiffly on its latch, as I knew it would, shutting out the cool wind and welcoming me home.
The front-room settee was a perfect match, right down to the floral print and shape of the couch legs, to what I'd seen through Thaimon's portal. I was too happy to wonder how I'd found his place.
There was a bouncer just inside the lobby and his expression was far from accepting. He didn't have a list in his hand, but I suspected that he had a mental list which he knew to check visitors against.
“Name?” he asked brusquely when I approached him.
“It doesn't matter,” I said and stepped forward. He put out an arm to block me. I added, “I'm to meet Jonah Woden.”
The man's eyes narrowed and I wondered if I should have used Thaimon's real name.
“He's not going by Woden any longer.”
To my surprise, I felt annoyed by his attitude rather than intimidated. “But you know who I mean. If you turn me away he'll be very cross with you.”
“A risk I am willing to take. Lee, Carl. Please escort this thing outside.”
Two men who looked like waitstaff approached at the command.
“Tell Jonah that Miss Silver is here to see him. If he hears of the way you've threatened me, he will not be happy. And he is not the sort of man you want to cross.”
Carl decided to go away with the message. Next I knew, the main bouncer opened the door for me and said, “You may enter. Take the passage to the right.”
I followed his instructions after seeing that going left went to some sort of games room. Beyond the initial instruction, I was free to wander as I felt like. It was clearly a residence, though a very large one, one filled with hallways which seemed to have been added on over a long time. A manor house, part of which was used as a public house.
There was a swimming pool and hot tub room, as well as a study and a handful of parlours and an old ballroom which had been converted into a dining area. But what drew my attention was a chemistry laboratory located in a rounded add-on. I milled between the phials and browsed through the various names and ingredients, stopping when I recognized a handwriting from a font long ago no longer taught in public schools.
“I thought I'd find you here.”
Thaimon's raspy voice made me jump. I turned to him, feeling a guilty blush on my cheeks already. He had a haircut since I'd last seen him, and his skin had a pinkish hue to it. My first impression of his new body had been that of a vulture, but he'd tamed his appearance since then. If he resembled an animal, it was that of a silver fox.
The transformation made me stammer until I finally choked out, “I did not mean to pry.”
“My house is your house,” Thaimon said, then cleared his throat in an attempt to not start coughing. “What is it that brings you to need me?”
I looked away. “I suppose it is that obvious, isn't it?”
“You need not be ashamed of it. This was how you always were and I expected nothing differently from you then, nor do I expect you to behave differently now.”
“I don't want to talk about things from before,” I said. “I just … how did I find your house?”
Thaimon sighed and hobbled into the room, the vitality of his previous body completely gone to the wretched coughing of this older body. “You knew the way. If you do not wish to speak of the past, I cannot tell you more than this.”
I picked up a couple of phials, noting that one of them was volunteer imp's blood while another specifically stated that it was not volunteer. “The henchman at the front door said you were no longer called Woden. I didn't think it was appropriate to use your proper name.”
Thaimon's thin lips curled into a smile. “It is not. But you haven't had any qualms about using my real name regardless of the situation, yet now you take some care. Are you beginning to soften towards me?”
“It is difficult to not soften at least a little after what you did for Kayla.”
“Do not think that I did it for her,” Thaimon said. “The girl meant nothing to me.”
I knew that Kayla meant nothing to him. How had our relationship changed, the one between Thaimon and myself? I used to think him a villain, the truest in existence. Something to be afraid of and to seek out his demise, but what was I to think now? I let out a slow breath and nodded once. “I'm using you.”
Thaimon held out his arms. “Use me as you will. It is my pleasure.”
“I don't think it is a nice thing to be used.”
“It isn't so terrible, if you know who you ar
e giving the privileges to.”
I shook my head and put the phials back in place. “Why? You can't expect to get anything back from me.”
“Tough Brandy is hard on the outside because she has to be,” Thaimon said. “It is how it is with us all.”
Now that I was with him, now that I'd found him and that I suspected he would tell me what I wished, I found actually asking him the question to be a difficult matter. I didn't know what the words were, and I didn't know how to deal with this odd combination of guilt and relief.
“I need your help,” I admitted.
“If you did not, I do not think you would have found me,” he said. Then he offered me his elbow. “Come, let's find a comfortable place to sit. My hip is giving me issues again. This old codger didn't take good care of himself and the neglect is difficult to repair.”
As I took his arm, it was almost easy to forget that he had killed a man to be like this.
“Brandy.”
“Jonah,” I said, wanting to call him by his real name but it felt disrespectful to be so casual with him.
Thaimon took me to the dining room with its hard floors covered in a plush rug. A waiter approached with bowls of melon and cantaloupe. As the table was set and food given to me which I knew I would not eat, I couldn't get over the feeling that I'd been here before, sitting restlessly while waiting for Thaimon to eat. Perhaps he'd nag me, say I was wasting away, tell me to put a spoon in my mouth. Even more disconcerting was that the way Thaimon raised his spoon was the way I'd known he would.