Page 10 of The Princess of Portals

“Yes.”

“How many are we talking about?”

“Fifteen.”

I did my best not to grit my teeth. I didn’t know how much damage someone could do with fifteen magic lanterns, but I did know it wasn’t insignificant. This was not good. Oh, no, not good at all. We had to find Ren, and not just because I’d promised Yara that I would. I had to find him before his fifteen highly-explosive magic lanterns blew up…and took a big chunk of Gaia with them.

CHAPTER 4

THE AVENUE

Ipromised Tak that I wouldn’t breathe a word about his illegal magic lantern operation, then Marlow, Wolf, and I left him to his business. We searched the Black Market for more clues. The rain had stopped, and the sun was out again, which made the task slightly more bearable. And Wolf actually made it fun. She was running around happily, fetching me fallen branches off the ground, as well as a variety of eclectic goods from the merchants’ stands. Marlow made her give them back, which the husky did promptly, albeit under protest.

When we tried to return a cupcake to a woman named Sally, the good-natured merchant not only insisted that Wolf keep it, she gave me and Marlow a cupcake each, free of charge. She also gave us something far more valuable, though not nearly as delicious: information. Sally had encountered Ren, aka Christopher, and he hadn’t been alone. He’d had a companion. A female companion.

“What did she look like?” I asked Sally.

“Tall, attractive, and deadly.”

“Deadly?”

“She was dressed to kill, Savannah. In a skin-tight black bodysuit with stiletto heels and a crossbow.”

That sounded a lot like Ren’s mysterious companion in the photograph.

“Who is she? An accomplice?” I frowned. “Or a girlfriend?”

“She was half his age.”

How nice for Ren. Yara, on the other hand, would be absolutely crushed when she learned her father had faked his death so that he could buy bombs and run around with Assassin Barbie.

Having exhausted the Black Market merchants’ supply of information on Ren, Marlow, Wolf, and I were headed back to civilization. Like any good, pragmatic, post-apocalyptic people, we walked on the road. The only cars that drove here nowadays were the Watchers’ SUVs and the Government’s supply trucks, and we’d hear them coming from a mile away, even over the symphony of singing streams and cackling kookaburras.

“I have no idea what Ren’s up to, but it can’t be anything good,” I continued. “I don’t think I’m doing Yara any favors by telling her where her dad is. Maybe she’s better off not knowing. Maybe she’s better off thinking he’s dead.”

“That’s up to her, though, isn’t it?” The outer tip of Marlow’s brow arched, and I sighed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

After talking to Sally, we’d visited a few more merchants. One of them even knew where Ren was staying: an old condemned house just a few blocks from the Magic Emporium train station.

I considered stopping by to see for myself what Ren was up to, but decided against the idea on account of it being reckless and potentially very stupid. I really didn’t want to charge into an enemy stronghold. That hadn’t worked out so well in the Park, and that day I’d had a powerful Polymage by my side and a magic coin that could turn me invisible. I didn’t have the benefit of either with me today.

I had Ren’s current address, and I was going to do the safe, sensible thing with it: give it to Yara. Ren might have gone off the deep end, but he wasn’t going to blow up his daughter because she decided to pay him a visit. From what Yara had told me, she and her father were very close. Obviously, he’d faked his death to protect her from the seriously bad crap he’d gotten himself involved with.

Yes, I’d give Yara the address and let her decide what she wanted to do with it. Maybe she could talk Ren down from whatever crazy scheme he was hatching. Maybe she could convince him to leave Gaia peacefully. If not, I’d have to alert the Knights to the threat Ren represented—before he hurt someone. Or a lot of someones. I’d seen a few videos of those exploding lanterns, and they were no joke. They could cause a massive amount of damage.

“You’re doing the right thing, Savannah.”

I looked at Marlow. “I hope you’re right.”

“You can’t always storm into danger, sword swinging.”

“Actually, I don’t have a sword. And I don’t storm into danger. I discreetly, stealthily sneak around it, coming at it from behind.”

I extracted a slim square of peach-colored origami paper from my bag and folded it into a bird. It tweeted in greeting, then hopped up and down on my palm, waiting for instructions.

“Find Yara,” I told the bird. “Tell her I’ve found her father. Ask her to meet me at the Tea Hut in the Magic Emporium at four o’clock.”