“
I see you are fixated on the least of my doings,” he said. “Very well, my abrupt departure from the Domain is easily enough explained: I am not at your beck and call, Madam Inquisitor. You cannot simply say to me, ‘May I call on you this evening, Your Highness, to discuss what you have seen?’”
The Inquisitor thinned her lips.
“Besides, if you had taken the time to inquire from my attendants, you would have learned that I had decided to go back to school at an earlier time, before the lightning came down.
“Now, the hotel suite. I am a young man and have needs that must be met. Since that slum of a school Atlantis so strenuously recommended does not allow for such activities, I keep a place outside of school. As for why I left, I cannot imagine why I should remain once the deed is done.”
“And where was your accomplice in . . . the deed?”
“Left before I did. No need for her presence once she had served her purpose.”
“There was no report of anyone coming or going.”
Of course not, since she left with me.
This time he had to swallow the words as they rose on his tongue.
“Were you watching all the service doors? A large hotel has many.”
“Where did you find her?”
In a certain house in Little-Grind-on-Woe. Very well suited to wielding lightning, that girl.
“In a certain—”
What was the matter with him? He was an accomplished liar. Truth should never approach his lips.
”
”