Treachery Queen (The Callistra Chronicles #1)

SIX

"Bel-Arh sent a comm." Charlize looked over her shoulder again, this time at Pasiphae. "They're waiting for our arrival."

With a sudden suctioning noise, the water swirling outside the window cleared, pushing them up in the final burst. There came a slurping under the carriage, and the machine tilted dangerously.

"Char!" Seth exclaimed.

"Don't worry, don't worry," she assured. "The floatation device is kicking in. This is what we get for taking the prototype, you know."

"We got here within the day, did we not?" Seth shot back.

Pasiphae pressed her fingers to the glass. There was only night outside at first, and then, bypassing the giant gates, there were the lights. She could see silhouettes of figures moving around, some flying and some walking, all hurrying with business to attend to.

She was in Khotadi, with two fae, aiding her, no less.

"I have a question," Pasiphae said. "What would have happened had I not dropped into the ocean?"

"I guess we'd have killed everyone we needed to lie to," Seth said flippantly.

Pasiphae jerked back violently. So they were that kind of Unseelie. Oh, Deaths, she needed to run—

"Kidding," Seth said quickly, taking a step back. "I'm just kidding. Magic. We'd use magic. Obviously."

Pasiphae tucked her chin in, a half-assed nod.

As if realising he had scared her a little, Seth said slowly, "We need to go through clearance." He reached for something. "Just one more detail."

There was a silver collar in his hands, entwined with droopy white flowers.

"What is that?" Pasiphae asked quickly. "That better not be going around my neck."

"Correct, it is indeed going around your neck." He snapped it open. "It's mandatory for humans in Khotadi to wear. These little blooms are from the mutated Borrachero trees that grow in Wan."

"Borrachero?" Pasiphae repeated. She was starting to sound like one of those cyborg parrots from Airesi that circled Eo on stormy days.

Ignoring her wince, Seth clicked the collar around her neck, closing in around the necklace she was already wearing. The faintest scent assaulted her senses, immediately unlocking the strangest wisps of a memory.

"You may have heard of it colloquially referred to as the Devil's Breath."

With those words, the memory came alive. Pasiphae lifted her hands to her face and saw dirt underneath her fingertips in another time, with morning dew dripping down her neck. Flowers in her hair and flowers crushed underfoot as something crept near. The smell, of all Callistra, this was a smell Pasiphae couldn't believe she would forget, sharpness and airborne flight and smoke stacks.

Pasiphae's hands had traveled up to the collar, clutching at the flowers without intending to.

"I've never heard of it," she said, but whatever it was, there was a clear, startlingly, certainty that she had come in contact with it before.

"Well, regardless, don't worry about its smell," Seth said. "It won't affect a witch just by being exposed to the scent, as it would for humans."

"Exactly..." Pasiphae began, "what does it do?" She pinched the stray stalk sticking into her neck. "It feels old world."

"It's been around for centuries now," Seth said, frowning as if he couldn't believe she didn't know, "just stronger after soaking in all that magic. It's a high influence, memory-wiping, truth serum drug, wrapped in one."