Amy was being watched. She felt it throughout the school day and desperately attempted to seem to ignore it, grasping at threads. She did a lot of guesswork, deciding time and time again that the watcher would address her when ready, and that it definitely had something to do with either Amy's skills at magic or with her character's accosting of her the previous day. When the feeling started to follow Amy home, she slid her bike into a park and settled under a secluded tree to read and wait.
It did not take long.
"Amarantha Françoise Dyuaaxchs?"
The brown skinned, green-eyed man showed more trepidation than Cherry had the previous day. Amy looked up at him, folding the book closed. "Yes?"
"I'm . . ." He seemed to hesitate.
Amy wondered if it would be better to help him along or let him finish the sentence on his own. Then Amy wondered if he was reading her mind. Then Amy tried to remember if he could read her mind, or indeed any one's. She thought so, but she could not remember any cases of his having done so.
"Miss Amarantha?"
She blinked and realized that she had forgotten about him and missed whichever form of introduction he had used. "Yes. You're Ralozeiauoy of the house of Nesel of the county of Filch, in Matai, in the world of Eironimatai, son of an earl and therefore styling yourself as an earl among the race of supernatural of this world, but more accurately titled Queen of Eiron, co-ruler with Cherry as Prime Minister and the space of King not filled. You are more commonly addressed as Raloz. I'm sorry, but I missed what you just said."
He looked rather taken aback. "Oh . . . oh!"
She stared at him. Amy was positive that she had not created him as a simpleton. She thought she had developed him as an extraordinarily intelligent person who did not mind looking foolish and always knew what to do in any given situation. Instead, he was acting like Baslon, only less defensive. Amy thought back over what she had said. "Was some of that supposed to be a secret?"
"No . . ."
"Oh." Pummeling her brain furiously to come up with an idea of what was wrong, she could come up with only one option. "What did Cherry say about me?"
He seemed to regain some lost ground. "Absolutely nothing informative."
"Ohhh! So you weren't expecting a human to know!"
"Actually, it's not common knowledge even among my own kind, although it is not secret, so you need not worry yourself on that account."
Amy grinned at him, though did not laugh. "Thanks so much for the reassurance. Your English has improved." He blinked, drawing back in confusion. "Oh, right. 'Nothing informative.' So what was uninformative?"
"Um . . ." He scrubbed a hand through his dark brown hair. "Something about 'chess' and 'serving her right.' I can only guess something about revenge, and I have certain orders that I do not intend to take seriously."
Amy's hazel eyes narrowed. She was overtaken by and abrupt and morbid curiosity as to what those orders were. "I suppose you'd like to know what's going on."
"Well, yes."
"Information exchange! You promise not to hurt me, and then follow me to my house, and I'll show you. If you think my information is valuable enough, then you tell me everything she said. If not, then judge any positive repayment yourself."
"I don't mind telling you, anyway," he said, looking slightly confused. Amy decided that she was going to have to check on whether he had ever looked confused before.
"Well, you might once you find out. You see, this information has the possibility of putting me in your debt. Cherry certainly thinks I owe her something. Baslon would probably agree with her. You're probably my only option of survival. I think you can understand human thinking."
"You're seventeen years old and don't want to die yet," he guessed. "But Amano doesn't have murder in mind."
Amy did not speak, not immediately. "So good to hear that our little talk was effective." She put her book back in her backpack, picked up her bike, and started pedaling. She pushed hard, trying to wear her body out. Something about the way he had said that last sentence put a cold feeling in her gut.
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