“I have a report, Your Majesty.”
Tommy’s voice softly echoed throughout my silent chamber, his silhouette appearing from nowhere.
“Is this about Étoile?” I asked.
“Sure is.”
“Then I have a question for you: Have your agents provided information regarding children disappearing from the towns where the circus performs?”
“Huh. Who let you in on that juicy tidbit?”
“None of yours, don’t worry. Just someone who wanted to make small talk.”
Tommy laughed. “Quite the big topic for some ‘small’ talk, I’d say.”
“That I cannot deny,” I said. “So, have your men heard anything?”
“Yes. Several reports of missing children have been handed over to me.”
“How many children?”
“Thirty. This hasn’t been elevated to an official incident, though, so there could be more kidnappings we aren’t aware of.”
“Is there a common thread between those who have gone missing?”
“All the missing children are between five and ten years old, boys and girls alike.”
“And where have the kidnappings taken place?”
Instead of telling me, Tommy leaned over a map and drew red circles in the southern and eastern regions, away from the capital.
“In the regions of House Beckford and House Weston,” he said. “Weston’s region in particular has had the most incidents.”
“What about House Alcott?”
“Nothing there. Étoile hasn’t performed in that region either.”
I took a deep breath, absorbing all the information Tommy gave me. This was awful. They really did seem to think they had nothing to fear if they all committed the same atrocities at once. I let out a laugh—not out of amusement but in a vain attempt to vent my frustration. I seemed to have a bad habit of doing that when enraged.
“Well, I can feel history’s greatest wave of fury emanating from you, my queen. Any observations you’d like to share?”
“Yes. I’ve reaffirmed just how cancerous the Great Five truly are.”
Tommy glanced at me, awaiting a follow-up to my statement.
“It would appear that Lord Beckford has been looking for friends willing to accept Étoile under their roofs,” I continued.
“Ahh, so they wish to share the revelry with their friends? How sweet,” Tommy said. “And by ‘friends,’ they’re of course neither inferior nor superior to one another, yes?”
Tommy was smart, and he clearly understood what I was getting at. Lord Beckford was looking for other members of the Great Five, his equals, to conspire with Étoile alongside him. Put simply, he very well might be cooperating with other regional lords to target and kidnap children.
“Isn’t that the very definition of a friend?” I said.
Gathering that we understood each other, Tommy chuckled. “Glad you get it. Yes, the Great Five are the vilest bunch around. I can see why you had to let off some steam there just now.”
“A mystery remains, however: Why are they capturing children? What do they stand to gain?”
“Not to mention we still don’t know where they’re being held.”
“Quite.”
I looked at the map once again, my mood sourer than a rotten apple. The fact that I hadn’t realized the connection between these incidents sooner was a sign of my imperfection. So much for my dream of a school for mages… Wait!
My thoughts went back to the conversation I had in the library this morning.
“The children. Were they mages?” I asked.
“Were they? Hmm.”
“I hate to put it like this, but some unscrupulous individuals could see children with magic as having many, shall we say, uses. And I’ve heard other nations are secretly gathering children with magical aptitude,” I said.
“A likely scenario. I’ll let my men know to keep an eye out,” Tommy replied.
“Your magic would certainly come in handy for situations like this.”
Tommy’s magic was Oscillation, a very versatile power. He could project his voice over long distances like the telephones of my previous life, erase other noises entirely, and even reduce matter to dust.
“Eh. If I went far enough, I’d have to rely on someone with Transfer magic to relay information both ways.”
“Didn’t you have a man named Dudley working for you who had such magic?”
“Yep.”
“I’ve heard Transfer can send small objects across long distances, but nothing larger than that. Seems like it’d pair well with your powers, Tommy.”
“I guess. My magic hasn’t been that handy lately. Last time it made a big difference was when Alicia’s magic ran out of control. Was great for fixing up all the land that got torn up at the time. Haven’t really used it much since.”
Tommy had two sides. Publicly, he presented himself as a humble gardener, but privately, he worked as my assistant. It was pleasant to see him joke around with Alicia as a gardener, but he was subtly different during those interactions. That being the case, his casual demeanor didn’t change too much between his professions, honestly.
“Words spoken by a man who doesn’t know the force of his own power,” I said. “By the way, are you still looking into House Beckford?”
“Yep. We might finally make some headway on that front soon.”
“I see. I would also like you to investigate the connection between Houses Weston and Slade. So long as we lack hard evidence of any ‘friendly’ goings-on between the Great Five, conjecture is all we have to work with.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
Tommy left the room, making not even the tiniest noise as he did so. Whether it was a skill he picked up as part of being my personal servant or a trick performed with his magic, I did not know—but either way, he vanished like a puff of smoke.