Page 70 of Needed in the Night
My request elicited a smile. She scanned the list, tapping her lower lip with her fingertip and murmuring the names to herself.
“Pelles Vertak,” she said finally. “Efre and Pelles. Those sound nice together, don’t you think?”
“A perfect choice.” I sent those names back to my friend and received confirmation that within the hour the identifications would be ready for use.
Atlath, meanwhile, had selected a pipe of wine from a shelf and brought it to the counter. He reached under the counter and brought out five glasses: two large, two medium-sized, and one very small.
“While we wait for word from your contact, will you join me for a drink?” Atlath asked, opening the pipe with a flourish.
“Of course,” I said. “Is someone joining us?”
“Yes.” Atlath filled the smaller glasses first and then the large ones. “Pioni and Madame Ycari will be here soon. Ycari wishes to see you off and Pioni plans to accompany you to the port.”
“Oh, good.” Isla’s mood improved instantly. “I really wanted to thank them and say goodbye. I was afraid I wouldn’t get a chance.”
I recalled her story of how she had left the palace on Agicord without being able to speak to her lover, who had helped her find a way to escape.
I started to tuck her against my side just as her eyes widened. “The perfume,” she gasped. “I haven’t put it on yet.”
She opened her case and searched until she found the wooden box from Ycari’s shop. “When Ycari comes, I want to be able to tell her how much I love the scent,” she said, looking up at me as she opened the box. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not,” I assured her. “Please, go ahead.”
Despite my initial resistance to the idea, my lovely mate would smell like Isla to me regardless of any perfumes or scents she used. And I was very curious what scent Madame Ycari had made that would be so perfect without Isla actually selecting any of its ingredients.
The wooden box and pouch that protected the bottle were lovely, but the pink crystal bottle was utterly breathtaking. Its facets shimmered even in the low light inside Atlath’s shop. With all my attention on Isla, I had hardly noticed its design in Madame Ycari’s sampling room. Now I realized what I had not noticed last night.
“Isla, look at the stopper,” I said as she admired how the bottle sparkled. “It is the waterfall. And the bottle is the lake.”
“Oh, you’re right,” she gasped, her eyes widening as she looked from the bottle to me and back again. “Ycari made me a bottle that looks like my favorite place in Onat’ras.” She stared at the bottle, turning it slowly at eye level. “I only mentioned it once, in passing,” she added, almost to herself. “But she remembered. And now I can take it with me.”
Isla carefully unstoppered the bottle and withdrew a crystal wand that dripped with perfume. The scent filled the air, and suddenly everything else faded away as if I had been transported to the moment I had first caught Isla’s scent in Zaa’ga the day she came in to audition.
Somehow, through technology and mastery of her craft, Ycari had made a perfume of my own scent and that of my mate, blended with the natural fragrance of the waters of Fortusia. And she had prepared the perfume before I had confessed my love, and before Isla and I had decided to leave the planet together.
I could not help myself; lost in the scent, I went to my knees before my mate.
“Oh, no,” she said, smiling down at me. “Not again.”
“Again and always.” I kissed her palm. “Do you recognize the scent she has made?”
“Maybe?” She ran the wand across her wrists, dabbed it along her neck and cleavage, and stoppered the bottle again before setting it on the counter. She lifted her wrist to her nose and inhaled deeply, frowning.
Her head tilted. “Does it…does it smell like you? And the lake?”
“Yes.” I rested my hands on her hips. “And of you.”
“Oh.” She sank down to sit on her travel case to bring herself eye level with me. “She made a perfume ofuscombined with the water of Fortusia?”
“And floral notes,” I said. “Ones I do not recognize by name, but that I like very much.”
“So she knew too, somehow.” Her smile turned wobbly. “Brae knew, Madame Ycari knew…was I the last to know?”
I kissed her gently. “All that matters is that we know.”
“I agree,” Atlath croaked. On the other side of the counter, he sipped his wine and kept a tactful distance. “Your employer, I think, was unaware. He may or may not know the whole truth even now. Whether the knowledge would make him more or less angry and vindictive, I am not sure.”
I also was not sure what Nubo’s reaction might be. Someone less venal might consider the fact Isla was my true mate reason enough to let us leave, but as far as I could tell Nubo had never been troubled by sentiment, much less kindness or mercy.
