Chapter 62: Conman instincts
Stefan’s POV
I had nothing. Not one fact, not one clue, not the faintest shape of whatever had this woman ready to have someone’s head over breakfast.
So I did what I do best. I lied like my life depended on it, because, frankly, it did.
I straightened my back, let my face settle into something calm and knowing, the exact look I used to give clients right before I emptied their accounts.
"This lowly Alien," I began gently, "knows everything about your concern." I let that sit a beat. "But there is something called dignity."
Saffron’s brow lifted a fraction.
"I’m offering my help," I went on, smooth, unbothered, like I hadn’t been sweating through a two-minute countdown thirty seconds ago.
"Wouldn’t it be more fitting for the Queen to indulge me? Ask politely. Tell me what needs sorting, so I can begin?"
She cocked her head, sizing me up the way she might size up a blade she wasn’t sure was sharp enough to trust yet.
"And no one needs to know I helped," I added quickly, before she could shut the whole thing down. "Not a word from me. Your authority stays exactly where it belongs. Intact. Untouched."
That landed wrong. Her frown deepened instead of easing, and I felt my stomach drop slightly, wondering if I had just talked myself into an execution instead of out of one.
"Why," she began asking, her voice coming out cool, every syllable carrying the full weight of someone who had never once needed to ask for anything in her life, "would you think yourself capable of helping me? Do I seem like I need help from any being?"
I kept my tone gentle, careful, the tone I used to use on the wives who still trusted their husbands;
"Your Royal Majesty, Of course you don’t need help. You’ve never needed anything from anyone, I’d wager. But use this. Let me prove to you that I’m not a useless Bound. I’m useful."
Something flickered across her face. A twitch at the corner of her mouth, gone almost before it arrived, but I caught it. I’d built a career catching exactly that kind of flicker. She liked the angle. Not because she believed a word out of my mouth, but because I’d handed her a reason to indulge herself that didn’t cost her any pride at all.
"I’ll see what this Alien can do, then," she said.
"So may I get the brief now?" I asked, careful to keep the eagerness out of my voice even though every second mattered more than she knew.
She turned her head slightly. "Dove."
Dove stepped forward from where she had been hovering, still glaring daggers in my direction.
"Take the Alien out from my chambers and give him whatever information he requires to sort this." Saffron said.
Dove’s glare sharpened at that, clearly unhappy with the assignment, but she said nothing to the Queen. When she turned to me, though, the glare didn’t soften one bit.
I glared right back. Not hard, just steady, just enough to remind her whose authority currently had the floor. She looked away first.
~~~~~~~~
Dove led me out through the palace and into the courtyard, checking twice over her shoulder before she finally stopped in a quiet corner where the gold walls blocked most of the wind and no one was close enough to overhear.
"The lady-in-waiting who was meant to carry General Belladonna’s honor is missing. Along with the honor itself." She informed me in a low voice.
I raised an eyebrow. "That’s it? That’s the whole crisis?"
Dove’s jaw tightened. "It is everything. If she is not found, and the honor is not found, the Queen’s word before her people means nothing. Do you understand what that costs a ruler?"
I did, actually. Reputation was the only currency that mattered more than gold in rooms like the ones I used to run cons in. I nodded slowly.
Then I thought for a moment.
"This missing lady-in-waiting... I want to see her room."
Dove opened her mouth, already halfway into an argument, and I cut her off before she got there.
"Just answer the questions. I don’t need you to argue with me. It’s unnecessary." I said, letting the authority stat do the heavy lifting, my voice dropping into that easy, commanding register I’d been practicing all morning.
Something in her posture folded, subtle but obvious, and she turned without another word and began to lead me away.
She turned toward a modest room near the edge of the palace’s inner ring.
There were five spaces inside, each one marked out with its own small collection of belongings. Dove explained, sounding flat now, resigned, that this was where the ladies-in-waiting slept, all of them except herself, who kept quarters closer to the Queen.
"Where are the other four? I need to see them." I said.
Dove didn’t need any further explanation. She simply walked away.
I stood in the middle of the room, waiting while taking in every detail in the room.
After a short while, Dove returned with four ladies-in-waiting. All of them dressed in similar robe.
My eyes swept across the women and I looked them over quick, cataloguing without really knowing yet what I was cataloguing. Then after checking again, something clicked into place.
The missing one was the one who had brought the party dress for me last night.
Fantastic! That just made everything everything easier.
I asked the ladies to stand by their belongings and I began to search. I could see how hard Dove fixed me a disbelieving look, probably wondering what nonsense I was but I wasn’t bothered.
I finally reached the space of the missing lady...
I crouched down slowly, looking over what little she’d left behind. A folded cloth. A small clay dish with the dried remains of some herb. A worn strip of leather that looked handled more than it looked decorative.
My conman instincts, the ones that had never once let me down back on earth, sharpened into focus, piecing together small details the way I used to piece together a mark’s whole life from a wedding ring and a worn wallet.
I grabbed the folded cloth and a smile broke across my face.