“A wh-whore,” Carol sputtered, her face turning vermilion. “You name your own sister a whore. ’Ow do you like that?”
Dex saw an opening to heap more fuel on the fire. “There would have been such a handsome reward for you, Miss Flanagan, knowing how steadfastly you worked toward providing those young women with respectable lodging and guidance. I couldhave overlooked everything else. Why, you gave my Ana a home when nobody else would have her. Surely that’s worth a healthy fortune in gold?”
“Gold! Maggie.” Carol wheeled on her sister. “Let them go! Do y’hear? Do the right thing for once in your goddamned life!”
“You imbecile!” Maggie shouted, her eyes widened in a frightening glare. “If your brain wasn’t so pickled in booze, you’d hear how stupid the words coming out of your slatternly mouth actually are. I raised you up with me out of the muck. I gave you everything you have! And I’ll ruin you, too!”
“Ruin me? I’ll ruin you!” shrieked Carol, raising the bottle over her head, ready to advance on Maggie, who was backing away with her knife outstretched.
Ana met Dex’s intense gaze for the briefest of seconds and gave a brief nod. Now was the moment. Burt and Figgleston were staring raptly at the screaming sisters, engrossed in their fighting.
Now,Ana mouthed.
As he wrenched his torso out of Figgleston’s beefy grasp and brought his elbow up and back in pursuit of the man’s jaw, he saw Ana’s arm raise, lightning fast, something slim and cylindrical clutched within it. The pencil connected with Burt’s eye. He went down with a yell. Figgleston followed.
Dex supplemented his initial blow with some well-aimed kicks to the kidneys, then vaulted over the body to aid Ana in subduing Burt, who was swinging his head around blindly, the pencil stub still sticking out of his eye, blood spurting from the wound.
As Dex and Ana conquered the hired muscle, Carol thudded headfirst into Maggie’s chest, driving her forcefully back, slamming her against the windowsill. The rickety frame of the window was no match for the weight of the two feuding Flanagans. Withathwackand the sudden crystallinecrackof shattering glass, the sisters crashed through, Maggie on bottom. The violet marabou of her robe billowed around them both, fluttering in the night air, as they disappeared from Dex’s sight, flying down to the street below.
Dex tied Figgleston’s and Burt’s hands together with his neckcloth, while Ana grabbed the knife with shaking fingers, so they couldn’t use it to free themselves.
“She stabbed me, that witch,” Burt moaned. “I can’t see anything.”
“Told you we should never ’ave taken this job. Those sisters are Bedlamites, they are,” Figgleston said, wincing from the beating Dex had administered.
“You’ll live,” Dex said. “More’s the pity. Don’t try to look through your good eye. Keep them both closed.” He tore a length of cloth from a shirt hanging in the wardrobe and wrapped it around the pencil.
“Ow!” Burt roared. “Wot you doing?”
“Saving you,” Dex said. “You don’t want anyone but a physician to dislodge that pencil. We’ll call for one.”
Ana leaned out the window, mindful of the broken glass. “They both survived,” she reported. “Their fall was broken by a passing flower vendor’s cart. Carol landed on top of her sister and is already standing up with the help of bystanders. Maggie is... well, she’s alive, it appears, but still hasn’t been able to stand.”
“And you?” Dex asked, dread gripping his throat. “Are you injured?”
“Less so than you, I’d say.” She walked toward him and touched the bruise rising on his cheek.
“Nothing new,” he growled, though it did hurt like hell and there were probably a few cracked ribs as well.
“Come,” he said, holding out his hand. Ana placed her small hand inside of his. “Let’s go home.”
In the distance, a constable’s whistle sounded.
Chapter Thirty-One
Embracing her father, happy tears flooding her face, Amsonia turned toward Qavox. “You came back! What changed your mind?”
“You remind me of someone I used to be long ago. Someone I want to be again, if possible. And I think I know who can help me.”
“I don’t know what you mean! There is much I do not understand,” said the princess. “Why didn’t the amulet work? What was it all for?”
“Let us go to Gaethryn. She holds the answers...”
—The Dragon and the Blue Starby Analise Crewe
Ana hadn’t stopped shivering since they’d arrived home. Dex had fed her hot beef broth, given her a generous pour of brandy, wrapped her in blankets, and now they sat together in front of a blazing fire.
There was a dullness to her eyes, a listlessness to her posture. “How did you know where to find me?”