Adilyn plunked herself down beside him, scanned the books, and wrinkled her nose.
“What are you reading up on?” she asked.
“Swords,” I said.
Her brow wrinkled to match her nose. How did she still manage to look beautiful with her face contorted? Yet somehow, she did.
“There’s an entire section on Faerie lore,” Sid suggested.
She brightened. “Where?”
He directed her, and she flitted off, almost as graceful on human feet as she was with tiny wings. I leaned closer to Sid. “So? What gossip did you acquire?”
He drew himself tall. “I acquire knowledge. I do not gossip.”
“Well, then. Fill us in,” Riggs stated.
Sid hunched closer to us. “The Dire teammates of our new student said he told them he was exiled from his family for—get this—talking to birds.”
My mouth opened, and then closed again, before I asked, “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Sid’s eyes glowed yellow. “He even has a pet bird. Tiny little thing that sits on his shoulder. Hummingbird, I think. They live in the human realm.”
Okay. This so didn’t mesh with the quiet aura of menace that had enshrouded the newcomer.
Riggs obviously agreed with me. “That guy didn’t grow up talking to birds.”
“Apparently, Michelangelo, it is a recently gained talent,” Sid agreed. “So I went to my most trusted source. And she told me that the Watcher believes he has more going on, but that it is either dormant, or not yet fully developed.”
I frowned at him. “Who is your source? How would she know that?” Then it clicked. “Constance. Your source is Constance, isn’t it?”
“Shh,” he hushed me, looking around the library. “It’s a secret. I take her pastries from the kitchen, and she tells me things. But she’d get in big trouble if anyone found out.”
“Your secret is safe with us,” I vowed. “Isn’t it, Riggs?” I kicked him in the shin under the table.
“Ow,” he protested. “Yes, of course. Baxter’s secret is safe.”
“Baxter?” I queried.
Riggs shrugged. “He was a mad scientist in a movie we both watched.”
“Was Michelangelo in that movie too?”
“Yes.” Sid nodded. “Well, that’s all this mad scientist was able to glean.”
“It’s great, Sid, thanks!”
He seemed pleased. “I’m going to help Adilyn,” he stated, and rose to disappear into the shelves.
Riggs watched him go. “Well, it seems our mystery student is still a mystery.”
“Not quite,” I said. “We know he talks to birds.”
“If that guy is a birdwatcher, I’ll eat my sword. He moves like a danged assassin.” He met my eyes. “What was he doing when you saw him in Drosfi?”
I cast my mind back, searching for details. “Walking. He was covered in dust, like he’d been traveling a ways—I think he’d just arrived in the city. He was with a woman who was quite a bit older than him—hard to say how much, she moved the same way he did. And by her expression, I got the feeling she’d seen a lot in life.”
That I recalled all that, surprised me. At the time we’d been sneaking out of the city, and I thought I’d barely noticed the woman with him. But now, I remembered her clearly. There had been something about her eyes and the shape of her jaw?—
