“Our family had a bad experience with raiders a while back,” Tobias said. “Ever since then, my grandfather’s taken security seriously. Very seriously. Piece of advice? When you talk to him, don’t make any jokes about stealing from that Well.”

  Tobias turned back to the door and unlocked it with a key. I took a last look at the gate, then followed Tobias into the Ashford mansion.

  CHAPTER 6

  The door led into a narrow hallway. Off to one side, I could hear the hiss of a gas cooker and the sound of a knife on a chopping board. Tobias led me past, through the door at the end of the hall, and out into a wash of light and sound.

  My first confused impression was that I’d walked into a room about the size of my entire house. As my eyes adjusted, I realised I’d been wrong: it was bigger than my house. It was some sort of living room or ballroom, floored in pale wood, with chandeliers hanging from above that made the whole room blaze with light. A staircase at one corner climbed to a raised gallery that ran from wall to wall.

  The room was filled with people, divided into small groups. The buzz of conversation filled the air, and women were moving through the crowd with trays of drinks. No one turned to look as the door swung closed behind us; there was so much noise and bustle that none of them had noticed us enter.

  “Let’s see . . .” Tobias said, scanning the crowd. “Okay. See that guy up on the gallery?”

  I followed Tobias’s gaze. Above us and at the far end of the room, standing in front of the gallery bookshelves, was a young man. He was tall, slender, and handsome, with long straight features and—most oddly—white hair.

  “The one who looks like an anime villain?” I asked.

  Tobias snorted. “Yeah, I guess he does. That’s Calhoun. Stay away from him.”

  I looked at Calhoun with new eyes. Was this the guy who’d sent Lucella to my house to get rid of me?

  “All right,” Tobias said. “I’m going to find my grandfather. Stay here and don’t talk to anyone.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so.”

  I gave Tobias a look.

  “I mean it,” Tobias said. “Just wait here for fifteen minutes without causing any trouble. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t go anywhere, and whatever you do, don’t draw attention. You think you can manage that?”

  “Yes,” I told him.

  Tobias walked away.

  As I watched Tobias disappear into the crowd, I considered whether I wanted to follow his orders. It took me about two seconds to decide that my answer was no, at which point I started looking around for someone to talk to.

  The men and women around me were a mixture of ages, though tilted towards the older end of the scale. The men wore suits of grey and blue and brown; the women wore outfits that I couldn’t name but that looked expensive. Actually, all the clothes looked expensive—the more I looked around, the more I was realising that my jeans and fleece were making me stand out, and not in a good way. Maybe people would think I was one of the servants? But now that I checked, the men and women serving drinks were wearing smart black uniforms with blue-and-silver crests. I was dressed worse than the servants.

  I scanned the room, looking for someone who seemed approachable. Most of the people were standing in groups, busy with their own conversations. There were a few older people who were alone, but none looked very friendly. Then the crowd parted and I saw a girl.

  She was probably the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. Maybe she fell a little short of the artificial perfection of the models you see on the Internet, but her movements had a grace and naturalness that no photograph could match. She was about my age, with blue eyes, hair that was so pale a blond that it was almost white, and very fair skin. She wore a square-cut white dress that left her lower arms bare, complemented by a few pieces of simple jewellery, and she stood with her back very straight. She saw me at the same time that I saw her, gave me a quick glance up and down, then stood waiting, as if to see what I’d do.

  I hesitated very briefly, then walked across the floor. “Hi,” I told the girl. “I’m Stephen.”

  The girl gave a small curtsey. “Johanna Meusel,” she told me. She spoke with a faint accent, pronouncing each word precisely and clearly.

  “Could I ask you a favour?” I said. “I’ve ended up at this party, but I don’t really know who these people are or what’s going on.”

  “Ended up?”

  “Long story,” I said with a smile.

  Johanna laughed. “And you’ll tell me if I help you? Well, all right. But just so you know—this isn’t a party.”

  I looked around, then back at Johanna.

  “Yes, I know what it looks like,” Johanna said.

  “It looks like a big crowd of rich people standing around drinking.”

  “But why do you think they’re here?”

  “Free booze?”

  Johanna gave me an odd look.

  Oops. That had obviously been the wrong thing to say. “Okay, why are they here?”

  “Officially, it’s an informal get-together ahead of the weekend summit,” Johanna said. “Unofficially, it’s about the embargo.”

  “The what?”

  “You see the man at the centre of the crowd, against the far wall?”

  I had to crane my neck to catch a glimpse of the guy. He was slightly overweight, with a navy-blue suit and receding iron-grey hair, and seemed to be lecturing the people around him.

  “That’s Arnold Hayes,” Johanna said. “He’s Executive Vice President at Tyr.”

  I gave her a blank look.

  “Tyr Aerospace,” Johanna explained. “It’s one of the major US defence contractors. They and some factions in the US government have been pushing for Western European governments to limit their essentia sales. Now they’re putting forward a proposal that any sales of sigls or aurum from Europe and North America should only go to NATO members. They claim it’s to stop Russia from getting military-grade sigls, but that’s not the real reason.”

  “. . . It’s not?”

  “Well, it doesn’t make any sense, does it? Russia’s the ninth-strongest country in the world for Light essentia and the second strongest for Motion. They’re a net exporter, not an importer. But China imports both of those, especially Light, and the US is getting worried about their military position, so they’re trying to cut off the supply, using Russia as a pretext. But the European corporations and Houses don’t want to do that, because China pays a premium for . . .” Johanna paused. “Ah, you look a little lost.”

  “Um,” I said. “A little” was a massive understatement; I had no idea what Johanna was talking about. And she was talking casually, like all this was common knowledge. “How do you know all this?”

  “I’m more curious about how you don’t,” Johanna said frankly. “This is pretty basic stuff.”

  “I’m not really into politics.”

  “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you,” Johanna said with a smile. “Besides, House Ashford’s involved in all of this. And you’re one of them . . . aren’t you?”

  “I’m a distant relation,” I said. I think.

  “I haven’t heard of any Stephens in the Ashford family tree.”

  “Do you know everyone in their family?”

  “Most of them. Anyway, I think it’s your turn. Why are you here?”

  I hesitated, wondering what to say. A part of me felt that I should lie or make up some kind of crazy story. The way Johanna was acting was making me understand just how badly out of my depth I was here.

  But I was pretty sure that if I tried that, I’d get found out. Besides, while Johanna might be strange, I was discovering that I liked talking to her. Unlike Tobias and Lucella, I had the feeling that she was actually being honest.

  You know what, let’s just see what happens.

  “A girl called Lucella Ashford tried to kidnap me last night,” I told her. “She showed up at my front door, we talked for a while, then I said the wrong thing and she got two of her armsmen to knock me out and carry me off in a van. I escaped, got told this morning that I could get Lucella off my back by going to Charles Ashford, and that’s why I’m here.”

  “What did you say that made her try to kidnap you?” Johanna asked.

  I blinked. “You believe me?”

  “I mean, it’s a little extreme, but these sorts of thing do happen,” Johanna said. “Though I’m quite impressed you managed to escape on your own. It must have been very exciting.”

  I stared at her.

  “So?” Johanna asked. “What did you say?”

  “I, uh . . . Apparently Lucella was there because Calhoun had sent her to check me out, and I made her think I could be competition.”

  “That’s strange.”

  “ ‘Strange’ is putting it mildly.”

  “I don’t mean the competition part,” Johanna said. “What’s strange is that Calhoun would send Lucella to do anything. As I understand it, right now she’s his biggest rival.”

  “His biggest—okay, seriously, how do you know all this? Are you related to them too?”

  “Actually, yes,” Johanna said. “My House is from Jena, in Thuringia. Thuringia came under Soviet occupation after the war, and my family fled to West Germany. While they were there, the sister of my great-grandmother met a man called Walter Ashford, who’d come to take advantage of the reconstruction. My great-great-grandfather didn’t approve—he thought men like Walter were profiteers—but eventually Walter Ashford and my great-grandaunt were married and travelled back here to England. Their eldest son is Charles Ashford, and he’s head of the family now.”

  “Oh,” I said. That made sense, kind of. At least there was one part of this story that I could relate to and that didn’t sound completely—

  “Oh, and I might be marrying Calhoun,” Johanna added.

  “Wait, what?”

  “That’s the biggest reason I’m here, really. My grandmother and I are here to talk to Charles about the possibility of an engagement with Calhoun. Oh, and to meet him.”

  “You . . . haven’t met him,” I said carefully.

  “Not before today,” Johanna said, glancing up at the gallery, where Calhoun was still standing. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he?”

  I looked at Johanna, lost for words.

  Johanna gave me a smile. “You really are a bit out of place here, aren’t you?”

  “No kidding,” I said. I’d known going in that I didn’t belong; I hadn’t realised how badly. “Didn’t you say you and the Ashfords were related?”

  “Only very distantly,” Johanna said. “Calhoun’s my second cousin once removed. If we tried to use each other’s sigls, we wouldn’t get even a flicker. But that’s not really what you were shocked about, was it?”

  “Not really,” I admitted.

  “This is how things work among Houses and the bigger corporations,” Johanna explained seriously. “A marriage isn’t just a relationship, it’s a family alliance.”

  I shot a covert glance up at Calhoun on the gallery. He didn’t seem to have noticed me. “Don’t you get a say?”

  “Of course I get a say,” Johanna said. “If I absolutely refused to go along with it, well, Mama and Papa would have to accept it. But I’m a daughter of the Meusel family. I have to marry for the family’s interests as well as my own.”

  “I think most girls here just marry whoever they want.”

  “Most girls don’t have the privileges I have,” Johanna pointed out. “The wealth I have, the education I received, the sigls I wear . . . there’s a lot given to me, but there are things expected in return.” She glanced up towards Calhoun and tilted her head. “Besides, I’ve got my own ambitions.”

  “So . . .” I said. “Right now, Calhoun’s the favourite to become the next head of House Ashford, but it’s not settled. Right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “If he wasn’t heir, would you still marry him?”

  “No.”

  I looked at Johanna.

  “I’ve shocked you again,” Johanna said with a slight smile. “But I’m just being honest. Calhoun’s handsome, and he’s supposed to be quite capable, but if he was just some talented outsider, then, no, my grandmother and I wouldn’t be considering an engagement. And if Charles decides not to make him heir after all, then it’ll be cancelled.”

  I started to answer, then paused as it suddenly occurred to me that by her own admission, Johanna was about one step away from becoming Calhoun Ashford’s fiancée. Which meant she was an interested party too . . .

  Oh, crap. Was that why she’d been so interested in what I’d said to set off Lucella? If she found out that I was a manifester, would she want to get rid of me as well?

  Tobias had been right. I should have kept my mouth shut.

  “Is something wrong?” Johanna asked.

  “Um, no,” I said, thinking quickly. At least Johanna didn’t seem to be acting as though she thought I was a threat . . . yet. “Could I ask you one more thing? Apart from Calhoun, who are the other candidates to be Ashford heir?”

  “Whoever Charles chooses, really,” Johanna said. “At the moment it seems to be between Calhoun, Lucella, and Charles’s two grandchildren. Though it’s a little strange that Magnus isn’t under consideration.”

  “Who?”

  “Magnus Ashford-Grasser. Tobias’s father. He married into the Ashford family from House Grasser of Munich. You’d think that if Charles was looking for an heir, he’d be the obvious choice. But instead Charles is favouring Calhoun. If you ever find out why, I’d be very interested to know.” Johanna glanced aside. “Ah, I have to go. It was nice to meet you.”

  “You too.”

  Johanna gave me a last smile and walked away. I watched her go with an odd mixture of feelings. Talking to her had felt like stepping through the looking glass and coming out again.

  Except now that I thought about it, I hadn’t come out. This was her world, not mine.

  A growl from my stomach reminded me I’d had hardly anything to eat all day. If I was going to be waiting around for Tobias, I might as well see what the food was like. I started towards the tables at the end of the room.

  I rounded a knot of people and came face to face with Lucella.

  It’s hard to say which of us was more surprised. Lucella looked as if she’d got ready for this party late and hadn’t made much effort: she wore a fancy-looking dress that seemed to have been thrown on in a hurry, and there were a bunch of strands loose from her hair. She’d just taken a glass of bubbly wine from a tray, and she was staring at me.

  So much for not attracting attention.

  “What are you doing here?” I told her.

  Lucella’s eyebrows rose in outrage. “I live here!”

  “Guess your family just has low standards, then.”

  “What are you—how did you get in?”

  “You know, last night, I could have asked you the same thing.”

  People were turning to look at us. Lucella noticed, and a wary expression flashed across her face. “Keep your voice down.”

  “Why? Afraid of me making a scene?”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” Lucella snapped. “Who even got you in? Was it—”

  And at exactly that point Tobias came walking up. “There you are,” he told me as he slipped between two people. “Where did—” He saw Lucella and stopped.

  The three of us looked back and forth at each other.

  Lucella stared at Tobias. “You.”

  Tobias turned to me with a long-suffering look. “You just had to stand still and not talk to anyone,” he told me. “Was that really so hard?”

  “You,” Lucella said again, her expression darkening. “You little—”

  “And that’s our cue to leave,” Tobias said. He grabbed my arm and started towing me towards the stairs. “Hi, Luce, bye, Luce, great catching up, let’s do it again sometime—”

  “Stop right there!”

  Lucella’s words sent a jolt down my spine, bringing me and Tobias up short. I turned to see Lucella stalking towards us, her eyes glittering. All of a sudden she seemed a lot taller and more menacing, and she stabbed one manicured finger towards Tobias. “You were planning this from the start, weren’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you—”

  Lucella’s voice cracked like a whip. “Answer me!”

  “Not at the start,” Tobias said automatically. “You were digging for something, and I thought . . .” He trailed off with a frown, as if he hadn’t meant to say that much.

  Lucella stared at him for a second, then gave a short, barking laugh and turned to me. “You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Tobias told me.

  “ ‘Don’t listen to her,’ ” Lucella repeated mockingly, then looked at me. “You never wondered why he came looking for you? Who do you think gave me your address?”

  I looked at Tobias.

  “You need to go,” Tobias told me. “Now.” He pointed up. “Through the gallery, into the hall, third door on the left. Knock and he’ll let you in.”

  “No, he won’t,” Lucella said, stepping forward, her eyes hard as she stared at Tobias. “Both of you are staying right here.”

  I hesitated, feeling an urge to do as I was told. I shouldn’t listen to Tobias; I should stay here and—

  Wait. I shook my head, remembering what Lucella had done last night. Why the hell was I listening to her?

  I ducked back into the crowd. Lucella whirled, startled, but she’d been focused on Tobias, and by the time she registered that I wasn’t sticking around, I’d already put two or three people between us. I heard Lucella shout something and caught a glimpse of her looking angrily from side to side, then I was gone, walking quickly towards the corner of the room.