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"Ooomph," said his wife "Not now"
He nuzzled in at her neck, kissing and licking her softly just below her ear "Just a moment," he said "I need a small reminder that you are here, you are whole, and you are mine"
"Well, the first two should be patently obvious, and the last one is always in question," replied his lady unhelpfully But she wrapped her arainst him despite all protestations to the contrary
He resorted, as always, to action over words and sealed his lips atop hers, stopping that wicked tongue
Alexia, who had, until that ether and tidy, despite all of her dashing about the castle, cast herself into a willing state of hopeless disarray There was really nothing else to do when Conall was in one of these moods but enjoy it Her husband drove his hands into her hair, tilting her head to the correct angle for ravishood at it
Alexia sacrificed herself on the altar of wifely duty, enjoying every minute of it, of course, but still deterraphor
Her deter ht," he said, as though he had just finished a refreshing beverage "Shall we continue on, then?"
"What?" Alexia asked, dazed, trying to recall what they had been about before he started kissing her
"The transht" She swatted hio and distract "
Conall laughed "Someone has to keep you off balance; otherwise you’ll end up ruling the e it into wretched submission"
"Ha-ha, very funny" She started down the hallway at a brisk trot, bustle waggling suggestively back and forth Halfway down, she paused and looked back at hiet a rowled but lu her head "What is that preposterous noise?"
"Opera"
"Really? I should never have guessed"
"I believe Tunstell is serenading Miss Hisselpenny"
"Good heavens! Poor Ivy Ah well" She started onward again
As they wound their way up through the castle toward the top turret where the aethographor resided, Alexia explained her theory that the now-destroyed mummy had once been a preternatural, that, after death, it had turned into soration And that Angelique, believing the saet it into the hands of the Westelique did ood can coht as well tell Madae to make weapons for our side"
Lord Maccon looked at his wife oddly "Are there sides?"
"It would appear to be that way"
Lord Maccon sighed, his face ith care, if not the passage of tihtly and had thus brought hio He probably needed to be a olf right now, tapping into his reserves of supernatural strength
He gru we need is a competition over weaponry based on dead preternaturals I shall issue standing orders that all soulless are to be cremated after death Covertly, of course" He looked to his wife, for once not angry, simply concerned "They would all be after you and those of your kind dotted about the empire Not only that, but you would also be more valuable dead if they knew that mummification worked as a preservation technique for your power"
"Luckily," Alexia said, "no one kno the ancients conducted ives us soh I did netic disruption eelique’s metal scroll fro The spy’s h, and the track marks from the spark readers were evident across most of it
Lady Maccon swore an iave her a look that was half disapproval, half respect
"I take it the e was sent on successfully?"
She passed the slate over to him It read simply, "Dead h to complicate her life considerably in the future
"Well, that has gone and torn it," was Lady Maccon’s first cogent sentence
"How can we be certain it went through to the other side?"
Alexia picked up a faceted crystalline valve, completely intact, fro to the Westminster Hive" She tucked it into her parasol, in the pocket next to the one for Lord Akeldahtful frown, she pulled that one out and exaloved hand What had Lord Akelda Mada about rats? Oh no, no, it had been bats Old-fashioned slang for the va the Westht at the time, would he, too, have received the trans be any worse or better?
Only one way to find out Try sending hie and see if he responded
It ell past her arranged transmission time, of course, but Lord Akeldama’s was the kind of apparatus that, if it was on and directed toward the appropriate frequency, would receive whatever was sent If he had intercepted so Alexia to contact hi her husband to please stay as silent as possible, with a glare that indicated real consequences should hequite adept at running the aethographor She etched in herLord Akeldama’s valve into the cradle and the slate into its holder and activating the machine to transe consisted of two things: "?" and "Alexia"
As soon as the trans charaphor, ar his wife’s frilly for large, iht approve of her bluestocking tendencies, but he would never understand theraphor for his well in hand, however, as a netic particulate As quietly as possible, she copied it down It was rather longer than any transood deal of tier for her to determine where the breaks were betords and how it should read When she finally h "My petal" The italics were visible even across the length of England "Westminster’s toy had tea issues Thank Biffy and Lyall Toodle pip A"