Page 1051

Rather than responding, Ibai merely broadened his smile.

“By the way,” Reever said, “why have you been letting these people hold you captive? We’ve all been wondering what you were even doing here.”

“We?” said Ibai. “There are more aberrations here?”

“Oh yeah. There are six of us. All with Invisibility like me. You wanna--?” Reever broke himself off to stare behind Ibai, then said, “Oh, come on. Those buttholes out front already screwed up the mission for everyone. No way things’ll stay quiet until the Saqqafs show up, so we might as well take this guy with us now.”

“Who are you talking to?” said Ibai.

“Oh, right, here.” Reever waved his left hand, and another figure was revealed, this time behind Ibai.

“No, you idiot, don’t--!” the new person was saying as the invisible facade fell away, but as soon as he realized that Ibai was looking at him, he shut his mouth.

“Hello there,” said Ibai. “And what’s your name?”

The man frowned but still said, “Arnold. Nice to meet you.”

After a second, Ibai noticed the toy figurine floating behind the man’s back. A reaper. So Arnold was not an aberration, then. Ibai was getting the distinct impression that these folks were not supposed to be here. “So why have you come to Dunehall? And why were you hiding?”

“It’s complicated,” said Reever. “Anyway, how about I help you get out of here? With my power, even reapers won’t be able to sense your presence.”

Ibai bobbed his head. “You don’t say. How many people can you conceal at one time?”

“Me? Only about fifty or so, still. But I’m working on it.”

Arnold shifted his feet. “Why don’t we talk about this somewhere else? It’s not safe here.”