Chapter 61: A Very Inconvenient Witness

Honey reached the table before Dante finished explaining why losing a swimming race had improved his understanding of military defeat. She landed beside his chair, caught her sleeve on its carved arm, and pulled it free without looking down.

“The director was the source in the workshop,” she told him quietly. “He didn’t agree to it, and he’s coming here.”

Dante’s smile stayed on his face for an extra second, looking for somewhere useful to go. Across the table, Jett stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth.

Honey had both hands against the chair now. Behind her, the broad walkway crossed a short stretch of water to the beach, where the director had reached the bottom of the lodge steps. He held the rail while he caught his breath.

Dante had imagined enemies interrupting his victories. They usually arrived with weapons and a speech, allowing him to answer with a better speech. This man looked as though the walk had already cost more than he could afford.

“What do you mean, he didn’t agree?” Dante asked, although Honey had used no difficult words.

“He told us he wouldn’t supply the test. We used him anyway.”

Posey’s fingers tightened around his beneath the table. Her shoulder touched his, warm through the thin fabric of her dress, but for once the contact failed to improve his thoughts.

The director crossed the walkway slowly. A water pixie lifted a lantern out of his path, then followed him with it, lighting the boards beneath his shoes. He reached their platform and stopped beside the empty chair at its landward edge.

Dante released Posey’s hand and raised two fingers toward the chair. His ordinary lift caught beneath its seat, carrying it a few inches above the boards. He drew it toward the director and lowered all four legs before letting go.

Nobody praised the movement. The director watched his hand instead.

“You can sit down,” Dante said, moving his own chair back to give him room.

“I wanted to ask you something while your friends were here.” The man gripped the chair but remained standing. “Did you know who was behind that wall?”

Dante’s private council demanded time to prepare a statement. Unfortunately, everyone at the table had already turned toward him.

“I knew someone was supplying the test,” he said. “I was told the arrangement had been handled.”

“Did you meet them?” the director asked.

The technician had offered. Dante remembered the open doorway, the waiting screen, and the signed lease lying within reach. He had chosen the part of the room where something impressive would happen.

“No, I stayed in the test bay.”

Lucan set a glass of water within the man’s reach. “Please sit while you talk. There’s room beside you if you need help.”

The director lowered himself carefully, keeping one hand on the table. His fingers shook against the glass when he reached for it, and Lucan held its base without making a show of helping.

Dante had watched those same fingers point across a desk. He remembered finding the man unpleasant, which should have made this easier. It did not explain why he couldn’t hold his drink.

“You made the temporary worker leave,” the director told Honey. “Then you kept me in the testing chair.”

Rhae placed her untouched plate beside her bag. “He’d been told he could lose his shifts if he refused. We weren’t leaving him there.”

“And that gave you permission to use me?”

Rhae’s tail stopped moving beneath her chair. “No, it didn’t give us permission.”

Dante looked at Honey. Her wings had folded close behind her, and her amber eyes stayed on him through her glasses. She usually corrected his mistakes before he finished making them. He wanted her to find one now.

“You knew he hadn’t agreed before you told me to start?”

“I knew,” she said, holding his gaze even as her voice weakened.

“It wasn’t Honey alone,” Anika said from his other side. “I was in that room too.”

The director looked toward her. “You stood at the door while I tried to get out of the chair.”

Anika did not argue. Dante remembered her hand over his during dinner, the easy way she had explained the platform’s anchor lines. He could picture that same steady attention turned toward keeping a door shut.

At the next table, a spoon stopped tapping against a bowl. A mermaid at the platform’s outer bench lowered herself farther into the water, pretending to inspect a lantern that had not required inspection until now.

Jett noticed the gathering attention. He shifted his chair to face the walkway, leaving the route open but making it harder for passing guests to stop beside them.

Out on the floating stage, the performers sent smaller water shapes between the dinner platforms. One smiling manta hovered over their table, dripping blue light toward the empty plates. Jett waved it away, and it dipped straight through his drink before splashing back into the lake.

“Great, now my soda has performed,” he muttered, moving the glass aside.

The nearest server approached with a fresh pitcher. Jett quietly asked her to give them a few minutes, and she guided the next little water creature toward another table. The music continued beyond the walkway.

Dante rested his hands beside his plate. He could not solve this by being louder than the director, though several parts of his government remained keen to try.

“I released the screen when Honey called,” he said. He remembered that clearly. The control line had loosened beneath his hand, the screen had faded, and there had still been charge in the ordinary bank. “I didn’t keep it running after she told me to stop.”

“I know when it stopped,” the director replied. “I was the one waiting for it.”

Posey moved her chair closer without interrupting. Dante was grateful for her staying and suddenly uncomfortable with how badly he wanted everyone else to do the same.

He looked from the man’s shaking fingers to Honey. “Then why didn’t you call me sooner? If he was struggling, you only had to tell me.”

The director pushed the glass away, leaving water trembling against its rim.

“I pulled the stop lever,” he said. “The warning lit right beside her hand, and I asked her to disconnect me.”

Dante turned toward Honey before the man finished. There could have been a fault, a missed signal, some stupid part of the equipment that had failed between those two rooms.

Honey spoke before he could choose one.

“I saw the light, Dante, and I heard him ask. I let you keep going.”