MAPPING THE FAIR
1904—St. Louis
North was watching the gondolas glide across the lagoon toward the Festival Hall, making notes about their timing, when he saw the guy. At first North couldn’t figure out why he looked so darn familiar, but then it came to him. It was the same guy who’d been standing outside the theater the night before—and he’d been with the Thief.
Curious, he tucked away his notebook and started following from a distance.
Since he’d left Maggie at her building an hour before, he’d been doing what he did most days as he waited for her—learning everything he could about the Exposition. It was an enormous place, filled with people and passageways that could mean trouble, and they were running out of time to make sure they knew everything they could. So far he’d mapped out the entire eastern side: the display of the villages from the Philippines and most of the agriculture and forestry exhibits. He’d been slowly working his way westward, through the offering from Morocco and the replica of Jerusalem. He knew where the entrances and exits were, where the Guard often congregated when they were supposed to be watching the crowd, and when they changed shifts. He knew all the places where they could be exposed and all the places where someone could lie low if need be. Little by little he’d accounted for all the dangers, because Ruth wanted him to determine everything that might cause them trouble. North figured that this guy certainly counted—especially since he wasn’t alone.
When the guy and his two companions turned onto the Pike, North used the noise and confusion around him to get a little closer. There was a pretty big crowd of people waiting to get into the Hereafter, which was a damn idiotic thing to want as far as North was concerned, but he used the cover they provided to maneuver around and get ahead of the three he’d been following. He cut across the boulevard to the deep overhand of Creation, where he could wait without being seen. A moment later they came through the crowd, and North barked out a laugh of surprise that startled a woman standing next to him.
One of the other guys wasn’t a guy, after all. It was the Thief. She looked different in the suit and cap, and her hair had been chopped to just above her collar, but anyone with two eyes in their head—or at least anyone who was paying attention—would have known who it was.
But what’s she doing here?
It was one thing to have the girl that all the papers called the Devil’s Thief appear in town at the same time Ruth was close to the biggest—and most dangerous—deed the Antistasi had ever planned. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But having her appear at the fair—the same venue that Ruth had been eyeing for months? And just when everything was about to come together?
North didn’t like it.
With his hat pulled low over his forehead, he kept as close as he could and followed the three down the Pike, until they came to the Streets of Cairo. He didn’t like how they’d gone directly to the Society’s attraction, passing everything else with barely a look.
Maybe he should have followed them in, but he’d already mapped it out—there was one way in and one way out—and he’d been through the darn boat ride enough already. There wasn’t any reason to take the risk of being seen or recognized, because the last thing the Antistasi needed was for the Guard to start paying attention to North. He still had about a third of the fair left to map out, after all. Instead of following them into the attraction, he found a place under the Chinese archway across from Cairo to wait instead, watching for the three to exit.
Most of the fair didn’t bother him, but North didn’t much like the Pike. Everything about it was too big and too loud and too brash. Though, he had to admit, the horse they called Beautiful Jim Key had been a sight, all right. Smartest damn animal North had ever heard of, much less seen with his own eyes. But that was the fair for you—unbelievable. Above him, the arch was something to see too, painted in a red brighter than blood and gleaming with gold. Strange symbols in black and bright blue covered the surface, and at the tip of every roofline was a fanciful curlicued dragon, looking down upon the crowd like guardians.
But not even those guardians could stop what Ruth and the Antistasi had planned.
At the end of the month, the top representatives from all the Brotherhoods would be in the city. For one night they would be in one place, together. The perfect target.
If all went well, they wouldn’t just make a statement to the Society; they would make a statement about magic and the world and what the future could be. The deed Ruth was planning was impossible and yet it was so obvious. If it worked, it would change everything—absolutely everything. The Society would crumble, the Brotherhoods would be left without their leaders, and magic itself would be free. Restored.
Legend or not, North wasn’t about to let the Devil’s Thief get in the Antistasi’s way.