“Which would Matthew do?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t know,” Hamish said. “Like Baldwin said, Matthew never accepts the Queen’s Gambit.”
“It doesn’t matter. He wasn’t trying to dictate our next move. He was telling us not to protect his queen.” Baldwin swung his head around and addressed me directly. “Are you ready for what comes next?”
“Yes.”
“You hesitated once before,” Baldwin said. “Marcus told me what happened the last time you faced Benjamin in the library. This time, Matthew’s life depends on you.”
“It won’t happen again.” I met his gaze, and Baldwin nodded.
“Will you be able to track Matthew, Ysabeau?” Baldwin asked. “Better than Verin,” she replied.
“Then we will leave at once,” Baldwin said. “Call your knights to arms, Marcus. Tell them to meet me in Warsaw.”
“Ku?ma is there,” Marcus said. “He will marshal the knights until I arrive.”
“You cannot go, Marcus,” Gallowglass said. “You must stay here, with the babes.”
“No!” Marcus said. “He’s my father. I can scent him just as easily as Ysabeau. We’ll need every advantage.”
“You aren’t going, Marcus. Neither is Diana.” Baldwin braced his arms on the table and fixed his eyes on Marcus and me. “Everything until now has been a skirmish—a preamble to this moment.
Benjamin has had almost a thousand years to plan his revenge. We have hours. We all must be where we are most needed—not where our hearts lead us.“ “My husband needs me,” I said tightly.
“Your husband needs to be found. Others can do that, just as others can fight,” Baldwin replied.
“Marcus must stay here, because Sept-Tours has the legal status of sanctuary only if the grand master is within its walls.”
“And we saw how much good that did us against Gerbert and Knox,” Sarah said bitterly.
“One person died.” Baldwin’s voice was as cold and clear as an icicle. “It was regrettable, and a tragic loss, but if Marcus had not been here, Gerbert and Domenico would have overrun the place with their children and you would all be dead.”
“You don’t know that,” Marcus said.
“I do. Domenico boasted of their plans. You will stay here, Marcus, and protect Sarah and the children so that Diana can do her job.”
“My job?” My brows lifted.
“You, sister, are going to Venice.”
A heavy iron key flew through the air. I put my hand up, and it landed in my palm. The key was heavy and ornate, with an exquisite bow wrought in the shape of the de Clermont orobouros, a long stem, and a chunky bit with complicated star-shaped wards.
“What’s in Venice?” I owned a house there, I dimly recalled. Perhaps this was the key to it?
No one answered. Every vampire in the room was staring at my hand in shock. I turned it this way and that, but there didn’t seem to be anything odd about it other than the normal rainbow colors, marked wrist, and odd bits of lettering. It was Gallowglass who regained his tongue first.
“You cannot send Auntie in there,” he said, giving Baldwin a combative shove. “What are you thinking, man?”
“That she is a de Clermont—and that I am more useful tracking Matthew with Ysabeau and Verin than I am sitting in a council chamber arguing about the terms of the covenant.” Baldwin turned glittering eyes on me. He shrugged. “Maybe Diana can change their mind.”
“Wait.” Now it was my turn to look amazed. “You can’t—”