out. They had no effect on me, however, so once I tossed a small, aluminum-coated piece of cloth over the minute security camera bolted high in the corner of the room-it wouldn't do to have images of me recorded for all posterity-I simply opened up the case and reached for the vial.
Something glimmered for a fraction of a second to the left of the Liquor Hepatis. I jerked my hand back, narrowing my eyes at it.
"Did you remember to cover the camera?" Cyrene asked suddenly. "You don't want them seeing you when you decloak."
"I'm not a Klingon bird of prey, Cy," I said absently, scanning the shelf holding the glass vial. There was nothing else visible. Had I seen just a reflection from the vial, perhaps? A bit of light creating a prism from the glass? Or perhaps the mage had done something to the vial that was beyond my experience?
"No, but you can be seen when you do anything requiring concentration. Or so you say-I couldn't see you when you juggled at the party we gave in Marrakech."
"The discussion about you using me as a party trick is going to have to wait for another time," I murmured, shaking my head at my foolish thoughts. The owner of this house might be a mage, but he had a misplaced confidence in his ability to keep his Liquor Hepatis safe. I reached for it again, catching another momentary glimpse of something tantalizingly just out of the range of my vision. "Agathos daimon!"
"What?"
"Agathos daimon. It means-"
"Good spirit, yes, I know. I've heard you mutter it often enough. Why you can't swear like any normal person is beyond me. What are you agathosing about, anyway?"
I turned my head to the side, my peripheral vision catching the sight of a small lavender stone box sitting behind the vial. The second I tried to focus on the object, it vanished.
"Important how? Can I come down out of this tree yet? I'm getting eaten alive here."
"No. Stay there until I'm out of the house." I removed the vial, securing it in an inner pocket of my leather bodice as I gave the case another look, but nothing was there. I turned my head again, my fingers groping blindly along the slick glass of the shelf. They closed on a small, cold square just as the lights in the room burst on.
"Agamemnon's tears!" Cyrene squawked in my ear. "Someone's there! There's a car out front and lights just went on in three different rooms-"
"Thanks for the warning," I whispered through my teeth. Voices outside the room heralded someone's imminent approach. I glanced quickly around the room, desperately hunting for a dark corner where I might hide, but the room was far too bright for that.
"I'm sorry! I was picking bugs off my arm and didn't see the car pull up. What's going on? Why are all the lights in the house on? Oh, no-I think one of the men is a mage. He's... yes, he's a mage! He's probably the owner! Mayling, you have to get out of there!"
She wasn't telling me anything I didn't know. I leaped to my feet as the doorknob started to turn, jamming a chair underneath it to keep the door from opening.
"Mayling!" Cyrene yelled in my ear, in her excitement using her nickname for me once again.
I ran for the window, praying I could make it outside into the darkness before the door opened. The door burst into a thousand pieces, turned to ash, and drifted slowly to the ground as I jumped onto the table next to the glass.
"Mayling!" Cyrene 's bellow was loud enough to hurt. A man's shape appeared in the doorway, pausing for a moment as he evidently heard my twin.
"Mei Ling!" he cried, running forward, obviously hearing Cyrene but misinterpreting my nickname for a proper name. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened. "It's the thief Mei Ling!"
Instinctively, I shadowed when I heard the men's voices, but the room was too bright to remain hidden. Just as soon as he looked toward the window, the man would see me. I had no choice but to go through the window.
"Agathos daimon," I repeated softly to myself as I put my hands over my head and flung myself through the glass.
"There!" the man cried as pain burst into being all over my body. "She's there! I heard someone say her name! It's the thief Mei Ling on the ledge outside!"