“For three years.”

“But you have only been warden for five months. How did you come to earn the responsibility?”

“The magician who guarded this territory became a madcap,” Phelan replied.

“A madcap?”

“A magician who seeks to find a way into the Seren fortress and break the new moon curse.”

Oh, I had come across quite a few of those, milling around Hereswith, seeking information. I remembered how Imonie, Papa, and I had called them “vultures,” and how much we had hated them. I remembered how I had thought Phelan and Lennox had been such people the first time I saw them.

“And how many inhabitants do you guard here?” I asked.

“Six streets fall beneath my care. A total of three hundred and five individuals.”

An impressive amount for a young magician, I thought.

“And what about you, Miss Neven?” Phelan asked. “Where do you come from? Where do you currently reside?”

“Does it matter?” I countered with a smile. “My life has been rather dull up until this moment. I wouldn’t want to bore you with details.”

“It matters to me,” he said, earnest. “If you and I work together . . . we can’t be strangers.”

“Of course not,” I agreed, but was shifting away from him, my focus attracted to the window of the library, where a vast array of potted plants sat on a table. I recognized all the plants by name, and I brushed the variegated leaves of one. “Do you make your own remedies, Mr. Vesper?”

He had no chance to reply. I was suddenly aware of the glint of two eyes, peering up at me through the tangles of foliage.

“Hello!” a voice chirped, and I startled, my breath hissing through my teeth in alarm.

I watched, astounded, as a boy crept out of the dangling vines, standing before me with a click of his heels. His hair was a mop of tawny curls, his face was freckled, and his clothes were mud stained. He was missing his front tooth as he grinned up at me.

“Deacon,” Phelan said with a sigh. “What have I told you about sneaking and eavesdropping?”

The boy glanced at Phelan, his smile fading. “I know, Mr. Vesper. It’s rude and I’m sorry, but you told me it was impossible to sneak up on a magician. And I just snuck up on two of you!”

“Yes, and that was very dangerous,” Phelan remarked. “You took us both by surprise. What if we had responded in another way?”

“Like with magic?”

“Yes. Miss Neven might have turned you into a mouse.”