“A list of the little problems I’ve helped you with could fill a few books,” I answered, giving Maata an encouraging nod. “You were going to tell us what Sally was doing there.”

“She claimed Magoth told her to go bother you for a bit, saying that you and he could split her apprenticeship. Since she’s done a week with him, it’s evidently now your turn. Once she heard Gabriel tell me to meet you, I had a devil of a time getting out without her following.”

“Did she say what Magoth was doing?” I asked, chewing slowly on my sandwich as I mulled the situation over. Sally didn’t worry me much—she had little to no powers as an apprentice—but I had been concerned about the lack of information regarding Magoth during the last few days.

“Not really, no; just that he was still in Paris, working on a dozen or more different plans.”

“What sort of plans?” I asked, wondering if I should worry or if Magoth’s apparent quiet was a sign he was frustrated by lack of powers.

She shrugged. “She didn’t say, but Gabriel wasn’t worried, and I don’t think you need to be concerned. Magoth is being watched and hasn’t done anything to merit concern.”

“Yet,” I said, tapping my fingers on the water bottle.

“I agree with Maata. I think you’re worrying about nothing. You said yourself he was powerless here,” Cyrene pointed out.

“He may not be able to wreak the havoc and destruction that he’d like, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely harmless. And he’s inventive. I just hope he doesn’t find some source of power we haven’t thought of.”

Cyrene happily chatted with Maata about Sally, Magoth, and pretty much any other thought that happened to occur to her. I spent the couple of hours it took to get to Onano alternating between worry about the dragon shard and how I was going to convince Magoth to help me win Chuan Ren’s release from Abaddon.

We spent the remainder of the daylight examining Cyrene’s spring to evaluate just how tainted it was and what steps she’d have to take in order to give back to the “big mama,” or Mother Earth in plain English.

By the time we’d helped Cyrene create a plan of action that we hoped would impress Neptune, the sun was setting, and we headed wearily into town to find a hotel and a hot meal.

“They only had two rooms,” Maata reported, plopping down at the table we’d taken at an outdoor café located on the fringe of a busy town square. “I figured you’d probably want to share a room, but if you’d prefer one to yourself, May—”