Chapter 5 #2
I think of the other night when Stavros had his sword pointed at me. “Nowhere near as badly as before. I think the fact that I released it in the tower has mollified it for the moment.”
“If it gets serious again, you have to tell us. Before you get to the point where you’re writhing in agony. All right?”
Yes, Julita pipes up. Listen to Alek. He always knows what he’s talking about.
I don’t see that there’s anything we could do to fix the problem, but if anyone could figure it out, I suppose it’s Alek. And it doesn’t cost me anything to agree. “All right.”
He hesitates as if he might say something more. Then he gives himself a little shake and turns back to the desk, his hand slipping from mine with a beckoning gesture. “Come right over. We should get through all of this material before the others show up.”
As I tug my chair next to his, Alek fans out a sheaf of papers.
“I dug up everything I could on the entomology club’s membership and activities.
There are currently sixteen active members by the most recent record.
It seems that for their off-campus excursions, they split up the group.
So as not to be too intrusive on the wildlife, supposedly.
Half of the members go sometimes, the other half the rest of the time. ”
Julita hums. I’d be keeping an eye on whoever Wendos was associating with.
I was just thinking the same thing. I motion to the papers. “Do we know who was in the group that Wendos was usually traveling with?”
Alek’s mouth curves with a smile that’s a little sly.
“I was able to piece together a pretty good idea. These are the seven members who appear to have always gone along on the excursions he was a part of. There are a couple of others who bounced back and forth between groups, but I’m guessing they’re not quite as involved. ”
I expect a series of names with a few notes jotted for each. Instead, the first page he shows me has a sketch at the top. Simple, sparing in detail, but keenly drawn enough that I’m sure I’ve seen that man in the dining hall a few times.
Alek’s smile turns sheepish. “I thought it’d help if you had a visual so you can recognize them on sight. As much as my limited skill can allow that.”
My gaze jerks back to him. “You drew this? It’s very good.”
He chuckles awkwardly. “I mean, no one’s going to frame it.”
“No, but it does what it’s meant to do. You captured the shape of his features accurately.” I risk extending a teasing bump of my elbow. “You didn’t tell me you were an artist.”
Alek holds up his hands. “I’m really not. I just—I do try to get down the information I want to convey as clearly as possible. And sometimes a quick sketch can accomplish that better than any number of words could. I’ve mostly created diagrams and the like.”
Whatever amount of experience he has, he obviously has an eye for lines and shading. The scholar has a lot of surprises up his sleeve.
“Well, it is good, and much appreciated,” I insist.
Alek walks me through each of our main suspects—names, areas of study, godlen they dedicated to, gift if he was able to determine one, classes, clubs, and known habits.
Not all of the faces in his sketches are familiar, but there’s a guy who’s been in some of Stavros’s classes, a woman I think I noticed when I went on a hunt with some leadership division students, and two others I have a vague sense that I’ve seen but can’t place.
I commit the images and facts to my memory as quickly as I can. Carrying Alek’s carefully constructed profiles around with me is too risky.
It’s amazing that he managed to compile all this information so quickly.
After going over the last of them, I brush my hands together. “All right. I’m prepared to put on a show of being morally degenerate. It shouldn’t be too hard—Stavros thought I was right from the start.”
Alek brings his hand to his mouth to cover a snort.
As he eases the pages back into a canvas wrapper, his expression turns more serious.
“I’m glad I could contribute something useful.
We know how far these brutes are willing to go…
I wish you didn’t have to take on all the risk of getting their attention.
If it would work for me to put myself out there—”
A different sort of ache passes through my chest. He really means what he’s saying, even now.
He doesn’t know even half the risk I’m planning to take on yet.
I touch his shoulder to stop him, doing my best to tamp down on the tingle of warmth at our closeness. “It wouldn’t work. It makes much more sense for me to shoulder this challenge than it would for any of the rest of you—and I’m okay with that.”
And you’ll hardly be alone in it, Julita puts in.
I glance back at the profiles. “What about the former bug club members who’ll have graduated? We know Torstem’s been roping in orphans for a while.”
Alek’s gaze goes distant with thought. “I did check the older membership records. The trouble is, it’s impossible to know which graduates were just bug enthusiasts.
I’m following some threads to check for suspicious behavior after they left the college.
The graduates I’ve looked at from particularly prominent families are still under one or both parents’ shadows, though, so they’re not in a position to enact new policies or anything like that yet. ”
I give a rough laugh. “That’s a little good news. Of course, even if Ster. Torstem only started funding the orphanage fifteen years ago, I guess we don’t know whether he already had allies then or if that was the start of the conspiracy.”
“I think we can reasonably hope it doesn’t go much farther back than that.
They would have needed sacrificial accomplices to practice any kind of scourge sorcery.
” The scholar snaps his fingers. “But that reminds me! I also thought I should look into Torstem’s gift, so you can be prepared if he tried to use it on you. ”
I should have thought of that myself. “Is it in the school records?”
Alek grins. “No, but he conducted trials before he came on as a law professor. The courts require all staff to disclose their gifts, and I was able to get access to those files. He’s dedicated to Creaden, unsurprisingly, and his gift on record is the ability to quell anger.
Possibly other agitated emotions as well, given the flexibility most gifts have. ”
The ability to quell agitated emotions. My jaw clenches. “How very convenient for persuading kids to be at peace with the idea of carving themselves up for his use.”
Alek’s smile falters. “Yes, I think it’s likely he applied his gift for that purpose.”
“All the more reason we need to bring that asshole down before he ropes in any more orphans.”
“I’ll keep digging up all the information I can. And like I said, if there’s anything specific you’d want me to look into, don’t hesitate to tell me.”
The offer stirs up the uncomfortable questions that’ve lingered in my head since the night in the tower.
I pause and then prod myself to speak. “I have actually been wondering—and if anyone would have come across information on this, I’d wager it’d be you… Have you read any accounts of the gods outright talking to people before? It wasn’t something I thought generally happened.”
Even in the fables I’ve read, the godlen make their desires known with glowing symbols and meaningful dreams. Not so much direct conversation.
If Kosmel ever decides to get chatty again, it’d be kind of nice to know what that means for me.
“Oh! Of course you’d be interested in that subject.
” Alek taps his mouth, his gaze going distant with thought.
“It’s certainly never happened to me or anyone I’ve spoken to.
Although I suppose Estera probably wouldn’t be inclined to say much to someone who didn’t even offer a sacrifice anyway.
” His hand rises to his chest where his godlen brand lies beneath his tunic.
I can’t hold back a guffaw. “I didn’t even dedicate myself.”
Alek shoots me a crooked grin. “Well, Kosmel is known for taking on difficult causes. I’ve definitely come across written accounts from clerics of their ‘interactions’ with the gods in various ways…
I think I can find a couple of old journals that could give you some insight, and I’ll do more research in that area after today. ”
He motions for me to follow him into the larger archive room next door.
After several minutes of stalking along the cluttered shelves, he’s handed over two small leather-bound books to me, one stained with dribbles of wax, the other with splotches that give off a sour smell that makes me think they’re wine.
“Those should make a good start,” Alek says.
I laugh as I tuck the books under my arm. “You really do know how to find out everything about everything, huh? We’re lucky we have you on our side.”
The scholar ducks his head with a hint of awkwardness at the praise.
“I’m not sure just how helpful they’ll be.
One thing I’ve seen from reading anything to do with theology is there are all kinds of contradictory theories and observations…
I’m not sure it’s something we mortals can fully pin down. ”
“Even partly pinning it down would be a relief. Thank you.”
We return to the smaller meeting room to find Benedikt lounging at the desk with his feet propped up on its edge. At our arrival, he tilts his head at a jaunty angle. “The both of you are down here already getting to work. What are you up to now?”
I don’t know how to begin telling him about my new interest in the divine without revealing more than I’d like to. “Alek was just filling me in on the key members of the bug club.”
“Ah, we’re going to start poking at them like the bugs they are, hmm?”
Benedikt chuckles at his own joke, and it occurs to me that no one has filled him in on even the initial plans we made without him two nights ago.
“I, ah—Stavros and I decided that I should try to make myself look like an appealing new recruit to the scourge sorcerers,” I say. “It’ll be easier if I know whose notice I’m trying to catch.”
Alek’s head jerks toward me at the news.
One of Benedikt’s eyebrows lifts. “You and Stavros decided, and Alek already knew to pull the information together?”
“I didn’t know,” Alek says, a little tightly, his gaze still fixed on me.
“Not the recruiting part anyway. It was obvious we’d want to focus on the people most closely associated with both Ster.
Torstem and Wendos. The medics still haven’t been able to draw Wendos out of his coma. It seemed urgent that we get started.”
“Yes. Urgent.” Benedikt spins a quill he’s picked up between his fingers. Can he tell that we’re leaving out part of the story? “Those accomplices of his really messed him up good with their final sacrifice.”
Or rather, I did. I don’t know what my magic did to Wendos that the medics haven’t been able to heal.
Before the moment can become truly strained, Casimir arrives through the conjured passage. He bobs his head in greeting to all of us, his gaze lingering on me with one of his gentle smiles. “Good to see you. Have you been getting on all right, Ivy?”
His concern sets off a flutter of warmth in me that I have no right to feel. I make myself smile back. “I always do.”
Benedikt sits up straighter, his gaze darting between us. “Why wouldn’t Ivy be all right? Has that bitch Anya been after her again?”
My stomach flips over. “No, no, I’m totally fine.”
Casimir is better than me at smoothing things over. “I only thought she might be a little out of sorts after everything she went through the other night.”
Then the wall wavers again, and I’m unexpectedly relieved to see Stavros’s red-topped head ducking from the secret passage. Now the meeting can get going without any more questions I’d rather not try to answer.
As the former general glances around at us, he holds up a leather sack. “King Konram was good to his word. We’ll have a new meeting place after today, and the means to enter it directly from wherever we happen to be.”
A much more understandable sense of relief fills me. “That’s great.”
Stavros fixes me with a glower, his voice coming out in the sardonic drawl I like least. “I should have said, most of us will have the means. I’ll be holding on to yours, Thief.”
Benedikt waves his hand as if to redirect Stavros to what he believes is a more important subject. “What’s all this about Ivy getting herself recruited by the scourge sorcerers?”
Casimir’s eyes widen. “What?”
Apparently the former general has no more patience for that subject than he does for me in general.
His voice turns terse but firm. “She thinks diving right into the villainy is the best way to unravel it. Her arguments sounded reasonable. If she’s so eager to put her neck on the line, I don’t see why we should stop her. ”
He glances around at the other men as if daring them to argue. I hold my chin high to show my commitment to the plan, even if I don’t love the way he phrased his approval.
Casimir catches my eye with a questioning expression, and I give him a smile I hope looks confident.
At the lack of overt protests, Stavros claps his hands together with a thump of flesh against wood. “Now let’s get on with determining how she can present herself as one of the villains.”