Chapter 19
Tal swiped her bedroom curtain aside. “I smell sausage.”
Faron leaned his back against the tunnel wall, failing to keep his face neutral. He held a pastry between them. Before he could respond, Tal held up a finger as if to say, “Don’t you dare.”
Faron nodded to his hand instead. “I saved this one from Sybil.”
Tal swiped the offered treat and bit into it, scowling. “If she drank all the rose water this time, I’ll singe her bedsheets.”
It had been three weeks since Tal welcomed Faron into their home, and every morning since, he’d arrived with a basket of food.
Aside from the masquerade, they had never eaten food so fresh and delicious.
From the bread with jam, still-steaming meats, quail, ripe fruit, and many things they didn’t recognize, they didn’t let a single crumb go to waste.
The first time Faron offered the gift, they didn’t know how to react.
While Tal still slept, Carrick had been struck dumb at the delicious aroma emanating from the basket.
Sybil, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate to take it out of Faron’s hands and dig in.
When Tal finally awoke, Faron had already left, and she lost her chance to give him an earful.
Her pride gave in once she tasted the chocolate cakes he included.
They accepted every delivery after with only a little reluctance.
Tal once asked Faron why he brought the food, but he shrugged and said it would go to waste if they didn’t eat it.
She could read the lie on his face, but didn’t reject his help.
“I caught Syb and Egan on their way out. They’re taking over our shift—something about a vision last night?
” They made their way into the common area where Rain scrutinized something in his notebook.
He greeted the two, grabbed a slice of bread and returned to his work.
Faron and Tal sat on the floor, the basket between them.
Sybil had a vision the previous night of Tal entering a dark room with fire in her eyes. Despite her assurances, the group decided Tal should no longer track Badger and Gully for fear she would take matters into her own hands.
“Anything interesting happen during Ed and Jens’s watch last night?” Rain asked without tearing his eyes away from his reading.
Faron stretched his legs out in front of him. “Still nothing. Jens has been a big help in looking further into the thugs, but they’re as predictable as ever. Nothing on the mage, and no apparition sightings either.”
Tal searched through the basket. “Did Syb take the custard?”
He held up both hands in surrender. “I tried to stop her, I swear.” His eyebrow twitched.
“Liar.”
Faron shoved a sizable chunk of salted meat into his mouth and stared pointedly at the ceiling.
“What are Ed and Waylon up to today?” Tal took a large bite of jellied toast.
Faron’s mouth turned down as he shook his head. “Ed has been sent on a mission by the council, and Waylon’s father has had him locked in his study for the last week.”
“Sounds dreadful,” Tal mused around a mouthful.
Rain set his quill down. “Still no luck with the king? How about information on that room in the palace?”
Faron sat on the floor in their common area, staring at the wall while nearly chewing a hole into his lip. “No. I’m no help there. But I have other news.”
Tal perked up. “News?”
“Where is Carrick today?” Faron’s voice didn’t hold its usual cheerful tone.
Rain closed his notebook on the quill. “He’s on a job. He won’t return until tomorrow.”
Normally, Tal would have expected that revelation to pique the noble’s interest, but it appeared he had been expecting more of an audience. “That complicates things,” he sighed.
She placed the toast back on the cloth napkin in her lap. “Why? What does it complicate?”
“I’ve been looking into that invitation.” His head dipped toward Rain.
“The one the nobles mentioned at the masquerade? Is it related to the mages?” Rain leaned forward.
Faron hesitated. “It’s for something tonight.”
“Tonight?!” Tal jumped to her feet. “Why aren’t we getting ready then?” She stuffed a few more treats into her pockets, about to get into her leathers and grab her weapons.
The noble reached for her hand. “Woah! Slow down. I only learned of it today. And we’re not going.”
She froze. “What do you mean we’re not going?”
“I only know when and where. I don’t know what the invitation is for, who or what will be there, or even how to get in there ourselves. Weren’t you the one that chastised me for running into the incinerator without any kind of plan?”
Tal opened her mouth to brush off his logic. She couldn’t pass an opportunity to gain information, but she also couldn’t deny his reasoning.
Rain shook his head. “You’re right, but we’ve had no development in weeks.
We can’t lose this chance. Is there time to wait until the others get back?
Or any way the two of you can sneak in—just to observe,” he added when Tal’s face brightened in a mischievous grin. “We need to take advantage of this.”
“The two of us?” Faron asked. “You won’t be joining?”
Rain gathered his things and stood. “I’m off to interview another family from this list.” He held up the notebook.
Faron sighed and nodded to himself. “Alright. But we are only going to gather information.”
“Right. I’ll get ready,” Tal called over her shoulder, already running to her room.
Faron’s chuckle followed her through the tunnels.
“Tal, focus. You need to know the layout before we go traipsing about the grounds.” There was something about Faron’s serious tone that Tal found adorable.
A miniature model of the mansion sat on the tunnel floor, erected out of whatever they could find.
Faron’s basket stood in the middle, representing the extravagant house.
Inside, rolls and croissants were placed strategically to signify different rooms of import.
One of his shoes sat a short distance from the basket.
Faron used a charred piece of wood to draw the path they would take through the surrounding forest, and another line connected the basket to his shoe.
Tal’s dagger jabbed a rolled pastry with a delicious brown spice and sugar drizzle.
“So, the study is here, next to it is where they dine, and over here is a second house.” She pointed the pastry-tipped dagger at the shoe.
“It’s a dovecote, but I know for a fact that Mordency lost all his doves. The beetle-headed barnacle can’t run a house to save his life.” The nobleman in question appeared to be the one at the center of this invitation business.
“Remind me what a dovecote is again?” She waved the dagger around and took a bite from the impaled pastry.
“You’re sprinkling icing all over the grounds.”
“Maybe it’s snowing.” She took another bite, and more of the drizzle landed in their display.
“In the dead of summer.” His hair fell into his eyes when he shook his head at her. “A dovecote is where the doves are housed. Mordency’s is empty, at least of doves. He’s been hosting something there that he doesn’t want some of the other nobles to know about.”
“And that’s what we’re going to find out,” Tal added around a mouthful.
They planned to sneak into the main building through the servant’s quarters and try to eavesdrop on the house staff. If they were lucky, they may even be able to catch conversation among the guests. Once the event started, they would make their way to the dovecote.
“Do we engage? Will they recognize you?”
“As much as I’d love to indulge your fantasies, this is one I’m afraid that we will have to exercise restraint.”
“I don’t know what fantasies you’re talking about.”
The banter didn’t stop the whole way to the mansion.
Monitoring Badger and Gully proved frustratingly boring, and Tal’s hatred for them did nothing but grow as the days passed.
Now, a wave of excitement coursed through her.
The hilt of the dagger in her hand kept her mind calm.
It flipped in the air and landed back in her palm.
She yearned for a fight, but these men were not the bottom of the barrel scum she encountered in the docks. It wouldn’t be wise to cross them.
A pine-scented breeze blew hair into her face.
The surrounding forest provided the perfect cover for observing the property, and Tal could almost see it in its entirety from the branch she perched on.
A twig snapped below as Faron crept through the leaf-littered ground.
Branches bowed underneath her, and her palms scraped on the bark during her descent.
“It doesn’t seem large enough to hold any kind of auction,” she noted. The dovecote appeared exactly as Faron had described. The small stone structure was barely larger than a one-room home. At most, she expected no more than ten people would fit comfortably inside.
“I did find it odd he hosts there. Though, it does offer more privacy than anywhere else on the grounds.”
Faron relayed his observations regarding entrances and exits as well as the number of visible staff and visitors.
They had arrived well before any guests and spent the afternoon getting a better layout.
At the appearance of the carriages, Faron moved around the house to recognize any faces while Tal kept an eye on activity within the smaller building.
He returned with a newfound tension in his shoulders, his nostrils flaring.
“What is it?” Tal asked.
“Waylon is here.”
“What? Here?” Tal searched the grounds as if she would see him standing there.
Faron seethed. “I’ve known him since we were children. I would have trusted him with my life.”
Tal swallowed. Her usual snide comments died on her tongue as confusion blasted through her. Had Waylon betrayed them? “Who else is here?”
“Briggins and Lighton—the two nobles Rain mentioned—along with one other noble and a foreign dignitary.” His jaw ticked listing off each man that arrived.
“Are any of these men capable of buying human slaves?”