Colin went to the water pump and rinsed the blood off his hands and the knucklestuffers. He put those back in his pocket. He splashed his face as well. Clean enough to walk in the streets. He looked around the flop, notice the small stack of goldsmith notes that had fallen on the floor in the fight. He scooped that up and put it in his pocket. No reason not to hold on to that, keep it out of Bell’s hands. It wasn’t like he would get in less trouble for not doing it.
“The Thorn will be looking for you, Bell,” Colin said. “I hear he didn’t take too kindly to your ploy. I don’t know if he’ll be as merciful as I was.”
He rolled down his sleeves and picked up his coat. Closing it over his bloody shirt, he left the flop, now quiet save for Bell’s wheezing breaths.
Chapter 25
“THAT FELT LIKE IT WORKED,” Veranix said once the bright light had faded. “Tell me everyone on campus didn’t see all that.”
“That was the device,” Phadre said, rubbing at his temples. “But I’m sure even the first-year mage students felt that.”
“Oh, saints, yes.” Delmin was lying on the ground, still clutching the mage shackles. “Even with my senses blunted, that was intense.”
“I must remember goggles in the future,” Jiarna muttered. She picked up the sensor device. “Well, it’s definitely doing something. I’m getting readings from our samples here. This is working.”
“And maybe a few clicks before we get cadets bursting in here,” Veranix said. “How do we do this now?”
“That is what I’m trying to determine,” Jiarna said. She turned in circles, holding the device in front of her.
Kaiana stuck her head outside, and then pulled back in. “No one is rushing over here. People seem to be vaguely confused, but otherwise going about their business.”
“Wait until a professor focuses on this place,” Delmin said, getting to his feet. “Or any other magic student on this campus.”
“I’m less worried about that,” Jiarna said. “If anything, they’d be drawn to the drug. Are you feeling anything, Delmin?”
He crouched in front of the vials. “Yes. It’s definitely putting out a unique . . . scent.”
“Scent?” Veranix asked.
“Best word I have,” Delmin said. “Though I don’t know how many students or professors would distinguish it from usual background numina.”
“You can?” Jiarna asked.
“Barely.”
“Same here,” she said, making an adjustment on her device. “Yes, I’ve got it tuned now.”
“We should move throughout campus, try to get closer,” Phadre said.
“I agree,” Jiarna said. “Split up. I’ll go with Veranix, you with Delmin and Kaiana.”
Kaiana raised an eyebrow. “Why do that?”
“We have two ways to track—Delmin and this device. So two teams, two and three. We have to presume trouble. Veranix should be on the team of two, as he’s more capable of handling trouble alone.”
“But—” Phadre started. Jiarna stepped on his objections.
“I’ve already worked out the risk value, and . . .”
“Can we go?” Veranix asked, slinging his weapons over his shoulder.
“Yes, let’s,” Phadre said. “Though perhaps . . .” He looked expectantly at Veranix.
“What do you need?”
“The rope?” Phadre said. “I can use it, and it’d be good for me to have some sort of defense, in case—”
Veranix didn’t want to give up the rope, but he also didn’t think he could deny Phadre. The man had already done so much for them. Handing it over, he said, “Be careful. All of you.”
They all stepped out to the lawn, Veranix masking himself to look like he was just in uniform.
“I’m feeling like there’s a concentration of it over there, and over there,” Delmin said, pointing in two directions. One was in the direction of the tetch field, the other the cluster of southern dorms, including Almers.
“Makes sense,” Jiarna said, swinging her device between the two directions. “Yes, I agree.”
“We’ll take the dorms,” Delmin said. “I am still a prefect. I can use that authority if we need it.”
“Us to the field,” Veranix said. “Where half of campus is.”
Jiarna nodded. “It does not narrow things down.”
“Be safe,” Kaiana said as Delmin and Phadre started to move.
“Keep them safe,” Veranix told her. She was holding a short garden tool that could work as a truncheon. “When in doubt, run and get my attention.”
“I was going to tell you the same thing,” she said. “Who saved you last time?”
“You. Every time.”
“Vee!” Jiarna said sharply.
He went off with her as the rest peeled off. She sighed as they approached the field. “I also split us this way so our emotions won’t make us sloppy. Phadre and I would make mistakes if one of us were in danger.”
“I suppose,” Veranix said.
“You and Kaiana are the same way. Well, not the same, but have . . . similar blind spots.”
“You know that Kai and I, we aren’t . . . we don’t . . .”
“I’m aware,” Jiarna said. “You wouldn’t have had that fling with Emilia Quope if you were. It’s not in your nature. But you two would both leap in front of a stampede for each other. That is clear to anyone.”
“Hopefully there won’t be a stampede.”
The crowd around the tetch field belied that. It was a horde of people, already nearly in a frenzy of anticipation.
“You’re reading it in there?” Veranix asked.
Jiarna gave him a withering look. “This is hardly that precise a device.” In fact, it looked like a box with a handful of sewing needles attached to it, the needles quivering and pointing toward the field. “But the signature this is attuned to is strong, and it’s right in the center.”
Veranix wasn’t sure how she could gauge that from a bunch of sewing needles, but he didn’t question it. “The match is about to start.”
“And you, in theory, are supposed to be with the squad. Wouldn’t they be expecting you?”
“Yes,” Veranix said. “Frankly, last thing on my mind right now.”
They pushed their way through the crowd to the squad, who were in the midst of their pregame stretches.
“Just like you taught us, huh, Calbert?” Tosler said as Veranix approached. “Glad you could make it. Worried we wouldn’t have our good-luck charm.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Veranix said halfheartedly. “You all got a tough one today.” He looked around, trying to see anything obvious in the crowd. He glanced at Jiarna.
“Not sure,” she said. She had now put in her eyepiece. “You might be damaging the readings. You’re . . . bristling with numina.”
“I’m a bit on edge.”
“Ain’t we all?” Tosler said absently. “We got this, though. No matter how broiled those Pirrell pikers are.”
He pointed over to the Pirrell team, whose own pregame seemed to involve pounding each other on the arms and shoulders and screaming at each other.
“We’ve got the field first,” Tosler said. “Any last words?”
“Try not to give them any hits,” Veranix said. “You don’t want to let any of them run if you can.”
Tosler gave an almost disparaging grin. “Like I don’t do that every game. All right, boys, let’s get out there.”
The squad took the field, while the Pirrell team lined up on the Hold Line.
“Veranix, we have a real problem,” Jiarna said. “The Pirrell team is the source.”
“They’ve got the drug?” Veranix asked.
“No.” Jiarna took out her eyepiece. “The numinic signature is coming from them. Coursing through their bodies. All of them are filled with it.
”
“Oh, blazes,” Veranix said. If the Pirrell squad were about to play like the mouse in the bucket, the U of M boys would get clobbered.
“And I am incredibly stupid,” Jiarna added. “Why didn’t I think of it?”
“Think of what?” He saw her face was pale with fear.
“We’ve numinically excited the drug. That altered its magiochemical properties. There’s no telling how that would affect its efficacy.”
Tosler threw his first pitch at the Pirrell at the tetch.
“I could use an educated guess right now, Jiarna.”
Her voice was a terrified whisper. “Amplification.”
As the pitch went by, the Pirrell student swung hard, but instead of hitting the ball, he clocked Blute in the head. The ball sailed past, over the Hold Line. Normally that would break the Hold, allow the batting team to storm the field—but not if the batter struck the Wall.
“No break!” the Watcher called. “Hold isn’t broken!”
The Pirrell players did not listen. They charged together at full steam, like wild dogs coming for the kill.
“Welling! Welling!” Inspector Rainey had caught up to Minox a block away from the Constabulary stationhouse. He hadn’t realized how far he had gone, almost entirely on instinct. She was still in her shirtsleeves and skivs, not even boots on.
“You’ve been chasing me undressed, and with that leg?” Minox asked.
“Yes, you idiot,” she said. She rarely employed such directed insults at him, so she must be rather angry. “You went running off and didn’t give me time to find my slacks. And it hurts like blazes, but you’ve been too blasted deaf to notice me screaming for you.”
“My . . . my apologies, Inspector Rainey,” he said. He could still feel the energy humming in the distance, at the north end of the neighborhood. Possibly even on campus. “Something has happened, or is happening, and—”
“It’s magical,” she said. “But does that mean it’s relevant to what we need to do?”
“My instinct—which is admittedly not an appropriate tool to use to judge this—says that it is. It is certainly a large event—strong enough for me to feel it from the stationhouse. And it—smells familiar.”
“Smells?”
“That is the best way I can put this sensation into words. It is at the edge of all my senses, but not directly in the domain of any one of them. But it is reminiscent of a familiar scent that triggers memory.”
“Do you mean you think it’s the Thorn? The real one?”
“Doing something of incredible power,” he said again, starting to walk. “It would be remiss of me to not investigate further.”
“Then let’s go,” she said, walking with him. “Is it north neighborhood, or campus?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll know more as we get closer.”
“If it’s campus, that professor—”
“I am unconcerned about that at the moment,” he said. His thoughts went back to what was happening before he felt the energy. Events in the stationhouse played out in his head, the observations he had made when he first came upon the lieutenant. So obvious, and he had walked away. He had seen it clearly in the moment, only he had allowed himself to be distracted by the magic energy. Foolish, but it couldn’t be helped now. “However, there is another concern. And I fear you should attend to that while I attend to this.”
“Splitting up never goes well for us, Welling.”
“Regardless, it may be necessary.” He stopped. “I believe Lieutenant Benvin is going to organize his people, as well as the regulars of the stationhouse, to perform a police action of dubious legality. Most likely strike at one or more of the gangs in the neighborhood.”
“Why . . . how . . .”
“His bearing was one of determination to action. ‘Work to do.’ ‘We’ll handle it.’ He has made a determination of the guilty party.”
“He said he has cause, I remember. But why do you think he’ll engage in dubious legality?”
“He was ready to drive us out, against the advice of his loyal people. He felt he lost time. Impatience is driving him. Everything I read of the man—”
“He’ll do something reckless and urgent.” Her expression told him she agreed with his conclusion. “I can imagine he’ll hit one of the gang hangouts. Probably the Rose Street Princes one.”
“Why that one?”
“One of his men was killed there a few months ago.”
Sound reasoning. “Keep Benvin in check. I’ll go—”
The scent changed. Still familiar, but yet . . . sour.
“Something is changing. I fear it is dangerous.”
“We should both—”
“Benvin!” he said sharply. “The situation here is fraught enough without him behaving unethically.” He waved her off, and then ran over to a young man with a pedalcart. “Constabulary officer. I must claim Eminent Right over your vehicle and make use of it.”
“What does that mean?” the young man said.
“I must take your pedalcart for emergent Constabulary business. Report to the stationhouse, and it shall be returned to you in short order, or the city will compensate you.”
“But—”
“My apologies,” Minox said, getting on the pedalcart. He unhitched the tow section. Now it was a sleek, two-wheeled vehicle, unencumbered with a back wagon of goods. With a glance back, he noted Inspector Rainey pushing herself back toward the stationhouse.
He pedaled as hard as he could, racing and weaving up through the traffic toward the strange magical disturbance that called to him.
“I can’t believe it’s in Almers,” Delmin said. Kaiana had let him take the lead, and he had stopped in front of the dorm building. “Right under my nose.”
“You hardly could have known,” Kaiana said.
“It’s not like you could sense it earlier, right, old boy?” Phadre said. He looked like he was trying to seem calm and composed, but he was holding Veranix’s rope like it was a live snake.
“I thought you could control that,” Kaiana said. “Should I take it?”
“No, I’ve—I’ve got a sense of it,” he said. “Just needs some adjusting to, you know?” Kaiana decided not to hurt his pride by gainsaying him. It wasn’t like she could use it at all. In her hands it was just a rope.
“Let’s go,” Delmin said, squinting upward. “Second floor.”
“You can tell that from here?” Kaiana asked.
“At this distance, it’s painfully clear. And . . .” He tilted his head, like he was listening intently. “There’s a lot.”
“The source?” Kaiana asked.
“That would be my guess.” He opened the main doors and led Kaiana and Phadre in.
“Hey, Sarren!” someone shouted as soon as they entered. “That bird can’t come in here!”
“Special circumstances,” Delmin said, his tone suddenly confident and commanding. “She’s grounds staff, and we have a situation on the second floor to attend to.”
“Oy, what?” The young man came over. “I really should have been brought in the circle on this one. Who’s this guy?”
“Phadre Golmin, recent graduate.” Phadre started to extend his hand to the man, and then pulled back to grab the rope.
Delmin pushed his way past. “This doesn’t matter. We’ve got word that there’s a resident with large amounts of contraband in his room on the second floor.”
“Wait, wait,” the other prefect said, jumping up on the stairs to keep them from ascending. “I have so many questions. What contraband? How do you know? Why not call in cadets, or at least housing authority?”
Delmin stopped. “That’s a good point, Dannick. Why do you think I have Miss Nell from the grounds staff here? What do you think her job is?”
“She . . . I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
He looked her up and down. Kaiana had to admit, in her canvas slacks and apron, short hoe menacingly in her hand, she hardly looked like the sort of person who would be brought into the dorms to deal with contraband.
“Exactly, Dannick. You don’t know. She’s here in an official capacity, and Mister Golmin is an expert here to handle the materials if they turn out to be volatile.”
“Volatile?” Dannick went pale. “What sort of contraband are we talking about?”
Kaiana decided this was her moment to step in. What would Veranix do here? If punching someone wasn’t an option, he’d bluff. Delmin had given her a good opportunity, and she just needed to take hold of it. “I’m afraid we can’t discuss that. Dannick, is it?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Look.” She lowered her voice. “We want, ideally, to keep this quiet. Merely the fact that this stuff got onto campus, that a student has it in his room, in Almers . . . that’s an embarrassment for a lot of people on campus. You included.”
“Me?”
“This was under our noses, Dannick,” Delmin said. “We dropped our watch.”
“I guess, but—”
“There’s no time for guessing,” Phadre said, loud and unnatural. Bluffing was not his skill. “We have to get on this!”
He went up the stairs, and Kaiana followed right behind him. Delmin and Dannick caught up with them at the second floor.
“Where is it?” Kaiana asked.
“Third door on the left,” Delmin said. “There’s little bits in other rooms, but in that one . . . it’s intense.”
“What are you—” Dannick started. “Oh, sweet saints, is this a magic thing?”
“Who’s staying in this room?” Kaiana said sharply.
Dannick was still worked up. “Oh, it is some magic thing. That’s why you have this guy here. Expert to handle. Is that what this is?”
“This isn’t the time,” Delmin said.
“Whose room is it?” Kaiana asked again.
“Most of this hall are Pirrell athletes. They took the second and third floors. Of course, most of them are out on the field. But that one is—”
“Tetch match, right,” Delmin said. “Maybe no one will be here.”
The Imposters of Aventil Page 34