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“But so worth it,” I said to lighten the godawful mood.
A smile touched Szerain’s mouth. “The plague victims were exposed to a cup or two of mutagen coffee—controlled and directed. Currently, everything at ground zero is getting doused with bathtubs full of the stuff.”
My humor vanished. “In other words, if we go to ground zero to close the valve, we risk getting horribly mutated.”
“Actually, no. Undirected, the mutagen has no effect on arcane users.”
I frowned at him. “But Marco Knight is sitting in a pod in my living room.”
“Podding results from demon-directed mutagen. Plus, Marco Knight isn’t an arcane user,” Szerain said then shrugged. “What he does is different.”
Ooh, I wanted to poke into that subject, but it would have to wait. “All right, it won’t affect summoners or Pellini, but it’ll work on everyone else.” I swore under my breath. “Which means no military backup.”
Szerain gave a tight nod. “He’s staying within the fucking constraints as he chips away at our support.”
“Wait a minute. That mutagen stuff is arcane, right?” I gave him a hopeful look. “What if we issue makkas wire bracelets to anyone who might be vulnerable.”
His focus turned inward, as if he was running the numbers in his head. “That will work,” he finally said, to my delight. “Six feet of wire per person should give more than enough protection. You could double it twice and twist it to make a simple wrap around bracelet. Needs to be worn against the skin, preferably under a sleeve to keep it from getting snagged and torn off—”
He fell silent as the basement door creaked open. A few seconds later Elinor and Giovanni descended the stairs.
She gave Szerain a smile. “So this is where you’ve been hiding . . .” Her voice trailed off. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing we can’t handle,” Szerain said with a comforting smile. He flopped into the armchair. “You’ve no need to worry.”
Elinor pursed her lips at him, clearly not buying into the there-there routine, then leveled an expectant look at me.
“Xharbek’s pissed and acting out,” I told her then glared at Szerain when he made a Be Quiet throat clearing. “She of all people deserves to be in the loop.”
Szerain spoke to me in demon. “What in the eleven chasms are you thinking?”
I answered in kind. “She may not be one who needs to know, but she is deserving of knowing that which affects her so deeply. They will both remain here for the confrontation, sheltered, and well clear of Xharbek and his mindreading.”
Elinor’s chin lifted. “Lord Szerain, you cannot protect me by keeping me ignorant of danger.”
Szerain glowered at the double-pronged argument then lifted his hands in surrender. “Elinor, my dear, you had a will of iron before, and now you have this one’s attitude.” He jerked his head at me. I returned an innocent look. “Very well. Have a seat and I’ll fill you in.”
While he did that, I stepped away and texted Pellini the info about the mutagen, the arcane user immunity, and the specs for the wire bracelets for everyone else, including people and animals remaining behind, both here and at Jill’s house—just in case. After a bit of mental math, I added a request for fifty feet of triple-strand makkas cable.
, he replied a few seconds later.
Awesome. Pellini would make sure everything was taken care of. I started to type in a thanks then paused as the thought from earlier reappeared at the edge of my mind. This time I let it creep further out.
Right. It was past time to deal with that anyway.
“Hey, Szerain, how much wire would be needed to protect a horse at ground zero?”
He stopped mid-word and gave me a long look. “Twenty-five feet,” he said after a moment.
“Gotcha,” I said then texted to Pellini.
, he replied.
Damn, Pellini was sharp. “How much wire for a two-hundred pound dog?” I asked Szerain.
Bafflement and curiosity warred on his face, but he simply replied, “Ten feet?”
“Thanks,” I said and relayed the info to Pellini.
