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“Are you kidding me?” She laughed. “Humans are always looking for a way to cheat the system or gain an advantage over others. Being a university city doesn’t alter that.”
“I guess not.” I hesitated. “Is the caster who created this in Cambridge? Or somewhere else?”
“Definitely not Cambridge.” She picked up the token and studied it through slightly narrowed eyes. “It came from a seaport, and not one that’s close by.”
That flicker of hope died again. “Elsmoot?”
Aram had had an office there until it had been blown up, almost taking Mathi and me with it.
“No, closer than that.” She turned the coin over, her eyes narrowed as she stared at the symbols on the back again. I had a feeling she wasn’t really seeing them, but rather plucking whatever fast-fading images remained from her spell. “It’s definitely a seaport, but in Wales not England. If I was guessing, I’d say Swansea but mainly because the Einar line originated down that way. If you want some certainty, I can place a homer spell on it, but it’ll cost an extra five hundred.”
If the token had been created in Swansea rather than Elsmoot, then we probably weren’t dealing with Aram—unless of course he had offices elsewhere. But that left us with one other problem—why would someone purchase an Eve token in Swansea if they intended to use it in Scotland? It was the other end of the country, for goodness sake, and it wasn’t like Scotland didn’t have any capable witches of their own.
“Will the homer lead to the witch who crafted the token or simply the place where it was created?”
“The latter, but that should also give you the former.”
I nodded and motioned her to proceed. She placed the token back onto the table, pressed a finger on top of it, and once again began to spell.
It didn’t take all that long. Once she’d finished, she picked up the token and handed it to me. I’d expected energy to run across my skin, but it felt no different than before.
“Once you’re ready, you can activate the homer spell by gripping it and saying, ‘take me home.’ Then place the token on a flat surface and it’ll act like a compass, with the circled snake being the directional pointer.”
“Brilliant. Thank you.”
She nodded and rose. “How you paying? Card?”
I smiled. “I’m not in the habit of carryingthatsort of cash around with me.”
“Probably wise. Pickpockets around these parts generally aren’t a big problem in winter, except on event or festival weekends, but it never hurts to be safe.”
I picked up my shopping and followed her out into the main room. Once I’d paid the bill, I pocketed the receipt, thanked her for her time, and headed back to our apartment.
“I was just contemplating heading out to search for you,” Lugh said as I came through the door. “What happened? Did you get lost, or were the shops packed?”
“Neither.” I dumped the shopping bags on the counter and began putting everything away. “I visited a witch.”
His eyebrows rose. “Why?”
“Remember that token I found? Thought maybe she might be able to tell me a bit about it.”
“And did she?”
“Yes indeedy.” I told him everything she’d said and then added, “If Aram—or whoever is now impersonating him—is behind the token, it’s not going to help us much.”
“It’s still worth following up, though the ring has to be our priority.”
I nodded, put the kettle on, and handed him the receipt. “Figured you could claim it on expenses and reimburse me. You had any luck with the mine search?”
He nodded and tucked the receipt safely into his wallet. “There’s a half dozen likely candidates.”
“Meaning they all have underground lakes?”
“The majority have, yes. Most are open to the public, a couple are partially open, and there’s one that’s only open to experienced cavers.”
“You think that’s our one?”
He nodded. “It’s near the Blaenau Ffestiniog slate mines in Gwynedd. They’ve become a major tourist attraction—there are even zip lines across one of the pits, apparently—but this particular mine hasn’t been developed as yet.”
