AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We don’t know. Smit hasn’t been seen since he left the office with you. Something went wrong last night, something bigger than Peabody’s report entails. Yes.” She drummed her fingers on the desk. “I need you alive and out of the way. I’m afraid the rest of the council will take rash action before we learn what’s really going on.”
Rash action, like stripping my little parlor tricks from me. All the more reason for me to learn what really happened. “I could start by asking questions at the place we went after work. Someone there must have seen us.” And they may be able to shed some light on what had happened next.
“Start where? No, you misunderstand me,” she said, reaching into a drawer, “I recently received notice of a situation. It’s not quite your usual sort of assignment, but you’re a smart young man. I trust you to use your head.”
My throat had gone so dry I needed to cough in order to speak. “But Rutger. I need to find out what happened last night.”
“Leave that to me.” Her expression stiffened. “I just received a telegram from Washington State. A weatherwitch who’d been assigned to a lighthouse near Seattle has died, and we need to send a replacement.”
I was too confused to put up much of an argument. “I…can change a thing’s appearance, but I’m not much help with the weather.”
“You won’t have to worry about that. Your task will be something much more delicate. The recently deceased, Martin Gallagher, was rumored to have stolen a very powerful magical object, the Ferox Cor. We don’t know whether or not the rumors are true, but he’d never before worked as a weatherwitch. Could he have used the power he gained from the Ferox Cor to influence the weather? Possibly. The larger issue is, what else could he have used it for? He’s been up there at the edge of civilization for a number of years.”
I sat up straighter. Dear Lord, was this a way out or would it land me in even more trouble? “And you want me to find this Ferox Cor?”
“I do, yes.”
“And if I decline?”
She paused for a moment, giving me her full attention. “Then more than likely, the full council will vote to strip you of your power and send you on your way.”
To hell. “I find your argument quite persuasive.”
“I thought you might. Gallagher lived with his wife Della and a son. Don’t know much about the boy, but I knew Della when she was very young. She’s a Barron, and that family’s not going to tolerate some jumped up thaumaturge.”
“She must be grieving, if her husband just passed.”
“Correct, and who knows what you’ll learn if you give her a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.”
"They’ll need another weatherwitch, though.”
She smiled, passing me a thick envelope. “Margaret Barnes will be going with you. I’ve made travel arrangements as far as Portland, but after that you’ll need to find your own way. Margaret will help, of course, but I want her to pay more attention to what’s going on in the atmosphere.”
“Of course, ma’am.” From what I knew of her reputation, Margaret Barnes was going to run this whole show. She was a few years older than me and no one’s shrinking violet. “I’m sure we’ll get on just fine.” I knew no such thing, but times like these, it paid to be charming.
“Find the Ferox Cor and bring it to me. Peabody and his boys will find Smit and figure out what caused you to use your power on a mortal, and then you can go back to beguiling our city leaders with your fine manners and wit.”
“I hope so.” Because the alternative did not bear thinking about. I’d already been cut off from my family. Getting cut off from the magical world would leave me very much alone. That threat, more than anything else, straightened my spine. I had no idea how I’d find this Ferox Cor, but I could not afford to fail.
“Keep in mind, though, that in the wrong hands, the Ferox Cor can bring down nations. Tread carefully and bring it to me –onlyme – so the Council can make arrangements to keep it safe.”
I’m sure my eyes were as big as a pair of moons. “I will.”
I left soon after, and when I hit the street, the fog had lifted. I walked the first few blocks in the warm October sun. I’d have called it an omen, but I hadn’t gone far when the fog settled in again, weighing my spirits with its gloom.
Chapter Two
I keep an emergency fund in my room, a habit that has stood me in good stead. The bank would not open until Monday, and Madam Munro had promised to send a train ticket as soon as her secretary made the arrangements. Given the uncertainties around this excursion, I handed my landlord enough money for two months’ rent and packed such sundries as I would need for an indefinite stay.
Two suits, four vests, several clean collars, underthings, handkerchiefs, and two packets of pipe tobacco would see me through, or at least I hoped they would.
As promised, by suppertime an envelope arrived with a train ticket for 3pm on Monday, October 17th. That gave me Sunday to find Rutger, a task I failed to accomplish. He had not been seen at his rooming house since Friday morning, nor had he visited any of our usual haunts. Leaving felt disloyal, selfish, even. While I had no choice but to obey Madam Munro, uneasiness sat heavy on me.
The noisy platform at the Market Street train depot did little to calm my nerves. I recognized Miss Barnes, having seen her once in the Council offices. In addition to being older than me, she stood some three inches taller. Today, she wore a suit of a soft dun color the same shade as her hair. Her face was broad, her smile reserved, and her only bit of brightness came from an emerald grosgrain ribbon around the crown of her straw boater. My sack coat and trousers were a somber black, yet with my paisley waistcoat I felt like a peacock accompanying a hen.
Madam Munro had provided us with seats in a sleeper car, the type that folded out to make a low bunk with an upper bunk that dropped down from the wall. We sat facing each other on cracked leather benches. Miss Barnes eyed every passenger as they passed, as if sizing each one up for possible villainy, while I struggled to come up with something to say.
The car was half empty, so it wasn’t long until people stopped moving around. It took a few minutes longer for Miss Barnes to relax.
