“It’s not that bad, is it?” asked Blake.
“You do realize that salt pork is salty, right? You don’t have to add additional salt if you use that with it. Also, you burned the onions.”
“I did?”
“That’s where the bitterness came from,” explained Will. Just out of Blake’s line of sight, he could see Janice nodding in silent agreement, though she was too tactful to say anything out loud.
Despite Will’s complaints, the porridge was still edible, and he was tired and hungry, so he ate. Janice waited, clearly anxious to share her news, and Will obliged by forcing the porridge down as quickly as he could manage. The upside was that he didn’t have to taste it as much that way. “All right,” he said at last. “It’s obvious you’re excited. What did you discover? Is it something about the relic?”
She shook her head. “No, something completely unexpected. I went to arrange for the alchemy supplies, and when I asked about the white phosphorous, Professor Karlovic told me that it had all been bought up.”
That caught his attention. “Could it have been the military? Lognion has obviously been preparing for this. Blake told me he had ordered a lot of weapons with silver inlay.”
“The professor said that the military maintains a separate supply since they use alchemical fire for some of their standard operations. This was bought by a private merchant in the city just a couple of weeks ago.”
“Before we knew anything about this,” muttered Will. An image flashed in his mind for a second, the vial of alchemical fire that had been thrown at the Nerrow home. It hadn’t occurred to him at the time, but the glass vial was much like the ones he had bought from Wurthaven. They were produced by a local glass blower. The alchemical fire had been made in Cerria.
Tracing the maker down through sales of vials probably wouldn’t be practical, but finding the merchant who bought the rare and dangerous white phosphorous was a sure lead. He started to say something, but Janice spoke first. “I have the merchant’s name here.” She pushed a piece of paper across the table. On it was written a name, “Factor Jorn Slidden.” It was followed by an address close to the central market in the city. “He’s a trader,” explained Janice. “He keeps a warehouse by the river docks too and does a lot of business in a variety of commodities, though he specializes in wool. White phosphorous isn’t part of what I think would be his usual business.”
Will nodded. “So he probably served as a buyer for whoever the alchemist was that produced the alchemical fire. Did Karlovic say how much he bought?”
“Something close to two hundred pounds, all that they had,” she informed him.
“That’s enough for thousands of vials,” said Will.
Blake chimed in, “When I was doing special service, we used it quite often. You can wreck a city’s hierarchy and control structure with a few judiciously placed fires. Burn out the right homes or businesses and you can sow chaos and throw the government into disarray. Use more and you can start fires so big the whole city will burn. We usually preferred not to cause massive casualties like that, since they could be politically counterproductive, but you don’t know what the enemy’s objective is here.”
“I’m starting to feel alarmed,” said Will in a dry tone.
Tiny jumped in. “You’re just now feeling alarmed? I started the other night when that thing tried to rip my face off!”
Will smiled. “I was being sarcastic.” He turned to Janice. “You found out a lot about the trader pretty quickly.”
“I skipped class. Rob was a big help too,” she answered.
“Rob?”
“Who would you ask if you want to know about the latest gossip? Plus, he knows a lot of people. He ferreted out most of the information about Jorn within the first hour of me asking. I think he feels bad about jumping down your throat the other day,” said Janice.
“Did you tell him about the vampires?” asked Will.
She shook her head. “No, but he knows something crazy is going on.”
“How?”
“Because you’re involved, and I wouldn’t answer his questions. He took everything very seriously, even though I know he must have been annoyed.”
Will felt even guiltier regarding his friend. “If you see him later, tell him I’m sorry, and next time he should come with you. I’ll explain everything to him.”
“So I should tell him about the vampires?” she asked.
He nodded, yawning. Glancing over, he could see Tiny struggling to keep his eyes open. “We should get some rest.”
Tiny got to his feet. They were both still clad in their armor. “I’ll see to our gear. You should bathe first this time.”
Will smiled. “Why don’t we all take a bath together?” Most of them frowned at that remark, but Janice’s eyes were glued to his palm, where a complex spell was slowly coming together. As he got close to completion, the structure trembled slightly on the verge of falling apart, but it stabilized again, and Will invested the turyn necessary to make it work. Seconds later, the magic expanded, taking in the room and his friends.
He was rewarded with a series of gasps, followed by some ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’. Selene’s spell was not only effective, it was pleasant to experience firsthand, unlike most cleaning spells. Janice eyed him appreciatively. “You finally did it! When did that happen?”
“Yesterday,” said Will. “I’ve been trying for almost a year now.”
“I’m still struggling with fifth-order spells,” she said enviously.
He grinned. “You spend too much time in the library.”
She narrowed her eyes. “It also helps that you can waste turyn without worrying about your health, and that you train constantly.”
“Don’t let Sir Kyle find out about this,” cautioned Tiny with a chuckle. He was studying his armor closely. “He’ll convince them to conscript you again and you’ll spend the rest of your days cleaning and maintaining armor for the army.”
Blake was staring at the table. “Even the bowls are clean!”
“I did the whole room,” said Will. “It took more energy, but you’ll find that the floor is clean too and everything else has been dusted.”
“How about the rest of the house?” asked the manservant hopefully.
“I’m tired and you need a job. I’m headed to bed,” said Will with a tone of finality.
***
Selene fell into her bed, her nerves frayed, and her body exhausted. The skin of her hands felt raw from scrubbing floors. Floors she could have cleaned in seconds if she had been allowed to use her magic.