This is it—it has to be his study.
Angelique opened the door a little wider and paused as she let her magical senses expand, testing the room for any alarms.
She felt nothing—no traps of any kind. Until something brushed around the ankle of her boots. Her anxiety already reaching new heights from this new experience of breaking-and-entering, Angelique jumped in place.
“For goodness sakes, it’s me,” Puss hissed, invisible thanks to his magic. “I’m here to cast the silence spell on you—as we decided upon when planning this!”
“Sorry,” Angelique whispered.
“There. All done—good luck,” Puss whispered.
He was gone as quickly as he’d come—probably to sit at his post on the threshold of the showroom so Gabrielle could appear to use magic if required.
Her throat closing with hope, Angelique slipped inside the study as Quinn dropped two pointed hairsticks tipped with metal on the weapons heap.
Angelique left the door cracked—so she could hear Quinn—and skulked inside, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as she tried to figure out what would be most appropriate to check first.
Elle said general records from the Chosen would be most helpful, or a list of Nefari’s suppliers in Mullberg.
Angelique checked the logbook first, slipping her gloves back on before she flipped the cover open.
It appeared to be a record of recent orders—supplies going out and coming in.
Some of it was straightforward—any food orders like sacks of flour and the like—but a separate column was filled with a gibberish code that—based on the numbers used and the organization system—Angelique was willing to bet were customer orders.
This would be why Nefari wasn’t terribly concerned about leaving us on our own—he’s got everything coded. Elle could probably crack this, but it would take more time than we have in this snatched instance, and we can’t take the logbook, or he’ll know, and they’ll flee the den.
Angelique mashed her lips together, then closed the logbook and approached the bookshelves, her boots soundless on the wooden floor thanks to Puss’ spell.
One shelf was filled with books that were all the exact same size and thickness as the logbook—though they had different colors. A quick perusal revealed they were past records, color-coded for year.
My goodness. I guess I assumed the Chosen wouldn’t be quite so…meticulous, but I imagine they must be more like Nefari than one would think, given their ability to launch such long-reaching plans across the continent.
Angelique was thankful for her gloves—her fingers felt clammy and might have left smudges otherwise as she perused the bookshelves.
She was surprised to see several copies of books on magic that were so rare, they were kept under lock and key in the Veneno Conclave library, but none of the books appeared to be records on the Chosen.
Angelique plucked a few tomes off the shelves and checked in the insides, just in case.
I guess hoping for a record of actual Chosen activity was too much. It’s not like Nefari would keep a diary of such things. He is, essentially, a craftsman. While he provided Acri with the defense spell necklace, I haven’t actually seen the necklaces used anywhere else. Carabosso and Suzu didn’t have them, and based on what Emerys said, Evariste’s magic is being used to curse the royal families. But that’s high above the likes of Nefari.
The lower half of each of the bookshelves had a thin drawer and a small cupboard. Angelique opened both cupboard doors and found stacks of unused logbooks, extra ink, quills, and fountain pens, sealing wax, and a few containers of what appeared to be some kind of polish—probably for the merchandise.
Angelique quietly pulled one of the drawers open. “Finally!” she whispered.
The drawer contained only a few papers, but they were carefully drawn maps. She withdrew them, curiously glancing over the continent map—which had no visible marks on it—and a map of Loire and Arcainia.
The Loire/Arcainia map seemed to be a shipping route of some sort. There were marked paths that led from larger dots to smaller dots and flowed out. Nothing was labeled, but Angelique recognized the location of several of the large dots as major trading cities.
This explains why the small shops run by the black mages seem to pop up like boils—they have specific cities they’re targeting. It also proves just how badly we need to ferret out their spy in the Conclave if we want to have any impact on their operations, or they’ll forever be ahead of us. Once I find Evariste, my next goal should be finding that mole and stopping the information leak.
Unfortunately, neither of these revelations helped her with Mullberg—except to see that it appeared while they received supplies from Mullberg, it didn’t seem that they shipped anything back north to them. Unless…
She held her breath as she peeled the Loire/Arcainia map back, revealing the final paper, a map of Mullberg.
A dozen or so bright red dots colored the map. Some were nestled in the foothills by the two mountain ranges that somewhat isolated Mullberg from other countries, but were rich with ores and gems. A few were near the rivers—all of which flowed east or south east, to the ocean—and there were a couple that Angelique knew were near large cities.
There were a lot fewer dots than what were in Loire, but that made sense: as helpless as the Veneno Conclave had been acting, the magic fortress was located in Mullberg. It was unlikely the Chosen would set up shop so close to their natural enemy.
Like the Loire/Arcainia map, nothing was labeled. But if she could memorize the locations, she could mark them on a new map as soon as they returned to the room.
A clang came from the hallway. “Find anything?”
Angelique’s belly leaped in her gut, but it was only Quinn.
The soldier had inched the door open and stuck her head in as she rummaged around her cloak and threw another dagger on the pile.
“I think I have their suppliers,” Angelique said. “And possibly a few strongholds near big cities.” She glanced at the door. “Do we need to be concerned about being found out?”
“Nah,” Quinn said.
“Elle is occupying Nefari with the promise of additional business by having my mistress peruse his wares,” Puss said, invisible.
Quinn tilted her head. “Puss? Aren’t you supposed to be watching Gabrielle in case you need to use magic for her disguise?”
Angelique didn’t look up from memorizing spots on the map. “Puss always does whatever he wants.”
“As I should!” Puss said.
From where his voice came from on the floor, it sounded like he was directly by the door, probably listening to Elle’s conversation with Nefari despite his casual attitude.
Quinn crept up to the desk and flipped the logbook open. “You already checked the logbook?”
“Yes. It’s coded—except for food supply orders.”
Quinn made a noise at the back of her throat as she scanned the logbook, her eyes flicking across the orders.
“Can you properly hear that ghost-like servant girl climbing the stairs from in here?” Puss asked—his voice still coming from a spot near the door.
“Yes,” Quinn said. “As long as I don’t get too distracted.”
Reasonably certain she had the biggest dots on the Mullberg map memorized, Angelique turned her attention to the smaller dots. “Do we need to throw something on the weapon pile, just in case?”