Page 30 of Elemental Truth (Mysterious Fields #3)

30

JANUARY 26TH AT THE FOUR METALS ESTATE

“ S ure we can’t lure you to supper, Vitus?” Thirza glanced up as she was sorting out what went where. They were wrapping up the experimental work they’d been doing, out at the estate. Vitus shook his head. Daedalus had gone off to pack up his various bits of equipment. Vitus, Merryn, Thirza, and Philemon were doing the rest of the tidying. Vitus had the broom and mop to properly remove the chalk marks from the floor.

Not that they’d been using chalk for the usual reason. They hadn’t been doing particularly arcane rituals. Instead, the chalk had been handy in labelling the direction of the flow of the electricity they’d been experimenting with, and then the magical flow. Vitus hesitated, looking down at the floor, flashing back to what he’d seen in the mill house.

It hadn’t caught him earlier, and that was a different puzzle and a different problem. He stared at it, before hearing Thirza ask again. “Vitus? Supper?”

“Oh, no. My brother’s home for the evening. I want to catch up with him.” It wasn’t just that, though he had a limited chance to see Lucas and more options for everyone here. “Wednesday, after the lecture?”

Thirza cleared her throat. “That is and isn’t an answer. You’ve been distracted all evening. And more so now. Besides all the rest of it.”

“Rest of it?” Vitus ran his hand through his hair, though he did turn to face Thirza. And Merryn, it turned out, Philemon and Daedalus had somehow slipped out. Merryn had something of a right to ask, especially if it might affect the Four Metals, and well, Thirza held her own sway.

“There’s gossip,” Merryn said. “Some about you.” She perched on the table they’d pushed to the side of the room. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but do you have any delicate work planned this week? You might want to rethink that.”

“Am I that badly off? Visibly?” Vitus tried to gather himself, but it was difficult to do in a large workroom. There was nothing to hide behind, no chairs, so he could rearrange how he was sitting. It felt raw and unprotected, uncomfortably like the previous week. There was, he admitted, less chance of a random attack, but there was also less Thessaly to help with a solution. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor for lack of anything else to do.

“You’re not at your best, no.” Thirza’s voice was a bit gentler. “You were fine tonight. You didn’t let us down. But you weren’t as thoughtfully helpful as you usually are. We do notice that sort of thing. And we hope we’re friends.”

“Friends.” Vitus let out a puff of breath, then looked at them both. “It’s complicated. And it’s not all mine to tell. Some of it I can’t.”

“How about we tell you the gossip we’ve heard, and you can decide from there,” Merryn said, agreeably. “A little bird told me you’re doing some work with Florent Montague, for the Fortiers. Not what, though we can guess it’s talisman work. Why you? Or why’d you say yes to them? Given, well.”

“Given Thessaly, and Childeric, and whatever else?” Vitus shrugged. “Florent came to me, and I was flattered. The Fortiers wouldn’t usually ask me, but he insisted. He said he needed some of my knack. And some of what we’re talking about here.” He gestured at the floor. “In potential, circuits and connections and all that. Larger structures into which the talismans fit.”

Thirza considered, then her voice got lower. “You know it’s put you at risk.” She didn’t make it a question. She wasn’t being condescending about it.

Vitus looked up, swallowed, and nodded. “Thessaly’s sure something’s odd there. But not any way we could take to the Guard. Or the Council, before you suggest that. Even, really, what category of wrong it is.” People could legitimately build Faraday cages if they wanted to, even if how this one was built and the parallel ritual circles in the floor were incredibly odd.

“Anything you can share?” Merryn’s voice was steady, reassuringly so.

Vitus shook his head. “Not right now. But it is distracting.” He rubbed at his face. “What’s the other gossip?”

“Whether there’s something going on with the Fortiers. Or, possibly, Thessaly. After all, it’s her betrothal that was the start of— well.”

“Childeric Fortier was also involved in that betrothal. Why does everyone, I don’t know, let him slide out of any consequences for his choices?” Vitus turned away, suddenly angry. He wasn’t made for duelling, for fighting, for defending Thessaly’s honour. Even here and now, he felt like anything he might try would turn into crumbling leaves, no good for anything except maybe compost.

He heard Merryn and Thirza talking quietly, and he didn’t turn around. Instead, he took a few steps towards the far end of the room, then a few more. It wasn’t as if walking helped, but standing still definitely wouldn’t. He felt, all of a sudden, like everything wanted to burst out of his skin, all the frustration and worry and gnawing feeling that far more was wrong than he understood. Vitus wasn’t just worried for himself, but even more for Thessaly.

At the far end of the room, he leaned his hands on the windowsill, staring out the window toward the woods beyond the cleared ground near the outbuildings. There was silence for a good few minutes, then he heard steps behind him, a throat being cleared, then Merryn’s voice. “What can we do that might actually help?”

Vitus turned at that. “I’m not sure there’s anything.”

“You could ask Thessaly to come round to the club sometime. With you, as a guest.” Merryn offered it cautiously. “If she’d like. If you’d like. No one will gossip about it there.”

“Can’t be sure of that.” The Four Metals were not inclined to the Great Family sort of social gossip, the bloodsport version of it, but it only took one person saying the wrong thing.

Merryn opened her mouth. “Well. I can’t say as I’d risk it either. You could have us round to your flat, though. A select group. Or somewhere else you both liked.”

“Why?” Vitus leaned his hands back on the sill behind him now, more to distract himself than anything else.

“It seems to me you could use a few more friends. And maybe so could she?” Merryn’s voice got more tentative.

“What’s the rest of the gossip, then?” Vitus could tell there had to be some.

“That Childeric’s death, something, unhinged her. That’s one of the more polite phrases. Or that she’d be better off at some gently minded rural home until she feels better.” Merryn added, “I’m halfway certain her father’s helping some of those, actually. So you can likely read ‘until she does what he wants’ into it.”

“What he wants is for her to agree to marry Sigbert.” Vitus sighed. “I’ll tell her. And.”

“And?” Merryn tilted her head, just waiting.

“And I’ll see about setting up something private where she can meet other people. But she— I mean, she’s not a member of the Four Metals. She’s always going to be on the outside. That’s a lot to ask.”

“Ask your brother, too, if he can get away. As to Thessaly, I’m not making any promises. But you know perfectly well we can and do bring people in as adults, if they’re interesting and skilled. I’ve no doubts about her skill, given a little more time. And she has certainly kept your attention.”

Vitus felt himself flushing. “I find her exceedingly interesting. Also stubborn and determined. And I don’t know nearly enough about duelling to accurately rank her skills there, but I’m clear she has them.”

Something in his tone, not just his choice of words, made Merryn laugh and relax. “There. And we’ll pass on anything else, if we hear it. Note to your flat?”

Vitus considered. “Best there.” It wouldn’t help if something were urgent, but he might be in any of three places, and he could at least check in with the flat most easily.

“Walk you back to the portal?” Vitus nodded, understanding the hand of friendship and of letting this conversation go. He finished gathering up his things. Thirza and Merryn made idle conversation with each other that didn’t demand anything of him, and he let them go first through the portal before going back home.

“Mama’s napping. Papa will be back in a bit. He went out for a constitutional.” Lucas greeted him immediately in the library, where the fire was going strong. “Drink?” Then his brother eyed him. “Need to work out something? There’s some wood that could use chopping.”

“I am not physical like you. How much wood do you chop, anyway?” Vitus asked, adding, “And a drink, certainly.”

“Enough. It’s a common enough punishment chore.” Lucas spread his hands cheerfully. “I don’t get in that much. But I supervise, and it means showing them how to do the thing. A few too many spoiled sons of the gentry who need to learn how to take orders.”

It echoed some of what Vitus had been thinking earlier, closely enough that he let out a rueful laugh. “Glad someone teaches some of them.” He held up his hand before Lucas put a glass there and he took a sip. “The topic of Childeric Fortier came up earlier. And I think a lot of people, him included, would be better off if he’d had someone hold him to standards of decent behaviour more reliably.”

“Huh.” Lucas sat down again, stretching out his feet on one of the footstools. “How is Mistress Lytton-Powell, then?”

“I didn’t see her yesterday. She was invited out there again. And I was busy today. I’ll see her Tuesday.” Though he had an early consult on Wednesday, so he couldn’t let himself be tempted to stay the night. “They’re still trying to persuade her about Sigbert.”

“I presume she continues to have the good sense to prefer you. Or do I need to go have a brotherly chat with her?” Lucas asked.

“Much as the idea amuses, you wouldn’t get very far. She’s a fierce duellist. And while you on a horse and her on her feet might actually be more or less matched in theory, I’d hate the idea of either of you getting hurt.” Vitus considered. “I’m also not sure what she’d do with you, honestly. She’s only got experience with a sister. And there are cousins, male and female, but I gather none she’s terribly close to.”

“Not the way we are.” Lucas said it confidently and comfortably. “Well. I look forward, in due course, to teaching her how to have a brother by marriage. When you get all of that sorted.”

“You were warning me off the idea, before,” Vitus said. “And it’s like to get me into further trouble.”

“Will you talk about that? And well. It turns out I might like the idea of someone who makes you that fierce. Also, she’s good for your talisman work. Weren’t you telling me a fortnight ago about how that conversation let you figure out three new things?”

“I was.” Vitus sighed, took another long sip from his glass, letting his head fall back against the back of the sofa. “Her family doesn’t approve. The Fortiers absolutely want her for Sigbert. He’s being reasonable about it, or at least strategic, from what she’s said, not pressuring her, but the rest of the family? Well, his parents and grandmother. Laudine and Dagobert have been far more, um. Thoughtful about it.”

“Is there any risk they’d pressure her into the agreements against her will?” Lucas hesitated. “Sometimes people do.”

“They’d need to bring her trustee in, and not much gets by the Scali. Especially when she’s been very clear with them about her wishes in that matter.” Vitus spread his hands. “She’s a Fox, born into a mess of Foxes. I am badly set to argue the social warfare of it. She wants to keep playing it out a while longer, and I don’t have a good reason against it.”

“Except that it’s putting you on edge and worrying you. Mama noticed. Papa, too, actually.” Lucas shrugged. “Which is why I’m here. And I would like to meet her sometime, when I can.”

“Merryn was on about that. Having a few people over, to the flat in Trellech, most likely. On the theory I need more friends. And that Thessaly might too. I don’t know when, though. It’d be hard for her to get away and meet us there.”

“Have you considered a talisman for her, linked to an illusion?” Lucas suggested. “Nothing, um. I don’t know all the laws behind it, I know there are some, against pretending to be other specific people. But if you made something that would let her look ordinary? Some housewife, the sort with one cook-housekeeper at home, and a couple of children, that no one would pay any mind to.”

Vitus contemplated that. “I’ll ask her. There’s no law against that, it’d be finding the right face for the illusion. And the rest of it, how she moves and dresses. But there might be solutions for it. Thank you.” He lifted his glass.

“Brotherly services as required.” Lucas looked a little happier. “Want to tell me a bit more about what you find so appealing, then?” He grinned, suddenly. “Not whatever you do that’s private, but the rest of it.”

That would take a little thought, because besides the time in bed, a lot of their other discussions had been about her relentless research. But they had talked about other things, and he could certainly talk about the house and what Thessaly obviously loved about it. “Give me a minute. Let me go change, actually. I’ll come right back down and talk.”

“Promise?” Vitus nodded, and Lucas settled back in his chair, looking smug about his afternoon’s labours. Vitus snorted and went upstairs.