Page 55 of Fortress of Ambrose (House of Marionne #3)

Forty-Four

Jordan

I keep Ube two steps ahead of me as I direct him to the session room where the extraction procedure will take place. He smells like a fresh shower, but he is in the same clothes he wore the last time I saw him.

Inside, I run my hands along the walls, feeling for some kind of fortifications like steel or iron that help keep the magic contained to the room, like at Hartsboro. But the wall is just stone.

“Concerned about the procedure going wrong?” Ube says.

“I want to be prepared.” No magic will leave this room. I sit on a stool at one of the tables. Ube doesn’t move, fidgeting with the belt loop on his pants.

“I—I’ve wanted to tell you, one-on-one, I didn’t know he was stealing it,” Ube says. “I’m really sorry how that all went.” He is either terrified or deeply contrite.

“A gift in hindsight. I learned something very valuable. And so did you.” I watch his every movement.

“No kidding.” He straightens his glasses. “Never use low-density stones for highly concentrated magic.”

“And never cross me.”

He nods, hooking his hands.

“Tell me more about what went wrong with the procedure.”

He gestures at a chalked wall. “May I?”

“Sure.”

Ube writes out an equation. He underlines and circles a set of numbers, then draws an arrow to another equation.

The longer he writes, the faster he goes.

He works furiously, circling more, underlining certain things multiple times.

At one point he erases a section, then starts again.

When he’s finished, the wall is covered, every inch, in some kind of math that’s completely foreign to me, with symbols and diagrams interspersed.

“The density of the stones, as I mentioned, was an issue. But the rate the magic was entering the stones was the bigger problem. The Retentor brush was removing the magic faster than the stones on the diadem could absorb it.”

“How do you remedy that? The toushana will be stronger.”

“I’ll have to run some tests to look into it. I’ll need help from someone skilled with toushana. Zecky only took in people who could touch it, ex-Draguns, people like that.”

I watch the bead in the center of his eyes for the slightest averted gaze. Any hint of a lie. Ube appeared to be well trusted by Zecky.

“I’ll find someone for you. What other resources do you need?”

“We need something that can hold the toushana.”

“What about the diadem specifically made it work so well?”

“Its age. Ideally, I’d have another ancient item or something with old magic. Magic was more concentrated in the old days. So the metals forged to support it were full of all kinds of strengtheners. They don’t make things like that anymore.”

Very astute. I hadn’t put that together before. We hone blades for Second Rite, by folding in enhancer stones, to put back some of the stuff that’s been stripped from magic over the years. “So it’s about finding the right item.”

“And the right people, carefully monitoring the process. I have a few people in mind to lend a hand with this one.”

I recall Erla leaving nervously when the procedure was underway. Just after they were arguing with Zecky about using the diadem in the first place. Ube studies his equation on the wall.

“Maybe there is something here? This is an ancestral magical House, after all. Surely there is some piece of history they’ve kept.”

“Is there nothing else you can use? Something less sentimental to the Headmistress?”

“I don’t think so. But I’ll confirm. And I didn’t realize Quell’s really Headmistress. Doesn’t seem like it.”

Cold ticks in my chest. “Your opinion of Quell never needs to come out of your mouth while you’re on these grounds.”

He shuts his mouth, and I crack my neck, trying to remember that he wants to help me.

“I will work on what we’ve discussed. The next time I see you, I want a clear answer on whether you can use something else for the Sphere’s toushana. And I expect you to run a sample extraction procedure at least a dozen times without any accidents before we do this. Am I understood?”

“Yes.”

I wait for him to say more. But Ube only stares, and I spot something very honest in him for the first time: anger

Erla appears in the doorway, dressed in neat pants and a simple top. She wears a different pair of chunky earrings. Matching jewelry dangles from her wrist. “I heard you two were looking for me?”

I leave them there on my way back toward the dorms, and I grab an envelope from Cuthers’s old office, now Dexler’s.

I write to my brother. We need to meet up.

He needs to know what we’ve learned about the Dragunhead and Darkbearers.

I also need an update on how the Scroll search is going.

Lady Ruby crosses my mind, and I consider grabbing another envelope.

Could she have something we could use? Runetta? Roberta? Bell? What was her name?

“Oh, I was looking for you,” Dexler says as I exit the office. “This came.” She hands me a letter with my name on it in a handwriting I don’t recognize. Inside is a simple request to meet, but the signature makes the hair on my arms rise.

Monument Park Saturday at seven.

Come alone.

—Ellery