Page 18 of Harmonic Pleasure (Mysterious Arts #6)

THAT AFTERNOON

V ega sat back at that. She had not expected him to attempt to put whatever it was they were doing in her particular idiom.

And he was not doing badly at it. He’d do better, she suspected, if he weren’t working solely off her public face.

The way Farran went about the world intrigued her.

It wasn’t the same way her family would, but it had a deliberateness that she liked.

And he didn’t hurry over the details. Though, she presumed, an interest in the visual and tactile sorts of art objects would encourage both the details and taking time.

“A charm, then, or a ritual, or something of the kind? Or do you have a different method?” She considered, then poured some more tea for herself, and a little more for him when he nodded.

“I was thinking of something you could carry in your hand. I haven’t done it recently, but we’ve used something similar at home, for spotting the places in a house that are having problems before they’re visible.

” Farran spoke about it comfortably, but Vega realised he hadn’t said much about where he lived.

“In Trellech? Or no, you’d said Oxfordshire.” She searched back through her memory, but she hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the chat that happened. Social lubrication, one of her aunts called it.

“My family’s had a home for centuries, a few train stops from Oxford.

Quite a large place, with two side wings, plus the family wing.

It’s called Thebes, the family tends toward appropriate names.

My Uncle Cadmus, my father was Cilix.” He shrugged.

“My parents died before I went to Schola, and Uncle Cadmus—” Farran paused, the sort of pause that meant there was something complicated coming.

“I mentioned we took in lodgers. It was a help paying the bills. But it also meant that both of us, and Lena, our housekeeper, got quite good at that sort of thing. Listening to the house and the property. Where the wood is rotting, that that railing really needs to be replaced.”

Vega nodded slowly. “And that applies to this sort of thing, too?” She gestured at the maps.

“Well. That’s the part where having more to narrow it down is helpful.

You said your family thought it was made around 588 now.

And that there’s that alignment with Jupiter and Uranus in Aries.

Those are particular definitions we can use for the charm.

You probably know that?” He looked up, and Vega found herself looking into earnest blue eyes.

She could not tell, not for all the music in the world, whether he knew who her family was, what her family was.

Or if he was just that dedicated and determined and earnest all the time.

Only her training as a performer made it possible for her to match that mode, at least well enough to get by.

“Private education, again. But we did talk about thaumaturgical definitions. So you’d do something with, oh, the sigils for the planets and the zodiac sign, and all that?

” Questions were safer than statements, on the whole, especially when she didn’t know what he knew.

“Exactly. I’m no particular artist about it, but I can do a bit of inscription on silver or copper.

Enough for this, at any rate. Whatever we could define reasonably.

Oh, I’ve done one when I was going to a market, with all sorts of shops, things that might be antique but weren’t, actually.

That sort of tool helps you sort out the fakes fast so you don’t waste time on them.

Or Master Philemon knows someone who has one tailored for ancient Egyptian artefacts, where there are a lot of fakes.

If you get very specific, and you’re willing to have a whole set of them— they take some particular storage— you can do them for specific materials, combined with time periods or places of origin. ”

Vega let out a small breath. “So here, we know when it was made, within a few decades. We know where it was made, at least within the city. We know what it was made of, enough, and that’s rare enough to actually be a useful filter.

We know it’s more likely been underground than not, but we probably don’t want to assume that’s where it is now. ”

“And so we can narrow down millions of items to something a good bit more reasonable. The problem is, though, getting near enough to feel the pull. Or hear it. Or whatever sense we’re using here, I think I’ve got tangled.”

It made her laugh. “Which do you prefer, when you’re not being polite and putting it in my mode?”

“Oh, touch, maybe. There’s something about the feel of something? That’s part of what got me working with Master Philemon.” His tone changed a little at the end of the sentence. Not so much most people would notice, but Vega was trained to listen as well as to sing.

She considered whether it would be rude to ask, then said, “A problem before, and less of one now?” That could cover quite a lot of ground.

“Yes.” Farran seemed relieved and sounded less strained again.

“I originally apprenticed with a talisman maker, and it went exceptionally badly. Vivian has an extended commentary about it. He wasn’t handling it well?

But what he knew was that whenever he gave me something to do, it went oddly.

Anything beyond the basics of shaping metal and stone, and sometimes that too. ”

He turned one hand palm up. “That’s why I can do the sigils, though. If you don’t need them to be tiny and gorgeous at the same time, the actual inscription is the first stages of the apprenticeship.”

“I suspect you can manage smaller and more beautiful than you just implied,” Vega pointed out. “Oddly? Badly, or just not what was expected?”

“Both. And he was getting more and more annoyed with me when Vivian, well. When I asked Vivian for some help, and Uncle Cadmus met her, and she was quite willing to help arrange something better. Master Philemon thinks the knack’s quite useful.

It’s not predictable, always. It’s a gift, not a skill, if that makes sense?

I can’t be sure how it will come out, with any given object.

But I’ve learned how to judge what’s going on much better, once something is in my hands. Or, sometimes, near me.”

There were several dozen implications in that, starting with why no one at Schola had noticed it well before his apprenticeship.

And it explained why he was a hair older, maybe, than the usual apprentices, and why he was willing to take a chance on this.

But she didn’t want to push him. They didn’t know each other well enough for that.

A change of subject was in order, theme and variations.

“All right, so where do we start with this? A tool to help us, but then we need to figure out where to look.”

“Yes. That’s where the maps come in.” Farran shifted a little, so he could pull out the main one.

“We’re probably talking about the City of London proper.

Maybe from the Middle Temple to the Tower, maybe Southwark.

Maybe a little further afield. But what would be sensible is to sketch out a series of walks that would take us through the more likely areas first.”

“I can see the sense of that.” Vega considered the maps. “And I suppose we don’t know as much as we’d like about what buildings were where, at that point. Or what had been there. I know there’s all sorts of tales about underground London.”

“Well, some of it is logic. We might, for example, see about hiring a boat along the Thames and back, and see if there was anything. If there is, that’s a mudlarking problem, and I certainly don’t know how to do that sensibly.

But we could probably figure out how to talk to someone who did.

” Farran looked up. “I am not fantastic with tides. Thebes is well away from the Thames in Oxford. It’s on the other side of the rail line.

And it’s not like the Thames is tidal that far up. ”

It made her snort. “All right. The boat is a good idea. I can probably find someone for that who won’t ask odd questions.” She could, too, the family connections would be a help there. “Where else?”

Farran took a good minute to consider, then tapped several places.

“The City, as we said. The Tower, though I think that’s a lower priority?

Both because I think it may be a good bit more confused, to try to understand.

I’d rather do it when we’ve a better sense of the tool and working with it together.

But also, it’s been built and rebuilt and such quite a lot. ”

“And it has very visible warders. Rather trickier to just wander around.” Vega agreed. “Where before that, then?”

“I don’t think it’s terribly likely to be in Greenwich.

” Farran said slowly. “But it strikes me that Greenwich would be a good place to try everything out. Fewer people, there’s an extensive park, wandering around it is the expected behaviour.

And there are some interesting spots there.

Roman coins turn up, there are former palaces, there are caves. ”

“Caves, really?” That last one caught her off guard. She looked up to see Farran grinning broadly.

“Oh, yes, caves. Quite a few stories about them. I think they’re blocked off now, but that doesn’t necessarily have to stop us, maybe. I can do some more research.”

Vega felt she was supposed to be a modifying influence, but the idea of things hidden in caves was entirely appealing. If the caves were safe enough to explore, anyway. “Find out more, then, so we can decide?”

“Then there are spots that some people think are cursed.” Farran tapped on the map. “Cleopatra’s Needle. Blackfriars Bridge. The Embankment might be relevant.”

Vega shook her head. “Don’t tell me you believe in curses like that?”