Hard Bound, page 20
Orsa smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“Clara gave you an ultimatum: get the Seven to accept your request or she would harm Elinor.”
“Who is Elinor to Clara? Who is Clara to Elinor?” Orsa said, waving her words away with a flick of the wrist. She leaned back on the bench, rolling her shoulders.
Fiona frowned. “But it was Clara who told you something that made you confess and demand exoneration.”
“For someone who can walk the Book, you certainly seem to only see the words in front of you.”
Fiona got up from kneeling and paced the small cell. She only had so much time until someone found the guard. What was she missing? “If not Clara,” she began, “then someone who wanted the exoneration. Another hag perhaps?”
Orsa tilted her head questioningly.
She took the silence as a right track. “Someone who could impersonate Clara? A hag, and that’s who came to visit you,” Fiona said. “Possibly other faekin as well around here.”
Orsa repeated, “Faekin, you say.”
“Well, yes, but…can you impersonate non-faekin?”
Orsa’s form shifted slowly until Fiona was staring at herself. Perhaps she was slightly taller than she imagined herself. It was troubling, and she looked away. “Illustrative. So you can impersonate faekin and humans…” She trailed off. Stoneguard. Stoneguard was a human woman who had interest in the theft. Who was false but real. Who carried hidden daggers and ways to knock people out. Possibly so she could take their form unheeded. “Stoneguard gave you the ultimatum.”
“Who is Stoneguard?” Orsa said, for the first time truly confused.
“A human out of Rise whom I met,” Fiona said. “Another of your kind gave you an ultimatum. Exoneration or harm to Elinor.”
Orsa scoffed, “Like anyone could hurt Elinor physically.”
“But a reveal would be harmful. Very dangerous too, depending on who she was or where she lived.” Fiona knew that Elinor was visiting Spine, but from where? “Does she live on Rise, Copper, or another part of the Book?”
Orsa said nothing. Perhaps her bond was to more than one person.
Fiona pivoted back. “So Stoneguard set you up. Stole the items and planted evidence to link you. But why you specifically?” Fiona paced, exhilaration running through her as the pieces clicked into place. Why hurt one of the only people who would understand what you’ve gone through? “She dislikes you.”
“What’s not to dislike?” Orsa-as-Fiona grimaced. “I did what I thought was best with the job I was given.”
“You went to work for the Seven. You went to help people but not your own. And she thinks you should focus on your own people and not the rest of Copper?”
Orsa said nothing but inclined her head subtly in agreement.
“But how did she get your bracelet?” Fiona said. They would’ve needed to be close in order for her to know the bracelet existed. To know it couldn’t be replicated.
“It’s one of a kind,” Orsa said, as if reading her mind. “Just mine and my sister’s.”
“Yes, your sister said you had matching bracelets your family made. Is Stoneguard also family?”
Orsa again said nothing. They were all from the same clan. This explained the second theft. Stoneguard must’ve stolen everything, replaced it, and then wanted to plant evidence pointing to Orsa. But what about the first? Why go back?
“None of this will matter if Stoneguard doesn’t confess or we don’t find the items with her,” Fiona said. “And she can be almost anyone, anywhere.” Except she would most assuredly be one place tonight. Fiona was meant to go to the theater with her. It was a date she would most assuredly keep. “I believe I know how to find her.”
Orsa nodded, her shoulders slumping despite her natural form. “Do what you can. I haven’t made this easy, I know. I should’ve listened to Elinor when she said not to work for the Seven, but I really admired Dorin. I knew working with him, helping him enact change would be worth it.”
“It’s too bad she wanted to see you fail,” Fiona said, looking back at Orsa. “I have a small chance. If can trap her, well…even if I get her to confess, no one will believe simply me. I need proof.”
“Or a witness,” Orsa said, sitting back down on the bench. “If you go to her home, I’m sure you’ll find proof enough.”
Fiona pursed her lips. Stoneguard had a large home on Rise, that Fiona knew. But a witness to her finding proof and then questioning Stoneguard would be the harder part. Who could possibly count as important enough to witness but that she could trust? No one would believe simply her and Gaili. Her mind cleared at the obvious answer. “There may be just the right nymph to help with this.”
“I don’t want to alarm you, but this could get extremely dangerous,” said Fiona to Gaili as they made their way to a pagemark for Rise.
“You think I should stay behind?” Gaili asked.
“No, absolutely not,” Fiona said. She struggled with how to encourage Gaili without controlling her actions. “I think you will be instrumental help. But I leave the choice to you.”
They got to the pagemark, a tall stone column that overshadowed them, making the approach cooler than the hot page normally was. As Rise was not on the same level as Copper and Kerus, the other mortal pages, pagemarks to it tended to exist a bit higher for convenience. There were quite a few rumors about what lay beyond the dense clouds below the floating islands, but they never ended well.
Like other areas of Copper with some significance, the column couldn’t simply be stone straight to the top. There were boxes of small hedges, plants, and flowers on every level. Some were familiar to Fiona, and by the time they arrived at the top, she realized it was a mixture of Copper- and Rise-native plants. That caught her as odd. “Is it often that plants of another page can grow in yours?”
Gaili frowned, running her finger over a leaf. “No, not that I’m aware. How did the herbalists get this to happen?”
“I think it was more than the herbalists,” Fiona said softly. She touched one of the Rise plants, its soil much warmer than expected. It shimmered in the same way as all faekin creatures that she could see since she had become bonded to Mac, but it was more translucent than the others. Could this be one of the places Mac had noted in her journal where the boundaries between one page and the next were weaker?
She felt a tap on her shoulder and jumped, startled as a tendril of water waved at her.
Cascade laughed. “You looked so focused I had to mess with you.”
“Well, see to it that you keep your humor to yourself. I asked you to come because we’re going to visit a suspect’s home where the items may be. Having them and confronting her where I know her to be later will help us free Orsa. I figured since you’re investigating us you might like to be a witness. But of course, I’m not telling you to do anything.”
Cascade tilted her head. “Good, because I never do what I’m told.” She placed her warm arm around Fiona’s waist.
“I suspected as much,” Fiona murmured. She pulled out her bookmark to Rise, a dry wooden spoon from her pre-turner days. Grasping on to Gaili’s hand, she focused first on the chapter that they were in and then Rise itself. Rubbing her finger over the spoon, she relaxed and let the tug within her pull her forward one step across the open-air platform. A corner of the world pulled back before them, revealing gray sky. She bound the thrum of the spoon, herself, and the others to their destination, and when it connected, she planted her foot on green grass, completing the step. Copper flipped closed behind them. It all took but a second.
A light drizzle brushed their shoulders and hair. Though it was not supposed to be the season for rain, it still found them. A lone crumbled tower sat far into the distance. Fiona glanced around and saw the typical Travel Guild post, banners decorated with their open book insignia and floating island for Rise hanging overhead.
Fiona pulled out her egg-shaped watch to look at the time. “We have a few hours before it’s dark and the play starts in Copper. Let’s get on with it.” After an hour or so of signing in, embarking, and then disembarking on the passenger airship routinely traveling the pagemarks found on the various floating isles in Rise, they found themselves on the Plateau and in Three Churches. The streets were choked with people going about their daily life and then some streaming in and out of small shops and markets. A few skimmers, smilodon cats direct from Kerus by the cut of their togas, traipsed through the district, but no one else seemed out of place but them. Fiona stopped at few carts and bought supplies for her infiltration.
“Stoneguard should still be in Copper, especially as I’m to meet her tonight for the play. I’ll dress up like a servant and gain entrance to the house. Cascade…well, I guess, is there any way you can get inside without anyone noticing?”
“I have my gifts.” Cascade pulled her necklace from around her neck and placed it around Fiona’s. With a giggle, a tendril of amber water seeped out and twined around Cascade’s finger. She turned translucent and then faded into the necklace. It sat heavy on Fiona’s chest as the rain begin to pick up around them.
“That is quite a talent,” Fiona acknowledged. She pushed down the anxiety of having the impractical nymph literally around her throat and started walking.
Fiona shot down an alleyway and had Gaili keep a look out while she changed into a simple brown wool gown, apron, and a flat bonnet to cover her hair. Once done she made the fringes of her hair a little less put together and exchanged slippers for brogue boots typical of the working class. Assured by Gaili she didn’t look like Fiona Thorne or too put together, they continued on to Stoneguard’s town home.
“There are a few ways to approach this before we have to give up and try again. After I leave, wait five or so minutes and then get someone to knock on the door. You should pay someone.” Fiona handed Gaili some paper. “You can usually convince a child to do things like that for fun, but if you see someone selling anything, you can pay them for it and have it delivered to the house.”
“I could go up there myself,” Gaili started.
“No, I think it best that you stay back. While there are faekin who travel to Rise, it’s rarely on foot or selling things.” Fiona held back the notion that it was safer for Gaili to be at a distance. She couldn’t get her out of danger if she needed to be in it herself. “I’ll need to improvise a way out. That may mean running through the front door. If that happens, don’t follow me. The less you’re connected, the better.”
Gaili nodded slowly. “As you say. I’ll watch for someone to ask.”
Fiona squeezed her hand in encouragement, and they parted, Gaili across the street where she could see the entrance while Fiona carried on to the back steps. There was a small window in the door, and she could see through that the kitchen was empty. Serendipitous, but she didn’t want to run into a servant until she had a layout of the house. She examined the lock on the servant’s door, its shape reminiscent of a stalking fox with a keyhole in its side. She knocked with a matching heavy vulpine door knocker and waited, counting the seconds until someone arrived.
A petite woman, younger than Fiona, came through a swinging door and across the kitchen. She opened the door, wiping hands on an apron about her cranberry-and-black dress. “Yes?”
“Delivery for Mistress Stoneguard from Lord Henry Hawkport, Earl of Shade,” Fiona said, dropping the name of a noteworthy noble in Rise. “Special for her Mistress.”
The girl started to take the basket, but Fiona shied away, lowering her head as she did so. “No offending you, but I’m supposed to deliver directly to the mistress or a house steward. Don’t want anything missing. Not that you would.” She smiled half a smile.
The woman looked about to say something when a large drop of rain hit her face, surprising her.
“It’s starting to come down, you see. Mind if I wait inside?”
The maid looked over Fiona, but seeming to see nothing worrisome, she beckoned her in. “I suppose you can wait by the fire, and I’ll get the house steward.”
Fiona murmured thanks, and stepped into the house. Now for the harder part. She held on to the basket, glancing around the interior to assess the best way to move about the house. Within the kitchen was the woman but no other servants. A house this size typically had at least three or four in the kitchen. “Light workday, eh?” Fiona said, motioning about. “Everyone else have the afternoon off?”
The woman shook her head, closing the door. “It’s a small staff. Mistress doesn’t need much unless she’s entertaining, thankfully.”
“That’s nice, that’s nice.” With less people came an easier time of hiding somewhere in the house. Fiona moved near the fire and rubbed her hands to start warming herself.
“I’ll go find him and be back in a moment.”
“Take your time, dear. I’m not looking to run back into the rain so quickly.”
The young woman nodded sympathetically and left up the stairs.
Fiona placed the basket on the table and assessed. There were servant stairs that led up behind a sliver of a door from this entry kitchen and other stairs that led down. The room was sparse with only enough trenchers, cups, and bowls on display to perhaps feed six. So, the house and all the records were for show more than anything. Could she not afford a full staff, or, like Fiona thought, was it easier to hide secrets with a sparse set? She wondered if the neighbors gossiped about it and if she could call on them to get more information about Stoneguard’s comings and goings.
The young woman came back with the house steward, a tall human male dressed in the same colors as the young maid. His livery, however, included a small insignia of a fox on the arm. The same visage that had adorned the outer door. “Thank you for delivering this to my hands,” he said, smiling tautly. “I can take it from here.”
Fiona nodded. “As you like.” And handed it to him. She rubbed her hands again, making as if to keep warming them to give herself a few moments. If she could wait until she heard Gaili’s distraction, then she could slip away.
“You’ve been very helpful,” the house steward said, ushering her toward the back door, his tone suggesting that she had been very annoying. He opened the door and inclined his head. So, lingering inside until she could distract them to the front wasn’t going to work.
Thinking quickly, she said, “Thank you, kind sir. This may be forward, but can I trouble you for a cloak? The rain is much quicker than expected.”
He stopped with a grimace, but her words were not false. The rain pounded against the tiles of the roof and splashed into the stone path that led off into the garden. He sighed. “Hold for a moment.” And closed the door.
Fiona paused, rocking back on her heels and smiling at the young woman. She turned as if to peer out the small window in the door for a second before running a finger over the lock, examining it. It was hinged to shut and lock on the interior side of the door and thin enough to fit between the doorframe and the door. “Rain like this is so unusual this time of year,” she said, turning back to the young woman.
“It is,” said the young maid, standing next to the fire. It was clear her job was to watch Fiona. “Hate that it’s been like this for weeks. Every time it stops, I think we’ll get back to our usual sunny summer weather, but then it starts up again.”
The house steward came back and thrust a dusty too-large cloak at her. With no further reason to delay, she took it and made a show of throwing it on as she nodded her thanks to them both before exiting without a backward glance. She stopped in the narrow alley, listening. The sound of the city surrounded her, but she strained to hear a bell within the house. Surely it had been at least five minutes or so. She didn’t want to go too far lest she miss the timing. She pulled her lock-picking tools out of her pocket in preparation as something to calm her nerves.
The cold chain of Cascade’s necklace around her throat felt like an icy collar. She hoped the nymph wouldn’t get impatient herself and complicate things. If she was caught by Rise officers or Travel Guild jackets lurking about the alleyways, the questioning alone would take precious minutes away between now and when she had to meet Stoneguard at the theatre in Copper.
It seemed many minutes before Fiona picked up a frantic banging on the door and the ringing of a pull bell. She pushed down the curiosity to see just who Gaili had gotten to be so energetic and instead quickly made her way back around. Peeking through the kitchen window, she saw that the room was empty once again. She tried the handle and groaned when it wouldn’t turn. She adjusted the cloak higher over her head to block the ensuing rain and slipped the pick into the fox lock. Expecting to hear the usual tumblers acquiescing to her bidding, she instead found a solid wall. What in the dark edge could stop her pick? It had looked a simple lock before. She withdrew her tools and hurriedly ran her fingers over the fox and the hinge of the door. There was no sign of anything amiss.
Shouting from the front of the house, a deep voice, broke through the patter of the rain. He seemed quite angry. Perhaps it had been luck and not Gaili who had called the servants away.
Returning her attention to the lock, she coaxed the hind leg of the fox to jiggle. Pressing it, the fox pulled away from the door and revealed a secondary keyhole. With an eyebrow raised at the cleverly hidden space, she worked her tools within it and heard her preferred sound. She replaced the fox and silently opened the door, slinking into the house.
Fiona removed her boots and loaned cloak, bundling them together to not leave wet tracks. She lightly made her way across the room and up the servant stairs, one ear trained on the sounds of the house. The house steward’s voice was calm as he talked to the enraged voice. So he could be accounted for there. Now where was the maid?
Fiona bypassed the half stair that led to the first floor and continued up till she got to the second. Cold tile nearly froze her feet in place, but she pushed on, promising herself a hot foot soak with coffee in hand when this was all over. Here were bedrooms and typically a study. She headed that way, padding down the hallway on tiptoe. A rustle of fabric pricked her ears and she stopped. Footsteps approached down the hall. Opening the nearest door, Fiona dashed inside. It was dark and cold, no fire lit within it. Closing the door as softly as, she could she knelt by the side of it. The footsteps passed her hurriedly, and she let out a breath. She supposed she’d start with this room instead.
