Magical Midlife Alliance (Leveling Up Book 7), page 3
“What sort of protection do the cairns need?” Austin asked as Patty delivered the box and squeezed in beside me.
I opened a few boxes as Nathanial explained some common threats, like bears or encroaching humans. The goods in the boxes were from established production cairns, and none of them were great. I got why no one had picked them up.
“Raids are really the main threat,” he started before Patty cut him off.
“Oh yeah, here we go,” she said in a loud voice, her excitement rising. “I have heard amazing things about the leader of this cairn.” She clearly remembered which cairn it was from despite having hidden the name. The excitement in her eyes dulled as she glanced at Austin. “Well. I guess that doesn’t really matter for you. But Nessa, this might interest you. The leader was a bit wild in his younger years, but he’s smoothed out in all the right ways. I hear he is a real looker with a very big…”
She paused before clearing her throat.
“Fun factory,” Nessa supplied.
I opened the box to find a patterned piece of fabric in soft pink and brown. Pulling it out, I realized it was a cashmere scarf.
“Fun factory, yes.” Patty took the scarf from me as I checked out what was beneath it. “Oh my goodness, it’s so soft. And look at the pattern. Very chic.”
Next was a snow-white sweater in the same material, fantastically soft and exactly my size. I said as much, rubbing it along my cheek.
All typing stopped. Eyes found me. Tumultuous emotion filtered through the bond.
“What?” I asked, pausing.
“It could be a coincidence,” Jasper said slowly. “It’s not like her size is uncommon.”
I pulled out the next sweater, this one a deep blue green with a slightly popped collar. Spreading it out, I realized it wasn’t meant for me.
I handed it off to Austin.
Having finished his burgers, he’d put the plate on the coffee table. Even so, he wiped his hands a second time before reaching for the sweater. A moment later he pulled it over his head and stood—the fit was absolutely perfect, which was not easy with his wide shoulders and trim waist.
“Maybe not a coincidence,” Jasper mumbled.
THREE
Jessie
“Mr. Tom, you order various articles of clothing for the house,” Sebastian said. “Do you keep a list of sizes?”
“Well, of course I do,” Mr. Tom replied. “I write them all down in my ledger.”
“And then I enter them into a spreadsheet that is backed up to the house cloud,” Ulric said, scratching his chest.
Niamh looked across the space at Sebastian, who was looking at Nessa.
“I’m going to need access to everything on that cloud,” Sebastian said. “I need to know what other people might know. Jessie, do you keep financial information anywhere online?”
“N-no,” I said, alarmed. “Mr. Tom has me write it in a big book—”
“A financial ledger,” Mr. Tom supplied.
“I’ve been meaning to do some sort of online bookkeeping—I don’t even know who our accountant is—but I haven’t had a chance.”
“She has personal account information online, I reckon,” Niamh said. “The house’s bank accounts are online in various countries.”
Sebastian nodded, lightly tapping his fingers on his knees. “It’ll be interesting to see how far they might’ve gotten. It takes a damn good hacker to get into a bank’s system.”
“Why are we worried?” I asked, clutching the edges of the now-empty box. “We don’t have anything to hide.”
Sebastian swung his gaze my way, the wheels in his brain clearly turning. “The game is to know more about your opponent than they know about you,” he said, taking out his phone and starting to tap on it. “We want them guessing about you and this house. About your crew. What they do know needs to be used against them, if at all possible. Meanwhile, we can leverage what we know about them. It’s a dance, Jessie. An elaborate dance. There is very little room for error.”
“Niamh,” Nessa said. “I hope you are checking into their social media accounts. That’s the low-hanging fruit that can help us shape our strategies.”
“O’ course I am,” Niamh replied. “Do I look like an amateur?”
“This just got very intense.” Patty looked around at each of us with wide eyes. “I can help, of course. Any information you need spread, you just look to me. Misinformation, I mean. Things that will confuse them. I know how gossip works. Just a kernel of truth, and you have a believable story.”
Nessa didn’t look up from her computer as she pointed at Patty. “Ace in the hole, right there. Excellent skill, Patty. We will absolutely use it. I’ve tried for something similar in the past and no one believed me.”
Patty beamed. “Well, anyway. Venavin, that’s the cairn name. The leader, Pierce, was trained in Aadath, Nikken’s production cairn—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Nessa put out her hands. “That’s a lot of names flying at me.”
“Pierce was trained in one of the most affluent production cairns,” Patty summed up. “Now…there are some rumors as to why he left, but no grievances have been filed by either the affiliate cairn or production cairn. I don’t know the real story, but he’s the most eligible bachelor of the new guys, and he knows it.”
“Jasper, help me with this trunk,” Ulric said. They hauled it over.
“This is a woodworking cairn and a textile cairn,” Patty whispered as she ran her fingers over the top of the trunk. “Very well made, this trunk. Their leader is new to the job. He left his birth cairn, a middle-class production cairn specializing in smelly perfumes. I am not a fan of them. Stinky stuff, popular with people suffering from body odor. Wise move, walking away from that. I’ve heard he is very odd, but he seems stable enough. Smart.”
Austin looked over with interest as I pinched the heavy bronze clasp on the trunk to pop the lock free.
“That part is well made,” I said.
“Hmm. Maybe they have some good metal workers, too,” Patty said. “I’ll have to check…”
After lifting the lid, I peered at a beautifully patterned…something…in an explosion of muted colors that all seemed to work together. It was the kind of thing that could probably blend into any area and accent any color palette. Then again, I wasn’t great at interior design. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I liked the thing. But I didn’t hate it, either…
“I’m not sure if I like it or hate it,” Patty said, echoing my unspoken sentiments.
After taking it out, I found it to be a finely crafted rug that seemed durable but expensive. In my experience, that wasn’t a common combination.
“I’m liking it more and more,” Patty said, taking it from me with a furrowed brow. “Or am I? Well, the seam work is very good, I know that much.”
Austin leaned back and draped his arm across the back of the couch. “Understood.”
“Still not sure how I feel about this rug!” Patty said in annoyance.
The next group had more status, and the groups after had more still. Most items weren’t personal, and those that were tended to be only vaguely so. Only a couple of the gifts set off Sebastian and Niamh’s warning bells, resulting in another flurry of note taking, probably to jot down security ideas. Patty was set off by different items, mainly those that hinted at or outright acknowledged my past Jane status. We still didn’t know if that was an intended slight.
Finally, we came to the big dogs—the cairns that had wealth and power and the ability to splash both around.
“I thought you said there were four big cairns.” I surveyed the solitary, smallish white box sitting in front of me on the coffee table.
“Four cairns to rule them all,” Nessa murmured softly, once again tapping on the keyboard.
“Four, yes.” Patty sat beside me, back from reorganizing the opened packages. “The rest of the gifts were too big to bring inside. Now, these four have it all, including exceptional leadership and generations-long stability. Each has several townships within their territory, like the situation Austin Steele is starting to create. They work with anywhere between none to four or so production cairns who make exceptional products. In short, they are the cream. For now, we are aiming to get just one of these cairns on your side. We can build from there.” She wiped her brow with her middle finger. “If you can keep them in line, of course.”
“We can keep them in line,” Austin growled.
Patty didn’t comment. I doubted she believed him. But then, she hadn’t seen Austin in action.
“Right.” I sat forward and waited while Nathanial lifted the box and moved it closer to me. “Let’s see what the best of the best thought to send.”
I pulled off the lid to find a black velvet case on the inside.
“Jewelry,” Nessa said, eyes on the prize. “I bet it’s jewelry.”
I turned the box over to free the velvet case, and the name of the cairn flashed up at me from the bottom.
“Gimerel,” I said as the black box shimmied out onto my palm.
“Got it,” Nessa said, squinting at her screen, probably to get the cairn’s stats.
The length of the box suggested a bracelet, and the delicately rounded corners and little gold hinges indicated it was a good one.
“Here goes nothin’.” I tipped the cover back.
“Oh my word,” Patty said quietly, her hand drifting to her chest. “Is that what I think it is?”
“What? What do you think it is?” Nessa stood to get a better look, nearly dumping the laptop onto the floor. Sebastian quickly grabbed it from her. “I can’t see!”
Light danced off the multi-gem bracelet delicately strapped within the velvet. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, all different cuts and set seemingly at random, ran along its length. Round-cut diamonds pooled around the gems like a stream, and the bracelet was a robust inch wide.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, looking a little closer. “But it’s nothing compared to what Ivy House has lying around. Monetary-wise, I mean. Assuming they are going for a flagrant display of wealth.”
“How do you mean?” Sebastian asked, at the helm with the computer now, braced to take notes.
I’d never given him a real tour of the place. Some of the wealth randomly stored in nooks and crannies boggled the mind. I said as much.
“I’ll need to see everything you have.” His fingers flowed over the keyboard. “I need an itemized list of everything that can be worn or otherwise shown off.”
“Why?” Mr. Tom asked, still perched by the door after the latest food delivery. “Are you planning to resurrect your thieving ways and rob us blind?”
Sebastian didn’t even look up at the slight. Instead, he grinned. “Ivy House would kill me before I made it to the front door.”
“That gift is not about the worth of the bracelet,” Nathanial said, bending closer to look. “Gimerel has a production cairn with a mine rich in rubies and sapphires. Another of their production cairns handcrafts exquisite jewelry. Their work is heavily sought after. This is a perfect marriage of both, and a display of the cairn’s wealth and status. The Gimerel leader was very proud of that bracelet. Almost immediately after he first showed it off, another large cairn raided Gimerel to try to get it. They failed, and since then, all three of the other most prestigious cairns have tried to take it. A couple of the lesser cairns even joined forces to attempt a raid. In all that time, Gimerel protected their prize. No one could get close. That bracelet is a testimony to their battle strength. I greatly hoped that one day I’d have enough status for an invitation to see it.”
I blinked at it, then lowered my eyebrows. “And he’s just giving it to me? I don’t get to try my hand at a raid? That’s lame. I bet we could have taken it.”
Ulric and Jasper started to laugh. “She’s definitely a gargoyle,” Ulric said.
“Be that as it may,” Nathanial said, his eyes glued to the bracelet, “giving you that is a huge honor. It’s the pride of their cairn.”
“He’s showing off,” Nessa said, now leaning back as Sebastian continued to tap on the keyboard. “He’s showing you how big his dick is. It isn’t a present for you—it is a display of how powerful he is. It’s a testimony to what he’s worth.”
“It’s a challenge, is what it is,” Niamh said.
“Yeah, agree.” Nessa nodded. “He’s just shown you the bar. You’ll have to top it for him to give you the time of day.”
“That was always going to be the case,” Patty said. “Always. That’s what we’re up against.”
“It’s also a gorgeous piece of jewelry,” Ulric said. “Even if she didn’t know the full history, she has an authentic piece of jewelry, worth a pretty penny, that displays the talents of his cairn. You have to hand it to the guy, it’s the perfect gift.”
“No argument there,” Nessa said. “He’s good.”
“We’ll have our hands full with him,” Austin said. He’d been mostly quiet up until this point, which added weight to the sentiment.
Silence filtered through the room for a moment. I handed the bracelet to Nathanial, who handled it like the priceless relic he clearly considered it to be. The other gargoyles came closer and bent to look, their eyes full of reverence.
“Right,” I said to break the silence. “What’s next?”
I grabbed a glass of water while checking on the basajaunak. They were meandering around the wood, probably checking out the basandere’s new home. Edgar, Cyra, and Hollace were heading home from the other direction, moving fast. In the car, obviously. I wondered if Edgar had felt the basajaunak and was now rushing back to protect his flowers. He’d want to go over the rules with the new additions.
“Yes, let’s move this along.” Patty gazed at the bracelet a little longer––Nathanial had passed it to her—before gingerly setting it on the coffee table. “Should we…pop that into a safe, perhaps? Secure it in some way?”
“No one is going to steal that trinket,” Mr. Tom said, lifting his chin. “Ivy House has many more authentic pieces of jewelry worth much more, I assure you. They were bathed in the blood of empires, ripped from—”
“Okay, okay, settle down.” I put out a hand to placate Mr. Tom as I stood. “Let’s respect the gifts of today, shall we?”
“If we must.” Mr. Tom’s wings rustled.
“I mean, not to toot my own horn,” Sebastian said, standing, “but the red diamond I gave Jessie when in my caves is almost priceless. It is the rarest type of diamond in the world. The story of how I came to be in possession of it, as well as its previous history, would make that bracelet look like child’s play.”
“I would very much like to hear that story,” Patty said, getting up. “If that cairn secures an invite, it’ll be something to share, for sure.”
“Patty is going to be my best friend when those gargoyles come,” Nessa said, batting her eyes at the older woman. “Oh, the fun we will have, Patty.”
Patty smiled and hooked her arm through Nessa’s. As they started walking out, Patty quietly asked Nessa, “Those pieces of jewelry the old gargoyle was talking about…have you seen them? I’m a little concerned that they will be clunky, horrendous things that will give everyone a fright. Somewhat like most of this house’s interior…”
They passed through the door after the others. I hung back, waiting for Austin. He picked up the bracelet to get a better look.
“It’s definitely well made.” He took it from the box and turned it over, looking at the back. “All the gems are secure and the artistry is definitely on point. The gems look pristine, though I can’t really tell how many carats they are with a naked eye.”
“But…” I said with a grin.
He returned it to the velvet box and closed it. I slipped my hand in his as we headed for the door.
“But…” He glanced back before we turned the corner. “The design is a little chaotic—not entirely refined—and the worth…is lacking.”
“Did you see all those gemstones? That’s gotta be…hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not over a million. I’m no expert, but I’ve browsed jewelry I’d never be able to afford before…”
He smiled as we walked slowly down the hall. He clearly didn’t want the others to hear our conversation. I wondered if he thought it would insult them.
“It’s the pride of the cairn,” he said. “It sounds like the leader showed it off as though it was the finest thing they’d ever produced. With their own mine and their own artisans, I’d expect the piece to be jaw-dropping. Extravagant. Elegant. I’d expect them to go way overboard. Think of the pieces that jewelry establishments like Harry Winston or Cartier drape across the necks of celebrities. Or Tiffany’s yellow diamond, worth over thirty million.”
“Right, except those are multimillion-dollar Dick companies, and this is a gargoyle cairn firmly entrenched in their neck of magical society, a species that Nathanial said likes to stick to its own. They aren’t like the mages who filter into the Dick world and acquire the riches to show for it.”
Austin was quiet for a moment as we neared the front door. “Some of the shifters have big bankrolls. I wonder if that’s because we aren’t as entrenched in our own kind as gargoyles seem to be. We don’t mess around with Dicks for the most part, but we don’t shut them out, either. We’re open with the rest of the magical society, too.”
“I wonder why gargoyles are like that.”
“Slow to change from the olden days, perhaps. This territory might not be their cup of tea because of it. That might work against you.”
“Or it might work in our favor if people want a little more excitement in their lives, like Dave.”
“Let’s hope.”
We exited the house to find the others standing around the extravagant carriage that had been delivered as one of the cairn gifts. I slowed to a stop before reaching the group and glanced at Austin.
“There is one thing.” I gazed back through the door. “That bracelet is pretty. It does have craftsmanship. It’s modern. Ivy House has fine things, worth much more than that bracelet, but everything is outdated.”
