Nic lifted her head, expression full of dawning suspicion.“Do you think that is why my father was so determined to break into our arcanium?Because he suspected the key to Anciela’s data was in there?”
“Or all of Anciela’s data,” Gabriel said with a sharp nod.“But I have to agree with Nic that we’re no better off now than before, with keys that are as indecipherable as the coded documents.Am I wrong, Cillian?”
But Cillian had been watching Jadren and Seliah, who looked no less pleased with themselves than before.They exchanged smug glances.“Do you want to tell them?”Seliah asked Jadren.
“I kinda do,” he answered, “if you don’t mind.I really want to see Lady Phel’s face when she hears this one.”
Nic jerked her head up.“What?”she demanded with sharp suspicion.“If you did something to my arcanium, Jadren El-Adrel, I don’t care if your house does outrank ours, dark arts help me I’m going to—”
Gabriel set a quelling hand on her, waiting for Nic to notice Jadren’s reddening face, brighter than his auburn beard—until the wizard burst out laughing.He waggled a finger at Nic.“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it turns out your foolishly, idealistic wizard saved all our asses.”
Nic flashed Gabriel a disbelieving look and he held up his hands in innocence.
“Just tell them already or I will,” Seliah said.
“Please,” Nic demanded slapping her hands on the table.
“Narlis gave us the key,” Jadren told her, gloating.
“Narlis?”Nic echoed blankly.“Our Narlis at House Phel?”
“We love Narlis,” Iliana exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
Gabriel, clearly mystified, asked, “What does Narlis know about anything?”
So, Jadren and Seliah explained the conversation with GF and Daisy, and what Narlis had told them.Before they’d finished, Cillian was exploring the book he held for some kind of Iblis enchantment.Alise bent her head toward his, quietly discussing the problem with him, while the others exclaimed and argued about whether Gabriel had followed his wizard’s intuition or if it had been a coincidence.Or would any House Iblis member be triggered to give that reply upon seeing the key books?
“I just knew it was wrong to leave her there under those circumstances,” Gabriel insisted.“I didn’t have any special sense or intuitive tickle.”
“You know what,” Nic said, cutting off Jadren’s next point of debate.“It doesn’t matter.What I don’t understand is why you didn’t try taking off the Iblis lock or encryption or whatever it is before dragging us through this whole suspenseful ordeal.”
“It wasn’t a very long ordeal,” Jadren replied, sulkily.“And the suspense was fun.”Before she could retort, he held up a hand.“Besides it has to be a Phel wizard,obviously.”He shook his head for her obtuseness, pointing at Gabriel, and Nic fumed silently at him.
Everyone slid their books to Gabriel, who surveyed them in apparent shock.“I don’t have Iblis magic.”
“You don’t need it,” Nic told him, her magic still snapping.“It should feel like triggering any Iblis lock that’s been preset.Just use water or moon magic—”
“Probably both,” Cillian advised.“It could be uniquely set for the Phel combination of both.”
“Both,” Nic agreed with a nod of thanks.
Everyone held their breath while Gabriel focused his magic, a shimmering blend of moonlight on water feeling as if it floated through the air of the contained room.Something magical clicked.Nic seized one of the metal books, her face lighting like a flame.
“I can read it.”
Cillian quickly snagged a couple, passing one to Alise, and began to read.“Columns of words,” he confirmed.“Translations of silk colors to numbers.”
“I have wasp larvae to magical potential scores,” Alise said with excitement.
“Peaches,” Gabriel confirmed, “and correlations to familiar versus wizard status.”
“We’ve got it,” Nic breathed.
“And now the work begins,” Cillian told them.“Time to make a master list and begin decoding the experimental data and results.”
They all groaned and he laughed.This was the real fun.
~23~
