I snatched the cup from him, ignoring the warmth of his fingers as they brushed against mine, and downed the wine in one violent swig.
Gareth raised his eyebrows and lifted his own cup to me with a grin. The look on his face—wry and triumphant, as if he’d won whatever battle we were fighting—pushed me toward the wine bottle on the table. I emptied the rest of it into my cup and returned to my bed without offering Gareth even a passing glance.
“Now that we’ve a chance to talk,” Gemma said cheerfully, curled up against Talan’s side, “tell us about your team’s progress, Gareth. How has life at the priory been treating you?” She took a sip of wine and looked at me over the rim of her cup. “Has my sister been a gracious host?”
Talan nudged her with his elbow, but it was no use. Gemma was insatiably curious. She kept looking back and forth between Gareth and me as if trying to solve a most delightful puzzle.
Before I could think of how best to shut her up, Gareth spoke.
“We’ve set up several tracking stations with our new equipment,” he said, a brightness to his voice that sounded false to my ears and ever so slightly angry. I took a deeply satisfied sip of wine.
“The magical mechanisms behind it all are very similar to ward magic, actually,” he went on. “The clockwork is infused with seeking and warning spells, much like wardstones are when you set them to guard against intruders, and they constantly probe their territories for any trace of theytheliad—abnormal vibrations, disturbed environments, and the like.”
Ryder grunted and set down his empty cup. “Like hounds tracking a scent.”
“Exactly,” Gareth replied. “Our beguilers are truly brilliant. They’ve developed a method for infusing spells not just with instructions, butalsoinformation—in this case, every bit of knowledge we have about theytheliadand its anchors. So our hounds are not just sniffing for a scent. They are going beyond basic magical instinct. They understand the context of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”
The longer he spoke, the more eager he became, his eyes lighting up as they always did when he discussed his work. When he dragged a hand through his hair, sending a few wavy blond locks falling over his brow, the simple gesture made me flinch as if I’d stumbled off a step. I glared down at my cup and took another huge gulp. I couldn’t bear to look at him anymore. Looking at him left my stomach in knots I feared I’d never be able to untangle.
“These spells, then, can actually find connections between seemingly disparate pieces of evidence,” Gareth was saying, “and reach their own conclusions based on the information we’ve given them.”
Ryder raised an eyebrow, impressed. “So, extremelyintelligenthounds with the ability to reason.”
“Not as well as we can, of course, but certainly better than your general workaday spell.”
“Fascinating,” said Talan quietly, his dark eyes thoughtful. “How much of this equipment do you plan to install?”
“Our goal is twenty-five stations,” Gareth replied, “but we have enough resources with us to create at least five more.”
Farrin shook her head. “You’ll need a lot more than that if searching the Mistlands turns up nothing and we have to expand the search to, well, everywhere else.”
“Oh, of course,” Gareth said. “If these first stations are successful, we’re hoping the royal councils and the Senate will approve funding for many,manymore, a far greater number than we could create alone.” He paused and raised his cup to Farrin with a cheeky grin. “And on that note, Farrin, may I tell you how positively radiant you look in the firelight this evening?”
Farrin, who was combing through her golden-brown hair with her fingers, stifled a smile. “Are you prepared to lavish that kind of flattery upon every councilperson in Fairhaven? I won’t be the problem. They will.”
“Not if we bring them results. They can’t argue with success.”
Ryder laughed. “You’ve been at Rosewarren too long. Some of the people in that godsdamned city seem set on doing nothingbutarguing with success.”
“Surelywaris a convincing enough reason for them to agree,” Talan said. “Once the anchors are destroyed, Kilraith’s reach will collapse.”
Suddenly I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. If I did, I would combust, and the lack of control I had over the emotions raging inside me was infuriating. Even though he was several feet away from me, every move Gareth made, every breath he took pressed against me like a lover’s touch.
“Wethinkhis reach will collapse,” I said. “So much of this is conjecture. We don’t know where Kilraith is, or who his allies are, or what other spellwork besides theytheliadhe may be using. We could destroy all the anchors and then learn that, oh, actually, Kilraith has fivemoreancient curses at his disposal.”
Gareth clucked his tongue. “Come now, Mara, that sort of fatalistic thinking isn’t very productive.”
His condescension made me bristle. I made myself face him and kept my expression stony. “While professors and librarians may be keen to ignore reality in favor of the theoretical,” I said, “soldiers have to consider every scenario so they can prepare contingency plans.”
“Certainly, and of course we all know what a fantastic soldier you are.” His words had a bite to them. He set his empty cup on the floor and leaned forward a little, chin in hand, as if we were engaged in the most stimulating of intellectual discussions. “But why worry about curses thatmayexist before you actuallyknowthey exist?”
“It isn’t worrying,” I replied. “It’s forethought. A concept with which you may not be familiar.”
Gemma cleared her throat and began to speak before Gareth could reply. “Farrin, could you convince a few of the more recalcitrant people on the councils to stay at Rosewarren for a while? Maybe observing the librarians’ work firsthand would help loosen their purse strings.”
I scoffed. “The last thing we need is more southern city folk crowding Rosewarren and draining our resources.”
Gareth, his gaze still fixed on me, hummed thoughtfully. “Yes, and I wouldn’t want to subject more of those poor southern city folk to the priory’s harsh environment. So close to the dangers of the Mist and populated by so many short tempers.”
