Sabine handled emergency extractions for the Clockwork Brigade in Helia. She had the societal clout to know the best avenues in and out of the coastal city, could provide funds for bribes, and was married to a Navy captain. She smuggled out people and information and was a critical lynchpin to their efforts against debt bondage and the Daijal court’s insidious spread of power.
That she’d requested their help days ago through a dead-drop message exchange was the entire reason they were meeting now.
Sabine smiled, the dimples in her lightly rouged cheeks deepening as she slid some poker chips into the center of the card table. “Let’s play a hand, and then you two fine gentlemen can escort me home.”
“How is Payton doing?” Ezra asked.
The dealer doled out cards after a thorough shuffle, building a hand for each player with a flick of their wrist. Melvin kept half his attention on his cards, the rest on Sabine.
“He’s still on a two-month patrol of the coast. He’s scheduled to return in a couple of weeks. How long are you staying in Helia?”
“Not long enough to welcome your husband back,” Melvin said, affecting a disappointed tone.
They chatted amicably through the game, which Melvin allowed Ezra to win. Sabine laughingly gave up her winnings before sliding out of her seat. “Shall we?”
Melvin offered his arm to escort her out of the high-rollers room and to the exit. Sabine’s touch remained casual, her chatter light as she caught them up on gossip people would expect her to pass along. The only gossip Melvin cared for was the reason they’d come out tonight.
Ezra got behind the steering wheel of the motor carriage borrowed from the family’s motor pool while Melvin sat in the back seat with Sabine. Once on the road, with the windows rolled up, Sabine finally spoke.
“We have a high-priority target who needs extraction out of Daijal immediately. Tonight if you can manage it,” she said quietly.
Melvin frowned. “That’s very short notice. I haven’t heard anything from Fulcrum about moving quickly for anyone lately.”
“Because Fulcrum doesn’t know yet. I have a cog who will travel with the target who will masquerade as his wife to keep attention off him. She’ll bring the news to Fulcrum’s cogs, but I need you to get them into contact with that chain.” Sabine hesitated before continuing with, “It’s about the death-defying machine.”
Melvin went still, and her words were enough to cause Ezra to look over his shoulder at them. “Are you certain?”
Sabine nodded sharply. “A Daijal inventor came into contact with one of the cogs in Bellingham. You know that city hasn’t been safe lately for the flowers we pluck.”
“Other cities in Solaria still are.”
“Not Bellingham. The cog there worked to smuggle the inventor back over the border and bring him here. The frontier towns weren’t safe, what with the numbers of revenants the wardens have been dealing with in that area of the country. We’ve passed him through the chains on a priority push because of what he knows and what he carries with him.”
“Which is?”
Sabine shook her head, her face gray-looking in the glow of passing gas lamps. “You need to see it for yourself.”
Melvin grimace. “Where is this inventor now?”
“At my home.”
“Sabine!” Ezra hissed from the front seat. “You know how dangerous that is.”
She reached up to pull her shawl tighter around her shoulders. “Iknow, but I had no other choice. There’s a bounty on his head. Rumor is it’s driven by a high-ranking noble for stealing proprietary patents. Debt collectors are looking for him, and nowhere in the lower tiers of Helia is safe.”
“Nowhere in theuppertiers is safe if a noble is pushing the bounty. If anyone saw you bring him in—”
“They wouldn’t have.”
She slipped her hand into a slit in the skirt of her gown, retrieving the brass-made wand with its clarion crystal tip. Sabine laid the wand flat over her lap, the sight of it a reminder of her secretive station not even her husband knew about. For Sabine had been born with magic and trained as a magician in secret because her mother had been and still was a cog in the Clockwork Brigade.
Sabine’s very particular skill with mind magic meant she was very,verygood at separating a truth from a lie or creating a lie from a truth.
Melvin’s wand was secured in its case at the small of his back. He was a known magician who had cultivated a reach of mere parlor tricks, when in fact his magic was far more useful than that. Secrets were the livelihood of the Clockwork Brigade and always would be.
“I kept him from being noticed,” Sabine said.
“We’ve never doubted your dedication or precautions toward the cause. But you’re a cog we can’t lose,” Melvin gently reminded her.
