Noria bit her bottom lip. “Maybe now, but when the time comes –”
I held up a hand, suddenly weary of all the “us against them” talk for the first time in my life. Couldn’t we all get along, instead of constantly going at each other’s throats? “Look, this isn’t really why we came here,” I told her, pulling out the little bag of drugs. “The Enforcer’s Guild took in a deer shifter who was super high off something that smells a lot like anticium – a hallucinogenic if I remember correctly.” I handed it to Noria, deciding not to mention the more gruesome details – there was no need for them to know. “I was thinking maybe your mage friend could compare it to the other sample and see if it was tampered with in the same way.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Noria’s eyes lit up as she took the bag. “Elnos says he’s totally cracked the code on how these dealers are sneaking silver into their drugs.”
“Really?” I sat up straight. “How?”
Noria frowned. “I don’t totally understand how it works, but he basically said he isolated some really rare derivative from a plant that only grows in certain countries in Faricia. Tribal warriors use it to cover up poisons, so they can’t be detected by the shifter slaves who have to taste and drink everything before their masters will touch it.”
“Kalois!” Comenius exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I remember reading about it before – it’s a tropical flower. Brilliant! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”
My grin widened. “Aww, c’mon, Com, you can’t fit everything you’ve learned in that head of yours.” I jumped to my feet. “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get your mage friend so he can present his findings to the Chief Mage!”
“Umm, yeah, about that.” Noria shrank back in her seat. “He doesn’t exactly want to.”
I scowled. “Why not?”
“Well, to be honest he doesn’t really want to draw the Chief Mage’s attention toward our magitech experiments, and I have to agree with him.” Noria folded her arms.
I arched an eyebrow. “Magitech?”
“Yeah. You know, magic plus technology equals magitech.” Excitement lit her eyes again. “Speaking of magitech, the Herald and the Academy have partnered to sponsor a contest for magitech inventions. Whoever comes up with the best new technology will win a hundred gold coins!” She rubbed her hands together. “I’ve already come up with that jammer, so it shouldn’t be too hard to create something that’ll do the job. Elnos and I are so going to win.”
“I would be careful who you tell that to,” Comenius warned. “If you come up with something the Mage’s Guild doesn’t approve of, they wouldn’t hesitate to come down on you and Elnos, especially if you started making a profit off it.”
Noria shrugged. “Eh, I’m not worried. We’re just gonna make a prototype so we can earn the prize money. I’m more than happy to let the bigwigs worry about bringing it to mass market.”
The gleam in her eye suggested that she hadn’t completely discounted the idea of capitalizing on the invention herself, but I decided not to press, and instead brought the conversation back on topic. “Noria, if I get the Chief Mage to agree to grant Elnos amnesty in exchange for the information, do you think he would come?”
Noria blinked. “I don’t see why not. But do you really think you can do it?”
I stood up and shrugged my jacket back on. “I dunno. But I’m definitely gonna give it a shot.”
Chapter Eighteen
I told Comenius to keep an eye out for Inspector Lakin and give him the case file, and then hustled back to Solantha Palace as fast as I could. The plan was to browbeat the Chief Mage with my findings and demand he grant Noria’s friend amnesty, so that we could get our hands on that evidence. Unfortunately, traffic turned out to be horrendous, so I gave up trying to maneuver my steambike through all the cars and parked in Nob Hill, a hoity-toity area of Rowanville where people strolled the sidewalks wearing fancy togs while oohing and aahing over the objects displayed in boutique windows. I looked out of place in my black pants and leather jacket, stepping around two female humans in brightly colored dresses and wide brimmed hats dripping in jewelry, but since I wasn’t here to see and be seen I ducked into a café and ordered some food.
The place was a lot more cutesy than I liked, done in pastel blue and white with owl decorations scattered everywhere, but the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings sounded good enough, so I ordered, forking over some of the few measly coppers I’d found amongst my delivered belongings. As I sat down at the bar to wait for my grub, I noticed someone had left a copy of the Herald on the counter. It looked like the owner had ditched it, so I slid the paper over to my side of the bar and started flipping through the pages.