Her eyes, on the other hand, were beginning to tire, and from the looks of her companions, she wasn’t the only one. They were al gathered around one of the long tables, Charlotte at its head, Henry at Tessa’s right. Wil and Jem sat farther down, beside each other; only Jessamine had retreated to the very far end of the table, separated from the others. The surface of the table was liberal y covered with papers of al sorts—old newspaper articles, books, sheets of parchment covered with fine spidery writing. There were genealogies of various Mortmain families, histories of automatons, endless books of spel s of summoning and binding, and every bit of research on the Pandemonium Club that the Silent Brothers had managed to scrape out of their archives.
Tessa had been tasked with the job of reading through the newspaper articles, looking for stories about Mortmain and his shipping company, and her eyes were beginning to blur, the words dancing on the pages. She was relieved when Jessamine at last broke the silence, pushing away the book she had been reading—On the Engines of Sorcery—and said, “Charlotte, I think we’re wasting our time.”
Charlotte looked up with a pained expression. “Jessamine, there is no need for you to remain if you do not wish to. I must say, I doubt any of us was expecting your help in this matter, and since you have never much applied yourself to your studies, I cannot help but wonder if you even know what it is you are looking for. Could you tel a binding spel from a summoning spel if I set the two before you?”
Tessa couldn’t help being surprised. Charlotte was rarely so sharp with any of them. “I want to help,” Jessie said sulkily. “Those mechanical things of Mortmain’s nearly kil ed me. I want him caught and punished.”
“No, you don’t.” Wil , unrol ing a parchment so old that it crackled, squinted down at the black symbols on the page. “You want Tessa’s brother caught and punished, for making you think he was in love with you when he wasn’t.”
Jessamine flushed. “I do not. I mean, I did not. I mean—ugh! Charlotte, Wil ’s being vexing.”
“And the sun has come up in the east,” said Jem, to no one in particular.
“I don’t want to be thrown out of the Institute if we can’t find the Magister,” Jessamine went on. “Is that so difficult to understand?”
“You won’t be thrown out of the Institute. Charlotte wil . I’m sure the Lightwoods wil let you stay. And Benedict has two marriageable sons. You ought to be delighted,” said Wil .
Jessamine made a face. “Shadowhunters. As if I’d want to marry one of them.”
“Jessamine, you are one of them.”
Before Jessamine could reply, the library door opened and Sophie came in, ducking her white-capped head. She spoke quietly to Charlotte, who rose to her feet. “Brother Enoch is here,” Charlotte said to the assembled group. “I must speak with him. Wil , Jessamine, do try not to kil each other while I am gone. Henry, if you could . . .”
Her voice trailed off. Henry was gazing down at a book—Al-Jazari’s Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices—and paying no attention whatsoever to anything else. Charlotte threw up her hands, and left the room with Sophie.
The moment the door closed behind Charlotte, Jessamine shot Wil a poisonous look. “If you think I don’t have the experience to help, then why is she here?” She indicated Tessa. “I don’t mean to be rude, but do you think she can tel a binding spel from a summoning one?” She looked at Tessa. “Wel , can you? And for that matter, Wil , you pay so little attention at lessons, can you tel a binding spel from a soufflé recipe?”
Wil leaned back in his chair and said dreamily, “‘I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.’”
“Jessamine, Tessa has kindly offered to help, and we need al the eyes we can get right now,” said Jem severely. “Wil , don’t quote Hamlet.
Henry . . .” He cleared his throat. “HENRY.”
Henry looked up, blinking. “Yes, darling?” He blinked again, looking around. “Where’s Charlotte?”
“She went to talk to the Silent Brothers,” said Jem, who did not appear put out of temper to have been mistaken by Henry for his wife. “In the meantime I’m afraid . . . that I rather agree with Jessamine.”
“And the sun comes up in the west,” said Wil , who had apparently heard Jem’s earlier comment.
“But why?” Tessa demanded. “We can’t give up now. It would be just like handing the Institute over to that awful Benedict Lightwood.”
“I’m not suggesting we do nothing, you understand. But we’re trying to decipher what it is that Mortmain is going to do. We’re trying to predict the future instead of trying to understand the past.”
“We know Mortmain’s past, and his plans.” Wil waved his hand in the direction of the newspapers. “Born in Devon, was a ship’s surgeon, became a wealthy trader, got himself mixed up in dark magic, and now plans to rule the world with his massive army of mechanical creatures by his side. A not atypical story for a determined young man—”
“I don’t think he ever said anything about ruling the world,” interrupted Tessa. “Just the British Empire.”
“Admirably literal,” said Wil . “My point is, we do know where Mortmain came from. It’s hardly our fault that it isn’t very interesting . . .” His voice trailed off. “Ah.”