He said, “You don’t look like a boy at al . You look like a girl in boys’ clothes.”
She couldn’t tel if he was approving, disapproving, or neutral on the subject. “I’m not trying to fool anyone but a casual observer,” she replied crossly. “Nate knows Jessamine’s a girl. And the clothes wil fit me better once I’ve Changed into her.”
“Maybe you should do it now,” said Wil .
Tessa glared at him, then shut her eyes. It was different, Changing into someone you had been before. She did not need to be holding something of theirs, or to be near them. It was like closing her eyes and reaching into a wardrobe, detecting a familiar garment by touch, and drawing it out.
She reached for Jessamine inside herself, and let her free, wrapping the Jessamine disguise around herself, feeling the breath pushed from her lungs as her rib cage contracted, her hair slipping from its twist to fal in light corn silk waves against her face. She pushed it back up under the hat and opened her eyes.
They were al staring at her. Jem was the only one to offer a smile as she blinked in the light.
“Uncanny,” said Henry. His hand rested lightly on the object on the table. Tessa, uncomfortable with the eyes on her, moved toward it. “What is that?”
“It’s a sort of . . . infernal device that Henry’s created,” Jem said. “Meant to disrupt the internal mechanisms that keep the clockwork creatures running.”
“You twist it, like this”—Henry mimed twisting the bottom half of the thing in one direction and the top half in another—“and then throw it. Try to lodge it into the creature’s gears or somewhere that it wil stick. It is meant to disrupt the mechanical currents that run through the creature’s body, causing them to wrench apart. It could do you some damage too, even if you aren’t clockwork, so don’t hang on to it once it’s activated. I’ve only two, so . . .”
He handed one to Jem, and another to Charlotte, who took it and hung it from her weapons belt without a word.
“The message has been sent?” Tessa asked.
“Yes. We’re only waiting for a reply from your brother now,” said Charlotte. She unrol ed a paper across the surface of the table, weighting down the corners with copper gears from a stack Henry must have left there. “Here,” she said, “is a map that shows where Jessamine claims she and Nate usual y meet. It’s a warehouse on Mincing Lane, down by Lower Thames Street. It used to be a tea merchant’s packing factory until the business went bankrupt.”
“Mincing Lane,” said Jem. “Center of the tea trade. Also the opium trade. Makes sense Mortmain might keep a warehouse there.” He ran a slender finger over the map, tracing the names of the nearby streets: Eastcheap, Gracechurch Street, Lower Thames Street, St. Swithin’s Lane.
“Such an odd place for Jessamine, though,” he said. “She always dreamed of such glamour—of being introduced at Court and putting her hair up for dances. Not of clandestine meetings in some sooty warehouse near the wharves.”
“She did do what she set out to do,” Tessa said. “She married someone who isn’t a Shadowhunter.”
Wil ’s mouth quirked into a half smile. “If the marriage were valid, she’d be your sister-in-law.”
Tessa shuddered. “I—it’s not that I hold a grudge against Jessamine. But she deserves better than my brother.”
“Anyone deserves better than that.” Wil reached under the table and drew out a rol ed-up bunch of fabric. He spread it across the table, avoiding the map. Inside were several long, thin weapons, each with a gleaming rune carved into the blade. “I’d nearly forgotten I had Thomas order these for me a few weeks ago. They’ve only just arrived. Misericords—good for getting in between the jointure of those clockwork creatures.”
“The question is,” Jem said, lifting one of the misericords and examining the blade, “once we get Tessa inside to meet Nate, how do the rest of us watch their meeting without being noticed? We must be ready to intervene at any moment, especial y if it appears that his suspicions have been aroused.”
“We must arrive first, and hide ourselves,” said Wil . “It is the only way. We listen to see if Nate says anything useful.”
“I dislike the idea of Tessa being forced to speak with him at al ,” muttered Jem.
“She can wel hold her own; I have seen it. Besides, he is more likely to speak freely if he thinks himself safe. Once captured, even if the Silent Brothers do explore his mind, Mortmain may have thought to put blocks in it to protect his knowledge, which can take time to dismantle.”
“I think Mortmain has put in blocks in Jessamine’s case,” said Tessa. “For whatever it is worth, I cannot touch her thoughts.”
“Even more likely he wil have done it in Nate’s, then,” said Wil .
“That boy is as weak as a kitten,” said Henry. “He wil tel us whatever we want to know. And if not, I have a device—”