“I might,” Sienna agreed. “There’s a reason they’re rarely used.”
There was a long silence. Emily looked from Sienna to Caleb and back again, feeling an odd flicker of…something she didn’t care to name. Family…she liked Caleb’s family, but did she want to marry them? And yet, she wasn’t seeing them at their best. They’d lost one child to a necromancer, while another had been kidnapped…their house had been destroyed, leaving them homeless.
“I think it’s time to start working on a plan,” General Pollack said. “I’ll gather the remaining forces, with the intention of luring the enemy out of place. Markus, I want you to try and find a way into the temple that won’t be risky. We could go through the drains.”
Emily had to smile. That was a good thought, if it was workable. If nothing else, Janus and his ilk might not notice until it was too late. She might have an opportunity to take the cobwebs apart before they noticed her, trapping Justice in one place.
“I’ll see what I can find.” Markus shrugged. “They might have sealed the drains, of course.”
“They might,” General Pollack agreed. “Dear--” he looked at Sienna “--start working on ways to break their staffs.”
“Or drain them,” Frieda said. “What happens if you cancel the spellware they use to focus the magic?”
Emily glanced at Markus. “What happens if you use a cancellation charm on a chat parchment?”
“I don’t know,” Markus said. “The magic is linked to blood, so it’s quite resistant…”
He stroked his chin. “We do know that burning the parchment renders it useless,” he added, after a moment. “But smaller charms might not work.”
“They won’t have used linking charms for their spellwork.” Sienna’s voice was cold. “I’ll see what I can do.”
General Pollack nodded. “Emily, you know these creatures best,” he said. “See what you can come up with…”
“I will,” Emily said. An idea was already at the back of her mind. The Hands of Justice had taken one idea and scaled it up a little. What would happen if Emily took their idea and scaled it up still further? “Can I borrow Caleb to help me? We do work well together.”
“I bet you do,” Markus teased.
Sienna gave Emily a long, hard look. “Yes, provided you keep Frieda with you as well,” she said, firmly. “That is not negotiable.”
Emily clamped down – hard – on the urge to make any number of sarcastic remarks. Caleb’s sister was missing. He wasn’t going to waste time making out with her when his talents were needed elsewhere. Caleb had his flaws, but he wasn’t that sort of person…
“I understand,” she said. No doubt Sienna would have insisted on leaving the door open, if Frieda hadn’t been there to play chaperone. “Frieda will be helpful too.”
“Good,” Sienna said. “We need to move as soon as possible.”
“They’ll expect us to move at night,” Caleb pointed out. He jabbed a finger towards the stained window. It wouldn’t be long until darkness fell over the city. “They’ll be ready.”
“We’ll see if we can get into the sewers,” General Pollack said. “And we’ll see what other problems we can give them too.”
Emily rubbed her forehead. She was starting to feel hungry again. Her head ached…she gritted her teeth, remembering Pandora’s words. She’d have to find something to eat quickly before she got to work.
“We have to stop them,” she said. Hurting the Fists of Justice wouldn’t be enough. Janus had to be stopped. “I don’t think they knew what they were doing.”
Sienna’s eyebrows crawled up. “Are you sure?”
“The scrolls were very basic in many ways,” Emily said. Whoever had written them – she was sure it had been Master Wolfe – had been a genius, but there had been a startling lack of explanation. Most sorcerers would know better than to cast a spell when they didn’t know what it was intended to do. “And Janus talked about summoning a god, not creating one. I think they don’t even begin to grasp the underlying theory.”
She sighed. Janus had effectively hypnotized himself. “And when they lose control,” she added, “they might not even notice.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“NICE ROOM,” FRIEDA SAID, SARCASTICALLY. SHE sent a light-globe ahead of her as she hurried into the room. “I can’t imagine any monkey-business here.”
Emily had to admit she had a point. The room had been stripped bare of everything apart from a table so rickety she was afraid to breathe on it and a framework in the corner that might – might – have been part of a bed. The wooden floor was sticky, her feet making odd sounds as she walked over to the table and dropped her notebook on top. She didn’t want to know what caused the smell, but it was everywhere. It was probably the least romantic place she’d ever seen.
“They would have stuffed an entire family in here, if they were lucky,” Caleb said, from the door. “This would have been all they’d had.”
“Ouch.” Emily had never quite grown used to the limited privacy at Whitehall, but this room was far worse. No one would have had any privacy. “Can you find us some chairs?”
“Sure,” Caleb said. “Just give me a moment.”
Frieda caught Emily’s eye as Caleb hurried back out of the room. “Make sure you eat something,” she said. “I can hear your stomach from over here.”
Emily nodded, tiredly, as she opened the notebook. Markus had given it to her, explaining that he’d started producing them to promote the bank. Emily doubted the notebooks helped to bring in new customers, but it would be useful. She needed to write down everything she could remember from the scrolls, then try to draw it into a coherent whole.