Marie

Month 12, Day 19, 8:00AM

“He’s back in the city.” Poe said. Marie figured that, after Frank had returned with his initial success, Frank liked to check his tracking spell several times a day. For several days, Sebastien had not appeared.

“Do you want me to stay here?”

“Not this time. As a student, he doesn’t have any obligations on a Saturday. If I follow him closely all day long, he may notice, and he’s clever enough that he might notice something wrong. If we swap off, I hope we are less likely to be noticed.”

Marie was dressed in her less formal black dress, but she wore The Boots all the time. The Boots never scuffed, hardly made a sound, protected her legs from all sorts of weather, and generally made Marie interested in enchantment. She’d read the chapter on enchantment in the primer three times, even though Poe hadn’t covered it yet.

“I’m ready to go.” Marie got up from her desk and slipped a her notebook into pocket. She stopped carrying a knife, but she did not feel like she could fight any better with a stick. Poe had barely shown her anything. “Do you think this will be … dangerous?”

“No. It’s more likely to be boring.” Poe looked at her for a moment. “Bring your cloak.”

“What are we going to do about the spies?”

“How do you feel about escape via windows?”

Twenty minutes later, after crawling out the back windows into an unguarded alley, Frank led Marie out to a street where they hailed a cab for the upper part of the city. Poe had kept a slate to run his divination and locate Silverling. When they finally left the cab, they found themselves in a neighborhood filled with large manor homes. Poe spotted Silverling first; the young man rounded a corner and strode toward one of the larger homes. With little formality, opened the gate and headed inside. He didn’t even wait for a servant to greet him at the door.

Across the street, Marie and Poe had followed him behind and watched him enter the solid stone manor house.

“Do you think that’s Silverling’s manor?” Marie asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize it. It looks like …” Poe muttered to himself. “Keep an eye out. I’m going to find out.”

Poe strode toward the house, leaving Marie behind. When he reached the door, he rapped sharply using the knocker. A well-dressed footman opened the door immediately. Poe said something, and the footman shook his head. Frank took a step back, and looked at the house as if he’d never seen a manor before. He shrugged, and left. When he returned to Marie, he had a chipper expression.

“It appears that this is the home of Lord Dryden.”

“What did you ask them?”

“I asked if my old friend from University was in. Of course, I had to apologize for disturbing the house. Very sorry of course, I had the house number flipped.” Poe smiled. “‘Of course, silly me. Whose house was this?’” Poe imitated a noble foppish accent. “And, they told me right away.”

“That worked?”

“Provided there’s a house at the other address, which I am sure there is, there is no reason for his servants to be suspicious. Unless we keep standing here. Let’s go for a little walk.”

And they did. They strolled around the manor, and took in the tall privacy fencing, the well appointed stables in the back, and the sound of horses being well cared for.

“Do you know Lord Dryden?”

“Not well. He runs in … let’s call it different social circles than I once did. He’s been the sort that likes to run charities and lives off what is left of a family legacy from Osham. He’s not entirely idle or anything. I think he breeds some sort of magical horses. Just the sort of person that would sponsor a talented thaumaturge from a less well-off or even distant nobility.”

“How do you think they met?”

“That is a good question, and it won’t be easy to find an answer; or rather, it will be easy to find the answer that Lord Dryden might have spread around.”

“What do we do now? You don’t think … Lord Dryden has a link to the Raven Queen?”

Poe didn’t answer right away.

“We do not know enough to know.” Poe finally replied. “If I recall correctly, Osham’s government wiped out Lord Dryden’s family. If the Raven Queen were an Osham spy, one might suggest that Lord Dryden would be some sort of handler for her, but that does not seem right. Spies work hard not to be noticed. The Raven Queen is no spy, otherwise she would have faded to obscurity and left the city. It doesn’t seem that she has.”

“So, now what?”

“Take this token.” Poe handed Marie a silvery metal coin. “I can find you with it if need be, but I don’t think this is a particularly dangerous street. Pretend to be waiting for a friend at the corner, watch the house, and I’ll go get a breakfast.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘Why pretend?’ Marie thought. ‘I will be waiting for a friend at the corner.’

So, she waited at the corner until Poe returned with a warm sandwich of some kind, wrapped in a waxed paper and with a sweet peppery flavor.

They stood at the corner, and ate. The street wasn’t very busy, but no one walking past seemed to have found their little standing lunch unusual. Poe glanced at Dryden Manor occasionally.

“We are being watched from the house.” Poe said.

“Should we move?”

“We’ll have to. I could create an unnoticability ward of some kind; it’s a sort of anti-divination technique. But, I’d be noticeable when I set it up. We will have to find a less noticeable spot to set up a divination, to detect comings and goings, and then watch that.”

“You don’t think the Raven Queen is in there, do you?”

“I can only guess. This is a nice neighborhood. Lots of people gossiping about the neighbors. Servants. Other people who would be eager to take a man like Dryden down a notch. If the Raven Queen used this place as a base of operations, she’d have been caught already. But …” Poe lingered on the thought.

‘But,’ Marie thought, ‘we can’t know. The Raven Queen is a ghost, appearing and disappearing without any trace.’

The finished the sandwiches, then they walked to past the manor, and Poe dropped something close to the front gate. Marie thought about picking it up, but then, she didn’t see where it fell. That was odd. It should have been …

“Keep walking. Your attention does you credit, but we need to keep moving.” Poe whispered to her.

When they turned the corner and were walking away, Poe murmured to her. “I dropped one of my trackers. It has an unnoticability charm on it, which is why you looked right at it, but didn’t see it. I’ll have to refresh the enchantment tomorrow, but today if Silverling leaves with his student token, I’ll know it.”

They walked to a nearby park where they sat on a bench and Poe set up a small divining array.

“What now?”

“Well, there’s two enchantments on that little tracker that I can monitor. One is Silverling’s token. If his token leaves the house, we can follow it. But, there’s also a charm for anyone that leaves the house. It’s a older spying artifact I created some time ago.” Poe grinned conspiratorially. “What’s the point of being a sorcerous investigator if you don’t cheat a little?”

They spent the rest of the day in the park, but as evening approached, Poe wanted Marie to return to the agency. At first he intended to walk with her, but she insisted that she was not a child and she was perfectly capable of sneaking back into the Agency on her own.

As the sky turned orange she was a few blocks away, when Jemnie walked out of an alley as she passed by, and matched her quick steps.

“So, you were out?”

Marie kept herself from muttering a curse. Jemnie had apparently become too clever. But, how had he decided to watch this side of office?

“Does that even require an answer?”

“You’re start’n to talk like him now.”

“Apprentice.” Marie pointed to herself.

“So, where’d you go?”

“That’s confidential. So, did you get sick of watching the office?”

“No.” Marie heard from behind her. Marie reversed and put her back to the wall, to see who had spoken. Cory had been strolling along behind. Marie found herself stopped and confronting the pair. Annoyed pedestrians—walking home from work—stepped around them on the pavement.

“Surprised to see me?” Cory said.

“Great. Now there are two of you.”

“Technically, your boy was follow’n me.” Cory replied. “I was the one that found out you weren’t in the office.”

“Not my boy.” Marie muttered. “How did you figure it out?”

“I’ve been taking notes!” Cory said proudly. “You and your fella go out for lunch or breakfast near everyday. Except today, you didn’t go out at all.”

“He’s not my fella. He’s my … he’s a detective ok? I work for him.”

“Yeah?” Jemnie said. “You got a new pair of boots somewhere.”

“He was apologizing for …” Marie realized she’d have to explain the aberrant, and didn’t want to. “Things.” She finally said.

“Sure.” Cory replied skeptically. Jemnie nodded.

Marie huffed and started briskly walking toward the office. There wasn’t any reason to sneak in the back now. The two spies just followed along like puppies.

‘When did those two become friends anyway?’ Marie thought.

Just as the sky faded to the purplish of evening, and the lamps were lit, Marie entered the front of the August Agency.

At least the two spies separated and took up opposite positions down the street. Despite working together, they weren’t really working together. ‘This is a mess.’ Marie thought.

Marie went into the office, bringing the primer with her to Poe’s desk, where she turned on the reading light and started reading the chapter on the third empire.

She was still reading late into the night—although she could barely keep her attention on the history of a bunch of dead people—and she felt worried that Poe had stayed out very late, when Poe finally returned. He came in through the front door as well.

“Why are you doing up at this hour?” Poe asked. “Waiting for me?”

“Yes. Also, reading.” Marie replied. She felt so tired. How did he keep awake for so long? “I wanted to tell you something, but I’m too tired to remember.”

“Spies out back?”

“Yeah, that’s it. The spies knew we snuck out the back.”

“I saw one on the way in, so I just came around the front. It’s that girl with the notebook, isn’t it?”

“Cory. Yes. But, Jemnie was smart enough to follow her while she looked for us. Morrows and the Stags know because we didn’t go out to eat.” Marie yawned. Her nervousness about Poe had worn off, and now her eyes felt heavy.

“It’s nice to see you making friends your own age.”

“I wouldn’t call them friends.” Marie giggled. “And Jemnie is younger than me.”

“Come on.” Poe replied. “Let’s get you to bed. I am going to nap and then monitor Silverling from here. Also, I have something for you. I’ll give it to you in the morning.”

As Marie sleepily headed to her rooms, she wondered what Poe’s gift would be.