Nocturnal Quarry by Celia Lake

Author:Celia Lake [Lake, Celia]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 8

August 31st in a New York hotel

By Wednesday of the next week, Alexander had a plan in place. Amunet’s introduction had opened doors for him, three separate people who were glad to consult, hypothetically, on the protections inherent in the building, and what others might be added, without asking awkward questions. Alexander was sure his aunt had had a word there.

Anyone else, he’d have expected several words, whole paragraphs, but Tant Amunet was not the sort who needed to spell out and annotate every statement. She had, however, told him that she expected him at a meal before he left the city, and to give her adequate time to make the arrangements. He had agreed. There was no other option.

That had left his plans for Medea Aylett. He had given a substantial amount of thought to the problem on the voyage over, and ever since. He did not care for the threat to Geoffrey, to Lizzie, or to the children. On the other hand, it would be hypocritical of him to argue that murder, attempted or otherwise, was entirely out of the question when pursuing one’s own goals. Now, though, he went through it one more time.

The question for him, though - and one Geoffrey had only been able to guess at - was why she had targeted him in the first place. She had certainly held a grudge over the goldwasser, Geoffrey had become more sure of that. That Medea Aylett had fallen from grief into the intoxicating otherness of that particular magical drink at the death of her husband. That was not, however, enough.

She was a competent alchemist, her husband’s many former apprentices also were. Garin hadn’t apprenticed there, but he certainly knew and respected a number of them. Geoffrey’s pet alchemist had made up something enough like the goldwasser, on short notice, that surely someone with skills could concoct something that transported the drinker enough. Not exactly healthy, perhaps. That kind of magic rarely was, but no more unhealthy than a number of other vices, and safe enough for the people around the making.

Medea Aylett had options, in other words. Poisoning Geoffrey, who was only part of the reason goldwasser was banned, would not have changed that. She had, from what Alexander had heard of her, not seemed to be that short-sighted. That was not enough of an answer.

The trial of her - well, minions was the proper term, really - had suggested to Geoffrey that she was interested in the sort of munitions so damaging, so dangerous, that Albion would never need to fear attack again. Alexander was familiar with that sort of rhetoric, but he felt it lacked a great deal when it came to pragmatic situations. Certainly, the next war - as seemed more likely by the day, the way Hitler was eyeing Czechoslovakia - would be different than the last. But the idea of a single weapon, or even a collection of them, seemed unlikely to be a sufficient deterrent.

None of it explained what she might be up to right now.

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