8:6
Ivan, Dan, Gwen and Abe entered Kim’s cabin to a wall of faces directed squarely at the door. Those faces were attached, in the usual manner, to the bodies of their friends who stood in a loose formation with whatever passed for weapons for them held at the ready. Gwen stopped in the doorway, her gaze darting about. “This isn’t unnerving at all.”
Abe, to whom this comment was directed looked back over their shoulder, checking the small yard in front of the cottage for any lurking danger that would preclude the group inside the building to be at the ready. Determining no obvious lurking assassins or kidnappers, Abe shrugged. “Are they moving?” Abe murmured from the side of their mouth. Gwen gave the group a solid eyeball then murmured back, “Yes.”
“Then we should be fine.” Abe said. “Maybe.”
Apparently far less hampered with the heebies or the jeebies Ivan strode towards the group. “What up?”
Dempsey shifted his shield, lowering it to reset on his foot. “Ben and I found out the location of Gryphon’s home. We,” he gestured around at the ready group, “were just waiting for you to get back so we could go check it out.”
“Why do we need to check it out?” Gwen gave Dempsey a narrowed-eyed look.
“Because we still don’t know if he’s missing or he’s just passed out drunk or took a trip to the country.”
Gwen lifted her brows. “Because he really seems the type to do that.”
Dempsey shrugged. “We don’t know the guy. Only what he does. We can’t assume.”
“Ook, we totally can. Although,” Gwen lifted her brows again, “I guess it takes a scumbag to know a scumbag. Are you saying its your assessment that a scumbag would take a trip to the country?”
Dempsey rolled his eyes ceiling-ward. “What have I done to you?”
“Huh?”
“Everyone says you are nice but, me?” Dempsey gave Gwen a steady look, “I’m not getting that.”
Kim gave a conspicuous cough and mock muttered to Patti, “Wants to date him.”
Gwen shot Kim a gaze full of censure, to which she shrugged and adopted a patently fake innocent expression. “I coughed. I’m getting over something.”
Gwen tried to keep up the stern but the chuckle snort that escaped her made a mockery of that. She shook her head, gave Kim a droll look, then returned her attention to Dempsey. “I didn’t realize I was doing anything. I’ll work on it. So-” she continued in an even tone, “What do you think we can learn from Gryphon’s home?”
Ben stepped into this question before Dempsey could answer. “We want to figure out if he was taken and if he was Dempsey has suggested using his cards to find Gryphon like he did for Llora.”
“If we decide he was taken why not just go to The House?” Gwen asked, then turned to Abe and said, “In all but one instance it was the site where we recovered the missing people.”
Abe nodded enthusiastically, setting their hair to dancing around their face. “What about the one time?”
“It was when we found Llora. Like Dempsey said, he used some enchanted cards to help us find her in a tower in the woods. At that point we couldn’t be certain that she would be at The House. Actually, we also found someone in a warehouse.”
“But that person, Nieve, wasn’t in a story.” Ivan explained, “She was being held with a bunch of other women who looked like her. We think we might have stopped our enemies before they could-” he tapered off and looked at Dan. “Have we figured out what was being done?”
Dan shoved a toothpick into the corner of his mouth. “Not many details, although-” He focused on the wall behind the loose group in front of him, his gaze going inwards, then shifted his toothpick to the opposite corner of his mouth and turned to Abe. “You said Aillea is being changed?”
Abe nodded. Dan went quiet again, looked back at the wall, shifted his toothpick. “What if the people we didn’t find at the house – Nieve and Llora – hadn’t been changed enough for the Magick they are trying to do?”
“Huh.”
“If we asked them I wonder if they’d tell us that had weird dreams before their abductions.”
“You think Aillea will be abducted?” Ivan asked, to which Dan nodded.
“Yes. Eventually. Unless we stop the Magick from changing her.”
“How does Magick change someone?” Patti asked.
Dan shook his head. “Unsure.”
He looked to Abe. “Abe?”
Abe’s mouth shifted one way, shifted the other. Their gaze focused inwards and they tilted their head so they were pointing vaguely at the ceiling. After an extended contemplation of it, or the thoughts in their head, Abe tentatively suggested, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen someone altered in the way Aillea is.”
“Aillea is altered?” Prairie asked quietly from where she stood in Dempsey’s shadow.
Abe gave a definitive downward jerk of their chin. “Yes. Someone or something has taken parts of her and made them, I don’t know, stronger. I’m not sure how that is affecting her beyond making those things more dominant but I’m thinking it might be pushing out other parts of her to make room. Everyone is made up of a finite amount of,” they waved their hand vaguely, “concepts, what I call Words. Those things make up the person.”
Prairie’s expression shifted to contemplation. “Do I have Words that make me up?”
“Yes.” Abe squinted at Prairie. “Definitely. Everyone is made up of Words.”
Patti tilted her head to the side, then looked at Kim. “You following this?”
“Not even slightly.”
“Okay. Good. So I’m not the only one.”
“Nope,” Ben muttered.
Abe seemed to realize they were still standing in the doorway. “Would it be okay if we entered or do you want to get going right away?”
Stepping around Abe to close the door, Gwen picked up her earlier thread. “I’m still not convinced we shouldn’t just go to The House.”
Siobhan finally spoke up. “We considered that, then decided it would be better to go to Gryphon’s.” She slanted a glance at Kim who made a ‘go on’ gesture with her hand. “We think we shouldn’t rely completely on The House to guide our investigation. We’re starting to question if it has ulterior reasons for helping us.”
Gwen tilted her head to peer at Siobhan from a different angle, like it would help her understand the logic better. “Why?”
“Can you argue The House seems to be helping us?”
“I mean, I guess.”
“And can we be sure it has good intent?”
“Let me be clear. Are you suggesting The House has a will?”
Siobhan lifted her brows and pursed her lips. “Feels like it.”
“And that’s a bad thing, how?”
“I’m not sure it is a bad thing. I’m just suggesting caution before we allow an unknown force to lead us by the nose to serve whatever its purpose is.”
“But its been helping us.”
“To an extent. But what about the missing kids that started all of this?” Dan grunted at the reference. Siobhan continued. “Why wouldn’t it help us find those kids? Feels like kids would be the ones most would feel compelled to help. And yet it isn’t.”
“I know The House feels like the easy answer,” Kim piped up. “And its definitely seemed to help us up to now, but what if that was just so we’d become dependent on its help? We’re just assuming its benevolent. It could be leading us by the nose to do something. Maybe,” she looked to Dan, rolled her lips, “its using the missing kids as the final lure into its trap.”
“So, you’re saying we shouldn’t go to The House at all?”
“I’m saying that if we are lead to it, which I think we will be, we do it with caution.”
Gwen thought a moment, then tipped her head to the side in concession. “Makes sense.” With that she shifted her attention to Dempsey, “So, your magic cards will lead us to Gryphon?”
Dempsey shrugged. “Probably. I need a better feeling for the guy before I try. The cards need to be directed.”
“Which is why we need to go to his house,” Ben added.
“Okay.” Gwen slid her gaze over the group. “Looks like you are all ready to go. Just let me grab my stuff.”
With that she ducked into closet next to the bathroom, gathered her plunger, then turned back to the group. “All set.”
Siobhan looked at Dan, Ivan, and Abe. “Do any of you need to collect anything?”
Ivan stooped down and grabbed the bag he’d collected earlier from the floor by the door. “All set.”
Dan indicated his crossbows where they habitually hung along his thighs, then patted his vest pockets. “I could use my notebooks.”
“Oh, yeah.” Patti turned and grabbed the notebooks off the table. “We added some notes, but on separate paper.” She scooped up a bunch of sheets then folded them in half. “I’ll just tuck them in the back of a book?”
“Sure.”
Once the papers were folded and secure Patti handed the notebooks to Dan, who put them in the pockets they fit in and sealed the flaps over them. “Okay.”
Siobhan looked at Abe. “Abe?”
Abe curled their hand around the strap of their bag. “I’m all set.”
Siobhan nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s go to Gryphon’s home. Ben? Why don’t you lead the way since you and Dempsey know the location.”
Ben nodded. “Works.”
That said they all left the cottage. Kim turned to make sure the door was firmly shut then squinted at the flower bed next to the door. A whispered word and the stone of the path leading up to the door flowed forward, seeping under the door before firming up. Siobhan slanted Kim a look. “Have you done that before?”
Kim shook her head. “No. But-” she shrugged. “You know.”
“I do.” There was a wealth of understanding in Siobhan’s tone. That said, she turned her head and nodded to Ben. “Good when you are.”
Ben’s grin lit up his face. “I’m always good.”
Gwen rolled her eyes at that and stepped forward to nudge her with her elbow. “Sure, you are.”
Ben’s raised brows and pursed lips spoke for themselves, but they weren’t fooling anyone there. Well, maybe Abe, being they were new to the group but they were a savvy sort so probably that look wasn’t even fooling them.
Gryphon lived a fifteen meros walk from Kim’s cottage. Being it was a nice day the walk was pleasant, easy, and it gave everyone time to settle themselves and focus on what they might encounter in their search for Gryphon. As they walked Dan and Ivan filled them in on the details they’d discovered from Aillea. Most of it raised more questions. Abe tried to field the ones regarding their observations.
By the end of the walk more than just Gwen was mentioning a hurting brain. Ben’s eyes crossed about halfway through the explanation. Kim frowned and appeared to weigh the information but it was pretty clear she didn’t have a huge frame of reference. Patti nodded and from time to time injected a question based on connections she started to make to how what Abe explained seemed to crossover with Patti’s Magick. Which made sense as Abe’s, Dan’s, and Patti’s Magick shared a common thread of creativity.
Siobhan followed along, making her own connections between those Magick’s, theories swirling in her mind. While she didn’t have the same base of understanding Abe, Dan, and Patti might an elementary theory of alchemy was understanding how the elements, when put in specific orders, could produce effects. It might be slightly different than what Abe was explaining, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just another way of explaining Magick that changed things. Interesting.
The explanations of what was discovered while talking to Aillea and then the explanations to explain those explanations – wasn’t that twisted? – took up the entirety of the walk to the port and a tall, weathered wood building that loomed on the street abutting the docks. Ben strode confidently up to the equally weathered wooden door, lifted the latch, and strode inside. The others followed in close order, pouring into a small foyer with doors to either side. In the center of the wall, facing the entrance, was a small reception desk, a counter separating it from the room behind which was a cluttered, dimly lit room. A brass bell sat on the chest-high counter. Ben tapped it, then tapped it again.
And then they waited. And waited.
“Maybe no one is here?”
Almost as soon as the words were out of Patti’s mouth a door towards the back of the recessed room opened and a small man with a harried expression entered. He was maybe five six or five seven. A fact that made it easy for the majority of the group to clearly see the spot at the top of his head he’d attempted to comb his thinning hair over. His features were entirely regular, the kind of guy you’d pass on the street and two seconds later not be able to describe. This effect was enhanced by the weathered quality of the man’s skin, similar to the weathered condition of the building. Both spoke of long years and countless storms, wearing them down and yet not breaking them. It was a look many people who made their homes near the port had. You could tell the guy was a lifer.
He had a napkin tucked into her shirt collar – did people actually do that? – and he snatched it free when he saw the group ranging around the counter and filling the foyer.
“Oh. Are you looking for a room? Rooms?”
“No.” Ben thumped a coin down on the counter. The sound drew the man’s eye. When the man’s attention focused on the coin Ben dropped his hand over it. “We’re looking for someone who lives here.”
The man shifted his attention from Ben’s hand, lifting his gaze to meet Ben’s eyes. “People pay for discretion around these parts.”
Ben nodded. He raised his hand just a little then dropped it back.“They do. They pay for a lot of things around these parts.”
“I can’t say for sure I know this person until you give me a name.”
“Gryphon Ricci.”
“Nope.” The guy shook his head real slow. His mouth said ‘nope’ but his darting gaze said otherwise.
Ben fished a second coin from his pocket, wedged it between his index and middle fingers to flash it for a mikro, then slid it under his palm on the counter. “Would it help I’m here for Don Franco?”
“Would it help I you people drop that name all the time. Doesn’t mean they know the man.”
Ben pursed his lips and made a big show of agreement. “True.” Then he pulled another coin out of his pocket, flashed it, and stashed it with the other two, making sure to keep his palm flat against the counter so the coins didn’t wander. “Don Franco hasn’t seen Mr. Ricci for a few days. He’s concerned about his man.”
“Hmm. Still don’t know him.”
Ivan dug his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I wonder if we dug into the Board of Selectman’s records if we’d find the property taxes have been paid regularly on this fine establishment.”
The man behind the counter shifted his attention to Ivan. “What concern of it is it to you?”
“Oh,” Ivan flashed a rogue’s grin, pulled a hand form his pocket, and held it over the counter to the man. “I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Ivan. Selectman for this district.”
The man eyed Ivan’s hand, then shifted his attention to where Ben still held his hand on the counter. After a moment’s contemplation he shifted his gaze back to Ivan. He didn’t take Ivan’s hand. “People can say they are anyone. Doesn’t make them that.”
Ivan shrugged and returned his hand to his pocket, making a big show of curling his shoulders forward in nonchalance. “It wouldn’t take long to send a runner for the Guard, if you need confirmation.”
The man’s eyes widened. “No. Uh, no. No need for the Guard.”
He tapped the top of Ben’s hand. Ben lifted it, revealing the three coins which the man swiftly slid over the counter and then behind it to drop wherever they dropped. “Mr. Ricci’s room is number five.” He jerked his head in the direction of the door to the left. “Down that hall. Haven’t seen him in a few. If he returns and you’re there I never saw you.”
Ben nodded. “Works.”
He jerked his head to the left. The group caught his gist, moving towards the door and clearing the foyer in quick order. Ivan and Ben brought up the rear.
“I had it,” Ben grumbled.
“Sure you did. But my stepping up saved some coin. You know he would have wanted at least two more and you would have begrudged that and then I’d have to cover for you when you came and took them back.”
“I don’t need you to cover for me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Patti snickered from just in front of them, to which Ben responded with a disgruntled look, “What?”
“You guys are funny.”
“Looking,” Gwen added. Before Ben could respond, Siobhan called out quietly. “Found number five. The door is locked.”
“Okay,” Ben pushed to the front of the group, reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked like a heavy brass key. Ivan smiled when he saw it. “You’re carrying it.”
Ben nodded. “It comes in handy.”
Ben inserted the key into the lock and twisted. There was a very brief scent like ozone in the air and then the lock clicked. Ben withdrew the key and pushed it back into one of the interior pockets of his jacket. “Like Magick.”
Ivan grinned. “Because it is.” He buffed his nails on the front of his jacket. “Still got it.”
Ben rolled his eyes, then grinned and pushed the door open.
The room beyond defied the weathered appearance of the building. Where the building looked beaten down by time, the interior of the room inside gleamed with the quiet opulence that spoke of money and born-in-the-bones class. There was nothing flashy in the walnut furniture with its moss upholstery and gold accents, except, as Ben noted with an assessing eye, that it was real gold. As was the appointments on the two lowboys flanking the fireplace with its marble lintel and gilding the curved back of the tufted settee. The rug in front of the settee and between two matching chairs, on which stood a curved legged table with a marble top, showed evidence of being handmade and would have set someone back a sweet chunk of change.
The settee and chair arrangement placement was a little odd as the settee was set with its back to the fireplace so the bowed shape of chairs and settee seemed to curve to embrace those who walked into the room. There was something at once welcoming in the shape and off-putting as who put the back of a settee to a fire? Someone who didn’t appreciate its heat or light? Someone who had turned their back on those things? Or maybe that was reading too much into the arrangement.
Even someone uneducated in the cost of things would be struck by a feeling of understated elegance. This was not the room of a thug. But then, Ben thought on the information he and Dempsey had found on their target, Gryphon Ricci was not your average thug. He came from money. A lot of money. And it seemed like while he’d stepped away from that life, or had been forcibly removed from it, he hadn’t been able to remove himself from a bred to the bone love of the finer things.
Dempsey stopped dead in the center of the room and turned slowly, his eyes taking in the tasteful, clearly original art on the walls and a collection of sculpture and what looked to be dioramas, tiny rooms depicted in minute detail, displayed on the floating glass shelves in the two walls adjacent to the fireplace which centered the space across from the door and was bracketed by two doors leading deeper into the apartment. Abe, hand curled in the strap of their bag, sidled next to Dempsey, quietly goggling. “So this is what its like to be rich.”
Dempsey nodded. “Yep.”
“It’s really nice. Almost as nice as your place.”
Dempsey looked down at Abe and pressed his finger to his lips, to which Abe’s eyes grew wide. They looked around the group, gauging if they overheard. When it didn’t look like anyone had, they nodded to Dempsey. “Sorry.”
Abe squinted at one of the miniature rooms, then tentatively touched one with the index finger of their right hand, the hand that was teaming with Magick. “I think these are Magick.”
Dempsey squinted at the tiny study, complete with a lavish billiard table and leather club chairs. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” Abe turned their face up to Dempsey, their lips formed on an “Oh” of wonder. “I’ve never seen anything like it but, yes, I think so.”
“Huh.” Dempsey pressed a blunt finger to the base of a bedroom in miniature, pulsing a small amount of Magick into it and waiting to see if he felt an echoing pulse. Something flowed back into him, stale, static. “I think you’re right. I don’t think they are artifacts, but there is definitely Magick there. Weird.”
Abe cocked their head, their attention on the miniature study. “It looks familiar.”
“Seen one before?”
Abe blinked, then peered deeper at the piece. They reached up and scratched their neck with their clean right hand. “It looks like a dollhouse room. I think I’ve seen a collection of something similar at a museum showing depictions of rooms from famous historical houses.” They shook their head. “That’s probably what I’m connecting it to.”
Low bookcases sat on both walls bracketing the room. Dan wandered over to one, stooped down, and started perusing spines. Then he pulled a hardcover book out and began idly flipping through the pages.
Patti wandered over to the grand piano holding a place of honor in the corner to the left of the door. She drifted her fingers gently over the keys and bit her lip. “I did not expect something like this to be in a building like, well,” she shrugged and hit a C, smiling at the clear tone that emitted from the piano, “this.”
“Yeah,” Gwen said, drifting around the room to look at the small pieces displayed on the wall shelves. “This is,” she shook her head, “it is.”
“Prairie?” Ivan called, drawing Prairie’s attention from her contemplation of the large oil painting above the marble lintel.
“Yes?”
“Can you do your thing?”
“My thing?”
“Uh, you know,” Ivan waved vaguely, “read the vibes of the room. Tell if Gryphon is, you know-”
Prairie finished Ivan’s thought, a lift of brows making comment on it. “Dead?”
“Yeah,” Ivan dug his hands into his trouser pockets and shifted from foot to foot. “That.”
Prairie wandered closer to where Ivan stood beside the settee. “I don’t actually read vibes.”
“Uh, I know.”
“Okay.” Prairie nodded and then shook her hands out. “Give me a mikro. I’ll let you know what the vibes tell me.”
The corner of her mouth tilted up as she slanted Ivan a look. He grinned. “Cute.”
A blush flooded Prairie’s cheeks and she looked down. “Thank you.”
She darted a quick look up at Ivan, then took a deep breath that arched her back and drew her shoulder blades up. As she let it out her eyelids drifted down and her head fell back very slightly against her shoulder. If Ivan wasn’t used to this the fact she didn’t draw a breath in again might have sent his heart skittering, but he was and it didn’t.
When Abe wandered from Dempsey’s side, moving closer to stare fixedly at the air around Prairie, Ben, all casual with hands in pockets, all casually wandered next to the tattooed artist. “So, you’ve been to Dempsey’s place.”
“Yes,” Abe’s tone was distracted, then they switched their attention from Prairie to Ben with a dawning look. “It’s okay.”
“Not as nice as this place though, huh?”
Abe made a big point of looking back at Prairie. “It’s okay.”
“You’re tighter than Dempsey’s vault.” Ben murmured in a voice that only carried to Abe, “Or should I say, the Warden’s?”
Abe jerked their attention from Prairie and gave Ben some side eye. “If you want information about Dempsey you need to ask him.”
“I have.” Ben rocked on his heels. “I mean, I will.” With that and a nod he strolled off to poke his head into the room to the right of the fireplace.
“Bathroom,” he announced. “Damn nice bathroom.” He whistled. “Gold fixtures in here too.”
“Yeah?” Kim followed behind Ben, poking her head around him to look into the room. “I’ve never seen gold fixtures.”
“Don’t blow them up.”
“Ha, freaking, ha.” Kim turned her head and gave Ben a good glare then added a flipped bird to the mix. “You blow up one bathroom and suddenly your a bathroom terrorist.”
“Well, Ben has blown up a bathroom or two, if I recall,” Gwen said, moving behind Kim to look over her shoulder. “And he didn’t even use Magick. Just beans.”
A snicker ripped from Kim’s nostrils. “Damn.”
Ben just shook his head, real slow, and adopted a sad slash disappointed expression.
A gasp from Prairie drew all eyes to her. She gave them all a smile from of nervous and waved her hands. “He isn’t dead.”
Ivan visibly relaxed and blew a relieved sigh.
“Well,” Prairie amended, “he isn’t dead and around here.”
“Does that preclude him being dead?” Patti asked.
“No. But probably. Usually the place people live has the most connection to them so you’ll either find them there or at the scene of their death. So, he may be dead and anchored at the scene but I don’t get that feeling from Spiritus.”
“Okay.” Ivan nodded. “Could you do that thing you did to find Nieve? Follow his path in Spiritus?”
Prairie wrinkled her nose. “I could. But we aren’t certain this was the last place he was. When I followed Nieve’s trail it was from the last place she was. It’s different. I think we should have Dempsey do his card trick to find him.”
“It’s not actually a card trick,” Dempsey offered in a dry tone.
Prairie turned to look at him, directing a look of contrition his way. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest anything.”
Dempsey, clearly no more capable of resisting that look than pretty much everyone else in their group, shrugged and said in a gentle tone that was really out of alignment with his usual manner, “It’s okay.”
It was kind of hard not to be gentle with Prairie. Everyone there got it and didn’t comment. Well, except Gwen did, under her breath, over her shoulder to Kim. And that was more jokey. Yep, jokey. Maybe Gwen was still working on that whole “be nicer to Dempsey thing”. Maybe Kim added fuel to the fire by murmuring back, “So want to date him,” to which Gwen blew a healthy raspberry.
Ivan linked his fingers, turning them to pop his knuckles as he looked to Dempsey. “What do you need to make it work?”
Dempsey shrugged. “I’m going to try the bedroom.” He jerked his head towards the door to the left of the fireplace. “Guessing it’s here. Want to see if it matches this room or not. Might give me something on the guy.”
Dempsey strolled into the room on the left which was, as guessed, a bedroom. A bedroom with a bed that matched the décor of the living space in every way, from the curve of the headboard and foot board echoing that of the back of the settee and chairs, the upholstery in the same shade of green, to the gold leaf gilding the wood in which the upholstery was sunk. The nightstands on either side of the bed were gilded as well. So was the wardrobe at the foot of the bed, beside the door Dempsey stood at. It should have been ostentatious but there was a patina to the gold that added a subtle level of restraint.
Dempsey stepped further into the room and swung the door closed slightly, confirming the back of the door had been gilded as well. And it was fine gilding, enough so he could see a wavering reflection of himself into its muted surface. The wall behind the wardrobe had received a similar treatment. With the door closed it made a solid plane of subtle patina.
It was like a mural painted by that artist that worked with gold leaf. The name wasn’t coming to him. He’d have to ask Abe about it later.
When Dempsey stepped back from it he realized the effect was like sunlight on water, with the muted gold reflecting and warping the moss color of the adjacent walls, subtle variations in the application of the leaf enhancing the effect. There were tall lamps to either side of the wardrobe. Dempsey imagined when those were lit if you were lying in the bed and contemplating the wall it would shimmer like a heat illusion. Interestingly they were gas lamps, not electric. Was Gryphon Magickal in nature?
He turned to call the question back into the living area and bumped into Kim who crowded behind him, uttering, “Damn! Who lives here? Midas?”
“No,” Dempsey said in a distracted tone, “Just someone who invests well. This,” he ran his hand over the pole of the lamp, grazing the glass shade with his fingertips, “is a Jensen.” At her blank look he added, “It’s worth a couple grand.”
She craned her neck to look a the lamp. “Really?”
“Yep.” Dempsey nodded. “I think the wardrobe is a Dreffen.”
“Which means?”
“Maybe ten grand?”
“Dayum. I bet this carpet,” she gave an experimental bounce on the plush surface of the hand-woven rug that rivaled the one in the living area, if not surpassed its quality, “is worth more than my entire collection of furniture.”
“You’d likely win that bet.”
Windows were situated to either side of the bed, centered above the nightstands. Kim wandered over to one and pushed back a moss velvet curtain with gold tassels to take in the view. “How much you figure he sunk into this place in total?”
Ben answered from the doorway. “Fifty, maybe seventy-five grand in furnishings alone. Rough estimate.” He looked to Dempsey. “Have you seen enough?”
Dempsey paused in swinging open the wardrobe to reveal rough clothing, hung neatly on wooden hangers. The clothing seemed incongruous in the muted opulence of the room. All combined he’d say that there was a solid one-hundred, max, in clothing residing in a piece of furniture worth ten grand. It was also an interesting look into the man who lived in this space.
Pushing the clothing aside he revealed loops in the back of the wardrobe. An addition that was not original to the antique. These loops held a variety of weapons, leaning heavily towards blunt force trauma. A single saber hung from a gilded cord to the side, incongruous next to the heavier weapons. A low shelf at the bottom of the display held five sets of brass knuckles. Brushing his fingers over them he felt enchantments embedded in the metal. It would take more concentration to determine what the enchantments were, but he didn’t really need that much detail to determine the cut of the man.
He shifted the clothing back along the rod, hiding the weapons once more, and closed the wardrobe door. “Yeah. I think so. Find anything else of interest?”
Ben scratched his chin. “There’s a safe under the rug in front of the settee. Complicated mechanism. I could break it, given time, but not sure if it will reveal anything. Thoughts?””
Dempsey frowned in consideration. “I don’t need it to do my reading. I’m curious what’s in it but its not like we can take anything from here.”
“Why not?”
“Do you really want to remove something from the home of an associate of Don Franco?”
Ben lifted his brows. “Not so much.”
“Yeah.”
That said, Dempsey wandered back to the living area. Patti and Prairie had sat down on the settee and Ivan was occupying one of the chairs beside it. Dan was leaning against the wall, thumbing through a book and Siobhan was poking through the ashes in the fireplace.
Dempsey stopped next to her. “Find anything?”
“What?” Siobhan looked up. Seeing Dempsey she shook her head, “No. Just wood ash. No signs of burning either papers or anything like alchemical components.”
“You notice everything is gas in here?”
“Yes,” Siobhan nodded. “It might just be that the lodgings never switched over to electricity, though that seems unlikely. But maybe they do custom with Magickers so it doesn’t make sense to use electric.”
“Or maybe Gryphon is a Magicker.”
“Did you find anything to suggest it?”
“Just a feeling.”
“Will it make a difference?”
“To my reading? No. Llora was a Magicker and the cards found her. It could actually be helpful. Magick responds to Magick.”
“How do the cards work?”
Dempsey gave Siobhan a cunning look full of “not telling you”. “Magick.”
She sighed and rose to her feet, dusting her hands off on the front of her legs. “So your ready.”
“Yeah.” He strolled over and grabbed the empty chair, pulling it forward so it was closer to the table in the center of the furniture arrangement. He withdrew his deck from his inside pocket, folding back the silk wrapped around it.
“Why silk?” Ben asked from beside the chair. Dempsey hadn’t seen the other man approach but he didn’t jump. It took a lot more than that to make him do so. Instead he kept focused on the deck, already putting himself into the head space to call the Magick out of the artifact.
“Silk is an insulator.” He murmured in explanation before setting the deck square on the table and placing his left hand on top of it. He didn’t know why the left hand. It was just a thing. The first time he’d used the deck it had – well, it hadn’t told him, so much as it spoke words but it had- Explaining wasn’t really his strong suit. He just had known to use his left hand to call out the Magick. Just like he knew, at a touch, how to call the Magick from any artifact he encountered. Or if an item was an artifact at all. It wasn’t like artifacts ‘called him’. More like he knew one when he touched one.
Enough of that. He needed to focus. Pulsing the deck with his Magick he felt the Magick inside of it surge to meet his hands. Slowly, he began to speak, details pouring out from him without any real thought, kind of drawn from a place where his Magick took observations and made conclusions from them.
“His name is Gryphon Ricci.” His mind flashed to the dark strands of hair he’d seen in the bristles of the brush on the bathroom sink as he picked up the deck and began a slow shuffle. “He has dark hair. He is,” another lightning assessment based on the placement of the art on the walls and on the shelves, “six feet tall. Perhaps six foot two. He comes from money but has been cut off from it. He compensates for this with the collection of wealth, guided by an understanding of value from his earlier life.”
He laid down a card. The Page of Pentacles. He frowned at the image. The man depicted on the card had dark hair and was standing in a field of flowers. In the distance were trees and a mountain range. The man held a coin up. Some of that made sense but, vague.
Seeking more, Dempsey ran the cards through his hands, releasing another pulse of Magick. Another quick flash of thought came into his mind, building on the placement of chairs and settee, “He does not like his back to be exposed. He has enemies. Enemies that are not from his background. Enemies that will be stopped, momentarily, by a show of wealth, which will give him the time to respond to them.”
He turned another card up, placing it next to the Page. Seven of Pentacles. Another dark haired man, this time leaning on a hoe while looking at a garden full of coins. The man’s face showed fatigue. The only other feature of the card was the mountain range far in the distance.
Okay. That didn’t give him shit. Keeping his face relaxed, not letting any of the questions slowly mounting in his mind to project to the others, he shuffled again. His mind flashed back to the neatly arranged weapons in the wardrobe. “He has a facility with weapons. He was trained at an early age to fight with a saber but since then has shifted to using blunt weapons. This reflects the shift in his life, from gentleman to enforcer.”
This time he laid down the Ace of Wands. The fuck? This card contained a hand, emerging from a cloud, holding a club sprouting vines. Again, there was a hill in the background, though this one had a building on it – a castle. Beyond this was a mountain range in the far distance. At least it was a marker, though Dempsey couldn’t recall any castles, on hills or otherwise, in the area. The other potential markers on the card were a cluster of trees growing along a river. There were three trees. Maybe that meant a distance?
Distantly he heard Gwen asking, “Why’s he keep pulling cards?”
Kim’s hushed voice answered, “Dunno. I’m guessing he’ll tell us.”
Dempsey tuned them out, pulsing another flow of Magick into the cards, like a ‘knock and hello’ to wake them, though they were ‘awake’ in the sense that they were giving him something and there was some pattern there in the depiction of mountains or hills but that was damned vague. He tried again, “There’s a conflict inside of him. Between who he was and who he has become. He holds tight to the past, trying to reclaim its glory. What he shows on the surface is a smokescreen; what lies underneath is projection. He doesn’t know if he is the man he shows or the boy whose memory he hoards. He is afraid.”
He laid the Page of Wands next to the Ace as in the background Patti asked, “This is all cold reading?”
Abe’s light tenor voice answered. “I’m never sure. It could be. Could be Magick.”
Dempsey focused on the card, tuning the others out as he drew deep on his Magick. Another wand. That could be the blunt instruments Gryphon preferred? But, that was a stretch. Usually the cards’ Magick laid things out for him so he understood it. This was all kind of garbled crap. He focused on the Page. It showed a young man staring at vines growing out of the staff he held with both hands. Hold on to thing with both hands if you don’t want to lose them?
The idea flitted through Dempsey’s mind but he thought it might be his brain trying to make connections. There was a distinct lack of Magick flavoring the flash of ‘insight’. And there were the hills or mountains again, behind the guy. The fuck were the cards telling him?
The mountains and the guy and the staff with the vines were the only images on the card. Nothing clearly directing one way or the other. He started to dig through his knowledge about the tarot. The cards had never used the symbolic meanings before – they were usually damned straight forward – but at this point it was worth a thought. The Page of Wands represented a person who could find growth or potential in the most unlikely places.
His Magick pinged as the thought formed. Not exactly a neon sign pointing “here he is!” but more than he’d felt up to now.
Maybe he’d missed something else not thinking symbolism with the other cards. He shifted his attention back to the Ace. It represented… growth capability, reflected in the green landscape. The castle represented opportunities. Yeah, that didn’t feel quite right though his Magick pinged a little as he considered the idea of growth. Inspiration. Growth. Potential. Follow your heart.
Yeah, Dempsey thought, not super insightful. Rather follow some Magick clues. “Anything else?” he projected at the cards before shuffling them a few more times and then laying down the Six of Cups. No dark haired man. No man at all, really. Instead the card featured a young boy giving a girl a cup of flowers.
Fuck! An annoyed snort escaped Dempsey’s nose.
The children stood in a courtyard of a home. The image of the home shifted, appearing between one blink and the next to look like The House and the courtyard looked like the garden in front of it, only to shift back to the rudimentary image. Dempsey pinched the bridge of his nose then looked at the card again. Still a boy and a girl and a courtyard and a house.
Without thinking about it he flipped the next card. C’mon, give me something!
In the background Gwen said, “He stopped talking.”
Patti made a low shushing noise. Dempsey focused on the card he’d flipped. Ten of Cups. Same house. On a hill. Rainbow behind it. Happy people up front. Again the image of the house shifted to The House one blink then back again in the next. Dempsey’s Magick went ping, ping, ping, pulsing against his fingertips.
The next card flipped, possibly on its own though the deck had never shown signs of doing that before. The stiff rectangle snapped in the air and came down smack in the middle of the table with the image of The Devil facing Dempsey. But it wasn’t The Devil image that drew his gaze and pinged his Magick. That was the male and female couple at the bottom of the card, bound at the The Devil’s feet.
“The Devil?”
This time Dempsey clearly heard Gwen’s question and answered without thinking, driven by the Magick going ping-pong, ping-pong like the toll of a clock beneath his skin.
“The man and woman at The Devil’s feet aren’t actually chained. They can escape if they want to. The illusion of the binding holds them, their concept of being held holding them in bondage. They are slaves to their own passions or thoughts. Look here,” he turned the card around with a blunt finger, facing it towards the settee where Gwen perched, leaning forward to peruse the cards on the table. “The man and w0man have tails. They are ruled by animal instincts. Like Beasts.”
The corner of Dempsey’s mouth quirked up as the truth of this came out of somewhere inside of him. He surveyed the loosely related cards with a sense of rightness swelling inside him.
“Gryphon is at The House. I think maybe Aillea is too.”
Gwen clapped her hands together. “Well, damn, what are we waiting for. To The House!”
With this she stood up and dramatically pointed to the door. When everyone didn’t immediately rise to join her she pulled back her hand and pointed again, planting the other hand on her hip and striking a heroic pose. “I said, To The House.”
Huge grin on her face, Kim rose and strode to join Gwen, striking a similar pose, although she pointed both arms, angled slightly off as she stood side pointed to the door.
“You heard the lady,” Siobhan said, rising with a smile. “To The House!”
Patti raised a hand. “What if it wants to consume our souls?”
Ben lifted his brows. “We tell it no. Mine is already under lien.”
As Patti snorted her response Ben shifted his jacket on his shoulders and headed towards the door, doing a disco hand jive gesture involving some shoulder movement as he passed Kim and Gwen who were still happily holding their poses. “To The House.”
“To The House! Woot woot,” Gwen chanted in a rhythm all her own, and shimmy shook her way to the door. “To The House!”
Enter The Woods 