“The man who started his hunger strike today?”
“That he sat down this morning on the steps and that we came here to dig is not quite a coincidence. With the prince’s militia busy dealing with unrest, we knew we could search unobserved.”
“For a time,” added Chartji. “We need to move quickly.”
Kehinde exclaimed as, having unwound the crumbling outer bindings, she uncapped the tube and drew forth the tip-most end of papers so brown they were but one step from curling into dust. She impatiently pushed her spectacles back down to the tip of her nose and perused this scrap end over the lenses.
“Salvageable!” she uttered in tones so fraught they would have seemed at home on the stage. “Brennan! It’s what we prayed for!”
His expression brightened. His grin, like sun, shone on her.
Her eyes widened, as if in surprise to hear herself. Her lips pressed together, and she looked away from him. After gently pushing down the fragile blueprints, she capped the tube. “Chartji,” she said in a crisp tone, handing the tube over to the troll. “You guard this.” She grabbed the spanner from the ground. “We must pull out every part of the press we can carry.”
“We can help,” I said, caught up in her eagerness.
“Cat,” said Bee. “Ought we not keep moving?”
“What has happened to you?” Brennan asked, hand still on the shovel. “Last we saw of you, you and that fine figure of an arrogant cold mage were fleeing the Griffin Inn with an angry mob from Adurnam on your heels. Which, I might add, is when we first got the news about the destruction of the airship.”
“Let me tell you while we dig.”
They were clever listeners and asked all the right questions at the right time. I left out many details I was not yet willing—might not ever be willing—to share, but I laid out the main narrative precisely and with feeling. Bee dug with a vengeance into the debris, heedless of splinters, shards, and soot.
“I am not at all surprised to hear that a mage House would engage in such an unsavory enterprise,” exclaimed Kehinde, placing the platen from the press into one of the leather sacks they had brought with them. She straightened. “But I admit, I am stunned to hear their claim that Camjiata has escaped!”