by ‘At night,’ he repeated.
‘Remember the glimmer-of-moonlight thing I mentioned? And Mary Werewode and her moon-bathing and moonsilver and all of that. Giddy gods know why, but there is a pattern there — you said so yourself, Jay! — and I’m really curious to know what might happen if I “mess with” her painting when the moon’s up.’
‘The Elvyng Academy is not open at night,’ said Jay.
‘I know that.’
‘So that makes it a case of actual breaking and entering.’
‘I know.’
‘Which is an actual crime.’
‘Not if you aren’t stealing anything.’
‘I’m… pretty sure it’s still a crime, Ves, even if you aren’t a burglar.’
‘It’ll only be for a few minutes.’
‘Right, because it’s the duration that determines the severity of the offence.’
I looked, rather pleadingly, at Val.
She watched our back-and-forth with a small smile. ‘I don’t know,’ she said when she caught my eye, and shook her head. ‘Watching you try to justify yourself to, of all people, Jay? I’m liking it.’
‘Hey,’ said Jay. ‘Of all people?’
Val could hardly explain that Jay was both new and supposedly my responsibility, or had been for most of his time with the Society so far. Superiors I’d withstood without blinking; I’d even circumvented Milady’s orders on occasion, if I felt a deep enough need to do so. I’d never worked so hard to gain anyone’s approval as I did Jay’s. Don’t ask me why; I don’t understand it myself.
Maybe I am just wicked, and his very strait-laced nature operates upon me like the proverbial red flag to a bull.
Maybe it’s the simple fact that he is usually right, and this irks me because I am evil.
I rushed on. ‘If we do it tonight, we could have answers by the morning—’
‘We?’ said Jay, with that ominous, shadowy frown he has when he’s really unhappy about something. I could practically hear thunder rumbling in the distance.
‘Okay, me,’ I said quickly. ‘I’ll go alone, if you’ll just help me get there and back.’
‘No.’
‘You can wait outside.’
‘No. Ves, I don’t—’ He stopped, and actually rubbed his temples in frustration. ‘Ves, remarkable as you are, I have no idea how you haven’t ended up in prison yet.’
I scoffed at this. ‘I don’t make a habit of breaking and entering.’
‘Once would be enough.’
‘Only if you get caught?’
‘Which, of course, you never could.’
‘Jay. Look. I hear you, and you’re right, but do you have a better idea? Because we’ve been following the library trail for weeks on end, and all we’ve got to show for it is a tangled mess of dead-end clues.’
Jay looked, apparently for confirmation, at Val, who spread her hands in an I-can’t-help-you gesture. ‘More or less the case,’ she said. ‘There might be a breakthrough ahead, but…’
‘There also might not,’ I finished. ‘At this point, I would put money on not.’
Val nodded. ‘I hate to say it, but if Ves is in any way right about that painting, it should be explored.’
I beamed triumphantly at Jay.
But he shook his head. ‘I don’t actually dispute that. But breaking into other people’s houses, at night or at any other time, is not okay, no matter the motive.’
‘I—’ I began.
‘Nor is it wise,’ he said severely, frowning at me.
‘So about that better idea?’ I said.
To my infinite surprise and delight, he said: ‘I do, actually, have a better idea.’
A few hours later saw us on Elvyng property once more. Not breaking and entering.
‘You know, if I’d realised you still had slumber party privileges at the Academy we could have skipped the entire breaking-and-entering conversation,’ I said as we approached the main doors (Jay having walked me quickly, quickly past the Emporium).
‘It’s not the sort of thing one happens to mention,’ Jay answered, and rang the bell.
As though anything with the Elvyngs is merely ordinary. The bell, in this instance, was represented by a small, oval panel of magick-charged gem set innocuously into the great stone frame. Labradorite, by the looks of it: pallid but glimmering with colours. I hadn’t noticed it before, because when I had arrived earlier with Val, the doors had been open to the public.
All Jay had to do was wave a palm in front of the panel. A glitter of magick rippled over its surface, and — I kid you not — an actual, socking enormous bell tolled from somewhere within. I judge its size from the depth and resonance of the bell’s tone: it sounded like the kind that usually crowns the tops of cathedral spires.
‘I bet that’s popular in the middle of the night,’ I commented, wide-eyed.
‘People don’t usually ring the bell in the middle of the night,’ Jay pointed out. Quite rightly, considering that he added, ‘Anyone trying to visit at 3am is either in possession of a key, or is here to rob the place.’
I blushed, for without Jay’s surprise sleepover credentials that’s exactly what I would have done. Well, not the robbing part. Just the sneaking in without an invitation part.
We did not have to wait long. Soon after the last, echoing sounds of the great bell died away, the heavy oak door unlatched, and swung slowly open. I peeked inside, expecting to see somebody effecting this opening, but I saw no one.
Like I said, nothing about Elvyng could be ordinary.
Jay sauntered in at his ease, and wasted no time looking around for a welcoming party. The doors slid smoothly shut behind us — audibly locking and bolting themselves, to my mild consternation — and I followed as Jay walked straight through the hall, down a corridor, up a flight of stairs and knocked at a door at the top. Zero hesitation. He knew the place like the back of his hand.
‘Come in,’ called someone within.
The voice — quite low for a female, and smooth — proved to belong to a woman of about Jay’s age, or maybe a year or two younger. We’d found the music room: small though the chamber was, space had somehow been found for a gloriously shiny grand piano, a row of guitars, two violins and a collection of bright, silvery pipes that immediately drew my eye. I didn’t see anything quite like my own syrinx set, but one or two were close.
Jay’s academy contact sat at a desk in the corner, its surface covered in sheet music and notepaper. She looked up as we came in, grinned at Jay, and eyed me with frank curiosity. She had sleek, black hair worn loose, skin a couple of shades lighter than Jay’s, and fabulous brown eyes almost amber in colour. ‘Jay,’ she said, her gaze flicking again to me. ‘It’s been a while.’
‘Been busy,’ he murmured, smiling back. ‘You know how that goes.’
‘Still incapable of taking a day off?’
‘Like you were ever any better.’
‘Family curse.’ The lady grinned.
‘I prefer “trait”,’ Jay retorted. ‘Er, this is Cordelia Vesper, my associate at the Society. Ves, this is my sister Rina. She’s a music professor at the Academy.’
I looked at Rina with fresh interest. She looked to be in her late twenties, which probably made her the sibling closest to him in age.
Rina came over to me and shook my hand. I didn’t miss the enquiring look she directed at Jay as she stepped back. Was she silently asking as to the purport of our mission, or was she silently enquiring about me?
Smoothly, Jay let it pass. ‘Thanks for letting us in,’ he said.
She nodded, watching his face, but being Jay he was impassive. ‘I’ve had a room fixed up for you, though why you want to be in the attic is beyond me. I don’t think anyone cleans up there more than once in a blue moon.’
She was fishing for details, so that meant Jay hadn’t really told her anything. Interesting. ‘We appreciate it,’ I told her. ‘It’s a great help.’
Rina nodded, plainly mystified, but too polite to push for details. ‘You didn’t want your old dorm?’ she said to Jay, with a trace of a smile.
‘I imagined it otherwise occupied by now.’
‘Was, but it hasn’t yet been reassigned for the upcoming year. It’ll be empty, if you want to take a look.’
‘That’s fine.’ Jay shook his head. ‘We’ll let you get back to your work, and go get started.’
‘Started?’ she echoed, looking from Jay to me.
Jay waved this off, already making for the door. I hesitated, for surely she deserved some kind of an inkling as to what we were doing? But I vaguely realised I had strayed into Sibling Rivalry territory, an area I was hopelessly ill-equipped to cope with, and decided to leave well alone.
‘Aren’t you going to tell her anything?’ I said once we were fairly out of earshot.
‘About what?’ he said, without slowing down.
‘About what we’re doing here?’ I prodded.
‘Nope.’
‘Come on. She’s doing us a huge favour.’
‘How is that relevant?’
‘Jay. What did you tell her?’
‘I said I was in the area, looking for somewhere to stay, and wanted to… revisit old haunts.’
Whether or not a music professor was allowed to invite friends to stay overnight, I didn’t choose to speculate. If she was bending the rules, she seemed happy to do so.
‘How obliging of her to swallow such a transparent story.’
‘She’ll get her revenge at some point.’
‘And what am I supposed to be doing?’
‘Er.’
‘I hope you didn’t let her think I’d be spending the night here with you.’
‘The idea that an attractive, intelligent woman might want to spend the night with me wouldn’t enter her head,’ he said, stopping at the top of what I hoped was the final flight of stairs. ‘Nor yours, apparently.’
‘I–’ I began.
‘Which way did you go from here?’
I swallowed my objections. Stop digging, Ves. ‘I think it was this way.’ I turned left, towards a dusty and faded velvet-clad chair that looked vaguely familiar. ‘Aha!’ I crowed, elated, for there was a door I definitely knew, and when I pushed it open, there was the tiny garret I recalled. Still dusty and smelling of mildew. And there on the wall was—
An empty space, the picture hook still protruding from the wall.
‘It’s gone,’ I gasped.
