Page 7 of Fortress of Ambrose
“Try me.”
To keep him distracted as she snooped, Nore questioned him about every manner of magical anatomy that she could think of. When she ran out of those questions, she asked him to name every discovered enhancer stone in alphabetical order. Only once did the tattoo artist glance at her as she traded the journal in his satchel for a book she’d brought with her.
The tattooist finished. A small pair of dragon wings ornamented his clavicle like a pendant. He sat up, adjusting his clothes.
“Oh, look at the time,” he said, grabbing his bag strap and roping it over his shoulder. “I’m only visiting for a few days. But I’d like to see you again. Are you free tonight?”
“I might be,” she lied. Anything to keep him from growing suspicious as she hooked her own bag, with his journal hidden inside, onto her arm.
“Meet me at Le Blanc on East Third at seven.” He stood, dusted off his clothes, and moved toward the door.
Nore smiled, willing herself to blush.
“Hope to see you then, miss?” He scrubbed a palm down his face. “I can’t believe I don’t know your name.”
She froze. She told herself she wasn’t hiding anymore.
“Delia. Which reminds me, did you do all of your traveling alone?”Who else knows what he discovered about the Scrolls? A friend? A lover?
“I have instant friends everywhere I go.” He grabbed the knob. “I’m never alone.”
“Funny, to me that sounds very lonely.”
He laughed as he pulled the door open. “Well, perhaps you could be the first one. See you tonight, Delia.” He tipped his head and left. Nore collapsed against the wall.
The tattooist exhaled, too. “I never want to do that again.” She held out her hand, and Nore filled it with a few gems she’d brought from Dlaminaugh.
“Thank you, seriously, so much.”
“Sure. Give my love to your brother.”
There was that sick feeling again. Everyone loved her brother, Ellery. The brother who wanted to kill her to take Headship of their House. The brother who was out there somewhere, plotting to find her.
“Sure thing.” Nore dashed out the shop’s back-alley door toward a waiting Yagrin.
Four
Yagrin
Nore strutted toward Yagrin with a satisfied smirk, hand clutched around something. She was smart. Long red hair. Soft-spoken but with angry eyes. When she focused intensely on something, she’d chew her bottom lip so hard it was often swollen on the right side.
“Well?” he asked. “Did you find out if he’s ever looked for the Scroll?”
The Immortality Scroll outlined the steps to achieve a one-use sort of magic for an endless life.Evenfor someone who had already died. Her brother had a piece of the Scroll. They needed to steal it back. Jordan wanted him to assemble the Scroll pieces to be ready to save Quell’s life if it came down to it. But the other half was still somewhere. And that seemed easier to focus on finding first.
Yagrin was going to find the pieces of the Scroll, alright.
And steal them for himself.
Red will live again.
Jordan was doing just fine with the world of magic on his shoulders, he bet. It was just like him to take the Sphere’s powerliterallyinto his own hands. Yagrin didn’t care about magic or the world. He just wanted Red back. If it meant stealing from his brother, so be it. Jordan Wexton would bejustfine. It was Yagrin who lived at the bottom of the barrel. No more.
But he and Nore had been searching for weeks and turned up nothing.
Nore agreed to help in exchange for kidnapping her mother fromEllery once the Scroll was in hand. The bargain had surprised Yagrin. She didn’t seem close with her mother. Over the last several weeks, she hadn’t mentioned her more than once, and when she did, her tone was rife with disgust.
Yagrin wasn’t sure stalking Dublin Kyn was the best idea either. But Nore drafted a chart to explain the statistical likelihood that someone of Dublin’s reputation and experience would have at least researched where the missing piece of the Scroll could be. All the endless research Nore’d done on Order territories and geography, the deep dive into archival maps in Unmarked history in case it was hiding in plain sight, had gone nowhere.
