The dispensary was busy. Pushing through a throng of people waiting for various concoctions, they emerged into the kitchen where a pot of tea was brewing on the table and Elspeth, Marla, and Robles were gathered over a small, steaming cauldron.

  “There you are,” Robles announced. “After hours of dilly-dallying.”

  Kaddie and Torrell shared a glance as their employer beckoned. Kaddie wrinkled her nose. “You’re brewing the babelrock?”

  “There, you see?” Robles informed Elspeth. “I knew she’d recognize it. These Shadow Valley girls are insufferable.” He dipped a small ladle into the cauldron. “Let it darken a little more before you strain and bottle it. I’ll go tell Mr. Feesh how much to charge. A considerable sum, for sure.” He smiled gleefully before leaving the kitchen.

  “Doesn’t babelrock knock you out cold?” Torrell said after they’d removed their coats and Elspeth had left for the dispensary.

  Kaddie nodded. “An infusion doesn’t have a long shelf life, either. Why would he insist on it being brewed that way unless—”

  “—there’s a buyer who needs it right now.” Torrell regarded Marla, who merely shrugged.

  “It’s probably Breso, who snuck back here and is lying in wait.”

  Marla frowned. “What do you mean, snuck back?”

  “He followed us to the glass merchant,” Torrell said.

  “Then you need to tell the poisoner, just as soon as he returns.”

  “Tell me what?” Robles emerged from the dispensary, a small pouch in his hand and a gleam in his eye.

  Kaddie studied her grandfather’s face as Torrell gave him the news. He appeared distracted, and not unduly shocked.

  “I’m very glad you didn’t make a run for it,” he said. “That would have been embarrassing.” He turned and climbed the stairs to his study, leaving everyone in the kitchen staring at one another in bewilderment.

  Kaddie retreated to a corner of the kitchen where she kept her journals and drawing materials. She was in the middle of two illustrations of the recently acquired shatterbane, had compiled extensive notes, and wanted to get it all finished before an early dinner and another of Mr. Kanter’s boring footwork lessons.

  Thankfully, on this particular evening they were allowed to graduate to stick drills, and by the time they were done she had a flourishing bruise on her upper arm, was in no mood for conversation, and collapsed into bed, exhausted.

  ##

  The morning after, neither Robles, nor Torrell, were at the breakfast table.

  “A meeting, somewhere, with someone, was all he would say.” Elspeth’s words were laced with disapproval.

  “But, aren’t we supposed to tell one another where we’re going?” Kaddie’s mouth was half full of honey toast.

  “He has Torrell with him. They’ll be all right,” Marla said.

  “They’d better be.” Elspeth cut her slice of toast savagely in half. “It’s just typical of him to do something like this.”

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  Kaddie helped clear the dishes after breakfast, and continued illustrating and cataloging the shatterbane until mid-morning, when Robles returned, slightly out of breath.

  “I seem to have misplaced Torrell.”

  Kaddie dropped her pen. “What?”

  Marla was stirring liquid in a large cauldron. Lunch, a brew for the dispensary, Kaddie wasn’t sure. “I knew something would happen,” she said. “I felt it in my bones as soon as I awoke this morning.”

  “And you chose to tell us this, now?” Robles exploded. “Mother’s teeth, woman.”

  Kaddie grabbed her coat. “We have to find him. How can you have lost him?” Her voice had risen.

  “Don’t you address me in that manner.”

  Elspeth came thundering down the stairs.

  “And before you start,” Robles continued, “I’ve already looked.”

  “But we can’t stay here.” Kaddie tugged on her coat sleeves. “We need to go.”

  “No,” Elspeth said, taking charge. “Take that coat off and sit down. Everyone, sit down. We need to know what happened first before we all go running off.”

  Kaddie sat on one of the kitchen stools but didn’t remove her coat. Robles and Elspeth joined her at the table while Marla remained at the hearth, keeping one eye on her cauldron.

  “Well?” Elspeth began.

  “Don’t bully me, woman.” Robles ran a hand through his wiry hair. Its state of dishevelment suggested the gesture had been repeated more than once. “I think it’s my fault.”

  While Kaddie glared, Marla calmly asked, “What happened?”

  “We went to the library.”

  “At that hour?” Elspeth’s expression was incredulous.

  “Please don’t interrupt, and yes, at that hour. I received a note last night, telling me a letter had arrived. Torrell and I set off to collect it.”

  “But why send it to the library?” Kaddie attempted to soften her tone but barely succeeded.

  “Because, my dear, it might have gone astray on its way to this address.”

  “Stolen?”

  “Or, borrowed, and returned.”

  Elspeth snorted. “It’s being done more and more, I’d wager.”

  “But what about Torrell?” Kaddie insisted. “What happened?”

  “He expressed interest in a book.”

  “About the ruins? It’s his obsession.”

  “Yes, and as he was accompanied by an assistant, I didn’t think there would be a problem while I finished business with the librarian. Alas…”

  “Out with it,” Marla insisted.

  Robles sighed. “They were late back. We went looking, found the assistant knocked to the ground, and Torrell was gone. The librarian assumed Torrell had delivered the blow and made off with the book.”

  “He’d never do that,” Kaddie said.

  “Well of course, he wouldn’t. He doesn’t have the cunning.”

  “And the assistant?”

  “He was understandably befuddled. Said he didn’t see who hit him.”

  “But where can Torrell be?” Elspeth said.

  “He’s been kidnapped,” Kaddie said. “It’s the only explanation.”

  “But why?” Marla was shaking her head.

  “Blackmail?” Robles offered. “If it’s Harrow or the Theeds—”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” Marla wielded her ladle. “Maybe they’re after his knowledge of the ruins. All those books he reads. Remember you telling us about Brayde, and what he said.”

  “How do we find out where he is?” Elspeth said.

  Robles beckoned. “Come with me. I know a few people we can talk to. As for you,” he stabbed a finger at Kaddie, “stay put. The stakes have been raised, and it’s far too dangerous.”

  She leapt to her feet. “No. I’m coming with you.”

  “I forbid it. Elspeth? Come.”

  Kaddie stared open-mouthed as they pulled on their coats and left via the back door. When they’d gone, “I can’t just stay here,” she said to Marla. “I can’t.”

  The other woman’s lips were a thin line. “And just exactly what did you have in mind?”

  “I’m going into the second city.”

  “Maiden’s elbow, you are.”

  “I can take Coglan.”

  The woman approached, brandishing her ladle. “If I have to lock you in the trunk on the second landing, I’ll do it. If the poisoner says you’re not going out, you’re not going out.”

  Kaddie growled with exasperation. She gathered her books, pen, a bottle of ink, and in the midst of climbing the stairs, she paused on the second landing to glare at the afore-mentioned trunk.

  Inside her room, she began to pace. There had to be a way to skip past Marla and go after Torrell. But where was he? He was at the palace. She was sure of it. A plan forming in her mind, she waited for as long as she dared, then crept back to the second floor landing and approached the trunk. Lifting the lid, she rummaged through the contents and discovered a cloak, and a floor-length coat. These were light, outer garments belonging to Elspeth and Marla, barely used because the weather was rarely light.

  She drew out the coat and gave it a shake. It would fit. Kaddie was almost as tall as Elspeth, and it had the added bonus of a large hood within which she could hide her face.

  However, half the morning had gone before she could evade Marla, who was called into the dispensary by Mr. Feesh. But, she had made good use of that time inside her grandfather’s laboratory, and the inner pockets of Elspeth’s coat were now bulging as she sneaked past a disinterested Bodworth, through the empty kitchen, and out through the rear door.