That, she decided, would be a good time to test the waters. After she’d shown him just how useful she could be.
Despite her tumultuous thoughts she had a calm, quiet walk, and by the time she returned to her carriage she wished that she could spend the rest of the day out here.
Just a few hours later, Thessa twisted the nuts on a large wooden clamp, trapping the two halves of one of her omniglass rings around the cinderite. She was absolutely soaked with sweat, her hands caked in sand, dust, and ash. The tiny glassworks was blazing hot, even with a window cracked to let in a small amount of cool winter air. She paused long enough to make a slight adjustment to one of the clamps, then continued turning the nuts. Slowly, the two halves of the omniglass ring pressed tightly against the outside of the cinderite. Each turn gave a slight crunching sound, and she lowered her head right up against the cinderite to make sure that it was maintaining its resonance.
“That’s enough,” she whispered to herself, and stepped back to take in the device.
The irregularities on the cinderite had been carefully chiseled away, a process that it had shocked Thessa to discover would actually increase the natural resonance. It really did look like a cannon now, albeit a strange one – a long cylinder propped in an iron frame, with seven translucent omniglass rings held in place by massive wood clamps. It practically hummed, and Thessa refused to let anyone but her remain in the workshop for longer than an hour at a time, lest they come down with terrible glassrot.
“Well,” she said out loud, “it certainly looks distinct.”
Pushed up against one wall was a casing for the phoenix channel that Demir’s tinsmith had made to her specifications. It looked like an armored box, stuffed with cork and asbestos. She would need help to lower the phoenix channel inside, but once she did the entire project should be ready to take straight to the Forge. She wondered how long it was since she’d last slept. On the carriage ride back from the Forge yesterday, perhaps? She was pushing herself too hard and she knew it, but there was nothing she could do. She was practically giddy with excitement.
The phoenix channel was complete. All she had to do now was test the damned thing. If it worked, she could use the Forge to charge thousands of pieces of godglass with every lightning strike. It was not a perfect solution to the world’s shortage of cindersand, but it was a start.
Thessa walked across the garden and into the hotel, where she caught the arm of the closest porter. “Has Demir returned?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. We’re not sure when to expect him.”
Everyone had been on edge since the attack by the Dorlani, but something else had happened and Thessa just could not get to the bottom of it. Porters and waiters talked in hushed tones, scattering when she approached, and Breenen had been in and out all day. Montego was nowhere to be found. Even Tirana had disappeared, rushing off in a quiet conference with Breenen the moment she and Thessa returned from the Forge.
“Do you know where he is?” she asked the porter.
“No, ma’am.” The porter swallowed hard and hurried away, leaving Thessa with a scowl on her face. Shouldn’t he have answered that Demir was still at the front with the army? Very odd. Thessa felt her shoulders slump and wished she’d brought Pari back with her as well. At least then she would have had someone to share this momentous occasion with. Instead, she had nothing to do but walk back into the workshop and stare at the phoenix channel, listening to the quiet hum of its sorcery.
It had sorcery, of that there was no doubt. The question to answer next was whether the sorcery worked. Feeling suddenly very alone, Thessa began to clean up the workshop and prepare all her notes and the phoenix channel for shipment to the Forge.
Demir returned to the Hyacinth to change uniforms and wash the grime of the Maerhorn dungeon off himself. He didn’t know why he bothered. He was heading straight back out to the front again, where he’d soon reek of powder smoke and death. To his consternation, he found the hotel nearly empty and Thessa nowhere to be found. It was a mixed blessing, as his mood swings had taken him from wanting to confess all about Holikan to cold-blooded manipulator and back again several times since his conversation with Father Vorcien.
He felt like he was at a loss for words, and that hadn’t happened to him very often. Even after Holikan he’d always been able to make excuses – to charm and wiggle his way out of damn near anything. And yet he owed so many people so many explanations at this moment that he felt as if his head were going to pop. He thought about that kiss he’d shared with Thessa, and the implicit promise regarding his return. It made him sick. Despite the revelation about Capric, he still felt responsible for the slaughter of Thessa’s family. And he was now promised to another woman.
And if he was to ultimately outmaneuver Father Vorcien, he would need to act like he was promised to another woman. He wouldn’t be able to explain himself to Kizzie or Thessa. The lie would have to be complete, like some overcomplicated mummer’s farce. He would have to tell the hotel staff and all his clients that they would soon be part of the Vorcien guild-family. They were still their own guild-family, of course, and in theory autonomous, but they would all know what his marrying a Vorcien would mean.
And how to negotiate things with Thessa? There was a distinct possibility that he was developing feelings for her. Did she reciprocate? Was she just looking for a bit of fun, or a stepping-stone as she climbed the rungs of Ossan society? Someone of her talents could make a home with one of the great guild-families, or even as an independent operator. Did any of this matter? It would be all over once he told her about Holikan.
He would have to take this all one step at a time. First, he needed to defeat the Grent.
He was just getting dressed when Breenen entered his rooms after a light knock.
“Master Demir.”
“I have to go, Breenen. I’m expected back at the front, and if the latest intelligence is to be trusted I’m going to be late to whatever party Kerite and the Grent have decided to throw for me.”
“I assume that’s not a real party, sir.”
“Figure of speech. Where’s Thessa?”
“She’s gone to the Forge, sir. She left less than an hour ago. I don’t really know the details, but I understand she’s going to use lightning to power the device she’s been working on.”
Demir checked his face in the mirror, realizing he’d forgotten to shave during his bath. Too late for that, he could shave in camp. “Wait, what?” he said, jerking his gaze toward Breenen. “I … No, never mind. I don’t want to know. I don’t have room for it in my head. Have we heard anything from the Dorlani?”
“Not a peep, sir.”
“I don’t like that they got in the hotel,” Demir said, thinking out loud. “Will Thessa be safer or not out in the countryside? The Forge, you say?”
“Yes, sir. For the frequent lightning strikes. I truly hope that makes sense.”
“It does, I suppose. It’s insane, but it makes sense.”
“She had one of those new lightning rods with her, and quite a lot of copper cable.”
“That makes even more sense.” Demir wanted to pull on that thread, to find out what exactly was going on. Piss, he wanted to go up there himself at this very moment. If Thessa truly thought she could use lightning to power the phoenix channel, that was a spectacle Demir wanted to either talk her out of or see himself. Alas, he did not have moments to spare, let alone the day it would take him to get up there and back again. “I don’t want her undefended.”
“She has Tirana and a dozen enforcers with her, sir.” He paused. “I share your worry. Even when the hotel was burgled, we were able to respond quickly and easily. Master Montego took care of the problem in moments. Out there, however…”