And yet he felt calm and certainty. This was what was necessary.
Miss Nell also seemed calm about what they were about to do. Her sober demeanor had briefly dissolved when he rode her on the back of his pedalcycle—her whoops and shouts a combination of fear and excitement—but now that she was back on her feet and the pedalcycle secured out of sight, she was once again tranquil.
“What we are about to do is in violation of the law, Miss Nell,” he told her. “I want you to understand that.”
“Everything about these Blue Hand bastards is a violation,” she said. “Vee said they were gone, but—”
“They seem to be,” he said. He pointed to the steps of the stoop, the handle of the door. “The level of dust and debris indicates that, if nothing else, no one has come or gone in months. At least using the front entrance. Hardly definitive, but notable.”
“So do we kick the door open?” she asked.
“It would have a certain degree of satisfaction,” he said. “But I insist on some measure of legal appropriateness, despite everything we are doing.” He climbed the steps and knocked loudly. “Hello, is anyone about?”
She followed him up to the door. “Isn’t that going to give us away?”
“If one of them is in residence, I’d prefer a frontal confrontation over being taken by surprise, where they might have advantage over us.”
She shrugged, and pounded on the door herself. “Hello, I’ve got a complaint to lodge with you kidnapping, creepy, rabbit-wearing bastards!”
“Rabbit wearing?”
“It’s a long story,” she said.
“I’m satisfied we’ve fulfilled the requirements of decency, if not law,” Minox said. “Now, let’s see if I can manage some subtlety.”
He channeled just a hint of magic, a bare fraction of the torrent that flowed through his hand, and with it reached into the latch of the door and twisted it. The door slowly creaked open.
“Nice,” Miss Nell said. “I thought you were Uncircled.”
“No formal training,” he said, stepping across the threshold. “But my current situation demands I learn control over every aspect of my power.”
“Because of your hand?” she asked.
A flash of anger coursed through him, but he tamped it down. It was not reasonable to be angry at this young woman for her deduction. “How did you know?”
“Vee—Veranix. He told me that it’s changed somehow. He could connect to it like he can the rope he carries. And you could connect to the rope.”
“There is some—resonance there, yes.” The antechamber of the house had a level of dust that indicated no regular occupation for several months. A glance about the sitting room revealed the same. And the scent pervading the place was inhuman.
“So did your hand become napranium?” she asked.
“Become what?” That was a term he was wholly unfamiliar with. “I suggest we focus our search of the house on finding a basement.”
“Why a basement?”
“I have specific suspicions of how the kidnappers are operating—specifically using underground tunnels—so the basement is a logical point of examination.”
She glanced about. “Most houses like this, the way down is from the kitchen, which is usually back that way. Do you know what napranium is?” She took the lead walking down one hallway.
“It is not a term I have come across before.”
“All right, first of all, Veranix should do better by you, given what you’ve done to help him. Get you some Magic Theory books. When we’re done with whatever this is, I’ll see what I can do about that.”
Minox stopped mid-step. “You would do that?”
“I mean, I’ve done some reading. A lot goes over my head, like about how gemstones—especially cut ones—can divert and alter the flow of numina—”
“Numina?”
“The—” She turned and looked at him. “The energy of magic. Did you not—sorry. Rude of me. We’re definitely going to get you some books, Inspector.”
“Thank you, Miss Nell.”
“Napranium is a metal. It’s what the rope is made of. Or, more correctly, very thin fibers of it have been woven into the rope. And the cloak he wears.” She entered the kitchen, which stank of filth and decay. Clearly, when the Blue Hand had left the house for the last time, no one had taken the care to wash dishes or put things away. Plates and bowls covered in mold, and no aspect of the original food was remotely recognizable.
“It’s a metal with magical properties?” he asked.
“Not exactly, but it . . . as I understand, it draws numina to itself, focusing it, and accepts it more readily. That’s why Veranix can control the rope so easily. With a normal rope, it would be much harder.”
“Intriguing,” Minox said. Not wanting to linger in the fetid kitchen, he went to the door that should lead to the basement. It was notable because it was reinforced with iron, and a large bolt-latch held it shut. “That is troubling, to say the least.”
“I wonder what they wanted to keep down there,” she said. “Saints knew they were up to some strange business.”
“As many people in this city are,” he said. He drew up his crossbow. “I once encountered a bear someone was keeping in a dug-out pit in a back room.”
“You think there’s a bear down there?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“I think you should draw that sword and be prepared for any eventuality,” he said. He lifted the heavy metal bar of the latch and slid it open with a hard clanging sound that echoed through the house. Cautiously he opened the door, revealing a wooden staircase that descended into darkness.
“Do you have a lantern?” she asked.
He held up his left hand and made it glow, while training his crossbow down the steps. He went down slowly, with her right behind, until he reached the landing.
The room was chaotic madness. Slateboards with scrawls and writings that made Evoy’s ravings seem sane. Shelves filled with jars of chemicals of every color, and more jars with bizarre objects suspended in liquid. Another shelf covered with a heavy tarp. Several tables with copper shackles on them, and other devices of
