Published at 3rd of August 2024 7:49 am

Book 2 Chapter 26: We Can't Afford Mistakes Now

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Once Felix had completely resigned himself to his fate, he actually began to seem as if he was enjoying the prospect of breaking the collars. He and the other mages began to theorize and work toward the safest way to break them. They spoke quickly and enthusiastically to one another, but to Dantes they may as well have all been speaking some dead tongue he’d never heard before. Still, he recognized the look in all of their eyes as they spoke. It reminded him of how he felt when he was planning a big heist.

Dantes left them to it, only staying nearby so that he could pick the lock on the collars once they reached that point. He went to his bedroll and laid down. He was sore and tired. His body continued to replenish itself through its connection to his gardens throughout the city, but he estimated it would still be a few weeks before he was back to full strength. Luckily, his powers and mental acuity hadn’t suffered.

Jacopo moved over the bedroll as well, munching on a sliver of salted beef.

“Good job acting as a translator,” said Dantes.

“It was difficult. Mages are stupid.”

Dantes nodded. “Very.” Dantes pulled the enchanted keys and hammers from his cloak, and looked at them. He could now bring multiple rats or bats into a building at once, or spy on several. Roaches would be out of the question, unfortunately, due to their size in comparison with the keys.

Dantes spread his awareness across each of his gardens. They were all growing strong, filled with life. Clay seemed to be doing an excellent job maintaining things for him, though he’d have to pay his own visits as well to make sure everything flowed as it should. He frowned, there was one thing he’d been meaning to do, but hadn’t had a chance to.

“Jacopo.”

The rat twitched a gold eye in his direction. “Dantes.”

“You up for an infiltration of your own?”

“No. I was very busy.”

“You flailed your hands and nodded your head a few times.”

“Yes. Very tiring.”

“I want you to look around Mondego’s manor.”

Jacopo stopped mid-bite, and Dantes could feel him pulling briefly on Dantes’s resounding hatred.

“This, I can do.”

…

Jacopo made the trek easily, having little trouble scurrying undetected through to midtown until he found the manor Dantes had triangulated with roaches more than a month before. The Manor had changed drastically from Dantes’s memories of it. In the past it had been a worn down and dilapidated building with a sagging roof and boarded up windows, but in spite of that it had a kind of character to it. A subtle nobility with a number of more delicate and hard to notice features such as hand carved patterns on the side of the entryway stairs, and latticework done in intricate patterns on the window shutters. While the dilapidation had been remedied, that subtle character was now completely impossible to see. Large marble columns had been added to the front, and the subtle stone and woodwork of it were now covered in gaudy coats of expensive paint and gold filigree. There was a garden surrounding the building, but it was all drake-tear flowers, Mercedes’s favorite, which choked the life out of anything else that may have grown nearby had it simply been trimmed back or planted in a more subtle way. There were also small spikes placed around the roof to prevent birds from roosting, and large scarred dogs chained in the yard to deter intruders and intimidate visitors.

Dantes’s scowl was sensed by Jacopo even through the great distance between them, but Jacopo himself was more interested in finding a means of egress. He scurried in a circle around the manor, avoiding the overheated and underfed dogs, and eventually found a window cracked in the rear of it. The smells of cooking meat made his mouth water as he crawled through it, pushed through the anti-vermin enchantment with his key, and fell eight feet to the floor. He was in a kitchen full of servants, and the signs of a meal being prepared.

Jacopo didn’t dally there, though he was tempted by the smells and sights around him to stay. Instead he began searching the house, moving from the outside in. From the kitchen he found a dining room where some of the food was slowly being moved, but the masters of the house had not yet themselves arrived. Jacopo kept moving, ignoring Dantes’s many critiques of the gaudy style of the home as he moved. He found a library covered in a thin layer of dust, separate bedrooms for Mondego and Mercedes, and a closet that would have sufficed as a the home of a minor lord. Finally, he came to a large door toward the rear of the home. He could sense that behind the door was a chamber leading down, but he couldn’t squeeze under it, nor could he find a way inside.

As he was sniffing around it, trying to catch a hint as to its purpose, it suddenly swung open and Jacopo narrowly avoided hitting him.

Mondego stepped through the door and slammed it heavily behind himself. He was wearing a dark blue silk shirt and black trousers held up with suspenders. His blonde hair was tousled slightly, and he took a moment to slide a hand through it as he started to make his way toward the dining room. He looked much as Dantes’s memories recalled him, except his bearing had changed. In the past he’d always slouched forward, as if hiding his size, but now he stood tall and walked with a swagger. He pulled a gold cigarette case from his pocket and placed a pre-rolled bit of tobacco into his mouth. A servant appeared, seemingly from thin air, and lit his cigarette as he walked. He blew out a thick cloud of bright pink smoke as he entered the room.

Mercedes was already seated at one end of the table, wearing a dark red dress and long black gloves, sipping on a glass of crimson wine and smiling at him as he entered.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be leaving your basement today.”

Mondego took another inhale of his cigarette as he sat, and blew it into the air as a servant pushed in his chair.

“Needed to eat. Haven’t had anything since the warehouse was destroyed. Had to spend another afternoon with Yrilet and my knuckles, making sure she hadn’t sold me out, then all the back and forths with Danglars over him trying to fuck me over, then explaining to the fingers’ lieautenants that everything will be fine, then all of the bribes to the guard.”

He flicked an only half finished cigarette at the wall causing it to explode in a shower of sparks.

“Do you think it was Yrilet? That she sold you out?”

He made a fist. “No.”

Mercedes took another sip of her drink, then used a gloved hand to move her long dark hair out of her face. “Do you think it was him?”

Mondego smashed a fist on the table, shaking it and causing all of the plates and silverware on it to shift. “You’d like that wouldn’t you? If he was back.”

Mercedes took another long sip of her drink. “Do you really think that? I made the same deal you did, my love.” She held up her hand, a circle of gold glowing on one finger. “I wear the same ring.” She stood up and walked across the side of the table to him, there she began to rub his back with her hands, and the tension he was carrying began to fade. “I don’t think it was him because I don’t think he’s that capable. You have him built up in your mind as this great destroyer. I mean, he certainly seemed to do some impressive things in the Underprison, but look at what you’ve done. He doesn’t hold a candle to you, love. He never could.” She leaned down and they shared a long kiss.

“Disgusting,” sent Dantes.

“It’s a normal sign of affection among two-legs, no?”

“Not that, them.”

“Jealousy?”

“No.”

“Ok.”

Jacopo sensed Dantes’s frustration that he wasn’t taking his denial of envy seriously, but he said nothing else as they watched them continue their meal and eavesdropped

Mercedes moved back to her seat at the table and took another small sip of wine. “You know, you would probably benefit from checking in on your operations in person. You haven’t left the manor in months. Your lieutenants are talking.”

Mondego shrugged. “If they try anything, they die. Who gives a fuck if they’re talking.”

“You should at least do something to Danglars. We may suspect others were involved, but your people and the smugglers don’t know that.”

“What do you suggest? I can’t exactly have him killed or beaten over it. He’s too useful.”

“No, but if something happened to those pretty secretaries of his that may be more than a little distressing, and let the men know you're no coward.”

Mondego cut into his steak, a cruel smile on his face. “You’re a real bitch.”

“True.”

They exchanged a few more comments on the food, and on business, which Dantes did his best to absorb as he listened in through Jacopo. Before they could actually enjoy their mail though, a maid approached Mondego with an envelope sealed with gold wax.

“Open it. We can’t afford mistakes now.”

Mondego eyed the fresh plate of fileted fish that had just been placed in front of him and scowled. He grabbed the envelope and tore it open, reading it quickly. He pushed away from the table with a loud groan, and roughly pushed a servant carting in more platters as he moved back toward the back of the building that he’d emerged from.

Jacopo quickly scurried behind him, not wanting to lose sight of him.

Mondego went back to the sealed door toward the back and pulled it open. Then he began to descend down a long flight of stairs that seemed to extend for more than one hundred feet down into the earth. At the very bottom of it, Mondego clapped his hands and a series of torches lit the room.

The chamber was enormous, and in the center of it was a pile of gold, silver, jewelry, and gems taller than Mondego and appearing to perfectly fill an eight foot square.

Jacopo was momentarily overwhelmed by Dantes’s emotions as he thought through all he could do with such a horde, and he stood staring at the shining gold with his whiskers twitching and his eyes wide. The feeling of want was quickly overwhelmed by a different feeling though. There was something…wrong about the pile of treasure. A sense of rot and decay seemed to surround it, and Jacopo’s instincts, and those of Dantes, began to scream to run from it.

Mondego hesitated as he reached the pile of gold, and he reached a hand toward it for just a moment before pulling it back and clenching his fist with a scowl on his face. Then he approached a wall to the right where a large oval mirror stood.

Nothing reflected in the mirror, and Mondego didn’t pause his stride as he walked straight through it.

Jacopo didn’t hesitate either.

“Wait!” sent Dantes projecting concern, but Jacopo walked into the mirror before he could react to the thought.

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