Fate’s Edge (The Edge #3)(36)
Author: Ilona Andrews

Okay, fine. Fine, but it didn’t mean she had to run headfirst into the Hand’s jaws to fix it. She might have pulled off the heist, but Seamus had put it together. It was Seamus’s mess. He had dragged her into this predicament. Kaldar should’ve found him, not her.

In all of her twenty-three years, Audrey had never seen anyone die. Sure, there had been an occasional punch or a slap, but violence was never a part of her childhood. Well, not until Alex had sold her for some coke. That was not how her family had operated. They were thieves, yes, swindlers, yes, con artists, but they had always stayed away from murder. No matter what Kaldar said, she knew both the Hand and the Mirror had no compunction about killing left and right, cutting people down like weeds. The danger the Edge was in wasn’t her problem unless she made it her problem. And Audrey didn’t want to be a hero.

"So what do you know about this Morell de Braose?" Kaldar asked.

"That information would be extra." Gnome shook his bottle. "I’m out of stout, so I’ll take cash."

Kaldar reached inside his hoodie and pulled out a gold coin. An Adrianglian doubloon. Five hundred dollars. Gnome’s gaze fixed on the coin. Kaldar set the coin on its edge and spun it with a quick flick of his fingers. It whirled in place.

"I know de Braose owns a castle," Gnome said. "And six thousand acres of the Democracy of California to go with it. He came on the scene about twelve years go. Nobody knows where de Braose is from for sure, but he did away with the baron who owned the estate before him, killed off a few of his neighbors, and remodeled the castle. About a third of his land is in the Edge, and he pops back and forth across the Broken and the Weird at will. He likes the Broken’s antiques, and he hobnobs with the bluebloods from the Weird."

Well, that was neither here nor there. How was Morell de Braose funded? Where was his castle? How many people did he employ? How did he make his money? Those would be the questions a competent thief would ask. She settled back to watch Kaldar. Here’s your test. Let’s see how good you are.

Kaldar appeared to be in no hurry. "How did he get his money?"

"There are rumors." Gnome shrugged. "People say he traffics in weapons, art, and other merchandise."

"Human merchandise?" Kaldar asked.

"Like I said, there are rumors, but every robber baron in California comes with those kinds of rumors. They’re a lawless crowd. Anything goes. De Braose was never caught in the act, so I don’t got anything concrete."

A slaver. Audrey fought a shudder. There was no worse scum in either world. They already had the Hand and the Mirror – apparently this mess wouldn’t be complete without a robber baron/slaver in the mix.

"How big’s his army?" Kaldar asked.

"Garrison’s forty men, give or take. Plus a special guard. How many he can raise in a pinch is anybody’s guess."

Too many. Way too many.

"Why such a large force? Is he ambitious?" Kaldar asked.

"He isn’t land-greedy, if that’s what you mean. De Braose holds art auctions once every few months," Gnome said. "He sells everything, outlawed automatics from the Weird, stolen art, weapons and medicine contraband from the Broken. These are invitation only; if you don’t have an invitation and a million or two in liquid cash, you shouldn’t bother even showing up. The army’s there to make sure the guests arrive safely and depart safely. It’s a big deal: the whole thing takes three or four days, and he throws banquets and balls as part of it."

"When is the next one?"

"In eight days. Trust me, you ain’t getting in."

If Morell de Braose had bought those stupid amplifiers from her father, he’d sell them at the auction. They were too hot an item to hold on to indefinitely. Kaldar had to get into that auction, which sounded pretty much impossible. Well, good luck. It would be his problem and not hers.

"What about this special guard?"

Gnome grinned. "He’s got himself twelve of the Republic of Texas’s finest sharpshooters. A mercenary outfit called Eagle Eye. They don’t miss. And if the guns don’t get you, he also imported himself sixteen of Vinland’s veekings. I’ve seen a picture once. They’re all seven feet tall and carrying axes that would cut a tall tree down in one blow."

Kaldar kept playing with the coin. "Does he have any enemies?"

Gnome flipped the page, and the hippy woman looked back at them. That was some stare. It would give a seasoned murderer the creeps.

"Magdalene Moonflower."

Magdalene Moonflower, right. And that wasn’t a fake name, not at all.

"She hates him. She’d be your best bet."

Kaldar rolled the coin across the table. Gnome swiped the little gold disk and grinned. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Ling shot between the shelves and leaped onto her lap.

Someone was coming. Audrey tensed. Kaldar rose to his feet. Gnome reached to the top of the nearest shelf and retrieved a shotgun.

Audrey got up and ran through the house to the window overlooking the forest. A moment and Kaldar joined her, standing too close. They scanned the woods.

Nothing. No movement troubled the Edge wilderness.

Behind them, the shotgun clanged as Gnome chambered a round.

A green human-shaped shadow detached from the gloom between the cypress branches, about twenty feet above ground.

Audrey caught her breath.

The shadow leaped. It flew thirty feet, its wide, tattered cloak flaring behind it, and landed at the top of a pine.

What the hell was that? "Why jump around in a cloak?" Audrey whispered.

"That’s not a cloak," Kaldar said next to her, gently nudging her aside. "That’s his wings. The Hand is here. We have to go. Now."

Another person appeared between the trees. He was unnaturally lean and painted in swirls of green and brown. The man looked at a cedar trunk and scrambled up the bark like he had suckers on his hands.

Gnome pulled a box of ammo off the shelf. "You go ahead. There’s a door out back. I’m not going anywhere."

"Don’t be a fool," Kaldar snapped. "You see that man in the cedar? That’s a lesarde-class operative right there, and that over there is a boddus. Those two are never let off the chain because they’re both so twisted by magic they’re unstable. That means there is a Hand officer out there, pulling the strings, and they come with a commando unit, twelve operatives, maybe more. You stay here, you die."

"They aren’t getting into my house." Gnome locked his teeth.

Idiot. Audrey thrust herself in front of him. "Gnome! Are you crazy? Come with us! All this stuff isn’t worth your life."

He bared his teeth at her. "This stuff is my life. You two get the hell out of my house."