The Dragon Machine (Magebreakers Book 3)

by Ben S. Dobson

  Jasmine turned back to Tane and Kadka. “I’ll see you on the way out then! I hope you find your girl before she gets into any trouble.” With a smile and a wave, she fluttered back through the door.

  Julian stood from behind his desk. “A pleasure, Mister Carver, Miss Kadka.” If it was a pleasure, he didn’t show it—his face remained studiously impassive. “I’m Julian Dale, Miss Thorpe’s assistant. She’s waiting for you inside, if you’ll come with me.” He opened the next door without knocking, stepped through, and held it for them.

  Inside, an unassuming woman with a messy bun of black hair gathered atop her head sat behind a desk cluttered with papers and diagrams. By her slightly pointed ears, she was half-elven, or at least of some elven descent, and her build strayed in that direction as well, slender and delicate, if not as much so as a full elf. Tane recognized her as an academic immediately—he knew the look. A pair of round spectacles perched on the end of her nose, and her clothes had the wrinkled look that said she’d been at her research all night without stopping to sleep, or change. Research she still seemed engrossed in at that moment, by the way she was leaning over the papers on her desk.

  “The Magebreakers, as requested, Miss Thorpe,” Julian announced.

  Thorpe looked up, apparently startled. “Oh. Oh yes, of course.” And then her focus seemed to return to the world from whatever she’d been reading, and she smiled politely. “Please, come in!” She stood and crossed the room, reaching out to shake Tane’s hand. Her grip was surprisingly firm. “Tane Carver. I’m glad to meet you—I understand you’re a man with a strong grasp of magical theory.” She barely spared Kadka a glance, Tane noticed.

  “I dabble,” Tane said. “It’s a pleasure, Miss Thorpe. I hope we’re not interrupting.”

  “Oh, it’s not a problem. I’m always working on one thing or another, but I had to make time for the famous Magebreakers.” She gestured back to her desk. “Come, sit. Julian, that will be all.”

  Julian stepped out and closed the door behind him as Tane and Kadka took their seats at Thorpe’s desk. Felisa Thorpe returned to her chair, shuffling some of her scattered papers aside. Tane tried to get a look at what he could without being too obvious, but it was all just scribbled notes and spell diagrams and the like. None of it seemed to relate to Tinga.

  “So,” said Thorpe. “I understand you’re looking for a missing girl?”

  “That’s right,” said Tane, watching carefully for any reaction. “Tinga Vreeg. A goblin. Brown hair, little crescent scar on her cheek.”

  Thorpe rubbed thoughtfully at the frame of her spectacles. “I don’t recall seeing her, but I don’t spend much time on the floor. I assure you, though, we’re very thorough in choosing our workers—I doubt she’d have gotten through if she’s lying about her age.” If she knew anything about Tinga, she was hiding it well, although Tane thought there might have been something performative in the way she’d rubbed her glasses. A bit of a cliché, but that doesn’t prove anything.

  “You don’t want to look?” Kadka asked, raising an eyebrow. “Could be trouble if she is hired, yes? Should check.”

  Thorpe waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll notify the foremen in all of our factories and give them her description, of course. But you’re more likely to find her with one of our competitors—some of them are rather lax in that regard.” She was still looking at Tane, not Kadka; he was more aware of that after having experienced it himself, however harmlessly. “That isn’t why I asked to see you. There is something I would like to show you, Mister Carver, and given your reputation I think you will find it as exciting as I do.”

  “Oh.” He hadn’t expected that. Well, whatever keeps us in the building. “I’d love to see what you’re working on.”

  “Splendid!” She jumped up from her chair with obvious enthusiasm. “Come, it’s just down the hall.” In the waiting room, Thorpe beckoned for her assistant to follow. “Julian, we’re going to the laboratory. Come along, in case we need anything.” Julian obediently followed after them.

  “Do I get to know what we’re going to see?” Tane asked as Thorpe led them down the hall. He felt a little bit uneasy following her to an unknown destination. Even if she was involved in the kidnappings, he didn’t think she’d try anything in the middle of the day in a crowded factory, but she was a wealthy woman with friends in high places.

  “A passion project of mine,” said Thorpe. “My family started this factory and the others merely as a means of profit, but I have higher aspirations than producing trinkets. With the means at my disposal, it would be irresponsible not to use them to do something that matters, wouldn’t you agree? To further the field of magical research in a way that could better the lives of everyone in the Protectorate?”

  “I would be hard pressed to disagree, when you put it that way,” Tane said cautiously, glancing sidelong at Kadka. She just shrugged. Well, at least I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

  Thorpe led them to a door halfway down the hall and pushed it open. “My personal laboratory. Julian, wait here. Let me know if anyone comes looking for me.” She ushered Tane and Kadka inside, and closed the door behind.

  Thorpe’s laboratory was enormous, easily taking up a full quarter of the factory’s third floor. Around the edges, the benches and worktables were equipped with ancryst machines and artifacts that Tane couldn’t fathom being able to afford. But it was the large device in the middle of the room that drew his attention, sitting between two tables strewn with notes and spare parts. A brass orb that he could have fit his head inside seemed to be the focal point—a magically insulated chamber, he guessed. It was suspended on a tripod of brass-plated pipes above a long panel of dozens of switches and dials etched with glyphs in the lingua. He’d never seen anything like it, which was rare when it came to magical instruments—although it didn’t much surprise him to see that Felisa Thorpe had access to advances that weren’t yet publically available.

  Thorpe led them straight to the unfamiliar device, and came to a halt in front of it. “Isn’t she beautiful?” She turned expectantly to Tane.

  “Very pretty,” Kadka said mildly. “What is it?”

  Still looking at Tane, Thorpe smiled. “Care to guess, Mister Carver?”

  “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Tane said. He pointed at the brass orb. “I suppose that whatever it does happens in there, and needs to be insulated against outside magic. An ancryst reaction?”

  “Of a sort,” said Thorpe, her smile growing. “Your half-orc friend is rumored to be undetectable by magic. Is this true?”

  “Is true,” Kadka said, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Don’t need to ask him when I am right here.”

  “Ah, then you’ll make the perfect demonstration.” Thorpe brushed off the rest of what Kadka had said without concern—although Tane was beginning to get the impression that it was less because Kadka was a half orc and more because Felisa Thorpe didn’t have much time for anyone who wasn’t well-versed in magical theory. “Come over here.” She beckoned Kadka closer and then bent over the machine, adjusting her spectacles as she fiddled with dials and switches.

  Kadka didn’t move, just raised an eyebrow at Tane. “You know what this is, Carver?”

  “Not the first idea,” Tane said. “With respect, Miss Thorpe, we’re not here to be test subjects.”

  Thorpe looked over her shoulder, a slight frown marring her excitement. “You think I would… Of course the machine has been tested. I wouldn’t put you in any danger. It’s entirely harmless, I promise. Let me show you.” Her hand was on a large switch in the center of the instrument panel; she pushed it down.

  A high-pitched whine emitted from the orb atop the machine, starting quiet and growing louder. In the air before Thorpe, a deep blue square appeared in the air, about the size of the instrument panel but positioned vertically, like a window. It had the look of an illusion, but Tane couldn’t imagine what it was meant to portray. And then it resolved into a gh
ostly image of the room, the tables and walls limned in a very slight blue glow. Artifacts and magically charged gems were displayed in the silver-blue of Astral energy, and brightest of all were three humanoid figures at the center, shining brilliant silver. One slender and slight, closest to the machine, and further back a man of average height beside a sturdy woman easily a foot taller. The three of us, Tane realized. But… that can’t be right.

  “So it’s sensing Astral energy and displaying it to us as an illusion,” he said. “I can understand that. But it can see Kadka? How is that possible? Divinations can’t detect her.”

  Thorpe’s smile broke into a delighted grin. “It’s not a conventional divination, Mister Carver. This machine actively maps magical energy. Not from here in the physical world, but from the other side. I’ve found a way to access the Astra itself!”

  Tane felt his mouth drop open. This was beyond anything he could have imagined.

  An instant later, the image blinked out of existence, and the whining noise ceased. Thorpe frowned. “But as you can see, it doesn’t last very long. The drain on my gemstones is… substantial.”

  “Still!” Tane said. “Just being able to see into the Astra at all is… it’s incredible!” The word felt too small.

  Kadka cocked her head. “This is new? Spells use Astra already, yes? And portals go through?”

  Thorpe looked at Kadka with something like pity. “It’s so much more than that. You couldn’t understand if you haven’t studied the theory. Mister Carver, you see what this could mean, don’t you?”

  Tane nodded slowly. “It could change everything.” He turned to Kadka. “Those things you’re talking about, they do draw from the Astra, but that only works one way. From there to here. And a portal is…essentially like a tunnel. It goes from one place to another, but you can’t just walk through the sides. Sometimes people step in and never come out, but that’s like the tunnel collapsing. We can’t exactly ask a wraith what it saw over there. No one has ever actually found a safe way to reach the Astra directly. What this machine is doing, if I understand correctly, is somehow breaching the divide and mapping concentrations of energy from the other side. You’re naturally masked against divination on our end, but from within the Astra itself…” He paused. “Spellfire, just imagine it! This proves that people without magic are just as connected to the Astra as any mage!”

  “I knew you’d see, Mister Carver,” Thorpe said. “But the benefit to the non-magical is only one of the many ways my machine could change our society. Imagine being able to map the Astra. To see how it moves and flows, to solve mysteries as old as magic itself. To understand what it is that gives us life. The progress we could make!”

  Tane hadn’t quite forgotten that this woman might be a criminal, but it was hard not to be caught up in the excitement. “The implications for medicine alone, if you could observe a person’s Astral bond directly… But how does it work?”

  Thorpe pointed at the orb, still emitting that high-pitched whine. “The simplest of ancryst reactions. Inside that chamber is a speck of ancryst—barely visible to the eye, to keep the reaction controllable. I’ve surrounded it in a balanced magical field, suspending it in the center of the orb.”

  “Like discs!” Kadka said, clearly pleased that she already knew that principle.

  “But the discs don’t take people into the Astra itself,” Tane pointed out. “There has to be more at work here.”

  “It’s just a matter of intensity, Mister Carver,” said Thorpe. “I came upon the idea quite accidentally. I was testing a new ancryst device and, I am embarrassed to admit, I had forgotten to put proper restrictions on my fields. The Astral energy peaked at a level more intense than, say, a spellfire detonation. The resulting ancryst reaction was astonishing. With forces repelling it on all sides and nowhere to go, the stone simply disappeared. A moment later, my gems crumbled under the drain. A problem I have yet to solve, as you’ve seen. But when the spells failed, the ancryst returned. Rather violently.” She pushed aside some papers on the nearest table to reveal a splintered hole the size of Tane’s fist. “Hence my use of a very small piece, safely encased in the chamber.”

  “That seems… wise.” Tane glanced down at the floor; under the table, another hole had been hastily repaired with a piece of wood he hadn’t noticed before. It must have punched right through. I hope no one was standing underneath.

  Thorpe went on, apparently unconcerned by the damage. “After a number of experiments, I discovered that the ancryst, lacking a means of physical escape, was in essence being forced to burrow into the Astra itself. And in doing so, it created an access point for divinations that cross the breach.”

  “Amazing!” Tane had perhaps a million questions, and most of them weren’t about Tinga anymore. “How do you intend—”

  A knock at the door interrupted him. Julian poked his impeccably coiffed head inside. “Mister Roark would like a word, Miss Thorpe. You told me to let you know when he returned.”

  Thorpe frowned, but nodded. “Yes, bring him in.”

  Julian ushered a muscular human man into the room. He stood nearly as tall as Kadka, with thinning blond hair around his temples and a look of perpetual suspicion on his face. A cudgel and an ancryst pistol hung on either side of his waist. He glowered at Tane and Kadka, and for a brief instant something strange passed across his eyes; an unnatural glint, just barely visible under the shadow of his heavy brow. Maybe just a trick of the light.

  But it had looked like silver.

  Tane and Kadka shared a look, and he could tell she’d noticed the same thing. It wasn’t much, and he wasn’t sure it had even been there, but it reminded him of the silver light he’d seen in Heynes’ eyes last night. Which, in turn, reminded him of why they were here. As amazing as Thorpe’s machine was, it didn’t tell him anything about Tinga. This man might.

  The big man crossed the lab toward the machine with a long, crisp stride. “Miss Thorpe, you really should have some of my men with you if you’re going to be showing people around secure areas.”

  “You worry too much, Cullen.” Thorpe gave the man a fond smile. “Tane Carver, this is my head of security, Cullen Roark.”

  Roark grunted in greeting. “Pleasure.”

  Thorpe turned back to Tane. “I’m sorry, Mister Carver. I know you must have questions, but I have to cut this short. Business, you know. A necessary evil, if I am to be able to continue my work.”

  “We could wait until you’re done,” Tane suggested. “I’d like to know more about your machine.”

  “Perhaps another time,” said Thorpe. “I’m afraid I’ve already shirked my duties for too long.”

  “Of course.” Tane put on a polite smile. Arguing would only raise suspicion. “Thank you for speaking with us, Miss Thorpe. Your work is truly fascinating. Perhaps later I’ll hear more, like you say.”

  He forced himself not to look back as Julian led them out of the lab. It wasn’t until they reached the second floor landing that he nudged Kadka in the side. If one of them was going to find a way to eavesdrop on that conversation, it was going to have to be her. She could move silently and evade detection spells—as long as Thorpe didn’t activate her machine—and her ears were far better than his.

  She took the hint, just as he’d known she would, and turned to Julian. “Need privy. Is somewhere near?”

  “Just there,” Julian answered, although the look on his face suggested that he, personally, had never used one. He pointed to a door just off the stairs. Facilities of this size demanded toilets on every level, plumbed directly into the sewers—a convenience many private homes lacked. “But perhaps you should wait—”

  “Won’t be long,” Kadka interrupted, and then, as if she’d been saving it for that moment, audibly passed gas, to their escort’s obvious disgust. She grinned sheepishly. “Or maybe will. Meet you downstairs?” Before Julian could say more, she hurried through the door he’d indicated.

  “No point waiting here,” said Ta
ne. “She’ll be a while. I keep telling her not to buy the day-old stock from the fishmarket, but she just won’t pay full price.”

  Julian frowned. “I was told to—”

  From behind the privy door came another loud burst of gas, and a theatrical groan.

  “We’ll wait downstairs,” Julian said quickly.

  “That’s probably for the best,” Tane agreed, fighting the urge to laugh at Julian’s reaction. Not very subtle, Kadka, but it got the job done. “Lead the way.”

  _____

  Kadka waited until she heard the footsteps recede down the stairs, and then poked her head out the privy door. Carver and Julian were gone. Her act had worked, then. She’d had to think quickly, and she’d had a feeling Thorpe’s carefully groomed assistant would be uncomfortable with bodily functions. So many in the Protectorate were foolish about such things, and she had no qualms using it to her advantage. She grinned. The dismay on his face when she’d made wind had been priceless.

  She wasn’t completely alone. A few people moved up and down the second floor hallway, between offices and workshops, and some of them glanced her way—a half-orc in Thaless tended to stand out. But nobody asked questions. They just hastily averted their eyes and kept going when they saw her looking. She waited until the way was clear before heading for the stairs and creeping quietly up.

  She moved as quickly as she could without being noticed or heard. Thorpe and Roark wouldn’t talk forever, and she had a feeling whatever they said would be very interesting. She’d started to worry that she and Carver would have to leave without finding anything new about Tinga, until she’d seen that brief gleam in Cullen Roark’s eye—for just a moment, he’d looked like Heynes had when she’d fought him the previous night.

  Except the light in Nelton Heynes’ eyes had grown into a fire that had burned him alive. Roark hadn’t looked like he was in danger of burning up any time soon.

  The third floor halls were empty. Kadka got the impression that this level of the building essentially belonged to Felisa Thorpe alone. Which made it easy to get where she needed to be. She slipped up to the laboratory door and put her ear against it.