The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (52 page)

“But when the other kings know about it, they’ll want to use them too!” she protested, feeling like pouting. She well understood that the clocks needed to be used to solve this emergency, but what about the
next
emergency? That’s what no one seemed to be thinking of.

Aren rose from his chair and came to kneel in front of her on one knee. Axelrad let out a short, inarticulate protest, quickly cut off as Aren waved him down. The king met the Artifactor’s eyes without flinching. “Sevana. Please.”

She huffed out a breath and grabbed him by the shoulder, cloth warm in her hands, pulling the man upwards. “Oh, stop that. Of course I’ll let you use them.”

Smiling, Aren rose back to his feet and said formally, “Thank you.”

She shooed him back to his chair, still a little irritated. Once the clocks were well known, people would be more cautious about buying them, which meant she would have to create some
other
secret portal system. Curse it. It’d been hard enough thinking up the first system.

“Sev, I repeat,” Sarsen drawled in amusement, “just how extensive is your network?”

Well, the cat had more or less escaped the bag. She might as well be frank on the details. With a wicked sense of anticipation, she answered sweetly, “I have multiple clocks in every palace of Mander.”

Aren’s and Axelrad’s eyes nearly crossed at the thought. Bel just laughed out loud, one hand clamped to his stomach. “Of course you do!” he chortled. “Why aren’t I surprised.”

“I’m not either,” Sarsen admitted, also chuckling. “You’re a bad girl, Sev.”

Not bothered by this, she sat back in her chair, smug as a cat. “I have my moments. But if you want to contact the other kings and get them here quickly, we can certainly do so. Pick the day and time you want to go, and I’ll take you through.”

Aren gathered himself together enough to respond faintly, “I will. Although heavens above know how I’m going to explain that the reason I could get there was that they have multiple holes in their palace security.”

“That’s the price you pay for using my clocks,” she replied kindly.

“That and keeping her out of a dungeon once they do know,” Bel added dryly. “Father, I think we should approach the kings after we’ve talked to most of the country. We can’t make a good case with them unless we can promise them that we do still have support here.”

“Yes, that’s wise,” Aren agreed. “Let’s sit down with a map and start planning out the logistics of this. We will, of course, require an Artifactor and a guard to go with us to each place.”

“You can keep Axelrad,” Bel disagreed. “I can handle myself. Sev and I will partner up. You take Sarsen.”

“You take Pierpoint,” Aren countered firmly. “I do not think it wise for just two people to be moving about.”

Bel raised a hand in surrender. “Fine. Sevana, where’s a map?”

They couldn’t, of course, just blindly go into any town or city and arrange for a public meeting. Bel sat down with Morgan, Hana, Axelrad and Aren to work out the logistics of who should go where. In the end, Morgan and Axelrad went out and met with people, sounding out who could be trusted to be the contact point. It took days to set up meeting times and places, spreading the word by hushed whispers to the townsfolk. They started with places that Morgan and Axelrad knew best, with people they trusted, but of course that couldn’t last forever. Eventually they would have to reach out to places that no one had been before, which made the situation even more dangerous than it already was.

Research notwithstanding, Bellomi just had to get out and see things with his own eyes to make real sense of it. With that in mind, he escaped the research room early that morning, getting Sarsen to connect the clock to the palace clock so that he could slip into Lockbright for the day and do a little investigation work. Sarsen, good-naturedly, did so but with the warning that Bellomi would be on his own for the whole day, as they couldn’t risk connecting the clocks again until late that night.

Not troubled by that, he’d shrugged, thanked the man, and stepped right on through.

This early in the morning, no one stirred in the palace, and he was able to escape outside of the main palace walls with no one the wiser. Especially after his and Axelrad’s semi-foiled reconnoitering mission here before, they now had a very accurate time schedule for the guard’s shift and he knew exactly which gate to use to let himself directly into the city marketplace.

Once there, he discovered he still had a good hour until the market properly opened. He spent the time walking around the city and getting an idea of the layout. He returned to the main street that led up to the palace just as businesses started opening, found a good spot that gave him an excellent vantage point, and waited.

Though they had been busy, the inconsistencies in Goethals and Clasessens’s vaults still weighed on Bellomi’s mind.  There had been no outstanding evidence against them in the reports either, but Bellomi wanted to prove if his father’s trust was misplaced. The only thing he hadn’t tried yet was tailing them, so that’s what he would do today.

Morgan had taught him that people of the working class like to gossip and complain about their bosses, so that’s where he started. He knew, after all, how to pick up Goethals and Clasessens trail—they predictably went to the palace on a regular basis. But following both men’s staff around would undoubtedly prove to be enlightening.

He didn’t frankly care where he started, so he went with whoever came across his path first. In an effort to seem inconspicuous he bought an apple from a nearby fruit stand in the main market street, leaned against the building, and idly munched on it as he waited for any interesting prey to come along. It took a few minutes, and in the growing traffic of the early morning, he almost missed them, but eventually one of the men who worked for Goethals came along. The Goethals crest stood out predominantly on the man’s shoulder as he bobbed and weaved his way through the throng.

Chucking the apple aside, he stepped out into the street traffic, keeping the man within sights. With his bright blond hair, that didn’t prove to be too challenging. Walking through the busy street seemed far more hazardous. Bellomi couldn’t take more than a few steps before his shoulder would knock into someone, or something would come along that would almost trip him. If not for constant attention, he’d have been tripped five steps in.

He felt like swearing, but an angry man often lost his target. A good hunter stayed calm no matter what happened. Baby had taught him that. So he took in a breath, let it out, and kept following that head of thick blond hair.

They left the food stalls behind, heading more into the crafts section with its strong scent of metal and leather mixing in the air. Bellomi had always liked the smell of leather and he took in a deep lungful as he walked along. In fact, he managed three lungfuls before they switched streets again, this time for the more business-oriented section of the city. Only bankers, established merchant stores and elegant restaurants were along this road.

This street also had considerably less traffic than the market section. Bellomi dropped back a little more to avoid arousing suspicion, although he kept his pace at a good clip, giving the impression that he had his own business to attend to. But now that he had a clearer view of the man, he studied him from behind. He stood a bit taller than the average man, slender build, with an impeccably kept house uniform of grey and steel blue. A sharp, no-nonsense man in his early thirties from all appearances…who had just stepped into one of the more famous banks of the city. Hmmm.

Bellomi couldn’t well follow him inside of there, not without arousing a great deal of suspicion, so instead he walked right past it before taking a side alley between two tall brick buildings. There he stayed, peeking out just enough to keep an eye on the door of the bank.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes before the man came out again. It must be a regular transaction to be completed
that
quickly. Then Blondie kept going into the heart of the city at the same pace he’d used before. Bellomi waited a moment before stepping back out into the open street.

This had to be it, the regular payment Goethals made to Sunrise House. The timing of the payment was too perfect. Unless Goethals had some other secret vice that Bellomi hadn’t heard about yet.

They switched streets several times, going into the seedier part of the city. Not quite the worst section, but right there along the edge. A prime spot for a brothel indeed. Bellomi’s mouth flattened into a grim line but tried to not jump to any conclusions until he’d confirmed it with his own eyes.

Finally, the man stopped in front of a brick and wood building that had seen better days. Most of the buildings here stood two or three stories tall, but this one had only a single level which didn’t take up much space at all. Oddly enough, something of a line of people gathered around the front door, obstructing Bellomi’s view. The crowd had middle aged men and women, some children, and a great many elderly.

He studied them with growing confusion, then the plain exterior of the building.
There is absolutely no way that’s a brothel.

Blondie disappeared into the crowd, again only for a moment, then came straight back out again. Several people stopped and thanked him as he passed, to which he gave them a smile and nod, but he didn’t dawdle. He left nearly as fast as he’d come, retreating back down the same street.

Bellomi continued walking forward and even gave the man a nod of greeting as they passed each other. Blondie returned the silent acknowledgement without missing a step and continued on.

This whole thing didn’t make an ounce of sense and since Bellomi could hardly ask Goethals’ man to explain, he went to the crowd of people instead. Putting on a smile, he picked an elderly woman and went directly to her. “Hello,” he greeted with a slight smile.

She had to crane her neck upwards a little to see him, as she stooped with age, but she smiled readily back at him. “Hello, dear. Are you here for a bit of food as well? You’re quite young to need the help, but I suppose these days, there’s no help to be had for it.”

A bit of food? He played along. “Times are very tough, aren’t they?”

“Oh, they are, they are,” she agreed with a long sigh before turning to an equally elderly man standing near her and seeking confirmation. “Isn’t that right?”

“’Tis,” the man grunted sourly. “A man works a lifetime, only to what? Scraping by with nothing to show.”

“If not for Lord Goethals’ help with this kitchen,” she gestured to the building in front of her, “I don’t know what we’d do some days.”

Kitchen. Kitchen? Bellomi turned and regarded it with new eyes. Sunshine House was not a brothel, but a kitchen for the poor? “How long has it been here?”

“Oh my,” the woman paused and thought about it for a moment. “Years, at least. We’ve been coming here regularly for the past three years.”

“It was going on before that,” the man added in a grunt. “Goethals started it two years or so after the prince was cursed.”

That long?! Bellomi blinked, feeling a little bewildered.

“It’s not the only one, or so I hear,” the woman added thoughtfully. “Why Jamison’s son said just the other day he saw one near the north edge of the city.”

This simply could not be a ploy for the sake of Goethals’ reputation. Some of the other Councilmen had charities they ran, but they did so with much fanfare and boasting, making sure that everyone knew of it. Goethals clearly didn’t have that motive here. For mercy’s sake, most people thought this was a brothel!

The woman caught his wrist and lightly tugged him in front of her. “Come here, dear, stand in line. A growing boy like you needs a lot of food. I should know, having raised three of them.”

He didn’t fight her, but moved where she directed. “My thanks, madam. Is the food good here? I’ve never been here before you see.”

“Oh my, yes.” She started expanding on the subject, giving praises to the cooks, not that she couldn’t have done better in her prime, you know.

Bellomi listened attentively, asked questions, and kept his eyes open.

Things were definitely not as they appeared.

~ ~ ~

After a very interesting lunch, Bellomi went back to the palace and his little corner of the market square. He’d developed a certain fondness for that spot—it gave him such an excellent view of the main road into the city after all. He bought a flask of cider this time (he’d worked up a thirst after that long walk into the city and back) and took healthy swallows from it as he waited for someone else interesting to come out of the palace. The cool tartness of the cider filled his mouth and he smiled at the taste. The day had warmed up to a pleasant degree but hadn’t become stifling hot. Really, he couldn’t have asked for a better setting to stalk people in.

He downed two flasks of cider and a pear before the next interesting person came along. This time, instead of a staff member, Clasessens himself showed up, or at least his carriage did. Bellomi stayed still long enough to get a peek in the window as the black lacquered carriage passed. Yes, the stodgy old man inside certainly looked like Clasessens. Now where was the man going in the middle of the afternoon, with only two hours or so before a regular council meeting?