"I"ll get it," Clare said, hurrying over to her desk. "Your umbrella is ringing. Honestly, Sam! Your imagination! Good morning, Eye Scry, discreet private enquiries, this is Clare. How can I help?"
I crawled out from under my desk, wondering as I brushed off the dusty knees of my pants who was calling us. I"d only set up the phone lines the day before, and had given the number out to just one person other than Clare. It was probably just the phone company checking to see if the line worked. I turned on my laptop and sat down at my desk while Clare made little murmurs of encouragement to whoever was on the phone.
"I see. Well, I don"t believe that will be a problem, Mr. Race. My partner has a particular talent with finding lost objects. Oh, you did?" Clare looked at me, her eyes round. "Then perhaps it would be best if you talked to her yourself. Can you hold?
Thank you."
"Lost items?" I asked. "That"s not a client, is it?"
"Yes, it is. It"s a Mr. Owen Race. He"s a medieval specialist of some sort, and he wants us to find some sort of an antique book for him. But Sam-he says that Brother Jacob recommended you to him. I thought you were kicked out of the Order of Diviners?"
"I was, but Jake said he"d keep an ear out for me for anyone who might be able to use the services of a failed Diviner. Sounds like he found someone. h.e.l.lo, this is Samantha Cosse. I understand you need some help locating an object?"Like Clare"s, the man"s voice was English, very upper-cla.s.s, positively reeking of places like Eton and Cambridge and of the BBC. It made me all the more aware of my flat, accentless (to my ears) Canadian speech. "Good morning, Miss Cosse. Yes, as I told your a.s.sociate, I am seeking to locate a very rare medieval ma.n.u.script that was stolen from me recently-the Simia Gestor Coda is its name. I understand from Brother Jacob at the Diviners" House that you studied there for several years and have a good deal of experience in locating missing items?"
Oh dear. He wanted a Diviner, and I was anything but one. I"d have to let him know right away that I wasn"t what he thought I was. "I"ve had some luck locating missing items, yes. But if you are seeking the a.s.sistance of a true Diviner, Mr. Race, I"m afraid you may have been misled. I did study at the Diviners" House with the Order, but I was... well, to put it bluntly, I was kicked out before my novitiate was completed. Although I have been trained in elementary divination, I"m afraid I am unable to conduct the more advanced rituals."
"I see. I appreciate such frankness, and can a.s.sure you that I have no need for the services of a professional Diviner. Brother Jacob recommended you to me because you apparently have a talent for locating items that goes beyond mere divination."
I slumped back in my chair in relief. I hadn"t antic.i.p.ated Jake sending me a customer, despite his declarations that he would do all he could to help me, but now that I had bared the ugly truth in my past, I could focus on the job being offered. "I will be happy to put the full resources of my firm at your disposal," I said. "Perhaps we can meet to discuss this further?"
"Excellent. I"m in Barcelona at the moment, but I would be happy to pay your airfare out here."
I blinked back my surprise. "Er... I appreciate the offer, Mr. Race, but we are still in the process of setting up our business, and I wouldn"t be comfortable leaving all the remaining work to my partner." I motioned to Clare and wrote he wants me to go to Barcelona on the notepad. Clare looked panicky. I"d had to promise her, when we thought up the idea of the investigation agency, that I would handle all of what she termed the "messy businessy stuff."
"Sam, no," she whispered.
"Don"t worry," I mouthed, then said into the phone, "That"s very generous of you, but I"m afraid it"s out of the question.
However-" I raised my eyebrows in question. Clare nodded quickly. "However, my partner would be available to fly to Barcelona. She would be very happy to stand in my place and discuss with you all the necessary details."
"Erm... no, that won"t be necessary," he said, sounding disappointed. I shook my head at Clare. "I will be returning to Edinburgh at the end of the week, so we can meet then."
"I would be happy to get started on your project if you can give me the details over the phone," I said in my most professional voice, opening a text doc.u.ment. "Why don"t you give me the specifics of the item that was stolen, and later you can fax me any insurance doc.u.ments you have, as well as the police report."
Twenty minutes later I hung up the phone and hit SAVE on my doc.u.ment file.
"Well?" Clare asked, absently nibbling on a carnation. "Do we have a job?"
I smiled. "We are employed! Let fly the doves and all that."
"Hurrah! I told you this was going to be exciting! Although I"m disappointed I won"t be going to Barcelona. Such a pretty city.
So, we"re looking for a book?"
"Yes, some sort of medieval ma.n.u.script that was stolen. Evidently Mr. Race has quite a collection, and he didn"t notice the theft until he had ordered an inventory of his holdings a month ago. He"s going to have his housekeeper round up some information about the ma.n.u.script, but until then, we can get to work on the little info he gave me. He believes the ma.n.u.script could well have been taken by a rival collector."
"Oooh. How thrilling! It"s like an art theft, only with a medieval book.""Mmm," I said, gathering up my bag and jacket. "I"m going to go visit a couple of antique shops and see if I can"t get some info on who the big collectors are in Britain."
"What would you like me to do?" Clare asked, chewing another bit of flower.
"You"d better stop eating those flowers, or you won"t have anything left but a vase full of stems," I said at the door.
She shot me a look of pure outrage. "I do not eat flowers!"
I raised my eyebrows and looked at the half-eaten carnation in her hand. She glared at it for a minute as if it had magically appeared there. "You"re a faery, Clare. No one else eats flowers but really hard-core vegetarians, and I"ve seen you wolf down a steak, so I know you"re not that. If you want to do something helpful, do an Internet search for me on the"-I consulted my notes-"Simia Gestor Coda. With a name like that, it has to have some sort of a history. I"d like to know everything you can find out about its past. All Mr. Race told me was that it was written by a mage who was supposedly in Marco Polo"s service.
Oh, also, pull up a list of the major antiquities dealers for England. It wouldn"t hurt to know who might be dealing in something like a rare antique ma.n.u.script."
I spent the next couple of hours visiting various antique shops in and around the Royal Mile, the most famous street in all of Edinburgh. By the time I tottered into the last shop on my list, a small, dusty shop tucked away between a bookstore and a gyro shop, I was feeling uninspired. The antique dealers were particularly loath to talk about their clients, and none of them had heard of the Coda.
A little bell over the door jangled as I entered the shop. Like others of its ilk, this antiquities shop was filled to the rafters with statuary, objets d"art, stuffed animals, strange old mechanical pieces, books and illuminated ma.n.u.scripts, and a myriad of other items whose use and purpose were shrouded in the distant reaches of the past. I browsed through the items, glancing periodically at a man I took to be the owner as he stood with his back to me in the doorway to another room, speaking to someone I couldn"t see.
"Shoot," I said to myself as I glanced at my watch. I was three hours away from the office already, and I wanted to get back to help Clare. I stopped in front of a bookcase bearing a stuffed spider monkey, and sent yet another impatient look toward the man in the doorway. "I don"t have time for thiaaaaieeeeeee!"
My heart just about leaped out of my chest as the spider monkey I"d a.s.sumed was stuffed suddenly jumped from the bookcase to my shoulder. "Oh, man alive, you just scared a good ten years off me. h.e.l.lo there, Mr. Monkey. Um... that is, I a.s.sume you"re a mister. I can"t tell, what with that little sailor suit you"re wearing. Do you belong here? Of course you do, what a stupid question. What else would a monkey be doing in an antiques shop? Would you mind asking your owner if he could talk to me for a few minutes? No? Drat. Well, doesn"t matter-you"ll do as an excuse to interrupt him."
The monkey, evidently satisfied with his evil plan to give me a heart attack, leaped back onto the bookcase, where he smoothed down the fur on his tail.
"Um... I can"t use you as an excuse unless you"re on my shoulder, so hop on... er... what"s your name?"
I reached out a tentative hand to stroke his arm. He didn"t seem to mind being petted, so I gently touched the jeweled collar he wore around his neck. Tiny rivets spelled out a series of letters.
"B... E... P... well, h.e.l.lo there, Beppo."
The monkey stopped examining his tail and held out a rust-fingered hand. Stifling a giggle at the dignified look on his little face, I carefully shook his hand. Satisfied, he returned to his grooming.
"You are one strange little monkey. All right, Beppo, hop on and let"s go interrupt your owner."
He dropped his tail and held out his hand again."Hee!" I shook his hand again. That completed, he picked up his tail.
"Beppo," I said again, unable to resist. Down went the tail; out went his hand.
"OK, cute but could well become annoying. Here, if you don"t mind-" I hoisted the monkey off the bookcase and set him onto my shoulder. His tail wrapped around my neck as he clung with one hand to my ponytail. "Groovy. Now let"s go pretend that I just found you in a dangerous situation and see if I can"t have a quick word with your owner before toddling on my merry-holy c.r.a.p! What is it with everyone trying to startle me into an early grave?"
A being popped up in front of me. I mean, literally popped up right out of the floor. All my supernatural senses went into high tingle mode at the sight of what appeared to be a short, middle-aged man.
Only he wasn"t a man. I didn"t know exactly what he was, but he wasn"t human.
"h.e.l.lo," I said politely, feeling it was better to give him the benefit of the doubt. I"d come across a few different types of beings in my time with the Diviners, and although only a couple of them had turned out to be from the wrong side of the tracks, metaphorically speaking, some who looked bad had turned out to be quite nice. "That was an impressive entrance. Was it for me in particular, or are you just a fan of antiques?"
The man looked from Beppo to me. "You bear the monkey."
"Beppo?" The monkey promptly held out his hand. I gave it a little two-fingered shake. "He jumped on me earlier, but I was just taking him back to his-what"s this?"
The man shoved a s...o...b..x-sized package at me.
"I am charged to give it to you. It is yours now," the man said, then without another word, dissolved into black smoke that sank down into the floor.
Chapter 2.
"What the... OK, this day is really starting to go strange. What the heck is in this? It"s heavy... hey!"
At the front of the store a man"s voice rose in anger. He was speaking some language I"d never heard, but the threat in his voice was unmistakable. The bell on the door tinkled distantly, sending Beppo flying off my shoulder with an agitated squawk. The little monkey loped down the aisle until he was out of sight.
"d.a.m.n it, just when I needed-ouch! Who on earth would want to buy a guillotine?-just when I needed him, he runs off."
I made my way around the blocky guillotine, rubbing my arm where I had hit it on a pointy bit of wood, past an eight-foot-tall reproduction of the Sphinx, and into the aisle that would take me to the front of the store. The small man I had seen earlier standing in the doorway was at the desk bearing an antique cash register. He looked startled to see me.
"Good morning. I had no idea there was anyone in the shop. Can I a.s.sist you? Are you looking for something in particular, or just browsing?"
"I was just browsing while you were busy with the other customer, but I am looking for something in particular. It"s a fifteenth- century ma.n.u.script named the Simia Gestor Coda. It was stolen from a nearby collector. I don"t suppose you"ve heard of it?"
"Stolen! Oh no, we do not deal in stolen goods," the man said, his soft voice filled with outrage.
"No, no, I didn"t mean to imply you did. The owner just found out about the theft, which could have occurred up to six years ago, so there"s no way anyone would have known that it was stolen."
"Regardless, I do not have any medieval ma.n.u.scripts," the owner said stiffly.
"Well, it was a long shot. I"m interested in contacting some of the area collectors," I said carefully. "People who collect medieval antiquities such as the ma.n.u.script. Would you be able to tell me who in this region might be interested in acquiring something of that sort?"
"I would be happy to appraise any object you wish to sell," he said quickly, moving around the desk.
"Thank you, that"s very kind, but I prefer to talk to collectors myself."
His helpful expression turned to one of stone.
I sighed. "I didn"t think you"d go for that. None of the other dealers and sellers have. Well, thank you anyway." I had started to leave when I remembered the box that had so oddly been thrust upon me. "Oh-something popped up while I was in the back of the shop with your monkey, and gave me this. I thought maybe he mistook me for you... ?"
The man looked at me as if I had spider monkeys growing out of my ears. "Something popped up?"
"Yes, some sort of being or ent.i.ty. Perhaps a spirit, although I haven"t heard of spirits acting as delivery services. Then again, it could have been a demon-I"m afraid I haven"t had much experience with the dark beings, so I"m not absolutely sure I would recognize one if I saw it."
"Erm..." The man"s eyes turned wary as he edged toward the part of the desk bearing a phone.
"Not a demon?" I asked.
He shook his head slowly and glanced toward the front door. "I"m afraid I don"t quite follow you, madam. I don"t have a monkey, nor is my store haunted with demons and ghosts. If there"s anything else I can help you with?"
Clearly this man was not hip to all the woo-woo stuff that went on in the Otherworld. I smiled what I hoped wouldn"t look like the smile of an insane person, and said very carefully, "My apologies for startling you-my imagination gets away with me sometimes. I a.s.sume you don"t want this box?"
I held out the s...o...b..x to him. He backed away as though it contained projectile leprosy. "I"m afraid I cannot accept gifts from...
visitors."
The words "freakish Canadians who babble about weird stuff" hung unspoken in the air, but I took his meaning. "All right. I"ll just leave you my card in case you do happen to hear of anyone with the Coda for sale."
I extracted one of the brand-new business cards from my purse and set it down on the counter, thanking the man as I left. The box was heavy in my hands, reminding me of the rashness of hauling around a strange gift from an even stranger being. With all sorts of visions of plagues and blights in mind, I stood outside the antique store for a moment, chewing my lip.
"When in doubt, go to an expert," I said to myself, and hustled my way through the misty drizzle to the nearest bus stop. A short time and a pound coin later, I stood outside a familiar white brick building. The buildings were designed in Georgian style, all clean, cla.s.sical lines, but the Diviners" House itself (donated to the Order by a grateful client) was unremarkable, its polished oak and bra.s.s door speaking of the same quiet affluence as the hotels that sat on either side of it. I shook away the bad memories of the last few years and entered the house, quickly locating one of the few remaining Diviners who would acknowledge my existence."... so I thought it would be better to have it checked out before I opened it, in case there was some sort of Pandora"s box thing going on," I finished five minutes later, carefully watching the man who stood next to me with the box in his hands. "What do you think? Is it something bad?"
Brother Jacob, head of the Scottish branch of Diviners, and erstwhile schoolmate from a childhood spent in Calgary, gave me a look that almost made me squirm. Almost. "Sam, you didn"t leave here utterly ignorant. You possess the skills to determine if this object is tainted by dark powers."
"Uh... Jake, I hate to disillusion you about any of my so-called skills, but I flunked divination, remember? I was kicked out of the Order."
"You left voluntarily," he said, still giving me the look that said I shouldn"t be bothering him with petty things.
"Right. Only I was volunteered to leave by the head of the Order."
"Master Tsang was acting in your best interests-" Jake started to say, his brow furrowed.
I laughed and held up a hand. "Don"t worry, Jake, I"m not here to start up that whole how-I-left-and-why-I-left thing. Honestly, I"m over it. And perfectly willing to accept that Master Tsang was right and I was wrong about divination being my calling. I"m a mutt, half human and half elf, neither one thing or another, and as we both know, divination is a gift, not a skill. Hence my inability to tell if that box is nasty or not. What do you think?"
Jake sighed and gave up trying to glare me into being something I just wasn"t. He looked off into the distance as his hands spread across the box, an abstracted look on his face indicating he was deep in a world that only Diviners could access. "The box itself has been in the possession of a demon."
"So that was a demon? Interesting."
"However, the object inside it does not seem to be imbued with any dark powers."
"That"s good to know. So what is it?" I asked, curious.
Jake blinked and shot me a jaded look. "I"m not an X-ray machine, Sam. If you want to know what"s in it, you"ll have to find out for yourself."
"But I told you, I can"t divine anything-"
He rolled his eyes, shoving the box back at me. "I meant you"ll have to open the box, you idiot."
"Oh." I smiled and punched him lightly in the shoulder, just to let him know I appreciated the insult. I b.u.mmed a pair of scissors from him to cut the leather thongs that bound the box, then popped off the lid, wondering what on earth a demon could be delivering, and whom it was supposed to be delivered to. "Huh. It"s a statue."
"Of what?" Jake asked, peering over my shoulder. "A bird?"
"Yeah." I lifted the small statue from a nest of velvet material, surprised by its weight. It was gold-colored, about nine inches tall, apparently of a bird of prey. "Looks like a hawk or falcon or some raptor like that."
"Ooooh. Is it gold?" he asked, his voice hushed as if he was in the presence of something awe-inspiring.
I turned the statue around, flipping it over to look at the bottom. "I don"t think so. I think it"s bra.s.s."
"How can you tell?" he asked. "It looks like gold to me.""One word." I pointed at the letters on the bottom of the statue. "Last I heard, Taiwan wasn"t knocking off gold bird statues."
"Why would someone go to the trouble of having a demon deliver a non-gold Taiwanese statue?" Jake asked, looking as confused as I felt.
"That is the question, isn"t it?" I gave the bird statue another quick once-over, then put it back in the box and strapped the lid on with some packing tape. "Maybe if I knew that, I"d know who it was meant for. Thanks for your help, Jake. And for the referral.
I appreciate you spreading the word about our agency."