Smoke and Iron (The Great Library #4)(63)

“Wonderful. Now, Friedrich, I know you work very hard, don’t you?”

“I like my work.”

“Of course you do. But you must take time off sometime!”

“I work five of the seven days,” he said. “Two of the days I leave the Tower and go to my parents’ home.”

“And when you are gone, who takes your place?”

“Millicent Thorpe.”

“When will she next be taking over your position?”

“In two days.”

“Well, that’s lovely,” Annis said, and her voice had taken on a lazy, slow reassurance again. “You should look forward to your time off, Friedrich.”

He nodded but didn’t answer.

Morgan snapped her fingers and scribbled out a message on a scrap of paper. Annis took it, read it, and said, “Friedrich, one last thing: when I say the magic word, you are going to forget we ever had this conversation, but you are going to do as we agreed and never again put that liquid into Obscurist Morgan’s food, all right?”

“All right.”

“And when I say the magic word, you will stand up and go about your duties. You will only remember that you delivered the food as you are supposed to. You understand that?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Are you listening, Friedrich? The magic word is . . . forget.”

And with that, the young man straightened, stood up, and walked straight to the door. Morgan watched him leave with a little feeling of awe. When the door shut, she turned that stare on Annis. “That was . . . unbelievable. When you told me you could do it, I honestly didn’t believe you. I didn’t know an Obscurist could affect a mind so directly without some kind of script, and drugs!”

“No, no, it isn’t about being an Obscurist at all. This is merely mesmerism, something anyone can learn if they’ve a mind and a bit of a talent, though it’s sure that the Library tries to keep Mesmers pushed away from the legitimate trades. You’ll find them more in criminal circles than anywhere else. As someone who has a little bit of talent and a lot of time on my hands knows well. I know a great many obscure and only partly legal things.”

“Thank you, Annis. I don’t know how to—”

Annis waved it away. “Please. You think I’m doing it just for you? The more I can do to spite Gregory, the better I like my life here. It’s what Keria would have wanted. She’d have torn his head off for what he’s doing, and I’d have held him down. Here.” She picked up the plate of fragrant, steaming rice scented delicately of saffron and topped with a rich red sauce. “Hope you enjoy curry as much as I do. It’s lamb and potato vindaloo.”

“Sorry about the soup,” Morgan said. She took a cautious mouthful of the curry and nearly choked as it set her tongue burning like Greek fire. “God!”

“Delicious, isn’t it?” Annis gave her a cheery grin. “Food of champions, my girl, and no mistake. Eat up. You’ll need your strength for what comes next.”

Morgan wiped her tearing eyes and kept at it, and after the first fiery shock, the taste of the vindaloo made her wolf it down in happy mouthfuls. Still searingly hot, but she could get used to it, she thought. “How soon will the drug be out of my system, do you think?”

“I’m not sure. It was damn clever, how he drugged you obviously the first time and then secretly from then on. I’d say at least a day; they’ve been dosing you for a while, and I’d rather not try it before time, since you said it hurt badly enough to put you down when you last tried to work any aggressive uses. I can explain away headaches and nausea, but fainting spells mean they might send you to the Medica, and for all we know, the Medica’s going to dope you with the same again.”

Frightening—but realistic—thought. “All right. I’ll give it a day.” She chewed her lip. “Did you speak to Natasha about the additions to the Codex monitoring scripts?”

“Aye. And she handed me my ass for it. Not my business, above my skills, all that.” Annis shrugged. “But I did manage to gather that the monitoring has been redone, again, which means they’re looking for you to try a contact. I wouldn’t.”

Damn. Jess was alone out there, and she had no idea what kind of trouble he was in . . . or what was happening to Scholar Wolfe. Just as they couldn’t know her situation, she supposed. What kind of a conspiracy couldn’t coordinate efforts? One doomed to fail. And she had to be the one to solve that problem, not Jess. If he grew desperate enough, he’d do something brave and foolish, and she needed to keep him from it by holding up her end of the job . . . but neither of them had counted on the Iron Tower using drugs to control her.

Annis was right, though. Using her powers in any way that Gregory hadn’t specifically authorized would result in paralyzing agony right now, and that alone would give away her intentions.

“What about doing something without powers?” Morgan asked.

“Such as?”

“Trying to see him.”

Annis knew very well who him meant, and her faded red brows shot up in skeptical arches. “Not wise,” she said. “Besides, he won’t see you. He doesn’t see anyone. Not even Gregory can break the wards on his door, you know. Not even Keria could do that.”

“Did she try?”