Rebel Magisters (Rebel Mechanics #2)(41)

He gestured at his attire. “He’s going to think that anyway, especially since we were able to get past the barrier. If you lot join us, we’ll just be blamed.”

Camilla stomped her foot. “But it was our plan! You got the idea from us.”

“What will you do if we don’t cooperate?” Adonis asked. “Put a hex on us? As you’ve seen, we have a way to stop that.”

“We have other weapons,” Camilla said, her voice dropping to a growl.

The Mechanics laughed again, and Adonis held his arms out. “Do your worst, milady.”

“We’ll—we’ll call the authorities.”

Henry and I had been lurking in the crowd of Mechanics, but Henry moved forward at that. “Don’t tell me you’d really be that petty, Camilla,” he said.

“Henry, what are you doing with them?” Brad asked.

“I was hoping to get all of you to listen to reason.” He turned to Adonis. “They can help, really.”

“Why should we trust them?” Adonis asked. “Can’t you do the same things they could?”

“I can, I suppose.” Henry worried his lower lip in his teeth for a moment, then moved toward the barrier. “Look, you haven’t given them much reason to trust you,” he told his friends. “Let them deal with the tea. You can manage a perimeter and help them escape afterward. Maybe that will help them trust you in the future. Are you after glory or results?”

The magisters all looked at each other, then Camilla said, “Very well,” to Henry before turning and walking away. The rest of the magisters joined her.

Behind us, the Mechanics had already boarded the ship and subdued the crew, who weren’t putting up much resistance. “They may be right about one thing,” Athena said. “If we steal the tea, they can say it was merely a criminal act. They won’t have to admit it was a political act of defiance. Throw the tea into the harbor.”

Adonis nodded, then shouted, “Let’s brew ourselves a giant cup of freedom tea! But damage nothing else!”

The rest of the Mechanics boarded the ship, and Henry and I joined them. A few men went below and began passing up crates. When the crates reached the deck, the rest of us went to work smashing them open and dumping them overboard. Henry and I didn’t have any tools, so we helped kick any spilled tea off the deck and into the harbor.

Although I appreciated the cause and understood what we were doing, I still couldn’t help but sigh at the thought of all that tea going to waste. I liked tea, and I was grateful that my position in Henry’s house and the need to maintain my cover as a loyal subject of the Empire required me to continue drinking it.

As we worked, some of the Mechanics began singing their version of the “Yankee Doodle” song, changing the lyrics to suit the occasion. “Yankee Doodle went to town, to have a big tea party. Beat the magpies and made some tea, enough to serve an army.” It perhaps wasn’t the most poetic turn of phrase, but it made everyone laugh, and soon the rest of the group picked up the chorus. The atmosphere became rather festive, and it was almost a disappointment when the hold was emptied.

One of the men pulled a flask out of his coat pocket and passed it around the assembled conspirators. I took a sip when it reached me and gasped as the harsh liquid burned my throat and made my eyes water so badly I could hardly see to pass it on to Henry. He gently took it out of my hand to take his own sip.

Adonis called for attention, and the crowd grew silent. “We’ve struck a major blow tonight. Now, let us disperse or hide as quietly as possible.” He turned to the crew. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

All of us filed off, down the gangplank, and approached the barrier. Now that the deed was done and my elation was fading, I began to worry about how we’d get away and get back to the house. Surely someone would have noticed the activity at the docks, and that would mean the authorities were on their way.

The device did its work in lowering the magical barrier once more. Some of the magisters were still waiting outside the barrier, though not all who had come from the party. Once we were all through and magic was working again, Camilla approached Adonis. “Do you want us to do something about the guards?”

“Like what?”

“I can subdue them so you can untie them, and we can adjust their memories so they won’t know for certain what happened here.”

“I think we’ll leave them tied up. The shift will change soon, and that way they’ll know what happened.”

“You want the authorities to know about your device?”

“They didn’t see anything other than a bunch of people who looked like magisters rushing at them. They don’t know how we did it. See, we managed to do all this just fine without magic.”

“We can help you escape.”

“Don’t need the help. Thanks for the offer, though.” He gave her a mocking bow. “Have a good evening, milady.”

The Mechanics appeared to melt into the darkness. I didn’t even see where Athena’s roadster went. I wasn’t sure they’d gone anywhere. Were they hiding at the docks?

“I can’t believe you sided with them,” Camilla snarled at Henry.

“I didn’t side with anyone. Someday, everyone will realize that we just need one revolution, and we’ll get nowhere if we fight each other.” He turned to me. “Now, come on, Verity, we’d best be going.”