The Laws of Magic 6: Hour of Need by Michael Pryor Read Free Book Online Page B

Stralick hurried among the desks, glancing at documents that looked promising, Aubrey cast about in a circle, feeling for any trace of magic but being frustrated when all he could detect were mild touches in too many different places. Nothing outrageous, nothing promising at all.
    To judge from the dowel hanging on the walls, and the traces of paper caught in them, maps had been torn down and disposed of. Smouldering remains in the huge fireplace showed that files and documents had also been eliminated. He stirred the ashes with a poker, hoping to find something that had only been half-burned, but whoever had had that job had been extremely thorough. The ashes were uniformly black and useless.
    With a grunt, von Stralick used both hands to pick up a head-sized lump of stone from the mantelpiece. He rolled it over in his hands. ‘Remarkable.’
    ‘I beg your pardon?’ Aubrey stared at the banded stone, dark green and blue, glittering in the lantern light.
    ‘This is Green Johannes stone.’
    ‘I’m pleased about that, but don’t we have more important things to worry about?’
    ‘I’m surprised to see it here. When I’m surprised, I become curious – and since I’ve seen how you respond to your curiosity I’ve decided to listen to mine.’
    ‘Tell me then, Hugo – what’s surprising about Green Johannes?’
    ‘Johannes stone is only found in one tiny mine near Korsur, just on the Holmland side of the Gallian border. It comes in a number of varieties and Green Johannes is very, very rare.’
    Aubrey looked up from the undeniably attractive striped stone. Something buried in his memory was struggling to make itself known, trying to rise above the snippets of information, the sawn-off ends of ideas and the half-formed conclusions that swirled about in the deepest recesses of his mind.
    ‘Valuable, is it?’
    ‘Greatly. It’s worth a thousand times more than Brown Johannes, a hundred times more than Blue Johannes –’
    ‘I see the pattern, Hugo. It’s the most valuable Johannes stone there is.’
    ‘Apart from Crystal Johannes, but the last of that was mined a hundred years ago.’ Von Stralick hefted the shapeless stone. ‘This is freshly extracted. See? It hasn’t been worked or polished.’
    ‘Which is all well and good, Hugo, but what’s your point?’
    ‘I’m not sure. Again, like you, where Dr Tremaine is concerned I take note of anything out of the ordinary.’ Von Stralick carefully replaced the Green Johannes on the mantelpiece.
    Aubrey’s memory wasn’t being cooperative. He shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t have known that lump of stone was out of the ordinary.’
    ‘That is where you’re fortunate to be associated with a Green Johannes collector.’
    ‘To tell you the truth, Hugo, I have trouble thinking of you as a collector.’
    ‘Fitzwilliam, you still have much to learn about the spying business. When I was a cultural attaché to various Holmland embassies, being a collector gave me good reason to be out and about, poking my nose into various emporia. I became quite an expert in Green Johannes ware, to my surprise.’
    ‘Where’s your collection now?’
    ‘Probably in the home of one of the Chancellor’s good friends.’ He glanced at Aubrey. ‘I do not want you to think that my antipathy toward the Chancellor and his cronies is due to my collection’s being stolen. I’m much less straightforward than that.’
    ‘Hugo, I promise: I’ll never think you’re straightforward.’
    Von Stralick looked wistfully at the lump of stone. ‘It’s a fine specimen.’
    ‘Don’t worry. Once we’ve sorted out all this mess, I’ll help you start your collection again. I think we have a pair of candlesticks made out of the stuff, up in the attic somewhere. I’m sure Mother and Father wouldn’t miss them.’
    Especially since Mother called them ghastly and bundled them away as soon as she could.
    ‘That is decent of you,’ von Stralick said. ‘And I use that word carefully,