Read Online The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes - Free Book Online Page B

said the aura-coded key never leaves the mine. Does the supervisor keep it on him? If he has held it for long enough, its aura would have mingled with his own, and we could find him outside the mine and copy that .”
    “How long is long enough?” Tern asked.
    “The current supervisor has had this position for less than a year,” Icy added. “His predecessor had held the job for many years before dying to some sort of fairy creature that lived in the canyon.”
    “It was a big scandal in the guild,” Tern said. “Looked like he was smuggling crystals out of the mine to sell, and the deal went sour and he got ripped up.” She coughed. “It was actually what gave us the idea to break in.”
    “Less than a year, and there will be no imprint on his soul,” Desidora said, frowning.
    “Face time, then,” Kail said, still adjusting the controls. “I’ll get a job at the mine, work my way in. I’m still not loving the idea of getting through however many levels of security they’ve got, though. Any other entrance to the mine?”
    “Not that we found,” Icy said, “and we considered the same solution.”
    “Icy really didn’t like my idea of a small, controlled explosion opening up a mine to the surface and giving us an alternate way in,” Tern added.
    “I did not, no.”
    “So this is a long job,” Loch said, frowning. “Some of us get hired at the processing center, some of us get hired as miners. We look for gaps and figure out a nonmagical solution that gets us into the high-security area and shuts down whatever the ancients are trying to do . . . ideally before they come back.”
    “Or we wait for Ghylspwr to show himself,” Desidora said, “and we take him.” The deck around her went black again.
    “None of us can handle Ghylspwr in a fight, Diz,” Kail said from the control console.
    “He is a soul in a weapon.” Desidora smiled thinly, her lips a black slash across chalk-white skin. “Perhaps I can pull it out.”
    “He betrayed all of us,” Loch said firmly, “and if we need to stop him for our plan to work, we do it. That said, we’re not blowing the plan because anyone is angry about getting played by a magic hammer.”
    Desidora glared, then nodded. Her skin regained its healthy blush before she turned away.
    “Captain,” Kail said suddenly, “I’ve got a ship incoming. Fast. Right at us.”
    Everyone stood up and got their weapons ready again, which turned out to be entirely necessary, as the ship that was just a dot in the sky and then a vague nonairship shape quite rapidly grew into a slim wooden wand from which long narrow leaves grew like great living sailwings. It was a treeship, small and built for speed, and if Loch were any judge, there were only a few people with the wealth and access to a ship like that who would have any business contacting her.
    Her guess proved right when the treeship came to a relative stop, matching their speed, and a familiar elven shape climbed up from belowdecks.
    “Hey, Ethel,” Kail called over. “Always a pleasure.”
    Irrethelathlialann did not smile. “There are messages waiting for you at every major city, but the Dragon believed that the urgency necessitated my coming directly.”
    “He found something about the ancients,” Loch said, at the same time that Ululenia said, “Dairy.”
    Irrethelathlialann nodded grimly. “You’re both right. It seems the boy, erstwhile Champion of Dawn and my employer’s current lover, is tied to the ancients even more directly than his little prophecy would have suggested. In order to return to this world, the ancients need a very specific sacrifice . . . one which they captured en route to the relative safety of the Empire.”
    “No.” Leaves suddenly sprouted from the railings, then went golden and fell dead to the deck. Ululenia didn’t even seem to notice. “No.”
    “Yes, little virgin-bane.” Now Irrethelathlialann did smile. “It’s not just the world being threatened with