Read Online The Third Circle (Arcane Society Book 04) by Amanda Quick - Free Book Online

enforcers. Neither was particularly intelligent. Delbridge had believed that to be an asset when he had employed them. Now he was having second thoughts.
    “What in blazes happened out in the gardens?” he demanded.
    “Nothing in particular, sir,” Shuttle said, running one beefy hand through his hair. “Quiet night. No trouble at all.” He frowned. “Don’t remember coming in here, though.”
    “Must have popped in to ask the cook for coffee to help us stay awake,” Paddon said. But he looked and sounded rattled.
    “Neither of you walked into the kitchen of your own accord,” Delbridge said. “We found both of you asleep at your posts. While you were napping, a pair of intruders made off with a particularly valuable artifact. You were hired to make sure that sort of thing did not happen while I was entertaining my guests. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
    The two stared at him, dumbfounded. Then Paddon scowled.
    “We just told you, yer lordship, nothing happened. Don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
    Delbridge looked at Hulsey for guidance.
    Hulsey fixed his attention on Paddon. “What is the last thing you remember before you woke up a moment ago?”
    Paddon shrugged. “I was walking through the garden, making my rounds. I remember thinking that we’d likely have rain before morning and then—” He stopped, shaking his head. “Then I woke up here.”
    Shuttle nodded. “It was the same way for me.” "Do you remember seeing anyone outside in the gardens?” Delbridge asked.
    “A couple of guests came out onto the terrace for a few minutes but it was too cold for what they had in mind so they went back inside,” Paddon offered.
    “This is a waste of time,” Delbridge said. “Leave, both of you.”
    Paddon and Shuttle exchanged glances.
    “About our fees,” Shuttle said. His voice had lost its deferential edge.
    “You’ll be paid, before you leave,” Delbridge assured him impatiently.
    The two men stalked out of the kitchen. Delbridge waited until he could no longer hear the heavy thuds of their boots.
    “Do you think that they were in on the theft?” he asked.
    “Perhaps,” Hulsey said. “But I’m inclined to doubt it. Something about the calmness and speed with which they awakened just as dawn arrived makes me suspect another possibility.”
    “What is that?”
    “I wonder if they were put into an hypnotic trance.”
    A chill shivered through Delbridge. “Mesmerism?”
    “It would explain the condition in which we found them.”
    “Which of the thieves was the hypnotist?” Delbridge said. “The man or the woman?”
    “If I am right in concluding that the woman was the crystal worker, then it follows that her companion was the hypnotist. As I’m sure you are aware, when it comes to the truly powerful paranormal talents, individuals get only a single type. A person might be a crystal worker or a hypnotist but not both.”
    “Whoever he is, he’ll be dead within hours.”
    “Perhaps,” Hulsey said.
    Delbridge did not care for the expression on Hulsey’s face. The scientist looked as if he were pondering other possibilities.
    LANCING REPORTED BACK an hour later. He was soaked and not in a pleasant frame of mind.
    “No body,” he said tersely.
    “Damn it! Whoever he is, he cannot have escaped the effects of the vapor,” Delbridge insisted.
    Lancing gave one of his annoyingly elegant shrugs. “Then you had best assume that the woman somehow managed to take him away in a carriage.”
    “She would soon have found herself in the company of a violent madman,” Hulsey pointed out. “Unless—”
    Delbridge and Lancing looked at him.
    “Unless what?” Delbridge demanded.
    Hulsey removed a cloth from his pocket and began to polish his spectacles. “Unless she knew how to save him from the hallucinations.”
    “Impossible,” Delbridge said.
    Hulsey put the spectacles back on his nose. Behind the lenses his eyes gleamed. “Interesting,