Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“I bet these all reek with fascinating history,” she said into the hush of the room. “Stories untold. Thievery, battles, ransacked castles…”
“The heirs probably got them as gifts, but who knows how the gift givers got them?” Sebastian shook his head and motioned for her to pack them up. “There isn’t one cairn leader who can come even remotely close to matching this. Not one. Now, when we get into the mages—”
“No, no.” Nessa held up her hand. “We don’t need the house getting pissy again. Meeting mages is farther along in our plans, after we hopefully do not die in Kingsley’s territory.”
“Right. True. Sorry.”
“What’s next? Let’s see if this can be topped.”
She needn’t have asked.
After skipping over the crew’s rooms, they found themselves in a room that was completely empty, save the closet.
“What in the— No.” Nessa just shook her head, hands on hips. “No. This is ridiculous. Why did Mr. Tom waste his time putting cash in a briefcase in a wall safe when this is up here? He has royal jewels in a closet, and now this? What—”
She was at a loss for words. Sebastian’s mouth hung open.
Stacked in the closet, floor to ceiling in side-by-side stacks, was a crap-load of gold bars.
Gold bars.
This closet, with no lock to speak of, in a random, empty bedroom in the house, was the house’s own private Fort Knox.
“I can’t even.” Nessa threw up her hands. “How do you even flash this around?”
“I’m sure we can figure out a way, but it won’t be with gargoyles. My God, Nessa…” Sebastian’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s. “Just…my God.”
After a great lot of staring, some counting, and much shaking of heads, they continued on to the rest of the house. The office held a few really old-looking books and a financial ledger with a bottom line that didn’t seem possible.
“That is an awful lot of zeroes,” Nessa said, once again shaking her head. “An awful lot.”
Sebastian started laughing. Nessa joined him, and the two of them leaned against each other as they wrestled with the enormity that was this house.
Much to their disappointment, the third floor wasn’t that impressive. Other than a billiards room that was old and in need of refurbishing, most of the space was empty. There was a small ballroom as well, grand but very old, and oddly placed on the third floor like it was an afterthought. It looked like it had been shut up long ago and not bothered with since. Some of the chandeliers were worth a pretty penny, and there were more paintings and furniture to write down, but nothing like those closets.
“Which mages are you going to use?” Nessa asked.
“I’m going to have to use some of our people in the reserves. The ones in hiding that we know about. We’ll promise them that we’ll wipe the slate clean, give them a hefty payment, and, of course, assure their protection.”
“Lies, of course.”
“Of course. I’m expecting Jessie and Austin to kill them dramatically. They’ll be desperate to believe us, though. They’ll assume a grisly death if they don’t. They’ll do it with the hope I want to use them another time.”
“How many?”
“Ten.”
“Ten?” She stopped on the way to the attic stairs, her mouth dropping. “And mercenaries?”
“A couple dozen mercenaries.”
“Sebastian, that’s crazy. That’s too many mages! The shifters will be able to eat through the mercenaries, but that many mages against you two?”
“We’ll have the gargoyles.”
“We might have the gargoyles, Sebastian. Might. If we can pull this off. If we don’t, and that attack team goes dark, we’re going to have to fight that company. There won’t be a way to stop them.”
Going dark meant deploying. It meant the attacking team closed communications to the outside world and operated in secret so that they couldn’t be detected by the enemy. It was the way Elliot Graves always operated.
In this instance, it would be better to forgo the practice, but they’d found that if they ever deviated from what people expected of their operations, they lost trust. Losing trust meant the company scattered, and they had to be tracked down and killed and more people found, and it was a whole mess.
“We need a sizable attack, Nessa,” he said. “We need the odds stacked against us, and mages are the best way to do that. She’s ready for this. If we have those gargoyles—the fliers to help us—we can handle this.”
“Right. But we’re back to if. There has to be another way.” She started forward again, heading for the attic stairs. “Jessie turns people loyal like no one’s business. If we help her, and set things up that might delight the gargoyles, at least some of them”—he started shaking his head—“will want to join her cairn.”
“That’s just it, Nessa. She doesn’t really have a cairn. That, and she has zero status, which apparently means everything to them, like how mages think of magic. I overheard Patty speaking to Nathanial the other day, after the connection request thing. They’re worried. They both are. Waving money in the guardians’ faces might’ve won a couple people over if it was just the newness thing, but it’s not. It’s so much more, including Jessie’s lack of history with gargoyles, them operating like a pack instead of a cairn…” He stopped at the base of the stairs. “I feel this, Nessa. In that way I sometimes do, I feel this. It’s dicey, as I said, and the whole structure of the plan is loose at best, but it will work. If we can see it through, it will work. I know it. She’ll turn them. She’ll be the battle leader she was meant to be, and she’ll turn them. You have to trust me. We need those gargoyles if we’re going to defeat Momar, and this is a way to get them.”