Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Eighty: Deja Vu

Ethred's rooms were, as Usk had predicted, very obviously Ethred's rooms. For sheer flashiness it shamed the rest of the temple, and suited the shallow, showy man Jordan had met very well. He hadn't had much to do with Ethred, but the man had always been immaculately, if tastelessly, decked out in jewellery and fine clothing, and the way he behaved when he didn't get his way couldn't be described as anything other than a tantrum.

The room did not have an inch of wall uncovered; gold and black cloth draped the stone where polished weapons, paintings and mirrors weren't already occupying the space. The furnishings were rich leather with generous numbers of cushions. The fireplace in one wall was vast, the mantel lined with gold candlesticks and tasselled cloth. There was a large four poster bed, an equally ridiculous desk, and storage box after chest after cupboard. Jordan was caught between admiration that one man could own so much, and horror that he might have to try and search all of this.

Usk's heavy footsteps stopped behind him. A short silence followed.

Then the Varthian softly groaned, "Fuck."

"Yep."

Together they surveyed the potential enormity of the job ahead of them. To Jordan's admittedly inexpert eye, it didn't look like Ethred had come back here since his unlikely escape. He didn't seem the kind of man to clear up after himself, and the room was immaculately neat. A resounding crash from somewhere deep in the temple jolted him back from his thoughts. Usk stirred back to life as well.

"You check bedside drawers, under the bed, behind the headboard," Usk said. "I will search the desk. Girl, are you here to help or to stare?"

Jordan turned. The Kelian acolyte had crept to the doorway and now peered in, her face pale and jaw set. Grace had said once that she was thirteen, and all over again Jordan felt terrible for having to bring her along. The look on her face when she had seen him in the doorway was something no one wanted to see in response to their presence, but fetching her had been Arlen's first instruction and with the way the mood had been between them, he hadn't felt it a good time to argue.

Dela crept inside with another nervous glance at the corridor outside. Jordan was also nervous, despite his earlier reassurances. What if Harkenn's guard searched here anyway – how would he explain his presence, or why he hadn't arrived with them? Had Harkenn told them he might be here?

Well, no use worrying about it. He dragged his thoughts back on course and headed for the bedside dresser, partly to avoid looking at the terror on Dela's face. He searched each drawer thoroughly, flinching at every noise from outside. He found more jewellery and reams of documents. He dumped them all out on the bed for a better look later and continued searching.

He found a sword strapped to the back of the headboard, as if Ethred had feared attack in the night. Unlike the decorative weapons on the walls, this blade was sharp and intended for practical use. He pulled it from its leather holding and put it on the bed with the other documents. He stared at his pile for a moment. Nothing looked promising. The documents looked very much like temple accounts – too many numbers to be anything else. He sifted through them, and as he leaned across the bed to reach one that had drifted further away, he felt something small and hard under his hand.

He shook the pillow out of its case. A small glass tube dropped out of it onto the covers. He picked it up and tipped the fine powder from one side to the other; it was brownish-grey in colour, the consistency of flour.

"Usk," he said. He held up the tube.

"I have also found something." Usk held up a thick roll of parchment. "Signed by Lucifer himself." He stowed it inside his shirt and crossed the room to look closer at what Jordan held. "That looks like devilcap." At Jordan's blank silence, he elaborated, "It is a mushroom that grows in the scrub forest outside the city. Dry it down and grind it up, and you can send a man into fits and hallucinations with a pinch in his drink."