The Infernal Devices Rewritten

Chapter 15 - Thousands More

Chapter 15

Thousands More

The next day, Will was gone before Evan woke up. There was no breakfast, just rushing around, getting ready to capture Nathaniel Gray that night. Evan mostly stayed out of the way, until lunchtime when Charlotte came to her room, apologizing profusely. All Evan could do was reassure her that it was fine, that she understood why it had to be done. Charlotte invited her to come help them prepare, even though Evan would not be going. Apparently, Will had made that clear to the rest of the Institute, as well.

Evan helped with the maps, mostly, leaning over them with Jem and Charlotte until Henry asked her to come help him with a few things in the crypt. Henry's equations were perfect, but there was one flaw with the device. Or rather, there was one thing to make it better. Henry's mechanism was created to disable the clockwork creatures until Evan pointed out that if by chance - which she swore was highly unlikely - that the device didn't work, there needed to be a backup; the device would explode. So with a few minor calibrations, Evan helped Henry perfect it.

By the time the Shadowhunters were gathered around the table in the Great Library, Tessa was walking in and Henry was saying "This is what I have been working on. For just this occasion. It is specifically calibrated to function as a weapon against the clockwork assassins."

"As dull as Nate Gray is," Will said, "His head is not actually filled with gears, Henry. He's a human."

"Well," Evan shrugged. "If you were to impale him with it, it would explode either way so...."

"He may bring one of those creatures with him." Henry said, giving Evan a fatherly look before continuing. "We don't know he'll be there unaccompanied. If nothing else, that clockwork coachman of Mortmain's -"

"I think Henry's right." Tessa said. Everyone looked at her, almost as if they hadn't heard her come in. Jem flushed lightly, giving her a crooked smile. Will looked her up and down once, lazily and said "You don't look like a boy at all. You look like a girl in boy's clothes."

"I'm not trying to fool anyone but a casual observer." Tessa said crossly, as if she was talking to a taunting older brother. "Nate knows Jessamine's a girl. And the clothes will fit me better once I've Changed into her."

"Maybe you should do it now," Will advised.

Evan's mouth opened as Tessa Changed into Jessamine. It was hard to describe; it was as if one moment she was Tessa Gray and the next she was Jessamine Lovelace. "Woah." Evan said, blinking and grinning.

"Uncanny," Henry said before launching into an explanation on how to work the devices. Then he handed one to Jem and the other to Charlotte, who hung it on her weapons belt wordlessly.

"Evan?" Charlotte prompted politely, gesturing to the maps.

"Here," Evan said, pointing to a place near the river Thames, "Is where Jessamine said that she and Nate usually met. It's a warehouse on Mincing Lane, down by Lower Thames Street. It was a tea merchant's packing factory before it went bankrupt. The warehouse is in the center of the tea trade - and the opium trade. It's been closed for a while - until it was bought by Mortmain's company last year."

"The question now," Jem said, examining a blade Will held out to him, "Is once we get Tessa inside to meet Nate, how do the rest of us watch their meeting without being noticed? We must be ready to intervene at any moment, especially if it appears that his suspicions have been aroused."

"If you get there before Tessa," Evan suggested, "You could hide there and wait to see if anything useful comes up."

"It is the only way," Will said after a moment of deciding.

"I dislike the idea of Tessa being forced to speak with him at all." Jem muttered.

"Once captured, even if the Silent Brothers do explore his mind, Mortmain may have thought to put blocks in it to protect his knowledge, which can take time to dismantle." Charlotte said.

"I think Mortmain has put up blocks in Jessamine's case," Tessa frowned. "For whatever it is worth, I cannot touch her thoughts."

"Even more likely he will have done it in Nate's, then."

"That boy is as weak as a kitten," Henry said. "He will tell us whatever we want to know. And if not, I have a device -"

"Henry!" Charlotte looked seriously alarmed. "Tell me you have not been working on a torture device."

"Not at all. I call it the Confuser. It emits a vibration that directly affects the human brain, rendering it incapable of telling the difference between fiction and fact. He will simply spill everything that is on his mind, with no attention to the consequences..."

Charlotte put up a warning hand, "Not right now, Henry. If we must utilize the... Confuser on Nate Gray, we will do so when we have brought him back here. At the moment we must concentrate on reaching the warehouse before Tessa. It is not that far; I suggest Cyril takes us there, then returns for Tessa."

"Nate will recognize the Institute's carriage." Tessa objected.

"What if you take the carriage," Evan suggested, looking up at the geared Shadowhunters, "And Tessa walks with Cyril following at the distance? You leave at the same time but you'd still get there before her with enough time to hide yourselves."

Charlotte considered it before nodding, "Yes, that's more practical."

"I don't suppose anyone's going to point out," Will started, "That once again we are leaving the Institute without a Shadowhunter to protect it?"

Charlotte rolled up the maps with a simple flick of her wrist. "And which of us would you suggest stay home, then, instead of helping Tessa?"

"I didn't say anything about anyone staying home." Will's voice dropped. "But Cyril will be with Tessa, Sophie and Evan are only half-trained, and Bridget..."

Bridget's mournful ballad made Evan cringe. "It's like listening to one of my mother's stories in song." Evan said.

"By the Angel," Charlotte sighed, "We really are going to have to do something about her before she drives us all to madness, aren't we?"

Later, before the Shadowhunters left, Gideon Lightwood arrived to train Sophie, Will and Jem were Marking each other, Tessa was talking with Charlotte, and Henry had gone to ready the carriage. As they all left the library, only Will and Evan were hanging back for a moment.

"What if it's a setup?" Evan blurted before she could stop herself.

Will waved it away, "Whether it is or not, Evan, we are prepared. I promised you that, remember?"

Evan gave him a little scowl. "It's hard to be worried for you when you act like that."

"Flippant?" Will suggested. Then he sighed, stepping closer to Evan. She wasn't any taller than when they met, of course, and he still had to bend his neck to look at her just as she had to crane hers. "Charlotte-Evangeline, I promised you that we'll be alright and I mean it." Then he shifted the conversation. "What will you be doing when we're out?"

"Reading," Evan shrugged. "Maybe going through pictures. I found a USB drive in the bottom of the shoebox a while ago, I'm going to see if I can try to replicate a harddrive to fit it in."

Although he didn't understand a word she'd said, Will smiled. "Good luck, then," And kissed her cheek before slipping out of the library.