Scholar's Plot by Hilari Bell Page B

him. “But while I’m willing to take your word for it, Captain Chaldon won’t be. This makes you both look a lot more guilty than you did this morning. Which means we can’t tell the law what we found here.”
    “I realized that,” said Michael, “from the moment we broke in. Without permission.”
    “It’s a good thing we did,” I pointed out. “If Chaldon had found this…” My gaze went to the lecture pass, sitting on one corner of the desk. “He must only have glanced at this room, or he’d have found the pass and asked the same questions we did. And how did Benton get a lecture pass? It’s not as if he’s welcome on the campus these days.”
    Michael frowned. “I don’t know. He had it, and was planning to attend when I arrived. Mayhap he got it before he was dismissed, and decided to go anyway. ’Twas open to anyone with a pass, even the townsfolk.”
    “Maybe.” But I tucked the lecture pass in with the blackmail notes, and was about to leave when I remembered something else I’d seen in a desk drawer. I opened it again, and pulled out Master Hotchkiss’ keys.
    “Fisk! You promised not to… Well, even if you didn’t, ’twas implicit that we’d not rob the house!”
    “I’m not ‘robbing the house.’ I’m making it possible for us to get into anyplace Hotchkiss could go without having to burgle it. Including the library you want to get into so badly. We still need to look at that thesis, and I want to search his office. If Hotchkiss was the kind of man who’d commit blackmail, it’s likely he was in on framing your brother.”
    Michael sighed, but evidently brothers came before knightly principles. He said nothing as I refolded the papers, and tucked them inside my vest since neither of us wore coats on this warm day. I would have left then — it was almost dark — but Michael led me down to the kitchen, and went to the compost pail that sat below the basin. I could smell the contents when he removed the lid, fresh and rotting at the same time. He reached in and pulled out a mass of damp brown gunk, then looked around helplessly for something to carry it in.
    I went into the dining room and pulled a clean napkin from one of the drawers. It might stain the linen, but Hotchkiss wouldn’t care.
    “Was the tea magica,” I asked, as Michael folded damp grounds into the cloth. “Is that what’s bothering you?”
    “No.” Michael could see magic, as well as feel it, so he’d know. “But there’s a scent to it that’s … off. I just… ’Tis not right, Fisk.”
    Whether they’re related to magic or not — and I think they are, no matter what the scholars say — Gifts are quirky, vague, unpredictable … and they work. So I nodded, and was grateful that the slowly dampening napkin would end up in his pocket instead of mine.
    “Come on,” I said. “It’s almost dark, and I want to return Peebles’ keys before we tackle the library.”
     

There were fewer students in the commons behind the library when we left Master Hotchkiss’ house, locking the door behind us and strolling off as insouciantly as we’d gone in. Since there was no longer enough light to read by only the debaters remained, almost invisible in their black coats, for ’twas finally turning cool. Their topic had shifted from natural science to whether Mistress Selina could be brought to notice Tommy’s attempts to court her, and most didn’t think the odds were in his favor.
    Several windows in the library glowed faintly, proclaiming that a few scholars had lit lamps to finish up their work. So I made no objection when Fisk insisted that our next task was to return Mistress Peebles’ keys. We’d have to wait till the library was deserted before we broke in, since…
    “Why would Professor Dayless set a scholar to keep us out of the library? Has she some reason to dislike Benton? He said nothing of it.”
    “More likely she doesn’t like us,” Fisk said. “I did try to break into the tower last