The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas Page B

thought we were done for. I thought that was how—”
    He stopped speaking abruptly. An unease that was becoming all too familiar coiled around her heart, but he only raised his hand to his temple and gingerly felt around the cut that must have resulted from his having slammed into a cider cask head-on.
    Titus had already dampened a cloth with some potion. He ordered Kashkari to sit down. “And are you all right?” he asked Iolanthe as he cleaned Kashkari’s wound. “Any headache, nausea, or weakness?”
    â€œI’m fine. Are you sure all connections between the brewery and the laboratory have been severed?”
    â€œYes.” When he had affixed a bandage to Kashkari’s temple, he extracted several vials from various drawers and handed them to Iolanthe. “Take these to be on the safe side. You were not supposed to vault within seven days of any trauma severe enough to require panacea.”
    She’d forgotten about that altogether. After she had poured the remedies down her throat, Master Haywood once more enfolded her in his arms, his heart thudding a staccato beat against her chest. “Fortune shield me. I think I’m still scared witless.”
    â€œI’m safe now. We are all safe now.”
    Inside the folded space the laboratory occupied, they could not be traced or found.
    Eventually she let go of Master Haywood and presented Kashkari to him. All the men shook hands.
    â€œWhat happened ?” asked Titus. “How did Atlantis find you?”
    Iolanthe dug up a charred Validus, handed it to Titus, and recounted the anomaly involving the diamond-inlaid crowns along the length of the blade wand.
    Titus’s expression turned grim. “Unless I am very much mistaken, Atlantis now has access to Validus’s daughter wand.”
    â€œWhat’s that?” everyone else said in unison.
    â€œMost blade wands come in pairs, a mother wand and daughter wand. The daughter wand is not particularly remarkable—it does not amplify a mage’s power any more than an ordinary wand—but it does inherit the mother wand’s properties should the latter be destroyed.
    â€œWhen Hesperia the Magnificent held Validus, she made modifications to its daughter wand, so that it could be used to track down the mother wand. Because of this, Validus’s daughter wand is kept at a secret location, not to be used unless the one who wields Validus is deemed dead or captured.”
    â€œBut you are neither,” said Iolanthe.
    â€œTry telling that to the regent.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, I am not sure that Alectus knows this at all. Someone like Commander Rainstone is more likely to be in possession of such knowledge.”
    â€œCan you ask Dalbert to find out?” It was why he had left them in the first place, to retrieve what intelligence Dalbert might have gathered.
    â€œYou do that,” Titus said. “I will go get some water for tea.”
    â€œSurely I may fetch water for you, sire,” said Master Haywood.
    â€œIt is dark out. You would not be able to find the pump.”
    Even Iolanthe didn’t know where the pump was—whenever she came to the laboratory, the kettle was always full. And then, at the confused look on Master Haywood’s face, she explained, “The prince isn’t going back to where we came from. The laboratory is also connected with a lighthouse at the northern tip of Scotland.”
    She tapped out a message on the typing ball Titus used to communicate with Dalbert. Then she inserted a sheet of paper underneath, to receive any messages the latter might have sent during their time in the desert. The keys clacked.
    As she was rolling the paper back out, Titus returned. “There is a tremendous fog outside. I walked by the pump twice before I found it.”
    He put the water to heat, read the messages with her, and relayed what they learned to Kashkari and Master Haywood. “There