Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,44

some campo lordling is running around…with some rig that can turn scrivings off?”

“It all happened fast,” said Sancia. “So I’m not positive. But…that seems to be what I saw. He hit a button, and everything just stopped. I’m guessing those buildings fell down because they were being supported by scrivings, in some fashion or another. And his soldiers expected it—that was why they switched to regular espringals, rather than scrived ones.”

“Shit,” said Claudia weakly.

“You really think this was all about your key?” said Giovanni.

“That I’m sure of.”

“Where did you hide it?” he asked. “Did you bury it, or put it in a safe drop, or just throw it away?”

Sancia thought about what to say. “Ah…”

Giovanni went white. “You don’t still have it, do you? You didn’t bring it here?”

Sancia’s hand guiltily crept up to her chest, where Clef was hanging from her neck. “At this point, bringing Clef here isn’t any more dangerous than my being here.”

“Oh my Lord,” whispered Giovanni.

“Goddamn it, Sancia!” said Claudia, furious. “I…I told you to stop taking house jobs! You’re going to get us all killed just by our knowing you!”

“Then get me out of here fast,” said Sancia. “I need to get to Sark’s and grab his emergency kit. I get that, and I can get out of Tevanne, and you’ll never know me again.” She took what she’d stolen from the brewery and dropped it on the table. “There’s two hundred here. You said I’d get a fifty percent discount next time. I’m calling it in. Now.”

Claudia and Giovanni looked at each other. Then Claudia sighed deeply, took the candle to a cupboard, and started pulling out a box. “You want dolorspina darts again—yes?”

“Yeah. These are trained soldiers. A one-shot stop would be damned handy. But do you have anything else? I need any fight to be as unfair as it can get.”

“There’s…something new I cooked up,” said Giovanni. “But it’s not totally ready yet.” He opened a drawer and pulled out what looked like a small black wooden ball.

said Clef in her head.

Sancia tried to ignore him. “What is it?”

“I rigged it up so it uses multiple lighting scrivings from the four houses,” he said. “In other words, you hit the button, throw it, and it makes an ungodly amount of light, flashing bright. Enough to blind someone. Then…”

“Then what?” said Sancia.

“Well, this is the part I’m not so sure about,” said Giovanni. “There’s a charge inside—no more than a firecracker. But I’ve made its chamber sensitive to vibrations so it feels like it’s playing host to a much, much larger combustion. It amplifies the noise, in other words…”

“So it makes a really, really loud bang,” said Claudia.

“That,” said Giovanni, “or it might actually explode. It’s hard to test things like this. So I’m not sure yet.”

said Clef.

“I’ll take as many of those as I can buy,” she said.

Giovanni took out three more of the black balls and popped them in a sack for her. “Sancia…you ought to know that Sark’s apartments likely aren’t safe, either.”

“I know that,” she said. “That’s why I’m here!”

“No, listen,” said Claudia. “Some big thug walked into the Perch and Lark just a handful of hours ago and beat every single one of Antonin di Nove’s men half to death—as well as Antonin himself—all while asking for information about the waterfront job.”

Sancia stared at her. “One guy? One guy fought all of Antonin’s crew, single-handedly, and won?”

“Yes,” said Claudia. “I’ve no doubt Antonin told him everything he knew about Sark—which was probably a lot. Seems you’ve called all kinds of devils out of the dark with your antics.”

“And now you, Sancia Grado,” said Giovanni, tying up the sack, “at all of five foot no inches, and a hundred and nothing pounds, are going to take them all on.” He held it out to her, grinning. “Good luck.”

9

Gregor Dandolo stood below the Selvo Building and looked up. It was large, dark, and crumbling—in other words, it looked much like the sort of place where a thief’s fence would reside. Each room had a short balcony, though few looked sturdy.

He glanced back at the plume of dust rising from Foundryside. Something bad had happened back there—likely a building had collapsed, if not several. Every instinct of his told him to run to the site and help, but he realized that his previous actions tonight made that unwise. There was