with thick slices of gruyère cheese and slathered with apricot jam.
I sank my teeth into the sandwich and sighed with happiness. The tangy bread and the creamy, salty cheese combined perfectly with the apricots’ bright flavor. The sandwich would have been even better hot and toasted, with the bread crispy, the cheese melting, and the jam oozing out the sides, like the ones the kitchen staff made for me at Glitnir. Of course Miner Gemma didn’t have such luxuries, but I didn’t care. Even cold, the sandwich was still delicious.
Penelope and I polished off our food and sat on the bench, sipping our tart lemonade with its sweet pear syrup. Penelope chattered all through lunch, sharing tidbits and funny stories about the other miners. I studied each person she mentioned, but everyone seemed content to enjoy their food and the lovely fall day, and no one was acting suspiciously.
“Does anything interesting ever happen around here?” I asked.
Penelope frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You know that I’m from a small town and that this is my first time working in such a large mine,” I lied. “I was just wondering if anything exciting ever happens, especially since we’re so close to the Mortan border.”
Penelope shrugged. “Not really. Lots of Mortans visit Blauberg to shop, trade, and the like, but they don’t usually come to the mine unless they’re placing or picking up an order. But even that’s rare. We mostly mine tearstone, and the Ripley royal family prefers to sell it to the Bellonans or Ungers, rather than to the Mortans.”
I already knew all that, but it was still good to have confirmation.
Penelope turned the conversation to other things, and her cheery chatter washed over me again. The whole time she talked, I kept dreaming up ways I could find out more about the missing tearstone. Perhaps after my shift ended, I could slip away from Penelope and hide in the mine or the refinery and see if anything untoward happened overnight. I hadn’t made as much progress as I’d hoped, and my time in Blauberg was running out. Princess Gemma needed to be back in Glitnir next week to attend to some courtly duties.
Penelope was still talking, and I was still plotting when Conley strode out of the mine, along with six big, burly men. Four of the men were clutching pickaxes, while the other two were each pushing a wheelbarrow. Black canvas tarps covered the wheelbarrows, although the containers obviously held raw ore, given the uneven lumps jutting up against the tops of the tarps.
My eyes narrowed. Perhaps I wouldn’t have to sneak around the mine tonight. Perhaps my prime suspect was going to incriminate himself right here and now, although rolling wheelbarrows full of tearstone out of the mine in broad daylight was incredibly brazen. Then again, Conley didn’t strike me as being particularly subtle.
Several miners around the plaza were also staring at the group—or rather, not staring at them. Those miners dropped their heads and focused on their food, as if pretending that the carts weren’t rolling by meant that it wasn’t actually happening. Tension clouded the air, and the miners went quiet and still, as though they were frozen in place just like the gargoyle in the fountain.
I didn’t bother skimming people’s thoughts. Conley was obviously up to no good, and he must have a much tighter grip on the miners than I’d realized for people to turn such blind eyes to his actions.
The foreman swaggered across the plaza while the wheelbarrows clattered ominously across the cobblestones. I glanced around, wondering how I could slip away from Penelope and follow Conley—
“Oh, no,” Penelope whispered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Who are those men?”
“Conley’s crew,” she replied. “You know how the enforcer in a gladiator troupe handles disputes between the fighters? Well, Conley uses those men to take care of squabbles between the miners. And for . . . other things.”
In other words, the men were Conley’s personal gang. “What are they doing with those wheelbarrows?”
Penelope fell silent, but guilt rippled off her.
To my surprise, Conley veered in this direction and stopped in front of us. His shadow engulfed us both as he looked down his nose first at Penelope, then me. “You two. With me.”
Penelope stared at him with wide eyes, and her worry throbbed in my mind right alongside my own concern. What did Conley want?
I reached out with my magic, but Conley’s thoughts were scattered and turbulent, like fall leaves swirling on a gusty breeze. All I