"So, the obvious," Lucian said, a little impatiently. "What’s out west that holds wild whatevers?"
I grimaced, thinking. "There’s the Werribee Open Range Zoo, but as I said, I can’t imagine an ax going unnoticed there."
Plus, zoos were always undergoing renovation. It wouldn’t exactly be the most secure place to keep a prize such as the key safe.
He leaned back in the chair. "So there is nothing else out there?"
"Well, there’s the Werribee mansion."
He raised an eyebrow. "How old a mansion? And how would it tie in with wild?"
"The zoo is part of the mansion complex, and the building itself is very old. I think it was built only a hundred years or so after Australia was settled."
He gave me an old-fashioned sort of look. "An ax would not stand out in a place that old."
Given I wasn’t really into visiting old houses, I really couldn’t say with any certainty what was usual and what was not. "The mansion is open to the public seven days a week, which means we’ll have to go in at night."
Lucian frowned. "If it is open to the public, then that gives us the perfect cover."
"Yeah, but if I touch the key and the Raziq do attack, then people—innocent people—are going to get hurt."
"Many more innocents will get hurt if the wrong people get their hands on these keys."
"Yeah, they will," I said, annoyance edging my tone. "But that doesn’t mean we have to endanger anyone unnecessarily."
He grunted. It was a somewhat impatient sound. But then, he was Aedh, and though his many centuries here on earth had humanized his ways to some extent, they hadn’t changed his core being. And that being didn’t really care who or what was damaged in the course of getting what he wanted.
"Tonight then. They will have security, I gather?"