Page 49 of Heart of Iron
And people still used them occasionally.It had become fashionable for blue bloods and young debutantes to send each other secret messages.To get a raven meant considerably more than flowers these days.
Finding the ugly old bird she knew and recognized, she slipped open its cage and coaxed it onto her wrist.Not always as accurate as a homing pigeon, if a crow was trained properly it could find the house it had been bred in.Then a servant would return it to the tower for its next message.
There was no coat of arms bound to this crow’s cage; she had no way of knowing who it belonged to.
A steel thong bound its left leg, so she slipped the small leather-bound tube out of her cleavage and secured it tightly.She hadn’t had a chance to send the message Mr.Mandeville had given her yet.Too many visits to the rookery might just arouse suspicion and it had taken days of deliberation before she’d decided to send it at all.
This was the last one until she could speak to Mercury.
Glancing over her shoulder, she carried it to the open clock that dominated the room.The heavy bronze clock face at the top of the tower drew all eyes, cold wind streaming in through its open facets.The steady tick of the second hand slid past her face as she lifted the raven and bid it into the air.
The Ivory Tower soared in front of her.Crowe Tower was one of four smaller towers that surrounded the massive keep.Her raven spiraled up, circling the gleaming white tower before vanishing over a nearby abandoned cathedral.
Her duty done, Lena turned for the stairs, gliding between the wooden cages.She’d tried to track the raven once with a spyglass but knew only that it headed west a little distance before spiraling down.
Mayfair or Kensington, she suspected.
Which meant her contact was highly entrenched in the Echelon.A servant perhaps?Even a highly placed thrall?Someone with access to the Echelon’s secrets.From the information they passed on, they almost had to be close to the Council of Dukes itself.
In the next day or two an answering raven would scratch at her window with a note to deliver to Mandeville.Leo presumed she had a beau.
Closing the heavy timber door to the rookery, she latched it, then turned.A flash of black silk swept across her vision and someone yanked her back against their body, the sharp edge of a knife pressing lightly against her carotid.
“Don’t move,” came the hoarse whisper.
Lena froze, her heart leaping into her throat.Had someone followed her?Did they know what she’d just sent?
“What face does death wear?”It could have been maleorfemale, she couldn’t tell.But she recognized the words.A sign of another humanist.
“A pale one,” she whispered.
The knife edge eased.But didn’t vanish.
“The Scandinavian delegation arrives tomorrow,” the voice said.“I want you to destroy any chance that they’ll sign the treaty.”
“You’re mistaken,” she said.“I’m done with this.I’ve spoken to Mandeville.”
The knife edge tightened and Lena arched back, swallowing hard.Whoever held her was taller than her, but not overwhelmingly.
“You’re done with this when Mercury says you are.”Cold voice, cruel hands.
Lena sucked in a sharp breath.“Are you Mercury?”
There was a long moment of silence.“I pass along Mercury’s orders.”
“How do I stop the treaty?I don’t know—”
“The Beast,” the voice whispered.“Use him.”
Lena ground her teeth together.“No.”
The sharp retort echoed in the stone corridor.The hand around her waist slid away.“Perhaps this will change your mind?”
Something metal and angular was shoved into her hand.Lena lifted it just enough to see, her heart stuttering when she realized what it was.
One of Charlie’s clockwork soldiers.She’d made it herself.The last time she’d seen it, it had been on his shelf.
In his bedroom.
