Nic and Eve planned to enter town this evening and rent a room at the Tourmaline Inn. Finding Vasko Cloud Mist’s extensive compound proved harder than I had expected. My inquiries were met with suspicion. Finally a servant employed by Vasko recognized my name and led me to the gate. Hidden by the rolling terrain east of the city, Vasko’s manor house had been built into the side of the Emerald Mountains. The tall spires overlooked a valley filled with buildings.
Vasko trusted no one with his rubies. According to the locals, the mine entrance was in the basement of his house and all the stones were sorted, sized and cut on-site before being sold.
As I waited at the gate, I noted the thick wall that surrounded the compound on all sides. The location and arrangement of the buildings suggested someone took care with their placement. An army would have trouble invading Vasko’s home. I guessed that was the point.
Pazia arrived. Genuine welcome shone on her face as she embraced me. Even though she was a few inches shorter than me, Pazia gave the impression of being taller. Her long hair had been pulled up and braided. The thick loop of hair resembled a crown on her head. Add in the way the guards deferred to her, she oozed royalty.
Pazia asked about my trip as she escorted me through her family’s grounds. The well-groomed walkways flowed past ornate gardens. Flowers burst from baskets and workers tended to the landscape. Nothing within sight suggested a mining operation.
“How are you really doing, Opal?” she asked, raising one thin eyebrow.
“I’m fine,” I assured her.
“Don’t lie to me. It’s quite an adjustment.”
And she was the only other person besides Devlen who had firsthand knowledge of just how much of an adjustment. I shrugged. “I’m still getting used to the idea.”
“I was stunned when we heard the news of your sacrifice. My father…”
Having no desire to hear about Vasko’s reaction, I stopped listening until she brought the topic to the discovery of the messengers.
She practically bounced. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”
I decided to be honest. “It’s a little hard to believe.”
“I know. We ruined that diamond we tried in the glass before, remember? But black diamonds are incredible!”
Her enthusiasm seemed genuine. “How did you know what they were?” I asked.
“We didn’t at first. Our gemstone expert thought they were a hard black coal. But after multiple tests, the results matched diamonds in everything but color.”
“Where did you find them?”
“Deep. That’s all I know. Father is very secretive. The miners still think the black diamonds are coal.”
How convenient. “It’s bound to get out,” I said.
“Eventually,” she agreed.
Pazia didn’t appear upset by this. Either she didn’t think it through, or she wasn’t as greedy as her father. Because if the black diamonds were real, then every Emerald Mountains mine owner would be searching for their own vein. I tried another approach. “How did you decide to try one for the messengers?”
She glanced around. The footpath remained empty of workers. “Father’s still angry at me for losing my magic.” She held up a hand to me. “Don’t start. He’s been experimenting with different legal ideas to recover my powers. As part of his…quest, he wanted to see if the black diamonds could hold magic like the regular diamonds. And he found out they were better. The black ones can hold twice as much magic, but using it was…painful.”
“How so?”
She showed me her hands. Burn scars crisscrossed her palms and covered her fingertips. Ouch. Blood wouldn’t sear her skin. Perhaps they had discovered real diamonds. I viewed that possibility with mixed emotions. It meant I hadn’t found my blood at all, but it also implied my blood could still be in its original container.
“I tried gloves, but I couldn’t control the power,” Pazia said. “Then I remembered our experiment with the glass.”
“I’m surprised your father let you use the black diamonds. Alone they’re worth…”
“More gold than I can carry. And Father would have had heart failure if he knew I planned to encase one of his blacks in glass, so I didn’t tell him until after. It worked better than I had dreamed.”
“What type of glass did you use?”
“I’ll show you. My workshop is over here.”
The sweet scent of burning white coal reached me before I spotted the smoke curling from the chimney. Mounds of dirt and construction litter surrounded Pazia’s small glass factory. Unexpected, but not surprising, guards stood beside the entrance to the building.
She gestured to the men. “Thieves will be a concern once news about the messengers spreads.”
I paused in the threshold, soaking in the warmth and hum of the kiln. Pazia gave me a quick tour of her gleaming shop. Everything appeared to be in order. All the right tools hung within reach, the mixing room was stocked with the proper ingredients and the annealing ovens contained cooling projects.
But no diamonds. Black or otherwise.
She tsked at me when I asked. “You can’t just leave them lying around!” Pazia led me to a windowless office in the back. A safe had been built into the wall. She spun the dial with practiced ease, opening the thick door.
Magic poured from the safe. Pulling out a drawer, she set it on her desk. Then she hefted a couple of super messengers, stacking the blocks next to the drawer. I hesitated.
“Go on, Opal. I trust you.”
Being trustworthy hadn’t been my concern. It was the lumps of black that caused my reluctance. No vial of blood in sight. I guess I should be happy the super messengers were legitimate except I couldn’t produce the emotion.
When I reached for one of the diamonds, Pazia said, “Be careful, they’re charged. You’ll be okay as long as you don’t try to use the magic.”
I paused. “Who charged them?”
“One of my father’s people.”
Pushing through a thick layer of magic, I picked up a small black stone and held it up to the sunlight. It looked familiar, but as a gemstone, it failed to impress me. “Why doesn’t it glitter?”
“No sense polishing and faceting them if they’re going into the glass.”
I replaced the stone and grabbed one of the messengers. The power felt muted. “Can you send messages?” I asked her.
“Yes.” An inner excitement danced from her eyes.
“You can do more with them.” It wasn’t a question, but a heartrending realization.
“Can’t you?” she asked. “I so hoped they would help you, too.”
“No.” As usual, I felt the power, but couldn’t use it. “What else can you do?”
“It’s…odd. It’s like I have magic again, but instead of drawing from the power source through my…” She tapped her chest. “Through me, I draw on the cube. And when the power is gone, I take it back to my father and he has them charged again. My abilities from before remained the same. I can still light fires, move objects and read minds, but I have to be touching the glass.”
Another thought struck me. Even if I recovered my blood, no one would want my little glass animals when Pazia’s super messengers could do so much more. Except for the cost. “Has your father decided on a price?”
“No. But he plans to be…egalitarian about them. He’s going to give one to each Master Magician for free, and then anyone can purchase one. He’ll work out payment plans. If you think about it, you could buy one and then charge a fee for others to use. Once the messenger is paid for, you could make money. I’m sure businesses will capitalize on that.”
The possibilities were endless. The richest man in Sitia would be even richer. What would he do with all that gold? I’d purchased a number of things with mine, but besides the wedding, none of them touched the emptiness inside me. Devlen’s Story Weaver mumbo jumbo about it being filled had been wrong.