The Book of Ile-Rien by Martha Wells

Author:Martha Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

CHAPTER FOUR

The late afternoon air was chill, but Nicholas had lowered the shades on the coach windows so he and Reynard could view the approach to Gabrill House. The wide packed-dirt road led up through a stand of trees toward a triumphal arch, perhaps fifty feet high and wide enough for four coaches to pass through side by side. As they drew nearer Nicholas could see the stones were weathered and faded as if the thing was a relic of some long forgotten age. He knew it had been built no more than ten years ago.

“Strange choice for a garden ornament, isn’t it?” Reynard said.

“If you find that odd, wait till you get inside. This place was built by a wealthy widow from Umberwald. She had two grown sons, neither of whom she allowed to inherit. She had smaller homes built for them—one on either side of the main building.” Constructing opulent houses outside the city wall had become all the rage in the past few decades and they had passed many such, of varying degrees of size and wealth, along the way. It allowed for large gardens, and the dirt roads out here were wider and tended to have better drainage than the ancient paved boulevards within the city proper. “Before Everset bought it last year, the owners were selling tickets for people to come out and look at it.”

“Yes, I’d heard that.” Reynard adjusted the set of his gloves as their coach turned off the road and passed under the arch. “You’re not a sorcerer, Nicholas. What do you intend to do if this Octave takes exception to your presence with something more than another golem?”

Nicholas smiled. “Only you would ask that question as we are actually driving up to the house where Octave is.” Two cobbled carriageways led toward the house from the entry arch, splitting off to bridge a sunken garden where they glimpsed the tops of tall stands of hot weather ferns and flowering trees. The house had been built backward, so the façade facing them was a large colonnaded oval, which in other homes of this design would have given on to the back garden. But the architect had planned it well and the graceful columned portico had a mound of natural rock at its base, connecting it to the grotto of the sunken garden their carriage was passing over. It gave the whole front of the large house the look of an ancient temple in ruins.

“Oh, I’ve no sense of self-preservation,” Reynard replied easily. “That’s what I depend on you for.”

“I suppose we should have brought Madeline, then, because that’s what I depend on her for. But even your reputation wouldn’t support a female valet.”

“I don’t know about that.” Eyeing Nicholas thoughtfully, Reynard said, “Seriously. What if Octave resents your intrusion?”

“Seriously, I only mean to observe Octave. For now,” Nicholas said. There had been no disturbances at Coldcourt or at any of his other headquarters last night, though several of his henchmen had kept watch with firearms just in case.

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