Wake of the Bloody Angel Read Online Free PDF Page A

and unknown blurred in my ears. Neceda was like this, but on a far smaller, slower scale.
    Jane, though, was in her element. She tossed her cape behind her shoulders, pulled her hair up in a loose bun, and rode along, confident her way would be clear. It was.
    First we sought the town magistrate’s office. I always cover my bases by trying official channels first. Usually it gave me no direct information about my case, but it let me get a sense of the local constabulary. It also means people would know I was looking, and sometimes stirring the pot was the best thing. We found the town’s magistrate, a Mr. Tallarico, in his office going over a voluminous stack of shipping forms. The office was in a small building next to a warehouse and corral.
    A large one-eyed cat curled up on a corner of his desk. Vellum sheets were stacked everywhere, pinned down by rocks or anything else heavy enough to hold them in place. A lone neglected plant drooped in its pot on the windowsill. He had no secretary or formal guard; he just sat at his desk doing his job. “Magistrate Tallarico?” I said.
    He used a monocle to see the forms, and when he looked up at us, it made his right eye look huge. “Yes?”
    “Sorry for interrupting, sir, but I think you might be able to help me.” I gave him my most winning smile.
    He looked at me, then at Jane, then back to me. “Indeed. You don’t appear to be sailors, ship owners, businessmen, or officials. Those are the people I help. If you’re looking for work, you’ll have to talk to the captains of the ships. If you’re here to report a crime, you’re both in the wrong place and frankly wasting your time.” He returned to his reports. “Good day.” We didn’t move. The cattle in the nearby corral mooed through the window, glad to be out of some ship’s cramped hold. At last he removed the monocle and impatiently looked at us. “All right, what ?”
    I smiled. “My associate and I are looking for a local family, and we thought you might be able to help us find them.”
    “Who?”
    “The Dirnays. They had a daughter named Brandywine. Might’ve gone by Brandy.” Jane stifled a laugh. I still had a hard time imagining Angelina as a “Brandywine,” let alone a “Brandy,” but as she said, she didn’t choose it.
    “Dirnay?” he repeated. “I don’t recall ever meeting anyone by that name in Watchorn.”
    “How long have you been here?” Jane asked.
    “Four years.” The way he said it implied it felt much longer.
    Jane leaned on the desk and looked down at him, using her size, in every sense, to intimidate him. She said through a humorless grin, “Then who might be able to help us?”
    Tallarico sat back in his chair and held up the monocle. “You know, they say a wizard in the court of King Haviland once mounted a series of polished glass disks like this in a tube so that the king could observe things so small, they were invisible to the naked eye. And even if you had two of those devices and attached them together, you would still be unable to locate my interest in your problem.” He waved his hand toward the door. “Now, good day to you, ma’am. And sir.”
    Now I stepped forward. “Where’s the records office?”
    “What records do you need?”
    “Shipwrecks. Specifically any record of the Bloody Angel.”
    If anything, his expression grew more contemptuous. “Ye gods, you’re treasure hunters, aren’t you? You think you’ll be the ones to find some missed clue and discover Black Edward’s treasure.” He laughed with the contempt of middle management. “Fine. The records office is three doors down. Tell the old harpy that I sent you. I wonder if she’s still growing her mustache?”
    Three doors down I knocked, and a loud female voice said, “Enter!”
    The smell of vellum and ink filled the little room. Shelves lined the walls, holding rolled-up sheets and bound volumes.
    There was a table with two chairs by the single window, and a desk where a