Bo waved a hand as if it were nothing. Nila turned to stare out the window, partially so that Bo could not see the tears forming in her eyes.
"The house, too," Bo said. "The one we're in now. If you decide to stay in Adro, the house is yours. I've already put the title in your name."
She couldn't help but stare at Bo. Who was this man? Why was he doing this? He was a Privileged of a royal cabal – some of the most powerful men in all the Nine. People like that didn't take notice of orphan boys or lonely laundresses.
"Why?" she asked.
Bo shrugged. Several moments passed before Nila realized that she wasn't going to get a real answer. She dried the tears in the corners of her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
"Thank you," she said.
Bo was looking at his feet. He seemed uncomfortable with the thanks, as if he didn't feel he deserved it. Another shrug.
"Where are we going?" Nila asked.
"When I was a boy," Bo said, apparently happy to change the subject – he lifted his finger to the carriage curtain to look at the darkening sky outside – "Field Marshal Tamas took me in off the streets. He didn't want Taniel playing with an uneducated ruffian. He gave me a place to sleep and hired tutors for me and Taniel."
Nila remembered watching Field Marshal Tamas sleep, her knife ready to kill the man who'd brought so much suffering to Adro and killed the king, before she'd been distracted by Captain Olem. "That seems very kind of him," she said.
"I hated those damn tutors. I abhorred reading and writing, but Tamas told me I had to practice my letters. So I did. By copying all of his correspondence while he slept. His old ones, his new ones. Tamas kept all his letters in a strongbox, the lock of which I picked easily."
Nila couldn't help but give a shocked laugh at that.
Bo smiled too. "I kept all the copies I made. Just in case. I've always been good at planning ahead. Part of being a successful street rat, I suppose. Anyway, in one of those letters, from when he was a young man, Tamas talked about forcing the nobility out of the army in order to combat corruption. It seems that many of the nobles were purchasing supplies with government money and then selling them elsewhere in order to line their own pockets."
"And what does this have to do with me?" Nila asked. Bo had spoken at length over the last week about his quest to find evidence of profiteering among the General Staff in order to exonerate Taniel Two-Shot after his court-martial. Nila was willing to help if she could, but it worried her to leave Jakob by himself.
"Tamas's letter mentioned one name in particular. Duke Eldaminse."
Nila breathed in sharply.
"We're going to Duke Eldaminse's manor," Bo said. "Or what's left of it, anyway."
Nila hadn't been back to the Eldaminse manor since the night the soldiers had come and taken away Lord and Lady Eldaminse. Nila had barely escaped being raped before taking Jakob and fleeing into the darkness of the early morning. "I … don't know how I can help you."
"Well, I hope you can," Bo said. "I've not heard word from the south since finding out that Taniel was being court-martialed. At best he's in prison. At worst, he's already dead. I need evidence to condemn the General Staff that court-martialed him, or I'm going to have to go down there and kill a lot of soldiers to get him out." Bo scowled at his ungloved hands. "I'd rather not do that. So inconvenient."
They arrived at the manor an hour later. The sun had set and the streets were dark. Rows of city manor houses rose like ghosts of ages past out of the shadows. Less than six months ago this street had been well lit and home to dozens of noble families and hundreds of servants. Now the windows were dark, the yards silent. A chill went up Nila's spine at the sight of the Eldaminse manor. Even in the darkness she could tell that fire had destroyed part of the roof, and one of the chimneys had collapsed.
"Are you all right," Bo asked. She felt his hand touch her shoulder. He was wearing his Privileged's gloves.
Nila cleared her throat. "Yes."
He handed her a lantern and then lifted his own, lighting it with the snap of his fingers.
"Thank you," Nila said. The light illuminated the drive and threw the yard into deeper shadows. Somehow, it reassured her. "This way."
She led him up the front drive and in through the main door. The grand hall had been ransacked. The paintings and sculptures were gone or defaced, and the chandelier had been cut down and stripped of semiprecious stones. Someone had written illegible words on the wall with what might have been feces. The house smelled like a farmyard.
"What are we looking for?" she asked.
"A safe," Bo said. "Somewhere Eldaminse would have kept his correspondence and books."
Nila lifted her lantern high and headed toward the stairs. "It'll be gone already. Everything of value has been looted."
"I have to try."
The rest of the house looked much like the grand hall. The furniture was smashed or missing, everything of value removed, the walls covered in graffiti. Nila couldn't help but feel sorrow at that. The house had once been a happy place, full of life and riches. Jakob had once run down these halls, chasing the servants with a wooden musket. She was glad Bo had left the boy in his bed.
The duke's office was on the second floor in the southeastern corner of the house. The moment she entered the room, she knew they weren't going to find anything. The room was covered in scorch marks, and part of the floor and outer wall were missing. Someone had tried blowing open the safe with gunpowder. They'd used a lot, by the looks of it. The duke's desk had been reduced to splinters by the explosion.
She pointed to the mangled lump of metal over a dozen paces from where the safe had once sat.
"That's it," she said. "The duke's safe."
Bo stooped to examine the safe. Anything that had been inside it would have been destroyed by the explosion, or stolen after. He kicked the metal, then swore, hopping around the room on one foot while he held his toe. "Pit, pit, pit!" Bo stumbled toward the hole in the floor and Nila found herself grabbing him by the back of his jacket, pulling him back before he could fall.
He let out an exasperated sigh. "Ten days of work and this was my best lead." He dropped onto the floor, cross-legged. "Are you sure there's nothing else?"
"I was just a laundress," Nila said. "I've only been in this office a couple of times, and I was always trying to think of a way to keep Eldaminse from taking me to his bed."
Bo pounded a fist on the floor. "Damn!"
"Can't you just go down south and … " She made a gesture with her hands.
"And what? Magic Taniel out of whatever cell they've locked him in? It's a bit more involved than that."
Nila sat on the floor next to Bo.
"If I don't have the evidence to convict the General Staff, I'll have to use sorcery," Bo said. "Well, I'll start with bribes. Bribes might work, but they're notoriously unreliable. Someone is just as likely to take your money and then turn you in as they are to help you. If bribes don't work, I'll have to kill people. I don't actually enjoy killing people, despite what some might think of royal cabalists. And I certainly don't want to kill Adran soldiers. Taniel wouldn't ever forgive me."
Bo stared at the floor, looking angry and sad all at the same time.
"Wait!" Nila got to her feet.
"What … ?"
"I came in here once and Lord Eldaminse was kneeling by the fire."
"Most people do," Bo said, his tone a little annoyed.
"No. Eldaminse always sat by the fire. He had this great big chair." Nila skirted the hole in the floor and approached the fireplace. "Right here. And he never put the wood in himself. Always summoned a servant to do it. So when I saw him kneeling there, I thought it was strange."
Bo was on his feet now, too. "A lockbox, you think? Hidden under the flagstones?"
"Maybe," Nila said. It had to be. It was all Bo had left, and Nila suddenly found herself wanting him to find the answers he needed. She dropped to her knees beside the fireplace and began trying to squeeze her fingers between the cracks. She searched for a hidden switch or a recess she could grab to move the stone. Nothing.
"Move," Bo said. He tugged on his Privileged's gloves and raised his hands. Nila scrambled out of the way. The flagstone suddenly cracked, and the pieces – each far bigger than Nila could have lifted herself – flew to the side. Bo grinned down at the floor. Beneath the flagstone, untouched by the explosion that had destroyed the safe, was a small lockbox. She grabbed it by the straps on the sides and lifted it out.
Bo destroyed the lock with a flick of his gloved fingers and the lid sprang open. Inside were several leather-bound books, each about the size of a pocket ledger, and Nila realized that could very well be what they were.
Bo opened one of the books and flipped through it. The grin on his face grew wider. "Yes," he said. "This is exactly what I needed." He dropped the book back into the lockbox. Then he closed his eyes, hands flat on the lid of the lockbox. He almost looked like he was praying.
A thought occurred to Nila. "Bo," she said.