“In the meantime, you and Elnos should stay here,” Iannis said, surprising me. “You can keep watch on the compound and perhaps eavesdrop on the guards and staff when they are in town. It is unlikely that Noria is allowed to go out, since she is a new recruit, but not impossible. If you find anything useful, or if you do manage to breach the wards by some miracle, Elnos can send me a message by ether pigeon.” He gave Elnos a stern look. “Is that understood? I do not want to be met with any unpleasant surprises when I return.”

“Yes, My Lord.” Elnos bowed his head.

“How long are you going to be gone for?” I asked, torn. On the one hand, I didn’t want to be separated from Iannis, but a weight had lifted from my shoulders at the news that I wouldn’t have to leave. Maybe I would be able to find a way in while Iannis was gone, and get Annia and Noria out before he came back with an army of mages to flatten the place.

“No longer than two days, I estimate,” Iannis said. “Lord Logar is a busy man, but he will not want to delay acting on such an urgent issue.”

“Okay.” I could work with that. “Should we camp here, or stay in the town?”

“Whichever is easiest for you, but it is best that you not stray too far,” Iannis said. “I would like you and Elnos to confiscate and destroy any packages leaving the facility—they may contain these deadly concoctions that we are trying to prevent from spreading.”

“I’ve been doing that already,” Elnos said, nodding. “I didn’t know what they were sending out, but since it’s the Resistance in charge here, I knew it could be nothing good. I figured it would be too risky to ambush arriving packages, as it would make whoever is running the compound suspicious if expected packages started going missing. But it’s been easy to transmogrify packages leaving the compound.

“Transmogrify?” My eyebrows winged up as I regarded Elnos with interest. “Into what?”

“Usually water, or grape juice, if it is a liquid, or bread if it is a solid.” Elnos’s lips twitched. “I imagine whoever is receiving these shipments is very frustrated.”

“That is impressive, and lucky for us all,” Iannis commented. “Were they very large shipments?”

“So far I’ve only done two,” Elnos confessed. “One left by a rather large wagon, the other in a smaller steamcar. It was easy enough to break a wheel or flatten a tire from the cover of the trees on the side of the road, then sneak into the back and change the contents before they noticed.” Elnos smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck as he realized how much attention he was getting. “I’m studying chemistry, which gives me quite an advantage in transmogrification.”