The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans (8 page)

“Hey, I’m twenty-two!” protested Julian,
but there wasn’t any heat in it. “Anyway, have they done a headcount on
the rest of the apprentices to make sure no one else is missing?”

“The Guild’s working on it, but apparently
it’s the time of year when a lot of you are off in the woods somewhere
harvesting things,” said Lapointe.

Julian nodded. “Yeah, I’m supposed to do
harvesting trips on both the St. Albans lands and the Benedict lands sometime,
Alex even said he’d go with me.”

“Camping?” said Murielle.

Alex chuckled wryly at the disbelief in her tone.
“No, no, we’ll stay at the main houses and do our gathering at a few times
over the course of a few days each. I promised to carry the baskets and get
things off high branches.”

“He’ll be well-rewarded for being a helpful,
supportive boyfriend,” teased Julian.

“I just bet,” said Murielle, dryly.
 

“I will also get my pick of ingredients,”
teased Alex. “Julian’s going to start more things growing in the flat, and
I get to help choose what.”

“But that’s not for a few more weeks, we
wanted to wait until after the equinox,” said Julian. “Mary Margaret
trades with other Master Growers who went earlier, too, so that I don’t get
distracted from the nursery with harvesting all the time.”

“Okay, so, did you ever figure out if the
timing was portentous or whatever?” asked Murielle.

Alex shrugged. “Nothing I could see, it’s not
astrologically significant, or a special holiday for any of the religions I
looked up, and it’s not really the start or end of a growing season. I was
thinking of looking into the history of the building, but I got distracted by
being a murder suspect.”

“Well, we’ll see if we can’t get you out from
under Fischer’s nose today,” said Murielle. “I want my real
consultant, not the moron Fischer found.”

“Ooh, competition,” said Julian.
“I’d heard that there were more people trying to take up Alex’s
profession.”

“Cheaper ones, I bet,” teased Alex,
unconcerned. He’d been working with the Agency since before he finished
university, when he’d fallen into a murder case almost literally and ended up
giving advice on the magic involved. His experience was irreplaceable, and
Lapointe at least knew and appreciated that.

“Not as much as you’d think, someone leaked
one of your old invoices,” said Lapointe. “They’re all trying for the
good hourly rate, but not many of them have any real expertise to speak
of.”

“Not that I had much to start with,” said
Alex, “but we made do.”

“Was she on your first case?” asked
Julian, sitting up. “Alex hasn’t told me about how he met you.”

“That’s because he’s embarrassed,” said
Murielle smugly. “He nearly got himself arrested being an idiot.”

“I was young,” protested Alex.
“Younger than you, even, twenty and still in university.”

“Almost 21 as I recall,” said Murielle.
“We had a body in the college of magic where Alex was studying, and he was
walking down the hall with his nose in a book, ignoring everyone.”

“Like he does,” teased Julian.

“When he walked right past our barriers and
nearly tripped over the body,” finished Lapointe smugly.

“I was studying for midterms!” Alex
protested weakly.

Julian laughed. “Did you step in the
evidence?”

“He did, so we collected him and questioned
him and then he overheard one of the other agents talking about the runes
around the body and I bet you can guess what happened,” said Murielle, not
even trying to hide her grin.

“He butted in and lectured them for being too
stupid to tell one kind of rune for another and told them anyone with half a
brain could see what they were for?” said Julian, playing along
delightedly.

“And got myself immediately upgraded from
evidence to suspect,” confirmed Alex. “But fortunately my alibi for
the time of death was airtight, since I’d been in a class full of students
witnessing an important astronomical event in the observatory, and had been
drafted to be the pointer because her laser ran out of batteries and I had the
longest arms.”

Murielle laughed. “I’d forgotten that part,
but yes, he was quickly accounted for, and I was smart enough to keep
consulting him about the case, since he was already aware of the facts. I even
cleared it with my boss.”

“Which is how Agent Lapointe caught the bad
guy, and I found my future career,” said Alex, in the tone of a
storyteller talking to an audience of children.
 

“I never did get those shoes back,” said
Alex.

“You love your shoes, anyway,” teased
Julian. Alex really only had the one pair, which were polished to a perfect
black shine; Murielle had made a holiday gift of taking them back to their
maker for a bit of loving upkeep on spells and leather both.

“Those shoes saved my life,” said
Murielle with a grin, “so I love them, too.”

They signalled the waitress for the check and to-go
coffees for everyone plus a few extras, and took care of the mundane business
of paying. “I plan to protest anything that keeps us here past
lunchtime,” said Julian, standing.

“Here, here,” said Alex. “My valiant
protector.”

“It’s only fair,” said Julian, tucking
his hand in Alex’s arm and girding himself for the inevitable annoyances to
come.

“I’m not carrying all of these,”
protested Lapointe, and they laughingly parted to carry the coffees between
them. Alex cheated and used a little spell-push to open the doors of the cafe,
and fortunately someone was kind and held the door to the Agency for them,
since it was warded against such interferences.

“Agent Lapointe, Agent Fischer was looking for
you,” said the door guard, getting the elevator button for them politely.

“I’ll just bet he was,” she said.
“Here, we got extra,” she added, handing the coffee off to the guard.

“From the cafe? Thanks!” He was genuinely
grateful, and stayed to hold the elevator door for them all to file in.

“You’re welcome,” she said as the doors
slid shut. “Well, that’s one person in the building not out to get
us.”

“Us?” said Alex.

“Oh, yes. My boss has been made keenly aware
that you are my fault.” She chuckled. “I have made him equally aware
of the number of cases you’ve helped us solve, including those two you did pro
bono.”

“Three,” said Alex quietly. “I never
charge for the kids.”

“That’s so sad,” said Julian, leaning
into him. “People are awful sometimes.”

“Not all of them,” said Lapointe.
“You’re not, none of us here are.”

“Well, Armistead,” said Alex.

“And Fischer,” said Julian, putting just
enough innuendo in his tone to get them all chuckling, so their good mood was
restored by the time the elevator door opened. The agency looked the same as
always, so it must have been Julian’s imagination that made it seem less
welcoming than usual. Either that, or someone had turned the air conditioning
too cold.

“Agent Lapointe, how nice of you to show
up,” said Fischer.

“I was here before you this morning,” she
replied. “Just for that, no coffee for you. Thomas!”

“Yes?” said MacLean, poking his head up
from his cubicle. He was too junior for a proper office yet.

“I brought you coffee,” she said.

“And she made me carry it,” said Alex,
offering Thomas the cup. “You’ll have to add milk to it yourself,
though.”

“Alex’s milk is only for Julian now,”
said Geoff’s voice from behind them. “Is one of those for me?”

Julian laughed. “It is now,” he said,
handing off the last cup. “How have you been?”

They meandered into the break room, chatting and
completely ignoring the irritated Fischer, who followed them to glare from the
doorway. Once Geoff and Thomas had their cups made up and everyone had caught
up, Fischer interrupted, “Are you quite through with my witnesses?”

“It’s my case, too,” said Lapointe
mildly. She was scariest when she was being mild, Julian decided. “And
Alex is hardly a witness.”

“I was authorised to consult when I looked
over the crime scene, you will recall,” said Alex, just as coldly.
“Your interference only came later.”

Julian didn’t even bother to comment, instead
turning to confirm with Thomas about Saturday, which led to Geoff being invited
over and the three of them talking about video games as though nothing was
wrong. He enjoyed how it seemed to make Fischer twitch.

“Regardless, I need to interview you
today,” said Fischer. “I did say he wasn’t required.”

“And I called them back to ask him to come in
anyway,” said Lapointe. “I want him to make notes on one of the maps
about his impressions of the plants, we haven’t got anyone on staff or on call
with Julian’s talent.”

Fischer snorted. “More magic, just what this
case needs.”

Julian ignored him and gave Alex a kiss. “I’ll
go do that now. Don’t be long, we’ve got lunch reservations,” said Julian
sweetly.

“I’ll try not to, love,” said Alex,
taking another, more lingering kiss before he let Fischer lead him into the
little interrogation room.

“I didn’t know he was anti-magic,” said
Geoff, once the door was firmly closed. “That explains why he’s been
ducking his physical.”

Thomas went back to work, but Geoff joined them in
Lapointe’s office. “Speaking of physicals, it’s about time for you and
Alex both to get your check-ups.”

“My shoulder is fine, you don’t have to keep
prodding it,” said Murielle. She pulled one out of a sheaf of rolled
copies that proved to be maps of the nursery. “Would you also fill in
anything important that’s missing, plant-wise?” she asked. “I think
our map-maker got tired of dealing with your weird setup about ten minutes
in.”

Julian laughed. “It’s confusing,” he
agreed, settling down with the coloured pens provided. He started by adding in
notes and making a few corrections, using the blue pen so they’d be obvious but
not overwhelm things. Then he went back through and wrote in green which plants
had been healthy, though he hadn’t walked the whole place the way he usually
did so a lot of that was left blank. Next he took the red pen and wrote down
his impressions of the crime scene and the little locked greenhouse, being as
specific as he could.

When he looked up, Geoff had wandered off and
Murielle was looking impressed. “You’re more than a pretty face after
all,” she said. “This is really good, thank you.”

“I have a few more notes to make, stuff that
came to me while I was working, do you have another colour pen?” he asked,
trying to keep the thoughts from slipping away.

She seemed to recognise his concentration, handing
him a glittery purple pen which he used to make some extra notes here and
there. He’d picked up more than he thought with Alex boosting him, and he had
impressions from a lot of the plants around the crime scene that hadn’t been
damaged but felt almost offended by what had happened, as though they were
angry for the clover, which had only been sad.

“It seems a bit silly,” Julian said,
setting the pen down, “but not sillier than that pen.”

She laughed. “I didn’t think I’d get away with
it,” she said. “It was part of a gag gift at the holidays, you know,
sparkly purple pen and other such girly crap.”

“You like some of the girly crap,” said
Julian. “Alex always gets you those flowery macarons, and the mint and
rose truffles from Saveur.”

“You like the rose and mint truffles,
too,” she retorted, but there was no heat in it.

Julian laughed. “I do, and if you’re good I’ll
get Emmy to invite you up for tea at main house sometime, Alex told me you like
fancy high tea with all the tiny sandwiches and little cakes and things.”

“Really?” Murielle said, perking up.
“I do love it, but don’t let it get around,” she allowed.

“Really, I’ve been meaning to, anyway, I think
you two would get along now that you don’t suspect her of murder,” he
said. “You’re both more than you seem.”

“The same could be said of you and Alex,”
said Murielle.

“What are you saying about me behind my
back?” said Alex cheerfully from the doorway.

“Good things,” said Julian, getting up
and claiming a kiss. “You survived Fischer?”

“I didn’t laugh at him even once,” said
Alex. “At this point not even Ms. Eberly is on his side since the lab mage
confirmed the origin of Lapointe’s luck charm and its recent make, and they’ve
accounted for all of the ones I gave to the softball team…”

“Donated,” said Murielle sweetly.

“Fine, donated, and the ones I sold to the
17th precinct.”

“At what the mage assured my boss was a very
good price for the quality,” she added. “Fischer nearly exploded when
he heard that.”

“Anyway, your boss actually came in and
rescued me himself, he had a message for Fischer from their new consultant, and
gave me official permission to start investigating again,” said Alex, and
then he leaned in and added smugly. “The best part was he refused
Fischer’s request to have their new guy look at my house wards.”