The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia Page A

learned the events, if not the precise details or reasons.
    As she walked to Loharri’s house, the information kept replaying in her mind. The ducal palace had collapsed; there was talk of an attack from the outside, but the structure imploded and crumbled inwards, and the consensus among the Mechanics was that explosives had been placed inside of the palace. The first explosion destroyed the outside walls and wings, and the second destroyed the palace itself.
    Loharri was home. Like most mechanics, he had his own sources of information.
    “What do you make of that?” Loharri said when Mattie, trembling with shock and unarticulated animal hurt, showed up on his doorstep.
    “I don’t know,” she groaned. “I have to sit down.”
    Loharri wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she was grateful for support and the gentle warmth of his breath. He almost dragged her to his living room that had grown even more cluttered since she last visited, and sat her on the chaise that wore a slight but unmistakable imprint of Loharri’s angular form.
    He examined her damaged hand, tisking to himself, and brought out the soldering iron. “I’ll disconnect your sensors while I work,” he said. “You’ll lose all sensation in this arm—don’t be alarmed.”
    “Thank you,” she said. “I bought you a book.”
    He glanced at the proffered tome and smiled. “Thank you, Mattie. You didn’t have to.”
    “I was at the book shop when the explosions happened,” she said. “I don’t understand who would do that. Unless . . . ” She faltered and bit her tongue, but Loharri was too engrossed in his own thoughts and speculations.
    “There’s a pattern,” he said. The iron in his hand hissed and exhaled thin streams of smoke that smelled of amber. “Today was the day when most of the court were visiting the countryside. Everyone knows that, so whoever staged it wanted no casualties.”
    “Or was looking for easy access without fear of being caught or interrogated.”
    Loharri nodded. “Good point, darling. That would indicate an outsider; I was thinking more of an inside job, but you just may be right. Also, note how the explosives were rigged.”
    “It collapsed on itself,” Mattie said. “They didn’t want to destroy other buildings.”
    “Yes, but those explosives . . . the whole city shook. I wonder who could make something like that.”
    Mattie did not have to answer—they both knew that the Alchemists were the ones with the capacity for making such things; Loharri was still sore since the time when the Mechanics had to go to the Alchemists with their heads uncovered and bowed to ask for their help in blasting a passageway through the mountains.
    “Of course, the gargoyles can also command stone,” Loharri said. He flipped through the book Mattie brought him. “Look, it says here that they rebuilt the palace after the earthquake five hundred years ago. They could collapse it if they wanted to.”
    He put the iron away and reconnected the sensors in Mattie’s shoulder. She wiggled her fingers tentatively. There was some stiffness, but little pain. She hoped it would go away with some practice.
    She cocked her head. “Why would the gargoyles do that? They’ve been aligned with the ducal family since times immemorial.”
    Loharri gave her a long look. “Have been brushing up on our history, have we? Be careful there, dear love—history leads to politics more often than you could imagine.”
    “I’m not interested in that,” Mattie said. “Unless more buildings were to blow up.”
    Loharri paced the room, his long legs loping like a camel’s. “I wonder if there will be. By the way, earlier . . . you said something, like you had some suspicions?”
    “It’s probably nothing,” she said. “But at your gathering last night, I heard some mechanics talking about getting rid of the Duke.”
    “They always blab about that,” Loharri scoffed. “It’s just talk, understand.”
    “As far as