Chapter Thirteen

There were additional guards on the streets, Elaine noticed as she walked towards the Imperial Palace, backed up by a handful of Inquisitors. None of them looked happy; there just weren’t enough Inquisitors to waste on patrolling the city, even when there was a strong possibility that another riot might break out. Elaine nodded to a couple she knew as she passed through the gates and walked up to the palace, praying that Light Spinner hadn’t called a full meeting of the Privy Council. She hated sitting at the table and hated speaking still more.

Thankfully, the only other person in the room was Dread, looking tired and cross as he stood to attention, clearly having declined the offer of a seat. The Grand Sorceress wasn’t a monarch from the ancient times; there was no rule that dictated that everyone else had to remain standing in her presence, let alone prostrate themselves in front of her. Elaine bowed quickly as she entered the room, then took one of the comfortable seats. Light Spinner’s eyes glinted tired amusement at her.

“I have just been speaking with the Conidian,” Light Spinner said. There was no trace of amusement in her voice, merely a bone-weariness that matched Elaine’s own feelings. “He wishes his son to be freed from the Watchtower.”

Elaine rubbed her eyes. “I thought that there was a case against him,” she said, crossly. “We know he was there.”

“Several aristocratic brats have sworn blind that he was gambling with them until the wee small hours that day,” Dread said. “We don’t believe them, of course, but as they are not suspects in a crime we cannot use truth spells to ensure that they are telling the truth.”

“They might well be the others,” Elaine said. Johan had been unable to identify the others, but somehow she doubted that Jamal Conidian would associate himself with lower-class magicians, even if they had magic. “We could arrest them on suspicion.”

“And then have half the establishment up in arms,” Light Spinner said, coldly. “But we will also have riots if someone isn’t brought to justice for the crime.”

“Right now, they are waiting to see if someone is hauled in front of the authorities,” Dread added. “If we fail to do so ...”

“Jamal Conidian is not suited to be the Head of a Great House,” Elaine said, flatly. “If half the stories his brother tells are true, he is a bully, a cad, a liar, a philanderer ...”

“We get the idea,” Dread said, hastily. “But we have to work within the boundaries of the politically possible.”

Elaine scowled. Convict Jamal; have the Conidian Family as enemies, perhaps joined by several of the other Great Houses. Don’t convict Jamal; have riots, perhaps even an uprising, by the non-magical community. Light Spinner was caught between the demons of all seven hells and the great blue sea. It was hard to escape the thought that she might choose to free Jamal, believing that the Levellers posed the lesser threat. Elaine knew that it would be hard to blame her.

“But that is a secondary matter right now,” Light Spinner said. Her dark eyes met Elaine’s and held them. “What progress have you made with Johan Conidian?”

Elaine took a moment to gather her thoughts. “He has definitely developed magic,” she said, “of a very strange nature. As far as I know” – and thanks to the Witch-King her knowledge was extensive – “his existence is utterly unprecedented.”

She took a breath, then continued. “The average magician requires both knowledge and power to work magic reliably,” she explained. Both of them knew it already – it was common knowledge – but it had to be said again, just to make sure they understood. “They are taught the words and gestures required to cast spells, yet the more power they have, the more steps they can skip or simply overpower to cast the spell. Their magic is strong enough to overcome failings in technique.”

The words brought back bitter memories. Millicent had been casting spells effortlessly, while Elaine had had to cast them over and over again before she got everything right and the spell condescended to work. Now, she understood magic intimately, she understood just how much Millicent had been skipping over and how much more she could have done ... but it was still humiliating. It had taken her nearly a year to learn how to start protecting herself against some of Millicent’s tricks.

“But even a normal magician requires some technique,” she said, pushing her thoughts aside. “At the very least, he or she requires a close connection to his magic. Johan, on the other hand, seems to be all power and no technique. He can make things happen without, I suspect, ever needing an understanding of why certain things work and others don’t.”

She met Light Spinner’s eyes, willing her to understand. “He cannot cast spells without being able to visualise the effects,” she said. “If he doesn’t know what a spell is meant to do, he can’t cast it. On the other hand, upon being given a fake spell, he managed to make it do what I said it should be able to do. And when he does cast spells, the results are always squinty. The only spell that could be said to have worked properly was one he cast without any of the standard spells.”

Dread leaned forward. “What did he do?”

“Turned his sister into a rat,” Elaine said. The memory made her want to shiver. Too much could have gone wrong, crippling or killing Charity outright. “No wand, no words, no gestures ... he just did it.”

“Maybe trying to teach him standard spells is a mistake,” Light Spinner mused. “Maybe you should concentrate on the effects you want instead.”

Elaine nodded. It was a good thought. Most practical magical training revolved around proper spellcasting; intent, vocalisation and gestures. The wand served to help students focus their minds, channelling their power out of their body. But perhaps if they concentrated on intent alone ...

“That leads to a different question,” Dread said, bluntly. “Is Johan a danger to anyone else?”

“... Perhaps,” Elaine said. She had never thought that she would be grateful that forced transfiguration was regarded as nothing more than a prank, at least as long as it was inflicted on another magician. “The blunt truth is, Inquisitor, he doesn’t have any real control over his magic ... and what spells he casts are often far too overpowered. His attempt to learn how to cancel his magic accidentally destroyed my protections too.”

Dread gave her a considering look. “That must have been terrifying.”

It had been, Elaine knew, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Not yet and perhaps not ever.

“I do not believe that he intended to turn his sister into a rat,” she said, instead. “It would probably be best if he continued to receive private training, rather than being allowed to enrol at the Peerless School. And, ideally, he should be kept away from his family.”

“The Conidian has not mentioned Johan to me,” Light Spinner said. “But he does have a legal claim on his son.”

Elaine blinked in surprise, then realised that Charity probably hadn’t had a chance to mention Johan’s determination to stay at the Great Library before the Conidian had gone to speak with Light Spinner. Once he found out, Elaine had no doubt that he would be on his way back to the Imperial Palace. Charity’s story, if she told him everything, would whet his appetite for drawing his newly-empowered son back into the fold.

“Not if you choose to assert the Security of the Realm,” Elaine pointed out. “You could block the Conidian’s attempts to regain control of his son.”

“True,” Light Spinner agreed.

Dread had a more practical concern. “I dislike the thought of a magician with unpredictable powers,” he said, “but we are ignoring the real problem in the room. Is Johan connected to the Witch-King?”

Light Spinner turned to look at Elaine, expectantly.

“It may be impossible to give any certain answer,” Elaine said, carefully. “We know so little about how the Witch-King works his manipulations that it is difficult to say anything for certain. However, I do not believe that this is necessarily his work.”

“Are you sure?” Dread asked. “Do you have any reason not to be suspicious?”

He leaned forward. “The last freak magical accident we had was yours,” he said. “The Witch-King used you to steal all the knowledge in the Great Library. You were not evil, you were not deliberately involved, but you were still his tool. Johan may not be evil, yet he could still be being manipulated by an unseen foe with incredible patience and knowledge at his disposal.”

The hell of it, Elaine knew, was that he was right. It was impossible to prove that the Witch-King was involved ... or that he wasn’t involved. The handful of people who knew that the Witch-King had somehow survived the Second Necromantic War had been digging through the files, trying to see his fingerprints, but it was like chasing ghosts. Two items, separated by a century, might be part of his plan. Or they might just be imagining a connection where none existed.

We need to find him, she thought. But where the hell is he?

“We cannot just kill people on suspicion,” she argued, remembering her first real conversation with Dread, back in Ida. Then, Dread had worried that she might have had her own magic boosted – and people who had their magic boosted often went insane. It had been an uncomfortable conversation, not least because she had been trying to hide her new status as a Bookworm from him. “Johan might become a threat ... or a powerful ally.”

She looked over at Light Spinner, who was regarding them both calmly. “And he represents a window into a whole new area of research,” she added. “Everything I have seen insists that he was a Powerless, that he had no magic at all. Now, he has formidable magic of a type unseen in history. We cannot let this opportunity go to waste.”

“It also makes him a target,” Dread observed. “There will be those who believe that studying his magic is the key to bestowing magical abilities. The Levellers will want him; others, such as his own brother, will want him dead. We may not be able to protect him.”

Elaine winced. Dread was right. If magic was the key to social superiority – and it was – the mundanes would want it. And those who already had power would want to safeguard their positions by preventing it from being studied. It was yet another reason for Johan never to go home.

“You can assign an Inquisitor to him to serve as a bodyguard,” Elaine said, remembering that two had been assigned to her. “Who would pick a fight with them?”

“There aren’t enough Inquisitors in the city to spare one for more than a few hours at best,” Dread said. “As it is, we’re all getting by on less sleep and more bad-temper than ever before.”

I wonder how anyone tells the difference, Elaine thought, although she wasn’t brave or stupid enough to say it out loud. There were potions that could keep people going for days or even weeks without sleep, but after a week or two the side effects started to become increasingly noticeable. Inquisitors might be able to take it; students were warned that staying awake for more than two days, no matter how frantic they were to complete an essay before the deadline, would have unfortunate effects on their grades.

“We’ll see what can be organised,” Light Spinner said. “Thankfully, rumours haven’t started to spread throughout the city, but the Privy Council will have to be briefed.”

Elaine nodded, reluctantly. Some of them would probably agree with her, but others - Vlad Deferens in particular – would want Johan dead before the research wizards could start unlocking the secret of his powers. Quite why Light Spinner had asked Deferens to join her Privy Council – and, for that matter, why he’d accepted – was a mystery to her. Even if she had been unable to forget the fact the man was a woman-hater, one with a very good reason to hate Elaine in particular, it was hard to avoid realising that he was also a complete bastard.

Maybe she wanted him where she could see him, Elaine thought. Everyone knew that Deferens had wanted to be Grand Sorcerer ... and everyone knew that he had been forced out of the contest early, after humiliating himself in public. If there was a true challenger to Light Spinner, it was the man who had never had the chance to face her in the final contest ... which had been lucky for Deferens. Light Spinner had been the sole survivor among the other contestants, winning almost by default.

She pushed the thought aside and looked up at Light Spinner. “Perhaps we could come to an arrangement with the Conidian,” she said. “He has a strong interest in keeping his son’s powers a secret.”

“No he doesn’t,” Dread grunted. “Johan’s nature blocked Jamal’s plans to get married. The Conidian has every reason to shout the news from the rooftops.”

Elaine swore under his breath. He was right.

“Then we need some other form of protection for him,” Elaine said. “He could live here ...”

“Out of the question,” Dread snapped. “The Grand Sorceress also lives here.”

“Maybe he could become your formal apprentice,” Light Spinner suggested, calmly. “As such, he would be effectively independent from his father as long as the apprenticeship lasts.”

“But his father would be required to give consent,” Elaine pointed out. The whole idea of taking on an apprentice was terrifying, but it might have been a workable solution ... if the Conidian agreed. But it was unlikely that he would. “I don’t think he would agree quickly, if at all.”

“I can order you to take him on,” Light Spinner said. “That would effectively block his objections, particularly as it would also announce that Johan is indeed a magician. The rumours that suggest he isn’t would be answered.”

“The Conidian might go along with that,” Elaine mused. “But would Johan?”

She considered it, quickly. The basic idea was that a junior magician was apprenticed to a stronger senior magician, someone who could teach them – and shut them down, if necessary. But if her darker thoughts about Johan’s true nature were accurate, it was unlikely that they would find anyone stronger than him. Light Spinner, perhaps, or Dread ... neither of whom could take on an apprentice.

“It would provide the most protection for him,” Light Spinner assured her. “And it is clear that he doesn’t want to leave you.”

Her eyes glinted. “I could probably turn Howarth Hall over to you,” she added. “If you want it, of course.”

Elaine had to smile. Lord Howarth, her Guardian, had vanished from the city. His ancestral home had been ransacked by his creditors, who’d taken everything apart from the building itself. She was marginally surprised that it hadn’t been sold – land was very profitable in the Golden City, particularly if there were gardens attached – but there were legal issues surrounding the Hall that would take years for the lawyers to sort out. Or a word from Light Spinner, if she felt disposed to settle the matter.

“No, thank you,” she said. Howarth Hall had never been her home. She’d often wondered quite why Lord Howarth had served as her Guardian, at least in name; now, she knew that it was one of the Witch-King’s manipulations. Nothing else could have kept him carrying out a role that distracted him from gambling and running up debts. “Burn it to the ground or sell it to the next set of immigrants from far away. I don’t care.”

Light Spinner chuckled, rather unkindly. “You do realise that having land in the city could set you up for life? You would automatically be considered part of the highest nobility in the Empire.”

Elaine shook her head, firmly. Howarth Hall had been stripped, after all. She would have to bring in everything from beds to bookshelves – and a kitchen, and hire staff ... no, taking the hall would mean spending most of her savings on renovating it. Selling the land was a more attractive thought, but she didn’t want anything from Lord Howarth. The gods knew he’d never done anything for her.

“Suit yourself,” Light Spinner said. Droll amusement ran through her voice. “But you may have to find yourself a house if you’re taking on an apprentice. You can’t keep him locked up in the library indefinitely.”

“I know,” Elaine said. She closed her eyes, wondering just what Johan would make of the offer. Student magicians wanted to be apprenticed to great and powerful sorcerers, not librarians. “I’ll ask him, either tonight or tomorrow. And then I’ll let you know.”

She bowed to Light Spinner and Dread, then returned to the library, unable to avoid feeling cold as she walked through the darkening streets. Once, the Golden City had never slept; now, the streets were almost deserted, apart from a handful of beggars and the ever-present City Guardsmen, who eyed her nervously as she walked home. Magic or no magic, Elaine still found them a little intimidating. She had never been a strong woman ...

Back at the library, she checked on Johan and was amused to discover that he’d gone to sleep in a chair, with a book on his lap. Shaking her head, she ordered dinner for herself, checked the wards, then climbed into her own bed without bothering to undress. There would be time enough for a proper wash in the morning, she told herself. Closing her eyes, she meditated for a few moments, then went to sleep.

That night, she dreamt of the Witch-King ...

... And woke up screaming.