by Tim Susman
This set the three men to arguing in Russian again, during which time Kip checked with Ash. The raven had spotted the three students in the street and watched from the rooftops as they made their way to the hotel.
Finally the black-bearded sorcerer said, “Enough! This is Master Penfold. If anyone knows truth about Calatians, it is him. Master Penfold, do you know which way they may have gone?”
Kip lifted his nose to both hallways. Victor’s perfume filled the air, but not more strongly in either direction as far as he could tell. “I’m sorry, no.”
“Very well. Pasha!” The red-bearded sorcerer snapped to attention. “Take Lyosha and go that way. I will go with Master Penfold down this way.”
The two sorcerers left down one of the hallways, leaving Kip and the black-bearded one to take the other. “Please,” the Russian sorcerer said, “excuse my terrible manners. My name is Pyotr Petrovitch Koshka.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Master Koshka,” Kip said. “May I ask why you are so determined in your pursuit of Victor?”
“This exposition is almost over,” Koshka said. “Master Adamson may return to England this very night, taking the proof of his spell with him. Do I return to my tsar with the information that we witnessed this great spell and yet tell him that we cannot say whether it was truly cast?” He shook his head. “Better to tell him nothing of it until we make certain, else he may assign us to discovering the means of this magic, which may not even exist.”
“Maybe that’s what Victor wants,” Kip mused as he followed the other sorcerer down the hallway to the doors at its end. “To divert minds of foreign powers to a fool’s errand.”
They tried the first door and found an exit onto a shadowy street. The other door led to a small storage room, but Kip caught the smell of marmot as soon as the door opened. “They were here,” he said. “At least, Farley was. Victor’s cologne is fainter. He might have come in to fetch Farley.”
Koshka looked shrewdly at Kip as he closed the door. “You know the Master as well as the Calatian?”
“I know Victor Adamson, and yes, Farley is the Calatian, but he wasn’t always one. I don’t know the other sorcerer.” Briefly, Kip told Koshka about Farley’s encounter with a demon and his transformation. “So while it is possible that Victor turned him back…I don’t believe Farley would allow himself to be transformed again. I think that third man was a spiritual sorcerer who made Farley appear human and then removed the illusion.”
Koshka’s companions approached from the other hallway, their footsteps audible before Kip could make out their forms. Koshka did not react if he saw them, only stroked his beard and stared down the hallway. “Then the purpose was to make other nations fear England, to make them believe she has lost nothing by losing the Colonies.”
“That seems most likely,” Kip agreed.
“Master Koshka,” the red-bearded sorcerer called, now close enough for Kip to distinguish him. “There was nothing down that hallway save a storage room and an exit.”
“Yes,” Koshka said. “I fear we have been too slow, but look at what our energy has brought us: a meeting with a knowledgeable American sorcerer. He and I have developed a theory that I believe true enough to bring back to our tsar.”
“That is good fortune indeed!”
Kip was about to reply when a note of panic from Ash drew his attention. He sent his consciousness to the raven, who was scanning a street full of people faster than Kip could parse. The sense of panic and the raven’s movements told Kip as clearly as words that she had lost sight of the students.
Koshka was saying something, and Kip interrupted him. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I am urgently needed elsewhere.”
“Of course.” Koshka put his hands together in front of him and bowed slightly. “Thank you for your assistance, Master Penfold.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you,” Kip said in the few seconds it took him to gather magic and send himself to Ash’s side.
8
Disappearances
A chilly wind cut across the roof where Ash perched. Kip drew his robe around himself and stared down at the street. Taking it in through his own eyes rather than Ash’s frenetic searching helped him make sense of what he was seeing, but did not reveal the three students anywhere. “What happened?” he asked out of frustration, knowing that Ash couldn’t answer.
Again he got the feeling of panic from the raven. She didn’t understand any more than he did. And where were Emily and Malcolm?
“All right, all right.” He reached out to stroke Ash’s back, forcing himself to be calm so that she would calm down too. The first thing to try was translocating to the students directly. It would annoy them, but at least he’d know they were safe.
Translocating with a person as a destination was difficult and Kip had only recently succeeded in it. He called up his memory of Jorey, the one he was closest to, and pictured the squirrel’s smile, his voice and scent, and the feeling Kip had when Jorey was around. Magic flowing through him, he formed the spell and cast it. The spell took hold, reached out for a destination, and—
—Kip remained where he was.
The spell had worked, so that meant Jorey was inside magical wards. There was a small chance that the wards were not related to the students’ disappearance, that they were merely in a space that happened to be warded, but he did not feel that that was likely.
“Let’s go back to the hotel,” he told Ash without much hope. “Maybe everyone ended up there and Malcolm warded it.”
She fluttered up to his shoulder, responding to his tone. Having a raven, Kip had discovered, was like having a very perceptive young child, and he’d learned to project calm and assurance even when (as now) he did not feel them naturally. Arabella and Aran responded much as Ash did, though even Aran was now of an age to question his parents rather than take their assurances on faith.
Kip translocated himself and Ash to the front of the hotel, a little above the street because he was worried there would be crowds. Some sorcerers milled about, along with a few others who cried out at the appearance of a levitating fox in sorcerer’s robes, but Kip ignored them, lowering himself to the ground and hurrying into the hotel’s lobby.
Alice found him before he spotted her and ran to him, with Emily trailing behind. “Are you all right?” Alice asked, throwing her arms around him.
“I’m fine,” Kip said. “Where are the students?”
“Wasn’t Ash watching them?” Alice looked up at Kip’s raven, now scanning the lobby.
“She was, but she lost them somehow. I don’t know what happened. I was talking to some Russian sorcerers and only half paying attention to Ash.” Guilt tightened his chest. “I tried to translocate to them and couldn’t. They haven’t come back to the hotel?”
Emily shook her head. “Not that I’ve seen. Let me try to go to them.” She closed her eyes for fifteen seconds, concentrating, and then opened them again. “Nothing. You don’t think…”
Kip sighed. “I don’t think Farley got to them. The stage exit was the other side of the building from the alley they left by. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor managed to kidnap them somehow.”
“Victor?” Alice startled. “Why?”
Emily nodded. “He’s been after Kip for years. The chance of another magical Calatian? One less able to defend himself?”
“Jorey.” Alice flattened her ears. “But why the others?”
Kip growled. “Deprive us of all our students. Ruin the college.”
“He doesn’t know that’s all our students,” Alice said.
Emily looked toward the doorway. “He wouldn’t have to. He would assume we brought the best. Have you heard from Malcolm?”
This was to Kip. “No. I haven’t seen him since this morning. I suppose he’s still looking for the students too, if Corvi was watching them. Maybe he knows what happened.”
“What a mess.” Emily kept watching the entrance as more sorcerers wandered in and a few left, non
e of them Malcolm. The chatter in the hotel lobby rang louder than usual. “Knowing Victor, I feel this is exactly what he wished to have happen.”
Kip told her what the Russian sorcerers had said. “He might also have wanted to get foreign sorcerers working toward fool’s gold.”
“Perhaps. But I feel this was aimed at us, if anyone.”
“Us?” Alice asked.
“America,” Emily clarified. “We’re the country that used Calatians to win the war. This was a notice to us that Britain can create more Calatians if they like. And,” she added as though it had just occurred to her, “a notice to our hosts that their new community of Calatians is not as valuable as they had thought? In any case, it has the stench of the Crown behind it.”
“Which means,” Kip said, “that Victor has a very powerful patron.”
“But…” Alice looked between the two of them. “What about the spell? I know you think it wasn’t real, but what if it was?”
“Yes,” Emily said grimly. “That’s also a worry.”
After another ten minutes had passed with no sign of Malcolm, Emily suggested they return to their room, as the lobby was very crowded. They made for the stairs, and just as Kip set foot on the first one, his nose tingled and Malcolm’s voice came to his ear. “I’m safe. Students gone. Been trying to find them, no luck. Where are you?”
Kip spoke under his breath to the demon. “At the hotel returning to our room. Send Corvi and Emily can bring you back.”
“No need. I’m only a short walk. I’ll be there soon.” Demons often lost the emotional nuance in a person’s voice when conveying messages, but Kip could tell just from the short sentences that Malcolm was discouraged.
“Was that Malcolm?” Alice had turned her ears around toward Kip.
He nodded. “He’ll be here soon,” he said to her and Emily, in front of her, who’d half-turned at Alice’s question.
“I know. He told me too,” Emily said. “I’ll go down and wait for him. You two go up.”
“Should we keep looking?” Kip asked.
“If you can think of something to do that doesn’t involve leaving the hotel, by all means.” Emily kept her eyes on the doors. “But Malcolm will have more information. I’ll come up with him as soon as he gets here.”
In the room, neither Kip nor Alice wanted to sit still. Alice stood near the bed and walked to the door every few seconds, sniffing for any scent of Emily or Malcolm. Kip paced between the bed and the window. If only he hadn’t let himself be distracted, caught up in chasing Victor, he might have kept his eyes on the students. Could the Russian sorcerers have been agents working with Victor to keep him occupied? He considered the thought and filed it away. Perhaps they had been, but it didn’t matter now; what mattered was finding the students. At best, they had hidden themselves away. At worst…he didn’t want to think about the worst. Whatever it was, it would be partly his fault.
Though he didn’t say anything, Alice walked over to him. “They’re alive,” she said, taking his paw in hers. “And we’ll find them.”
He drew her into a hug, forcing a smile he didn’t feel. At least she was safe, she and their unborn cub. Her scent, he’d been told, would change as the pregnancy moved along, but it hadn’t yet. She was still sweetly, reassuringly herself, and he pressed his nose to her fur, taking what comfort he could in that. “I hope so.”
It seemed an hour, but the sky had barely darkened when Emily and Malcolm came into the room, so it couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Emily closed the door behind them as Malcolm went to sit heavily on the bed, Corvi fluttering to keep balance on his shoulder.
“I lost them,” he said before anyone could ask. “Corvi here caught up with Ash when we saw everyone leaving Trippenhuis, and I spotted Jorey easily in the crowd, then the other two. I hadn’t summoned my demon, because Victor and Farley were in the hall, and I had the students in sight so I didn’t think he’d be needed…We kept sight of them around a corner, down another two streets. The crowd thinned out a bit, so they were easier to keep track of. Then—it happened in a second. This man in a cloak came out and laid hands on Jorey and Charity, and they were gone. Richard barely turned around before it grabbed him and then they were both gone as well.”
None of them said a word. Malcolm spread his hands. “And that was it. They were gone. I failed.”
“No!” they all protested more or less at once, and Kip went on. “I should have been watching as well. I let myself get distracted.” Or, he wondered, had Victor planned the event and disruption to distract him? The shouted voice from the front that had incited the panic, now that he thought back on it, had sounded false, almost rehearsed. If Victor had been behind it, if he’d taken their students…fire simmered in Kip’s chest, growing hotter.
“There was nothing either of you could have done,” Emily said sharply.
“I could have warded them.” Malcolm pressed his hands together. “I should have.”
“Why would you have?” Emily asked. “We haven’t been this whole time. There’d be no reason to suspect a need.”
“Unless it was because there was an event Victor was orchestrating,” Kip said, his ears down. “Because if he were going to try something, it would be then.”
“It’s no good now thinking about what we should have done.” Alice swept her tail back and forth. “We should be thinking about what we’re going to do.”
“Quite right.” Emily heaved a sigh.
“If we can’t find the students,” Kip said, fists clenched, “then I’m going to look for Victor.”
Malcolm sat up. “Aye, not a bad idea, that.”
“And do what?” Emily asked.
Kip held his paw out and conjured a fire above it, only a small part of the anger burning in him. “Convince him to confess,” he said.
Alice slid an arm around his waist, unworried about the fire. “You can’t just burn confessions out of people.”
“I’ve never tried,” he said, “but I’m willing to learn.”
“It’s not you.” Alice nuzzled his shoulder.
“Besides which,” Emily said, “if you attack him with fire and he does have a highly-placed patron, that would give him more leverage to attack the credibility of our school.”
The fire died in Kip’s palm. “We have to do something.”
“I know what you and I have to do, though I hadn’t expected it to be this difficult. I must travel to Paris next to secure funding for our school, and I think it would be best for you to accompany me. That leaves Alice and Malcolm to find our students.”
“Wait!” Kip cried. “I want to look for them! It’s my fault—”
“It was my fault as much, if not more,” Malcolm reminded him.
“All the more reason we should both look! We came through many battles together.”
Malcolm nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Quiet, both of you,” Emily snapped. “First of all, I’m the headmistress of the school. You think I’m not just as terrified as any of you at what Jorey and Charity and Richard might be going through? But I also have to consider the future of the school itself, beyond this year’s class. If we don’t secure the funding from M. and Mme. Dieuleveult, there may be no school. Well, apart from one Dutch healer, I suppose, if he wants to sit alone in a room and teach nobody.”
“Monsieur and Madame who?” Kip asked.
“Dyoo-le-vuh,” Alice said carefully. “They’re the nobles who offered us money.”
“If they already offered it, why do I have to go to Paris?”
“Because,” Emily said, “they haven’t promised it to us yet. Mme. Dieuleveult told me this afternoon that there were several sorcerers with ‘interesting ideas,’ as she put it, and so she has invited all of us to their mansion in Paris for a fête and to allow us to further demonstrate our ideas.”
“It’s a competition.” Alice’s ears were down. “So you have to go, Kip. You’ve got the showiest sorcery and you’re the Hero of the
Battle of the Road. If anyone can convince them, it’s you.”
It didn’t feel right to Kip that he should leave the students, but he couldn’t argue any of the points. When they had all agreed Emily should run the school, she’d said, “You understand that this means you will abide by my decisions where the school is concerned,” and Kip had responded that he couldn’t think of anyone he trusted more, including himself.
“What’s second of all, then?” Malcolm asked.
“Second of all,” Emily said with a tight smile, “I’m the headmistress of the school. Kip, you’re coming with me to Paris. Malcolm and Alice, stay here and try to find any clue to the whereabouts of the students.”
“They’ll be in London by now.” Kip wrung his paws together.
“We don’t know that for sure. Richard fell afoul of that Prussian sorcerer, and something may have happened with him. Or it could be someone none of us know—they talked to dozens of people. If we knew for sure that it was Victor, yes, we would all go to London immediately, funding be damned.” Emily took Malcolm’s hands. “I trust the two of you to get to the bottom of it. If you discover anything concrete, let us know, and Kip and I can come help wherever you are. I will speak to Master Janssen and ask him what resources may be put at your disposal.”
“If you bring us to Paris,” Malcolm said, “then my demon and raven will know where you are and will be able to come fetch you if we need to.”
“Excellent idea.” Emily smiled. “I’ll check in with you every day regardless.”
Kip sank down on the bed. “I hate the idea of going off to Paris while they’re prisoners.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Emily said, “I rather doubt either of us will enjoy ourselves.”
They sent Ash and Sleek to fly in circles over the streets around Trippenhuis looking for the students (or Victor or Farley), and Malcolm sent Daravont to look through buildings for any warded space, starting with the street Farley had disappeared in when Kip had followed him. They knew that the students could have been translocated anywhere in the world (and indeed, that street turned up nothing of interest), but it felt better than doing nothing. Kip, Malcolm, and Alice tried to eat at the neighboring public-house while Emily paid a call on Master Janssen, but by the time she returned, they’d barely picked at their meals. “Master Janssen will meet you both in the lobby next door in an hour or so,” Emily told them as she sat down. “He wants to discuss matters with some of his masters, and there are other demands on his time, but he understands the urgency of our situation.” She stared down at her plate, and then around at all the others, still full of roast pork and onions. “I don’t know how much of this I can eat.”
