by Tim Susman
All through the meal, Kip reflected on the afternoon and the meeting, and about what he could do. When dinner was over, he signaled to Alice and Malcolm. “Can we go to the wall again? There are some things I’d like to discuss.”
“Oh.” Ella stood. “Please don’t mind me. I was going to go to Mum’s house anyway. My nieces are there and I’m to help take care of them. You are welcome to stay here if you like.”
She ladled the remaining stew into a bowl and carried it out, bidding them good night as the curtain fell closed behind her.
“So,” Malcolm said, his voice low, “what brilliant strategy have you come up with to deal with Victor?”
Kip sighed. “None, I’m afraid. But I think I’ve realized that it’s time I summon Nik.”
Alice put a paw on his knee. “Why not just summon a different demon?”
“Because I made an agreement with Nik. I said I’d summon her if I needed her, and she said that was fine. Another demon…I’m just imprisoning them. Besides.” Kip leaned back against the wall of the house. “I trust Nik. I know that’s a strange thing to say about a demon, but I do. If I miss something, I think she’ll still do the right thing.”
Malcolm nodded, and Alice splayed her ears but didn’t object. Still, Kip hesitated. “This is the right time, isn’t it? I’m not making excuses? We’ve thought through everything else we could do.”
“I don’t think anyone, demon or otherwise, could fault you for thinking there was need right now.” Malcolm ticked off items on his fingers. “Students kidnapped, and the future of our school in doubt, and Victor at least claiming to be able to undo Calatians. Sure, you can imagine circumstances more dire. You’ve lived through them. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a time when you call on all the friends you have.”
“Victor’s calling demons, probably as many as he can,” Alice said quietly.
“That’s the thing.” Kip leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “There will always be someone who’s going to use demons, and we can’t fight them without demons of our own.”
“You say you trust Nik,” Malcolm said. “Maybe that’s the solution, aye? We can’t do without them, but we can treat them better.”
“We can’t trust all of them. We all know that.”
“Me as well as any of you.” Malcolm said it lightly, but it got Kip to open his eyes and meet his friend’s eyeless smile. “But we’ve got to start somewhere, if we’re to do this, and why not with the one you know?”
“All right. Ash and Sleek, go out to watch the street. Don’t want anyone walking in on us.”
The ravens strutted to the door and pushed aside the curtain. Kip stayed with Ash long enough for the raven to get to a roof from which she could look down one side of the street. Sleek took the other side, standing next to Ash so they could communicate quickly.
Kip summoned magic, preparing himself. “You remember the spell?” Malcolm asked.
“Yes.” Kip recited it to himself to make sure. “It hasn’t been that long.”
Still, he hesitated before speaking the words. He’d made a promise, and now again he weighed whether the need really was great enough to justify breaking it. But no more options revealed themselves to him. Victor had demons; they did not. They had four sorcerers going against the might of, perhaps, the entire King’s College and military of the British Empire. And at stake was not only the future of the school, but perhaps of all Calatians.
He spoke the summoning and then, under his breath so Malcolm and Alice wouldn’t hear, the name, “Nikolon.”
For a tense half-second, he thought that perhaps the summoning might not work. But then she coalesced out of the air, vapors taking the form of a naked female fox-Calatian.
“Ah, Kip,” Malcolm said nervously at his side. Alice didn’t know enough about demon summoning and binding to know what Kip had left out.
“Hello…” Nikolon paused and looked around. “Kip Penfold.”
“Hello, Nikolon.” Kip drew in a breath, dismissal spell at the ready. “You have noticed that you are not bound. I agreed to summon you again only in a time of need, and I hope that by not binding you, you will trust me that this is a time of need for me. If you do not wish to help, I will dismiss you.”
She walked up to Kip, growing in stature until her nose was even with his. Alice made a noise, but Kip held out a paw to still her movement, keeping his eyes locked on Nikolon’s. He felt as though on a knife point, balancing delicately from falling in any number of dangerous directions. Blood pounded in his ears and he wanted very much to open his jaw to pant, but kept his mouth closed.
“Aren’t you afraid I will curse you?” she whispered.
“You said you already have.”
Her eyebrows rose and her ears went back, a much better mimicry of a fox-Calatian than she’d previously accomplished. “I said that curses take many forms. I remember those words.”
“Did you curse me?” Kip asked.
She held his gaze a moment longer and then stepped back. “Do you need my help?”
Kip closed his eyes for a moment. His tail uncurled and the tip brushed the ground. Beside him, Malcolm uttered a soft oath. “Yes,” the fox said. “Please.”
He explained the situation as best he could. Alice added some details; Malcolm seemed still too stunned to speak. “So,” Nikolon said. “You would like me to investigate the College and find out where your student is imprisoned. And there is a very powerful demon there that I must be watchful for. And this…Adamson. How will I know him?”
“You’ve seen him before,” Kip said. “He was the blond man in the stable when you rescued Alice?”
Nikolon turned to look at Alice, who was trying her best to smile. “I remember…Alice…a little. There was…fire?”
“It was a few years ago,” Alice said.
“I remember you, my summoner.” Nikolon faced Kip again and her eyes seemed to glow. “What we have done together is very clear. Some of the rest remains, some fades. I remember all my summoners.”
“Don’t worry about Victor.” Kip shifted his weight, his tail curling again. “The first priority is to rescue Richard, and Jorey if he’s there. The second is to find out if Victor really can…alter Calatians in that way. But I don’t know how you’d find that out unless you happen to see him trying it on a Calatian.”
“If the spaces are warded, I will not be able to enter.”
“No,” Kip said. “I’ll go to—I’ll go to the top of the Astronomy Tower and wait there, so I’ll be nearby when you find a space, and I can come to it and we’ll figure out how to get past the wards. I’ll leave Ash here so I can talk to you two.”
“I’m coming with you,” Malcolm said. “If anyone knows wards, I do.”
“Then I’m coming too.” Alice folded her arms. “We’ve had this discussion.”
“Yes, I know.” Kip hesitated.
Alice took a step forward. “You’re not leaving me—”
“No, no.” He reached out and hugged her to him. “Never.”
She hugged back and kissed him, and he held on to her a little longer, breathing in her scent. “It’s just—in Paris I acted quickly and I made the situation worse. Now that I come to it, I wonder if I’m doing the same thing here. Grinda is starting to trust us and if we go off and do our own thing…what if we get caught? What if Nikolon is captured or destroyed by the other demon?”
“Can demons be destroyed?” Malcolm asked.
Kip looked to Nikolon, who said, “I have never known a demon who was destroyed.”
“They couldn’t exactly come back and tell you about it, though, could they?” Malcolm mused. “Look, Kip, we’re all for taking the risk. You’ve not hidden anything from us and if we go, it’s our decision.”
“But she’s right about Victor,” Alice said quietly. “Even if we rescue the students, we need to make sure he can’t do anything to the Calatians here ever again.”
“All right,” Kip said. “He’s kidnapped American c
itizens, and he doesn’t have any magic. When we find him, we’ll take him back to Peachtree and we’ll give him to the American authorities for a trial. Mister Adams—President Adams—will be able to work something out.”
“And what about Grinda?” Alice asked.
He released her and kissed her muzzle. “If we believe that this is the best way to proceed, we should tell her. But perhaps we can wait—”
Ash squawked outside, and Kip shifted to the raven’s view. March the beaver was hurrying down the street toward him. “Someone’s coming,” he told Nikolon. “Please turn invisible and don’t let him know you’re here.”
Nikolon vanished without any acknowledgment.
“An invisible unbound demon,” Malcolm muttered. “Not much makes me nervous, but—“
“Shh.” Kip nudged him both because Nikolon was still present in the house and because March was almost there.
“That dinner was splendid,” Alice said brightly, artificially loudly.
“We’ll have to thank Ella when she gets back,” Kip replied, and a moment later March cleared his throat outside the curtain and then entered.
“Sorry to bother,” he said. “But Grinda wants to see Master Penfold.”
“This late?” Kip perked his ears.
“She said now.” The beaver rubbed his paws together. “Summat about that Victor Adamson’s magic. Wants to see you in private to ask your opinions about it.”
“Should we come too?” Alice asked.
March shrugged. “If you wish. She only asked for Penfold.”
The young vixen took one of the chairs and sat. “I’ll wait for Ella, so she doesn’t wonder where we’ve all gone.”
Malcolm rose. “I have ideas about it so I might as well come along. We won’t be long, will we?”
“I’ve never known Grinda to be slow about anything.” March inclined his head and held the curtain for them to come out into the street. Above them, Corvi took flight and followed them along the street while Ash remained on the house, keeping watch.
“What changed her mind?” Kip asked.
“Who can say that it was ever changed?” March slapped his flat tail against the ground. “Maybe she always thought that it was worth more discussion but didn’t want to appear weak in front of her people. You put her in a difficult position.”
“I was trying to be helpful.” Kip flattened his ears.
“Aye, when two sides are far apart the first salvos of trust may fall short in the gulf between them.” March held his paws two feet apart. “When I first met Grinda a year ago she wouldn’t let me even talk to her family.”
“How did you get on her good side?” Malcolm asked, coming up on March’s left.
“A lot of work and a lot of dedication. I’ve convinced her that I put the welfare of the Calatians over my own.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do.” Kip brought his ears up. “That’s why this spell of Victor’s is so dangerous if it’s real. But I think it could also be a trick of his to scare us.”
“It could be,” March said. “I want to stop him kidnapping more Calatians. It’s not just that we can ill afford to lose one or two a month. It’s that we’ve already lost families to Amsterdam, and it’s a terrible thing to feel that they can take any of us whenever they want. We have no power, but we don’t need to be reminded of it quite so often.”
“True enough.” Malcolm lifted his head. Corvi’s wings fluttered over them.
March turned to Kip. “Though I don’t expect you deal with that worry too often.”
“More than you would think.” Kip breathed in the night air. “You can’t solve every problem by lighting it on fire.”
“I imagine that solves a good many of them, though.” March rubbed his paws together. “There have been cold nights when I’d have given a lot for a simple fire.”
“You can make fire or get it from other people.”
Malcolm chuckled softly. “Don’t sell your power short,” he said to Kip. “You destroyed a Great Feat, remember.”
“Shut it,” Kip said amiably.
“Sometime I’d like to hear that story.” March stopped in front of the meeting house, from which the rich smell of fish emanated. “Not tonight, alas.”
“Smells like they’ve had dinner as well.” Kip glanced up as Corvi alit on the roof opposite with a sharp clatter of claws.
“They were just sitting down to it when I left to get you.” March pulled the curtain aside and called in, “I’ve got Masters Penfold and O’Brien here.”
17
Betrayal
Something was wrong, Kip thought a half-second before someone grabbed his paw. He reached for magic and found himself cut off from it. Malcolm gave a startled half-cry as the shadowy figure in front of Kip grasped his hand as well. “Get the ravens,” a gruff voice said.
Kip found his body frozen by a spell. He’d been in this situation before. Nikolon, he called, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hear a response, please tell Alice it’s a trap! Tell her to get out! He said the same through Ash, or tried to; he couldn’t see anything through the raven’s eyes nor tell whether his words had come through. He tried to tell Ash to fly to London and hide among the shadows in the crevices of buildings, but again, he could not tell whether his orders had been followed.
“There’s only one raven.” Farley Broadside’s voice.
Kip’s eyes adjusted to the dim interior quickly, so he could now see the whiskered face of Farley and the face of the Indian sorcerer, the one who’d grasped him and Malcolm. That sorcerer now turned to March, who stood off to one side. “Why didn’t you bring all the sorcerers and ravens?”
“Because Mister Adamson said he only wants Penfold. What was I supposed to do, tell them to all come along with their ravens and walk into this dark house together?”
“Have a care with your tongue, water-rat,” the sorcerer snarled. “You and the ground-rat here are useful tools, no more.”
“I delivered Penfold as I was ordered,” March said. “Mister Adamson said that was all he wanted, and the rest of us would be safe. He didn’t say anything about listening to you.”
“Enough,” the Indian sorcerer said, and reached out to Kip and Malcolm again.
Kip woke on a stone floor, his tail and left arm aching because both were pressed under him at awkward angles. Pressure on his shoulder withdrew. “He’s awake,” the Indian sorcerer said.
“Good.” This voice, silky smooth and higher in pitch, was Victor Adamson’s. Kip rubbed at his eyes and opened them.
The Indian sorcerer stood back from the metal bars that separated him from Kip. Next to him, crouching, Victor’s pale blue eyes stared through the barrier.
Kip scrambled to sit up, discovering in the process that he was naked. He curled his tail around to cover his privates. “Ah, yes,” Victor said. “You really have no-one to blame but yourself for your current state of deshabille. Albright warned me that you could conjure sorcery into small items, so we thought it best to relieve you of all possible hiding places for such things. And—well, we’ll get to the other reason presently, perhaps.”
“Of all the things I thought you wanted me for,” Kip said, “I never imagined—”
“Ha ha!” Victor laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself. My interest in you is purely scientific.”
“Purely?” Kip reached up to brush a paw over his ears and whiskers, which felt out of place from sleeping on them. At the same time, he tried to cover the flare of his nostrils as he sought to find out more about who was with him in the neighboring cells. “I find that hard to believe. You’ve resented me since we met. Why did you tell March you specifically wanted me?”
“Because you’re the most powerful Calatian sorcerer, the rarest of a very rare breed. I did try to make it work with your squirrel, but I regret to say he was insufficient.”
“I’m not a naïve student,” Kip said. He could smell Victor and Gupta clearly. Farley, too, and Malcolm, and...Richard, yes, and Jorey a
nd Charity too, faintly. At least two other Calatians, but their scent was old. “Don’t try to sell your trickery to me.”
For a moment, anger clouded Victor’s eyes, and then his expression relaxed back into an easy smile. “I suppose that’s fair, after the Exposition. Well, don’t worry. I’ll show you exactly what is a trick and what isn’t.”
These words chilled Kip more than the stone he sat on. “People know where I am. Kidnapping me will have serious consequences for your country.”
“Oh, I’m sure if anyone were able to prove it, that might be true. Which leads me to the question I woke you up to ask, which I am certain you will not answer truthfully: whom did you tell about your kidnapping? I know that your raven evaded us and that your,” he waved his paw, “mate was elsewhere on the Isle.”
“My wife,” Kip said, heartened. At least Alice had escaped.
“I could easily make you think we’d captured them, but you would see through any of my tricks, more than likely.” Victor gestured, and the Indian sorcerer came forward and reached through the bars.
Kip scooted back from the touch. Victor clucked his tongue. “Don’t make Farley pull you against the bars. He’s liable to get a little too enthusiastic about it.”
From outside of Kip’s view, Farley chuckled. It was not a pleasant sound.
Gupta was a spiritual sorcerer, so he was likely going to read Kip’s mind. After his encounters with Master Albright, Kip (and all the masters at the Lutris School) had trained in techniques to keep certain thoughts out of his mind. He hadn’t had much call to put them into practice, but here he would have to if he wanted to keep Nikolon’s existence secret.
So he approached the bars and allowed Gupta to put a worn hand on his shoulder again. “Now,” Victor said, “whom did you alert after your capture?”
“My raven and Alice,” Kip said evenly.
Victor turned to Gupta. The Indian sorcerer frowned, and Kip felt the feathery touch in his mind. “He is concealing something.”
