Bookworm

by Christopher Nuttall

  Prince Hilarion’s suite was guarded by a sentinel who looked to be a human cross-bred with a troll, a semi-humanoid race that was barely intelligent and existed only in isolated areas, well away from humanity. Cross-breeds were rare – although the knowledge in Elaine’s head pointed out that the werewolves were the result of a curse and trolls might have come from the same place – and this one looked to have been shaped in a kiln and baked alive. And there were supposed to be troll civilisations in the mountains near Ida...

  Daria shifted back to human form and walked forward, swinging her naked hips invitingly. The half-troll stared at her for just a second too long, giving her a chance to wrap her arms around him and jab him with a charged wand, sending him stumbling to the floor. Elaine followed Daria as she positioned the guard neatly against the wall, rolling her eyes at how Daria was checking out the man’s warped body. The door had a handful of other charms worked into it to discourage would-be intruders, but disarming them was simple. They didn’t even have the flair one would expect from a sorcerer defending his territory, something that puzzled her. Whatever his power, it seemed as if Prince Hilarion had only learned by rote, rather than understanding what he was doing at a very basic level. The Peerless School would have cured him of that bad habit if he’d ever attended.

  The door opened easily and Daria led the way into the most luxurious suite Elaine had ever seen. A series of rooms, each one just as luxurious as the next; three of them bedrooms for the Prince and his two companions. Daria kept sniffing, her half-formed snout twitching as it scented the Prince’s activities ever since he had come to the city.

  “Oddly familiar stench,” Daria said, puzzled. “But someone has used a scattering charm. I wouldn’t even have realised it was there if it hadn’t been interfering with the other scents.”

  “Maybe the Prince is just paranoid about his scent,” Elaine said. She knew exactly how he must have felt. “Or maybe...”

  “But I can smell him,” Daria said. She made a face. “And I really wish I couldn’t.”

  Cat led the way forward, searching for points of interest and watching for traps, leaving Elaine to stare at the Prince’s colossal bed. He’d brought a considerable number of slaves and assistants with him to the city and the bed looked as if it could have housed more than ten of them at a time. The thought made her smile as Cat whispered for her to come and check out the final door. It was locked – and clearly sealed with magic. There was something surprisingly ham-fisted about the spell, as if the caster had been in a tearing hurry. Elaine bent down, carefully unpicked it and opened the door...

  ...And reacted barely in time to counter the freeze charm that was hurled at her from the inside. She heard Daria snort in disbelief as a figure ran out and then froze, staring at Elaine with the same horror that Elaine felt. The figure couldn’t be here, unless her aunt had turned her into a thief. And that suggested that the whole situation had already worsened beyond repair.

  “Millicent?”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Millicent seemed equally shocked to see her. “Frogeye? What are you doing here?”

  “Never mind her,” Daria snapped. Millicent’s eyes went wide as she took in the sight of Daria’s partly-transformed body. She would have known that Daria was a werewolf – she’d clearly come prepared for werewolves, or Daria would have scented her long before they entered the chambers – but she might never have seen one frozen in the midst of a transformation. “We have other problems.”

  Cat pushed past Elaine and stepped into the sealed chamber, shining his light around to illuminate books and a handful of scrolls that looked to date from the time before the printing press. A couple of titles were familiar to Elaine; the others were completely unknown to her. Did that mean that they were unknown to the Great Library as well? Or were they merely books of so little significance that they’d never been included in the Library’s collection?

  “This one I recognise,” Cat said, picking up a bound volume. “I...”

  Elaine felt the flash of magic just a second too late. Cat dropped to the ground, his features twisted in agony, the book falling on the floor beside him. There was no need to touch him to confirm his death. The spell had been as insidious as the one that had turned Elaine into a bookworm – and far deadlier. There was no way to touch or open the book directly without the right code words; unpicking the spell would take experts from the Inquisition. Elaine suspected that she did know how to do it, at least in theory, but unpicking the spell might be beyond her skill. And there might be a second spell hidden under the first to destroy the book if the spell were removed by the wrong person.

  But she didn’t need to touch the book to feel the shimmering pattern of dark magic under the covers. Elaine might never have been a powerful magician, even before the spell that had turned her into a bookworm, but Miss Prim had taught her how to hone her senses and develop disciplines that had served her well in the Great Library. The book had a sense of evil surrounding it that was far darker than any other book she’d seen, a sense that even touching the book would result in a foul taint touching her soul. If the Inquisition had been worried by the spell that had turned Elaine into a living repository for the Great Library’s knowledge, they’d panic when they realised what had been drifting around the world for hundreds of years, just waiting for a dark magician to find it.

  “He’s dead,” Daria said, in shock. Elaine wondered, vaguely, if she’d thought the entire mission was a lark, rather than a deadly serious mission. There were no legal penalties for a magician who killed intruders in his house. “Elaine, I...”

  “You fools,” Millicent snapped. “Don’t you know better than to touch something that may be charmed to punish interlopers? What in all the names of all the gods are you doing here?”

  Elaine began to chuckle. One way or another, she would never be intimidated by Millicent again. “You’re one to talk,” she said. “I bet you weren’t invited to the mansion, were you?”

  Millicent flushed, the first sign of embarrassment that Elaine had ever seen on her. Clearly, something had been going on that had attracted Millicent – or, more likely, her formidable aunt. What did it mean when Lady Light Spinner had sent Millicent to rob Prince Hilarion’s mansion? Or had the real target of her interest been Count Lucas?

  Her head snapped up as she felt the alarm echoing through the magical protections around the mansion. Small magic spells wouldn’t have triggered any alarms, not when half of the household used magic for daily tasks, but the death spell would definitely have alerted the guards. Elaine found herself thinking fast, trying to determine how to escape. The knowledge in her head was more of a hindrance than a help. She knew too little to risk choosing a plan and then sticking to it. At least one question was answered. Millicent’s own entry had probably been conducted in the same way as Elaine, with Millicent leaving the wards disabled to permit her to leave as quietly as she had come.

  “They’re coming,” Daria said. She shifted almost all the way to wolf-form, assuming a disturbing posture that suggested trouble. Very few people would want to tangle with a werewolf at close quarters. “At least twelve of them, all men.”

  Millicent looked over at her. “You can smell them?”

  “I can smell you,” Daria growled, her voice far less than human. “You stink of fear and terror.”

  Millicent started to speak, but Elaine ignored her. Picking up a cloth from the room’s small table – after a quick check for nasty surprises – she used it to pick up the poisonous book and wrap it up so it could be carried. Daria’s packsack had been designed for use in werewolf form as well as human form; she’d have to carry it out of the building. The plan had come together in Elaine’s mind without her being quite aware of it. Dread needed to see the book to have the proof he needed to move openly against Prince Hilarion. They had to get it out to him.

  “Here,” she said, as she shoved the book into Daria’s packsack. “Slip completely into wolf form and race out of
here before they think to adjust the wards to prevent anyone leaving.”

  Daria looked up at her, her dog-like eyes bright with worry. “But what about you...?”

  “Never mind about us,” Elaine said. Millicent was staring at her with an odd expression of respect on her face. Had her brief transformation taught her a lesson, or was she merely scared that Elaine would do it again? Being trapped in an immobile form was every magician’s worst nightmare. “You get the book out of here and to Dread. Go.”

  Daria took one last look at her and then shifted completely into wolf form. Elaine watched, unable to suppress a tinge of horror, as her face became that of a wolf, her body somehow growing larger and stronger. Werewolves were larger than ordinary wolves, even the half-intelligent breeds created by magicians with a great deal of power and few scruples about experimenting on living creatures. But Daria would scent her fear.

  The wolf cocked its head at her and then turned and slunk down the corridor, away from the oncoming guards. Elaine could hear them now; it sounded as if a small army was on its way to their position. She took one look at Millicent, saw the fear written clearly on her old enemy’s face...and knew that Millicent had never really grown up. Despite everything she’d done over the years, it was no longer easy to hate her. Elaine smiled at the thought, gathered some of her magic into a concentration in her hand, and then took up a position just outside the chamber. Somewhat to her surprise, Millicent followed her, gathering her own power.

  “We hit them and then we start running,” Elaine muttered. It was possible that Millicent would start running in the wrong direction, away from Elaine, but there was nothing she could do about it. Millicent might not take orders from her if she started issuing them. “Here they come...”

  The guards charged up the stairs and came right at them, brandishing staves and spears. There were no rifles, part of Elaine’s mind noted; not even swords and knives. It seemed to make no sense until she realised that the guards probably had strict orders to take any intruders alive. None of them appeared to be combat magicians, but if Cass and Karan could take off their robes and pass as normal girls, there was no reason why Prince Hilarion’s combat magicians couldn’t do the same.

  Elaine lifted her hand, shaped a thought, and blew a roaring column of flame down the corridor. The guards wore charmed armour, but there was nothing protecting their faces from the heat of the blaze and the lead guards staggered back, screaming in pain. Elaine felt the house’s magical protections starting to concentrate on the blaze – all houses in High Tory had magical fire protection to prevent a holocaust that might consume the entire district – and tossed a second spell. All of the lighting flickered and died instantly.

  A brilliant flash of light flared out as Millicent tossed a spell of her own towards the guards. It wasn’t one typically taught at the Peerless School, even though it wasn’t forbidden; Elaine only knew it through the knowledge dumped into her head. Millicent had probably learned it from her aunt. Many other well-born children had had private lessons from their families in magic before they ever attended the Peerless School. Two of the guards started to scream, their faces burning with a terrible white light; Elaine grabbed Millicent’s arm and pulled her backwards, tossing a third spell behind her as she fled. The Night Terrors wasn’t a particularly powerful spell, but it would take a trained sorcerer to dispel – and mundane humans would have real problems pushing through illusions of their worst nightmares coming to life.

  They ran through a series of corridors, almost crashing into a trio of maids. The girls were advancing on them, carrying a handful of knives and brooms that they intended to use as makeshift weapons. They wouldn’t have a choice, Elaine knew; the collars they wore would push them into intercepting the intruders even if the odds were badly against them. Millicent cast a spell that sent the maids falling limply to the ground, rather than killing them outright. Elaine was surprised, and impressed. She had never thought that Millicent had any concept of restraint.

  She could feel the wards flickering around her as they sought to counter her spells and lead the guards directly after them. Another group of guards appeared in front of them and Elaine knocked them down, just before allowing Millicent to pull her down a thin corridor that was used by the servants to stay away from the upper-class guests. Elaine was surprised that Millicent even knew about it, before remembering that Millicent’s family probably spied on everyone else in High Tory with as much interest as the Inquisition. Knowledge was power in the Golden City and whoever got to it first had an advantage over everyone else. How long would it be, Elaine wondered, before they altered the wards to bar their exit? A normal sorcerer would have had to do the work himself – and Prince Hilarion and Count Lucas were still out on the town – but there was nothing normal about either of them. What if they’d given one of their subordinate magicians the key to unlocking and reshaping the wards?

  They stumbled down a flight of stairs and emerged into a dining hall large enough to seat half of the nobility comfortably. It looked as if the maids were cleaning up after an orgy – a type of party that even Daria considered disgusting – but the moment they saw the girls they turned and advanced on them, throwing leftovers and cutlery with deadly intent. Elaine felt tiredness grabbing at her – she’d used too much of her power already – and stumbled; Millicent cast a spell that knocked away most of the incoming missiles and smashed the tables for good measure. A door burst open at the far end, revealing a line of guards who ran forward, carrying deadly weapons. Whatever plans they’d had to take the intruders alive had been cancelled.

  Elaine felt a very complicated spell pushing at her mind and cast it before she could think better of it. For a long moment, nothing happened...and then the swords the guards were carrying came to life. Millicent stared at her in disbelief as the guards screamed and dropped their swords, unable to keep them from slicing away at their arms with their charmed blades. Some of them were from Caitiff, Elaine realised; a line of alchemists who boasted that their charmed swords could cut through anything. It looked as though that included the sword arms of anyone unlucky enough to be carrying them when the swords were hit with an animation spell.

  Millicent came to her senses and pushed Elaine towards the other exit as the spell – feeding on the loose magic in the room – started to get out of control. Smashed tables came to life, lashing out at the maids and knocking into the guards. Knives and forks started to move, almost as if they were running, towards their targets. Some of the maids dropped to the ground, their hands clutching at their collars. The spells keeping them loyal and faithful – making them property, their lives completely out of their control – had been drained away and failed, freeing them. Elaine hoped that some of them would be able to escape before Prince Hilarion and his friend came home from their midnight revels. Slavery might be legal, but it sure as hell wasn’t moral.

  “How...” Millicent began, and then caught herself. “How long will that spell last?”

  The words of a very ancient warlock, who had written a single volume before vanishing under mysterious circumstances, echoed in her mind: Take a simple kinetic spell and shape it so that it keeps going as long as there is magic in the area, the warlock had said. Eventually it will suck up all the magic and fall apart, but first it will neutralise all the other magic within reach. And what happens if the magic doesn’t come back?

  “I don’t know,” Elaine admitted. It would take vast amounts of power to animate the entire room for more than a few seconds; no wonder her uncontrolled spell had started to drain all the sources of magic it could. But draining a ward was such an obvious trick that almost all wards had protections built in to stop someone trying, which suggested that there would be very definite limits to what she’d unleashed. She pushed the thought aside as they turned the corner and looked towards the main doors. Nine guards – and a man wearing the black and red robes of a combat magician – stood there, waiting for them.

  She nodded to Millicent and th
ey ran back up the stairs, sharply. It might give them some more time, particularly if the guards hadn’t realised that Daria had gone her own way. They’d concentrate on sealing off the exits first, and then search the rest of the mansion floor by floor. How many men did they have in their private armies? Dread had implied several hundred at the very least. Prince Hilarion could probably call upon the entire Ida Royal Guard if he’d felt that he needed them.

  Millicent shaped a spell and tossed it back down the stairs as a band of guards started to give chase. Elaine felt a flicker of envy for the obvious power reserves at Millicent’s disposal, even though there was nothing particularly subtle about her spell-casting. Another pair of half-trolls appeared in front of them and Millicent knocked them down, while Elaine concentrated on casting diversion spells that would confuse the defenders and make it much harder for the wards to track them. But their eventual capture seemed inevitable.

  “This way,” Millicent said, leading her up to the third floor. Elaine glanced at her sharply, wondering what Millicent knew that made her so confident – and yet so reluctant. The third floor housed the more trusted servants, the butlers and particularly elite servants who were paid in gold rather than forced to serve through compulsion spells. Millicent walked ahead as though she knew precisely where to go and opened a door that led into a small smoking room. It was empty, yet surprisingly comfortable, without the gaudy luxury that marked so much of High Tory. “Follow me.”

  She opened up a large cupboard, revealing a solid wall. Before Elaine could say anything, she pressed her hand against the stone and it clicked open, revealing a secret passageway. Elaine stared at her as she stepped inside, urgently beckoning for Elaine to follow her into a tiny flight of steps that led down towards the basement. The secret passageway hadn’t been on the plans Elaine had memorised; the Inquisition clearly didn’t know about them...and yet Millicent did?