Much Ado About Magic

by Shanna Swendson

  “Try to get some sleep,” I suggested, patting him on the shoulder. “I know that’s probably a tall order, but put on an old movie or read the most boring book you can find. You won’t be helping yourself or anyone else if you exhaust yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” he insisted.

  “Only if we’re grading on a curve.” I hesitated, wondering if I should kiss him or give him a hug, but I could practically see the barriers he’d put up, and these weren’t the kind my magical immunity would let me through. I settled for saying, “I’ll come by again tomorrow.” When he didn’t respond, I took that as my cue to leave him alone.

  *

  The next morning, instead of Owen waiting for me downstairs, Rod was there. “How was he?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Weird. In shock, maybe. Mostly pretty analytical. He wants proof, and I don’t think he’s going to do anything based solely on what Idris said.”

  “That sounds like Owen.”

  “I intend to get to the bottom of this today,” I said, setting off down the sidewalk with a purposeful stride.

  Rod joined me. “And I’ll be right there with you,” he said.

  When we got downtown, more people than usual got off at our subway stop. It was a busy station, but there was something odd about the way these people moved that made me nervous. Then I saw a flash of plastic under the collar of one of the people—an anti-flu amulet. If these people were wearing the amulets, bracelets or charms, then we might be about to see what their real purpose was.

  When we got across the plaza, we saw where all those people were going. A crowd—really, more of a mob—had gathered in front of MSI headquarters. It seemed to be a cross between a riot and a protest. Rod took my arm and said, “Stick with me,” as he led me through the crowd, which parted around us.

  Sam eyed the mob suspiciously from his perch on the building awning. “Would you believe this?” he asked when we reached the awning. “I talked to the boss about breaking it up, but he said they weren’t doing any harm and to leave them be.” He curled and uncurled his foot talons around his perch, like he was forming fists.

  A ripple went through the crowd, and they moved as one to turn their attention away from the MSI building and toward the other side of the street. I was about to ask Sam what was going on when I saw Ivor Ramsay rising above the crowd, levitating. They all cheered, and he soaked up the adulation for several minutes before he raised his hands and they instantly went silent.

  “My good people,” he said, “It warms my heart to see so many of you here today because it gives me hope that the magical world has not turned its back on truth and ethics.” Above us, Sam muttered under his breath and flexed his talons. I gritted my teeth and wished I had talons to flex. “I was as shocked as any of you to hear about the secrets our magical leadership has kept from us. When I fought and defeated the Morgans, I never dreamed that their son would be harbored by the same people I served for so many years. And now that same son—the biggest threat our world has known since his parents terrorized us—has been given a position of trust and leadership by Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Incorporated, the very company charged with protecting us from dark magic.” The crowd booed on cue.

  Now I really wished I had Sam’s talons. I didn’t realize I’d been leaning forward, ready to pounce, until I felt Rod’s grip on my upper arm, restraining me. How could Ramsay say those things about Owen?

  “I will not be a party to this any longer,” Ramsay continued, shouting above the boos. “I will no longer be associated with MSI, and I am happy to announce that I have accepted a position as chief executive of Spellworks, the magical company I believe will lead the magical world into a new era of peace, prosperity, and innovation. I know Merlin is a great wizard, but he is from another age, and I believe it is time to move in a different direction. As the leader of Spellworks, I vow to turn from the old ways and work toward reforming the magical world.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The cheers of the crowd drowned out my mutter of, “I told you so.” I turned to Rod to see his reaction and was surprised to see a grim-faced Merlin standing just behind Rod.

  “Want I should disperse the crowd, boss?” Sam asked Merlin.

  “That will not be necessary, thank you, Sam,” Merlin said evenly. “As I understand it, free assembly is a right in this society.” He gestured toward Rod and me. “Now, if you two would care to join me in my office, I believe there are some things we should discuss.”

  Rod was pale with shock, and I was sure I was livid with fury as we followed Merlin up to his office. He motioned us to take seats at the conference table and went to the wet bar to make tea the old-fashioned way, without magic.

  While Merlin worked on the tea, Rod tried to process what had just happened. “So Ivor Ramsay was the one behind Idris’s schemes all this time?” he said, frowning in disbelief. “But that’s impossible! He was the one who let Owen fire Idris and had us take action against the threat of dark spells on the open market.”

  I turned to him. “Of course he let Owen fire Idris. How else could Idris go off and be the initial front man for the new company? And then Ramsay could call for taking action. We wondered how Idris has known our moves all along. He was getting it from the top. Ramsay knew everyone in the company. No one would have thought anything of him wandering in and asking how things were going.”

  “I’m still not sure I get it,” Rod said. “Why would he pretend to help fight against Spellworks, only to go take over? He could have just started his own company to begin with.”

  “Yeah, but then he wouldn’t have been able to take the moral high road,” I said. “They’d have been merely a competing company. This way, they’re here to save the magical world. Why he needed to do that at another company, I don’t know.”

  Merlin brought tea to us and joined us at the table. “I had hoped that by lulling Mr. Ramsay into complacency, I could encourage him to show himself,” he said. “I will admit, I did not anticipate this development. Magical wars were so much easier in my day when we simply attacked our enemies directly. It was all about demonstrating power, not about developing an image and swaying public opinion.”

  “How did we not notice this?” Rod asked. “Now that I think about it, there were red flags, but I’ve always thought the guy was wonderful, and I never suspected anything. No one did, except you, I guess.”

  “And me,” I said under my breath.

  Merlin gave the slightest chuckle. “You, of all people, should realize what he was doing, Mr. Gwaltney. As I understand it, you’re quite the expert on attraction spells.”

  “You mean he’s been manipulating us all along?”

  “Yes, and doing it so expertly that even accomplished wizards are not aware that his appeal isn’t natural. I discovered it by being analytical, comparing his actual behavior to the way he was perceived. I had no preconceptions and was studying the situation.” Merlin pulled an antique-looking watch out of his vest pocket. “And then I obtained this clever artifact that blocks the action of spells like that. I’m afraid in recent weeks it has been more difficult for me to play along and act like I am as affected by his charisma as everyone else, but by then I’m sure he already knew I suspected him.”

  Rod shook his head. “You’d think I would have noticed what he was doing. And what about Owen? Is what Idris said true?”

  Merlin stared into the depths of his teacup and sighed. “I do not know for certain. I have seen no documentation to that effect, but I had my suspicions. When I was brought back, I initially devoted myself to learning everything I could about what had happened in the intervening years.” He gave a wry smile. “That was a rather extensive project, as there were a great many years. I was curious about that last threat because I believed it was more urgent than the one I’d been brought to face, so I did a fair amount of study on that. Meanwhile, I was getting to know Owen rather well—he was the one who did the spell to restore me, and he was one of the very few who spo
ke my language. He served as my interpreter until I learned modern English. I was intrigued by the amount of power he had and was curious about his origins, and even more curious when I learned that he knew nothing about his origins. More research uncovered some interesting parallels.”

  “What parallels?” I asked.

  “It is not public knowledge, but those directly involved in the fight against the Morgans knew Mina had been with child, but she no longer was when she was defeated, and the child was never found. Meanwhile, Owen was abandoned soon after his birth and then adopted from foster care by the Palmer family. He was discovered by the wizard Council when he caused some trouble for his adoptive parents as his powers began to manifest. From the report I read, it would seem that this family did not handle it at all well, and he went back into the foster care system. The wizards got him out of the mundane system and sent him to James and Gloria Eaton, who had the expertise to bring him up with the training and discipline that would be required to manage his great power. The timing and circumstances were such that I thought there might be a connection.”

  “And no one else put two and two together and figured that this mysterious child who showed up in the home of two magical leaders might be the missing spawn of evil?” I asked.

  “That is not as uncommon as you might think,” Merlin said. “We lose magical children all the time within the child welfare system, since untrained magical powers tend to create problem children. You can imagine the potential for disaster when a child doesn’t understand his power and his parents don’t understand what he’s doing. In addition, many of the details about the Morgans were not a matter of public record. I had access to privileged information. Very few people would have had reason to make that connection.”

  “Who else could have known?” I asked. “And did anyone know officially?”

  “It is possible that those who were on the Council at the time knew or suspected, but no one has ever discussed it with me.”

  “You never mentioned this to Owen?” I asked.

  Merlin shook his head. “It was nothing more than a suspicion, and I didn’t think it mattered. He has more than proved himself to be a good man.”

  “Yeah, but now Ramsay and Idris have the perfect scapegoat for their crimes, while they can pretend to take the high road and fight him,” Rod snapped.

  “That’s probably the part we need to focus on now,” I said. “We need to clear Owen’s name and show Ramsay up for what he is.”

  “But what is he?” Rod asked. “Has he really been behind this all along, and how far back does it go?”

  “Do you really think Phelan Idris was worth bringing Merlin back?” I asked. “I’m guessing it has something to do with that. The problem is that he’s set himself up in a no-lose situation. He can make accusations against Owen that are impossible to deny through anything short of a DNA test. Meanwhile, Ramsay is acting like the savior of all magic, so if we fight him, then we look like the bad guys. Before we can defeat him, we have to prove that he’s been the bad guy all along. It’s a PR war more than a magical battle, and I’m not sure how we can fight it.”

  “We will need evidence of Ramsay’s wrongdoing,” Merlin said.

  “Unless he’s been keeping a diary of his evil deeds, I doubt he’s left a paper trail,” Rod said.

  “Maybe Owen’s situation is the key,” I suggested. “For Idris to make that accusation, he had to have information from somewhere, which was probably Ramsay. I think it’s suspicious that Ramsay killed the Morgans and also happens to know Owen’s identity, which he hasn’t said anything about until now. Was he the one who kept Owen hidden?”

  “That will be your assignment,” Merlin said. “See what you can learn about Owen’s origins.”

  He stood and gave a smile that was like ice water down my back. “Meanwhile, if Ivor Ramsay wanted Merlin, then Merlin he shall have,” he said, his voice taking on an eerie booming quality. He strode to one side of the office and waved his hand over a section of wall. A narrow cabinet popped open, and he took out an elaborately carved staff that was taller than he was. From another cabinet he took robes of an iridescent blue-black. I hurried over to help him settle the robes around his shoulders. He got out a tall, pointed hat, then hesitated. “Is the hat too much?” he asked. “Modern wizards don’t seem to hold with the old regalia.”

  “You’re giving them Merlin,” I reminded him. “Go all-out with the old regalia.”

  Rod and I followed close behind as Merlin swept downstairs to the building entrance. I didn’t want to miss seeing this, and it looked like Rod was on the same wavelength. We stood in the doorway as Merlin moved out onto the sidewalk under Sam’s awning.

  The crowd was still there, though Ramsay had gone. Some were actively protesting while others just milled about like they were waiting for something to happen. Merlin struck his staff against the sidewalk and thunder boomed. A burst of wind rushed up the street and swirled around the protesters, who scrambled for cover. As suddenly as the micro-storm had come up, it dissipated into absolute silence. Then Merlin spoke.

  “What is your business here?” he intoned in that same eerie, reverberating voice he’d used earlier.

  The protesters mumbled to each other and moved away from the building. One brave soul stepped forward and said, “You’re Merlin, aren’t you?”

  “That is what some call me. That was my name in the Latin tongue in the days of Arthur, and that is my name in legend.”

  An awestruck gasp fluttered through the crowd, and a few people snapped pictures with their cell phones. “So, it’s true?” one woman asked skeptically. “You’re the Merlin, brought back to life from the Dark Ages?”

  “Yes, it is true,” Merlin said with a little less booming reverberation. “I was brought back a year ago to help face a great threat to the magical world.”

  “What threat is that?” another person asked.

  “You would have to ask Mr. Ramsay, as it was he who saw a threat and made the decision that it was time to awaken me.”

  That brought a little more muttering from the crowd, and I was tempted to slip among them to act as an audience plant and ask pertinent questions. Just when it looked like they might be reasonable, about half the crowd suddenly froze and then surged forward, practically trampling those who weren’t moving with them. I suspected that those amulets had kicked in again, but not everyone in the group was affected. Some had apparently joined the crowd because they honestly believed in the cause, or at least because they wanted to see what was going on.

  The unaffected people tried to push back, and a few fights broke out in the mob. Merlin raised his staff over his head and shouted some words, then calm descended. “You may have heard that I am from an ancient era that has no relevance in our time,” he said, “but peace is timeless. Sadly, so is strife. But I bring peace while there are others who create only strife—or incite others to strife.”

  That set off the amulet zombies again as they surged toward Merlin. A couple in the front row looked like they were primed for attack, but before they reached him, Merlin aimed his staff at them and they slumped to the ground as if they’d fainted. The people who weren’t in lockstep with the others got out of the way, and even the ones under the influence hesitated.

  “I will not harm you,” Merlin said, “but I will not allow you to harm me or my people. You should also know that those charms you carry protect you only from specific spells, and none of those spells are in my arsenal. I fight with different weapons.”

  A few more people dropped out of the mob, but the rest pressed onward. Merlin raised his staff again and shouted more magic words, and then the mob was pressed against an invisible barrier. Merlin watched them for a moment, then turned around to face us. “That should give them something to think about,” he said as he came into the building. “And now I need to go impress some customers. Perhaps they will think twice about withdrawing their business after a friendly discussion.”

  “Have we los
t that many?” I asked.

  “There have been a number this morning, and I would imagine several more since Ramsay’s announcement. So it would be good if you could find anything you can about Ramsay as soon as possible.”

  I hadn’t even made it to my office, but I turned to head out again. Sam flew escort, magically shielding me from the ongoing demonstration.

  When I got to Owen’s place, a small mob of protesters had formed on the sidewalk. They were chanting about how he should stop using evil magic, and I doubted they’d let me pass. Before they noticed me, I ducked back around the corner and went to the tavern where they’d held my birthday party, bought a meal to go, a souvenir ball cap, and a T-shirt, then put on the T-shirt, pulled the hat down over my eyes, and acted like I was delivering food. Wearing something that looked like a uniform and doing a menial task was even better than magic for making a person invisible, so the crowd didn’t pay any attention to me.

  I let myself into the stairwell, then knocked on Owen’s door before I unlocked it. “Lunch delivery!” I called out as I came inside.

  The living room was even more of a mess than normal. Every book Owen owned was out, and a snowfall of paper lay on top of the books, full of scribbled notes that actually looked scribbled, for a change. Owen was equally untidy, still wearing the white shirt he’d been wearing the day before, but now with the tail untucked. He hadn’t shaved, and he was wearing his glasses. His eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles under them. I got the impression he hadn’t slept and that he was running on a wave of manic energy.

  He looked up as I entered and said, “I think I’ve figured out who’s been behind Spellworks.”

  “Ivor Ramsay.”

  His enthusiasm deflated a little. “Oh, you knew? Of course you knew. You’ve been telling me all along. I should have listened to you. But is it anything more than a suspicion?”

  “He announced this morning that he was severing his association with MSI to join Spellworks as their new chairman and to usher in a new magical era, or something like that.”