The Uncanny Raven Winston

by Tammie Painter

  "So why was the watch made if it’s that dangerous?"

  "I thought I was asking the questions." Amusement filled his voice and eyes, making it obvious that Alvin Dodding adored teaching. "But since you wouldn’t have known the answer to that one anyway, I’ll tell you. The watch was only meant to be a way to, oh how does one put it, channel magic into an object. I’m sure you’ve heard of magic wands?"

  I nodded, biting back any reference to Ollivander’s Wand Shop. See, I was learning.

  "Well, one does look terribly silly carrying around a little stick and waving it about, so the magic community had long been trying to come up with some other form of portable, transferable magic. And before you ask, yes, transferable. That was the main point of a wand. As you’ve seen, you don’t need a witch’s wand or wizard’s staff to do magic, but say you’re feeling under the weather or have gone sugar-free for some ridiculous reason. If you’ve put your magic into another object, you can call it up even when you’re feeling low. It’s like keeping a spare loaf of bread in the freezer in case you can’t get to the shops. So, why would the watch be dangerous, given what I’ve just told you?"

  I thought for a moment, fighting back the image of a magic loaf of bread. "If the Mauvais had the watch," I said slowly, working out the idea in my head as Professor Dodding’s pale grey eyes gave me an eager look of encouragement. "And the watch already had some power put in it…" The magic loaf exploded in my head. "The Mauvais put more of his magic into the watch than he intended to."

  Alvin Dodding clapped his hands. "Very good. And that is why when we got our hands on the watch we thought the Mauvais had been defeated. After running some tests, we were certain the Mauvais had put nearly all his power into that object. He would have done so to allow the watch to enhance his power, but he didn’t take into account our getting our hands on it. We had his magic," he said emphatically. "He should have been weak, too weak to pull that little morphing stunt. What did he call himself?"

  "Vivian," I said, picturing the busty, bombshell floozy changing back into the broad-shouldered, hairy-legged Devin Kilbride.

  "That’s it. With the majority of his magic in the watch, to do that trick he had to be gaining power from somewhere. Or someone. Which is more than a little troublesome. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself." I wanted to tell him he hadn’t, that I needed to know who he suspected might be passing power to my arch nemesis. But Dodding was in lecture mode and couldn’t be stopped.

  "When the watch was built, its special qualities quite surprised its maker, but the Mauvais immediately saw the potential of that pesky object. I don’t believe it had been constructed to be evil, but in the wrong hands, even a pencil might be dangerous. So, not long after the Mauvais allowed his magic to blend with that of the watch, his power increased exponentially and we were subject to his whims, to his quite horrible whims.

  "There’s too much history to go into today regarding the details of all the investigations and attempts to get the watch from his hands into ours, but you will be proud to know your parents were a part of that wonderful event."

  I already knew some of the story of my parents being on the team who came to London to secure the watch. They’d come, they’d succeeded in getting what they were after, then they were betrayed by their partner Devin Kilbride.

  "But you had the watch," I said. "I still don’t understand why you couldn’t just destroy it then and there. Why take the risk of holding onto it for so long, and then of sending it to Portland?" I’d been told something of this. There was some difficulty with destroying the watch by, say, whacking it with a hammer, but I wanted to see what Dodding might add to what I already knew.

  "First, let me ask you what you think would happen if we destroyed the watch. Consider that the Mauvais has imbued his power into it."

  "It would destroy him, right? Or at least a good portion of his magic."

  "Exactly. But his magic isn’t the only magic in there. The maker of the watch filled it with his own power to get it started. Destroying the watch would not only kill the Mauvais, but very likely the maker of the watch as well."

  "Okay, so why not destroy it? Wouldn’t it be worth the loss of one life to save so many?"

  Professor Dodding flipped the book shut with a thump and shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose it would, but we can’t. There are only a few who know this, but HQ had weighed the options and were going to destroy it without telling the maker. It was thought it would be better that way." I was slowly coming around to the full-strength conviction that HQ was a very creepy place. "Trouble was, the watch wouldn’t give up no matter how much magic we threw at it. We had been able to channel away some of the power, but even our strongest people couldn’t manage a full extraction. The essence of magic remained within the gears.

  "So we kept it safe, knowing one day we would figure out how to untangle the power. We had research teams working non-stop on some very clever ideas. And before you judge us, by this time it had been agreed to alert the watch’s maker that we were attempting to destroy his creation and therefore risked killing him as well. And you’ll be glad to know, it was your Rosaria community where the solution was found. So, the watch was sent there through regulated channels, but as you know, the watch never made it to its proper destination."

  Yes, I certainly did know. Why did I ever take that stupid courier job? Life was far better when I wasn’t being hunted by an evil wizard, wasn’t doubting every feeling I had for someone, and wasn’t knocking holes in walls with uncontrollable magical power.

  "Then the watch reappeared and seemed to be quite reanimated under your influence." He gave me a wink to show this wasn’t meant as a criticism. "Finally, you had your little scuffle with the Mauvais, during which you — although none of us had been able to do so before — took in all the watch’s combined magic, even its core essence, and now here you are," Professor Dodding concluded. As if that summed up everything.

  "If I don’t get my magic under control, if I don’t prove myself. What happens?"

  "Besides the Mauvais possibly using you to ravage the world?"

  "Yeah, besides that little detail."

  "We will have to destroy you. But don’t take that personally. You seem very likable." Trust me, that’s a phrase I’ve never heard in my lifetime, but the surprise was completely overshadowed by that whole we’ll have to destroy you thing that had come before it. "So, I do hope HQ’s training gets you to the point you need to be."

  "Wait, back up. You’re going to kill, not drain me if I don’t sort this out?"

  "No, no, of course not. Not kill. We’d only extract you to the point of imbecility. But don’t let that wear on you. I’m sure you’ll do fine."

  He said this as if we were merely discussing how I’d do at my piano recital.

  "How long do I have?"

  Professor Dodding counted on his short fingers. I was encouraged by how many times he was tapping his thumbs against his other digits. It had to be quite a long time indeed.

  "About three or four days, I believe."

  "You’re not serious."

  "Maybe a little less. Whenever your next test is."

  "What’s to stop me from running away? I could leave here right now and just keep on walking."

  "Well, we are on an island. You’d only get as far as Cornwall. And, now please don’t take this the wrong way, but we can track you. The scent, you know. Plus, we can tap directly into all the CCTV cameras around town quite easily."

  With that cheery bit of news and my stomach growling for some sandwiches, I asked if we were done for the day. He said we were and gave me some homework regarding how the watch might have been made, and told me if I’d like to grab some lunch in the cafe or to browse the gift shop, he’d meet me in the lobby in time to escort me to my next class.

  I agreed and stood to leave. Just as I got to the door, I paused and turned back. Professor Dodding was tossing the book back
into its spot on the shelf and leaping up to claim another. He caught me watching.

  "Waiting for that kiss, dear?"

  "Not this time. I was wondering, who made the watch?"

  "Oh, I assumed you knew. It was your Alastair. He was very precocious. Still is apparently."

  33 - A LUNCH DATE

  I DON’T EXACTLY remember leaving Dodding’s office, nor making it down to the ground floor of the museum. I could have tumbled over the railing and landed on my feet after a perfect gymnastic triple flip and I wouldn’t have known for all the thoughts pounding through my head.

  Alastair. He built the watch. The watch that led to my parents’ deaths. The watch that might end up getting me killed as well. All those timers and trinkets of his. I should have seen it, shouldn’t I? But I didn’t. And despite all the opportunities to do so, he’d never told me he’d made it.

  Circular thoughts of suspicion, of the desire to trust him, of that kiss, of the missing files, of his true motives flew round and round my head as I plodded through the lobby of the museum. The race came to a halt when someone called my name. My instinct was to instantly put up my magic defenses. I don’t know if that shows my training was paying off, or if I was just exceptionally paranoid.

  I whipped around toward the sound, then breathed a sigh of relief. A strange reaction since it was Tobey Tenpenny waving at and striding toward me. Strange, because I’d normally have wanted to keep marching straight out the door to avoid him. But I was so relieved it wasn’t Alastair, that seeing Tobey seemed like winning the lottery. As for Alastair, I had too many questions to sort out before I saw him again.

  "What?" I asked, perhaps more testily than was warranted. But I did just find out the guy whose lips I could still feel on mine was responsible for ruining my life. I’d also learned my brain had only a few days left of forming coherent thoughts. That kind of news really plays on your mood. Plus, I was famished and that always boosted my innate grumpiness by a factor of ten.

  "Bite to eat?" He gestured toward the museum cafe, the entrance of which was flanked by two garden gnomes. "My treat."

  "Sure, why not." I considered joking about what garden gnomes had to do with the history of London, but Tobey never appreciated my humor, so I remained silent as we got in line for what was a surprisingly good selection of food.

  I still hadn’t satisfied my post-training, post-test hunger, and ended up loading my tray with the largest pastry on offer, two sandwiches, and an orange juice. Tobey opted for an overpriced grains-and-greens salad. With the lunch rush already taking up the tables next to the windows, we settled for a seat in a corner nearest the cafe entrance. I inhaled the first sandwich before asking Tobey why he’d followed me to the museum.

  "The others all had some meeting to go to, so I went to your room to see if you wanted to hit the file room again. But obviously you weren’t there. I decided I’d go for a swim instead." He paused to take a bite of his salad.

  "And?" I goaded, not really wanting to drag out this retelling of A Day in the Life of Tobey.

  "And to get to the pool you have to go past Olivia’s office. She wasn’t in there and the door wasn’t shut, so I went in. Your schedule for today was on her calendar, which is how I knew you were here. And maybe," he said with a sly grin, "while I was looking, one of her desk drawers sort of opened when I bumped into it."

  "I don’t think they’ll buy that in a court of law. I assume something good was in the drawer to drag you here."

  "A file," he said. Then, just to be even more annoying than usual, he didn’t continue.

  "Which file?" I demanded. Instant thoughts of Alastair’s possible innocence in the whole file affair bloomed in my head. Maybe Olivia had taken the Tenpenny, the Starling, and even the Zeller files. Maybe Alastair’s scent on the cabinets was nothing more than his being in the file room to do research.

  "Not one of the main files like the ones in the file room, but sort of a general dossier compiled from various sources," Tobey said, bursting my hopeful balloon of maybes. "A dossier on the watch, on you, and on your parents."

  "Shut up!" I was so shocked I dropped my pastry. "Are you serious?"

  Tobey nodded as he shoveled a bite of food into his mouth. He stole a sip of my juice to wash it down. "They’re alive, I’m pretty sure of it."

  "Pretty sure?"

  "There’s not a single record of their deaths. The very absence of a death record is a sign HQ thinks your parents didn’t die that night. You’ve seen how Magics love their record keeping."

  "Which makes no sense in a world where you can change documents with the flick of a finger." I pulled off a chunk of my pastry and popped it in my mouth. I could almost hear the magic in my cells humming Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy."

  "Want some?" I offered. I mean, he paid for it, I should at least see if he wanted any since his salad couldn’t possibly be satisfying.

  Tobey pulled a face. "No, I don’t eat sugar."

  "That is so wrong," I scoffed. "So very, very wrong. No wonder you can’t do magic." I added an elbow nudge and quick smile to show him I was only teasing.

  "Very funny, Black. Anyway, they can detect changes like that, can’t they?"

  "Yeah, my landlord caught me out. He’s supposedly skilled at such things."

  "Maybe we can have him verify the paperwork at some point, but these reports seem official and I’ve overheard Grandad referring to them more than once to Olivia since we got here. I get the impression they don’t want you to know what they’ve found."

  "No, they don’t." I recalled Alastair bringing me the letter from HQ and telling me he wasn’t supposed to share the information. But he had wanted me to know. So why wasn’t he being more helpful? The whole situation cast storm clouds of doubt about everyone’s motives. "So why do you want me to know? Why are you helping me? No, never mind. I’m sure it’s so I’ll owe you some favor later on."

  The look of angry dismay bit into Tobey’s face for only a few moments during which he slowly and methodically finished off his quinoa and kale salad. Every itty bitty grain of it.

  "Okay," I finally said, "I’m sorry. Go on and tell me what you found out."

  He finally put down his fork and said, "Your parents were last seen in London. They’re thought to still be here somewhere, and if they are, there’s a chance they’re not far from where they were last seen."

  "Which is?" I asked through a mouthful of coronation chicken on wheat bread.

  "There’s mention of a building with close ties to the Tower and within view of the walls. Then there was some reference to ravens, but I didn’t quite get it. Anyway, I’m not sure which building it is exactly." I glared at him. Why tell me this if he didn’t know anything? "It can’t be far, though, because the file says your parents went out on foot that night. Look, you’re smarter than me." That was certainly something I never thought I’d ever hear come out of Tobey Tenpenny’s mouth. Tobey pulled a folded scrap of paper from his shirt pocket and slid it to me. "I copied that from the sheet in the file. I figured you’d be able to sort it out. But if you do, you can’t tell Alastair."

  I hadn’t intended to. First off, I didn’t know if I could talk to Alastair without shouting at him. I mean, he made the damn watch! And hadn’t mentioned it in all the conversations we’d had. Second, even if Alastair agreed with what Tobey had found out, he would probably tell me not to go.

  Still, I am in the habit of being stubborn, and the very fact I was being told not to tell Alastair totally made me want to tell him.

  "Why not? He’s like an ally in all this."

  "Ally," Tobey said critically. "Is that what you think he is?"

  "He wants to help me." And I really wanted that help to be motivated by his caring for me, not by his trying to trick me. "That’s more than a lot of people have done in my life."

  "Don’t be so sure of that. Look, Cassie, I don’t know what that was in the arena, but
keep in mind Alastair and Vivian were close. Very close."

  "As were you. Or does making out in alleyways behind your grandpa’s house not count as close?"

  I chewed the last bite of my sandwich with a satisfied grin on my face as Tobey’s cheeks flared with embarrassment.

  "I’m going to tell you this once and then you have to drop it," he said. "I’m not sure what that was. I mean, now I know it was probably the Mauvais messing with my mind. I was never attracted to her, him, whatever, but that night I just felt pulled in." I made a disgusted face. "What happened between us only happened once, not that it’s any of your business. But she and Alastair were seen speaking together. A lot. Those conversations shut up very quickly when anyone passed by them. And of course, you know of his history with the Mauvais."