A Matter of Magic

by Patricia C. Wrede

  Orange light flared from the crystal globe, and Renée D’Auber’s voice filled the wagon. “My friend, there are things that you must know, and even this means of communication is not entirely safe. I will meet you two hours before the time I told your young companion, in the hollow below the oak hill southwest of Ranton Hill. Do not fail me in this.”

  Slowly the orange light faded. Mairelon stood motionless, staring down into the crystal, even after the last of the light was gone. Kim twisted to get a better look at his face and realized that he was not looking at the globe in front of him. His eyes were focused on empty air, and he was frowning.

  Kim cleared her throat, then cleared it again. Mairelon did not respond. At last she said loudly, “Hey! Is that all?”

  “What?” Mairelon said, then shook his head and turned to look reproachfully at Kim. “Don’t ever interrupt a wizard in the middle of a spell, Kim. Magic requires a great deal of concentration, and breaking it can be very dangerous.”

  “I wasn’t interrupting a spell,” Kim said. “You were just thinkin’, far as I could see.”

  Mairelon blinked and glanced at the crystal. Then he rolled it to one side and picked up Renée’s letter. He stood staring at it for a moment, tapping it gently against his left hand, until Kim was afraid he was going to go back into a brown study. She tried to clear her throat again and started coughing in earnest as she inhaled something the wrong way.

  This attracted Mairelon’s full attention at last, though his first inclination was to proffer cups of water instead of explanations. As soon as Kim got her breath back, she pushed the cup away and demanded, “What was it that was takin’ you such a lot of thinkin’ on? You ain’t goin’ to meet that gentry mort like she says to, are you?”

  “Meet Renée? Of course I’m going to,” Mairelon said. He looked down at the note, which he had still not read, and his frown returned. “I was just wondering why she chose that particular place.”

  “What particular place?” Kim said, exasperated.

  “The hollow by the oak hill where those ridiculous ‘druids’ had their ceremony the other night,” Mairelon said. “Feeling more the thing? Good, because we’re going to have a busy evening. I want to get a good look at that hollow while there’s still light, and after that—well, we’ll see. Come along.” He was out the door of the wagon before Kim could respond.

  “Hunch ain’t goin’ to like this,” Kim muttered as she climbed to her feet.

  “Isn’t,” Mairelon’s voice corrected. A moment later his head reappeared in the open doorway. “And since Hunch isn’t here, it doesn’t matter. Bring the lamp and the little sack in the corner; I may want them.” The head disappeared once more.

  Kim rolled her eyes, picked up the lamp and the sack Mairelon had indicated, and started after him.

  16

  For the rest of the afternoon, Kim and Mairelon tramped through the wood at the foot of the druids’ hill, peering under bushes and up into trees. Kim had only the vaguest idea what they were looking for, but after several attempts to pry an explanation out of Mairelon she gave up and simply copied him. Half-remembered warnings about mantraps and poachers made her move warily, but she found nothing. Mairelon seemed to do no better than she had, but he was preoccupied on the walk back to the wagon, and Kim was positive he had noticed something she hadn’t.

  At Mairelon’s insistence, Kim spent the evening working on her lessons. Her fingers were growing more used to the moves and twists that made coins seem to vanish from one hand and appear in the other, and she had mastered the art of tying knots that slid apart when the proper bit of rope was pulled, but she was not doing nearly so well at reading. She pored over the stubborn little black marks for hours, muttering to herself, while Mairelon prowled restlessly up and down the wagon. Once she ventured a question about his meeting with Renée, but he was so completely uninformative at such length that she did not try again.

  Mairelon was up at dawn the next morning, blundering around the limited space inside the wagon in a way that made sleep impossible for anyone else. Kim tried muffling her head under the blanket, but it was no good. Finally she gave up and rose, yawning, to see whether breakfast was one of the things Mairelon had been getting ready during his annoying rambles.

  It wasn’t. Kim had to make the porridge herself, which did not improve her mood. Her irritation increased further when she noticed that Mairelon had put on his flash togs, rather than his smock or stage clothes, to go to his meeting with Renée. He looked very well in them, which somehow annoyed Kim even more. To top things off, she didn’t do much better with the porridge than Mairelon had the day before. “I’ll be glad when Hunch gets back,” she muttered as she spooned the lumpy grey mixture into her bowl.

  “What? Not already!” Mairelon said. He glanced around hastily, then turned a reproachful expression on Kim. “Don’t scare me like that.”

  Kim stared at him in complete bewilderment. “What’re you talking about?”

  “I thought you said that Hunch was back,” Mairelon explained.

  “No, I said I’d be glad when he was,” Kim said. Then, in response to Mairelon’s skeptical expression, she added, “So we can get some better grub.”

  “Oh.” Mairelon looked thoughtful. “You have a point. Perhaps we should dine at the inn tonight if Hunch hasn’t arrived by then. I rather hope he hasn’t.”

  “Why? Hunch cooks better than that fat cove,” Kim said.

  “If Hunch gets here today, it’ll be because he’s in a hurry,” Mairelon answered. “And he’ll only hurry if he thinks Shoreham’s information is important. I’d prefer not to have any startling news about any of the people connected with the Saltash Platter. Or its copy.”

  Kim mulled that over while she finished her porridge. She scraped the last few lumps from the sides of her bowl and surreptitiously shook them off her spoon and onto the ground beside the steps where she was sitting. She scowled down at the bowl, dropped her spoon into it with a muffled clink, and said, “We ought to leave if you want to be the first one at that hill.”

  “Yes,” Mairelon said. “Thank you for reminding me.” He rose and brushed at his pants, as if to dispose of nonexistent crumbs. “Practice that handkerchief trick while I’m gone; you still haven’t got the last twist right.”

  “You ain’t leavin’ me here!” Kim said incredulously.

  “I most certainly am,” Mairelon replied. “When Renée says alone, she means alone. I shouldn’t be long.”

  “You shouldn’t be goin’ at all,” Kim told him. “And you particularly shouldn’t be goin’ alone. What if that druid cull shows up wavin’ his pops, the way he did the other night?”

  Mairelon looked amused. “Jonathan Aberford? I doubt that he’s even out of bed at this hour, much less wandering about in the woods with a pistol.”

  “How do you know? He’s dicked in the nob, if you ask me, and there ain’t no knowing what notions a Bedlamite’ll get.”

  “All the more reason for you to stay here,” Mairelon said. To Kim’s indignation, he still looked more diverted than concerned. “If he shows up, you can bar the wagon door. No more arguments, Kim, if you please. You’re not coming, and that’s that.”

  “It don’t please me at all,” Kim muttered, but she could see that Mairelon was determined, and she knew from experience that once he took a notion, he was stubborn as a costermonger defending his route through the market. She sat and glowered at him while he straightened his jacket and brushed his hat, but she did not make any further remarks until he had disappeared into the woods. Then she burst out, “Bubblebrained, pigheaded, sapskulled gull! Muttonheaded flat! Nod-cock. Goosecap. It’d serve him well enough if I up and followed him. Bufflehead. Shab—”

  She stopped suddenly, staring at the place where Mairelon had vanished. She could follow him, as easy as not. She scrambled to her feet, then hesitated, considering. Mairelon was a wizard, and in spite of the abuse she had just been showering on him, Kim had to admit that he
was sharp as two needles. That ginger-pated D’Auber mort was a wizard, too, and she had a powerful reputation. She was foreign into the bargain, and therefore unpredictable. What would they do if they caught Kim spying on them?

  The thought gave Kim a moment’s pause. Then she shrugged. She’d just have to make sure they didn’t catch her, that was all. Stay hid and sherry off if they looked like suspecting anything. It was no different from being on the sharping lay in London. And if there was trouble, Mairelon would excuse her obstinacy in following him. Besides, given Mairelon’s idea of “explanation,” there was no other way she could be sure of finding out what happened at the meeting.

  That decided her. She threw some dirt on the fire, kicked her bowl under the steps of the wagon, and started off. She did not take the same route as Mairelon had, but cut sideways up to the road. After all, she knew where he was going. There was no point in risking discovery by sticking too close.

  The road was dry enough for comfortable walking, and there was no sign of approaching vehicles, but Kim, remembering her experience the day before, stuck to the far edge anyway. “What am I doing?” she asked herself as she trudged along. “Goin’ off to spy on a couple of frog-makers? I must be madder than he is!” But she continued walking in spite of her misgivings.

  The sound of hooves and the rattle of a carriage brought Kim out of her reverie. Glancing up, she saw a landau coming briskly toward her from the direction of Ranton Hill. She sighed and angled down the verge, hoping that the driver would not pay any heed to a shabby boy heading into town. When she looked up again, the carriage had slowed and begun to turn down the lane that led to the druids’ meeting place. It was close enough now to give Kim a clear view of the occupants, and she nearly choked trying to smother an exclamation. Lady Granleigh sat stiffly erect in the rear seat, while her brother Jasper made shift with his back to the horses. The driver was the heavyset Stuggs, and he was frowning in evident concentration as he tried to maneuver the landau around the corner.

  “This is the outside of enough!” Lady Granleigh said in a carrying voice as the landau lurched forward. “On our return, you will drive, Jasper.”

  “Really, Amelia, I don’t see why you think I’ll do any better than Stuggs,” Jasper replied. “I’m no Corinthian. You should have let me bring the coachman.”

  “You are, at least, a gentleman,” Lady Granleigh said firmly. “And the fewer who are aware of this excursion, the better. Since you have seen fit to confide in this . . . person, we have no choice but to utilize his admittedly second-rate skills. And I must say, Jasper, that I think you could have found someone with more ability if you had only applied yourself properly.”

  The landau lurched again and rolled reluctantly into the lane, and Lady Granleigh’s complaints were lost among the trees. Kim shook off her paralysis and sprinted forward. That skinny toff and his sister were trouble, whatever their lay was, but Kim was willing to bet sixpence that they’d be a particularly whacking great lot of trouble if they found Mairelon and Renée D’Auber at the druid hill. Fortunately, the lane was rough and curving, and with Stuggs driving they wouldn’t make good time. Kim might, just possibly, get to the hill first with a warning if she ran.

  She didn’t manage it. The uneven ground, the constant need to dodge inconveniently placed trees, and the thin branches of the young trees and brush that whipped her face, all combined to slow her more than she would have believed. As she neared the hill, she heard voices ahead of her and cursed under her breath. In London she would have gotten there in plenty of time.

  Kim slowed and began to pick her way with more care. It would do Mairelon no good at all if she made too much noise and Jasper or Stuggs discovered her. She reached the fringe of bushes below the hill and started working her way toward the voices. As she came around to the far side, she heard Jasper’s voice with sudden clarity, saying, “—question is, who are you?”

  “Tell him to come down here, where we can talk without shouting, Jasper,” Lady Granleigh put in imperiously.

  As Jasper repeated his sister’s command, Kim stopped and peered through the bushes. Lady Granleigh and her brother were standing at the foot of the hill. Stuggs was a little behind them; beyond, the landau and horses were a sketchy outline between trees. The dark bulk of the druids’ lodge was barely visible, though Kim knew from yesterday’s explorations that it was only a few steps from the hill.

  Mairelon was sitting on the ground halfway up the hill, careless of the damage his fine clothes must be suffering. His face was in shadow and Kim could not make out his expression, but his pose conveyed polite but bored attention.

  “Well?” Jasper said when Mairelon did not reply. “Who are you?”

  “No, no,” Mairelon said. “I asked you first. I also, if you recall, asked how you found this place and what you intend to do here, and you haven’t told me that, either.”

  “We might ask you the same thing,” Jasper retorted.

  “You might, but I don’t recommend it,” Mairelon said. “You’ll get a reputation as a poor conversationalist if all you can do is repeat what other people say to you.”

  “This is absurd,” Lady Granleigh said. “Tell us who you are and what you’re doing here, or be off about your business. I haven’t time to waste on this nonsense.”

  Mairelon rose to his feet and bowed. “It is impossible to refuse such a charming request. My name is de Mare, and I’m here by way of guarding the Sacred Hill.”

  Jasper and Lady Granleigh looked at each other. Behind them, Stuggs stiffened, and Kim saw his right hand rise toward his chest, as if to touch something underneath his coat for reassurance. Kim frowned. Mairelon had done a perfect imitation of Jonathan Aberford’s tone, and both Jasper and his sister seemed to recognize the phrasing. Stuggs’s reaction was more difficult to interpret, and more ominous.

  “Well, you can go along now,” Jasper told Mairelon grandly. “Jonathan Aberford said—”

  “If I may speak with you a moment, Jasper,” Lady Granleigh interrupted.

  Jasper turned his head and glared at her.

  “Now, Jasper,” Lady Granleigh said with unruffled calm. Without waiting for him to respond, she turned and walked straight toward the bushes where Kim was hiding. Kim froze. She was certain she hadn’t been seen yet, but if she tried to move now, Lady Granleigh would spot her for sure.

  Lady Granleigh stopped a few steps short of the bush and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her brother to join her.

  “What are you playing at, Amelia?” Jasper said irritably. “And what are we going to do now? Burn it, Miss Thornley never said anything about a guard!”

  “Marianne is far too innocent to think of such a thing, and Frederick Meredith was clearly too shatter-brained to mention it,” Lady Granleigh replied. “You should have talked to him yourself, Jasper, instead of leaving it to Marianne.”

  “That was your idea! You were the one who said Meredith would tell more to a pretty face. I never liked the idea of letting my fiancée empty the butter pot over that nod-cock, and so I told you.”

  “Miss Thornley isn’t your fiancée yet, Jasper, and you’d do well to remember that before you take that tone with me,” Lady Granleigh said. “If you want my help in winning her—and her fortune—you will have to earn it. I must point out that so far you have been precious little help.”

  “How do you expect me to help when you ruin everything I try to do?” Jasper waved his arms indignantly. “I was about to get rid of that fellow so we could go ahead with your precious scheme, only you stopped me.”

  “You were about to make yet another muddle, you mean.” Lady Granleigh shook her head. “Really, Jasper, sometimes I despair of your intelligence. Don’t you see that Mr. de Mare’s presence changes everything?”

  “No, I do not,” Jasper said. “If we could just persuade him to go away—”

  “He would remember us, and when the platter was found, he would connect us with its reappearance. That could be very
awkward for us.”

  “Well, what do you think we should do?” Jasper asked in a sullen tone.

  “We shall give Mr. de Mare the platter,” Lady Granleigh answered serenely.

  “What?!” Jasper all but shrieked the word, and both Mairelon and Stuggs turned interested eyes in his direction. Jasper scowled back at them and lowered his voice. “Amelia, have you gone mad?”

  “Do you want to have Jonathan Aberford lurking about Bramingham Place for the remainder of our stay?”

  “No, but—”

  “Can you suggest some other way we might be rid of him?”

  “We’ve already been over this, and you know I haven’t. But you just told me a minute ago why we can’t give this de Mare fellow the platter!”

  “I explained why we cannot simply leave the platter here for Mr. Aberford and his friends to find, as we had originally planned,” Lady Granleigh corrected him. “If you had been listening, or thinking, you would have understood. Presenting the package to Mr. de Mare is another matter entirely.”

  “I don’t see how. He’s bound to remember us, and you already said that that would be awkward.”

  Lady Granleigh sighed. “The platter is well wrapped, tied up, and addressed to Mr. Jonathan Aberford. If we tell Mr. de Mare that a young man, whom we took to be one of Henry Bramingham’s friends, gave us the parcel in town and asked us to deliver it here, it will not matter whether he remembers us. Once they discover that the platter is a forgery, Mr. Aberford and his friends will look for the mysterious young man, if they look for anyone at all. You and I will be mere innocent go-betweens.”

  “And how are you going to explain it if anyone asks why Miss Thornley was prying into Meredith’s business?”

  “I shall say that she finds him interesting,” Lady Granleigh replied. She frowned slightly. “I shall have to see that she continues to spend time in his company for the next day or two. After that, it will not be thought wonderful if she tires of him.”