‘Stop by Zareen’s on your way down,’ added Milady. ‘You will find her reasonably well-informed already.’
‘This is not what I had in mind when I joined the Society,’ said Jay a short while later.
We were huddled up in Zareen’s tiny cubbyhole of a room, what we colloquially call the Toil and Trouble division. We were sharing the chocolate three ways, Zareen in her big chair with her feet on the desk, Jay and I perching on the edges of the latter.
‘You thought it would be straightforward, did you?’ said Zareen, without much sympathy.
‘It was when my parents worked here,’ he said, rather defensively.
‘Division?’ said Zareen.
‘Enchantments, and Beasts.’
Zareen waved a hand dismissively. ‘Tame stuff. Welcome to Acquisitions and Research. Much more fun.’
‘Much more confusing,’ said Jay.
I felt some sympathy for him, I really did. He was the type to prefer to play by the rules. It made him feel better. What was he supposed to do with a job where the rules changed by the day, and where you could be officially (unofficially) ordered to ignore them all? He wasn’t going to find it easy.
‘We’ll make a maverick of you yet,’ I said to him, with a reassuring pat to his shoulder.
‘Great,’ he muttered.
‘So let’s get this straight,’ said Zareen, finishing her chocolate with an appreciative slurp and setting her empty cup upon the desk. ‘We’re to sort of found our own Society splinter group, independent of Milady’s authority or influence, with some degree of help from supposed rogue agents within the Society. I’m to make George believe we’ve gone rebel, in case Ancestria wants to take another shot at recruiting us, and if they do, we’re to find out what they know about the Spire — and anything else we can dig up, too. Oh, and if we can manage to find out how the Spire worked, and whether there are any more functional examples left in the world, then we get bonus points.’
‘That’s pretty much it,’ I said. ‘Oh — if we can find another Dappledok pup, too, Miranda will love us forever. She wants a breeding pair.’
‘The Ministry might have let us keep the current one, but they’ll never go for our having a breeding pair.’
‘Milady will talk them round. Or ignore them.’
Jay snorted.
Zareen silently checked about twelve things off on her fingers. ‘Right. Easy,’ she said, with a roll of her eyes, and reached for her phone.
‘So how do you know George Mercer?’ I put in, as she waited for whoever it was to pick up.
‘Met him at the School of Weird.’
‘The what?’
‘The Seminary for the Stranger Arts. Already an adorable euphemism. They mean the Dark and Dire Arts of course, but nobody quite went for that title for some reason. The students call it the School of Weird. Oh,’ she said then into her phone. ‘Hi, darling. We need to talk. Usual place? Great. Tonight, eight o’clock.’ She hung up.
‘George?’ I guessed.
She nodded.
So much for little real contact between them. But then, Milady had probably known that. Zar didn’t hobnob with George Mercer in the same way that she and Jay and I were in no way sallying forth to disobey all the Ministry’s sternest orders with Milady’s semi-official sanction.
‘Excellent,’ I said to Zareen. ‘Can we come?’
‘No.’
‘Please?’
A pause, and a glare from Zareen. ‘Oh, fine,’ she said, capitulating with a sigh. ‘I never could resist the Ves puppy eyes for long.’
I grinned smugly. ‘I know.’
End Notes
Thank you for reading The Striding Spire! Want to read on? The next episode, The Fifth Britain, is out now! Click here to pick up your copy from your favourite shop.
This is episode three of Modern Magick, a web serial. If you would like to keep up with the story as it goes along, you can read a chapter a week (for free) at: http://www.modernmagick.net.
Or if you would like to be the first to know when the next episode is released in ebook, sign up for my email newsletter at http://www.charlotteenglish.com/newsletter You’ll also get a free book or two!
Find me online:
Website: www.charlotteenglish.com.
Twitter:@charlottenglish
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CharlotteEEnglish
Instagram: charlottenglish
The Striding Spire Page 14