by Tim Susman
“You didn’t tell us that.” Emily’s voice regained a little edge.
“It only registered for a moment, and anyway, none of us were going to summon demons there.”
“All right. We can summon them out here, though. I’ll do that and have them keep a watch for either Farley or Victor outside Trippenhuis. Inside, I suppose we can’t do much.”
Kip didn’t answer, even after Malcolm said, “Aye, we need to make sure we have as much protection as we can muster.” He hoped he wouldn’t have to say anything, but Emily noticed his reserve.
“Kip?” she said.
“If you need me to summon a demon,” he said slowly, “then I will. But if you and Malcolm can do it, then I would prefer not to.”
“I know.” Emily sighed. “I wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t important. There was the one you used during the war; do you still know their name?”
“I’ll find one,” Kip said. Only Alice and Captain Lowell knew that he’d promised Nikolon he wouldn’t summon her again and had burned her name out of the book of demon names. Neither of them knew why he’d done that, because he hadn’t told anyone how Nikolon, unbound by the destruction of the Road, had continued to obey his orders and had saved Calatian lives in the process.
He had told Malcolm that he felt less comfortable summoning demons than he had prior to the war, and Malcolm understood his concerns a little, but Kip himself hadn’t worked through all the ramifications of his beliefs. Were all demons capable of empathy? Nikolon had also implied that she’d taken advantage of being unbound to curse Kip, though the only change that might be a demon’s curse was his recurring dream, a patchwork of emotional resonances and sun-drenched places he’d definitely never been, and that hardly felt like a curse.
If everyone started to treat demons as though they were people, would demons take advantage of that? Some demons, certainly, but would all of them? How would you know which ones without taking a dangerous chance? It seemed that it would be impossible to find a working relationship. And yet, demons were so important to the world powers that nobody would ever agree to simply stop summoning them.
This was not the place to have that conversation, so although Emily gave him a long, questioning look, he didn’t elaborate. “Fine,” she said. “If there are demons watching Trippenhuis, I think we are safe there. But outside, we’ll have at least one demon active at all times watching Victor or Farley, and one of our ravens on the students.”
“Ash can watch the students,” Kip said.
“I’ll summon the demon, then.” Malcolm smiled Kip’s way.
Charity, Jorey, and Richard joined them after breakfast, and Emily herded the seven of them out to the street. They spent the short walk to Trippenhuis talking about what they’d seen and what they intended to visit today. The students seemed genuinely excited, and Jorey asked Kip whether he would be able to spend part of the day with him. “It was so helpful yesterday.”
“Of course,” Kip said. “I can walk around with you in the morning. In the afternoon I’m going to meet the Indian sorcerer and talk about bringing him to Peachtree, though.”
“When do we get to meet him?” Charity asked.
“If we convince him to come teach for us, you’ll meet him before we go home.”
They’d arrived at Trippenhuis, and Emily said, “We’ll do our best to bring him along, but that will depend on how Alice and I do today.”
“We believe you can do anything, Headmistress,” Charity said, earning a smile.
They passed an old man who had set up a table in the street across from the corner of Trippenhuis and called out from behind it to the people walking by. “Hear the secrets of Divination!” he said in French-accented English. “Learn the discipline that nobody dares to teach!”
Jorey hurried up to walk beside Kip. “Can he see the future?”
“No,” Kip said. “There are some sorcerers who think they can, but they can’t.”
“Why do they think they can, if they can’t?”
Malcolm laughed shortly. “Dear boy, if you can solve that problem, then the human race, yes, and Calatians too, will be ready to take the next great step forward.”
“I mean…” The squirrel’s nose twitched. “I know when I cast a spell to lift something that it worked because I can see it lifted. If their spells don’t work, why do they think they do?”
“Because when you cast spells predicting the future, you can be very vague,” Kip said.
Alice chimed in as they walked past the table, ignoring the man. “I could predict that you will have lunch today. Or I could predict that at some point in the future, you will eat cheese. But I don’t need to cast a spell to do that.”
“Or,” Kip said, “they predict things like the King of England falling, and whenever it happens, they can say they predicted it.”
Jorey absorbed this. “So they just make everything up?”
“Sometimes so much that they believe it.” Kip gathered all the students in front of him as Emily presented their list of names at the door.
The footman examined Emily’s paper but did not move aside for them. “Ah, my apologies,” he said, “but the birds may not be permitted in the building.”
“What?” Emily’s tone had her raven lift its head, and Ash stirred as well. “They came in with us yesterday.”
“I am aware, ma’am, but they are not allowed inside today.”
“Whyever not?”
“I am sorry, ma’am, I only know they are not allowed inside today. Please.” He gestured to the people waiting behind her.
Kip told Ash to fly up to the roof, and when Emily heard the rustle of wings, she whirled on them. “Don’t—all right,” she said, seeing Corvi still on Malcolm’s shoulder, and turned back to the footman. “Do you see Master O’Brien?”
“Of course I do, ma’am, but—”
“His raven is how he gets around. If you take it away, you’re leaving him with no way to get around, no way to see the exhibits. He might as well not even come in.”
The footman shifted. “I am very sorry, ma’am. You may speak to the director of guests if you care to. He is in the Salon at present. But I cannot allow the birds into the building.”
Malcolm placed a hand on Emily’s shoulder as she took a breath to argue further. “It’s all right,” he said. “I’ll wait out here while you go sort it out.”
“I’ll wait with you,” Kip offered.
“Don’t worry,” Malcolm said. “Out here, I won’t be alone.” He nodded his head toward Corvi.
“All right. But be careful. Ash is up on the roof if you need anything.”
“Thank you, my friend.” Malcolm reached out and shook Kip’s paw, and then stepped back against the wall as Kip, Emily, and Alice—without ravens—entered the building.
Emily disappeared into the Salon, leaving Alice behind, while Kip escorted Jorey around some of the exhibits they hadn’t seen previously, facilitating his conversations but then stepping back to allow the young squirrel to talk by himself. He did well, Kip thought; more forward than Kip himself would have been, but that was good. He asked smart questions and thought about the answers when they were given.
After lunch, Richard and Charity took Jorey off to see some of the exhibits they wanted to talk about before doing their homework, and that left Kip free to talk briefly to Emily. “Did you sort out the business with the ravens?” he asked.
Her expression told him the answer even before she snapped, “No. Someone lodged a complaint, and they say that a raven was used to commit a ‘most grievous violation of privacy,’ and nobody here will tell me who it was. I don’t want to suspect Victor of everything, but—“
“But I did send Ash to follow Farley yesterday.”
“Yes.” Emily sighed and unclenched her fists.
“If I’d known—“
“You couldn’t have. You did the right thing and you should do it again if there’s the chance. They can’t forbid ravens outside the school.�
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Kip nodded. “So is Malcolm coming in?”
“He says there’s little point if he can’t have a raven or a demon to see, and he has a point. I asked him to keep an eye out for Farley and he said he would do that and I didn’t need to invent a task to make him feel useful.” She rolled her eyes. “I think there are things he could learn here, and I told him that we don’t know for sure that demons are forbidden. He said it wasn’t worth the risk.”
“I’ll check on him now and then,” Kip promised.
“Do that. He’ll hate it.” Emily smiled.
“But now I should go make sure Chakrabarti can join me for the afternoon. I’d like you both to meet him.”
“Of course. We’ll be down here. We have a French noblewoman to meet with and then...” She turned to Alice.
“Russians,” Alice said.
“Yes, Russians. Everyone seems at least politely interested to get on the good side of the Americans in one way or another, and that should benefit us even if we are the fifth or tenth best way to do that.”
“In their minds,” Kip said.
“Of course.”
He hugged Alice and kissed her good-bye. “Back in a moment, I hope.”
Chakrabarti was behind his table talking to visitors, but met the fox’s eye and gave a brief nod, so Kip waited until he’d finished and then walked up. “It’s pleasant to see you again,” the Indian sorcerer said, extending his hand.
Kip took it and shook. “The same to you. Are you free to come meet our headmistress?”
“Of course. I look forward to it.” He stepped out from behind the table and walked alongside Kip as the fox returned to the stairs.
They had to wait for Emily and Alice to finish their other appointment, which gave Kip time to answer questions about the Lutris School and to find out that Chakrabarti had asked permission from his headmaster to take some time off to work in America. The school was reviewing his request. “There may be a question of whether the Lutris School will make some kind of gift to compensate for my absence,” he said. “I am sorry about that but it goes according to our traditions.”
“Of course,” Kip said. “We can discuss that with Emily when they’re free.”
At that moment, Emily shook hands with the nobleman and they both stood, He departed a moment later, so Kip and Chakrabarti walked up and took his place.
Kip introduced them, and apart from Chakrabarti asking Emily if it had been difficult for her to take on a man’s job (“it’s a woman’s job now I have it,” Emily replied), everything went rather smoothly. They soon got down to talking about facilities at the Lutris School and compensation, leaving Kip and Alice to sit together with clasped paws and listen.
About thirty minutes into this conversation, an official of the Exposition came into the room and announced that the Athaeneum’s demonstration was about to begin in the large exhibit hall. Fully half the people in the Salon got up to move to the back room.
“Do you know what they’re demonstrating?” Alice asked. “I feel like they told us.”
None of them did. “I would be pleased to accompany you,” Chakrabarti said. “If you care to find out.”
“It depends on how long it takes,” Emily looked at Alice. “The French woman was the best prospect we’ve had yet.”
“The French love us,” Alice said. “I believe we could go see for a short time. It would be nice to be able to talk about it with our hosts, should they ask.”
“Very true.” Emily rose. “All right, let’s go see what it’s about.”
Despite the warnings, they had to stand for almost half an hour before the demonstration actually began. As soon as the curtain rose, the crowd quieted, and Kip knew what the Dutch masters were going to demonstrate. Next to a Dutch sorcerer on the stage stood a weasel-Calatian, eyes downcast to the wood of the platform. Kip didn’t know him specifically, but he was clearly a calyx, and so: “They’re going to summon a demon,” he murmured.
“What?” Chakrabarti sounded more startled than Kip had yet heard him.
“He’s got a calyx up there,” Kip said. “They’re going to show off their calyx magic. What’s the most flashy calyx magic? Demon summoning.”
“That’s right,” Alice said. “One of the nobles mentioned it yesterday. I’d forgotten until now.”
“This is not good.” Chakrabarti pressed his fingertips together.
“Why not?” Kip asked. “Because of the binding?”
“The summoning of spirits is forbidden in India,” the other sorcerer said. “It is considered to be blasphemous.”
“To Hindus?”
“To all faiths!” Chakrabarti bowed his head. “My apologies. I understand that it is a practice in the British Empire and in other European countries. If I were to come to America, I would restrain my objections to the practice, though I hope I would not be asked to cast such a spell myself.”
“Of course not,” Emily said. “Honestly, we don’t summon demons very much anymore.”
“But may I ask why it’s blasphemous?” Alice asked, which Kip had wanted to ask but didn’t feel comfortable enough to.
“Spirits exist beyond the world we know, and some are gods,” Chakrabarti said. “It is as if you could cast a spell that would summon your God to manifest in your presence and follow your commands. Would you do that, or would your Church prevent you?”
“The Church would prevent us,” Kip said, “although they don’t seem to mind the raising of demons.”
Chakrabarti had calmed. “Your church believes in only one god. We believe in hundreds. When there are many, who can say whether a spirit from another world might be a god or might not? The great Hiravijay Suri said, ‘Do not trouble another living being from its home, be it the smallest insect or greatest spirit.’ We sorcerers do not all follow his religion, but his work on the spirit world is unmatched in our history. There is one sect that believes even sorcery itself to be immoral as they say that our power is drawn from the spirit world and the act of drawing it may harm the spirits there.” He bowed. “If you will excuse me, I would prefer not to watch this.”
Kip was certain that the weasel on stage had seen him and was continuing to avoid his gaze, so he was happy to leave along with Chakrabarti. Emily likewise had little desire to see a demon summoned, but Alice wanted to wait and see if anything went wrong. She remained behind while the others returned to the Salon.
7
Spectacle
Back in the Salon, Chakrabarti apologized for his “outburst,” which Kip thought rather an exaggeration. “I knew when I came here that we might be witness to a summoning,” the Indian sorcerer said. “I do not know why I was not prepared to see it thrust in front of me on a grand stage, something to be admired.”
“The Dutch only got calyxes two years ago,” Emily said. “They have an interest in showing off to the great powers that they know how to use them. This is a very political demonstration.” She looked around the Salon and gestured to the Dutch flags hanging in the corners. “This whole Exposition is very political, come to that.”
“Yes,” Chakrabarti agreed. “We were pleased to be invited. Quite often, European interest in India is limited to what spices we can trade them, or what gems they can take from us.”
“But don’t you have sorcery?” Kip asked. “Surely they can’t just come in and take things.”
“There are more ways to take over a country than by force.” Chakrabarti laced his fingers together and looked down over his mustache. “I have told you how the East India Trading Company has insinuated itself into our government. Now its directors are consulted on some government decisions. Presents are made to them of the sort one would give to neighboring maharajas. I would not be at all surprised to return to India and find that one of the East India Company directors has been given an official station in our government.”
“That doesn’t seem right.” Emily frowned.
“Their money raises them to those levels,” Chakrabarti sai
d. “Many of us worry about where it will go. Your revolution has been an inspiration, and yet perhaps the British have learned from it too. There has been no destruction of a college, not even an act of violence, so if we were to begin a conflict, we would be the aggressors. In addition, India is made up of many many states, who would all have to agree to work together. The ones who do not get money from East India Company are very keen to attack. The ones who are rich, they are not so interested. And there are remote states who do not care.”
“We are starting to have some of those problems,” Emily said. “Each of our states was once a colony with its own government and people, and they want to preserve that identity, but we also know that none of us is strong enough to be a force in the world alone.”
Chakrabarti nodded. “This is one reason I would like very much to travel to America. I think there is much we can learn from you. But more than that, I have lived in Calcutta my whole life, and only visited a few of the states that make up India. This travel, to Amsterdam, is the first time I have been to Europe. I would like to see more of the world, and not only see it, but understand it. To understand a place, you must live there.”
“Lucky for us,” Kip said with a smile.
“Oh.” Chakrabarti turned to him. “I believe that if you asked my colleagues, half of them would give the same answer. Many of them wished very much to come with me, but I told them that a healer was what you were looking for. Still.” He turned to Emily. “Should you wish to add more sorcerers, I can recommend some.”
She laughed shortly. “That’s good to know. Right now we have only enough money to bring on one healer, perhaps two, and those are our greatest need. We have physical sorcerers, alchemical, and translocational, but—” She met Kip’s eye. “No spiritual.”
“Spiritual sorcerers are very important.” Chakrabarti leaned forward and spoke earnestly. “I am not trained in many advanced spiritual techniques, but our spiritual sorcerers are used often to help protect government officials, preside at public meetings, and raise the spirits of armies.”