“The children can tell her that they walked to her house,” Elaine said. “We can use a simple spell to make sure they stick to that story, no matter what she does. They’d know the truth, of course, but they wouldn’t be able to tell.”
“I suppose,” Cass said, reluctantly.
Johan felt his stomach growl. He rose, then stalked through to the kitchen and hunted for bacon and eggs. The preservation spells were starting to flicker, something that bothered him more than he cared to admit. Had he damaged them when he’d attacked the house – had it really been only a week ago? – or had Charity not managed to take them over properly after their father had been rendered powerless? He retrieved the bacon carefully, eyed it sharply, then decided it was probably safe to eat. Placing it on the pan, he lit a match and started to cook.
“That smells divine,” Daria said, as she stepped into the kitchen. “Do you need any help?”
“Just get the last of the bread out of the breadbox,” Johan said. “I thought you were arguing with Cass.”
“We hashed out a plan,” Daria said. She opened the breadbox, then pulled out the bread and dropped it on a plate. “Are you making enough for all of us?”
“I’m cooking the last of the food,” Johan said. “Elaine would probably be furious if I refused to feed the brats, wouldn’t she?”
“I wouldn’t get her angry,” Daria agreed. “You do realise she still has problems with darkness? I recall she used to use a nightlight when she was in the Peerless School. The little bitches used to make fun of her for not embracing the shadows.”
It took Johan a moment to realise what she meant. “And to think I thought my father was bad,” he muttered. “But I would have happily traded places.”
“So would she, I think,” Daria said. She gave him a reproving look. “And while the children might have been brats to you, they remain children.”
“I know,” Johan muttered. He eyed the frying pan, doubtfully. There were only twelve strips of bacon left in the house, as far as he’d been able to tell. Charity hadn’t thought about replenishing their food supplies since becoming the house’s mistress. “I think we would have enough for one plate each, but there won’t be seconds.”
He cracked open the first egg, then let it drop into the pan and watched as it started to fry. “Is it wrong of me to dwell so much on the past?”
Daria shrugged. “Werewolves – born werewolves – grow up in a pack,” she said. “I can’t say there was anything particularly bad about my childhood, save for discovering that we were often feared and hated by particularly stupid people. But then, they did have problems with made werewolves, so it was quite hard to blame them.”
Johan cracked the second egg. “Really?”
“My parents were strict, but fair,” Daria added. “Your parents, from what you say, played favourites, while Elaine grew up without parents. Both of you are pretty screwed up by your experiences.”
“Maybe I should just ask to be bitten,” Johan muttered. He scraped the eggs out of the pan and dropped them on a plate, then added bread and bacon. “I could join the packs and ...”
“And lose much of your connection to human civilisation,” Daria said, sharply. “There’s always a price tag.”
“Always,” Johan echoed. “But isn’t that always the case?”
He shoved the plate at her. “Take this to the brats, then come down; I should have your eggs and bacon ready by then. Unless they turn you into something, of course.”
“I think Cass had a few words with them,” Daria said. “They’ll behave themselves.”
Johan shrugged, but held his tongue.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Elaine eyed herself doubtfully in the mirror, then cast the spell. Her hair turned black, her face paled and her shirt and trousers became a long black dress, matching her dark eyes, but slit down the side to expose her long legs. After a moment, her breasts grew out, straining against her dress.
“Oh, very sweet,” Cass said, clapping her hands. “I like it!”
“I look awful,” Elaine said. “This ... this ... is what passes for fashion in the Golden City these days?”
“The Secret Grand Masters of Fashion decree it to be so,” Cass said. “This style only came in a week or so ago.”
“These Secret Grand Masters are all men, aren’t they?” Elaine asked. She looked down at the glamour, then shook her head in bitter amusement. “And is it wise to be walking around wearing this when the city is occupied by women-hating soldiers?”
“As long as I am with you, it should be safe,” Cass said, briskly. “I’m disguised as a Great Lady, after all.”
Elaine sighed, then carefully anchored the glamour in place. It had taken her half an hour to craft the spell, ensuring that any sorcerer who happened to check the glamour would conclude that it was nothing more than a cosmetic spell designed to make her eyes look inhumanly large and dark. No one should look at it and be able to tell that it was actually a full-body disguise, at least not without cancelling the spell completely. And if that happened, she would have more problems to worry about than her appearance.
She checked the spell one final time, then strode out of the door and into the living room and placed her hands on her hips. Daria snickered, rudely; Johan stared, then looked away, clearly embarrassed. Elaine tasted the confusing mix of emotions running through his mind and shivered, inwardly. Johan knew she was using a glamour to hide her face, that there was nothing real in the glamour at all, and yet he was still attracted to it. She kept her own expression under tight control as she placed a similar although masculine glamour on him, then Daria. No one would be able to recognise either of them under the spell.
“Just remember you’re my bratty teenage children,” Cass said, as she entered the room. Her appearance had changed too; her hair was still blonde, but her face was clearly older and wiser ... and gave off a very definite impression, to Elaine’s eyes, that she was definitely not someone to mess with. “But do try to behave yourselves.”
Elaine shivered as she looked away. Cass reminded her, far too much, of some of the aristocratic or wealthy women who would come to the orphanage, looking – shopping – for children to take home. They’d all had the same air of arrogance, of knowing that their money could get them whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. She knew, now, that most of them had little real power, but it didn’t make the memories any easier to bear. If one of them had chosen her, she could have grown up somewhere – anywhere – other than the orphanage.
“I’ll be a terrible brat,” Daria said. She reached out and elbowed Elaine, then grinned at her mischievously. “Mum! My sister just elbowed me!”
“Do that in public and everyone will laugh at you,” Cass said, darkly. “And we really don’t want people paying too much attention to us.”
She turned, then motioned for the three children to enter the room. The girls looked nervous, understandably so. Elaine drew her wand, carefully ran through the spell in her head, then cast it before any of the children could object. Their eyes glazed over, for a long moment, then returned to normal. None of them looked happy, but it was hard to feel sorry for them after her nightmares. She’d seen far too much of how Johan had been treated as a child.
And what would you have been like, she asked herself guiltily, if you had had your magic when you were a young child?
“Gather round, children,” Cass ordered. “Stay behind me, don’t call attention to yourselves and don’t talk to anyone, unless addressed first. Refer any questions you might get to me. Do not try to lie unless pushed – and then stick only to the basics. Don’t give them anything they can use to hang you.”
Elaine had to fight to conceal her amusement. Cass knew a great deal about being lied to – and she’d given them a long lecture on how best to conceal the truth. It was best, she’d explained, to stick to a simple story ... and to say nothing more than the bare minimum, when asked a question. The more someone said, she’d warned, the easi
er it was for an outsider to pick the story apart, piece by piece. One flaw would be enough to tear the whole edifice of lies apart, revealing the truth.
Cass gave the children a long look, then nodded to Jolie. The oldest girl unfurled a note and passed it to Cass, who read it quickly and then placed it on the table. It would tell Charity where to find her siblings, when – if – she came home. Elaine had never had sisters, as far as she knew, but she was surprised that Charity hadn’t shown more concern for her younger siblings. Maybe the oaths Deferens had made her swear had forced her to put him before everything else ...
Or maybe she’s scared of attracting his attention to the girls, she thought, as Cass opened the door. Deferens would not treat them very kindly.
She pushed the thought aside as she stepped out into the open air. It was bitterly cold, with a faint stench of bad magic – very bad magic – hanging in the air. There was no point in trying to cast a spell to ward it off, she knew; the stench was so pervasive that even mundanes could probably sense it. Snow lay on the ground, making her smile; in the distance, she could see children throwing snowballs at one another, laughing and cheering despite the shadow that had fallen over the city. They were probably wealthy or magical children, she decided; their parents wouldn’t be afraid of a few soldiers. Even Deferens would think twice before making enemies of every magician in the city.
“It’s cold,” Johan muttered. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. “Can you use a heating spell?”
“Done,” Elaine said, casting the charm. “Did you ever play in the snow as a child?”
“Not here,” Johan said. “And I stopped when Jamal started enchanting snowmen to chase us around the house.”
Elaine shook her head, then looked at the houses as Cass led them down the street. They were made of stone, quarried from the mountains, but would they stand up to the cold when the snow fell deeper and deeper? Or what about the poorer houses in the city? Could the families who lived there afford to warm themselves? She had a sudden mental vision of the entire city buried beneath the snow, if only because it didn’t seem to be melting very quickly, if at all. They might wake up one day and discover they were trapped under the snow.
“We were planning to start bringing in emergency supplies,” she muttered. “But I don’t think Deferens will give a damn.”
“Probably not,” Johan agreed. He would have seen her memories of Deferens, even if he’d never met the man face-to-face. “What did you have in mind?”
A handful of older boys, all in their late teens, ran past, a couple wolf-whistling at Elaine and Daria. Cass lifted her wand and fired a handful of itching curses after them, while Daria snorted and Elaine blushed. It was the first time in her life anyone had ever wolf-whistled at her, even though it was just a glamour. But at least it proved that the glamour was working.
They stopped outside House Lakeside and inspected it, for a long moment. The building was old enough to date back to the first Grand Sorcerer, warded with enough protections to stave off the wardcrafters for several days. It definitely looked inhabited, Elaine decided, although she wasn’t entirely sure. In hindsight, perhaps it had been a mistake not to build up a power base of her own. She could have met Lady Lakeside socially, perhaps even made a genuine friendship. But she’d been too shy and intimidated to try.
“Good luck, brats,” Johan growled.
Elaine elbowed him, sharply, as the children ran up the steps, triggering the wards that would alert the occupants that they had guests. Cass led them all out of sight, then waited; moments later, Elaine heard the door open and a brief snatch of conversation, mercifully incoherent at her distance. The door closed; Cass walked back to check, then returned to tell them that the girls were safe. Lady Lakeside wouldn’t mistreat them, not when they were too young to be anything other than chips in the eternal game of power. Besides, with Charity at the Emperor’s right hand, it would be dangerous. It was far more likely that Lady Lakeside would return them to their sister, then claim a favour in return.
Johan strode onwards, his thoughts dark and contemplative. Elaine wondered, absently, if something was wrong with all three of the older Conidian children. Jamal had been a bullying bastard – she knew the type all too well – while both Johan and Charity showed a striking lack of concern for their younger siblings. Johan, at least, was understandable; he’d been mistreated, to the point where it would be hard to blame him for not wanting to have anything to do with them. But Charity ... she must have sworn oaths that put her new master ahead of her family. It was the only explanation that made sense.
Unless she’s interested in nothing more than power, Elaine thought. That makes sense too.
The streets began to get more crowded as they walked back towards the Peerless School, although she couldn’t help noticing that most of the people on the streets were either men or heavily-escorted women. There were almost no young girls at all, save for a handful of five or six-year-old children, wearing male clothes. Elaine winced inwardly, then said a silent prayer that the soldiers never realised the children were actually girls. The wearing of men’s clothes by women was utterly forbidden in their homeland. It tipped the natural order of the world upside down.
Or so they say, Elaine thought. And how much of that owes something to the Witch-King?
She slowed as they entered the market street, then frowned as she saw the lines of people gathered in front of the handful of opened stalls. It looked like a budding riot was well underway, she thought, as she heard a handful of men shouting at the stall-keeper. The man, it seemed, had taken advantage of the food shortage to jack up his prices, charging easily two or three times the standard price for everything from eggs to fresh fruit and vegetables. Cass led them past the stall hastily, then past a line of closed stalls, still covered in snow. Behind her, she heard the sounds of a fight breaking out. She glanced back, just in time to see the stall-keeper knocked to the ground, blood staining the snow where he fell. His assailants ravaged the stall of everything edible, then marched off, dividing it up amongst themselves as they left.
“The shortage of food will only make tempers flare,” Cass said, quietly. “And they say civilisation is only one or two missed meals from collapse.”
Elaine shuddered. It had been bad enough going hungry at the orphanage – but it would be worse, she was sure, if she had a husband and children to feed. If she hadn’t had magic, she knew, she would have been kicked out of the orphanage at sixteen, perhaps with a useful skill like sewing or knitting. Maybe she would have married, maybe she would have had children ... only to be forced to watch them starve, as the first snowfall in centuries drifted over the Golden City. How long would it have been before she started thinking about stealing, just to feed her brood?
“Come on,” Cass said. “We don’t want to be here when the soldiers arrive.”
She led them down a side-street, past a bookstore that was also under siege. This time, the crowd wanted books. Elaine stared in disbelief, then realised, to her horror, that they were planning to burn the books to keep themselves warm. The thought was utterly horrific; thankfully, the shopkeeper was a magician and had used wards to keep his merchandise safe from harm. Elaine breathed a silent sigh of relief, then followed Cass out of the end of the alleyway and into the next street. It was almost deserted, which puzzled her until she saw the soldiers approaching. She heard Cass mutter a curse, just loudly enough to be heard. It was too late to duck back into the alleyway to escape.
“Papers,” the lead soldier said, curtly. His subordinates didn’t bother to hide the fact they were staring at Elaine and Daria. “Papers, now.”
Cass drew herself up to her full height, magic sparkling around her eyes. “Are you daring to suggest, young man, that I, a granddaughter of the Great Bartholomew, should show you my papers?”
She continued before the soldier could say a word. “My family has produced five Grand Sorcerers and over a hundred magicians, warlocks and alchemists who have gone do
wn in history,” she thundered. “The Emperor will be hearing of this, you may be sure. My great niece, his personal assistant, will take the word to him personally. You, a man of no birth and no magic, daring to ask me for my papers? The very thought!”
Elaine blinked. Cass was related to Johan? Or was she lying?
“And to think that your ill-brought-up young men should stare at my granddaughters,” Cass stormed. “What cheek to think that they might have a hope of marrying into my family! What impudence to think that such stares will not go unpunished! What foolishness to endure the risk of spending the rest of one’s life crouching on a lily pad, snapping at flies, for a brief gaze at an unattainable beauty! What ...”
“I beg your pardon, Great Lady,” the soldier said. “We all humbly beg your pardon.”
Elaine thought, for a moment, that he was being sarcastic. But he bowed low, then led the soldiers – their gazes locked firmly away from the girls – down the street, leaving them behind. Johan snickered, then managed to turn it into a cough, as Cass motioned for them to start walking in the opposite direction.
“I cannot believe that worked,” Daria said, eying Cass with new respect. “Do you think he actually believed you?”
“I didn’t actually lie to him,” Cass said. She shrugged. “And I thought you would know all about Alpha Bitches.”
“I don’t understand,” Elaine said, before Daria could come up with a crushing insult. “How did that work?”
Cass smirked. “I’ve known far too many men like him,” she said, simply. “If you show them a hint of weakness, they will take it as an invitation and you’ll find yourself pressed against the wall or bent over the table. They pride themselves on seeing weakness and exploiting it. But if you show them strength and firmness, they will genuflect to you instead.
“And besides, Deferens isn’t a complete idiot. He wouldn’t have picked men for his invasion force who are likely to provoke the Great Houses into starting an uprising against him.”
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