by Webb, Holly
‘So we need a spell to release a bound tongue...’ Rose said slowly. ‘It must be a strong enchantment, though, to hold someone like your father.’ She smiled at Lily’s surprised face. ‘I’ve met him, Lily, when he was a young student. He was most promising – although rather...’ She stopped, smiling apologetically.
‘What?’ Lily and Georgie asked together, intrigued.
Rose shrugged delicately. ‘Just the teensiest bit stuffy?’
Gus sniggered.
‘He had very strong principles.’ Rose sighed, and gazed seriously at the two girls. ‘Many people were surprised, you know, when he married your mother. He was deeply in love with her, everyone agreed. But they were so different – even then, she was known as someone who was not afraid to venture into... Well.’ She shrugged, clearly trying to think of a nice way to say it. ‘The less pleasant forms of magic.’
‘He wouldn’t give his magic up,’ Lily said proudly. ‘He may have been stuffy, but he wouldn’t let it go.’ She sat down next to Rose with a little sigh. ‘And that meant he left us behind with Mama.’
Rose nodded. ‘Exactly... Poor man. He can’t have known. Or maybe he didn’t want to know.’ She sighed.
‘So, do you know a spell?’ Lily glanced between Rose and the dragon. ‘A spell to undo another spell?’
‘Water and fire,’ the dragon rumbled, still weaving his head around Peter in fascination, and not really listening.
‘What?’ Lily asked sharply, and Argent blinked slowly at her.
‘Water and fire – they’ll undo most spells, if you use them right.’
Rose was nodding, but Lily found it hard to believe that something so important could be that easy. ‘Really?’ she asked doubtfully. ‘Just any fire and water? What would we have to do with them? Nothing – nothing that would hurt him?’ she added, suddenly anxious. Dragons were probably a lot less worried about fire than people.
Argent gave Peter one last thoughtful look. ‘Tell the boy he is very lucky, Lily. I think – I’m not sure, but it seems so to me – that the way he has trained his mind and taught himself to see words made those spells at Fell Hall work on him more strongly than they did on anyone else. But now that he has fought against those spells and won, it would take a huge amount of magic to affect him. Really most interesting.’ He waited while Lily explained to Peter, nodding approvingly, then all at once his attention seemed to switch to her question. ‘Not any fire. A magical fire, Lily. One created from a very complex and difficult spell.’ He drooped his head down to her and shuddered, smoke coiling out of his nostrils in little puffy clouds. It looked very strange, but Lily was almost sure that he was laughing. ‘Or of course you could just ask me nicely.’
‘Your fire could break the spell?’ Lily flung her arms around his muzzle without thinking, and then stepped back with a gasp. ‘Sorry...’
‘Not at all, not at all...’ It was hard to tell again – the dragon’s face was so very different from a human’s – but Lily thought he was actually pleased. ‘Dragons consume magic, in many different ways. We are very good at destroying spells, even strong ones.’
‘What about the water?’ Georgie asked. ‘Does that need to be special too?’
Argent nodded slowly. ‘It does, and that changes depending on the spell, and the person who has been bespelled.’ He lowered his muzzle onto one foreleg, thoughtfully, and nudged at Peter with the side of his head, nearly knocking the boy to the floor. ‘Tell him to scratch my scales. Just where his arm is. Helps me think.’
‘He wants scratching,’ Lily muttered to Peter, who blinked, but did as he was told.
‘Ahhh. Mmm, yes. Most helpful. For your father, I should say perhaps you would want seawater – from the coast around his ancestral home, the island,’ the dragon suggested.
‘We have to go back to Merrythought?’ Georgie cried, her voice full of horror.
The dragon shrugged massively. ‘One suggestion. There may be others.’
‘I have one...’ Rose said slowly, and the girls stared hopefully at her. ‘When I knew your father, he was a student, living in lodgings. A strange old building, a court, built around a cobbled square, with a fountain in the middle. Fountain Court, it was called. Between here and the palace. It was always full of student magicians. The fountain changed colour at least once a week, or ran with beer, or spouted fish... Is it still there?’ she added, looking over Lily’s shoulder to Daniel, who’d walked onto the stage to direct the stagehands in the hanging of a new backdrop.
‘Fountain Court? It’s not a place I’d want to live, but it’s there,’ he agreed doubtfully. ‘I suppose after the Decree, the magicians moved out. After all, if you lived there, it was as good as saying you were magical, wasn’t it?’
‘Who moved in?’ Georgie asked, in a small voice.
‘People that nicely-brought-up young girls do not need to know about,’ Princess Jane said primly, and Lily sighed. She wanted to know, but then, she hadn’t really been brought up at all.
‘So there you are,’ Argent said, nodding hugely. ‘You two should go, and fetch the water. That matters too.’
Daniel fetched an old envelope out of his waistcoat pocket and started to draw a map, but Lily looked at Georgie uncertainly. The strangeness of the spells inside her made Georgie reluctant to leave the theatre, especially when someone always seemed to start chasing them if they went outside. ‘Mama’s still in America, as far as we know. Or maybe on her way back, but I don’t think she’s in London.’
Georgie gave a fragile, glass-sharp laugh. ‘So, only the Queen’s Men are after us then. And maybe the Dysart girls.’
‘Yes...’ Lily sighed. Cora and Penelope Dysart lived next door to their mother’s sister, Aunt Clara. She had discovered the girls at the theatre, recognising them by Lily’s resemblance to her mother. She had taken them to live with her, shocked by their appearance at the theatre, and terrified that somehow her fashionable London friends would find out that she had been born into a magical family. Aunt Clara had told herself that she had given up magic for so long that she even believed it herself, despite the hundreds of tiny glamour spells that curled her hair, and reddened her lips.
Aunt Clara spent a great deal of her time angling for an invitation to meet her neighbour, Jonathan Dysart, one of the queen’s closest advisers. She was hoping that somehow he would provide her with a chance to visit the palace, and she had gleefully invited his twin daughters to meet Lily and Georgie.
It had taken less than a minute for the two sets of sisters to recognise each other for what they were, and scarcely longer for the Dysart girls to start plotting against these rival magicians. It was through their schemes that Lily and Georgie had been denounced and sent to Fell Hall. Jonathan Dysart had no choice but to send them. He had worked for years to build his place among the queen’s courtiers, so that one day he could strike against her and help to overthrow the royal family, and bring magic back to power.
‘I’ll go without you, if you want,’ Lily offered.
Georgie stood up, the grey dress slipping off her knees unheeded. ‘I’m not quite that useless, thank you!’ she snapped. ‘Whatever that dog says!’
Henrietta was taken by surprise, and gawped at Georgie, her round eyes popping out even more than usual. ‘I didn’t say anything!’
‘You were about to. Come on, Lily.’
‘Maybe it’s the spells making her grumpy,’ Lily whispered, as Georgie stalked off to fetch her wrap, and Henrietta stared after her, looking most affronted. ‘Do we need anything special?’ Lily asked Argent, as she started across the stage to follow Georgie. ‘Any special spell ingredients, or anything like that?’
‘You are the ingredients,’ he rumbled. ‘Your father’s daughters. Say a few words when you reach the fountain, that’s all. Explain to the magic what you need. And a bottle would be useful.’
<
br /> Daniel hurried into the wings, and came back with an armful of earthenware ginger beer bottles. He was always complaining that the stagehands left them lying around. ‘Would these do?’
‘She only needs one,’ the dragon pointed out. ‘These smell most delicious. Fiery, and spicy. What is this ginger beer?’
Lily left Rose explaining it to him and to the princess, who claimed she had never had it, as it was one of those things that were not readily available in palaces, along with gobstoppers. She hurried after Georgie, who was waiting by the little side door that the stage crew and performers most often used. It led out into a grubby alleyway down the side of the theatre, not at all like the smart stone frontage.
‘Be careful, won’t you!’ Daniel called, leaning out of the doorway after them. ‘It’s not exactly smart round there. Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?’
Georgie looked hopeful, but Lily shook her head. ‘I think it’s supposed to be just us. We’re the ingredients, like he said.’
‘All right.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m coming after you if you aren’t back in an hour or so, though. And watch your pockets!’
‘Does he think I’m not going with you?’ Henrietta muttered as they walked down the alley. ‘I’d like to see a pickpocket get past me.’
‘Dogs don’t have pockets.’ Lily giggled, in a silly, worried sort of way, and the pug dog glared at her coldly.
‘You really shouldn’t try to make jokes, Lily, it isn’t your strong point. Some of us are not natural performers.’
‘Sssh,’ Georgie hissed, snatching the map from Lily. ‘Come on. I just want to get there quickly.’
They were out onto a main street now, and Lily put her arm through her sister’s, seeing the way she shrank back from the people passing by.
‘No one can see what we are,’ she whispered encouragingly, but Georgie shivered.
‘I feel as though they can. Those spells are screaming in my head now, Lily, and they’re so loud it feels as if everyone must be able to hear them.’ She swallowed, her fingers digging tightly into Lily’s arm as a horseman trotted past. His black uniform contrasted oddly with the snowy whiteness of his beautiful horse, and several other people in the street looked up at him angrily. An elderly man in a smart frock coat even shook his silver-tipped walking stick when the horse kicked up mud, splashing it over his shoes.
‘See. Not everyone likes them, Georgie. It isn’t only us scared of the Queen’s Men. And people are daring to say it, now. I’m sure that’s changed, even in the couple of months since we first came to London. The Queen’s Men are too harsh, and they’re making everyone remember the old days.’ She sighed a little, remembering the way their father had talked about the magic in the city. Surely people wanted that again, that sense that magic was always just around the corner?
‘I still think they’d inform on us, if they knew,’ Georgie murmured, her eyes flicking anxiously from side to side, scanning the street. ‘Don’t you dare talk, Henrietta. Is that lady staring at us?’
‘No. See, she’s just looking for a shop. The hatmaker’s, there. Stop worrying. Is it here we have to turn?’
They were heading out of the fashionable part of town now, leaving the smart shops and theatres for narrower, grubbier roads. The buildings were older, and thinner, and a great deal dirtier, and Henrietta snapped hungrily at a rat that ran in front of their feet and disappeared into a pile of rubbish by a doorway. She scuttled back in surprise when the rat darted its head out and snapped back at her, before whisking round, its horrid ridged red tail flicking back under the rags.
‘It’s awful here,’ Georgie whispered. ‘Are we close, Lily? Please? I want to get the water and go.’
‘It ought to be just along here,’ Lily muttered, turning the map in Georgie’s hands a little, and glancing along the street. ‘It’s hard to tell, there aren’t any street signs. But I suppose we’ll know, we’ll see the fountain.’
‘If it’s still there,’ Henrietta growled. ‘Don’t start,’ she added. ‘There’s no one close.’
‘Daniel said it was,’ Lily reminded her. ‘Look for the inn with the painted fish. Oh, there, see!’
‘Is that it?’ Georgie said doubtfully, staring up at the sign above the lopsided old building. It creaked dolefully to and fro, and it might once have been painted with a fish, though now it was more of a silvery smear.
‘And there’s the courtyard!’ Lily said, sounding relieved. The buildings around here looked so rickety that she wouldn’t have been surprised if Fountain Court had fallen down since Daniel saw it last.
‘Look at them!’ someone said, and Lily glanced round anxiously, to see a gang of smaller children playing some sort of chase around the broken stone bowl in the centre of the courtyard.
‘Aren’t they grand?’ one of the others laughed, and Lily glanced down at herself in surprise. She wasn’t very smartly dressed, just in an old frock that Georgie had made over from something thrown out of the wardrobe. She hadn’t even bothered with her cloak, although Georgie had fetched her a hat and gloves from their room. Living with Princess Jane, and even more so with Maria, who ran the theatre wardrobe, had given Georgie strict notions on what was proper for young ladies. Gloves were essential.
The children by the fountain had surely never owned any. Most of them were dressed, although the littlest boy, scarcely more than a baby, seemed only to be wearing a shawl tied around his middle.
‘Proper fancy,’ the oldest girl said disgustedly. ‘What do you two want? If it’s missions, we aren’t interested. Not unless there’s food. Is there? I don’t mind a prayer meeting, if there’s food after. Or first,’ she added, with a sneer, and all the others laughed.
‘It isn’t missions...’ Lily said slowly. She hadn’t really thought about there being other people round the fountain. How were they going to explain taking the water?
‘So? What do you want then?’ the tall girl asked abruptly, hauling the shawl-wrapped boy off the stone lip of the fountain, before he fell into it.
Lily took a breath, trying to feel the magic inside her, to make herself braver. There were more children now, hurrying out of the doorways around the courtyard to join the crowd, and a few of their mothers too, glaring at her.
Lily wrapped her arms around the stoneware bottle, concentrating on her magic, and imagining the bottle full of the fountain water, all they needed to cure her father. ‘Water. We only want some water,’ she said, rather huskily, forcing herself to take a step towards the fountain. She could feel Henrietta pressed firmly against the side of her leg, a solid warm body pushing her on.
‘Water? What, from this?’ The girl laughed disgustedly, and the others joined in. ‘Are you stupid? Look at it!’ She drew back a little, letting Lily and Georgie see the fountain properly for the first time, and Lily let out a little gasp of disappointment.
The fountain was still there – with even a broken, stained little statue of a child, pouring water from some sort of vessel. Maybe something to do with magic, Lily thought miserably, as this had been a magicians’ haunt. But it was dry, not even a trickle of water in the chipped stone jug, and the statue child looked blind and sad.
‘No...’ Georgie cried miserably, shoving her way forward, pushing the older girl out of the way. ‘No, we need it!’
‘Hey...’ The girl was obviously so surprised that this soft-looking rich girl had dared to barge past her that she hesitated, just for a breath. And then one of the others pulled her back, pointing.
‘Look at her!’
‘Georgie, don’t...’ Lily whispered, but it was too late. Georgie couldn’t hear her now. Lily watched her sinking to her knees against the fountain bowl, one arm trailing into the water that should have been there.
And then it was. It seemed to rush into Fountain Court from all around, out of the air, as though Georgi
e’s magic had stolen it from buckets and pumps, and pretty crystal glasses. It sparkled and gleamed as it rushed through the sky in diamond droplets, like rain, but sideways, and then even up, out from between the cobbles, bringing a rush of hair-thin grasses with it, and wiry little town flowers, all growing towards the fountain.
The younger children laughed, and one of the little girls spun round with her arms outstretched, catching the drops on her dirty jacket, so that she glittered like a grubby princess.
‘She’s a magician!’ one of the boys muttered, looking sideways towards the entrance to the courtyard. ‘One of them weird ones. We oughter tell.’
‘Oh, please...’ Lily turned to the older girl. ‘Don’t. We only want a little of the water, and we’ll go. Don’t tell them!’
‘Will it stay?’ the girl demanded suspiciously, nodding towards the water, which was trickling gently out of the stone jug now.
Lily nodded. ‘I think so. It doesn’t look like it’s stopping, does it?’ She knelt down anxiously beside Georgie. She was actually more worried that the magic wasn’t going to stop. Georgie hardly had any control over it, and last time she’d let it loose out in the street, an enormous spell-wolf had nearly eaten them. ‘You’d better get the rubbish out of the bowl,’ she added. ‘Her magic isn’t very practical. She won’t have cleared the drain, or anything like that.’
‘Hmph.’ But the girl nodded, and pushed a couple of the boys toward the fountain. ‘You heard her. She leaned down to look at Georgie. ‘Is she all right?’
‘No.’ Lily patted Georgie’s cheek. ‘No, she isn’t. Her magic’s gone wrong. That’s what we need the water for, to help cure her.’ She dipped her hand under the trickling jug, and cupped a little water in her palm, splashing it over her sister. ‘Georgie, wake up. Please.’ The water glittered as it ran down Georgie’s pale cheek, and Lily licked her fingers thoughtfully. ‘It’s good water...’ she murmured. ‘Sweet. Very clean.’ She fed a drop to Henrietta, who licked at it eagerly, and then shook her head, flapping her ears briskly, and put her front paws up on the basin, scrabbling to get her tongue towards the water.