by Webb, Holly
Lily’s father shook his head. ‘Of course you didn’t... I keep forgetting that Nerissa taught you nothing – and I still think you were the lucky one.’ He glanced towards the pile of dustsheets where Georgie was sleeping, great black shadows circling her eyes. She spent more and more time asleep now, saying that it was easier to control the spells that way. ‘I hate to think of you both at Merrythought, with your mother and that strange servant of hers. And even now...’ He frowned. ‘That you should both grow up with your magic having to be kept secret like this. It’s so wrong, I hate it. We should be proud...’
Lily swallowed. ‘You sound like Mama. Except – she would be angrier.’
He sighed. ‘I’m not suggesting we join the conspiracy, Lily, don’t worry. But we must do something. I can’t live without my magic. You don’t understand. That binding they had on me, and the spells throughout the prison, they made it impossible for me to feel anything. I was just a husk, dried out and feeble. But now!’ He smiled at her. ‘I may look old and decrepit, Lily, but I feel full of power. The thought of hiding it for the rest of my life, pretending it doesn’t exist. How could I?’
Lily nodded doubtfully. Magic had to be hidden – it was just the way it was. But she could see that her father didn’t understand. ‘If we show what we are, you’ll be slung straight into prison again, and us with you,’ she began slowly.
He was shaking his head already. ‘No! No, don’t you see, Lily, I don’t think we will. Of course, if we’re caught... But we won’t be. We’ll have to be very careful.’
‘Careful doing what, exactly?’ Henrietta demanded suspiciously, planting her front paws firmly on the newspaper and glaring at him. ‘It took a great deal of effort to rescue Lily and her sister from that foul place, you know. I’m not having her taken away and shut up again.’
‘Nor am I,’ Peyton Powers said grimly. ‘Nor am I, Henrietta, don’t worry. But you’re all in a prison even here, don’t you see? Shut away from your own magic. It needn’t be that way. There are hints, even in here.’ He shook the newspaper. ‘These crackdowns, our brave protectors fighting against lawlessness. It’s the lawlessness I’m interested in, not how a brave officer was taken to hospital. People are standing up to the Queen’s Men. So now’s our chance!’ He turned eagerly to Lily. ‘Lily, flower, you said that the children liked the magic, by the fountain, didn’t you?’
Lily swallowed, the pet name suddenly familiar. Did she really remember him calling her his little flower? Or did she only wish she remembered? ‘Yes,’ she thought to say at last. ‘One of the boys said they should report us, but that was only because he thought they might be in trouble if they were found harbouring magicians, I think. The others were so pleased that we made the fountain run again, they only cared that it should stay. And it wasn’t just for the drinking water that they liked it. It drew them close. They were almost warming themselves at it, like a fire.’
‘Very few people actually think magic is wrong, it seems to me,’ her father mused. ‘Only the queen – and the Dowager, and their advisors. We would have the support of the everyday people, if we were to demand the Decree be repealed.’
Rose frowned. ‘Not if magic – and magicians – were the same as they always were,’ she said slowly. ‘Expensive, and special, and the magicians always so proud and disdainful.’
‘I was never –’ Peyton Powers stopped, and sighed. ‘Well, perhaps I was. But now, my dear lady, I would happily work on the most everyday charms. I would cure warts, if it meant I could use my magic. I would invent a spell to stop black beetles in the larder. A little magic shop...’
‘There was a wonderful shop, Sowerby’s, do you remember?’ Rose smiled. ‘It had the most terrifying stuffed crocodile...’
Lily’s father snorted with laughter. ‘One of my apprentice friends hatched a plot to steal that crocodile. He was planning to set him free in the lake in St James’s Park, to chase all the fashionable ladies out walking. He nearly lost an arm, and old Gideon Sowerby dug up a charm from somewhere – he wasn’t a magician himself, of course, but he knew enough to use some of his stock – anyway, he flung a handful of this strange ointment at the poor boy, and he smelled of roses for the next year.’
‘But that sounds nice,’ Lily objected, and her father shook his head.
‘Not at the strength Alastair was wearing it. You simply couldn’t stay in the same room with him. It wore off, eventually, but even years afterwards, there was still a very slight scent...’ He chuckled, remembering. ‘But don’t you think, ma’am, that life would be better, for everyone, with just a little magic in it?’
‘Well, of course!’ Rose snapped. ‘Are you proposing to join this conspiracy, then, along with your wife?’ She stared at him, her eyes burning coldly, like ice crystals.
‘No!’ Lily gasped, staring at her father in horror. ‘You can’t, even if we want the same thing! Not after what they’ve done to Georgie.’
Her father jumped up, snatching her by the shoulders and staring down at her. ‘I would never, never stoop to that,’ he said angrily, glancing between her and Rose. ‘We don’t want the same thing at all, Lily! But we can’t let things go on like this. I want a peaceful rebellion, if such a thing could happen. I don’t want to overthrow the queen – only to make her see that magic isn’t the monster she’s been persuaded it must be. Besides, Jonathan Dysart and your mother and the rest of them want to go back to the old ways, with the magicians lording it over everyone else. Rose is right. That isn’t how it should be at all.’
Lily nodded. ‘I don’t think the Dowager Queen will ever let magic be legal again,’ she told him sadly. ‘Not when it was a magician who murdered the old king. I know she’s mad, and hateful, but you can understand why. And she’s in charge now, isn’t she? She’s even called the Queen Regent, now that Queen Sophia is so ill.’
Her father frowned, and squeezed her shoulders. ‘I know. But if we manage to expose the plot, then perhaps they’ll believe us.’ Then he let go of Lily and slumped back down against Argent with a defeated sigh. ‘Except that telling the queen that there’s been a widespread and carefully organised plot by a group of renegade magicians is hardly the way to get her to trust us, is it... Even more so when I’m married to one of them. It’s all so tangled.’
‘It is all you can do,’ Argent said simply. ‘Especially as your daughters are caught up in it already.’
‘I know. You’re right. The first thing is to help Georgie.’ Mr Powers nodded, glancing at her anxiously. ‘I hate to wake her. Taking part in the spell yesterday seems to have drained her completely. To see her like this makes my stomach turn – especially when I am so much improved... But the sooner we start to release her from her mother’s magic the better.’
‘Now?’ Lily asked, her eyes hopeful.
Her father nodded. ‘Now.’
Lily shook her sister gently, and Georgie moaned in her sleep, her eyes fluttering under their bruised lids.
‘Maybe we should let her sleep just a little longer,’ her father suggested, staring down at her worriedly.
But Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t want her like this any longer than she has to be.’ She shook Georgie a bit harder, and then patted her cheek, more firmly than she should have done. Georgie woke up, gasping, her eyes staring open in panic.
‘What is it? What’s happened?’
‘Nothing...’ Lily shushed her, as she did during the strange nightmares her sister woke with now, thrashing and whimpering in the old brass bed they shared. She was used to Georgie’s frights, but their father winced at her terrified face.
Georgie leaned against Lily’s shoulder, letting out a shaky sigh. ‘I thought – I was dreaming...’
‘I know. But it isn’t the magic, Georgie.’ She wrapped her arm close round her sister, squeezing her tight. ‘We’re safe, I promise. Georgie, listen – Father thinks we can sta
rt to work on the spells. Lifting them. You can be yourself again!’ She held Georgie at arm’s length, staring into her eyes. ‘It’s what we’ve been wanting all this time! Aren’t you excited?’ she asked, feeling oddly flat. She had expected Georgie to be delighted, laughing – smiling at least. But all her sister did was stare at her, with those big frightened eyes.
‘She doesn’t know what her own self is,’ a small, gruff voice said, from by Lily’s elbow.
Lily glanced down at Henrietta, frowning. ‘Don’t be silly.’
‘She’s right,’ Georgie whispered. ‘I really don’t. I’ve had Mama’s spells inside me for so long. Years and years.’ She swallowed painfully. ‘What if there isn’t any of me left?’
Henrietta leaned forward, her eyes bulging earnestly, and Lily caught her breath. Usually, the black pug took every opportunity she could to snipe at her sister. She’d never been sure why. Henrietta was so perfect, and Lily adored her – bringing Henrietta out of that painting at Merrythought, as a real dog, had been her first ever spell. Or the first one that had worked, anyway. But she did wonder sometimes if Henrietta was jealous of Georgie. If that was why she snapped, and called her sister feeble. But she couldn’t ever ask her.
Now she tried desperately to think at Henrietta, to warn her that this wasn’t the time for one of her snide little comments about Georgie spending all her time in the theatre wardrobe, instead of doing anything useful. Calling Georgie wet wouldn’t help at all right now. But the little dog only nudged her damp black nose against Georgie’s wrist, and gazed up at her.
‘I can smell you,’ she told Georgie firmly. ‘You’re in there. Wrapped up in something dark, yes. But that’s all it is. A dark blanket, sewn up around you.’
Lily shivered. It sounded too much like a shroud. But Georgie was smiling, just a little, and her cheeks were faintly pink.
‘You’re sure?’ she whispered, and Henrietta reverted to her normal, snappish self.
‘Of course I’m sure. What do you think I am, a cat?’
Gus’s whiskers twitched slightly and he glanced up at Rose, but he pretended that he hadn’t heard.
Henrietta flicked her tail triumphantly. ‘So. How do we start?’
Mr Powers frowned, and held out his hand to Georgie, wrapping it around her thin fingers. He was trying to smile, but his arm brushed against Lily, and she could feel that he was shaking.
‘Girls, you have to understand. Nerissa, your mother, is a very strong magician.’
Lily nodded, and swallowed. ‘Stronger than you?’
‘Maybe,’ her father admitted.
But Rose was shaking her head.
‘I don’t believe that. Different, yes. And more ruthless. But your magic runs very deep, Peyton Powers. I saw it in you a long time ago, and I’ve seen it in Lily.’ She smiled at Georgie’s miserable face, and knelt down beside her. ‘And the pug dog is right, however much she delights in tormenting Gus. I’m sure your father’s magic is in you, Georgie, just as much as your mother’s is. Nerissa’s magic is so strong because she set no limits on it. Ever. I could feel angry spells seething through every inch of her when she came to see me. She is just as much under the control of her spells as you are. The difference is that she called them in. She welcomed them. They’re part of her now. All of her, who knows? She’d be nothing without them. I don’t believe the same is true of you. And as for you.’ She rounded on their father. ‘Remember that you’ve just spent nine years in prison for your magic. If you didn’t think much of it, why didn’t you just give it up? You could have hidden away quietly with your beautiful daughters and protected them from her! Practised a few little spells on the side... Why did you abandon them, if your magic is such a feeble, worthless thing?’
Peyton Powers stared down at Georgie’s hand, unconsciously stroking her fingers. ‘I was strong once. But now – you don’t understand how strange it feels. You set those spells in Archgate well, you know. They drained the magic out of me. Deadened it, so I could hardly feel it at all.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘I feel as though I’m an apprentice all over again. Learning how to use my magic after such a long time shut away from it. I don’t know if I can fight Nerissa’s spells well enough.’ He swallowed. ‘And I don’t want to hurt you,’ he added to Georgie.
‘I don’t care.’ For the first time in weeks Lily saw a fire light in her sister’s eyes, snapping and sparkling. ‘Don’t you think it hurts when I can feel the spells fighting inside me? I thought I could just bury the spells and it would be all right, but I can feel them turning me into someone else now. I’d rather die than stay like this!’
‘No!’ Lily yelped. ‘You mustn’t say that!’
‘It’s true,’ Georgie whispered, the sparks dying as her eyes filled with tears.
Henrietta growled faintly and clambered into Georgie’s lap, curling up in a determined fashion and laying her soft muzzle on Georgie’s hand. Georgie stroked her cautiously, as though she wasn’t sure it was allowed. Having the dog curled into her lap seemed to calm her, and Georgie swallowed.
‘I don’t care what you have to do to get the magic out of me. Just do it, whatever. Even if it takes all my own magic too. I hardly remember using it. I could only risk the tiniest spells anyway, before I’d feel something else coming to join them. Great big shadowy things, sliding along behind me, and then they’d slip into my shadow when I turned round. But I’d still know they were there, grinning at me. Now they don’t even bother to hide. They’re in charge, as soon as I even think about a spell. I wouldn’t have risked the magic at the fountain if I hadn’t been desperate. And then I collapsed before – before something awful happened. I’d much rather be just a girl, with no magic at all. I wouldn’t even mind that very much.’
She smiled faintly at Lily and her father and Rose. ‘If you could avoid me dying that would be nice... But I did mean it. This isn’t me. Henrietta’s right. I may not know what me is any more, but there must be something of me left.’ She nodded determinedly. ‘Even if there isn’t a lot of me... I’d rather be real.’
Lily nodded miserably, and Henrietta licked Georgie’s wrist and then nuzzled gently against her, rubbing her wrinkled little face up and down Georgie’s arm. Georgie watched her in surprise – it was the sort of thing Henrietta did to Lily, never to her.
‘Sit with me, dear one,’ Argent suggested. ‘All of you. I can protect you from the spells, a little, anyway. I am very curious about this magic of your mother’s. I shall be interested to see it undone.’
Georgie nodded, and stood up carefully, still carrying Henrietta, although she kept looking at the dog anxiously, as though she expected to be snapped at to put her down. She settled between Argent’s forelegs, with her father and Lily on either side, and Rose close by. Argent stretched his huge head out along one of his front legs, curling his neck around them so that they were almost enclosed in silver scales, and the strange sea-salt smell of dragon. Lily pressed her fingers against his scales, feeling the silky, china smoothness and the bumpy ridges where each scale joined the next. His magic buzzed and thrummed around her protectively, and she sighed, feeling a little of her fear lift away. He wouldn’t let the spells hurt Georgie, she was sure of it. She pushed her other hand into Georgie’s, and her sister gripped her fingers tightly. Then Henrietta laid her chin over their clasped hands, wrapping them in soft velvet-furred warmth.
Lily looked up at her father, wondering how he was going to start. His eyes were closed, and he was scowling, his dark, pointed eyebrows drawn together. He had already started searching for the spells, she realised, closing her eyes too, and trying to feel what he was doing. ‘It is as though the spells are sewn into you,’ he muttered. ‘How odd. Nerissa never so much as stitched a sampler, I’m sure of it...’
‘She’s been living with this magic a long time,’ Argent muttered slowly. ‘Georgie has shaped it to fit herself.’
‘It’s so tight,’ their father murmured. ‘Woven into you. Georgie, can you feel this, if I pull...’ His hand stirred, his fingers pinching together, as though he had found a thread, and Georgie giggled.
‘It tickles.’
‘It’s like unravelling a piece of embroidery. So hard to see...’
Rose laid her hand gently on his knee. ‘Can you see it as a piece of embroidery? As a picture? Lily told us you made a picture on the wall. If your magic works in pictures, and Georgie’s works with threads, then perhaps you can mix both together. My own old teacher used to knit her spells, sometimes. It might help for us all to lend you our strength, too. If we can see what’s happening.’
‘Yes,’ Mr Powers whispered. ‘I should have thought of it myself. So out of practice...’ Lily saw him bite down hard on his lip, and then Georgie squeaked, and clutched at her stomach as though something had been pulled inside her. The dull grey cloth backdrop that masked the dragon when he wasn’t to be seen by the audience unrolled and fell down from the flies about them in a shuddering rush.
Lily heard an angry shout from one of the stagehands, quickly silenced as they realised what was happening. It was like watching a picture being painted onto the dark cloth. A picture made of millions of delicate, intricately knotted stitches. A tapestry, Lily supposed. There had been some old, faded hangings in the hallway at Merrythought, but they were so damaged by years of sunlight that only the ghosts of the designs had been left. This tapestry was alive, and jewel-bright. The stitches danced and glittered, pulsing with magic.
‘Is that what I look like inside?’ Georgie whispered, her eyes wide. She reached out her hand, wanting to stand and stroke the bright stitches, and her father gently pulled her back.