Renegade Magic

by Burgis, Stephanie

  “Well …” Lady Fotherington trailed off, nibbling her lip. Her hands were tightly clasped.

  “What about your colleagues back in England?” I said. “What about all of your Society friends? What will they think of you if you go with him? Your country invaded because of your betrayal—”

  “That is enough,” Lord Ravenscroft said. “Lydia, silence her. It’s long past time.”

  “I’m not the enemy,” I said. “Help me against him!”

  Lady Fotherington looked from Lord Ravenscroft to me, and back, her eyes wide.

  Papa said, “Lydia, surely you will not turn traitor now.”

  “Lydia!” said Lord Ravenscroft. “Will you let Miss Katherine have all her own way? Again?”

  Lady Fotherington let out an audible moan of pain. Then she did something I would never have imagined.

  Elegant, fashionable Lady Fotherington, leader of High Society, flopped down onto the hard stone floor and buried her face in her hands.

  “I can’t!” she moaned. I didn’t know if she was talking to me or Lord Ravenscroft or the whole world. “I can’t.”

  Oh, bother. I looked down at her limp figure, and my heart sank.

  There was only one thing left to try. I would have to make a sacrifice. I could only pray that it would be strong enough to save my brother’s life.

  I looked up. Lord Ravenscroft was studying me through his quizzing glass.

  “My goodness,” he said. “Lydia was right from the very beginning. You truly are a troublemaker, aren’t you?”

  Papa stepped up beside me. “You shall not use such terms to my daughter, my lord.”

  “Shall I not?” Lord Ravenscroft’s gaze darted from the pool beside him to Lady Fotherington’s prone figure, and back to me. “Surely you must be used to hearing scathing words spoken about the women of your family, sir.”

  Why, oh why, did I not have any pockets in my gown? And why hadn’t I thought to put anything in the secret pocket of my pelisse, to replace Mama’s mirror?

  Papa drew himself up to his full lanky height. He stood an inch taller than Lord Ravenscroft and looked surprisingly dignified despite his wildly disordered gray hair. “I have never been anything but proud of the ladies in my family, sir. And I shall not allow you to speak against them, especially as you prepare to murder my only son.”

  I stepped back, casting my gaze desperately around the room. I knew what would be in Papa’s pockets—one of the Greek or Latin texts he always carried with him. Useless. Whatever I sacrificed had to mean something to me, to give the ritual true power. That meant the lamp on the floor would do no good either. Nor would Lord Ravenscroft’s greatcoat, lying folded on the ground nearby …

  Wait.

  There was a bulge at the top of Lord Ravenscroft’s multicaped greatcoat. It was a small, round bulge, pressing out from one of the greatcoat’s pockets. I knew that shape. I would have recognized it anywhere.

  I stared at it, only two footsteps away, and I felt my throat grow dry.

  No. I couldn’t do it. There had to be another way.

  But there was nothing in the world that meant more to me, and Charles’s life was at stake.

  Slowly, I edged toward the coat. Lord Ravenscroft turned reflexively, keeping me within his line of sight, but his focus was still on Papa.

  “You shall not allow me?” He raised his quizzing glass and studied Papa like a scientific specimen, even as my right foot brushed against the greatcoat on the floor.

  Through the thin soles of my shoes, I felt it. There it was, that small, rounded bump.

  All I had to do was reach down and scoop it up.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

  Lord Ravenscroft laughed in Papa’s face. “And how exactly do you plan to stop me, pray tell? As violent as your daughter’s tendencies may be, I never heard that you were a man of action.”

  That did it.

  “He doesn’t need to be,” I said. “He’s something better. He’s a scholar.” I looked at Papa, standing proud and tall despite his disordered hair and lack of weapons, and I felt a burst of love so strong, it made my voice strong too. “Just watch this,” I said to the Head of the Order of the Guardians. “Papa, tell me: Who was the guardian spirit of these hot springs before Sulis Minerva?”

  “What?” Lord Ravenscroft said. “Of all the moments—”

  “That would be the goddess Sul, my dear,” said Papa. “The Celts worshipped her before the Romans ever arrived, and dedicated this place to her.”

  “Thank you!” I said.

  I scooped up Lord Ravenscroft’s massive greatcoat and grabbed the small, gold-encased travel mirror out of its pocket. My fingers closed around its smooth, curving sides as if they were coming home.

  Mama’s magic mirror. My portal to the Golden Hall. My only link to her.

  “The destruction of Lord Ravenscroft’s powers and the breaking of all his rites,” I said. “All hail Sulis Minerva and Sul herself!”

  I threw Mama’s mirror into the bubbling green water that came straight from the Source, the core of all the wild magic in the Baths and Bath itself.

  “NO!” Lord Ravenscroft screamed. He lunged forward, hands outstretched.

  Papa grabbed my arm and pulled me out of his way. But Lord Ravenscroft wasn’t aiming for me.

  He grabbed for the mirror in the pool. The moment his smooth white hands touched the water, he let out a howl of sheer agony.

  Buzzing sparks of wild magic filled the water, multiplying into a heaving mass that swept up around the mirror—and devoured it. The whole mass disappeared into a sudden vortex in the water.

  I choked back a sob. The air around us shivered with mounting pressure. Something was coming. Something huge.

  Lord Ravenscroft turned on me, his eyes wild. “You think you’ve been clever?” He snarled. “You stupid little upstart. I’ll show you what a real Guardian can do.”

  His power swept up, thickening the air with rage and strength. I felt it gather above me, preparing to crash down like the crest of a killing wave.

  “Get Lady Fotherington out!” I yelled to Papa. “Run!”

  Lord Ravenscroft’s power fell toward me. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact.

  I had saved England, saved the Order, and, most importantly of all, saved Charles’s life. If I had to die for it, that was the risk a Guardian ran.

  A great, booming voice spoke through the open door. “HAIL SULIS MINERVA AND SUL HERSELF!”

  Lord Ravenscroft’s power froze in midair, just before it could touch my skin.

  Lucy stood at the top of the staircase, her arms spread out, her eyes wild.

  “THE DESTRUCTION OF LORD RAVENSCROFT’S POWERS AND THE BREAKING OF ALL HIS RITES!”

  Wild magic exploded around her in a great, billowing cloud. It swept toward Lord Ravenscroft’s mass of gathered power and enveloped it completely. Then the magic shattered.

  Lord Ravenscroft’s eyes rolled up in his head. With a groan, he fell backward into the bubbling green water.

  Twenty-Nine

  Lucy fell at the same time as Lord Ravenscroft, collapsing across the top three steps. I ran for her even as I called out to Papa.

  “Don’t let him drown!”

  I could hear Papa dragging Lord Ravenscroft back from the water, but all my attention was on Lucy. I dropped to my knees on the step below her. Her head lolled against her shoulder, her fair hair streaming across the front of her wet nightgown. I grabbed her hand. The contact didn’t burn me. Her skin felt damp and warm. The sparks were gone.

  “Lucy,” I said. “Lucy! Wake up!”

  Her eyelids drifted partly open. I could only see a hint of her blue eyes, but what I saw was clear and familiar.

  “Kat?” she murmured. “Kat.” A smile curved her lips. “It’s gone. She’s gone. Both of them.”

  “Well, thank goodness for that.” I looked back over my shoulder. Lord Ravenscroft was lying on the ground below us, still unconscious
but breathing, while Papa hovered over him uncertainly. “Now, if we can only get rid of him as easily …”

  “They did leave something behind, though.”

  I swung back to Lucy. “What did you say?”

  She was grinning at me. “I said, they left me a gift.” She dropped a wink that would have scandalized her mother and sister. “Watch.”

  Sparks of wild magic raced past me. I turned just in time to see Lord Ravenscroft’s quizzing glass leap straight into midair and fall back to the ground, giving a dainty pirouette as it landed. Papa started back, throwing one hand before him.

  I stared at Lucy. A giggle burst out of her mouth, the same kind that had irritated me so much only twenty-four hours ago.

  I said, “You actually meant that to happen, didn’t you? It wasn’t accidental, or just because you were upset or scared or—”

  “Well, of course not. You are slow tonight, Kat.” Lucy pushed herself up, wincing with effort.

  “And you don’t have Sulis Minerva or Sul or—”

  “Only me,” she said. “With a little extra power of my own now. Won’t Mama and Maria be surprised?”

  I blinked. Then I started to laugh, and her giggles burst out full force. Below us, Papa sighed and took a guarding stance above Lord Ravenscroft’s prone figure.

  “You’ll have to be careful, you know,” I said, when I finally managed to stop laughing. “Society has already seen you work magic. Your family won’t let you out in public again for—”

  “Oh, not for years,” Lucy said cheerfully, “if they ever do again. They’ll probably send me away to stay with my spinster aunts in Scotland, where there are only sheep and goats and no eligible young men at all, much less any as handsome as your brother. But at least I finally have something more interesting to think about now. And something to practice!”

  Lucy held out her hand to me. My scalded right hand still hurt too much to use, but I reached out with my left hand and, together, we helped each other up. In the distance, as we walked down the stairs to join the others, I heard a commotion begin—cries of confusion coming from the King’s Bath. I felt something else, too: a ripple in the air that signaled Guardian magic.

  Mr. Gregson and his colleagues had arrived.

  I took a deep breath. “Will you see to Charles?” I said to Papa. “He was so entranced, he’ll be terribly confused.”

  “Of course,” my father said. “I’ll make certain he knows exactly what happened—and what could have happened, if not for you.”

  Papa and I traded a long look, and I felt a spark of sudden optimism light inside me. My brother’s life had been saved. If I was very lucky, he might not be quite the same ever again.

  Of course, one never knew with Charles. But surely this brush with death would make him finally begin to question his Oxford friends’ idiotic games. At least, I could hope so.

  Papa gave one last worried glance at Lord Ravenscroft’s prone figure. “You’re quite certain he cannot harm you?”

  “He can’t harm anyone anymore,” I said. “Don’t worry! I’m perfectly safe.”

  “Well, if you’re sure …” He hurried up the stairs and out the door, looking more purposeful—and more capable—than I’d ever imagined him before tonight.

  Charles was definitely due for a surprise.

  Lucy said, “Do you think they’re all still naked in there? I wonder—”

  “Let’s talk about it later,” I said.

  I didn’t have much time. I could already hear approaching footsteps and voices above us.

  I hurried across the stone floor to where Lady Fotherington sat slumped, her face in her hands. She knew, and I knew, what was about to happen.

  Mr. Gregson knew she had aided and abetted Lord Ravenscroft. For once, my word was going to mean more than hers. It was a moment I could have savored, after everything she’d done to me and my family. All I had to do was tell the other Guardians the truth—that she had refused to aid me against Lord Ravenscroft even after hearing his confession of treason—and she would be expelled from the Order, just as Mama and I had been. For all I knew, she might even be pacified, too.

  It was exactly what she’d wanted for me.

  I dropped down to the tiled floor to face her and took a deep breath. “I have a bargain to offer you,” I said.

  There were ten Guardians accompanying Mr. Gregson, none of whom I’d ever met before. I couldn’t tell whether they were more relieved or appalled to find that their powers weren’t required after all. When they looked from Lord Ravenscroft’s limp body, resting by the pool, to me, standing alone and unsupported, I saw outright horror in some of their faces.

  Mr. Gregson took me aside as Lord Ravenscroft was carried away. The others were standing in a far corner, whispering together and darting uneasy glances at me, but there was no fear in my former tutor’s face—only a grave pride.

  “You are sure that you are uninjured, Katherine?”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “The only thing I hurt was my hand. Well, that and …” I swallowed, looking down at the bubbling, dark green water. Mama’s mirror, I thought. But I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud, not again. I’d had to tell the whole story to the gathered Guardians once already. It had been painful enough to say it that first time.

  There was no sign left in the pool of the magical vortex that had swallowed Mama’s mirror and swept it away from me forever. But I would never forget.

  Mr. Gregson followed my gaze and nodded as if I had spoken out loud. “Guardian powers come with a heavy price,” he said. “Perhaps Lord Ravenscroft inherited his too easily to ever comprehend that … but I believe you have proven yourself to understand it perfectly.”

  He looked across at the whispering group of fellow Guardians. As they grew aware of his mild gaze resting upon them, they gradually stopped whispering and turned to face us. He raised his eyebrows pointedly.

  Some of them looked unhappy, some of them looked reluctant—but every one of them lowered his or her head in a bow.

  They were bowing to me.

  I took a deep breath and thought of Mama. Carefully, gracefully, and with all the dignity I possessed, I picked up my sopping wet skirts, and I curtsied back to them.

  But I looked each and every one of them in the eyes as I did it.

  Mr. Gregson coughed and turned away from the others as they dispersed. “You need have no more fears about your admittance to the Order, Katherine. I am only sorry that we may not be able to find you a replacement portal for some time. With the hereditary Head of our Order deprived of all his powers and guilty of treason to the throne … well, it shall be some time before anything can be properly sorted out. The line of inheritance has been broken for the first time in over a century, and magical warfare was very nearly reintroduced to the modern world. The government will be deeply concerned. As to what any of us will do next …” He shook his head, looking grimmer than ever. “Such a thing has never happened before, not since the time of the Civil War. It is an absolute disaster.”

  “Oh, well,” I said, and shrugged.

  As far as I was concerned, the Order could do with a good shaking-up, and this was none too soon for it. But I had something far more important to take care of right now than any political crisis. And I would need his help for it.

  “I do promise that you will be properly initiated into the Order as soon as possible,” Mr. Gregson said. “And of course, as soon as everything else is settled down, the Order will want to express its gratitude for your—”

  “Gratitude,” I said. From somewhere deep inside, beneath all the exhaustion and the grief for what I’d lost, I managed to summon up a wicked grin. “So you agree that you all owe me a favor?”

  “Ah …” My old tutor looked alarmed. “What sort of favor were you thinking of, exactly?”

  “I want another magic lesson,” I said. “And this time, I want you to show me how to travel across great distances.”

  We landed with a thud in a
small, dimly lit room. The impact knocked me sprawling onto my hands and knees, sneezing dust from the ancient floorboards. Mr. Gregson, of course, was still on his feet. He watched with a resigned expression as I pushed myself back up with more speed than dignity.

  Well, never mind. I’d learn the trick of it soon enough. In the meantime …

  “Ah, Kat,” Angeline said before I could even turn to look for her. “I thought you might turn up somehow, despite all my warnings.”

  She was standing behind me, in front of a closed door. It was a bedroom—an inn bedroom, I guessed, as I took in the narrow window at the back of the room, and the noise of male voices rising from downstairs. She was fully dressed in the same sprigged muslin gown she’d worn that morning. Her hair was perfectly arranged, as always, and her voice positively dripped with cynicism.

  Even in the dim candlelight, though, I could see the redness around her swollen eyelids. My arrogant older sister had been crying before we came.

  I started forward, fury taking over. “We didn’t come too late, did we? If he’s hurt you—”

  “Him?” She snorted. “Of course not. I wouldn’t let him.”

  Something heavy struck the thin wooden door with a crash. I jumped. The door shuddered but stood firm.

  “Let me in, damn you!” bellowed an all-too-familiar voice. Viscount Scarwood.

  For the first time I noticed the lingering scent of flowers in the air. I looked at Angeline with respect. “You barricaded the door against him with witchcraft.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t trust the lock.”

  “Very wise of you,” said Mr. Gregson. He was looking around the room with distaste. “If we are where I believe we are … I fear this inn does not have the most savory of reputations.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Angeline said. “The food is terrible, too. I’ve never eaten such a tasteless supper.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, heaving a sigh. I thought she meant it to sound world-weary, but it only sounded miserable. “Never mind. You’ve come, you’ve seen that I’m perfectly safe—”