Rebel Magisters

by Shanna Swendson

  “Very well, I will await your answer,” the governor said at last, his voice tight. “I will see you later, children.” With a slight—and unexpected—nod to me, he turned to go.

  “Won’t you stay for dinner?” Henry asked, his face suggesting that he was only issuing the invitation out of obligation.

  “Not today, thank you. I’ll show myself out. I don’t want to interrupt your evening.”

  He was barely out of the room before Rollo said, “Please, Uncle Henry! You have to let us go. I’m sure it would be very educational, right Miss Newton?”

  “You just want to get out of school,” Flora said.

  “And you don’t want to be away from whichever boy it is you like this week. You’re afraid he’ll forget about you while you’re gone.”

  “He would not!”

  “Ha! I knew it was about a boy!”

  “I didn’t say that. Henry, surely the children could go without me.”

  “Yes! We could go without her,” Rollo said. “She isn’t any fun.”

  “I want to ride in an airship,” Olive piped up. “I’m not scared of crashing.” She squared her jaw defiantly even as her voice quavered slightly, and I recalled that her father had died in an airship accident.

  “I said I would think about it,” Henry said, sounding uncharacteristically harsh and stern. “Enough arguing. As I told your grandfather, I need to make sure Rollo’s schoolwork won’t be interrupted. This trip would also disrupt Miss Newton’s life. Have you considered that there might be other things she wants or needs to do?”

  Olive and Rollo immediately looked abashed, while Flora beamed. “Yes, you haven’t even thought of Miss Newton,” she said smugly. “How selfish of you.”

  “The only reason you’re not being selfish is because you don’t want to be away from some boy,” Rollo shot back.

  “Yes, you just like a boy,” Olive parroted.

  “Do I need to send you to your rooms before dinner?” Henry asked.

  “He started it,” Flora said. “I was agreeing with you.”

  “I did not!” Rollo protested.

  “That’s enough,” Henry snapped. “All of you, to your rooms until dinner.” He remained stiff and upright, his hands clenched at his sides, until all three of them had hurried away. Only when the last echo of footsteps had faded did he sink onto the nearest chair. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes and his temples. “This is remarkably bad timing,” he said.

  I eased myself onto the chair across from him. I wasn’t sure it was safe to talk openly here. Too many servants were about, and he suspected his housekeeper of being a spy for the governor. “I wouldn’t mind going, if that eases your mind,” I said.

  “You’re perhaps more vital to this operation than I am. All that aside, I’m a little more worried about what might happen with the children out of my sight for that long. No harm will come to them, I’m sure, but will I ever get them back?”

  I didn’t know what to say. A part of me wondered if it might be best for him not to have such a great responsibility. Other young men his age in his class were having fun with their friends or courting young ladies, not playing father. I didn’t think the governor would be unkind to the children. On the other hand, they stood a better chance of growing up to be good, worthwhile people under their uncle’s care. Their grandfather might love them, but they’d be brought up by an army of servants, and Rollo would likely be sent to England for school.

  Both of us were silent for a moment, then he smiled and said, “All of us are tired. I’ll think about it later.”

  I went up to my room and was surprised to find Flora lurking in the hallway. “You don’t think he’ll make me go, do you?” she asked.

  “I don’t think it will make much difference. Colin doesn’t live in the city. He was only visiting his sister. Even if you remained in town, you likely wouldn’t see him.”

  Her face fell, and I thought she might cry. “Oh. Really?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  She held her head high, fighting to appear brave even though her lower lip trembled. “Then perhaps it wasn’t meant to be, and I should go to help myself forget.”

  I thought she was being overly dramatic about someone she’d barely even exchanged words with, but it was the first time I’d seen Flora actually seem interested in anyone other than herself. “Broken hearts do heal,” I told her. At least, I hoped they did. Mine seemed to have mended, leaving anger as a kind of psychic scar tissue. I wouldn’t wish that on Flora, but I didn’t believe her attachment could possibly be that strong after one encounter.

  *

  The next morning I received a note in the mail from Lizzie, inviting me to join her for a gathering Saturday evening. Since we weren’t quite on friendly terms these days, I interpreted the invitation to be about the magisters. That night when I joined Henry for my magic lesson, I told him, “I heard from the Mechanics. They want to meet Saturday night. I think we should all go, including your friends.”

  “Did they ask to meet with us?”

  “Not exactly. But I think it would be much easier for us all to talk directly. It would take forever for me to carry messages back and forth, having to arrange meetings each time.”

  “True. This is the kind of business that needs to be done face-to-face. What kind of invitation was it?”

  “A ‘gathering’ was all she said. They like to mix pleasure with business, so it’s probably a party. She wants me to meet her at her boardinghouse.”

  “I’ll let the others know. Now, let’s see how your illusion work is going.”

  On Saturday night, I took a magical cab downtown and made the driver let me off a couple of blocks before the boardinghouse, where I’d arranged to meet Henry and his friends. I almost wouldn’t have recognized them, they’d done such a good job of dressing down for the occasion. No one was likely to suspect they were wealthy, titled magisters. They did get quite a few looks from any girls who passed by, though, because Philip was terribly handsome, even without his fine clothes. Viscount Hayes and Henry looked more ordinary, but I was surprised by how very young they looked without the trappings of their rank.

  *

  “Do we pass muster?” Henry asked me.

  “I think you’ll do.”

  I was rather nervous as I knocked on the boardinghouse door. I wasn’t sure how Lizzie would react to having three magisters on her doorstep. She seemed friendly enough when she opened the door, until she noticed the young men standing behind me. “What is this?” she asked.

  “They’re the people you’re asking for a great deal of money,” I said. “I thought it would be easier for everyone to speak directly to each other than for me to smuggle messages back and forth.”

  “You’d better come inside,” she said, stepping back from the doorway to allow us to pass. “But the men can’t go beyond the foyer.”

  Once we were inside, I made hasty introductions. “Lizzie, you’ve met Henry, and this is Philip and Viscount Hayes.”

  “Geoffrey,” he corrected.

  “And this is Lizzie. She’s one of my contacts in the organization.”

  Before the men could greet her formally, she caught me by the arm and dragged me off toward the parlor. “If you gentlemen will excuse us for a moment, I need to talk to Verity,” she said. When we were in the parlor, she hissed, “Some warning would have been nice.”

  “I told Colin that my friend was interested in discussing a business proposal. That generally implies that the friend will be present for the discussion.”

  “But three of them?”

  “What you want is more than any one person, even a very wealthy person, can provide. These three helped get the machines out of the city, so they already know most of your secrets. They’ve seen the machines, they know about the subway, and they even know where the headquarters was. If they want to betray you, they already have everything they need. You have a lot more to gain than to lose by talking to them.”

&nbs
p; She furrowed her brow, and the spots of color on her cheeks gradually faded, giving me hope that she was calming down as she considered. “It’s not entirely up to me, but I’ll take you there,” she said at last. “Wait with them.”

  We returned to the foyer and she ran up the stairs. “What is it?” Henry asked me.

  “It’s not easy for them to trust magisters,” I said. “But she’ll take you to the others. Maybe they’ll talk. I don’t know.” Unable to hold back a sigh, I added, “I’m sorry. I should have better prepared them or been more specific about arranging a meeting. I hope I haven’t wasted your time.”

  Philip’s gaze tracked up the stairs to where Lizzie had appeared with another girl. “It hasn’t been wasted time at all,” he said, grinning. The other girl was rather pretty, with dark hair, porcelain skin, and a figure to envy. She blushed prettily when she noticed Philip’s gaze upon her.

  “This is Emma,” Lizzie announced when they reached the bottom of the stairs. She then made introductions all around. “Now, we’re going to go out for a night on the town, an ordinary group of young men and their girls.”

  Philip wasted no time in extending his arm to Emma, who smiled shyly as she took it. Lizzie gave me a long look, her lips twitching slightly, before turning to Geoffrey and saying, “It looks like you’ve got me. I hope you don’t have a problem with gingers.”

  “I’m far more interested in what lies under the hair,” he said, to which she raised an eyebrow.

  I got the feeling that Lizzie had chosen to leave me with Henry, but I wasn’t sure of her motive. I didn’t think I’d shown any particular interest in him that would have made her think I would prefer to be his partner for the evening. Perhaps she merely assumed I’d be more comfortable with him, since I knew him best.

  Lizzie, on Geoffrey’s arm, led us through the crowded streets full of young working people out for a Saturday night. I was rather surprised when we ended up at the old theater where the Rebel Mechanics’ headquarters used to be. There were posters up for a theatrical review, and the ticket window was doing a brisk business. We bypassed the window and were waved inside by the boy who was taking tickets. I had to look twice to recognize Nat, a newsboy who sold the underground newspaper. He looked like an entirely different person with his face washed, bareheaded, and with his hair neatly combed. “Enjoy the show, Verity,” he said with a grin.

  As we made our way to our seats, I leaned over to Lizzie and whispered, “Just what is going on here?”

  “If we’re to convince the authorities that this was always nothing more than a dramatic society, then we need to put on some shows. It’s all entirely above reproach.” She winced slightly. “Though not very good. It is quite amusing, however. Have you considered branching out into theater criticism?”

  “I thought we were here for a meeting.”

  “Patience. Appearances must be upheld.”

  We sat in chairs whose red velvet cushions had seen better days, possibly in the last century. I noticed that the lighting was no longer electric. The globes were there, but the dynamo in the basement had been moved out of the city with the other machines. Instead, there were gas sconces along the walls and a chandelier overhead.

  I was surprised by how full the theater was. I recognized many of the patrons from Mechanics-related gatherings, and a few of the girls from my network of contacts were there. Most of the theatergoers seemed to be from the neighborhood—no upper-crust patrons of the arts, except for the one woman richly dressed all in black and heavily veiled. I didn’t know her identity, but she appeared at many of the Mechanics’ events and funded some of their inventions. She looked at us, and I had the feeling that our eyes met for a moment. She adjusted her veil, as though making sure it thoroughly covered her face.

  “Do they always do this sort of thing?” Henry whispered to me.

  “They do like to put on a show. It just usually isn’t on a stage.”

  He grinned and settled back in his seat. “It’s been ages since I had an evening at the theater.”

  Soon, the lights dimmed, somewhat unevenly. There was a halfhearted spatter of applause when Colin—who else?—appeared on the stage in front of the curtain. I smiled at the thought that Flora would be extremely jealous of me. Or perhaps might find her infatuation fading, depending on what happened.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, projecting his voice to the back row. “We are pleased to present the finest collection of theatrical entertainment you’re likely to find tonight on this block.” That got a chuckle from the audience. “And without further ado, a scene from Shakespeare himself.”

  He jumped off the stage to take a seat in the front row as the curtain opened. It got stuck halfway, and someone had to run out and give it a sharp yank before it revealed the entire stage.

  I recognized the setup for what had to be the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. The balcony was made of scaffolding on which a garland of flowers had been draped. Juliet wore a wig of long braids that trailed behind her. The scene went the way I’d memorized it, until at one point Romeo abruptly said, “Juliet, Juliet, let down your hair.” She dropped the braids over the side of the balcony, and he proceeded to climb up to join her, to much amusement from the audience. The scene progressed in an odd mix of Romeo and Juliet and the fairy tale “Rapunzel” that I had to admit was quite clever, though rather broadly acted.

  The rest of the show was more of the same, with Colin entertaining the crowd during scene changes. He put his powerful tenor voice to use, singing plaintive songs about the land across the sea, and those interludes were the only times when the show could be taken at all seriously.

  It was during one of his songs that a murmur came through the crowd, and I turned to see several uniformed soldiers entering the theater. I couldn’t tell if this was a raid or if they were merely looking for entertainment on their night off.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered to Lizzie.

  “Don’t worry,” she replied, also in a whisper. “This is what we want. They come most every night, trying to catch us doing something clandestine. Instead, all they get are Colin’s bad jokes.”

  “Every night? But I thought he was out of town.”

  “Shh. We’ll talk later.”

  I barely noticed the rest of the show as I worried about what would happen. It would be very bad if the magister men were recognized. Even if they weren’t connected to revolutionary activities, they were associating with nonmagister women in a situation that looked romantic. I knew Henry didn’t socialize much and was never mentioned in the society pages, but I wasn’t sure how well-known the others were. I forced myself not to stare at the soldiers. They hadn’t approached us and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to us. Perhaps they wouldn’t if I didn’t draw their notice by acting nervous.

  Colin closed out the night by presenting the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet, and I was surprised to find that he performed it entirely straight, without the slightest hint of satire. I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that he was an excellent actor, considering how much his work relied upon showmanship. The Rebel Mechanics knew how to stage a scene.

  The soldiers applauded along with everyone else as the lights came up and the cast came out to take their bows. Henry, Geoffrey, and Philip cheered along with everyone else. They grinned like they’d really enjoyed the show.

  We stayed as the theater slowly emptied. Much to my relief, the soldiers left without lingering. The veiled woman remained until almost everyone else was gone before slipping away after what I felt was one last long glance at us. When only the cast was left resetting the stage, Lizzie brought our group down to the front. Colin jumped off the stage to come greet us. “So, what did you think of our little show?” he asked.

  “I enjoyed it a great deal,” I said, quite honestly.

  “It was a rather entertaining production,” Henry said.

  “Jolly good show,” Philip added.

  Colin gave
a pointed look at the three magisters, then turned back to me, raising a quizzical eyebrow. I knew it would technically be proper to introduce him to the others, as they were higher in rank, but I thought this was hardly a time to stick to social rules. “Colin, you remember Henry, don’t you? And these are his friends, Philip and Geoffrey. “

  Philip stuck his hand out at Colin. “Delighted to meet you. You’re awfully talented,” he said, beaming.

  After a pause that went on long enough to become rude, Colin took his hand and shook it. “Thank you. You’re obviously a man of excellent taste.”

  Lizzie took his arm. “I need a word with you, my dear brother,” she said.

  To us, he said, “I’m sure she wants to critique the Hamlet. She’s never satisfied.” In spite of his jovial tone, his eyes were serious.

  “I don’t think he’s happy to see us,” Geoffrey said dryly as we watched them go to the other side of the theater, where they had an animated discussion. All of Colin’s discussions were animated, but this one seemed particularly intense. From this distance, I couldn’t tell who was arguing what or which one was winning. They were both smiling when they returned to us.

  “Would you like to join us for the cast party?” Colin asked. “Then we can get to know each other. If you’ll follow me…” We followed him to the theater’s basement. “I’m afraid we’ll have to take the long way around, since you took that doorway away for us.”

  “We can put it back for you,” Henry said.

  “That should probably wait until after the soldiers leave town. We don’t have the machines here anymore, but we don’t want them discovering what we’ve done with their old subway system in case they pull another surprise inspection at the theater.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Henry agreed. “But when you want the door back, send a message to Verity.”