A Fine Necromance

by Lidiya Foxglove

  The council members laughed.

  “What kind of mother doesn’t follow her instincts to know what is best for her own child?” Ignatius countered. “Did your son live out his entire young life as a dragon? I lived mine as a boy. She wasn’t wrong.”

  Catherine very quietly simmered for one long beat. “Miss Halt, did my daughter believe you to be a warlock when she was seeing you?”

  “Where is that law?” Ignatius said. “Lying to a girlfriend isn’t illegal and neither is one woman dating another.”

  “So she didn’t know.”

  “She did know,” he fired back.

  “She did know? She knew she was dating a woman?”

  “She was dating Ignatius Blair.”

  “Ina was a good girl.”

  “She was a wonderful girl,” Ignatius said, his voice getting a little softer. “Is…a wonderful woman.”

  “She is in the Haven and she’s not the girl I knew,” Catherine said. “My daughter died when a demon killed her. I’m sure something like that would never have happened if Samuel never met you.”

  This upset Ignatius too, clearly. He had to look away from her. “None of us knew that would happen.”

  One of the other witches cleared her throat. “You attended warlock schools throughout your entire education, all of grade school and university, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did anyone at school know your secret?”

  “Yes. Samuel Caruthers and Stuart Jablonsky.”

  “No one else?”

  “No.”

  “The entire time?”

  “There was no need to tell anyone,” Ignatius said.

  “What spells did you use to maintain this lie?”

  “It wasn’t a lie,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “It didn’t feel like a lie,” he said. “As you noted, I went through school including a master’s degree and then went on to teach and become the dean of a warlock university and no one ever knew or guessed, that entire time, except my two best friends, because I told them. The purpose of this law is…what? Please explain it to me.”

  “You clearly know the law.”

  “And I clearly don’t understand its purpose.”

  Montague smiled a little. “He’s good at pissing them off.”

  “The purpose? Men and women are different and have different roles in our community. This system has worked for thousands of years and the vast majority of witches and warlocks thrive within it. When wizards try to use magic that doesn’t suit their role, it becomes very dangerous,” Madame Solano said.

  “Who wrote the rules?” Ignatius said. “The official document, the laws of the Ethereal Councils?”

  “They were written, as I’m sure you know, by the councils of their day.”

  “At which point the majority was from the Holy Roman Empire. How comforting to know we have seen no need to update the document since then; clearly they had it right. When was the last time you actually tried it?” Ignatius asked.

  “Tried what?”

  “Letting women learn elementals and conjuring. Letting men practice enchantment and divination.”

  The warlocks laughed and a few of the women shuddered. “We don’t want men learning enchantment,” one of them snapped, standing up. She was slight, with a faint purple tint to her black hair. “It was wise and right that they were banned from it. They used to use it to control women. You are doing us no favors.”

  “That doesn’t make sense!” Ignatius said. “We’re all magic users here; a woman should be able to defend herself from a man with her elemental magic as easily as he could enchant her.”

  “So you want witches and warlocks to battle each other?”

  Ignatius sighed. “All I wanted was to live my life as a man, and I never tried to deceive anyone who would be affected—namely, Ina. I know you don’t want to hear it, Catherine, but Ina loved me and I loved her.”

  Catherine got a look in her eyes like she was out for blood now. “You ruined her life. You corrupted her. I lost both of my children and I blame you and I blame Emily and no one else! They were good children and you brought them in league with a demon because you were trying to open up a path to a realm that is forbidden to you! You were power-hungry, Miss Halt, and you enjoyed fooling everyone around you with your perversion.”

  “Why do you have such a problem with women’s magic?” Purple Hair asked. “It is every bit as powerful. We are proud of our magic and we don’t want to share it with them. How is it our fault that you ‘wanted to live as a man’?”

  “There is no place for questions in this world,” Ignatius said. “All the rules are set and woe to anyone who wonders why they exist. I knew many boys at my magic school who struggled with the elemental arts or were afraid of conjuring higher spirits. They might have thrived if they could learn enchantment or healing instead. Not everyone thinks the same. In the Fixed Plane, all over the free world,” Ignatius said heatedly, “they are grappling with these same issues and things are changing rapidly there. Women are gaining more power in the male sphere, and men are also gaining the ability to be softer. To be healers and nurturers. To love who they want to love, in every way.”

  A black warlock scoffed loudly. “You are going to lecture us about the Fixed Plane? When the Americans were bringing slaves from Africa and slaughtering the natives of their land, we were rescuing our own and giving them the dignity they deserved. My great-grandfather was working on a plantation when my great-grandmother rescued him, married him, helped him learned to read, and he went on to start the first magical library in the midwest.”

  “That’s a wonderful story,” Ignatius said. “But…getting some things right doesn’t mean you’re just done thinking, does it? I won’t even get into how European witches set down the rules globally.”

  “I think you already touched on that, Miss Halt,” Madame Solano said primly. “It is clear to me, your position. You think you are smarter than the rest of us and all these rules were made just to oppress you. Good heavens, usually by the time a witch is as old as you are, she is past this sort of nonsense. Let’s move on to the most troubling part of this. Your teaching career. You have spent your life guiding warlocks into adulthood and teaching them about magic under the pretense that you are also a warlock, which you are not, however you may protest. Hundreds of boys have been exposed to your views.”

  “Not really,” he said. “I learned to keep them to myself.”

  “Oh yes. Because you had a motive,” Catherine said.

  “A motive?”

  “I would like to call Charlotte Caruthers Byrne to the stand,” she said, looking back at me.

  I had actually settled my head onto Montague’s shoulder and now I jerked upward. “No one told me I was…going to be a witness,” I said.

  “Come here, Charlotte,” Catherine said. “You’re not in trouble.”

  Now Ignatius saw us seated there and I saw the look of humiliation reappear on his face. I guess he didn’t want us to see him forced into a dress and referred to as ‘Miss Halt’, but I tried to give him an encouraging look. He was holding his own.

  “Piers,” Harris said. “You lied to her.”

  Spots of faint pink shame appeared on Piers’ pale cheeks. “Well, I didn’t really know how it would unfold.”

  Shakily, I went down the stairs until I reached the spot where Catherine was pointing her wand. I was now one step below the council. There were about fifteen of them, men and women, most of them very old, not that the younger ones were any better, all of them looking down at me. Ignatius was looking down at me too, and he seemed anguished.

  She tapped her wand to the back of my hand. “Do you swear to speak nothing but the whole truth as long as you are before this council?”

  “Errr…” I was terrified, on multiple levels. I feared they might ask me about Ignatius but also Firian, Alec, Professor McGuinness and Stuart. What danger could I cause to my friends?

  �
�What are you hiding, Charlotte, that you are afraid to speak?” Catherine pressed.

  “I…nothing, I’m—”

  “Speak, Charlotte, or we will force you to speak.”

  “I did have a motive,” Ignatius said. “Stop. I know what you want to know. You want me to tell you that I conspired—along with Samuel—to send Charlotte to Merlin College. We planned this from the time of her birth when we sensed she had strong potentials. We bided our time, behaving ourselves. Samuel helped me fake her application and I allowed her to attend. We had long planned for Charlotte to follow in Samuel’s footsteps, and acquire a Wyrd wand, and everything was going according to plan.”

  “I see.” Catherine whirled on me. “He used you. He controlled your destiny for you. He tore you from your father and put you in great danger.”

  There is some truth to that.

  A part of me had always been suspicious of Ignatius.

  Ignatius looked at me. “I believed you could be the first Wyrd sans-pareil. Maybe I did use you. Then I tried to send you home, but you returned. I guess the question is, do you believe in my fight?”

  I gave the tiniest nod as Catherine said, “Now we can all see you trying to corrupt innocents in real time! This is the sort of thing you whispered to Ina, I bet! And you seem to be unrepentant.”

  “Oh yes. I am wholly unrepentant,” Ignatius said, gripping the stand with both hands now. “Just leave her out of it. Charlotte should not be put in this position.”

  “She confessed,” Catherine said.

  “Miss Halt, you have the right for your lawyer to speak on your behalf before we decide your sentence.”

  “I already know there is nothing he can say,” Ignatius said.

  “Charlotte, thank you, you can return to your friends.” Catherine dismissed me with a look of feigned concern and I ran back up to the balcony, but I felt just…icky. Like when you clean up an overflowed toilet and how everything just feels toilet-y for a while afterward, but emotionally. A toilet had overflowed inside my head, and that toilet was my great-aunt.

  The witch council huddled to discuss, but they seemed to decide quickly. Madame Solano stood again and said, “Amelia Halt, you and your familiar are hereby banished from Etherium. Present your hand.”

  He was breathing a little raggedly now, facing down his fate. I saw him swallow down his fear. He held out his palm and Madame Solano traced a mark upon it.

  “Ahh…” He winced, curling his fingers up, as the symbol seemed to burn, and then some invisible force shoved him out of the realm right before our eyes, leaving a weird flash in its wake before that also faded.

  Harris was almost on his feet. “It’s dangerous for him there,” he said.

  “He can’t just stay in the Fixed Plane?” I said.

  “He will be banned from all Ethereal parallels now,” Montague said. “His familiar will be in danger in Sinistral. And he won’t be able to use Ethereal magic. It’s a very precarious position for any wizard. Especially with…”

  “With what? My heart can’t take any hesitation, Montague!”

  “The Withered Lord is probably going to target him,” Harris said. “I know what we need to do.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Charlotte

  We met over dinner after a really awful day of trying to keep it together, because Piers told Daisy she was forbidden from entering our dorm. Not gonna lie, I skipped my last class and called Firian to tell him what happened. I was so shaken by everything, and I wanted him with me.

  Daisy sat down at our table. She looked over her shoulder. “This is out of control. Girl, you look awful. But I do like your llama socks. I was skeptical but now that I see them I get it.”

  Harris came up to us with some books and notebooks tucked under his arm. “Make room,” he said to Daisy, who had one half of a booth to herself.

  “Is that how you talk to a princess?”

  “You aren’t a princess,” Harris said.

  “I have to do important magic for other people thanks to my bloodline and marry someone I don’t want to marry. Sounds like a princess to me.” She stirred her stew tensely. “Did you spend your whole day locked in a dark room under orders to do magic for Piers?”

  “My cousin’s actions are unconscionable,” Harris said, giving up on sitting down and leaning against the booth instead, tossing the books in front of us among our sad gray bowls of barley stew. “We need to shame him out of his position and save Alec and Master Blair.”

  “How can you possibly manage all of that?” Montague asked.

  “Piers was sent here to restore Merlin College to its old, council-run, Ethereal, patriarchal mode,” Harris said. “But he’s failing. He couldn’t purify Charlotte. Alec’s dad is surely devastated. Alec was his only son and he’s never really done anything ‘Sinistral’ before. So, where does he go from here? If he can’t purify you successfully, he’s just going to get rid of you. I’m sure Montague is next. At this point, you’re alone, and that is when your great-aunt is going to wrangle a marriage between me and you.” Harris looked at me. “Having lost everyone you cared about, my family will offer you wealth, your power back, and no doubt, a chance to redeem the people you lost. A bargain. My guess is that they will offer Alec and Monty a path back to redemption if they bring the head of the Withered Lord to the council.”

  “What? Marriage? How do you know that?”

  “Because I heard Piers and Catherine conniving a little while back about arranging a marriage between us,” Harris said. “I told you I had a plan to save Firian. The Hapsburg artifacts have great healing power. As I was puzzling over all the possibilities last night, it all started clicking. What does the council want? They want the Withered Lord dead and the Caruthers family redeemed, but they don’t want a bargain with the faeries or Wyrd to gain any power. If they claim the spoils, that takes care of that. And what do our families want, especially mine? They want me to follow in Piers’ footsteps. Catherine wants her family’s dignity restored. If you marry me, the Caruthers are back in the good graces of the council. Daisy, I’m guessing, might be offered up to Alec instead of Piers. The Lyrmans are a good family and if Alec can be credited as the hero that kills the Withered Lord, his redemption arc is complete and little diviner heirs are guaranteed. It would be a heroic act worthy of being readmitted to Etherium.”

  “Ohhh…,” Daisy said. “I mean—horrible plan. Poor Charlotte and Alec.” She pouted just a tad.

  “That is a lot of conjecture,” Montague said.

  “It sort of adds up,” I said. “Catherine did try to give me the whole ‘we’re family’ spiel.”

  “I guess I have wondered why they haven’t took us aside and told us we can’t summon the Withered Lord,” Montague said. “So in this scenario, I ride off with the vampires and never see the rest of you again…”

  “I don’t think Piers wants to give me up,” Daisy said. “But thank you for trying to give me a happy ending.”

  Harris nodded faintly. “Well, Daisy, I think Piers is already starting to realize that you are a little much.”

  “It’s my life goal to be as extra as possible,” Daisy said.

  “And I suppose I just fade out of memory,” Firian said.

  “We’re not letting that scenario happen,” Harris said, giving me a private glance that reminded me of the bet we’d made.

  “All right,” Montague said. “Tell us the plan. I can see you’re bursting with it.”

  “I never ‘burst’ with anything,” Harris said.

  “What did I tell you? Nicolescus can’t bring it,” Daisy said, offering me a high-five. “Up top.”

  “And down low.”

  “I am not gracing that with a comment,” Harris said. “We need to take out the Withered Lord and give his head to the faeries as soon as possible.”

  My high-fiving session came to an abrupt end. “Like…how soon?”

  “I tell you, they don’t think we’re really going to do it. I assure you the Withe
red Lord isn’t expecting it either. We need to do it. We have a faery lord, two professors, a clan of vampires, and whatever Hapsburg treasure I can nab… We’ve got some fire power.”

  “Okay,” Montague said. “You’re right. Another year of training isn’t going to matter to centuries-old vampires or faery lords. I’m in.”

  “We’re—sure—we can do this?”

  “Charlotte, as I have said all along, I am happy for you to not be involved,” Harris said. “In fact, I would much prefer it if you sat this out.”

  “Reverse psychology,” I said. “Okay, fine. I can do it.”

  “It’s not reverse psychology,” Harris said. “I don’t want you girls to die.”

  “You’re still doing it,” I said. “Always with the ‘girls’. Do you want Montague to die?”

  Montague rapped a teaspoon on the table. “Order,” he said. “We have to organize better than this if we’re going to take down a demon. I will contact Rayner and tell him this is the plan.”

  “During Christmas break, I will try to get my hands on some artifacts,” Harris said.

  “I can divine Stu’s location,” Daisy said.

  “And I can find the other professors’ familiars and get in touch with them,” Firian said.

  “What do I do?” I asked.

  “You can tell Alec to find Ignatius and his familiar in Sinistral and stick together. They need to stay safe somewhere,” Harris said. “So get to dreaming.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Mission accepted.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Alec

  The good thing about Sinistral is that intention was everything. Once Charlotte told me in my latest delicious dream that Ignatius was here, I rushed down the forest path to one point.

  The crows were gathering toward the same point.

  “Ignatius!” I cried.

  “Gyah!” I heard around the bend.