She held it out. Gutrune reached for it, keeping it as far away as she could, but the instant her fingers touched it, the illusion sprang up around her.
“Oh, well done!” Markus sat up, hitting his head on the underside of the bunk with a muttered curse and slumping down again.
“It feels no different.” Gutrune sounded relieved. “And to remove it?”
“Wrap it in something thick, and keep it away from your skin. If we had any silver tissue, or chryselectrum…”
Gutrune gave a small smile. “Either of which would advertise the magical nature of the charm, no? I will find a means to hide it, then.” She put her hand on the doorknob of the cabin.
“Why don’t we have Herr Asgaya accompany you, so you can have an avoidance shield as well as your new illusion,” Dominic suggested in a suddenly bright tone.
Gutrune lifted an eyebrow. “There is no need to inconvenience him so.”
Ardhuin took her place at the door, opened it a crack, and peered out. “Completely empty.” Gutrune smiled her thanks and slipped out.
When Ardhuin turned back, Markus was making a silent face at Dominic, who was shrugging. Both turned bland, innocent faces her way when they noticed she was staring at them.
“It’s a pity she left before seeing your imager in action,” Markus said. “I think she would have enjoyed it—but no, business first.”
Dominic scowled. “I hope it still works. What will we do if the spells are damaged too? Can we remove the extra magic, or will I have to make it again from scratch?”
“There is only one way to find out.” Markus grinned encouragingly.
Dominic fiddled with the device, pressing various levers and turning a dial before holding it up, aiming it at Ardhuin. He pressed the main lever, but instead of the usual loud click, it rattled for a moment. Ardhuin stepped forward to examine the device, but the rattling suddenly stopped.
“Oh, blast. The main spring must be misaligned…but did it capture an image?” Dominic pressed the other control, the one that displayed the image.
Instead of the frozen instant of illusion, a series of images, following closely on one another, showed a small, ghostly Ardhuin first in profile, smiling, then turning her head to face the viewer with a concerned expression.
“Do it again.” Markus was staring at the image intently. “That was fascinating. Almost real. A true illusion. Wouldn’t it be remarkable if you could also capture sound?”
With a start, Ardhuin remembered the magic MacCrimmon had used for his message. “But we can do that already. What are you thinking of?”
Markus waved a hand. “Oh, anything…a recorded message that would be secure, and proving the identity of the source. Or a famous singer.” He grinned.
“Bah. What would be the use of that, when you would have to arrange to hear the singer anyway to create the image?” Dominic grumbled, shoving the imager back in its box. “Far easier to just get a parrot. Now I’ll have to completely redo it, and when will I have the chance?” Another roll of the ship made him lose his balance and stumble against the wall. “Certainly not here.”
His eyes widened and his irritation vanished, replaced by a look of fascination Ardhuin was beginning to recognize. “I wonder…how far down do waves go? If I made a larger submersible that could travel under water…”
Chapter 11
Dominic sat at his tiny desk and wrote furiously, trying to get all of the rich details down while they were fresh in his mind. He could rearrange them to suit the story later. He was vaguely aware of an empty sensation in his stomach and idly wondered if he had not heard the summons to lunch, or if he had merely forgotten to eat again.
“We’ve stopped, but this isn’t Kiantan.”
Bewildered, Dominic looked up from his writing. For a moment he was disoriented, missing the birdcage with his pet mouse, then remembered. He was on a ship thousands of leagues from Peran, and this was not his desk but one in the tiny passenger saloon. Markus Asgaya was standing beside him, a small line of worry between his brows.
“Supplies, perhaps?”
Markus shook his head. “The whole journey takes two weeks at most. This ship is provisioned for months. Ho, Bové! Do you know why we are stopping?”
The expedition leader sighed. “New customs requirements, I hear. The Cathan government is paranoid about foreign influences, some times more than others. Our arrival appears to have coincided with the high tide of officialdom. It shouldn’t be too bad, at least this direction. They might want a small bribe to let all our supplies through. No, it’s going back that they are dangerous. I’ve had to wait months for them to release our specimens, on some trumped–up pretext.”
“Ah. How charming that such disparate cultures have bureaucracy in common,” Markus remarked. “I feel quite at home.”
Bové laughed and went back to his planning. Markus took a seat in one of the overstuffed and slightly threadbare armchairs, and Dominic went back to work. Only to be interrupted a few moments later by the arrival of the ship’s purser, a harassed–looking man with sandy hair and freckles.
“Got some messages waitin’ for you at the trade station, sir.” He handed Bové several slips of paper. “Oh, and one for you, Mr. Asgaya.”
Markus took it, one eyebrow raised. “Now who would be sending anything to me here? Oh. Him. Of course.” He tucked the message in an inside pocket of his coat and stood, giving Dominic a significant look before leaving the saloon.
Dominic sighed, blotted the few new lines he had added, closed the inkwell, and folded up his work before leaving the saloon himself. Markus was on the open deck, frowning at the sea and the longboat leaving the ship.
“Well?”
Markus didn’t look up. “It’s from her brother. I’m to pass on a message, in code, naturally. If he can find out where this blasted ship is going to stop before I do even when I’m on it, you would think he could also find a way to reach her directly.”
Dominic tried to hide his smile. “She hardly knows herself what new alias she will find useful, and it is not the sort of thing she would want to communicate. It is much better for him to send to someone traveling under his own name, and who would be expected to get foreign telegrams.”
Markus made a grumbling noise. “I suppose.”
“So, have you made any progress?” Dominic returned Markus’s narrowed stare with his most bland expression. “Did she like the knife?”
Markus leaned his elbows on the rail and dropped his face on his hands. “Yes, yes, you were right. Of course she liked the knife. For all I know she’s used it already. I don’t think it is a wise tactic to pursue, though. It only encourages her.”
Dominic rolled his eyes. “I think you need to ask yourself why you find yourself drawn to her if you disapprove of what she does. Of all the ladies at the Preusan court, you chose her. Why? Her impeccable society manners? Her frivolous conversation and fondness for gossip?” Despite himself, Markus grinned. “Do you imagine she will ever sit contentedly at home, having tea parties while you have adventures?”
Markus straightened up. “Well, when you put it that way…no, I don’t see her deriving much enjoyment from a society tea party.”
“Well, what do you want?” Dominic threw up his hands in exasperation.
The brief amusement in Markus’s face vanished. “What I can’t have, most likely. It is a common refrain.”
And now Dominic was feeling sorry for him again. “You certainly can’t expect conventionality—but it can still work. Ardhuin and I manage quite well.”
Markus bared his teeth. “Fräulein von Kitren’s devotion to duty is complete and her notions of proper behavior strict.”
“Sorry, this is the woman who launched herself through an upper window of a caravanserai in full Bedun garb, correct? At midnight?”
“I was referring to the sort of…arrangement of convenience and understanding that can take place—but which she would regard as an insult,
and rightly so,” Markus said, his offhand manner somewhat strained. “But then, an arrangement that she would agree to, assuming permission would be obtained from her royal employer, it only removes one difficulty and replaces it with another. A difficulty you yourself have encountered—and I am not a monk.”
Dominic frowned at him. “Neither am I.”
Before Markus could respond, intrigued curiosity in his eyes, something caught Dominic’s attention. Something bright was in the longboat, now returning to the ship. Something magically bright. A chill of fear washed over him.
“That inspection Bové referred to…does it involve magic?”
Bové did not know, but the purser, more current, did. “Yes sir, they are dead set against any foreign magic getting in. Seems they think it will corrupt their own right and proper magic, what’s been approved by the emperor and such.”
“You mean they forbid magicians from entering?”
“If they don’t do any magic, who’s to know?” The purser shrugged. “It’s new. All they told me is they are looking for any magic equipment and spells, and anybody with ’em won’t be let in.”
Dominic and Markus exchanged quick, startled glances. “What are we going to do? That longboat must already be here,” Dominic said, feeling panicked. The mineral salts alone would be enough to get them in trouble, but if they could also detect the illusions on Ardhuin and Gutrune…
“You go find your wife. I’ll find Bové and get him to delay the inspectors.” Markus turned quickly, then gasped and stepped back.
Bové was standing in the doorway of the saloon, staring at him with a hard expression in his eyes. “What’s going on? What are you hiding? Don’t imagine I’m going to help you smuggle contraband, because—”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Markus snarled at him while shoving Dominic toward the door to the cabins. “This air of outraged innocence does not become you. You knew when you saw who was funding us that we weren’t off to pick daisies. Get going—we don’t have much time!” he snapped at Dominic over his shoulder.
Dominic ran. What could they do, even if he did find Ardhuin? They’d have to use magic to hide, but that would be detected, wouldn’t it? Not if we know what they are detecting first. Back in Baerlen, with the students—even they didn’t have universal detection devices, and in the Cathan empire, famous for its reluctance to make use of modern magical science, how would they be able to do better? The detection device had to be fairly strong for him to have seen it at such a distance, but it might be highly specific.
After a frantic search Dominic found Ardhuin coming back with Sonam from the hold where their baggage was stored. Dominic quickly described the problem.
“Sonam can remove his illusion,” Ardhuin began, but Sonam shook his head.
“To see one of my people, here? They will notice and remark on it. Perhaps forbid me to travel. I should not show my true face to them.”
Ardhuin rubbed her forehead, wincing. “We need to find out what they are using. If there is a way to hide from it, then we will know what to do.”
“We definitely need to hide Sonam, the mineral salts, and the imager in the cabin. Any other magical equipment in the hold we can deny, but those things will give the game away. But they will search the entire ship; where can we hide them?”
Sonam’s eyes brightened. “I hide outside the ship! On a rope. When they go, I climb up.”
“But they will see you,” Ardhuin protested. “There are people in the boat the inspector came on, for one thing. This ship is out in the open water with no concealment.”
Dominic suddenly remembered his experiments in the fishpond back home. “But if he were underwater, they could not see him.” He turned to Sonam. “Can you make a…a ward, like a bubble, that contains air to breathe, and submerge?” Sonam hesitated, then nodded quickly.
“I saw some rope back in the hold,” Ardhuin said. “I think you are small enough to fit through the porthole in our cabin—can you take down the wards? We can’t leave them up, I suppose.”
“I can do this. They will not find me.” Sonam darted off.
“We had better go. Have you seen Gutrune?” Dominic asked. “She’s got that illusioned charm now.”
Ardhuin thinned her lips. “The best thing we can do for her now is find a way around that magic detector.”
Since he had nothing to hide, Dominic went first through the ship, looking for the inspection team, while Ardhuin followed behind concealed in shadow. He found the Cathan inspectors in the passenger saloon, arguing with the purser through an interpreter.
“What do you mean, you have to check all foreigners on board? Why? We have their names and nationalities here on this list, and that’s been good enough for years!”
“We must see face, to not let criminal inside our borders,” the head inspector insisted. “All person on ship.”
They wanted to check everyone, and Dominic could guess why. The purser’s face was becoming progressively more flushed as he argued, so this must be a completely new regulation, or one invented by this official. He shook his head. Another problem, but a minor one. He focused on the carved ivory staff, bright with magic, carried by the inspector’s assistant. At a gesture the assistant held it horizontally before him and walked about the saloon.
Dominic squinted. The staff generated a cloud of magic about itself, and when it encountered anything with magic, a gem inset in the staff flashed. Dominic saw it detect the philogiston light, and how the cloud shrank away from the philogiston.
He faded back to where Ardhuin was hiding, under the cover of the ship’s officers summoned to help the infuriated purser explain they couldn’t remove the lighting and it would stay on the ship no matter what. He explained what he saw in a whisper. “It looks a little like the sensing field you once cast,” he added. “Is that what they are doing?”
“It is possible…did it look like this?” Ardhuin created a little ball of magic. Dominic shook his head. “Or perhaps like this?”
The second attempt was a much closer match. Dominic went back to the saloon, waving one finger behind his back when the inspectors were looking away from the doorway. He saw the flash of magic go by his head, and the silvery light encased a brass spittoon in the corner.
When the assistant with the staff went by, it did not detect the magic on the spittoon.
“Ha!” Ardhuin had a fiercely triumphant gleam in her eye. “It’s just checking for a field that isn’t like itself. And it isn’t strong enough to go through a field. All I have to do is put up a layer of magic like the detector’s around everything we need to hide.”
“Did you hear what he said? They are checking the passenger list. If Sonam isn’t present…”
Ardhuin nodded. “I have an idea. I think you should find Gutrune now, and tell her to go to our cabin without them seeing her.”
Dominic left to deliver the message and to check on the inspection of the goods in the hold. When he returned to the cabin, the inspectors were already there. He took a deep breath and continued forward. Magic was bright everywhere inside. “Mr. Talbot” was encased in multiple layers, protecting the illusion concealing Ardhuin, and a complete illusion showed a sleeping young man in the lower bunk with the appearance Sonam wore when illusioned. He looked tired and ill. Gutrune was there too, leaning against the wall, face impassive.
“He’s been seasick,” Ardhuin explained, after the officials started suggesting a quarantine. “Nothing serious.”
After the officials left, Dominic stood in the doorway, watching other inspections. Every Aeropan passenger was examined, but especially the few women—and Dominic saw one lady with sandy hair being escorted out by the officials, protesting loudly that she had done nothing wrong.
Dominic watched her go, frowning. He decided to go up on deck so they would know when the inspectors had left. It took them two hours, but eventually they did. Bové came up as their longboat pulled away.
“They’ve
never done anything like this before.” He took a pull on his pipe, face impassive. “I certainly got the impression they were looking for something. Or someone.”
“Yes. I wonder why?”
Bové gave him a long look. “So do I. Apparently that something, or someone, isn’t on this ship—or is well hidden. And as long as that situation continues, I won’t ask awkward questions.” He pointed the stem of his pipe at Dominic, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re up to, and it’s probably better I don’t. Maybe there’s more to you than meets the eye. But you want to be careful. I heard what Asgaya asked you earlier.”
“What do you mean?” Dominic felt a sinking feeling.
Bové smiled. “I just realized—I don’t recall that you received any messages from your wife since we left Bretagne. I hope all is well at home?”
The ramp flexed disconcertingly as Dominic stepped on it, but it remained intact and in place long enough for everyone to depart the strange square–sailed boat that had taken them from the clipper to the foreigners’ dock. Even that was not land, but a huge floating building in the harbor of Kiantan. Only after they had been given official government passes would they be allowed to set foot on the territory of Cathai.
“It’s bigger than Peran,” Ardhuin whispered, following close behind him.
Beams jutted out from the sides, carved with square geometric designs on every surface. Small paper lanterns hung from the ends of the beams, with—Dominic peered underneath—actual burning lights inside.
“Aren’t they afraid of fire?” he wondered.
“Very much so.” Bové, leading the way, turned his head to speak. “And even more afraid of plague. Foreigners and their ideas are, of course, considered a form of plague. Hence the isolated barge and the purification lamps.”
“Is that what the markings mean? I thought they were just decoration.”
Bové smiled. “The inscriptions very prettily warn of evil emanations and uncouth behavior.”
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