Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling (52 page)

“Go hunting for the Witch-King,” Elaine said, simply.

Light Spinner snorted. “
You
will leave the city for months – or years – searching for him?”

“Yes,” Elaine said, although she had to admit that Light Spinner was right to have doubts. Leaving the city would hurt, even if they went to another city – and she knew better than to think that it would be that easy. They’d have to go into territory damaged by the wars and still largely uninhabited, hundreds of years later. “Whoever goes has to have the knowledge I have and the power Johan has.”

“If you’re sure,” Light Spinner said. “But there is the question of ensuring that Johan does not go on another rampage.”

Her brown eyes seemed to tighten for a long moment. “Can you stop him through the apprenticeship bond?”

“I believe so,” Elaine said, not entirely truthfully. She could have, if it was a normal bond, but it wasn’t settling in properly. Or maybe it was just taking its time. “But I think he’s learned his lesson.”

“I wish that were true of the rest of his family,” Light Spinner said. “House Conidian will be moribund until Charity reaches her majority ... and by then the patronage network Duncan ruled may have fragmented.”

Elaine grimaced. It had been simple enough to convince Johan to undo most of the spells he’d cast on his family – although she had no idea why he had transformed his younger sisters into dolls – and it had helped create the illusion that Johan was dead, but it would be a long time before House Conidian recovered. There was at least one seat on the Privy Council up for grabs – two, if her resignation from the Great Library was accepted – and the power balance would shift. The deaths of other family heads would only make matters worse.

Perhaps she should stay and help, she thought. But there was little she could do. Politics was hardly her forte. Either Light Spinner held it together or a new Grand Sorcerer unseated her and took her place.

And the Levellers were still out there, waiting for their chance to challenge the established order.

“And I wonder just who benefited from all of this,” Light Spinner mused. “Duncan overplayed his hand quite badly, badly enough to make me wonder if someone else was involved. But who?”

Elaine shrugged. “I do not know,” she admitted. “But I’m sure you will deal with them.”

“Let us hope so,” Light Spinner said. She rose to her feet, signalling the end of the interview. “Go back to your library, pack your stuff and go. And may the gods go with you.”

Elaine bowed her head, then turned and left the room, leaving Light Spinner alone.

***

“She thinks I’m dead,” Johan said.

“I’m afraid so,” Elaine said, as she checked his packing. This time, there would be two suitcases of clothes each. They would travel on the Iron Dragons to the closest settlement to the remnants of the Necromantic Wars, then move from there. “You can’t go talk to her.”

Johan nodded. Somehow, the thought of losing Jayne wasn’t so painful now. He wasn’t sure if it was something he had picked up from Elaine’s mind or a side-effect of growing up, but he knew that they’d had very little, if they’d had anything at all. Jayne would go on to apprentice herself to a Potions Master – Elaine had promised that one of her friends would see to it – and she would become a great Potions Mistress herself. Or so Johan hoped.

It didn’t really matter, he told himself. He would never see her again.

He stared down at his hands, wonderingly. Jamal was powerless, his father was a broken man and his other siblings had been shocked into decent behaviour for the first time in their lives. Well, apart from Charity, he reluctantly concluded.
She
had deserved better, at the last. He’d extracted revenge for years of mistreatment, yet ... there was a part of him that knew that it had brought him nothing. All he had was the certain knowledge that if the city’s population knew him to be alive, they would all turn on him.

“I know,” he muttered. “And I can’t speak to Charity either.”

“No,” Elaine said. “Let her assume the title without knowing that she isn’t the first in line. It will make it much easier for her in the long run.”

“Yeah,” Johan muttered.

It was strange facing Elaine ... and seeing himself from her point of view. And seeing her memories; most of them had faded, but a number of the most vivid had remained in his mind. She’d seen the Witch-King’s influence reaching out over the land, she’d seen death staring her in the face, even performed a forbidden rite to bring back the souls of the dead ... but those hadn’t been her most vivid memories. But he tried to avoid thinking about the ones that truly stood out. It was not
right
for him to dwell on them.

“Your packing seems good,” Elaine said. There were fewer books this time; they were leaving for months, perhaps permanently. They couldn’t take books from the library this time. “We leave tomorrow, early in the morning.”

Johan nodded, wondering why he couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm for the ride on the Iron Dragons. He should have been excited ...

“You won,” Elaine said, quietly. She sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. “You escaped your family, you accomplished your goal ... and now you don’t know what to do next.”

“Thank you,” Johan said. She was right. “What did
you
do?”

“I walked straight into the Great Library,” Elaine admitted. “You ... may find it a little harder. But I will be there for you.”

“Thank you,” Johan said, again. “You’re the only one who ever was.”

***

In his study, behind a set of the most powerful blood wards known to magicians, Vlad Deferens raised a glass in silent salute. It had all worked out better than he had dared hope. The freakish magician was dead, House Conidian was in tatters and several other Great Houses were tottering as they came to terms with the loss of their Heads. And Lady Light Spinner’s weaknesses had been exposed for all to see. The only wild card had been the Levellers, but even
they
had been no real problem.

He smirked to himself as he took a sip of his wine. It was astonishing just how easy it had been to create an aura of fear, one that had affected even those born with the power to warp reality at will. The sight of several magicians stripped of their powers had helped, of course; it would have been kinder to threaten to castrate them. For a magician, there could be no worse threat than that of losing their powers. Even ancient magicians, doddering on their last legs, clung to their magic.

The pieces were in place. Soon, very soon, he would move. And then the world would be his.

He picked up the dark-covered book and opened it to a random page. There was power within the covers, spells long lost and forgotten ... just waiting for him to use them. The weak would call some of them
dark
, perhaps even
evil
, but Deferens knew better. All that mattered was taking power and
wielding
it. Light Spinner had taken power, even he had to concede, yet she knew nothing about its usage.

Looking into the mirror, he took a moment to smooth out his long moustache.

And he never even saw the Witch-King looking back.

The End

The Series Will Continue In:

The Best Laid Plans

Coming Soon!

Elsewhen Press

an independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction

Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

Elsewhen Press

Bookworm

Christopher Nuttall

Elaine is an orphan girl who has grown up in a world where magical ability brings power. Her limited talent was enough to ensure a magical training but she’s very inexperienced and was lucky to get a position working in the Great Library. Now, the Grand Sorcerer – the most powerful magician of them all – is dying, although initially that makes little difference to Elaine; she certainly doesn’t have the power to compete for higher status in the Golden City. But all that changes when she triggers a magical trap and ends up with all the knowledge from the Great Library – including forbidden magic that no one is supposed to know – stuffed inside her head. This unwanted gift doesn’t give her greater power, but it does give her a better understanding of magic, allowing her to accomplish far more than ever before.

It’s also terribly dangerous. If the senior wizards find out what has happened to her, they will almost certainly have her killed. The knowledge locked away in the Great Library was meant to remain permanently sealed and letting it out could mean a repeat of the catastrophic Necromantic Wars of five hundred years earlier. Elaine is forced to struggle with the terrors and temptations represented by her newfound knowledge, all the while trying to stay out of sight of those she fears, embodied by the sinister Inquisitor Dread.

But a darkly powerful figure has been drawing up a plan to take the power of the Grand Sorcerer for himself; and Elaine, unknowingly, is vital to his scheme. Unless she can unlock the mysteries behind her new knowledge, divine the unfolding plan, and discover the truth about her own origins, there is no hope for those she loves, the Golden City or her entire world.

ebook, paperback (384pp)

visit bit.ly/Bookworm-Nuttall

Elsewhen Press

The Royal Sorceress

The first book of the Royal Sorceress series

Christopher Nuttall

1830, in an alternate Britain where the ‘scientific’ principles of magic, discovered 60 years previously, allowed the British to prevent American Independence. The ageing Royal Sorcerer, Master Thomas, must find a successor: a Master of all the known magical powers. There’s only 1 candidate, who has displayed such a talent from an early age. A candidate perfect in all ways but one: the Royal College of Sorcerers has never admitted a girl before.

ebook, paperback (400pp)

visit bit.ly/TheRoyalSorceress

Elsewhen Press

The Great Game

The second book of the Royal Sorceress series

Christopher Nuttall

After the uprising in London, Lady Gwendolyn Crichton is settling into her new position as Royal Sorceress and fighting the prejudice against her gender and age that seeks to prevent her from fulfilling her responsibilities. But when a senior magician is murdered in a locked room and Gwen is charged with finding the culprit, her inquiries lead her into a web of intrigue that combines international politics, widespread aristocratic blackmail, gambling dens and personal vendettas... and some of her discoveries hit dangerously close to home.

Continuing on from the end of
The Royal Sorceress
,
The Great Game
follows Gwen’s unfolding story as she assumes the role formerly held by Master Thomas. A satisfying blend of whodunit and magical fantasy, it is set against a backdrop of international political unrest in a believable yet simultaneously fantastic alternate history.

ebook, paperback (400pp)

visit bit.ly/TheGreatGame

Elsewhen Press

A Life Less Ordinary

Christopher Nuttall

There is magic in the world, hiding in plain sight. If you search for it, you will find it, or it will find you. Welcome to the magical world.
Dizzy expected nothing from life, until she stumbled from the mundane world into the magical world, an alternate reality where dragons flew through the sky and the Great Powers watched over the world. Forgetting her old life, Dizzy became apprenticed to one of the most powerful magicians in all of reality and a bright future beckoned. But powerful dark forces had their eye on the young and inexperienced magician, intending to use her for the ultimate act of evil – the apocalyptic destruction of all reality. Now, Dizzy must beat them. If she cannot, both the magical and mundane worlds will be consumed in fire.

ebook, paperback (336pp)

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Elsewhen Press

S
UFFICIENTLY
A
DVANCED
T
ECHNOLOGY

THE FIRST BOOK IN THE
I
NVERSE
S
HADOWS UNIVERSE

C
HRISTOPHER
N
UTTALL

For the post-singularity Confederation, manipulating the quantum foam – the ability to alter the base code of the universe itself and achieve transcendence – is the holy grail of science. But it seems an impossible dream until their scouts encounter Darius, a lost colony world whose inhabitants have apparently discarded the technology that brought them to the planet in order to adopt a virtually feudal culture. On Darius, the ruling elite exhibits abilities that defy the accepted laws of physics. They can manipulate the quantum foam!

Desperate to understand what is happening on Darius, the Confederation dispatches a stealth team to infiltrate the planet's society and discover the truth behind their strange abilities. But they will soon realise that the people on Darius are not all the simple folk that they seem – and they are sitting on a secret that threatens the entire universe ...

ebook, paperback (336pp)

visit bit.ly/SAT-Nuttall

Elsewhen Press

Jacey’s Kingdom

Dave Weaver

An enthralling contemporary fantasy that revolves around Jacey Jackson, a talented student destined for Cambridge, who collapses with a brain tumour while sitting her final history exam at school. Transported to sixth-century Britain she faces magical quests, epic battles, a dragon and falling in love with a future king, whilst surgeons fight to save her life.

ebook, paperback (272pp)

visit bit.ly/JaceysKingdom

Elsewhen Press

Dandelion Trilogy

Mike French

Literary surrealism, contemporary fantasy, biting satire, dystopian science fiction. The Dandelion Trilogy by Mike French is all of these and more. Starting with
The Ascent of Isaac Steward
, this is literary surrealism at its most profound. A contemporary fantasy that follows one man’s journey into his own mind as he struggles to come to terms with the trauma that has reshaped his life and starts to question his own existence. Moving forward to 2034 in
Blue Friday
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delivers us into a truly dystopian future, where a covert military/governmental project uses prisoners on death row to explore what happens to people as they die, downloading the Convergence Point formed in the brain's memory at the point of death into clones. But when combined with Avodah they inadvertently trigger what may be the end of humanity – or a new beginning.