Court of Conspiracy (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Luke stared at Dufay. He had known he was under observation in the tavern, but had detected nobody following him on the path home. But then he had foolishly allowed his vigilance to lapse just at the time when it should have been at its highest. He had been easy meat for the sunderer, and it must have been one of that bastard clan for the evil to be still so strong upon him. The fact that Dufay could smell it and Luke could not reinforced his decision to begin the study process for the Dominus level. As last night had proved, his danger was acute. The enemy knew of him. Not just that, Luke suspected that his adversary knew the details of his mission, including who had commissioned it and what progress he had made. He would not make the same mistake twice.

“How did you get your head wound?”

“I was attacked as I returned from the tavern at Hampton last night.”

Dufay stood immobile, his head bent, his eyes closed. Luke did not move a muscle. After a few seconds, the Elemagus lifted his head.

“I am aware of the mission in your mind, but realize you are shielding other thoughts. You know that if I so desired, I could read them. However, that would be discourteous. I prefer to ask first.”

“I can tell you nothing.”

“Cannot or will not?”

“May not would be more accurate, Master Dufay. I assure you it is nothing shameful.” He prayed that he spoke the truth.

“I see. Well, before we can proceed with anything, including that wound, I do need to make sure that you are not tainted. Sit down.” Dufay paused. “Luke,” he said, using the apothecary’s given name for the first time, “when you were initiated into the Guild, I could see you would make a fine elemancer and that, with a lot of hard work, especially on the mathematics side, you had the potential to make Elemagus if you so desired. I am still of that opinion.” He paused, but Luke remained silent. “As was Kolby Verrall,” Dufay added.

The mention of the previous Elemagus speared grief into Luke’s mind. The thought of his old mentor’s death at the hands of a sunderer still had the power to hurt. Better to concentrate on the here and now.

“I have always found calculations taxing,” he said.

Dufay took a few moments.

“You know that we are bound to work for the good of all. I see the question in your mind about me. You need to trust someone, but you know not who is against you or for you.”

“Aye,” replied Luke with some reluctance.

“Very well.” Dufay walked to a shelf and took down a large book. He brought it and put it on the table. “This belonged to my father in the early days when we were not permitted bibles. Open it.”

Luke did so. “Adam Dufay, his Bible,” he read. He looked up at Dufay, who put his hand on the inscription and spoke.

“By the great love and duty I bore my father, I swear that I follow only the good path and have no intention of evil, either deliberate or by chance.” He saw the question in Luke’s face. “Would it help if I told you that an Elemagus must retake his vows every morning, or else be unmade and every trace of his talent torn from him?”

There was obviously much more to progressing up the elemancy levels than Luke had thought. The knowledge that Dufay faced being unmade with such equanimity doubled the respect he already felt for the Elemagus.

Dufay put the book back. “I know that you are sworn to keep silent about your mission. However, you require help. I can read that as plainly as you read my father’s script. If I can help without you betraying the confidence, I swear I will.”

Luke hesitated and Dufay saw his indecision.

“Let me tell you a little about me. Mayhap that will ease your mind. My father made his fortune as a mercer. He wanted me to become a doctor and, until his death, I did study as a physician, but my love has always been for numbers and math which is why, when I came into my inheritance, I was able to devote all my time to the study of numerology and its effect on the cosmos. I believe that my studies will provide us with fresh weapons with which to fight sunderers. Already I am able to read portents with greater ease. Luke, I am on your side. Trust me.”

The desperate need Luke felt for help and advice brought tears pricking at his eyelids. His shoulders sagged. “Aye, I will, sir.” This was all too much for him. He was an apothecary, not a high officer of state. His work was to heal the sick and ease their pains, not tiptoe through court politics trying to gain wealth and favor.

“Good. Then allow me to put my hands on either side of your head. I will not touch you. Just close your eyes and let your mind do as it thinks fit.”

Luke obeyed and felt the warmth from Dufay’s hands seeping into his head, clearing the tangle of confusion that had been teeming in his brain.

“I see,” Dufay said five minutes later. “It is good to know that the diablerie I still smell does not emanate from you. That is easy to disperse.”

Dufay stroked both palms from the bottom of his ribcage to his throat and threw the contents of his hands toward Luke, showering him with a translucent curtain of tiny gold stars. They flared and swelled, absorbing the darkness from his mind, until he could see little except brilliant golden lights that swayed and swirled, covering his head and emitting flashes of magenta and indigo.

Through the bright gauze, he was aware of Dufay lifting both arms and twirling his fingers. The curtain began to spin, rising above Luke’s head. Then the Elemagus clicked his fingers and the curtain vanished with a loud pop. Luke felt as if the sun in its full glory had emerged from behind dark clouds.

“All gone. Now, let me look at that gash.”

Luke could not see what Dufay did, but the area around his wound grew so hot he almost swooned. As quickly as it had come, the heat dissipated and took all pain with it. Luke put up his hand to feel his head, but touched only whole skin, covered by his wiry hair.

Dufay smiled at his surprise. “Do not look so shocked. You, too, will be able to mend major wounds in time, although I have to say that this gash was made more vicious by the black spell entangled in it. I am surprised to find you on your feet.”

“That was more to do with fear of missing my studies.”

Dufay laughed and Luke realized that it was the first time he had ever heard the Elemagus being anything other than serious. His face soon wore its usual gravity, however.

“You are embarked on a hazardous mission, Luke. I am, as you know, not a man of action. I prefer working with charts, numbers and calculations. But I will always be on hand to guide you if you need counsel. Now, tell me, despite the dangers, which are quite as real as you think them to be, are you enjoying this...I shall keep calling it a mission. When you forget your lack of confidence, does it excite you?”

“I cannot say.” Panic stabbed at the edges of his mind.

Dufay held his hands over Luke’s head again. “There is no need for alarm. You are safeguarded by more than you can know or understand. Imagine that your dread is a shower of rain on the feathers of a duck. Let it roll off unheeded. Good. Your visualization skills are excellent. Now, look into your deepest heart. Answer my question.”

Luke felt as if, along with the pain, his doubts had receded to a point where they became not unimportant, but irrelevant. “Aye,” he said, weighing every word. “I feel a new purpose by helping where I begin to understand others cannot.”

“And does the fact that it involves matters of state affect your feelings?”

“I could not refuse. That a guilty man allowed an innocent one to hang in his place spurs me on.”

Dufay sat down opposite Luke and motioned him to an empty chair. “I believe, Master Ballard, that you have most of the qualities needed for an Inquirer Elemancer. The parish Beadles do their best, as do the crowners, but I believe that our society needs some form of structured investigative service. Inquirers such as you could help curb increasing lawlessness. We all know the penalties for any disloyalty, overt or perceived, to the throne. It is certainly something I and the Guild must think on.

“Now, if you are agreeable, I intend to steer your further studies towards developing your deductive faculties. If I read you correctly, we must make haste. I’m going to cast a remembrancer spell, so that what I teach you is not just planted in your mind, but you can begin applying it with speed and focus. You must still practice, of course, but it will shorten your period of learning.”

“Is there much calculation and mixing involved?”

“Calculation, aye, but I can help you with that, too. Mixing, no. As you go further up the grades, you will not need to mix potions for the most common spells but utilize your mind and hands more. Your visualization skills will be invaluable, and I urge you to think of them as muscles that require frequent exercise. Use them whenever you are able. I will formulate a special recipe to help you with your work in jurisprudence. It will be the one concoction you must mix fresh every morning and rub into both hands as soon as it is ready. It cannot be washed off and should hold good for any spells you cast until the following morning. You must always carry a small amount on your person, in case you find yourself in need.”

Dufay then went on detail Luke’s studies. As he became more adept, he would be able to mask his appearance as well as his thoughts with a deflective enclosure spell. He would be able to project spells at greater distances than previously, to throw a protective barrier around people or places using gemstones to aid his magic. He handed Luke a small pouch filled with crystals and semi-precious stones, explaining the use of each. Luke stowed the bag in his sleeve.

By the time Luke had completed his lesson for the day three hours later, he could already throw a protective aura around a chair and observe the Elemagus’s kitchen without using perfumed envisioning oil. Luke was less than pleased to see that the kitchen held Ajax, but no Pippa.

He tried to see past the back gate, but could not.

He was about to leave when he turned to Dufay.

“What are we to do about Pippa?”

Dufay frowned. “I have not had the time to teach her as much as I had hoped. She has talent, aye, but it is very untutored. She seems to think that she can use it like some hawker in a fair. I have been engaged on serious study into extending our magical abilities during the past year and will not finish it for another few months. By the end of my day, my mind is exhausted, but I should have found time to probe her thoughts. I fear I have made a grave error.”

Luke opened his mouth to remind Dufay that he had been given fair warning of Pippa’s temperament, but shut it again. In some ways the Elemagus was not worldly wise. Perhaps he had thought he could change the girl’s character by dint of soft words and her desire to learn. And how would the Elemagus deal with Peveril? If it came to a physical encounter with him over Pippa, Luke did not believe the older man would be quick enough to counter it. Far better that she come back to the Outer Green shop where he could keep a closer eye on her.

“That she is deep in love with Peveril I can tell,” Dufay continued. “It troubles me and I cannot fathom why. Few people can hide their deepest feelings from me, but she is one such. That is why I thought she would make an excellent elemancer, but now I am unsure.”

He gazed at Luke, his discomfort obvious. Luke felt compelled to reclaim the problem. After all, it had been his decision to take the girl in that had caused this mess. The dilemma was his to resolve. Pippa. Nothing but trouble from the instant he had first encountered her.

He almost blessed Alison for making him aware how devious and destructive women were. Always had been right back to Eve ruining paradise for man by self-centered stupidity. Thank God he had succeeded in keeping clear of them all these years. “I will take her home with me,” he said at last. “She is best away from here. Should Peveril show his face at my house, I will see him off and let her know this is her final chance. If she takes no heed, then she can make good where she will. We can make sure she does no mischief to us or the Guild.”

“Very well. I confess I shall need all my powers for the work I have in hand, but we will progress your studies, never fear. Practice as much as you are able. I would like to see how well you can perform the enclosure spell by this time next week.”

Luke found Pippa sitting on the ground outside the back door, and she did not argue when he told her to gather her things together. Luke made no attempt to talk to her, so she was very quiet on their journey, only expressing her surprise at finding Robin at the house.

“Are you not still being sought by the guards?”

Robin glanced at Luke, who answered for him. “Aye, which is why his hair is now permanently dark and much shorter.” He looked at Pippa. “And do not entertain any notions of giving him up, or you will suffer for it. Do I make myself clear?”

“I had no such intent,” she answered, a flush suffusing her cheeks.

“How heartening to know you have some finer feelings,” said Luke. “Now, do you think you can drag your mind away from Master Geoffrey Peveril to cooking a meal? I will be back soon.”

Luke felt he must visit Corbin Quayne, that he needed to know the true situation between Peveril and Pippa, even if he did not tell Bertila. The quickest route was straight through the palace courtyards and out into the park. From there it was a short walk to Hampton Wick.

He was halfway across the Base Court when a voice hailed him and turning, he saw Will Quayne waving from a window. He waited for Will to come out.

“I was just about to go and see your father.”

“And I was about to come and see you in your shop. I have news.”

“Of what?”

“I think you should be delighted that your housekeeper has gone to another post and is no longer with you, Luke.”

Luke stiffened. His fears of the previous night returned in full force and he felt a sweat of panic trickling down his back under his tunic. Pippa knew most of the details about the plot against the King. Will’s face told him that he bore no good tidings. Had Luke unwittingly given himself away to the enemy? It would avail him nothing to say that he had been commanded by the Queen to tell her. He turned a wary face to Will. “News?”