Much Ado About Magic (29 page)

“Very well, then, Owen Palmer,” the head wizard said, “you stand accused of conspiracy to commit magical crimes, namely that you have engineered a variety of incidents around New York City in which magic has been used to cause trouble and create a state of fear among the magical population so that you can then come to the rescue and make yourself appear to be a hero. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty.”

“On what grounds?”

“I thought that the way this court worked was that
you
had to have the grounds to charge me. We’ve had that in our law longer than it’s been the law of the land. After all, we’ve suffered too much from witch hunts to conduct them on ourselves.
I
don’t need grounds for anything.
You
have to present the grounds for the charges, and I must admit that I’m extremely curious to hear what you’ve come up with.” Owen sounded almost cocky, like Idris on one of his more annoying days. Merlin was fighting so hard not to smile that he ended up looking very stern indeed.

“That is true, Rudolph,” a woman at the opposite end of the table from Merlin said. “Surely you had evidence before you had Mr. Palmer arrested.”

“But we can ask you questions as part of these proceedings,” Rudolph said.

From the way Owen’s shoulders shifted, I got the feeling that he would have crossed his arms in front of his chest if his wrists hadn’t been bound behind his back. He did lean his weight onto one leg and cross the other in front of him, in a fair approximation of the way he might casually lean against a wall. “Then ask me a question.”

Ethan made a strangled noise, and I couldn’t help but glance at him. He looked like he had to bite his tongue to keep from shouting, “Objection!” My experience with the ordinary legal system was limited to jury duty a couple of times back home and watching the occasional episode of
Law and Order
, but even I could tell that there was something funny about the way this hearing was going. The low rumble of murmurs from the audience verified this.

Rudolph let the crowd mutter for quite some time, possibly because he couldn’t think of a good question to ask. After a couple of minutes, he banged his staff on the floor to demand silence. Merlin caught Owen’s eyes and held them, then leaned forward and said, “I have a question for Mr. Palmer.”

“Yes, Mr. Mervyn,” Rudolph said, sounding rather relieved.

“Mr. Palmer, have you ever used unauthorized magic?” Merlin asked.

I was fairly certain that this was part of whatever Merlin had planned, and that Owen was somehow in on it. Owen’s head snapped toward Merlin like he was shocked, but his posture looked far too relaxed. Someone whose mentor was questioning him about a crime should have been a lot more tense. He should have looked like he was barely holding himself back from jumping at the man.

Gloria, on the other hand, went tense enough for both of them. “What does he mean by this?” she whispered, and she moved as though she was about to go after Merlin, herself.

“I think Merlin’s up to something, and Owen knows what it is,” I said. “Look at him.” She stared at Owen’s back for a moment, then turned ever so slightly back toward me, one eyebrow quirked upward.

Ramsay’s reaction was even more interesting. He actually twitched, probably from being torn between impulses. If Merlin went on the attack against Owen, it could undermine his attempt to make Merlin look like he was out of it, but if Ramsay came to Owen’s defense, that ruined his chances of setting Owen up to take the fall for killing Merlin.

“Could you be more specific?” Owen asked.

“You have used questionable magic in my presence. I don’t know that it is strictly illegal, but I suspect that is because no one believed it could be done, and therefore it hasn’t been included in the magical code of conduct. You have interfered with time itself.”

That set the crowd going again. If this was part of a plan, I thought they were heading into risky territory, since Owen
had
interfered with time, and I knew it made Merlin intensely uncomfortable when he did it.

“Nonsense! No one can do that,” the youngest-looking member of the Council said.

“I have seen him do it,” Merlin insisted.

Rudolph glared down at Owen. “Can you do it?”

Owen stared back up at him, and he must have given a glare worthy of Gloria, since Rudolph pressed himself against the back of his chair, like he was moving as far as he could from Owen without getting up and fleeing. “You mean you can’t?” Owen asked.

“Of course I can’t! It’s impossible.” Rudolph addressed the other wizards on the Council. “Can any of you?”

They all shook their heads. I got the feeling that claiming the ability to do that time-stopping thing was the magical equivalent of a nonmagical person claiming the ability to fly or see the future.

“Would you like me to demonstrate?” Owen asked, sounding too innocent for this to be good. If any of the Council members, aside from Merlin, had known him at all, they would have known better than to let this go any further. They’d have dismissed the trumped-up charges, issued an apology, and let him go. But they played right into Merlin’s plan. At least, what I assumed was Merlin’s plan.

“The wards on the circle make a demonstration impossible,” Merlin said. “There is a reason we prevent the use of magic by prisoners.”

“The wards on the circle would have to be altered for a demonstration, but we do have other security measures in place,” another Council member said.

“It would definitively prove that he is capable of everything for which he stands accused,” Merlin said, as though he was being talked around to the idea.

I had to bite the inside of my lip to keep from laughing out loud. They were seriously going to let Owen stop time in the room for everyone but himself? That was like the prison guard handing the keys to an inmate and wandering off. But they didn’t seem to believe it could be done.

Rudolph stood and held his staff over his head. There was a shift in the sense of magic in the room, and then he said, “Now, Mr. Palmer, if you would demonstrate.”

“I’ll need my hands free,” Owen said. After a nod from Rudolph, the guard next to Owen touched the silver cord around Owen’s wrists, and it vanished. Owen rubbed his wrists, then said, “Okay, here’s how the spell goes.” He knelt and put a hand to the ground before whispering a few words.

I knew what to expect because I’d seen it before in a more impressive setting when he’d frozen Times Square. No one else in the room, other than Ethan, would even know what happened. The room went silent as everyone in it but Owen, Ethan, and I were frozen in time. Owen turned to look at us, grinned, and said, “That was almost too easy.” His grin faded, and he added, “Now comes the hard part.”

“What will you do?” I asked.

“Try to remain free long enough to figure something out. I’ll try to get to that fire station. I don’t stand a chance in this hearing. I just hope they consider the circumstances when this is all over. I’d rather not spend my life on the run.”

“What do you need us to do?” I asked.

He headed for the door behind the table, where the Council had entered—and where I’d have bet that Merlin had altered the wards—and with his hand on the doorknob, he said, “I’ll need a diversion for a second or two.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll figure out something. Now, the diversion?”

“Okay,” I said. “But take care of yourself. On the count of three.”

He opened the door, said, “One, two, three.” On “three” he broke the spell, and at that moment I faced the windows and screamed my head off.

“What is that–that thing?” I shrieked, pointing toward nothing. “It came through the window. Can’t you see it? It must be veiled by magic. Someone has infiltrated this hearing!” I knew I was laying it on a bit thick, but most of the Council had never met me, so they didn’t know that I wasn’t the screaming, hysterical type.

The reaction was a lot like what you’d get if you shouted “Mouse!” in a crowded room. People in the general vicinity of where I’d pointed scurried away, the guards ran toward it, and a lot of magic flew through the air. By the time the guards and the Council decided that the thing had gone out the way it had entered, Owen was long gone. It took a moment or two after everyone settled down for Rudolph to shout, “Where did he go?”

Merlin pinned him with a glare. “You asked him to freeze time. And that meant freezing all of you, so that he was then able to escape.”

“But he didn’t…” Rudolph started to protest, and then his voice trailed off as he caught on.

Merlin nodded sagely. “Exactly. You wouldn’t notice if you were affected.”

“But he can stop time?” the wizard sitting next to Merlin asked. “That makes him even more dangerous than we thought.”

“And he has just proved that these charges were valid,” Rudolph said. Then he pounded his staff on the floor and added, “This hearing is dismissed and will reconvene when the accused has been returned to custody.”

Merlin caught up with us outside the headquarters building as we left. Gloria whirled on him, and for a moment I thought she’d hit him with her purse. “That was the best you could do, accuse him and then turn him into a fugitive?”

“We could not have won today,” Merlin said grimly. “I’ve bought us time. And now we should make use of that time. Miss Chandler, you are best equipped to find Owen. Any illusion he hides behind won’t work on you. Then find out what his mother left at the fire station as soon as you can.”

I wasn’t sure how to go about doing that, but I had time to think while Ethan gave Rod and me a ride back to the city. Owen had a head start, but not a huge one, and if he’d managed to disguise himself, he might be able to stay undetected for a while. I’d likely be watched, though. That meant that I’d only put him in danger if I found him. I’d have to be careful.

By the time Ethan dropped me off at my building, I had an idea of where to look. I changed into jeans and sneakers, wandered the neighborhood for a while to see if I noticed anyone following me, then took the subway to Grand Central. I milled around the main concourse and flowed with a crowd toward a platform. Then I slipped away into the darkness at the end of the platform, toward Owen’s dragon lair. He was supposed to have sent the dragons to a sanctuary after the conference demonstration, but there weren’t too many people who knew about this location, and he knew that I knew.

Without the dragons, it was dark and quiet in the unused tunnel that opened to the side of the underground rail yard. I probably should have brought a flashlight, I thought, but since I was here without anyone magical to hide me, I’d worried it might draw unwanted attention.

I thought I saw a glint of light ahead, and I flattened myself against the wall. Was it a railroad worker, an untamed dragon, or something else?

And then I realized that there was someone next to me. I didn’t plan to scream because that wouldn’t do any good and would likely draw unwanted attention, but whoever it was got a hand over my mouth anyway while wrapping his other arm around my waist.

Chapter Twenty

“It’s okay, it’s me,” Owen’s voice whispered into my ear.

He removed his hand from my mouth, and I said, “I know. And I wasn’t going to scream.” Then I turned to face him and threw my arms around him. He hugged me in return, holding me like I was a lifeline.

“That must have been a good diversion,” he whispered as his lips brushed my temple.

“It was a real scream. So, now what?”

“We need to get to the fire station, but I’m being followed. I gave them the slip inside the terminal, but they’re probably still waiting for me to leave.”

“Merlin thought you might use an illusion.”

“I did, but somehow they still spotted me. They may be tracking my magic, so I’m just as recognizable with an illusion as I am as myself. I may have to resort to the hat and funny glasses kind of disguise. I definitely don’t want to lead them to the fire station.”

“You need a safe place to stay. You can’t stay down here.”

“I’m open to suggestions. I made a quick run by my place to pick up a few things before they caught up with me, so I’m set for at least a couple of days.”

“Nita!” I said with a burst of inspiration.

“What about Nita?”

“She works at a hotel—she handles registration. I could probably get you a room there under another name—maybe say you’re a celebrity involved with a charity thing I’m doing at work. Nita would totally go for that. Since my friend works there, it wouldn’t look suspicious for me to go to the hotel. Could you do that teleport spell you did with me that time? Or does that only work to a familiar place?”

“Anything familiar would work. I can travel to you if you’re there. But doing that would wipe me out magically for hours.”

“You could probably use the rest, and if you vanish for a while, maybe that’ll throw off the bad guys. Meanwhile, I could find a hat and some funny glasses for you.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan.” He released me and conjured up a small, glowing orb of light that hung in front of his shoulder, then bent to dig in the duffle bag at his feet. “We’d probably better use cash for the hotel because credit cards can be traced.” He stood with a wad of cash in his hand, which he then handed to me. “Two nights should do it, and that ought to be enough.”

“This is a couple of thousand bucks,” I said, thumbing through the bills in the dim glow of the orb. “You keep that much cash lying around?”

“My house is warded, so it’s safe, and you never know when you might need cash.”

I split the wad, sticking some in my front pocket and the rest inside my bra. “I just hope I don’t get mugged between here and the hotel. Now, how will I let you know I’ve got the room? I’ve got your cell phone, but that can be traced, too.”

He pulled a phone out of his pocket. “Pre-paid, and paid in cash,” he explained. “All the best spies and criminals use them.” He wrote the number on the back of a cash register receipt and handed it to me.

“Wow, you’ve spent some time planning what you’d do if you ever became a fugitive.”