The Laws of Magic 6: Hour of Need (9 page)

‘Y
OU ARE RIGHT
, F
ITZWILLIAM
.’ V
ON
S
TRALICK TOOK
the binoculars from Aubrey and focused them carefully. ‘This is no ordinary unit.’

The next morning, Aubrey and von Stralick were lying, prone, looking over the village of Korsur. The troops were still in place and still uncomplaining as they made breakfast. Extremely businesslike was the best description he could come up with, and he recorded that thought.

‘I’m not heartened by that,’ he said.

‘You shouldn’t be. The commander is the extremely well-connected Colonel Kirchoff, once head of the Imperial Household Guard. In a trade where brutality is tolerated, he has a fearsome reputation.’

‘Which makes me wonder why he and his troops aren’t at the front instead of guarding a village full of old people.’

‘A point that may be of some interest to you. I heard that after Kirchoff left the Imperial Household Guard he formed an elite unit under the direct control of your Dr Tremaine.’

‘You haven’t mentioned this before.’

‘If I tried to tell you everything I’ve heard of Dr Tremaine doing, we’d be here until doomsday.’

The awkwardness of that figure of speech struck both of them at the same time. Von Stralick shrugged in apology before going on. ‘Kirchoff’s unit has undertaken a number of tasks for Dr Tremaine. Unpleasant tasks. Unsavoury tasks.’

‘It must be useful, having a special unit you can order around when you need it.’

‘Exactly. Where a spot of violence was needed, or someone needed to disappear, Kirchoff and his boys were the ones to do it.’ Von Stralick grimaced. ‘I suspect something dire is going to happen here.’

‘When?’

‘Soon, to judge from the way Kirchoff is checking his watch.’

‘He was doing that yesterday.’

‘He is a patient man, from all accounts. Not a lot of imagination, which is a blessing considering some of the things he’s reputed to have done, but patient.’

Aubrey scratched at a patch of dirt on his cheek. ‘Is he disciplined?’

‘He is the model of Holmland military discipline. There are no distasteful orders, as far as Kirchoff is concerned.’

‘So he won’t argue when you and I go down there and tell him to take his troops and leave?’

Von Stralick didn’t reply. For some time, he didn’t even move. He kept the binoculars trained on the spare figure of Colonel Kirchoff, standing with his hands behind his back in the middle of the road, in exactly the same place Aubrey had seen him the previous day.

‘Fitzwilliam, this is a bad plan.’ Von Stralick put down the binoculars. ‘Kirchoff won’t take orders from a traitorous ex-Holmland spy and the traitorous son of the Albion Prime Minister.’

‘True, but will he take orders from Dr Mordecai Tremaine?’

A
UBREY HAD LEFT
C
AROLINE
, G
EORGE AND
S
OPHIE WITH
instructions on what to do if his plan failed. They were vague instructions, because he didn’t like to think too much about what a failed plan would mean for him. They mostly suggested asking Madame Zelinka for help in getting away alive.

‘Look, Hugo,’ Aubrey said as their lorry approached the roadblock. Von Stralick battled the large steering wheel as if he were trying to propel an elderly and well-fed aunt around a dance floor. ‘Kirchoff is waiting for someone or something. If Dr Tremaine arrives with orders, I’m sure the good colonel will be receptive.’

Von Stralick spared a glance at Aubrey. ‘You’ve managed to impress me, Fitzwilliam, as well as make me extremely nervous. You look and sound just like him.’

Aubrey hoped so. It was the only way he could see of avoiding a messy end, and while an end came to everyone, he wasn’t happy about the prospect of a messy one.

He had taken on Dr Tremaine’s appearance before, in order to deceive a guardian spell the rogue magician had left on the Banford Park research facility. That spell had only required a physical resemblance, not a vocal one, and still it had strained his abilities. Thus he was grateful to have Sophie’s assistance with the illusion spell. Her natural talent and her recent instruction helped enormously, and he was able to add some solidity to her spellwork in a neat piece of magical collaboration.

‘I won’t speak,’ Aubrey said to von Stralick. ‘Not at first, anyway.’

‘Just like Dr Tremaine.’

‘Exactly. I can’t just look and sound like him – I must
act
like him.’

Which means swagger
, he thought,
and arrogance, and absolute certainty about everything.

This was the challenge, of course. Appearance was one thing, but behaving like the rogue sorcerer, the man who moved whole countries about to achieve his ends, that was another.

He wiped his sweaty palms on trousers that were now black and immaculately pressed and then stared at the glistening perspiration that immediately sprang back. Impossible. Dr Tremaine didn’t sweat nervously.

He spoke a few soft words and his hands were encased in gloves that were, to all appearances, soft and expensive black leather. He pushed his cape back on his shoulders and settled, just as von Stralick brought the lorry to a halt.

Colonel Kirchoff signalled to the machine gun emplacement. He was taller than Aubrey had realised, a thin man with a gaunt, almost mournful, face. He had his hand on the pistol at his belt as he approached.

‘Turn around,’ he said when he reached von Stralick’s window, unimpressed by von Stralick’s grubby jacket and cap. ‘Go back. This is a military –’

He broke off. His eyebrows shot up. He snapped to attention and saluted. ‘Dr Tremaine, sir!’

Aubrey glanced at Kirchoff, then looked away.

Von Stralick leaned out of the window. ‘Everything is in place?’ he asked in Albionish.

Kirchoff dropped his salute, and looked puzzled. ‘Of course, as you see,’ he replied in the same language.

‘Excellent.’

Without moving his head, Aubrey could just see Kirchoff leaning to one side to peer into the cabin of the lorry. Was the man suspicious? The yawning gulf of nervousness behind Aubrey’s rib cage widened and threatened to swallow a few more major organs.

‘Dr Tremaine, sir,’ Kirchoff said, ‘are you here to give us the orders to carry out the next phase of our assignment?’

Von Stralick cut in, every inch the officious assistant: ‘Are you sure you have fully completed the first phase?’

Kirchoff gave von Stralick a look that suggested there was no difference between the ex-spy and a bucket of rotten fish. ‘Of course. The crystal has been shipped out from the mine. None of the inhabitants have left since we surrounded the village. We have the Albion uniforms ready, we have the weapons in place, we have chosen the three lucky survivors and sequestered them. This was all completed yesterday, on schedule.’

Aubrey became aware that he had been gripping the door handle of the lorry harder and harder during Kirchoff’s careful itemising of his unit’s duties. They were going to massacre the villagers? For what purpose?

And was the man actually referring to the mysterious Crystal Johannes? Was this the great secret of Korsur that Dr Tremaine was so interested in? It didn’t make sense – the rogue sorcerer wasn’t interested in wealth. His ambitions were far more lofty than mere riches.

Crystal Johannes. He was sure one of his lecturers had mentioned it in passing. Or had he come across it in a footnote somewhere? The memory nibbled at him, then darted away, like a shy trout approaching a fly.

Aubrey made what he hoped was a Tremainely sound of disgust and flung open the door of the lorry. ‘Enough!’ he barked and was glad to hear the timbre of his voice was utterly different from his norm. He strode around to join the wide-eyed Kirchoff. With every ounce of force he could muster, he slapped the colonel on the shoulder and was pleased to see the man stagger a little. ‘I’m sure you’ve done a fine job here, Kirchoff,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you’ve been so conscientious, but my plans have changed.’

‘Changed, sir?’

‘I want you to pack up your men and take them back to Fisherberg.’

‘I’m sorry, sir? You’re calling off the massacre?’

Aubrey swung on Kirchoff. ‘Are you questioning me?’ he said, casually.

Kirchoff actually went pale. Aubrey wondered what had happened in the past between the two men. ‘No, sir. Not at all.’

‘Good, but I thought I’d point out that it would be hard to conduct a massacre when the colonel in command doesn’t have a sidearm.’

Kirchoff’s hand went automatically to his belt. Aubrey pointed a finger and Kirchoff’s firearm leapt out of its holster and flew straight into Aubrey’s very Tremaine-like hand. Aubrey glanced at it and removed the safety. ‘Fine weapon.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Kirchoff whispered. His gaze was fixed on the revolver.

Aubrey snapped the safety back on, then tossed the revolver back to Kirchoff, who nearly dropped it. ‘Show me your men.’

Aubrey was relieved that his little reminder of Dr Tremaine’s abilities had worked as well as he’d planned. Some work with George’s pistol, a pencil and piece of paper, and the Laws of Familiarity, Sympathy and Attraction, and he’d had his little demonstration ready, a way of reinforcing that Kirchoff was dealing with a master magician.

Aubrey closed his fist, crumpling the enspelled drawing of a pistol, and slipped it in his pocket. With von Stralick at his side, he strode along next to the chastened colonel, wanting to get rid of the troops quickly, but also needing to first find out as much information as he could about what had been happening in the village.

‘We came in yesterday morning, as instructed,’ Kirchoff said in a low voice. Two old men were standing on the green a stone’s throw away. One of them was glaring, the other was bewildered. A young woman was with them. She wore a white cap and cried as she held a baby in her arms. ‘We were all in Albion uniforms, and only speaking Albionish.’

‘How did the men handle that?’ von Stralick asked. Aubrey had to admire him. He smiled as he walked, and he asked exactly the sort of questions an eager assistant might ask.

‘Most of them chose not to speak at all, once I’d explained what would happen if they spoke Holmlandish.’

‘I see.’

Aubrey stopped. Smoke was still rising from the mine. ‘The crystal,’ he snapped. ‘How did you transport it?’

Kirchoff rubbed his chin nervously. ‘With none of the miners left, we had to find someone among the old men, someone who knew what he was doing.’

Aubrey stood with his hands behind his back, doing his best to adopt a Tremaine pose of deep and private thought. Carefully, he caught von Stralick’s eye.

The Holmlander nodded. ‘Wasn’t it premature, dispensing with the miners like that?’ he asked Kirchoff.

‘They were my orders,’ Kirchoff said stiffly. ‘No word of the Crystal Johannes find was to leave the village.’

‘Your actions in dispensing with the miners is a rather free interpretation of that order,’ von Stralick said.

‘Free, but effective.’

Aubrey whirled and fixed Kirchoff with what he hoped was a Tremaine glare. ‘I hope this old man knew what he was talking about. If that crystal was damaged …’

Kirchoff began to sweat, a thin sheen just above his eyebrows. ‘We had to bring in our largest lorry, and special timber to crate the slab for its trip to Stalsfrieden. The old man supervised.’

Largest lorry? Slab? Aubrey couldn’t ask the direct question – he was Dr Tremaine, he was supposed to know – but he was bursting to know how big this piece of Crystal Johannes was.

And to know why Dr Tremaine desired it so much that he was prepared to butcher a whole village to keep its existence a secret.

Despite Kirchoff’s penchant for following orders, he was still reluctant to leave what he obviously considered a job half-done. After inspecting the soldiers – a more incurious bunch Aubrey had never seen, none of them showing any interest in their colonel’s visitors – he offered to ‘take care of matters’, as he put it.

Aubrey found it hard to keep the disgust from both Tremaine’s face and voice. ‘I have other plans, Colonel, and I need you and your men to be at a safe distance.’

Kirchoff wasn’t a fool, Aubrey decided, and he knew that arguing with Dr Tremaine wasn’t a pastime that led to a long and productive career. He saluted. ‘How far is a safe distance, sir?’

‘Hollenbruck should be unaffected. I’ll give you an hour.’