“Oh, come on,” Alise replied with a shrug.“It’s hardly sacred.It’s convenient and serves the egos and hungers of Convocation wizards.”
Courtney practically foamed at the mouth, the emerald snake around her throat hissing angrily and the falcon mantling while the tiger growled with bone-melting menace.
Last time, Alise hadn’t been sure which of three animals was the wizard’s familiar in alternate form and which were simply normal animals under Courtney’s control.A wizard couldn’t access their familiar’s magic while the familiar was in alternate form, but touch was necessary to convert them back to human and the process didn’t take long.So Alise laid her bets on the snake or the falcon, and probably the snake.
Again, not that it mattered.Even if Courtney took it in her head to send her animals to attack Alise, she wouldn’t be able to penetrate the barrier.Besides which, Alise suspected the errand-wizard didn’t have that kind of latitude to act.
“Howdo you do it?”Courtney asked, regaining some of her composure as the same sequence of thoughts clearly occurred to her also.
Alise shrugged, making it extra insouciant.“How does the bond work anyway?I undo it.”
Courtney studied her.“You haven’t graduated from the academy yet, which means you have not been taught the enchantment that binds a wizard to their familiar.You don’t know how it works.”She stroked the tiger’s head with affection, making Alise wonder anew how much the spell invoking the wizard-familiar bond was built on the same magic that the Ariel wizards used to bind their animal companions.If so, that would explain House Ariel’s intense interest in the subject.That would be a handy way to defeat an Ariel wizard, by loosing their animal guardians and depriving them of both shield and weapon.
“It’s my understanding that the exact mechanism of the enchantment isn’t well understood—or understood at all—by even those who’ve been taught it.”In truth, Alise had gotten the impression that graduating wizards were embedded with the method somewhat subconsciously, like a psychic suggestion, interestingly enough, as that pointed right back to House Hanneil.Certainly, they were all bound with a geas that prevented them from speaking anything about how it worked, which absolutely smelled of Hanneil shenanigans.Why keep it secret?Seemed like the answer to that question was always “in order to maintain power.”
Courtney didn’t exactly smile, but her lips twitched.“Most people don’t need to know the how.They simply deploy the enchantment as their right as a wizard certified by the Convocation.”
It occurred to Alise that the mystery of this mechanism, too, might be covered in Anciela’s notes.If so, Cillian would find it.“We all have our secrets,” she acknowledged with a serene smile.“I intend to keep mine also.”
“We’ll be taking this to the Convocation council,” Courtney declared.“You will be tried and condemned for this heinous breach of protocol.”
“I look forward to that debate,” Alise replied, meaning it.“It should intersect nicely with another issue we plan to bring before the council.”
Courtney stilled.“What other issue?”
“Ah.”Alise wagged a finger at the Ariel wizard.“We agreed that you would explain your enigmatic statement about not seeing what’s in front of me.To get another answer from me, we’d need a new bargain.And I’m still waiting on you to uphold your end of the first one.”
Wizard Courtney paused, her annoyance fading into smug pleasure that returned the chill to Alise’s spine.Whatever made the Ariel wizard so happy boded ill for Alise.
“The influence of House Hanneil is felt not only in the presence of their wizards, but in the people who’ve been contaminated by Hanneil magic,” Courtney informed her.
“Are you talking about me?”Alise asked.She’d rid herself of everything Gordon had tried to plant in her mind, she was sure of it.Well, mostly sure.As sure as one could be of the sanity and inner workings of one’s own mind.
Courtney laughed.“You’re so naïve.So young.It’s kind of adorable.No, I would look to someone you trusted without thinking.Who would be so highly placed that they could control access to the Convocation archives?”
Lady Órlaith Harahel.Who was meeting with Cillian even now.Without another thought, Alise spun and ran to Cillian.
~24~
Cillian hated tobreak away from the work.He was making actual progress.After all this time of beating his head against the wall of Anciela’s multiply encoded legacy, the progress felt like finally being able to breathe.The keys had all been translated and the ciphers were working to decrypt the mountains of data and results.It turned out the pamphlets on peach production that had seemed so off to Gabriel were the summaries of Anciela’s final findings.Since those were the critical pieces of information to take to the council, the others who would be handling the politics had been concentrating there.It was still a lot to work through, complicated by the fact that only one, perhaps two, people could work on any single document at a time.
Cillian, himself, had been rather imperiously assigned by Jadren to work on the pamphlets that appeared to delineate Anciela’s methods.To be fair, Jadren knew more than any of them about scientific method and the experimental process—even if it had been from the lens of being the subject of those experiments.Apparently Katica El-Adrel, whether oblivious to Jadren’s pain or sadistically enjoying it, had shared a great deal of her thoughts with him, even inviting his input from time to time.The thought made Cillian feel ill and Jadren had certainly taken on a greenish tinge while discussing it—but he’d also pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that what they most needed to be accurately decrypted and recorded was thehowof turning familiars into wizards.Regardless of all else, they needed that information so Asa and the others could begin testing.
Everyone agreed that person had to be Cillian, which only intensified his desire to keep working through the night.It was an uncomfortable feeling, having everyone waiting on him, poised to act and implicitly trusting the information he gave them.He fretted that there might be critical pieces in the documents still at House Harahel that hadn’t gotten copied, but nothing to be done about it right at that moment—except perhaps appeal to his grandmother to transport the files in their entirety to Convocation Center, preferably as fast as possible.
So, he’d agreed to her request for a private meeting, all the others taking the opportunity to grab some sleep.Their accuracy would be improved by proper rest.Alise had given him the hairy eyeball and said that applied to him, too, and he’d agreed to come to bed as soon as he spoke with his grandmother.Gabriel had sided with Cillian, though somewhat reluctantly, agreeing that Lady Harahel would be far more likely to tell her grandson about who’d been the newest archivist to contribute to the folded archive, than to tell Lord and Lady Phel.He’d suspected that Órlaith hadn’t been transparent when he’d briefly sat in on interviews, so he’d left Bertie to assist, hoping Lord Emeritus Harahel would play them fair.
Cillian had assured Gabriel—and the rest—that his grandmother was cagey and paranoid by nature and nurture.She habitually kept house secrets, regardless of their import to anyone else, but she wasn’t malicious.She would be on the side of right with the rest of them.
Still, he put away the moonsilver key books, and covered up any information that could be observed with a casual glance.It made sense to meet with Lady Harahel in the shielded room, but that didn’t mean he was ready to expose the fruits of their hard labor yet.
He opened the door at her knock, admitting his grandmother.Statuesque and imposing, Órlaith Harahel gave the room a good, long, sweeping look, making Cillian glad he’d set anything pertinent out of sight.
“I didn’t give you permission to leave House Harahel,” she informed him before saying anything else.
“You weren’t there to ask,” he replied mildly.
“Lady Harahel,” she corrected, after a long moment.
