“Excellent,” said Matlock. “Hopefully he can continue to improve, and we can put that whole situation behind us.”
Darcy seized the moment to indirectly reinforce his support of Elizabeth. “Yes, I am very much looking forward to receiving a full explanation from him about what happened.”
He wished he could be more specific, but there was no knowing what Bingley would say if and when he recovered.
“We have a new member today, which will bring us to nine members. Those of you who were not here for the discussion, when we decided to split in two from the traditional twelve, we decided six members were too few to make discussion useful, and that even numbers led to too many ties in the vote. Our problem was finding enough members who would also be a positive contribution in one way or the other.
“I am pleased to announce we have managed to persuade Mr. Pickering to join us on the Council. He needs no introduction, of course. He is one of the most scholarly and powerful mages in the Kingdom, and it is an honor and privilege to have him here with us. I am sure we will benefit a great deal from his wisdom.”
When Darcy was still an apprentice, Pickering had visited the Academy and given a talk about the history ofThe Compendium. He was a known recluse, preferring to live amongst his books, researching and writing. He had of course aged since Darcy had last seen him. He was thinner and more stooped, his long white hair was flowing loosely over his shoulders, his pointed snowy beard extending to his stomach. He still wore the same outdated clothes: the formal scarlet robes of the Royal Mages complete with stockings and buckled shoes.
The Council must have exerted a fair amount of pressure on him to join. Perhaps they had even conscripted him, as they had with Elizabeth. These were difficult times, and everyone had to play their role. Darcy was glad it was Pickering they had chosen.
Several of the members turned to Pickering to welcome him. Matlock waited for the conversation to start dying down, then called for silence.
“I have called a meeting because I have important news. I know we have all been waiting for this. We have, in fact, discussed it endlessly. But now we have finally decided what to do with de Riquer, the Imperial mage Darcy heroically captured.”
Everyone turned to look at Darcy. There was nothing heroic about his actions. He had done very little. They should be praising Elizabeth for saving their sorry hides.
“I could not have done it without the help of my wife,” he said firmly.
His words were ignored. No one wanted to hear about her role.
“We have decided to bring him here. His transport has been arranged, and he will be arriving in ten days. I have been consulting with our other Council members in London, and we all agree that since Darcy is our most powerful Warder, it is our safest course of action to give Darcy the responsibility of restraining him.”
The words jolted Darcy. He wished Matlock had not sprung this on him without talking to him about it first. He had put him in an impossible situation. Darcy was a powerful mage, but he could not possibly do this alone.
“I cannot work alone on something of this importance. It was one thing controlling his magic when he was injured, but now that he has regained his full power, it would be sheer arrogance to believe I can accomplish this task alone. I may be a powerful mage, but my power has for many years been Bonded to Cuthbert’s.”
He brushed aside the grief that surfaced as he said the name.
“You take my power for granted, but you are forgetting that I currently cannot act as a Janus Mage because I have no official Twin. My uncle informs me that the Council refuses to sanction my Bond with Elizabeth. How do you set up Wards against a powerful enemy magealone? I will not take responsibility if I am asked to cast magic with less than half my capacity as a Janus Mage.”
George Devereux spoke up. There was something about his grey eyes and jutting jaw that had always annoyed Darcy. Or perhaps it was just his mulish manner.
“Youdohave a Twin. It is Lord Redmond. You have an official Bond. A Janus Mage by definition has only one Twin. That is the meaning of the wordTwin.”
Devereux looked around the room with a smug expression, as if to say that Darcy had no leg to stand on.
An icy anger gripped Darcy. “I see you have knowledge I am not privy to. You must have found Redmond hiding somewhere in Netherfield. Perhaps he is Cloaked? Because it so happens I detect no trace of him in this building. Has anyone else here seen him? Am I the only one incapable of doing so? And for your information, Twins can be more than two. That is the concept of triplets.”
“Tripletsare notTwins. Twins are double. And the Roman god Janus only hastwofaces, not three.”
He would have continued for some time along the same vein, but Matlock broke in.
“We can argue semantics all day, but the fact is, Darcy is not a Janus Mage if Redmond is not here to set up a Bond.”
“It is much more serious than that. Redmond hasabdicatedhis responsibilities.” Why did everyone keep insisting that Redmond was a better choice than Elizabeth? It was true that Darcy was the one who had asked the Council for an alternative, but that was when Lady Alice had cast a spell preventing Elizabeth from accessing her power.
But Devereux was still determined to make a point of his own. “Did you ever pause to think that he might have been made to feel unwelcome? Particularly after what happened to Lady Alice? She is his aunt, after all.”
“My uncle has written to him three times to ask him to join us here in Netherfield. He has not even had the decency to respond.”
“You are both right in different ways.” Lord Sudbury interceded. “You must take into consideration that he is only a child. He does not understand such matters.”
Lord Sudbury had always struck Darcy as the voice of reason. He was particularly good at presenting both sides of an argument. But his attempt to find a balance in this case fell flat.
“The Academytrainedhim to understand these matters. When you selected him as my Twin, you believed him capable of playing the role. Now you excuse him by saying he is a child. You cannot have it both ways.”
