“We would still face the same problem. I would need to get down to the cellar without being seen. I suspect they have posted someone there now. But I suppose Icouldtry and use the same form of magic.”
Both Darcy and Jane reacted with horror at the same time. “No!!”
“Lizzy, you must not even think of it.” Jane looked distressed.
“You will do no such thing, Elizabeth,” said Darcy firmly. “Ramon de Riquer is an experienced mage who has probably practiced this spell all his life. You have never done it. It is out of the question. I forbid it.”
“Darcy, you ought to know by now that any time you forbid me to do something, I will take it as a challenge.”
He started to protest, but she just smiled. “You need not worry. In this case I agree with you. The journey through the mirror was unpleasant, and I would not wish to do it on my own. Not without carefully testing it, at least.”
She sighed. “If only I was an Elemental. I would create a wind and blow myself out of the window.”
Darcy grinned. “You are not an Elemental, but I know someone who is. My uncle. We have come full circle. We are obliged to ask for his assistance.”
Chapter 20
With Matlock’s help, Darcy and Elizabeth were able to make the story of the conservatory work, and, by and large, most people accepted it. There were those who were skeptical, of course. Devereux remarked that young ladies had no business spending time in dark, deserted places at night. For once, nobody took him up on it. Those who had propagated the attack, of course, knew that the story was untrue, but they were hardly in a position to argue. Elizabeth asked Darcy to keep an eye out for everyone’s reactions, but he was unable to spot anything unusual.
The problem of not knowing who had attacked her was that Elizabeth now suspected everyone. At least, all the adults, and that included the footmen and men servants in the house. The iron grip of the men who had held her was imprinted on her body, even if she could recall nothing else about them. If only she could have noticed what kind of magic had incapacitated her to start with, then she could have narrowed the field. But that part was shadowy, lost in the haze of the laudanum as it took effect. She decided she could discount the apprentices at least. Her impression had been of an experienced mage, but again, she could be wrong.
That still left her with almost two dozen possibilities.
A sudden squirt of water splashed into her face. She gasped in shock and glared as Darcy burst out laughing.
“I needed you back here, with me. Your mind is elsewhere. You know how vital our training is. You cannot squander it.”
“You have no idea what it is like not knowing the identity of your assailant, yet being intensely aware they could do it again any time.”
He slipped his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head.
“I cannot pretend to know what you are going through. I can only compare it to my constant worry that the Imperial Mages could attack again any time.”
Elizabeth was too restless to take much comfort from Darcy’s gesture, and she moved to the window, which overlooked the stables.
“It is not the same thing as passing someone on your way to the Great Hall and wondering if they were the one. Do you realize that it must be someone here, in this building, going about their business as usual. That is what makes it unnerving. And it also makes me doubt my own abilities. Why is it that I could not identify their magic? It is particularly maddening because I have always been good at discerning traces of magic.”
