“Well?” Rosemarie’s voice betrayed the same level of strain she herself felt. “What are we to do?”
Beatrix closed the door behind Meg, the last one through, and said a quick prayer that she could be half as persuasive as Lydia. “I’ve asked Omnimancer Blackwell to teach us how to cast protection spells?—”
“What?”Rosemarie said.
“—and he has very kindly agreed,” Beatrix said, thinking this an unpromising beginning.
Ella’s eyes were wide. “You believe we’re all capable, then. You think weallcan do magic.”
“We can’t do magic,” Rosemarie exclaimed, throwing up her hands. “This would ruinLydia if word ever got out—never mind the fact that we’d all be sent to prison! It’s bad enough that you’re using it, Beatrix. What were youthinking, getting involved in such a thing?”
Ella pushed in before Beatrix could figure out how to defend herself. “Do you want Lydia dead? This is the only way to defend her.”
“Says the woman responsible for her close call!”
“I wasn’t! How on earth am I supposed to prove to you that I—” Ella came to an abrupt stop, breathing hard. She turned to Beatrix. “I want to take a Vow.”
“As a matter of fact,” Beatrix said, knowing an opportunity when it danced a jig around her, “I think everyone should take one. Vow to do no harm to Lydia and say nothing about the magic we’re about to learn.”
“This is a terrible idea,” Rosemarie said.
Ella glanced at Lydia, eyebrows raised. “Maybeshe’sthe saboteur—have you ever thought of that?”
“Stop it, both of you!” Lydia snapped. “We can’t afford to fight.” To Beatrix she added, “Is the Vow really as powerful as Ella says? You have to do what you say you will?”
“Yes,” Beatrix said, and she must have put more emotion into the word than she’d intended because Ella gave her a searching look.
“Well—that’s the only way, then.” Lydia was beginning to sound more like herself, the general marshaling the troops. “We all take a Vow, and there’s no reason to wonder whether one of us is undermining the effort. Are we agreed?”
“Absolutely and completely,” Ella said. Meg, slumped in the chair in the corner of the room, made no objection—audible, at least. Beatrix turned to Rosemarie, the most likely source of objections, in time to see her shake her head.
“All of usbutLydia,” Rosemarie said. “She’s not to learn magic at all. The rest of us will make sure she’s never alone so we can protect her,” she added, raising her voice as both Beatrix and Ella tried to cut in. “But at leastshewon’t be tainted. And I want it in the Vow that if it ever comes out what we’ve done, we’ll say Lydia had no idea.”
Beatrix stared at her. “You don’t really believe magic is evil, do you?”
“The point is that a substantial part of theLeaguebelieves it, and I don’t want her even in secret doing something her membership would find abhorrent.”
Always the strategist. Biting back the urge to shout, Beatrix said, “Given a choice between safety and political expediency?—”
“No, she’s right,” her sister said.
“Lydia,” she pleaded, grasping her sister’s hand with both of hers, “this is deadly serious.”
“I know.” Lydia’s laugh had a tinge of hysteria to it. “Believe me, I know. That’s why we must succeed.”
Beatrix closed her eyes as Lydia, squeezing her hand, pulled back. She couldn’t lose her sister. Not her, too.
The room was ominously silent. After a moment, Ella cleared her throat. “Vows, then?”
Blackwell handed Beatrix a pad of hotel stationary and a pen. Swallowing hard, she began writing a contract that echoed both her own and his.
“How about this,” she said. “‘I’—and then your name—‘swear I will take no actions to harm Lydia Josephine Harper in any way or to harm her efforts on behalf of women’s rights. I further swear that I will protect her to the utmost of my abilities. Related to that, I swear I will in no way communicate to anyone other than’—and here we’ll name the rest of us—‘about our use of magic, how we learned it or Peter William Blackwell’s involvement. I finally swear if it becomes known that League members are practicing magic, I will attest that it was done solely for the protection of Lydia Josephine Harper, without her knowledge or consent.’”
“Please tell me we won’t have to repeat all that,” Ella said, perfectly deadpan, almost managing to make her laugh.
“No, you just have to sign it—and cast the incantation,” Blackwell said. “But the Vow does have to betosomeone. And it obviously can’t be to the woman you’re claiming isn’t a party to this agreement.”
“I’m not Vowing to you,” Ella said, quietly but with such an insulting edge that Beatrix winced.
