The voice was familiar, though Zacharias could not immediately recall when he had heard it before. On the other side of the border appeared the black shadow of a claw-like hand. It tapped the border three times. The sheet of light swung open like a door, and an aged woman scrambled down the hedgerow.
“Why, it is only a little old lady!” said Prunella.
That the arrival was a foreigner was clear from her brown skin and her manner of dress. She wore a tunic fastened with brooches that sparkled in the light from the border; beneath this a cloth wrapped around her person served as a skirt. Her attire seemed too light for the chill of a spring evening, however. The elderly female shivered. The next moment a cloak appeared out of thin air, and she folded it around her shoulders.
She caught sight of Zacharias, and stiffened.
“There you are wrong,” said Zacharias faintly. “She is not merely any little old lady.” He stepped forward. “I believe we have met, ma’am.”
The matron opened her mouth, frowned, and said a quick spell. It was not too cold a night, but her breath issued in puffs of green mist. When the puffs dissipated, she spoke in fluid English:
“You must have done something very shocking to have incensed the fine ones,” said Mak Genggang. “In my country one need merely wander into the jungle to find the spirit realm, but the spirits have erected a perfect forest of wards about Britain. How do you contrive on so little magic? Though to be sure, the punishment is no more than you deserve for your wickedness.”
“I am sorry to hear you say so, ma’am,” said Zacharias. He paused. “Did the Fairy Queen tell you as much?”
“Is that what you call her? I never sawherat all,” said Mak Genggang. “I merely went through her country as a shortcut. It takes such an age to travel to Britain otherwise. I had to come, of course, since that ridiculous raja is here begging for scraps from the foreigners’ table. I shall not have that youngcikustealing a march on me! It is convenient that I have met you, for you will be able to help me.”
There must once have been a time when he was not harried on every side by the whims and starts of importunate females, reflected Zacharias wistfully, but that halcyon period seemed very far away.
“Indeed?” he said noncommittally.
“I desire to speak to your King,” said Mak Genggang. “You had best bring me to him straightaway—and no dillydallying, if you please, for the fate of the nation depends upon it!”
“Good gracious,” said Prunella, staring. “But what dreadful thing is it that is going to befall us?”
“Ihave befallen you,” said Mak Genggang. “I was not referring to Britain, however. I was speaking of what is of rather more importance: the fate ofmynation, which your King seeks to bully!”
“If you will permit me to say so, ma’am, I believe there is a misunderstanding,” said Zacharias. “Our King has no wish to alienate you, and I am sure would regret any inadvertent offence.”
“If he had no wish to offend, he ought not to have lent his ear to Raja Ahmad!” retorted Mak Genggang. “A sovereign ought to learn better judgment of character. It must be clear to anyone with their wits about them that the raja is a fool. But then again”—her eyes gleamed—“I suppose it serves your King’s purpose to treat with fools!”
Zacharias decided he would steer clear of diplomacy. If he was to avoid confusing Britain’s relations with Janda Baik beyond repair, he had best keep his lips sealed, and entrust this new arrival to those who understood politics.
“I would be pleased to escort you to town, ma’am, and if I cannot promise you an audience with the King, I can certainly introduce you to his representatives,” he said.
Edgeworth would be far from delighted to see Mak Genggang, and Zacharias was likely to lose any credit he still possessed with the man when he produced her. But after all, she could not be left to rampage about the country, and doubtless find some magical means of breaking into Windsor.
“We must hope that the Government will find some means of addressing your grievances,” said Zacharias, who thought this very unlikely.
But Mak Genggang was more sanguine.
“I have a suspicion they will,” she said, with alarming good cheer. “If they know what is good for them!”
12
ZACHARIASRETURNEDTOLondon in no mood for the Spring Ball. He had never been fond of a party, and this promised to be an even more dismal occasion than usual, if the Government carried out its intention of orchestrating a humiliating public review of England’s atmospheric magic levels.
Lady Wythe was visiting friends in the country, or Zacharias would have brought Mak Genggang and Prunella to her. Since he could not, he borrowed a leaf from Prunella’s book, and told his housekeeper that he had been honoured with a visit by a fairy princess and her duenna, which must be kept secret.
Fortunately Mak Genggang’s arrival had solved one difficulty, even as it created others. They were able to dispense with Cawley, for as Prunella put it, “Mak Genggang is so old she must be respectable, even if she is a foreigner.” She and Mak Genggang were fast friends at once, and Zacharias might have been concerned by the content of their whispered conversations as they talked away the long miles to London, if he had not been brooding over what he had learnt at the border.
He must obtain an explanation for the block on their magic as soon as he could, and the most direct way of achieving that was to seek an interview with the Fairy Court. The Court must be in expectation of such a calling to account, but Zacharias doubted they would welcome the confrontation. He certainly did not.
There was, of course, the Fairy King’s rout, which was held every rising of the blood-red moon in the Eastern Reaches of the Draconic Provinces. Zacharias had been aware of the occasion, as a potential factor that might affect the ebb and flow of magic into Britain, and therefore the enchantments he had planned for increasing Britain’s magic. He had had no intention of attending the event—the Sorcerer Royal had not been seen at the rout since Sir Stephen had been chased out by a fury wielding a flowerpot (a story Sir Stephen had often told to his own disadvantage, but never fully explained). But in theory the application of any foreign ambassador for an audience with the King would be granted at his rout. There was no reason why Britain’s representative should be an exception, uneasy though their relations were now.
When had Fairy stoppered the flow of magic? Not till after Geoffrey Midsomer had crossed the border upon his return to England, for surely he would have detected it then—the Court had made no attempt to conceal what they had done. Magicians were a gossipy race, and any thaumaturge worth his salt would have broadcast the intelligence far and wide. Zacharias must, then, be the only one who knew of the block.
He must prevent the news reaching the Society till he had a better notion of what had moved the Fairy Court to act as it had done. His position was already so uncertain that it could hardly survive such ill tidings, unless he were able to offer a remedy—though what form that remedy would take was not at all clear to him.
