Zacharias spilt his coffee, and was too busy mopping up the result to meet Damerell’s eyes.
“Quite astonishingly so,” he said.
Damerell governed his features with his habitual composure, but his delight was evident to one who knew him as well as Zacharias did. The damnable thing about Damerell, thought Zacharias, was that he never failed to observe precisely what you would conceal.
“Very good,” said Damerell. “But why is it necessary to help Miss Gentleman to a husband?”
“I intend training her in the thaumaturgy, and she has promised to apply herself if I arrange for her to be introduced into society,” saidZacharias. “She seems confident that she will be able to obtain a husband of means, if she can only contrive to gain access to the right people.”
“She sounds a female of considerable resource. I admire her already. But now we come to the vital point: why is she to be trained?”
Zacharias was prepared for this.
“It has become clear to me that it is necessary to reform the thaumaturgical education of women,” he said. “The system that currently obtains is injurious to those women and girls who must do violence to their own natures to conform to it. Mrs. Daubeney’s school supplied ample proof of that. It proved, too, that there is a store of magical ability among women, which we would be foolish to disregard. A number of her students have obvious talent—talent that will otherwise be wasted in clandestine enchantments in the drawing room and kitchen, in charms to beautify a table or amuse an infant.”
“Miss Gentleman is to be your first example of what may be done with feminine magic, then,” said Damerell.
Zacharias bowed. “Even without training, her abilities are striking. With instruction, what might she not achieve?”
He knew this was a poor explanation. If his purpose was to demonstrate the desirability of reforming women’s education by training one talented female, why not select one who would not make such strange demands? But further Zacharias dared not go. He must conceal the existence of Prunella’s familiars for as long as he could.
“Far be it from me to find fault with so noble a scheme,” said Damerell contemplatively. “But you will forgive a friend’s impertinence, Zacharias—have you considered the Society’s likely reception of it, when we have recently had such an alarming lesson in what may be done with feminine magic? I refer, you know, to the Malayan vampiress who nearly killed Mrs. Geoffrey Midsomer.”
“She was a witch, not a vampiress,” said Zacharias. “And if Mrs. Midsomer was bruised, that is the most I have heard she suffered inthe way of injury! If I were to wait until the Society liked the notion of teaching women magic, my reform would never come to fruition.”
“Still, could not you wait till your position is stronger, before you quite upend all of the Society’s beloved prejudices?” said Damerell.
Zacharias shook his head. “Who knows how long I will be Sorcerer Royal? I may never again be in such a position to effect good.”
“But that is just what I do not like. It is such an unfortunate time for you to announce a scheme that is bound to be unpopular, with Geoffrey Midsomer wooing half the Society and bribing the other half, and the Treasury eyeing our coffers, and above all, our magic running dry.”
“That, at least, is a difficulty the Society will no longer be able to throw in my face,” said Zacharias, relieved to be able to supply good news for once. “I am confident we will see a marked improvement when the results of the next inspection of atmospheric magic levels are published in theGazette.” The introduction of Prunella’s three familiars was bound to give rise tothatbenefit, at least.
Damerell blinked. “But that is excellent! Did your efforts at the border succeed, then, Zacharias?”
“After a fashion,” said Zacharias guardedly. The block on England’s magic was another matter best kept secret for now. The Fairy King’s rout was that very evening, and Zacharias would have a better notion of the reason for the block soon enough.
Damerell sat in silence for a while, no doubt turning over the various holes Zacharias could discern in his own account.
“You are grown very sorcerous, Zacharias,” he said finally. “You never used to be so mysterious. But I will see what I can do for your apprentice. The girl will need to be dressed properly, of course. Lady Wythe will obtain her admission to Almack’s, I presume.”
“Yes,” said Zacharias. “We have agreed that Miss Gentleman is to have everything that is suitable. You may call upon my bankers for any expense.”
“Then I think I can contrive a splash for your Miss Gentleman,” said Damerell. “But—you will allow me to say it once—it is a singular deal you have struck, Zacharias! One would think anyone would be pleased to be apprenticed to the Sorcerer Royal.”
“Unfortunately, Miss Gentleman is not justanyone,” said Zacharias glumly.
•••
WHENZacharias returned to his study there was a small brown leaf on his desk. It looked as though it had blown in through the window, but Zacharias knew it for what it was at once.
A closer inspection proved it to be no ordinary leaf: its veins glittered with gold, and gold edged the blade. The Fairy King’s signature was on the other side: an inky hoof-stamp, redolent of earth and smoke.
His application for an audience had been accepted. Zacharias slipped the leaf into his pocket, feeling unwontedly nervous. It was what he had wanted—but the encounter must be managed carefully if it was to bear fruit.
That evening he laid the leaf on the floor of his study, and paced around it counterclockwise. The leaf would work its own magic. All he needed to do was circle it till the path was open.
As he trod his circumscribed round he found himself murmuring a little rhyme, which his nurse had used to sing to him, in his nursery days:
