Heart's Magic (37 page)

Elinor shook her head.
There wasn't a man living who would admit to any
weakness.

"So," he said finally, when
they reached the conservatory door. "We're engaged to be married,
then?"

Elinor sighed. "Yes, Harry.
We are engaged." She noted that he did not say "we're to be
married." As if he did not truly expect it to come off.

He put his hand on the
door, but didn't open it. He looked down at her, reaching up with
his other hand to touch her cheek. "Somehow, I thought I'd be
'appier at this moment. I'm sorry for makin' such a mess of things
for you."

She gave him a smile that
likely reflected her own mixed-up feelings. "So am I, for my own
contributions to the mess." She touched his arm. "It will be all
right."

"We'll make it all
right."

He opened the door and held
it for her to enter.

Over the next few weeks, a
pair of I-Branch conjurers discovered that several magicians
identified in the attack on Elinor had fled the city for Ireland.
Messages were sent to the magicians acting as Briganti in
Ireland--there, they were called Erainn but they served the same
purpose. The would-be murderers would have officers of the law
waiting to arrest them as soon as they arrived in
Dublin.

Two of those who ran hadn't
been known participants previously, but once they bolted, a
conjury-alchemy spell on the aetheric trail of the magic confirmed
it. It also definitively determined that 10 magicians had taken
part in the spell: four wizards, three alchemists, and three
conjurers. They had names for three of the wizards, two of the
alchemists, and a conjurer. One of the alchemists was still in the
wind, along with the four still-unidentified men.

After questioning employees
of the railway used by the fleeing magicians--who seemed to have
run away in a group--Harry and Elinor learned that his
wizardry-enhanced concussion spell had indeed traced its way back
to their attackers. It was reported that a man matching Dodd's
description had behaved as if he were deaf, and both Allsup and
Crump, the alchemist in the group, had plaster casts on various
limbs. Allsup was using crutches. The satisfaction she felt at the
knowledge roused all sorts of guilt in Elinor.

The announcement of her
engagement to Harry swept through the ranks of magicians--both
loyal and dissident--like refiner's fire, except Elinor didn't know
the word to quench it. It also brought a letter of reproach from
Elinor's parents out in the Cotswolds after the newspapers reached
them. Fresh waves of guilt rose to consume her.

She'd forgotten entirely to
write them about it. She hadn't written her parents since being
elevated to wizard's magister, though she had remembered to tell
them that, at least. Too much had been happening.

Harry hadn't ever met her
family. They rarely came to town and he didn't like going out into
the country. Too much grass not confined neatly in parks unsettled
him, he claimed. She immediately sent off an apology and an
invitation to visit and meet her prospective groom. The tangle only
became more tangled.

A few more magicians
defected to the Loyal Order after the announcement, but again they
were the weaker sort, those who could believe that Harry would
dance to Elinor's tune. Conjurers with only one spirit a few years
dead to call, or alchemists proficient in a single element. The
younger, stronger, more open-minded magicians stood fast and
congratulated them on their upcoming nuptials.

At Harry's request, Sir
William had written to Col. Simmons at his health retreat in Bath,
urging him to join the former council head in retirement.
Surprisingly enough, the gouty curmudgeon complied. Apparently, the
thought of being directly subordinate to "that upstart Tomlinson"
did not appeal. Harry promptly appointed Thom Norwood commander of
Briganti Enforcers and created the separate position in charge of
Holborn Tower. On Thom's endorsement, he named John Biggs to the
post. Things were coming together nicely.

It had proved a simple
thing for Elinor to winkle all the wizards out of the guild hall.
She'd simply had to provoke them into attacking her. Though
actually, most of them hadn't taken part. Old Beddowes was the last
to depart, after the workmen arrived to drape tarpaulins over
everything. She'd have suspected them of draping Beddowes, as he
spent most of his time snoring away in a chair near the fire, but
apparently the hammering at the roof had rousted him.

He joined the Loyal Order,
along with all the other wizards save Fillmore, Jenkins, and
Moreman. Fillmore and Jenkins had both been part of the teams in
the battle at Waterloo Station, and Moreman followed where Jenkins
led.

And on the second Sunday
after the change in leadership, halfway through February, the
Magician's Council would have its first magical talent testing day
in over 200 years that was open to females as well as males. It had
been announced, denounced, and argued volubly in the newspapers, on
street corners, and in pubs, inns, and teashops of all ranks. No
conclusions had been drawn, except that it
would
take place. Elinor could hardly
wait.

The London Institution in
Finsbury Circus had been borrowed for the expanded testing day by
arrangement with the institution's board of governors. It was a
great deal nearer the East End than the Magician's Council Hall
was. It was also close to an underground station, one of those
operated by a tiny locomotive, as well as the Liverpool Street
train station. Harry had long advocated for talent testing in
varied locations around London, rather than solely at the Council
Hall. Now that he was head of the council, he'd taken only two
weeks to get the first one set up.

The doors to the
institution were to open promptly at one p.m., to allow time for
the candidates to eat lunch after church services. The churches in
and near Finsbury Circus, from Allhallows Church to the Welsh
Baptist Chapel, had overflow crowds that morning. Elinor saw them
filling the doorways as she arrived early with the other volunteers
to set up at the institution. By noon, the oval park in the center
of the circus was packed with whole families queuing up to have one
of their members tested.

All of the schoolmasters
were present for the testing as it was part of their duty. Norwood
had brought a company of Enforcers to keep order in the queues. All
the magisters and Harry had come as well--the women, because they
were needed for testing; the men, to support the ladies. The
schoolmasters were enough to test the likely boys.

Amanusa and Pearl brought
their advanced students to help with testing the anticipated mobs
of women and girls. Elinor had called out all three of her master
wizards, as well as inviting Dr. Rosato, who came. Nikos Archaios
also offered to help test the girls, since he was sensitive to all
four of the Great Magics. Elinor worried that they still didn't
have enough testers for the girls.

"Don't be harder on the
girls than you are on the boys," Elinor was saying, with a sharp
look at Lewis Moreman. She didn't know him well enough yet to trust
him very far. She turned her sharp look on Tonio Rosato. "But don't
go easier on them either. We want wizards with actual talent, not
just pretty faces.

"Mr. Archaios and I will be
the first screeners for the girls," she went on, "since we can test
for both wizardry and sorcery. We will send the ones who pass to
either you gentlemen or Mrs. Greyson's ladies. Right now though, as
I understand it, we're looking for raw talent. They won't actually
choose a discipline until they visit the library. Is that correct,
Mr. Fillmore?"

He was the only one of them
who'd participated in a talent testing day before today. "Yes," he
began. "It is generally possible to tell which--"

"Help!" Pearl's cry cut
across all conversation from where she stood near the windows
overlooking the street outside. "Oh, help--Thom! Grey! They're
fighting--shoving the girls and throwing rocks at them!"

The men leapt into motion,
Thom and his Briganti at the forefront. Elinor felt magic
move--Amanusa and Pearl gathering up the power of innocent blood
spilled--and ran to help. She'd never worked justice magic, but the
outrage she felt, that someone would use violence to stop others
from bettering their lives simply because they wore skirts, helped
her grasp the magic's purpose and the method of using it. In
concert with the other sorcerers, she invoked the blood and sent it
out to quell the combat. It seemed to have a little burn to
it--Harry's contribution.

"I've sent a request for
regular police to keep order." Grey stopped beside the women at the
window. "Now, I suppose I should go join Harry and Thom in cracking
heads."

"If you feel you must."
Pearl sighed. "It wouldn't do to let them have all the
fun."

"No, it would not. I'd best
hurry or all the best heads will already be cracked." Grey's grin
was positively feral as he headed for the nearby door, adjusting
his gloves.

Harry's concussion spell
linked with Elinor's blood magic to head directly for those marked
as the offenders. Thom and the Enforcer alchemists sent their own
similar spells out, bowling over those pushing and shoving at the
foot of the steps. The other sorcerers' justice magic kept those
Harry's spell had knocked down from getting back up and allowed the
conjury spirits to pinpoint them for the bobbies who soon came
pouring into the square, bashing the few remaining recalcitrants
into submission.

Apparently, from what could
be gathered before the doors officially opened and the madhouse got
underway, three separate groups were involved in the fracas: the
"ladies" who were taunting some of the men with their presumed
magical prowess, the men throwing rocks who didn't approve of
uppity females using magic, and the boys and their families at the
head of the line who pushed the girls and their families out of
their way.

They all got sent to the
back of the line, except for the rock throwers, who were carted off
to clink by the police. Order was maintained by the regiment of
policemen who remained in the circus. The Briganti took over once
those applying for examination were admitted to the
building.

Most of the applicants came
into the front hall with at least one sponsor or parent. There,
they were confronted by Elinor and Archaios, or Headmaster Whitson
and the dean of the alchemy department, a quiet man named Hunter.
Usually the sponsor would say something like, "the boy shows
promise at his magic lessons," or "the girl's always watchin'
things that ain't there." The magicians would ask the candidate to
demonstrate his or her talent and either send them on to have their
information taken down before entering one of the rooms for further
testing, or send them quietly out the back way.

This--the sending them home
again--happened far more often with the girls than the boys,
because the system was fairly well established for finding boys
with talent. Schoolmasters in the primary grades knew what they
were looking for and were quick to mark out a boy with promise. But
girls didn't get magic lessons in primary school, and by the time
magic talent usually began to manifest, they weren't in the same
schools as the boys. Most of them weren't in school at all and the
ones who were, their teachers hadn't any idea what the signs of
magical talent might be.

One girl came in as part of
an entire family who'd accompanied her younger brother. While he
demonstrated his ability to make bubbles in a bowl of water, she
started playing with the wooden pegs on Elinor's table. When one of
the pegs sprouted fresh pine needles, Elinor snatched her up,
pushed her into the arms of a Briganti, and had her escorted
directly to Dr. Rosato. Then she spent the next half-hour arguing
with the girl's parents who didn't think she should outshine her
podgy little brother. He was a fair enough talent, so Elinor begged
Mr. Whitson to take them as a package, which he eventually
did.

There was a ragged boy who
marched defiantly into the building, straight up to Harry where he
stood to one side, and announced that he could start fires with a
flick of his finger. Harry put out the lamp on the table beside him
and invited the boy to demonstrate, and when the lamp blazed to
light, took him personally to the enrollment table at the end of
the line. The rest of the boys who tried to jump the queue, he made
go through the proper process.

Potential sorcerers were a
bit harder to test than the other disciplines. Most of them
wouldn't spit in public, so they'd devised a test where they were
asked to pull in some of London's overabundance of innocent blood
justice magic and place it in a spot of Amanusa's blood on a
handkerchief. The miniature riot before the doors' opening provided
more magic to work with.

One young woman, a store
clerk, refused absolutely to spit at all, even in the private
testing room with Pearl. She was not admitted to the academy.
Another woman, obviously "no better than she should be," walked in
trailing a cloud of sex magic five yards behind her. She was
admitted on condition that she follow academy rules. That one made
Elinor
very
nervous.