Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 02 (26 page)

           
On top of
that, the duchesse and Lady Wendall and Lord Shoreham and the others who were
trying to help Mairelon would also be linked into Mannering's network as soon
as the spells merged. At best, they would probably lose their magic to his
twisted version of the power-sharing spell; at worst, their minds might be
burned out as well. Who could tell what effect the uncontrolled power in
Mannering's spell might have?

           
"We
got to get back and stop them!" Kim gasped, and started for the door.

           
"No!"
Mannering said, darting forward and grabbing at her left arm. "You have to
stay--You have to give me--You have to tell me--"

           
Kim let
his grasp swing her around. As she turned in to face him, she brought her free
arm up hard and fast. The heel of her open palm connected cleanly with the
bottom of Mannering's chin, snapping his head up and back. He let go of her and
staggered backward, off-balance. His head hit the jamb of the rear door, and he
went down in a dazed heap.

           
"Get Hunch!"
Kim said over her shoulder to Mrs.
Lowe, and started forward. They would have to take Mannering with them; left to
himself
, there was no knowing what he'd do or whether
they'd be able to find him again. And if the duchesse and Kerring and Shoreham
had Mannering himself to interrogate, they might be able to figure out a safe
way of removing his spell from Mairelon.
If
they got back to
Grosvenor
Square
before the current spellcasting was
finished. . . .

           
"Not
just yet, I think," Mrs. Lowe murmured. Stepping forward, she jabbed
Mannering with the point of her sunshade. Mannering yelped and fell sideways.
Mrs. Lowe picked up the thick wooden shaft he had been lying on and barred the
rear door.

           
A moment
later, the door rattled as if someone were trying to enter. "Mr.
Mannering?" said a muffled voice. "Is everything all right?"

           
Mannering
was shaking his head and trying to rise; Kim knocked him back against the door
jamb once more with a well-placed kick. "Get Hunch," she repeated.

           
Mrs. Lowe
pursed her lips disapprovingly, crossed to the outer door, and vanished
outside.

           
I got
to get Mairelon to teach me some spells for this kind of thing
, Kim thought
as she grabbed a linen shirt from the nearest pile of clothes. Keeping a wary
eye on Mannering, she yanked at the tough fabric.

           
The outer
door opened again and Hunch and one of the grooms entered.
"Now
what 'ave you gotten into?"
Hunch growled.

           
"Mr.
Mannering?" The barred door rattled again.

           
"We
got to get back to
Grosvenor Square
as fast as we can, or it's all up with Mairelon," Kim told Hunch, ripping
a strip from the shirt as she spoke. "The bully-boy in back
don't
matter, but we got to take this cove with"--she
nodded at Mannering--"and he's a weird sort of frog-maker. If we tie his
hands and gag him--"

           
"I
know 'ow to 'andle is kind," Hunch said. "I've 'ad to do it for
Master Richard a time or two." His hands were busy with the linen strips
as he spoke, and in a few seconds he had Mannering expertly bound and gagged.
With the groom's help, they loaded him into the coach.

           
As she
climbed in beside Mannering and Mrs. Lowe, Kim heard loud thumping noises from
the interior of the shop; apparently Mannering's henchman was trying to break
down the door instead of going out the back way and nipping around to the front
entrance. She spared a fleeting thought to wonder how much trouble Mannering's
bully-boy would make for Tom once he finally got into the front room and found
Mannering gone. Well, it was Tom's problem, and with luck Matt would have
gotten back with a constable by then. She leaned out the coach window.
"Spring 'em," she said to Hunch.

           
The trip
back to
Grosvenor Square
seemed to take forever, though Hunch urged
the
horses
to a speed far greater than was really safe on the crowded streets. Mrs. Lowe
sat stiff as a poker beside Kim, radiating disapproval but not saying anything.
Mannering had recovered from his daze and alternated between glaring balefully
at Kim over his gag and making terrified whimpering noises. On the whole, Kim
preferred the glares; as long as he was sane enough to glare, she knew that the
wizards in
Grosvenor Square
hadn't completed their spell.

           
It's a
complicated
spell,
it'll take a long time.
But
would it take long enough? The picture of Mairelon turned empty-eyed, grunting,
and helpless haunted her.
Faster,
she thought at the horses.
Hurry
faster.

           
At last
they pulled up in front of the door. Kim was out of the coach almost before it
stopped moving, and banging the knocker long before any of the grooms reached
the door. When it opened at last, an interminable time later, she darted past
the startled footman and ran up the stairs to the ballroom. As she tore down
the hall, she heard a muffled feminine voice rising toward a climax, but she
couldn't tell whether it was Lady Wendall's or the duchesse's. The duchesse was
supposed to be last. . . . She flung herself through the ballroom door.

           
The air
inside the ballroom was heavy with power; the sharp, glittering structure of
the spell nearly complete. The Duchesse Delagardie stood in one of the
triangular points of the star that Kim had watched the wizards preparing. Lady
Wendall, Lord Shoreham, Lord Kerring, Renee D'Auber, and Prince Durmontov
occupied the other points, and Mairelon himself stood in the center of the
star. The duchesse had her back to the door, and her arms were raised in the
final invocation.

           
Kim
hesitated. To interrupt now would shatter the spell, and the enormous power
that had already been poured into it would recoil on the wizards, doing nearly
as much damage as Mannering's spell would. To let them continue would destroy
Mairelon's mind as soon as he was linked into the duchesse's spell, not to
mention the minds of the other wizards whose magic Mannering had taken, and
quite possibly the six spellcasters themselves into the bargain. As soon as
Mairelon was linked to the duchesse's spell . . . but if the duchesse linked
her spell to
someone else,
instead of Mairelon. . . .

           
Without
pausing to think further, Kim picked up her skirts once more and ran forward.
Mairelon saw her and took a half-step to meet her, then stopped, plainly
realizing that to move any farther he would have to step outside the star.
Renee and Lord Shoreham saw her next and frowned; then the other wizards--all
but the duchesse. As Kim reached the edge of the star, she realized that the
duchesse had closed her eyes to speak the closing words, and a tiny corner of
Kim's mind sighed in relief. At least she wouldn't accidentally distract the
duchesse and cause the spell to shatter.

           
Kim made
an urgent shooing motion at Mairelon and pointed emphatically to the floor
outside the star.
If only he doesn't take a notion to get stubborn. . . .
Mairelon hesitated and glanced at the duchesse; he knew, even better than Kim
did,
the possible consequences of miscasting a major
enchantment. Frantically, Kim gestured again for him to move.

           
On the
far side of the diagram, Shoreham frowned and shook his head, but Mairelon's
gaze was fixed on Kim's face, and he didn't notice Shoreham's gesture.
Move,
move,
get
out of the star!
And finally, his eyes
alight with
questions,
Mairelon nodded and stepped
sideways out of the diagram. As he did, Kim stepped into it, taking his place.

           
Mairelon
turned, an expression of horrified comprehension dawning on his face. He
reached for Kim, but he was an instant too late. The duchesse spoke the final
syllable and brought her arms down in a decisive movement, finishing the spell.

           
Power
crashed down on Kim, filling her to bursting and beyond, burning through her
mind.
Is this what it felt like to Ma Yanger?
The room went dark and she
felt herself sway. Far away, a babble of voices broke out, but the only one she
could decipher was Mairelon's: "Duchesse!
The
counterspell, quickly!"

           
Three
words blazed across Kim's mind like lightning bolts across a darkened summer
sky, and then the storm of uncontrollable power passed. Almost gratefully, she
started to collapse. Arms caught her as she fell; she struggled mindlessly
until she heard Mairelon's voice by her ear and realized the arms were his.
Then she relaxed into unconsciousness.

           
Her
insensibility could not have lasted more than a moment or two, for the first
thing she noticed when she began to recover was Mairelon's almost
panic-stricken voice in her ears: "Kim! Kim?"

           
"Mairelon?"
she said hazily through a pounding headache. "Oh, good, it worked."

           
"Thank
God!" he said, and kissed her.

           
Kissing
Mairelon was much nicer than she had ever dared to imagine, despite the
headache. After much too short a time, he pulled away. "Kim, I--"

           
"I
see you have decided to take my advice after all, Richard," Lady Wendall's
amused voice said from somewhere above and behind him. "Marrying your ward
is
exactly
the sort of usual scandal I had in mind; I wonder it didn't
occur to me before."

           
"However,
it is quite unnecessary for him to add to the talk by kissing her in
public," Mrs. Lowe put in. "If he
must
indulge in vulgar
behavior, it would be far better done after the notice of his engagement has
appeared in the
Gazette
.
And in private."

           
Mairelon
looked up, plainly startled, and Kim's heart sank. Then his face went stiff,
and her heart sank even further. "It was a momentary aberration,
Aunt," he said in a colorless voice. "It won't happen again."

           
"I
should like to think not," Mrs. Lowe said. "It is, perhaps, too much
to hope that once you are married you will settle down, but Kim appears to have
had at least a little success in keeping you out of trouble.
Which
is more than can be said for anyone else.
"

           
"You
don't understand," Mairelon said dully. "Kim doesn't want to marry a
toff."

           
Was
that
what was bothering him?
"Well, of all the bacon-brained,
sapskulled, squirish, buffle-headed nod cocks!" Kim said with as much
indignation as she could muster. "I was talking about the
marquis
,
not about
you
!"

           
Mairelon's
eyes kindled. "Then you would?"

           
"You've
whiddled it," Kim informed him.

           
As he
kissed her again, she heard Mrs. Lowe murmur, "Mind your language,
Kim," and Shoreham say in an amused tone, "Yes, Your Grace, I believe
that was an affirmative answer."

           
"I'll
send the notice to the
Gazette
tomorrow," Mairelon said when he
finally came up for air.
"No, today.
Where's Hunch?"

           
Kim,
feeling rather light-headed, leaned back on Mairelon's shoulder and looked
around. Lady Wendall and Renee D'Auber were watching them with expressions that
could only be described as smug; Prince Durmontov looked mildly bemused; the
Duchesse Delagardie was smiling like a gleeful pixy; and the Lords Shoreham and
Kerring were exchanging glances of enormous amusement. No one seemed to be
either surprised or disapproving, not even Mrs. Lowe.

           
"In
a minute, dear," Lady Wendall said to Mairelon. "And now that
that
is settled, perhaps you will let Kim explain the necessity for this interesting
interruption. I confess
,
I do not understand it at
all."

           
"Mannering!"
Kim said. She tried to struggle to a
sitting position, but gave up when her head began to swim. Apparently, the
light-headedness hadn't just been an effect of kissing Mairelon. "He ain't
piked off, has he?"

           
"Mannering?"
Lord Shoreham frowned. "You
don't mean to say you've located the confounded fellow! Where is he?"

           
"I
believe he is currently on the lower stairs," Mrs. Lowe said.
"Richard's man has him in charge, and I expect they will arrive
momentarily."

           
"Aunt
Agatha, you amaze me," Mairelon said. "How did you come to be, er,
involved?"

           
"If
you will assist Kim to one of the sofas, where she may be more comfortable, I
am sure she will explain everything," Mrs. Lowe replied.

           
Mairelon
promptly picked Kim up and carried her to the nearest seat. She did not
protest; the headache was beginning to recede, but she still felt shaky and
weak. Mairelon took the seat next to her so that he could put his arm around
her, and she leaned gratefully into his shoulder. Lord Shoreham, Lord Kerring,
and Prince Durmontov pulled up chairs for themselves and the ladies, and they
all sat down and looked at Kim expectantly.

           
"Um,"
said Kim, trying to decide where to begin.

           
The doors
at the far end opened and Hunch entered, dragging the still-bound-and-gagged
Mannering.
"Now what?"
Lord Shoreham said.

           
"This
'ere is that Mannering fellow you been a-wanting," Hunch said, looking at
Mairelon. "Kim says 'e's some kind of wizard. Where do you want me to put
'im?"

           
"The
far corner will do nicely for the time being, Hunch," Lady Wendall said.
"And perhaps you would remain to keep an eye on him for a few minutes?
Thank you."

           
"Mannering."
Lord Shoreham shook his head and
looked back at Kim. "Where did you find him? And how?"

           
"I
didn't," Kim said. "He found me. He got Tom Correy to send Matt with
a message, and--"

           
"That
message was from Mannering?" Mairelon's arm tightened around Kim.

           
Kim
nodded. "He wanted me to nobble the de Cambriol book for him--at least,
that's what he started with."

           
"Wait
a minute," Lord Kerring said. "Who is this Mannering person? Yes,
yes, I know he's tied up in the corner, but what does he have to do with this
interruption? That's what I want to know."

           
"He's
a moneylender, and he's the one behind the magic-draining spell on
Mairelon," Kim said. "Only it isn't really a magic-draining spell,
it's that one for sharing power, and he's kept it up for months."

           
"C'est
impossible!"
the duchesse exclaimed.

           
Renee
D'Auber tilted her head to one side. "I think, me, that it will be
altogether better if Mademoiselle Kim begins with the beginning and goes on
without the interruptions. Or we will very likely still be sitting here
tomorrow morning." Beside her, the prince nodded emphatically.

           
Shoreham
laughed. "You are quite right, Mademoiselle D'Auber. Miss Merrill, if you
would proceed?"

           
"I
think it starts with Mannering and Lord Starnes," Kim said after considering
for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the story: how Starnes had
offered Henri d'Armand's
livre de memoire
to Mannering as part of his
collateral for a loan; how Mannering must have found the power-sharing spell
and persuaded one of the rookery hedge-wizards to cast it in English; how he
had kept the spell going by continually adding new wizards to the linkage.

           
"Only
he must have been running out of wizards," Kim said. "There aren't
many real magicians in St. Giles or
Covent Garden
. He'd
have to find some new wizards to steal power from, or figure out some other way
to keep the spell stable. That's why he was trying to steal the rest of the
memory books--he thought one of them would tell him how to make the spell
permanent."

           
"Why
didn't he just release--oh, of course," Lord Shoreham said. "The
rookery wizards would have torn him limb from limb the minute they got their
magic back, if he'd tried to release the spell and start over."

           
Kim
nodded. "And without the power-sharing spell, he isn't a wizard at all. He
couldn't
start over."

           
"And
how did you come to learn all this?" Lord Shoreham asked mildly.

           
"He
told me a lot of it himself." As rapidly as she could, Kim laid out the
particulars of her visit with Mannering, and the conclusions she had drawn from
his ramblings and boasts and threats. It took longer than she had expected, but
eventually she finished.