The War and the Fox Read online

  “Inattention wards are so interesting,” Alice said, impressed. Her ears perked up. “Do you really think there’s danger?”

  “If there was a demon here, chances are high.” Kip relaxed only a little. “Malcolm’s ward can be beaten if someone is concentrating on breaking it, but it’s good protection.”

  “For someone to get through it, they would have to know it was here and physically walk into the Church,” Malcolm told Alice. “It isn’t simply a matter of ‘concentrating on breaking it.’”

  “I said it was good protection,” Kip protested.

  “But surely someone at the College might have sent a demon down here?” Alice asked. “To spy?”

  Kip shook his head. “The sorcerers have more pressing matters on their minds. I suppose it is not out of the question, but…it seems unlikely.”

  Master. A sorcerer has translocated to the church yard.

  Kip swore and pushed his way through the crowd of Calatians. Behind him, Emily told Alice to look after Malcolm and Malcolm retorted that he could look after himself, and then Kip reached the door and burst out into the nave of the church. A few people sat eating on the pews; their ears perked toward him as he scanned the rear of the church, behind the altar.

  Is there a place where we may observe the yard without being seen? he asked Nikolon as Emily came up beside him.

  After a moment, the demon replied, Yes.

  Kip reminded himself to be precise in his language. Where is it?

  To the left of the altar through the small wooden door. There was a pause. Or I may show you.

  He pointed out the door to Emily and followed her. Show me.

  Superimposed over the view of the inside of the church flashed a grey, damp yard, green tufts of grass and a few violet crocuses poking their heads out around old tombstones. Standing on one of the tombstones was a man Kip knew well, a stocky man in black robes whose face and beard dripped with water. Master Albright’s hair was thinner and whiter than when Kip had last seen him over a year ago, but Kip would never forget that face, and even the sight of it by proxy had him calling magic from the earth.

  “Kip,” Emily said. They reached the door and she only now noticed his paws glowing violet.

  “It’s Albright,” he said tightly. The thing to do was call fire, incinerate the man as he had narrowly missed doing a year ago. But he couldn’t make himself do it in cold blood. Odden and Cott had drilled self-control into him, had thrust story upon story on him of fire sorcerers gone out of control and killed by their fellows. Even Cott, prone to the occasional ill-advised display of power, recognized the importance of restraint.

  Emily swore and hurried to open the door. Kip followed her, watching as Albright stepped forward, crushing a pair of crocus flowers, and looked around uncertainly. Looking for me, Kip thought.

  The small room smelled strongly of old paper and cloth and wine. At the rear, a stained window allowed Emily to look out onto the yard, but just as she did, Albright made up his mind and vanished.

  “Did you see him?” Kip asked, at the same time asking Nikolon, Did he reappear nearby?

  “For a moment,” Emily said.

  No.

  “He’s gone.” Kip stared out at the crushed flower and then turned to hurry back to the others.

  Emily gripped his arm. “The College,” she said. “We have to warn them.”

  “Go,” he said, and then saw Emily’s apprehension. Neither of them knew what might await them, and two sets of eyes were better than one, not to mention the ability to control fire. He added, “and bring me with you. I’ll tell the demon to have Alice keep everyone inside.”

  In the few seconds it took Emily to gather magic, he gave Nikolon her instructions and received acknowledgment. And look for me every five minutes. If you cannot contact me, tell Alice and Malcolm to go to the Armory in Boston and alert the Army.

  Yes, Master.

  Emily took hold of Kip’s arm and in the blink of an eye they stood in the Great Hall of the White Tower. The background murmur of activity that Kip had always heard here was gone, the silence so absolute that he and Emily held their breaths. “It’s too quiet,” Emily said finally.

  “The elementals.” Kip pointed to the large empty fireplace where usually several phosphorus elementals lay atop one another. He lifted his nose to the air.

  “Everyone’s gone.” Emily lifted her hands to her mouth. “Hallo!”

  The word echoed in the Great Hall and then died away. They waited five, ten seconds, and still no response came.

  In Emily’s wide eyes Kip saw his own fear. “Everyone’s gone,” he said shakily.

  “They might have seen Albright and fled? They might be…somewhere else?”

  Kip couldn’t think of where a whole school of sorcerers might have gone, and besides that, he knew as well as Emily that not all the sorcerers could translocate. It would take time for those who could to collect those who couldn’t. “The air smells like…British sorcerers.”

  Emily sniffed. “They have a distinctive smell?”

  “The soap they use.” Kip avoided the stairs to the basement and walked instead to the larger staircase, ears perked. “King’s College stinks of it. Let me see if—our friend is awake.” He pressed his foot to the bare stone and reached down, calling the name of the spirit bound to the stones of the Tower. Peter?

  No answer. He tried again and then set his foot on the first stair. Emily walked up beside him, her steps echoing up. “Anything?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t tell whether he’s gone or just being quiet.” He fought back the fear that Peter had somehow been unbound, kidnapped, or destroyed. He, Emily, and Master Barrett were the only ones who knew the name of the spirit in the Tower, but what they could find, someone else might also. Right now, though, he needed to find out what had happened. There would be time later for grief, if it were needed. “Let’s check upstairs?”

  “The library.”

  Together they hurried up to the second floor. The library door stood closed, but opened to their pressure. Inside, all looked as normal as though they had strolled in after a lesson looking for a reference. The only thing missing was Florian, the old librarian they had never seen the library without.

  “The British must not have valued the books.” Emily went to the shelves and traced a finger along the bindings. “If it was them. I suppose they have enough of their own.”

  “They don’t have Odden’s demon book. He’s added so many names to it that the British don’t have, and we don’t have most of those names anywhere else. Without as many demons, the war will be much harder.” Kip bit his lip and ran along the hall to his master’s office.

  Here there were signs of a struggle. Odden’s chair had been pushed back from his desk, scrolls and books had spilled from one bookcase, and the great copper brazier that normally held a phosphorus elemental lay overturned on the floor. And the large volume of demon names that had been stored here for safekeeping was gone from the shelf.

  Emily stopped in the doorway. “Don’t you know some demon names?”

  Kip searched the scattered books to make sure the volume wasn’t there. “Everyone knows a few. But only a few. For the first battles, I suppose it will be fine, but once they learn what our demons can do, they can find others that will counter them. We won’t have that option.” Kip exhaled. “Let me try Peter again. We need to be sure of what happened.”

  At that moment Nikolon spoke into his head. Master?

  Is everyone safe? Kip thought back at her.

  Yes. It has been five minutes.

  Thank you. I’m still safe. He paused. Please tell Malcolm and Alice that the College is empty and Emily and I will return to them as soon as possible.

  Yes, Master.

  Kip turned his attention to the stone again. Peter?

  This time, a faint stirring. Kip? I was hiding.

  Relief washed through him at Peter’s voice. Everyone’s gone but us. What happened here?


  They came in the front door. I couldn’t prevent them. When they were inside, there were a dozen of them, spiritual sorcerers and one translocational sorcerer. I woke Master Barrett, but before he could do anything they had arrived and cut off his magic. They cut off everyone’s magic. Then they took them outside and they were gone. I’m sorry. I failed.

  Not your fault, Kip told him. And we’re still here, and you’re safe.

  I didn’t act fast enough.

  Did you recognize any of the sorcerers?

  A pause, and then: Yes. Master Albright. He’s been here before.

  Thank you, Peter. We’re going to fight and we’ll get everyone back.

  He relayed the story to Emily, who pursed her lips. “I’d say this is an act of war.”

  Kip nodded. “I’d agree.” The imminence of war over the past year had weighed on him but he’d acclimated to it; the reality that now at any moment Albright might appear and abduct or kill him both terrified and excited him. Now he could join the fight. The question was— “What do we do now? There might be more clues to where they were taken.”

  “We have to go to Boston,” Emily said. “The Armory.”

  “We might be able to find them, though.”

  “Kip. There’s a war on. We need to tell the Army that there’s been an attack. John Quincy Adams was very clear on that point the last time I talked to him.”

  “Right.” And the Army would direct Kip where he could be most effective in the war. The fox cast around Odden’s office for anything he could or should take with him, but the book of demon names was the most important thing by far, and that was gone. All of Kip’s own books were down at the Inn. “We’ll get Malcolm and Alice. Do you think the rest of the town will be safe?”

  “Why wouldn’t they be?”

  “Some of them are calyxes.”

  “They can’t do magic on their own, though.” Emily took a bit of her hair and wound it around her finger. “Do you think Alice should come with us? They don’t know she can do magic. If you tell her to keep her magic quiet…”

  Kip laughed. “You try that.”

  “I’m serious, Kip.”

  “So am I.” He swished his tail. The danger he felt for himself went double for Alice. As far as he knew, Albright didn’t know about her, but as Emily had pointed out, there were many other sorcerers on the British side, and for them to have infiltrated the College, they had to know it very well. Even if most of the College sorcerers didn’t know about Alice, that didn’t mean nobody on the British side did.

  “She’s a girl,” Emily said. “You’re talking about taking her to war.”

  “You’re going to war,” he pointed out. “She’s not much younger than you were when you were married to Thomas.”

  “I’ve studied sorcery for two years with, I’m sorry, skilled teachers.”

  He didn’t bristle. “She’s very talented despite my lack of skill in teaching.”

  “I didn’t mean—” Emily shook her head. “What if something happens to her?”

  “It could as easily happen here. Remember Farley?” Kip rested a paw on Emily’s arm. “I’ve talked to her. She wants to come and fight, and I’ve seen for myself that she can help. Trust us.”

  She twisted her hair around her finger. “All right. We can’t waste much more time. Let’s go.”

  2

  The Master Colonel

  The Boston Armory, a squat brick building that stood among several stone townhouses, buzzed with activity when Emily deposited Kip across the street from it. “I haven’t been in there,” she said, by way of explaining why they hadn’t just appeared inside, “and besides, it’s likely warded.”

  Kip had never experienced a ward set against him. “What does it feel like, trying to appear in a warded spot?”

  Emily had gathered magic to go back for Malcolm and Alice, but paused and considered, brushing a hair out of her face with a glowing hand. “You know when you’re visualizing your landing and you feel that ‘yes, I can go there’ feeling? If it’s an inattention ward, you can’t quite visualize where you’re going to land. If it’s a prevention ward, you can visualize it, but the spell doesn’t work at all. It’s rather distressing, really.”

  “All right.” Kip gestured for her to go. “Hurry back.”

  Across the street, at the doorway to the Armory, two men in patchy blue and red coats stood guard with muskets, and behind them, though Kip couldn’t see clearly, his ears picked up flurries of activity: footsteps and the metallic clank of weapons, both through the ground floor doorway and through upper level windows.

  Master?

  Nikolon. I’m fine. I’m in Boston. Is everyone safe?

  They are safe. A sorcerer has appeared in the church.

  Emily?

  Yes.

  That’s fine. Thank you for your service, Nikolon. I have no more need of you.

  Thank you, master.

  He summoned magic and spoke the dismissal to release the demon. The movement attracted the attention of the two guards, who had not seen him appear with Emily. They cast him curious looks, and at that moment Emily reappeared with the others. Both of the guards jumped, and one started to shift his rifle to his arms, then stopped and put it back to his shoulder.

  “Come on, then,” Emily said, and led them across the dirty street to the ever-more apprehensive guards.

  Kip took Malcolm’s arm and the four of them walked to the door of the Armory. Emily approached the guards without fear and said, “Emily Carswell, adjunct to John Adams, here to report an attack on the College of Sorcery.”

  The two guards proved to be very young, younger than most of Kip and Emily’s fellow students. “Er,” one said. “Ahhh…” contributed the other.

  “Either let us in,” Emily said patiently, “or go fetch someone who knows who John Adams is.”

  “I’ll go,” the blond-haired of the two said, and scurried inside.

  “‘Adjunct’ now?” Kip murmured to Emily.

  She turned and flashed him a smile. “He told me to use that title in an emergency.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  Malcolm turned to the fox. “Nor should you try, if you’ve not learned that lesson already.”

  “With Emily, or John Adams?” Kip asked.

  “Either, in my experience.”

  “Are you a sorcerer?” The young soldier leaned around Emily to look at Malcolm and then recoiled, having not seen Malcolm’s face until that moment.

  “We are,” Emily said. “All of us.”

  “All of…” He stared from her to Kip and then to Alice in her Feast Day dress, to blind Malcolm and back to Emily.

  “We may not look the part,” Malcolm said, “but we can toss a spell as well as anyone you’ve seen, I’ll wager. As me ma said, judge the butcher by the cut of his meat, not the cut of his apron.”

  “I didn’t mean…” The soldier gulped. “Any disrespect.”

  “None taken,” Kip said. “We know we’re an unusual lot.”

  “Though perhaps all that remains of the College,” Emily pointed out.

  The young man, already pale, grew paler. “All that—all that remains—?”

  “Hence the urgency of our visit,” Emily said calmly and pleasantly.

  “Oh, aye,” the young man said. “Forgive me, but they ordered us—we’re not to admit anyone without—you understand, British spies—”

  “Of course.”

  Kip stepped forward. “You’re worried about British spies already?”

  “Oh aye.” The young man’s confidence returned. “Two months ago General Hamilton told us to be vigilant. He said there would be, ah.” His brow furrowed. “‘Enemy agents’ wanting to gather our secrets about weapons and such. That’s why we must needs challenge everyone wishing to enter.”

  “Quite right,” Emily said. “Any idea how long your companion will take?”

  Kip cocked an ear as the young man turned back to the door. “They’re coming now,” he s
aid.

  Indeed, not fifteen seconds later, the first guard returned, red in the face, followed by a slender black man with a captain’s insignia on his shoulder and a thin moustache and beard. “I’m Captain Lowell,” he said. “This soldier says you’re attached to John Adams?”

  “Emily Carswell.” Emily extended her hand. “With Kip Penfold, Malcolm O’Brien, and Alice Cartwright. We’ve come to report an attack on Prince George’s College of Sorcery in New Cambridge.”

  Lowell’s face twisted. “Another one? Come in, come in. Mr. Adams isn’t present, but I’ll take you to Master Colonel Jackson.”

  “Master Colonel?” Kip asked as they entered.

  Lowell led them across a cold stone floor dimly lit by small, high windows. After a moment, Kip’s eyes adjusted enough to see the men sitting on benches, whose whispers stopped and then picked up again as their little group passed. “His military rank is Colonel,” Lowell said, “but as a sorcerer he has also earned the title of Master, so he is Master Colonel.” He opened a door that led onto a stair. “Just up here.”

  “You’re not a sorcerer, are you?” Emily asked as they climbed the stairs.

  “No,” Captain Lowell said. “I’ve neither the affinity nor the…other qualities necessary.” At the top of the stairs, he turned and met Kip’s eyes. “Though I will say that seeing you lot gives me hope.”

  “It has been anything but easy.” Emily brushed down her dress and stepped aside to let Kip, Malcolm, and Alice join her in the hallway.

  “But our hope is that for those that come after us,” Kip said, “it will be easier, and easier still for the ones after them.”

  “Aye.” Captain Lowell looked thoughtful. “We hope to leave our children a better world than the one our parents left us.” He gestured to a closed door, thick solid oak that nonetheless allowed raised voices to leak out to Kip’s ears. “Master Colonel Jackson is here.”

  He rapped sharply on the door. The voices stilled, and a moment later, one called loudly, “Come.”

  Lowell opened the door onto a room thick with the smells of burning oil and unwashed men attempting to cover their odor with perfume. Around a large table in the center of the room, six men lit by a pair of oil lamps all turned their attention to Lowell and the four sorcerers. On the windowsill behind the table, a single raven, barely a shadow against the closed shutters, also turned to examine the newcomers.