The War and the Fox Read online

  The carriage rounded a corner and Lowell said, “Here we are.” Kip and Malcolm looked out the window at a large three-story modern house, blue with white-trimmed windows and a shingled roof. A soldier standing out front shouldered his musket as they approached. “State your name and business,” he called.

  “Captain Lowell, Kip Penfold, Malcolm O’Brien, Alice Cartwright to see Emily Carswell,” the driver said. “She’s a guest of John Adams.”

  Footsteps, then a knock at the large door. A few moments later, the soldier returned and said, “You may disembark. The carriage can go to the stables.”

  So they stepped out of the carriage and walked to the open front door of Peacefield. A servant escorted them into a hallway with a carpet over a wooden floor and paintings on the walls. He asked them to wait in the sitting room and informed them that Mrs. Adams and Miss Carswell would greet them there presently.

  The sitting room lived up to its name, holding a long couch and no fewer than five chairs, all with an elegantly patterned red velvet upholstery. Malcolm touched the fabric of one and murmured, “Mr. Adams’ law practice has done well, it seems.”

  Captain Lowell remained silent, taking the chair farthest from the others and sitting at attention with his hands clasped in his lap. Kip and Alice sat together on the couch, tails overlapping, and Malcolm sat in the chair nearest Kip.

  They didn’t have long to admire the paintings in this room—mostly of boats and the sea, one very nice one of the fog over Boston Harbor—before Emily hurried in, followed more slowly by an older woman in a fine blue dress, a gold necklace, and an emerald brooch.

  “It’s so good to see you all!” Emily said, embracing Kip, Malcolm, and Alice in turn as they stood. “This is Abigail Adams. And…who is this?”

  “You remember Captain Lowell,” Kip said, shaking Abigail’s hand.

  “Of course.” Emily favored the captain with a smile, but he still didn’t rise. “He escorted you here?”

  “He’s attached to our unit. Colonel Jackson means us to fight together.”

  “Well.” Emily lifted her chin. “Colonel Jackson is going to be disappointed.”

  “Master Colonel Jackson,” Lowell corrected.

  “We all know about whom we’re speaking,” Emily said tartly.

  “He’s earned both ranks,” the captain said, “and it’s disrespectful to leave either of them out.”

  “Very well, then, Master Colonel Jackson is going to be disappointed, because I’ve been attached to Abigail Adams’ diplomatic mission.”

  Abigail had just shaken Alice’s paw. “That’s correct. I’m to visit the foreign heads of state to ask for assistance in the war.”

  “You?” Captain Lowell exclaimed, and then snapped his mouth shut and rose to bow. “I mean no disrespect, Ma’am.”

  “Of course, you wonder why my husband was not chosen.” Abigail clasped her hands together. “I suspect many will. John is not in the best of health and does not feel that the rigors of a prolonged journey, even a sorcerer-assisted one, would do him any good. He can consult with me as needed, since I’ll have Emily to bring messages or even myself back and forth.”

  “Master Colonel Jackson has ordered that Miss Carswell join the 1st Sorcerers Division.” Captain Lowell seemed to understand the futility of his necessary objection.

  “I believe General Hamilton outranks Master Colonel Jackson,” Abigail said. “We consulted with General Hamilton just a few hours ago and he agreed to this plan, as did the current leader of our American Congress.”

  “Your son, you mean.”

  Abigail smiled broadly. “We have raised an intelligent man who took many risks to assume leadership of what will, we hope, become an independent country. He has earned that position as surely as Master Colonel Jackson has earned his two titles, and he wished to ensure that his foreign emissary was one with his full trust.”

  “Congratulations,” Kip said, embracing Emily again.

  “You’ll come with us, though, won’t you?” she said. “Abigail will need protection.”

  Kip shook his head. “What good is a fire sorcerer on a diplomatic mission? Anyhow, we’ve enlisted already and been placed under Jackson’s command. Master Colonel,” he added, with an eye toward Lowell. “We’ll be fighting in the battles.”

  “No! I did this for all of us,” Emily said. “You have to get out of it somehow. We can go back to General Hamilton—”

  Abigail shook her head. “The fox is correct. I have little need of a fire sorcerer and a defensive specialist when the two of them might turn the tide of many battles here. As they have already enlisted, it would create strain between the diplomatic and military offices, which for our new country must remain as harmonious as possible.”

  “Well,” Captain Lowell said, “perhaps I was hasty in judging, Ma’am. You do have a diplomat’s mind and a pleasing way with words.”

  “Thank you. Captain, was it? I have certainly been brash and outspoken for a good portion of my life, but I am at a stage where I see many others taking up that mantle, and I am not too late coming to the art of occasionally not speaking my entire mind. I find myself bemused at my appointment to a diplomatic position, but when one’s country calls, one must answer, or else one is no patriot. Great necessities call out great virtues, or so I hope.”

  “When do you leave?” Malcolm took Emily’s hand.

  “Tomorrow,” she said. “The declaration of war will happen later today and we must travel to Spain immediately to secure an audience. Oh.” She clapped a hand to her mouth and turned to Abigail. “I’m so sorry.”

  “That information does not leave this room,” Abigail said. “Is that clear to everyone?”

  They all assented, and then Malcolm, who hadn’t released Emily, asked, “May I stay this night and see you off?”

  Again, Emily turned to Abigail. “I think that should be acceptable,” the older woman said. “If it suits Master Colonel Jackson.”

  Captain Lowell shook his head. “My orders were to return with everyone, including Miss Carswell. I can report that she was not available, but to lose O’Brien as well?”

  “You’re not losing him,” Emily said. “He’ll be delayed a day.”

  “What assurance do I have that he’ll return? That you won’t simply take him and leave as you left yourself?”

  “You have my word,” Malcolm said. “I signed a document pledging my loyalty to the army of America. Emily here signed nothing and broke no pledges, and so you’ve no cause to consider us oath-breakers.”

  “We’ll go back with you,” Kip said. “Alice and I. Malcolm will keep his word, but if it makes you feel better to know that he won’t trust us to anyone else’s defense, you may have that.”

  “That’s a true statement if ever one was uttered,” Malcolm said. “So true it makes me think twice about allowing you to travel back to Boston unaccompanied.”

  “May we remain another hour or so?” Kip asked Lowell, “Then I can summon a demon to guard us on the return.”

  “Of course we would be pleased to offer you dinner,” Abigail said.

  Kip had not had much appetite since the battle at the Armory, but as soon as dinner was mentioned he realized that he hadn’t eaten since the bread that morning; he hadn’t even had time to eat at the Feast Day luncheon. “That would be lovely,” he said. “We would be pleased to accept.”

  Captain Lowell must have been hungry as well, because he didn’t argue at all, but merely said, “Thank you for your generous hospitality.”

  “Alice,” Emily said, “did you know that Abigail has quite the collection of letters from eminent women in her study?”

  “Oh?” Alice’s ears didn’t perk up, but she was smart enough to know when she was supposed to be interested in something. “I would quite like to see them.”

  “Come along then.” Abigail smiled at Emily. “Dinner will be served in forty-five minutes. Will that be enough?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

 
Abigail turned to Captain Lowell. “Would you like to accompany us?”

  He looked around at the people in the room and shook his head. “I think I will remain here, but I thank you for the invitation.”

  “He’s been assigned to us,” Kip said to Emily, “so he’s going to stay with us. I think anything we want to say, we can say in front of him.”

  “He’ll hear it, at any rate,” Malcolm said, “and we should be aware that Master Colonel Jackson will likely hear it as well.”

  Captain Lowell looked sour at this but did not dispute it. Abigail took Alice with her, but as they were about to leave the room, the young vixen turned and fixed Kip with a look. “If this conversation is about whether or not I shall be allowed to fight in the war, then save your breath. My father forbad me to become a sorcerer and I did it anyway, he’s forbad me to marry Kip and I shall do that anyway, and Master Colonel Jackson has allowed me to enlist. If there’s to be a war and this country promises to improve the situation for the Calatians then I’m going to fight in the war, and that’s the end of it.”

  With that, she lifted her muzzle and walked out behind Abigail. Kip and Emily looked at each other, while Malcolm chuckled. “She’s left no doubt where she stands,” he said.

  “That was mostly what I wanted to discuss,” Emily admitted. “I didn’t know that she’d enlisted as well.”

  “And deserved it,” Kip said. “I understand your worry, but she really is accomplished and smart. I would trust her over most of the human sorcerers I’ve met in the military so far.”

  Emily shook her head, taking a seat in one of the chairs. “She’ll either become a hero or get herself killed, and I can’t honestly say I would bet that she won’t become a hero.”

  “There was something else I wanted to discuss,” Kip said, sitting next to her. “Albright. He translocated to the church, but I don’t think he’d ever been there. I believe he was homing in on me. The way you explained the wards, it sounds like he got close and knew I was nearby, but not quite where.”

  “Yes. You should have one of Malcolm’s wards on you at all times, or a demon around.”

  “Both, at present,” Malcolm said. “I’ve not lifted the ward from the Armory, just kept it around us.”

  “I’ll summon a demon when I go back.” Kip turned to Emily. “Now that we’re at war and fighting…could I also translocate to Albright? How would I do that?”

  “It’s very much like going to a place,” Emily said. “You know him, so if you could learn that magic, you could summon the essence of him—in your case I expect scent would play a large part of it—and cast the spell as if that essence were a location. I don’t know if I’m explaining it well.”

  “Reasonably well. I imagine it takes some practice, though.” Kip folded his paws together. “Could someone else read his—essence, or what have you—from my mind and do the spell?”

  “If the sorcerer doing the translocation isn’t the one who knows the person, then you have to involve a spiritual sorcerer to bridge the knowledge from one mind to the other. It must be an accomplished sorcerer, too. That’s not trivial spiritual magic.”

  “Master Colonel Jackson is a spiritual sorcerer and he seemed very accomplished.” Malcolm turned to Captain Lowell. “Do you think he would do it?”

  Lowell looked startled at being included. “Master Colonel Jackson is indeed very accomplished. But why is Master Albright so important?”

  “He orchestrated the first attacks on the Colleges here, and the failed second attacks.” Kip ticked the items off on his fingers.

  “And the successful third,” Malcolm put in. “And he may know where the sorcerers from the College are. That would be a good group of people to recover.”

  “Not to mention the book of demon names, which gives Britain a strong advantage.”

  “If Albright can get to you,” Lowell pointed out, “he must be prepared for the eventuality that you could get to him. He’ll be warded as well, or protected with demons or whatever it is you do.”

  “But,” Malcolm said, “he thinks Kip can’t translocate.”

  “I couldn’t until a couple months ago.”

  “So he might not be worried about it.”

  “He does tend to overconfidence,” Kip said.

  Emily placed her hand on Kip’s arm. “I know you want your revenge on Albright. But in this case, the army might be correct. Until we know that he’s important enough to risk a mission on…”

  “One moment.” Lowell rose from the seat he’d just sat down in and walked to Kip. “Revenge on Albright?”

  “He killed my best friend. Well, Windsor technically killed him. And Saul. But it was under Albright’s orders. And Albright did kill a master I was friends with.”

  Lowell walked back to his chair. “Then Master Colonel Jackson will be even more against it. Personal vendettas are not good strategy, he says.”

  “It’s more than that. It’s about recovering an advantage.” Kip drew in a breath and tried another tack. “What if he planned the attack on the military sorcerers too? That…one person Master Colonel Jackson interrogated had a spiritual spell on him. It could have been Albright. What if he tries again?”

  “Wait,” Emily said. “They were attacked too?”

  “That’s where Alice fought and convinced Master Colonel Jackson to let her enlist,” Kip said, and turned to Lowell.

  “He is important.” Lowell inclined his head. “But important enough to risk a dangerous mission to capture? His importance seems to have been his knowledge of sorcerers in America, and that knowledge has been played out.”

  “All the same,” Malcolm said.

  Lowell interrupted him. “We have spies in London. When they uncover important information and there is a target that would be useful, you may be considered for a mission. Your knowledge of Master Albright will no doubt be helpful.”

  “Plus Kip’s been to King’s College loads of times,” Malcolm put in.

  “Don’t bother,” Emily said. “It’s not as though Lowell here is going to make the decisions.”

  The captain sat up straighter. “I have Master Colonel Jackson’s ear and his trust.”

  “Aye,” Malcolm said, “and if you could truly influence his decisions, there’s no chance you’d be sitting here nursemaiding us right now, is there?”

  Lowell snapped his mouth shut. “That—” He stopped again. “I understand why I was chosen for this job.”

  “The point is,” Kip said to Emily, “I feel like Albright is instrumental in this war. If we can get to him, maybe we can’t stop it, but we could find the other sorcerers, get some information. Give our side an advantage.”

  “It’s not enough just to get to him,” Emily said. “You’d need some way to contain him once you get to him, or else he’ll disappear like he did last time.”

  Malcolm spoke up. “Master Colonel Jackson can stop magic in people.”

  And then they had to tell Emily about the enemy sorcerer, a story that Kip felt Jackson did not come off well in, but she sounded impressed and Captain Lowell sat up straight throughout. “He’d be the one to take along,” she said. “I suppose if you’re set on this, you’ll have to convince him. Or find another skilled spiritual sorcerer.”

  “One or the other,” Kip said. “But I truly believe that getting to Albright is the biggest contribution I can make to this war.”

  Privately, he felt that convincing Lowell would go a long way to convincing Jackson. He would have to get Malcolm and Alice to help him, especially if Lowell were to continue to work with them, and maybe together they could take that step toward capturing Albright. Here and now was not the time, however. First he would have to convince Lowell that he could be trusted, and that might take a battle or two. Kip was not afraid of fighting, but any ground conflict felt trivial compared to what he might offer the American side.

  Dinner was delicious: fresh bread, spring peas, roasted chicken, and fresh greens. John Adams, a short, stout man whose wor
ds Kip had often read over the past decade, proved a garrulous host, though once or twice he lapsed into a sour mood from which Abigail rescued him. Kip thought that these moods as much as his health might have decided which of the two became the diplomat.

  When the conversation turned to politics, there John’s brilliance manifested itself most clearly. He spoke a little bit of the unrest of 1774 and 1775, and how the British government had made a few token concessions while using sorcerers to identify and capture the heads of the revolution. He talked about the growing strain between Britain and America since then, which he simplified down to Britain’s demanding that America take on more responsibility for herself without giving her the privilege to choose where that responsibility should be placed.

  “As a trivial example,” he said, “consider the construction industry. In the majority of cases, local governments here have consistently preferred to build and improve roads locally. This benefits the majority of residents. Colonial governments also prefer to build roads locally. Many outside of the cities have not been improved since they were built two hundred years ago, and there are only so many sorcerers and stone-layers. But the orders of the Crown send American laborers and civil sorcerers to the west, to build roads out to areas that belong to none of the colonies, to allow trade directly from our unexplored lands to London. So our workers labor for the Crown to the detriment of America.”

  He continued on, explaining that the attack on the College was only the boldest of moves a London agency had made to cripple the colonies. The Crown had moved control of newspapers to London so they might control what was printed, they had appointed London loyalists into key political positions, and they had controlled the American shipbuilding industry so that the would-be country now had very few boats under their command relative to the mighty British navy.