Page 21

Theodore waited with his hands behind his back. He nodded to me. “After you.”

I went in ahead of him warily, half expecting that he might drop worms down my collar. “The Artisan killed himself? But why?” What on earth did an Artisan want for?

“Well,” said Dumley, approaching a lush pair of upholstered settees. “His last recorded journal entry stated that he believed nothing could surpass the work, that he’d reached the summit of his ability, and the thought of descent was intolerable. His last missive said, ‘If the best of my creations has come to pass, then for what do I live now?’?”

Dumley sat on one settee and gestured for Theodore and me to take the other. In the space between, there was a thin-legged table with a waiting china tea set.

“Surely there’s more to a life than the sum of one’s creations,” Theodore said easily. He sat a polite distance from me. I wondered who had taught him to speak like that. Articulate and confident. Without a drag in his vowels or a hitch in his consonants. His posture, too, was perfect. He did not stare at the china or the portraits or the fresco on the ceiling like I did. I felt suddenly horribly deficient.

“Ah, but is that not what all of us seek, young Theodore? To reach the heights of our abilities?”

Yes, I thought. Even now I felt that itch, the one that clawed for bigger, better. I scratched my neck to rid the urge.

“Even if it might kill us,” Dumley continued, “would we not want it still?”

I’d never thought of desire that way—that it was the wanting that consumed a person, not the object they sought.

“Seems a high price for a pair of pretty doors,” Theodore replied, but his eyes were star bright and it softened the mockery. “However exquisite they may be.”

“Indeed, son, indeed. And yet, any poet would bid you to find passion as bright and burning as our friend Valino.” He didn’t look at Theo. He watched the fingers I raked against my neck.

“You know,” he said. “I once painted a mural for a boy I was deeply in love with. I’ll admit I’m not the most precise with a brush, but I labored night and day over that piece, and in the end, I considered it a triumph! Of course, it is those moments of triumph that lift us to cliff’s edge, isn’t it? I was so very proud of it. Which made it all the more grisly when I shredded it to pieces with my bare hands.”

I was too stunned to temper my expression. “What?Why?”

“My dear muse didn’t like it.” Dumley shrugged absently. “Said it was stilted and lacked movement.”

I looked over at Theodore, he at me, and we shared a private confoundment.

“In any case,” the professor continued as he took the teapot from its tray, “we should speak of things less bleak for our first meeting.”

“First, sir?” asked Theodore.

“Ah, of course! I ought to explain myself.” The teapot clattered back down. His arms widened as though a grand tale were poised to unspool. “I have taken it upon myself to tutor you privately!” He slapped his knees and smiled broadly.

Theodore cleared his throat. “Privately?” he pressed. Again, we shared a mystified glance. “Is that… er, usual?”

“Not at all,” Dumley chortled. “And I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I’ve presided over a class, but with two new Charmers in one cohort, I can’t help but want a hand in your tutelage.”

His smile was still kind. There was nothing at all to suggest the meeting was anything but what he said. And yet…

I will be kept informed of your progress.

“Professor?” I asked cautiously, wondering if I ought to shut up, but if I were to sleep tonight, or any night, I needed to know. I tried to mimic Theodore’s inflection. “Does this have anything to do with… Lord Tanner?”

I felt Theodore’s stare swivel between Dumley and myself, but I did not look away from the professor. I wanted to catch the flicker of a reaction, if it were to come.

But Dumley’s smile only widened. “But how did you guess, Miss Clarke?” He chuckled again. “It was Lord Tanner’s very idea! And you both should feel honored that he’s already taken such a keen interest in you. We’ve had many a water Charmer pass through, Mr. Shop, but I’ve never seen the House of Lords so excited!”

For some reason, Theodore’s smile fell slightly. “My father is a minister there, Professor,” he explained. “Likely Lord Tanner saw the relation.”

Dumley waved the assumption aside. “Lord Tanner seespotential, Mr. Shop. You ought not diminish yourself. A Charmer is a prize to be coveted. I should know.” With that, Dumley waved his hand toward the waiting hearth, and a fire blazed to life, unaided by wood or tinder. It simply floated there, several inches from the clean tile base. He laughed merrily at it, his chins stretching. “Of course, we’re not the most humble of creatures, are we? And as for the lovely young lady who stopped us all in our tracks!” He held his arms out as though he expected me to run into them. I did not.

“A Charmer ofearth! The first of your kind in more than a century. Where, oh where, did you come from, young Nina?”

“Sommerland,” I answered immediately, too loudly. It took several seconds to realize the question was rhetorical.

“Of all places!” he chortled. “A farming town, if I’m not mistaken?”