Page 56 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)
AGENTS AbrOAD
Lord Kenric Storrbury was a capable rover.
He demonstrated competence in all skills expected of him, both magical and combat.
But one thing he never achieved was to outshine all his peers in any one magical art, and nor would he inflate tales of his exploits in the field.
Consequently, each time the position of head of the king’s Magic Circle became vacant over the course of King Ned’s long reign, he was overlooked, a more glamorous wizard chosen in his place.
But Storrbury had a rarer talent: one for picking trainees of promise for his encampment.
As the years turned into decades, many positions of influence in the royal court and around the kingdom were filled with wizards who had earned their pendants and staffs under his instruction, and many remained loyal to their mentor.
He was sixty-one when King Edric, new to the throne, appointed him to lead his Magic Circle. Whether he chose Storrbury due to his powerful network, or whether his network compelled Edric to appoint him, the histories do not say.
(On Wizards. Ransom Pracy, the Fifth Age, year 1190 )
The tears continued to fall at the funeral held for the master-at-arms and slain guards the next day.
As they were lowered into the ground, the silver trumpets that had welcomed Loveday, Binns and the students to the city sounded again in mourning.
The king himself was present, and he laid flowers on the graves of each of the fallen.
Loveday had not been caught, though Storrbury had all the wizards at his disposal out looking for him. Once he had fled the throne room the traitor had rushed out of the palace and into the courtyard, where he had slain a guard and escaped on the man’s horse.
King Algar had wasted no time in naming Solar and Cal as heroes and inviting them to request a reward each.
Cal had asked for a day or two to think it over, but Solar had given her answer immediately.
‘My father fought for your father, King Edric, in his wars in the Arid Lands,’ she had said, looking up from Binns’ body on the throne room floor. ‘He never returned. Please do whatever it takes to find him.’
Storrbury offered to relay Solar’s request via mind roosting to his undercover agents in the Arid Lands, and he expected to hear back from them any day.
Solar’s stomach gave an excited jump every time she thought of it.
It was the only thing that kept her going after the misery of Loveday’s betrayal and Binns’ death.
The king was also quick to confiscate the Loveday lands and grant them to an old, minor patrician house who were close relatives of the Firebraids.
Denied the safety of his ancestral home, it was widely speculated that Loveday would take refuge in the castle of a sympathetic nobleman.
He was defeated for now, but few at the palace doubted that he would eventually emerge to make another bid for the throne.
*
At lunch following Binns’ funeral, Solar and Cal relayed to the other trainees everything that had happened since the goblin attack had forced them to part ways.
It was the first chance they’d had to properly fill the others in, as Storrbury and members of the royal guard had wanted to speak to Solar and Cal long into the night, and even again the next morning, mining them for any information that could help them understand how Loveday had spent the past six months on the road and what he might be planning next.
Storrbury had also spent time with them individually, and asked permission to mind raid them to ensure that no evidence was left unobserved.
Solar had acquiesced, her desire to help in Storrbury’s efforts against Loveday overriding her natural instinct not to let anyone into her mind.
They picked unenthusiastically at platters of cold meats, fruit, bread and pastries as they talked.
One dish, a plate of sliced roast chicken, went completely untouched; Wyman’s shadow since arriving at the palace, the tortoiseshell cat, had been caught on the table nibbling at it when they entered, and the rat catcher now sat in disgrace by their feet.
‘But Solar,’ said Pingot, once they’d gone over the part about her mind raiding Loveday, ‘you do realise that isn’t any ordinary display of mind raiding power?
I know you’re good, but … well, no one’s that good.
Or, at least, they shouldn’t be. Mind raiding someone as powerful as Loveday undetected, out of sight, through a wall – and taking Cal with you into his mind, without ever having even studied that technique – it’s … it’s just odd. More than odd.’
The other trainees all looked at Solar expectantly, but Solar held up her hands. ‘I don’t know what you want me to say. It’s just something I can do. I’d considered mind raiding him before, but when it came to it, it was easy.’
‘I know why,’ said Cal, sitting opposite Solar, a hesitant edge to his voice. ‘But you might not like the answer. I meant to tell you earlier, but there wasn’t time, what with Loveday plotting to take the throne. Do you want me to tell you in private, or—’
‘You can tell me now,’ Solar said quickly.
She was too tired to wait, and the fact was she trusted each of the boys at the table with her life.
She felt a surge of affection for all of them; to think that, just six months before, they had been at each other’s throats, and now they shared friendships that she considered unbreakable.
There was nothing Cal could tell her that would have to be said in secrecy.
‘As you left Loveday’s mind, I got kind of … stuck. It was probably only for a moment, but it felt like an age. And, whilst I was there, Loveday’s memories opened before me like a scroll unfurling. Memories related to you.’
Solar felt a nervous tingling in her hands. Just to have something to do with them, she took a slice of chicken and fed it to the cat under the table.
Unable to speak, she gave Cal a look telling him to continue.
‘I saw how he first heard of you from Bayen. How impressed he was. How perfect he thought you were for his plans. The first time he saw you wasn’t when the two of you stood in line with the merchants outside Falcontop.
It was more than a week before, as you queued at a hot food stall, waiting for your opportunity to swipe meat and cheese.
You didn’t see him, but he used an exceptionally powerful mind control technique – mind cuckooing – implanting in you the desire to go to Queen’s Port and steal a magic book. ’
Solar felt dazed, as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes and she could suddenly see the world in all its colour.
Steal a magic book , she thought. I would never be so foolish as to steal such a valuable, forbidden item, not on my own initiative.
I’d never be able to get rid of the damned thing without drawing attention to myself! What an oafish, stupid idea.
An idea that was never mine.
‘In the days that followed, Loveday observed and helped you smuggle the book into Falcontop. He and Bayen then continued to watch you, up until his card game with Grubber, when you finally impressed him enough to earn a place in his encampment. Loveday really didn’t want just any girl in his encampment.
He wanted someone capable, used to living off their wits.
Someone he could tell his colleagues in the Magic Circle that he had good reason for enrolling.
And, importantly, someone with no powerful family to protect her when he framed you, or to seek vengeance. ’
‘The absolute bastard ,’ snarled Bear. ‘I hope one day to get my hands on him.’
‘You and me both, Bear. And he was more thorough than any of us have realised in setting you up, Solar: he saw you spot the dusk bush in the forest clearing between Falcontop and Ravenbridge, and told you all in class how to brew Dusk’s Delight, trusting that you would sneak away from camp and brew it, setting a precedent for you brewing potions for underhanded purposes. ’
‘Wait,’ said Wyman, ‘you brewed Dusk’s Delight? Why didn’t you tell any of us?’
But Oswald had already connected the dots. ‘That’s how Pingot beat us all in training that day. You gave him Dusk’s Delight! I wondered why you suddenly fared so well against us, Pingot.’ He smiled appreciatively at Solar’s cleverness .
‘But back to Loveday’s use of mind cuckooing on you, Solar,’ said Cal.
‘The task he set you in stealing the magic book was meant to be a rough imitation of the kind of magical mission encampment students face on the road, demanding the same skills of entering a town, orientating yourself and solving a problem.’
‘These are all terrible revelations, Cal,’ said Pingot, putting a comforting arm round Solar. ‘But I’m struggling to see how any of this explains Solar’s ability to mind raid him so well.’
‘It’s because when Loveday first planted the idea in Solar’s mind to steal the magic book, he accidentally forged a two-way connection with her.
It wasn’t me who spotted this; it was Storrbury last night, as he mind raided me with my permission.
The memories he examined included my memories of mind raiding Loveday, if you follow.
Together, we pieced together the full story.
‘Even Loveday is unaware of this connection, so confident is he in his magical abilities. But from my position in his mind, going through his memories, the truth was laid out for Storrbury to later examine.