Magic in the Flesh by Finlayson Marina

Author:Finlayson, Marina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

19

“If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to read some Soldier patting themselves on the back about how wonderful they are, I’d be rich by now.” I closed the book I’d been reading and rubbed my tired eyes. Shadows pooled beyond the circles of light cast by the lamps in the library, leaving the tops of the tall bookcases lost in gloom. It felt as though I were the only soul still awake in the massive building.

Except for Ariel, of course. “If I had a dollar for every time you complained about all the books you’ve been reading, I’d be even richer.” She tossed me a book. “Here, try this one. It’s all about the plague.”

It was past midnight, and we had snuck into the library to grab some more books to take back to my room. The one she’d just hurled so carelessly across the room looked old enough to have actually been written around the time of the plague that had struck down the Soldiers in the seventeenth century. A historian would have wept to see it treated that way.

I leafed through the book, pausing as my eye snagged on a familiar name. Elizabetta Garibaldi. She’d been the daughter of Bertram, the Grand Master of the day. At dinner last week, I’d discovered I had a lot more in common with her than I’d realised—she was also the hybrid child of a cartomancer and a Soldier.

Ling had told me that Elizabetta’s father had killed her because she displayed all the strength of a Soldier as well as the magical powers of a cartomancer, and he’d foreseen the end of the dominance of the Soldiers if this new, improved version were allowed to rise. So, he’d killed his own child, and forbidden any further “congress” between Soldiers and cartomancers.

But not long after, a mysterious magical plague had begun, one that killed Soldiers in droves while leaving cartomancers and other magic creatures unaffected. Bertram had pinned the blame on the cartomancers, and the witch hunts had started.

I ran my eye down the page, then frowned and read it again, more carefully.

“Listen to this.” I read aloud from the book. “Elizabetta took the form of a great grey wolf, of a visage most ferocious. In strength and speed, the grey wolf knew no match, and the girl began to assert her dominance in a most unseemly fashion.”

“Unseemly fashion?” Ariel repeated, her lip curling. “What does that mean?”

“It means all their fragile male egos were bruised by having a girl beat them at everything,” I said impatiently. “But that’s not the point. It says she actually turned into a wolf.”

“Oh.” Ariel’s eyes grew round.

“Yes. Oh.”

“But that’s not what Ling said—she said she had the strength of a wolf, not that she actually became a wolf.”

“I know. I did wonder about that.” I flicked to the next page and scanned the faded text. “And she wasn’t the only one, either. It says here the Grand Master ‘purged all such abominations’ once the plague hit, so there must have been more.

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