The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

Author:Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer [Wrede, Patricia C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4532-5468-4
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2012-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

May

1 May 1828

Wardhill Cottage, Darlington

(in cipher)

My dear Thomas,

You will by this time have been apprised of our latest change in plans. I delayed writing so as to provide you with our new direction, in the certainty that my dear Cecelia would pour out the entire business to Kate early on, who would doubtless inform you of the salient details.

Our entire ménage—myself, Cecelia, the Wrextons, and our much-tried surveyor-turned-sheepdog, together with assorted servants—are currently ensconced in a rented property in Darlington, it having proved impossible to arrange satisfactory quarters for so many, with such peculiar requirements, at any of the local inns. Assuage whatever disgruntlement you feel over this turn of luck by dwelling on the difficulties of finding a suitable place and settling the arrangements in less than a day—the job fell to me, as Wrexton was naturally busy with the spell on the sheepdog. I shall spare you the details. I’m sure your imagination is up to the challenge.

We chose Darlington for two main reasons: First, it is as near to Goosepool (and the stone circle called the Dancing Weans, where we discovered the sheepdog) as is Stockton, which will make Wrexton’s work on de-transforming Herr Schellen simpler, and second, Darlington is the home of the Stockton and Darlington Railway offices, which I mean to investigate next.

Once disenchanted, our sheepdog-surveyor will no doubt clear up a good many puzzles, but Wrexton’s news about the possible effect of the ley lines on the stability of the government has cast the whole situation in a far more serious light. Since nothing in the Herr Magus’s background indicates that he is an expert on ley lines, and since neither Wrexton nor his wife is more than normally acquainted with ley theory, I am considering calling in a specialist.

Unfortunately, Wrexton says that the greatest living expert on ley lines is an Irishman, one Sean Skelly by name, who has persistently refused to have anything to do with the Royal College, or, indeed, anything or anyone English. I believe, however, that I have a possible solution to the problem.

You remember that insufferable puppy we rescued in Rome ten years back? Theodore Daventer, who had the infernal cheek to make sheep’s eyes at Cecelia? The Royal College of Wizards spent a long time working to remove the spells of persuasion and leadership that that Italian woman cast on him, but they were only partially successful. It is, I suppose, to his credit that he never wanted to be emperor of Europe, or we might have had much more trouble than we did. Instead, it seems, he has used his abilities to establish an international fraternity of sorts, an academy to facilitate the free exchange of all kinds of knowledge: scientific, historical, and, to the point, magical. He’s recognized now as one of the rising intellectual lights of Europe. If anyone can persuade Mr. Skelly to assist us, it is Daventer.

In the meantime, I plan to return to my study of the railway, since that is what brought Herr Magus Schellen up here.

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