Thaumatology 101 (3 page)

Moving to one of the computer screens around the wall, Ceri began altering the coding for the frequency distributions of the accelerators while Shane busied himself pouring carefully measured quantities of sea salt into the inscribed pentagram, then the inner circle, then the runes.

He waited, his foot tapping impatiently. The final circle would not be prepared until they were ready, and that meant waiting for Ceri to finish her part. She blanked him out, concentrating on the complex sequence of modulations required and working methodically through the code until she was happy that she had corrected Shane’s numerous mistakes. It occurred to her that some of them were so stupid that it almost appeared he had made them on purpose. Shrugging, she closed the file, compiled the software, checked the results, and then hit the button to distribute the new executable to the four driver processors. Micro-channel enchantment processors were partially magical in nature and programming them, while nothing to do with magic as such, required a degree of intuition which Shane appeared to lack.

‘Ready, Doctor,’ she said. ‘I’ll stay here and monitor the accelerator outputs.’

‘Excellent!’ Tennant beamed. ‘I have a good feeling about this. Mister Walters, let’s get started.’ She began to start up the recording equipment in preparation. Small, red lights on cameras around the room switched on. Other, more esoteric, devices began to hum.

Shane moved to the northern point of the pentagram and began to lay a line of salt along the outer carved circle. Once that was done, he would invoke it creating a column of magical energy from which nothing much larger than an oxygen molecule could escape, and the only thing larger than that which could enter was Shane. If
he
crossed the line, however, the circle would be broken. That would be a bad thing if the experiment worked. If it worked, the circle was going to contain
huge
amounts of magical energy.

There was no way a minor practitioner like Shane could normally close a circle as big as this one. Ceri’s father could have done it, she thought rather proudly, but Shane needed some help. At a nod from Tennant, the big man took up a metal rod from a nearby table and pointed it at the circle. His eyes closed as he concentrated on projecting the stored energy in the wand and Ceri clenched her fists, turning to her computer screen, as her wrists reacted to the surge of energy.

‘Initiating resonance inducers,’ Tennant called out from the cage. The coils began to hum and the tingling in Ceri’s wrists increased in intensity. Something felt off and she glanced over her shoulder.

Normally the circle would be invisible to the naked eye. Those with the Sight could see it she had been told, but not norms. Now, under the effects of the resonance coils, it was a shimmering cascade of light, spinning ever faster until it became a solid, white, glowing cylinder extending from the ceiling down to just beneath the granite floor. Nothing seemed out of place.

‘Initiating pulse generators,’ Tennant said, and Ceri turned back to her screen. She could hear the excitement in the doctor’s voice. It was infectious.

Readouts flowed across her screen as the capacitors began to unload into the generators. She felt them fire at the same time as the readouts indicated they had. Her eyes watched the displays, looking for any tell-tale signs of error. ‘Looks good!’ She yelled over the now very loud hum of machinery.

‘Yes!’ She heard Tennant’s cry of triumph over the noise. ‘I think we’ve even got recombination! It’s…’

Ceri’s wrists burned hot. Something was definitely not right. She turned, glancing first at the cage where Tennant was looking suddenly horrified, and then at the circle. An arc of white light, like a solar flare, was pushing out from the surface toward her. She started to move, but it was like the world had suddenly gone into slow motion as the brilliant jet of thaumic particles streamed slowly out and hit her.

She heard someone screaming and suspected it was her, but the pain in her wrists was so extreme that that was all she could think about. She saw bright flashes of light amid cascading waves of colour. Behind her the computer exploded, throwing her forward to slam into the white wall of the circle. Her arms had gone numb and she could smell something like burning fabric as her shirt melted. It felt like someone had plugged her into the mains and it came as a blessed relief when everything finally went black.

Denmark Hill, September 2
^nd

There was a fairly universal sense of grey. Ceri blinked, trying to resolve the room into something with some degree of detail, and managed only to work out that there was little detail to resolve. Her left hand ached slightly and the backs of both her hands felt tight, like there was something taped on, pulling the skin. She glanced down. Sure enough, there was a needle stuck in her left hand, attached via a tube and drip feed to a saline bag hung beside the bed. On her right hand she could see a lump of some kind, the detail of it indistinct in the dim light, but it was glowing slightly. The dull green was something of a relief; her mother had used an amulet just like that to keep an eye on her when she was a baby.

Looking around, she spotted Lily sitting across the room, reading a magazine by the light from a small lamp. It looked like a magic-powered model and Ceri’s slightly foggy brain began making sense of things. She was in a magical isolation room, probably in King’s; they had the best treatment facilities in southern England. She opened her mouth to say something, and managed a cough. At least it had the desired effect; Lily was on her feet beside the bed before her magazine flopped onto the tiles.

‘You’re awake then,’ the half-succubus said, taking a glass of water from the small cabinet beside the bed and helping Ceri drink from it. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Um…’ Ceri took mental stock of herself. Her forearms were wrapped in thick bandages and there was the needle in her hand, but basically she felt fine. ‘Actually, I feel pretty good.’

‘You’re lucky to be alive,’ Lily said dryly, ‘and still the right shape.’

‘What happened to my arms?’ Ceri asked.

Lily grimaced. ‘Second degree burns,’ she said. ‘Your tats. Stopped the blasts from turning you into a fish, but it looks like it hurt like hell. You’ve been in here three days, it’s Thursday. Oh, and I’m sorry about this, but…’ Reaching down, she grabbed the amulet on Ceri’s hand and yanked it off. Immediately the light went out; somewhere, probably at the nurses’ station, a similar amulet had gone dark.

‘Ouch,’ Ceri whined.

‘Baby,’ Lily replied, grinning. The relief on her face and in her body language was obvious. ‘When you were brought in here you were frying anything electronic they brought near you. They told me to pull the charm off you when you woke, and the nurse would be in to…’

The door of the room opened, the nurse’s hand going to the main room lights and then stopping as she saw Lily standing by the bed and Ceri half sat up in it. ‘Back with us then?’ the nurse said, her voice carrying a slight Scottish accent. ‘I’ll page Doctor Looper.’ She backed out, closing the door, and Ceri noticed the grill over the window. It was likely made of silver-iron alloy and designed to screen the ward beyond from whatever was within.

‘How hot was I?’ Ceri croaked.

‘They didn’t tell me the figures,’ Lily said, forcing Ceri to have another sip of water, ‘but it was a real rush being in here with you, and I even had to lie a bit to get them to let
me
stay.’

‘Huh?’

‘I said we were, y’know, partners,’ Lily replied.

‘Why?’ Ceri looked blankly at her.

‘I was worried about you, ‘kay? Only way they’d let me stay was if I said I was your next of kin.’ The half-demon actually looked embarrassed.

‘And because the thaumic radiation just made her rather happy,’ said a voice from behind them. ‘Did you fib about your relationship with Miss Brent, Miss Carpenter?’ The door closed behind a pleasant-looking man in his sixties wearing a white coat and half-spectacles, and clutching a wooden box. ‘Shame on you.’

‘Actually,’ Ceri said, ‘she
is
listed as my next of kin.’

‘I am?!’ Lily blinked.

‘The closest blood relative I have is Great-aunt Branwen,’ Ceri said, ‘and she’s ninety, and living in Wales, and mad. The university prefers having an emergency contact who knows my parents are dead, and that I’m female… and not a sheep.’

Looper chuckled and put his wooden box on the bed beside Ceri. ‘Go on,’ he said, shooing Lily away. ‘You know the drill by now. Go get Miss Brent a coffee or something.’ Lily giggled and headed for the door, Looper waiting for her to leave and close the door before he opened the box.

‘Oh!’ Ceri enthused, looking inside. ‘I haven’t seen one like that in ages.’

Within the box were two copper needles mounted against sprung counterbalances. Set to start in the middle of the box and swing outward, the needles twitched off their mounts as Looper removed the lid, and settled to a balanced position about a tenth of the way along their tracks. From this angle Ceri could not read the scales, which were just numerals etched into the copper gauges. ‘I’ve had this a long time,’ Looper said. ‘It comes in useful now and again. You fused two very expensive digital thaumometers before I got this out of my office.’

Ceri looked at him, not quite believing what she was hearing. ‘Doctor… what was my field strength?’

‘Your Doctor Tennant acted very promptly,’ the old man said, avoiding the question. ‘She called in an emergency team and evacuated the room once she’d made it safe. They had to work in two teams to get you into an isolation suit to bring you here and…’

‘Doctor?’ Ceri said calmly, though she could feel her stomach starting to twist.

‘We had to use the Life Mirror amulet to monitor you because the normal electronic systems were just burning out,’ he rambled, closing up his thaumometer box.

‘Doctor,’ Ceri said, ‘I grew up with magic. I can’t do it, but I understand magical theory and thaumatology as well as my parents did. I want to know what I was reading. Please?’

‘We’re not exactly sure,’ he admitted. ‘My meter caps out at twenty thaums and it hit the stops. The techs say the heavy duty meter they tried took at least fifty thaums before it blew.’ He smiled weakly. ‘You’re down at about two now. It dropped off fast, but the decay rate has been tailing off. We’re not absolutely sure when you’ll be down to a background level.’

Ceri’s mouth was dry again; she was glad when Lily returned with a mug of coffee. ‘Got this from the nurses’ ready room,’ she said. ‘The stuff from the machine would make you sicker.’ Ceri gulped down a mouthful.

‘Miss Carpenter mentioned your protective enchantment,’ Looper said. ‘It seems you have that to thank for your survival.’

‘My parents were
very
good enchanters,’ Ceri said, feeling sick. Over fifty thaums? That was insane! No one could survive that, well, except a demon.

‘David and Marion Brent, yes?’ the Doctor asked. Ceri nodded. ‘I remember hearing about the accident. I’m sorry. It was a considerable loss to the magical community. I have to say I was surprised to hear that you were… not a magician.’

‘Most people are,’ Ceri replied. ‘I’m, uh, kind of tired. I’d like to rest.’

Looper nodded. ‘I’ll come back later to check you over,’ he said. ‘I think I’d like to keep you in overnight, but assuming no complications develop, you’re safe enough to allow home tomorrow, I think.’

‘Thank you, Doctor,’ Ceri said as he turned and ambled toward the door.

Over fifty thaums? “Safe to let out” was right; at that level she had been an environmental hazard.

~~~

The door to the room opened and a head poked in. ‘May I enter?’ The voice was immediately recognisable to Ceri and she propped herself up to look at Doctor Tennant.

‘It’s okay, Doc,’ Lily said from her chair, which had been moved closer to the bed. ‘She’s barely glowing now.’

Tennant stepped through and approached the bed. Her stride was a little less confident than Ceri was used to. ‘Miss Carpenter,’ she said, nodding to Lily. ‘Miss Brent, good afternoon. How are you feeling?’

‘Fine,’ Ceri said. She did. Aside from the mild shock anyway. ‘Did it work?’

Lily giggled and Tennant’s look of mild worry cracked into a smile. ‘Despite the containment failure, which we are looking into, we got good readings. We have a lot of data to analyse, but I think we have evidence of T-Null bosons within the circle.’

‘Yes!’ Ceri exulted.

‘At least you didn’t get fried for nothing,’ Lily said, still grinning.

‘Hmm, yes,’ Tennant mused. ‘I should very much like to examine those tattoos of yours when your burns have healed. Truly amazing enchantment to have protected you like that.’

Ceri lifted her bandaged forearms, looking at them. ‘One of the hospital witches coated them in gunk while I was out,’ she said. ‘I’m to keep the bandages on for another week.’

‘Did they always release so much heat when working?’ Tennant asked. Lily supressed another giggle as she watched the two thaumatologists fall into a pattern of enquiry about second degree burns.

Ceri ignored her, or did not notice. ‘Nothing like this,’ she said, ‘but I’ve never been hit with anything like that before. When Lily uses her aura, or there’s magic near, they tingle. They sting a bit if it’s more of an attack. The lab makes them itch.’ She flexed her fingers. ‘Considering I’m still a bit hot, I’m surprised they aren’t burning now.’

‘The nurse said there was a pain relief mixture in the paste they put on,’ Lily said. ‘A numbing agent, she said. Otherwise you’d be feeling the burns.’

Ceri shrugged. ‘I guess that explains it,’ she said. ‘Shame it doesn’t reach my hand.’ The nurse had removed her drip earlier when Looper had given her a physical check-up. She had passed with flying colours, but the back of her hand was still sore from the large-bore needle being stuck in it for days. She looked up at Tennant. ‘They’re letting me out tomorrow,’ she said. ‘When can I get back to work?’

The researcher laughed and Lily swatted at Ceri’s leg under the covers. ‘I think they’ll want you to rest for a while longer,’ Tennant said. ‘Don’t worry, there’s lots of data, we’ll be working on it for weeks yet.’ Her hand hesitated slightly before patting at Ceri’s thigh, a rather familiar gesture she was obviously not sure about making. ‘You did well, dear,’ she said. ‘You cracked our problem and gave us a chance when I was starting to think we were getting nowhere. You sit back on your laurels and get well.’