Thaumatology 101 (6 page)

‘Enter with no ill will,’ Ceri said. ‘No harm will befall a true guest of this house. I am Ceridwyn Brent and I welcome you, Carter James Fleming, into my home.’ Between them, in the unmarked stone of the hallway, there was a brief flare of light in the shape of a complex rune. Ceri bowed across the flaring sigil, and Carter returned the gesture.

As the light died Lily let out a breath. ‘Ceri… you did magic,’ she said, her voice sounding both awed and worried.

Ceri giggled and Carter let out a soft chuckle as he stepped into the entrance hall, closing the doors behind him. ‘No, my dear Lily,’ Carter said, ‘her parents did that magic years ago.’

‘Huh?’ Lily responded.

‘It’s one of the house enchantments,’ Ceri said, smiling and taking Carter’s offered hand. He had a firm grip and smooth skin. ‘My father’s, actually. It works for the master, or mistress, of the house, whether they’re magical or not.’

Carter nodded. ‘I understood you were a good theoretician, Miss Brent, but I see that you understand the practicalities as well.’

Ceri smiled at the compliment and shrugged slightly. ‘I was always fascinated by magic. Mum and Dad always let me watch when they were working, so long as it wasn’t anything
too
dangerous.’ He was still holding her hand and she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. She looked at him and smiled a little nervously. He had the most gorgeous green eyes.

‘Good afternoon, Mister Fleming.’ Twill’s voice came from the area of the stairs. Carter’s hand released and Ceri turned, hiding the slight flush on her cheeks. ‘Would you care for a drink?’ Twill added.

‘This is Twill,’ Lily said.

Carter stepped forward and bowed rather formally to the hovering fairy. Twill had put on her little Greek-style, single-shoulder tunic. It was short and white, but it did at least hide her tiny body. ‘Good afternoon, Lady Twill,’ Carter said. ‘I trust that I have not intruded upon your territory and I would greatly appreciate… Is tea available?’

Twill looked slightly taken aback at his deference. ‘Any friend of Lily’s is welcome,’ she said. ‘Would Camomile be good?’ Ceri bit her lip. Twill had never managed to persuade either of her housemates that her tea was drinkable.

‘That would be perfect,’ he said. As far as Ceri could tell, he was actually being genuine. Twill nodded meekly and vanished toward the kitchen, a blaze of golden light.

‘You made her happy,’ Ceri commented. ‘Come on, we’ll go up to the lounge. It’s a bit more formal than it sounds, but it is comfy.’ She turned, leading the way up the stairs.

With Carter in one of the big armchairs, Ceri in the other, and Lily perched on a footstool beside her, the half-demon looked suspiciously like she was playing at being Ceri’s pet. Ceri gave her one quick glance, but there seemed to be no real reason for the submissive posture and Ceri decided she was imagining it.

‘I wanted to add my best wishes for your quick recovery, Miss Brent,’ Carter said.

Twill floated in, followed by a tray with a tea cup and two coffee mugs on it. As the tray arrived near Carter, he took his cup and nodded politely to the fairy.

‘Ceri,’ she said, ‘and thank you. I was a little surprised when Lily said you were coming.’

Carter smiled. ‘Ceri then. In which case, you’ll call me Carter. As for the visit, call it “protecting my investment.”’

‘I’m sorry?’

He smiled. He had perfect, white teeth. ‘I got rather irritated with my old Alma Marta’s attitude regarding the hunt for the T-Null boson so I made an endowment to the Metropolitan. That’s what allowed you to be employed. Not that I knew Cheryl would employ
you,
but it was a happy coincidence.’

Ceri vaguely recalled that Doctor Tennant’s first name was Cheryl; she preferred to be called by her title. ‘You went to Cambridge?’ she said. ‘My parents’ studied there?’

Carter took a sip of his tea and let out a soft, contented sigh before nodding again to Twill. The fairy beamed. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘that’s where I met them.’

‘I didn’t know you knew Ceri’s folks!’ Lily piped up.

‘It was before I met you, dear Lil,’ he replied. ‘Your father, Ceri, shared some of my classes. You know he did some wizardry at Cambridge?’ Ceri nodded. ‘I did Pure and Applied Wizardry, he was my practical partner. His circles were always better than mine.’

‘You should see the one downstairs,’ Lily said enthusiastically.

‘I’d not even request to,’ Carter said, ‘though I’m sure it’s perfect. Anyway, we… lost touch after university, but when I heard they had gone into freelance enchanting work, I had them do the security enchantments for the Dragon. They did the enchantments on the first seven of my clubs.’

‘You came to the funeral,’ Ceri said quietly, looking intently at Carter.

He nodded, his face falling a little. ‘I did. I’m surprised you remember. You were… rightly distraught.’

Ceri took a long drink of coffee. The funeral had been hell and she remembered little of it, but all sorts of celebrities and businessmen had come to say goodbye to the Brents. ‘Thank you for coming,’ she said. She took in a deep breath and let it out. ‘Well, from what Doctor Tennant said, your “investment” is safe. I may have got burned, but we got good data.’

‘Good news,’ Carter said, straightening his back. ‘You were actually burned, I hear?’

Ceri raised an arm, unbuttoning the cuff and pulling the sleeve back. ‘Second degree,’ she said, ‘but it’s better than my entire body.’

‘Or turning into a chimp,’ Lily added, giggling.

Carter laughed. ‘One of the professors at Cambridge was caught in a thaumic flare during an experiment while I was there. He turned into a six foot crocodile. They eventually managed to turn him back, but he never got over the urge to lie in the Cam waiting for unsuspecting students to come by on boats.’ Ceri joined the laughing. ‘It was your enchantments that saved you?’ Carter asked.

‘Must be. People keep telling me I couldn’t have survived otherwise,’ she said. ‘And considering the hit I took… Yeah, Mum and Dad knew their enchantments.’

‘Indeed. You haven’t looked under the bandages since?’

Ceri shook her head, buttoning her cuff back up. ‘Not allowed to take the bandages off. There’s some…’

‘Gunk,’ Lily said. ‘Her forearms are covered in gunk. Witchy gunk. Oh! I hope the colour doesn’t leech into your skin, you’ll look like you’ve been wearing bad copper jewellery.’

‘This is what I love about my lovely Lily,’ Carter said, ‘such a grasp of the important things in life.’

Ceri giggled while Lily sulked. ‘You’re not at all what I expected,’ Ceri said to Carter.

‘She loves the gossip columns in the Wednesday Witch,’ Lily said, getting her own back.

‘My public image is… my public image,’ Carter replied, ‘and I won’t say it’s entirely fake.’ He smirked. ‘I’m fifty-four and last night I went to bed with two twenty year old porn actresses. It’s not so much a boast as an illustration that I have a rather pleasant life.’

‘You don’t look a day over twenty-five,’ Ceri said.

Carter’s smirk became quite cheeky. ‘Why thank you. However, my public image is not the whole me.’

‘Which is what I keep telling her,’ Lily put in. She leaned over, casually resting her forearms on the arm of Ceri’s chair, and then her chin on her arms.

Carter smiled indulgently at the half-succubus. ‘My greatest defender and my best asset,’ he said.

‘Another investment?’ Ceri asked.

‘In more ways than one. Lily is a competent waitress and a draw to the club. Her customers buy more drinks, just to have her come to the table. They
always
go away happy, and she no longer has to do quite such distasteful things for her money.’ He looked down at the box he had brought with him and slid it toward Ceri with a foot. ‘Which reminds me, a “get well soon” present, if you will.’

Frowning, Ceri picked up the box and opened it. She blinked. ‘It’s a tablet PC,’ she said. ‘Quad core with MagiTech coprocessors… I can’t…’

‘As Lily would tell you if she were being honest,’ Carter interrupted, ‘I am not a generous man and I don’t hand out expensive gifts often or to many. How many gifts have I actually given you, Lil?’

Lily considered the question, still resting on the arm of Ceri’s chair. ‘You usually get me a little something for my birthday,’ she said. ‘Nothing huge.’

Carter nodded. ‘This will help you with your work, Ceri, and it’s a belated way of saying thanks for helping Lily out of her bad ways. I’m not sure she could have done it without you.’

Ceri could tell she was not going to get out of accepting the computer. ‘Lily helped me,’ she said. ‘I was just about a recluse after Mum and Dad died.’

Something flickered across his face; something like recognition. It was gone before Ceri could really be sure it was there, replaced by a smile which did not quite reach his eyes. ‘Lily helps people just by being herself,’ he said. ‘Tell me, is that why you did not go to Cambridge like your parents?’

Ceri nodded. ‘I don’t like travelling,’ she said. ‘I get panic attacks. And there was the house here to look after…’

‘Cambridge’s loss,’ he said, and now the smile did reach his eyes. ‘I should leave you in peace. Don’t get up, I can see myself out. Lily, I’ll see you later. Ceri, it’s been a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.’ He stood and swept out of the room, and Twill, who had been watching silently from the mantelpiece, flew after him, probably to make sure he left. Twill was not really fond of wizards.

Ceri turned slightly and tapped Lily on the nose. ‘What’s this?’ she said.

‘Huh?’ the half-demon said, looking up without raising her head. ‘What’s what?’

‘This. You’re behaving like you’re my house pet.’

Lily frowned and then sat up straight. She looked as though she would have blushed if she could. ‘I… don’t know,’ she said. ‘It kind of felt right… I…’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Twill said, zipping back into the room. Ceri and Lily looked up at her quizzically. The sound of wind chimes filled the room. ‘You’re part demon, silly girl.’

‘So?’ Ceri said.

‘Well this is the first time you’ve ever put on a show of being Mistress of the house, Ceri,’ Twill explained in a rather patronising tone. ‘You spoke the words and the house responded. Lily’s nature makes her subservient to you.’ The little, brown fae whisked across to hover in front of Lily’s nose. ‘You’re lucky you have your human side to keep it in check or you’d be Ceri’s slave. You know what “succubus” means, don’t you?’

‘From the Latin succubare,’ Ceri said, ‘which means “to lie under.”’

Twill nodded. ‘There you go,’ she said.

Neither Ceri nor Lily looked particularly pleased with the explanation.

September 5
^th

Ceri walked into the laboratory, tensing herself against the sting from her wrists. It did not come and she blinked, faltering in the doorway. There were bandages on her forearms. Well, that explained it, the analgesic in the poultice was supressing the normal pain. But if the accident had happened, why was the lab in full operation, Tennant in her cage and Shane setting the circle?

She walked over to her console to see the familiar readouts scrolling across it. All the readings suggested that the system was fully synchronised and ready to fire. She looked around at Shane. The minor wizard looked back at her, his features twisted into some sort of demonic expression of malevolence.
‘No escaping this time newt,’
he hissed.
‘You’ll fry for sure this time.’
And then he was back to normal, a sour man waiting to close the circle.

Ceri looked away. She was dreaming again. That was the only explanation; another widderwise dream, though at least this one was about her
own
accident.

‘Initiating resonance transducers.’
Tennant’s voice sounded oddly distant as she said the familiar words. Ceri wondered when Shane had closed the circle, but then she was dreaming and dreams tended to skip…
‘Initiating pulse generators.’
Yeah, skip bits just like that.

Ceri turned, not waiting for the feeling she knew would come that something was wrong. This time she saw the beginning of the flare as time slowed to a crawl around her. She watched the first swelling flicker down at floor level, saw it rise upward. Beneath it, the salt of the outer circle glowed slightly red. That was it, the fault which had caused the containment breach. But what could cause the salt to glow red like that?

Looking up, she saw Doctor Tennant starting to cry out in alarm. Then her gaze met Shane’s. He was watching her. He had been looking in her direction when the eruption had started and he had said nothing. No… He had
known!
Shane Walters had known it was going to happen. She looked back down at the circle again, seeing a shape glowing through the salt. A rune of some sort?

She looked up again as the streamer of energy arcing from the circle hit her chest. Her body stiffened, the energy, the sheer power of the thaumic release was incredible. It roared through her, burning her skin and charring her flesh. Pain racked her body, tore through her mind, and became everything she was. All she saw was the brilliant white of the energy pouring from the circle and all she could think was,
‘Please let me black out now.’

‘Ceri!’
The voice seemed to come from a long way away and she did not recognise it at first.
‘Ceri, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up, hun.’
The energy clawed at her, enfolding her, tearing at her skin, and she tried to fight back, pushing it away.
‘Stop fighting me, dammit! Ceri!’
The searing energy seemed to soften somehow. It felt warm and comfortable, and soft like…

Like a pair of soft breasts crushed against hers, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around her chest. She stopped fighting and sagged. ‘That’s it, hun,’ Lily said. ‘You’re safe now. Just a bad dream.’ Ceri’s ragged breathing slowed and she relaxed more against Lily’s chest. ‘You okay now, Ceri?’ Lily said softly.

She was covered in sweat and her limbs felt slightly numb, but lying there in Lily’s arms felt really kind of good. Her arms curled around Lily’s body and she felt wet skin slide over skin. ‘Um ‘kay,’ she said. Her brain felt fluffy still, half-mired in sleep.