And the family might wind up ruling its own little kingdom, I reflected. The Empire had kept a check on over-ambitious magicians, preventing them from stepping out of line. They’d tried to keep a balance of power and… and that was gone now. I doubted King Alexis of Zangaria or any of his peers would put up more than token resistance if the family decided it wanted their kingdom. It’s astonishing how cooperative people become if you threaten to turn them into rabbits and set their own dogs on them.
“I do not choose to listen to such assertions,” Uncle Mago said, composing himself with a very visible effort. I feared it boded ill for the future. “Nor will the family, if you bring it to them.”
I shrugged. Void might be right… but we’d never be able to prove it. The family council had decided to leave us in the hands of our guardian, rather than treat us as the adults we were. Uncle Mago had probably covered his tracks very well… and even if he hadn’t, the family council might quietly approve of his plans. If nothing else, they’d wanted to search the mansion before they handed it over to the dead man’s peers. Who knew what a sorcerer who’d kept himself to himself for decades might have hidden away in his lair?
“I’m sure they would have forgiven you, if your little scheme worked,” Void said. “But alas! It failed.”
“And now I have to go explain to my allies that their relative’s mansion is a pile of rubble,” Uncle Mago said. “Do you think they’ll pay the fee?”
“They damn well should,” I said, sharply. “There was a demon in the mansion. A demon, and enough traps to kill anyone who wasn’t extremely wary and capable. If that monster had broken free, and it would have if they’d blundered into the trap, it would have been extremely difficult to banish it back to the darkness. And then they’d be blamed for the outcome.”
“If they survived,” Void put in.
“If,” I agreed. “They should be extremely grateful that they don’t have to worry about a rampaging demon. Or an overgrown garden infested with wild magic. They can take possession of the rubble, clean it up and start building another mansion. Or even abandon it to the wild.”
Uncle Mago scowled. “Do you think that’ll impress them?”
“I’m sure you can make it clear they came this close” — I held my hand up, my thumb and forefinger so close together they were practically touching — “to utter disaster. They owe us.”
“Yes,” Void agreed. “Or should I say, you owe us.”
Uncle Mago snorted. “I will speak to my contacts,” he said. “And then determine the bounty.”
“You mean you’ll speak to yourself,” Void said. “Why don’t you just pay yourself too?”
I nudged him. He was probably right — Uncle Mago had sent us on the mission for the family, not for his unnamed sources — but there was no proof. And even if we had the proof, the family wouldn’t give a damn. They’d lost the chance to search the mansion, but they hadn’t accidentally released a demon. Or been caught trying to steal someone’s patrimony before they even knew they had it. I made a mental note to look into the matter a little further. It might be interesting to discover who had really owned the mansion.
Right now, property belongs to whoever has the strength to take and keep it, I reflected sourly. Law and order lay in ruins, lost with the empire that had once ruled us all. If a powerful magician wants something, he can take it and no one can say no.
It was a depressing thought. A man alone was a man vulnerable. It was important in this day and age to belong to a family, to have powerful patrons protecting you from the world in exchange for your support. I knew of freemen surrendering to the inevitable and becoming serfs, giving up their independence and freedom for a little safety; I’d watched minor noblemen bend the knee to kings and princes, swearing fealty in exchange for protection from their enemies. The four of us were powerful, yet even we couldn’t be sure of being safe if the family kicked us out. Uncle Mago had us over a barrel and we knew it.
“I will contact you,” Uncle Mago said. “Until then, you can wait in your house.”
I felt a hot flash of anger. The house wasn’t a bad place to live, certainly when compared to school dorms or peasant shacks, but it wasn’t in the mansion. We should have had an entire suite to ourselves, as our father’s sons. We should have been welcomed to adulthood and invited to take places on the council, rather than dumped in an isolated house on the edge of the ground. It was a very clear hint we weren’t welcome. Even the lowest of servants got to sleep in the house.
“Oh, we can, can we?” Void met his eyes. “And the Gathering?”
I leaned forward, trying to quash the spurt of hope in my heart. The Gathering was an assembly of the entire family, a ceremony when every adult member reaffirmed our commitment to the family name and pledged eternal loyalty to our brethren. Children weren’t invited, save for the ones on the cusp of maturity. They were presented to the family and hailed, from that moment on, as adults. Uncle Mago should have presented us years ago…
… But he hadn’t.
Uncle Mago let out a heavy sigh. “I discussed the matter with the council,” he said. I laid a quiet bet with myself the council would be astonished to hear it. “They said no.”
Void’s magic flared. “If not now, then when?”
“That’s a matter for the council to decide,” Uncle Mago said. It was hard to take him seriously. He sat in a heavily warded mansion, protected by a web of charms that would daunt even a Lone Power, and yet he was reluctant to say it out loud. “They are still concerned about you…”
I spoke, quickly. “We are twenty-five years old,” I said. “We earned the highest marks at Whitehall, completed our apprenticeships—” I ignored Void’s growl “—in record time and, since then, have carried out an entire string of missions for you and the family. We have faced dark wizards, we have probed the remains of ruined cities, we have even gone deep into the Blighted Lands to examine debris left behind by the war. We are the family’s foremost agents, with a record unsurpassed since the days of legend. What must we do?”
Uncle Mago hesitated. “Your father…”
“Our father has nothing to do with this,” I said, feeling the old pain welling up. If our father had stood with us, or raised us, our lives would have been very different. “Last year, the family welcomed children — adults — who barely graduated school, including one who came within a hair’s breadth of being expelled for feeding someone a love potion. Why not us?”
My magic pulsed, demanding release. It wasn’t fair. Traditionally, children were recognised as adults when they left school. We’d been out of school for nearly four years and we were still considered children. It was silly. Anyone else, anywhere else, would see us as grown men, powerful enough to impose their will on the world. I wondered, not for the first time, if we shouldn’t just leave. The world was changing, the map being redrawn with every passing day. We could find a castle and take it for ourselves, or even take possession of a kingdom or a barony or…
We didn’t want power. Not that sort of power. We wanted acceptance.
“The family is gravely concerned about you,” Uncle Mago said. “The circumstances of your… conceptions and births were worrying, as you know, and the twists in your magic equally so. We don’t know what to make of you and…”