I could take her with me, Nanette thought. She dismissed the idea almost as soon as she had it. Lillian seemed to have had a happier home than either herself or Frieda. She wouldn’t want to go on the run, let alone tie herself to a shadowy magician with uncertain motives. Nanette knew she was committed. Lillian didn’t have to be. Not yet. She doesn’t deserve it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, quietly.
Lillian blinked. “Sorry for what?”
Nanette shaped a charm and cast it. Lillian crumpled to the floor as her muscles went limp. She wouldn’t be able to do anything more than breathe for the next few hours, unless someone applied the countercharm. Nanette stared down at her, feeling pang after pang of bitter guilt. She’d proven Lillian’s innocence — she’d hardly attack a co-conspirator — at the cost of the younger girl’s regard. Emily never lost that regard. But then, Emily had never had to smack one of her admirers down.
“Listen carefully,” she said. It wasn’t as if Lillian could do anything else. “Tell them, when they come, to go to my suite in town. And pay special attention to the goldfish.”
She took a breath. “And… and I owe you something,” she added. Magicians had to acknowledge — and repay — their debt, even renegades like herself. “I’ll make it up to you somehow. I promise.”
Lillian stared at her, tears forming in her eyes. She couldn’t move, but… she knew she’d been betrayed. Nanette looked away, unable to take it any longer. She picked up her knapsack, looked around the library to make sure there were no clues suggesting she’d opened the cage and headed for the door. Penny’s memories would be useless, she told herself. She’d been trapped in a fantasy world, unaware of what her body had been doing. She wouldn’t know what she’d been made to do.
I’m sorry, Nanette thought again. If things had been different…
She broke into a run as she closed the door. The staff would be clearing up the mess, healing the wounded… and then coming for her. She had to get out of the building before it was too late. The thought mocked her as she ran, reminding her she might have been happy at Laughter. She understood the school, she understood the students and how to manipulate them… she could have been on top. And yet, she couldn’t have hoped to maintain the deception for long. If someone who knew Nadine turned up…
The main staircase gaped open in front of her. She hurled herself down it to the entrance hall. The building still felt deserted, but she thought she could hear an angry mob behind her. She would be expelled… she almost laughed at the thought. Impersonating a student, sabotaging a flying display, enchanting another student, stealing a book… it was going to be hard to get a job with a record like that! They’d expel her… no, they’d kill her. The best she could hope for, if they caught and exposed her, was slavery. She doubted they’d be so kind.
She braced herself, then ran through the door and into the courtyard. The sound of shouting grew louder, echoing from the rear of the school. Flickers of magic darted through the air, suggesting that her diversion was still working. She was surprised no one had dismissed the spell by now. They could have defeated it simply by casting a series of cancelation spells until all the spellwork came apart. Perhaps it still held some of the flyers within its grasp. They’d be a little more careful if lives were at stake.
The courtyard was empty. She was surprised it wasn’t heaving with horses, carriages and everything else, before remembering the guests could either teleport or fly. She ran through the gate and down the road, feeling oddly uneasy as she hurried towards Pendle. A trio of climbers — teenage boys — were clambering up the rocks to the school, trying to blend into the stone as she ran past. Nanette remembered something Penny had told her, about local boys trying to sneak into the school on a dare, and snorted. They probably expected her to hex them in passing. She ignored them instead. They weren’t her problem.
And they might confuse any searchers, she thought, as she passed through the last ward. They might not think to look for me.
She stopped and turned to look at the school. It stood against the sunlight, somehow both welcoming and sinister. She could see figures flying around the spires, witches looking for… someone. They probably didn’t know — yet — just who they were looking for, but they knew something had gone wrong. She felt another pang of sympathy for the boys — they’d picked a bad day to test the defences — as she mustered a teleport spell. There was nothing to be gained by hanging around, not now. Lillian would tell the staff about Nadine and…
Nanette closed her eyes, cast a pair of confusion spells, and teleported. The safehouse — a small building in Beneficence, where she’d lived while her wrist was being rebuilt — loomed in front of her when she opened her eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief — they wouldn’t be able to follow her, not now — and hurried into the house. The wards twanged, sending a message to their master. She wondered, as she walked into the kitchen and sat down, just where Cloak lived. The safehouse wasn’t his home, just a place he could put her while she prepared for the mission. She opened her bag, put the book on the table and flicked through the pages. She seemed to have gone to a lot of trouble for a book that was hardly worth it. It made no sense.
Cloak arrived, an hour later. “You did well,” he said. “What do you think?”
“I feel dirty,” Nanette confessed. She had few qualms about manipulating and cheating people who thought themselves her betters, but… Penny and Lillian hadn’t been bad people, merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Why did you want the book?”
“I didn’t,” Cloak said.
Nanette stared at him. “This… this was some kind of test?”
“No.” Cloak seemed unmoved by her anger. “I wanted you to put the second copy in the school. And that’s what you did.”
“But…” Nanette shook her head. “I could have just slipped the book onto the shelves and vanished again. I…”
“No,” Cloak said. “The important thing is that the book is within the wards — and they don’t know it. As far as they know, you stole nothing.”
Nanette looked at the book on the table. “I…”
Cloak sat down. “What did you think Aurelius was grooming you for?”
He went on before she could muster an answer. “He wanted an agent, a person who could go places he couldn’t go and carry out his orders… whatever they happened to be. There’s no room in that for doubts or scruples. He wanted someone who was ready to lie, cheat and steal on his behalf, to manipulate and seduce and blackmail her way across the Allied Lands, all in the service of a greater cause.”
“And Emily killed him,” Nanette snarled. “I’ll see her dead for that.”
“Perhaps you will,” Cloak agreed. “But, for the moment, you’ll keep your oaths to me.”