Modern Magick

Toil and Trouble: 4

'Good morning Vesper, Jay,' said Milady as she admitted us to her room. The air sparkled as her disembodied voice spoke.

'Milady.' I took up my usual station in the centre of the sumptuous blue carpet, and made her a curtsey. Jay produced the same courtly bow he'd offered to Bill earlier.

'Very fine form, Jay,' Milady complimented him.

Jay grinned. 'Thank you.'

'He's been practicing,' I said.

'He will make a fine ambassador to the Courts someday.'

That shut me up. Jay! The Society's representative at the magickal royal courts! Since I'd secretly coveted such posts for some years, I could not help feeling a twinge of envy at the idea.

'Not before you, Ves,' said Jay, apparently reading my feelings. It was so kindly said that I instantly forgave him for his earlier teasing.

'Have you ambassadorial ambitions, Ves?' said Milady.

I sighed. 'I'm a little susceptible to the glamour of the post, I can't deny it. But while I think I would suit such a post well, I would probably grow bored after a while.'

'You would, in fact,' said Jay, though whether he was referring to my assertion of being well-suited to such a job, or to my conviction that it would eventually bore me, I could not determine.

'Very well, I shall not rush to reassign you. And we cannot yet spare Jay from Acquisitions, either. What can you tell me about that terrible book?'

We told her everything about the terrible book. I personally chose to gloss over the close relationship I was beginning to enjoy with dear old Bill, but Jay had no such scruples.

Milady seemed more struck with the book's history than its present configuration. 'I am astounded,' said she when we had finished, 'that this sorceress should have faded so completely from all memory or record, considering the extent of her accomplishments. Such a book must qualify as a great artefact. In fact, I have rarely heard of so spectacular an achievement in magick. Valerie had nothing to tell you?'

'I got the impression she had some kind of an idea,' I replied. 'But too shaky an inkling to share, just yet. I've hopes of hearing something more concrete from her before long.'

'I am sure she can be relied upon to unearth something,' Milady agreed. 'As to the book...' She trailed off into silence, and Jay and I waited patiently while she thought the matter over. 'I think it had better be kept a secret, for the present,' she finally decided. 'Such a powerful object would be so highly sought after, were it known to exist — even now, we have nothing in magick to equal it! I fear there could be trouble over it.'

'Absolutely, Milady,' I said. 'We won't spread it about.'

'Should be easier to keep a lid on it, now that Bill's calmed down,' added Jay.

'Yes,' said Milady. 'There I must agree with Bill. Zareen's methods are somewhat to be deplored, but they do appear to have done the trick this time.'

'That's why we have Zareen,' I said. 'She does the questionable stuff, so most of us don't have to.'

'Not that it stops you from trying,' muttered Jay.

'Sometimes, the strangest tasks require the most difficult procedures,' Milady gracefully agreed, letting Jay's comment pass. I knew that Zareen was often given leeway on this kind of thing, more so than the rest of us. I had never resented it, because I knew it was part of her job; Toil and Trouble, indeed. She paid dearly for the privilege of not being decapitated for such transgressions as, say, copying famous proposals of marriage into ancient books.