Modern Magick

The Striding Spire: 9

I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised. Mabyn Redclover had aligned herself with precisely the type of organisation — and the very department thereof — most likely to be opposed and despised by those who remained loyal to the goals of the Redclover school. She had become a person who made a point of getting in the way of projects like the Redclovers', curtailing their options and limiting their prospects for reasons with which they apparently disagreed. If you were not disposed to consider those kinds of laws as justified, Mabyn's choices would tend to look rather like defection to the enemy.

I wondered what kinds of things they were getting up to at the school these days.

'We need to pay a visit to the Redclover School,' I said.

Mabyn gave me an exasperated look. 'It has been forty years since I left. I thought they might have got over their anger by now, but apparently not. They aren't going to let us anywhere near that school.'

'Not you, perhaps,' said Jay. 'I mean no offence, but Ves and I have angered no one.'

'Yet,' I muttered.

Jay ignored that. 'If we request a tour, as representatives of the Society, surely they would agree?'

'Of course they would,' said Mabyn.

'Great.'

Her lips quirked in a sardonic smile. 'Anything remotely objectionable is well hidden, and believe me, you won't find it without help.' She held up a hand as Jay opened his mouth, forestalling his words. 'I cannot help you there. Forty years, remember? I am out of touch with their present arrangements.'

'Not to worry,' I said. 'I have a plan.'

Jay eyed me warily. 'Is it by chance a Mad Ves Plan?'

'A what?'

'Mad Ves Plans make perfect sense to Ves, but less so to anyone else. They are the result of Ves's unique worldview, combined with a splendid disregard for convention or rule and a degree of blithe recklessness.'

'You don't like my plans?'

'They frighten the life out of me,' said Jay. 'It's therefore galling to have to admit that they sometimes work.'

'Usually,' I corrected.

'All right, usually. So what's the plan?'

'I am going to show them the pup.'

'What? Ves, if they are the ones responsible for breeding that puppy, we'll be in big trouble.'

'I don't think they are. Or if they are, they may be unaware that one has got away. They'd be quite interested to hear about that, don't you think?'

'Oh? How do you figure that?'

'Because this place is so reclusive. If this is where the pup came from, how did it end up in a medieval ghost-cottage in East Anglia? If the pup came from here at all, then somebody took it out of Dappledok into England, and that is a circumstance that's likely to be frowned upon by the School. I think they would like to know about it, don't you?'

'Like I said,' said Jay with a sigh. 'Blithe recklessness.'

I looked at Mabyn. 'Would you like to be on better terms with your family again?'

'What,' said Mabyn suspiciously, 'did you have in mind?'

'If, say, you heard about this Goldnose matter and came here out of concern for the school, that might win back a little favour.'