Modern Magick

The Striding Spire: 10

Mabyn and Jenifry Redclover, the spriggan and the human headmistress, eyed one another with bristling hostility. 'Must you bring threats?' said Jenifry. 'The school has never offered you the smallest harm.'

'I bring warning, not a threat,' said Mabyn, though she looked nonplussed. 'How do you know me? I do not think we have met.'

'Your portrait still hangs in the heritage gallery.'

Mabyn looked pleased. 'I thought they would have taken that down by now.'

Jay coughed. 'You've an official portrait?'

'She is a former headmistress,' said Jenifry. 'That makes her a part of our history, whatever her subsequent choices may have been.'

'I made them for good reason,' said Mabyn.

Jenifry looked unimpressed. 'I am sure you did. At any rate, I must get to the bottom of this.' She straightened her shoulders, and left in the direction of the kennel which had previously swallowed up the man in the flat cap — and our pup.

Mabyn gave a soft sigh. 'I tried to tell Milady I was the wrong person to send.'

'Milady knows what she is doing,' said Jay. 'I am sure she had her reasons.'

I smiled faintly, remembering the early days of my career at the Society, and the unshakeable faith I, too, had enjoyed in Milady. Not that I doubted her now, as such. But however remarkable she may appear, she was as human as the rest of us somewhere behind the disembodied voice. I hoped Jay was right, and that this time she knew what she was doing.

For myself, I pitied Mabyn. Her job required her to take a hard line against the pup, for the Ministry could no more support the widespread return of the Goldnoses to the world than any of its sister organisations did. But she clearly felt some residual loyalty to her former home, and if she was once the headmistress here... she must have been very dedicated.

'I am sure we can contain this issue before it has chance to cause much trouble,' I told her in my most reassuring tone, secretly crossing my fingers in hope that I was to be proved right. 'Only one pup has been found.'

'If it came from here, there are more,' said Mabyn.

I was worried about that possibility, too, though perhaps not for the same reasons. No matter what the laws said, the Goldnoses were innocent of wrongdoing in themselves; it was only in the hands of the wrong person that they had any power to cause harm. Did they not have a right to exist? Was it not our duty to protect and preserve all magickal creatures, as we did with books and artefacts and treasures — even the dangerous ones? A series of laws that had effectively wiped out several entire species did not sit well with me.

This point of view had nothing whatsoever to do with the heart-rending cuteness of the pup, I swear. I was totally detached and objective.

Anyway, I was concerned that more pups were out there somewhere, starving to death as our pup's siblings had done. And they could be anywhere. Anywhere at all. We needed to find the source before any more of them died, and then Jay and I needed to find a way to protect them — with or without Milady's concurrence. I was fairly sure I could successfully argue that case, but Milady sometimes came down hard on the side of the rules. You never could quite tell which way she would go.

Jenifry Redclover shortly returned, the becapped spriggan with her. I was relieved to see our pup trotting along at their heels, though a bit less pleased to see that the beast had lost her disguise, and was restored to all her gold-furred splendour.

She came straight up to me, and begged to be picked up. I, of course, was delighted to comply.

Mabyn, Jenifry and the kennel worker watched this display of affection in unreadable silence.