Modern Magick

The Fifth Britain: 17

'What?' said George.

'Someone needs to tend to those poor Waymasters. They're frightened and traumatised and I can't just leave them like that. And,' she added, looking at George, 'I'll need your help.'

But— Melmidoc began.

'It's in your best interests to allow it,' said Zareen. 'Unless you want Ashdown Castle occupying beach-space forever.'

You raise a persuasive point, Melmidoc conceded.

'You'll be all right here on your own?' I said. Not that I doubted Zareen's capability, but to be stranded in a parallel world with only George Mercer to help her, and a castle full of broken spirits her only route home, would not be easy on her. And she was already exhausted.

'I'll be fine.'

Then I remembered Melmidoc. He could still travel between the Britains, and could most likely be persuaded to evacuate the pair of them if it proved necessary. He'd probably be delighted to get rid of them.

And in the meantime, it did solve the problem of what to do about the castle, and George Mercer as well.

'Agreed, then,' I said.

'Not agreed,' snarled George.

'It's that or a dose of forgetting and a swift ship-off back home.' Zareen was unsympathetic.

'Screw this.' George was out of his chair and halfway to the door before I had time to register that he'd even moved.

The door, however, slammed shut in his face.

'Oh, come on!' He hammered on it and delivered it a violent kick, to no avail.

'George.' Something in Zareen's tone arrested my attention, and George's too. He turned slowly around, simmering with anger but attentive.

'Please,' she said. 'I need you.'

I'd never seen Zareen show so much vulnerability before. Her eyes were huge, and for a moment she looked small and defeated.

At first this entreaty did not appear to have any effect on George. He stood, arms-folded, before the door, brow dark with anger, teeth tightly clenched upon words I hoped he would not utter aloud. But he looked long at Zareen, and at last the anger drained out of him. He shook his head in frustration, and rubbed wearily at his eyes. For a second he looked almost as vulnerable as Zareen, and my heart softened towards him just a little. 'Fine,' he muttered, and leaned heavily against the door. I wondered if he was having trouble staying upright.

Zareen just nodded, but her gaze spoke volumes.

'Right, then,' I said after a moment, when the silence became awkward. 'What about Rob, Val and the others?'

There are a number of people still in the castle, Melmidoc offered.

'Can you see them?'

Not in the sense that you mean. I believe one of them is injured, however.

Shit. 'We'd better check on that.'

'Are we going to have them forget, too?' Jay asked.

Good point. I thought fast. 'Not Rob or Val. The rest, yes.'

Jay's eyebrows rose. 'Harsh, Ves.'

'Perhaps, but the more people retain this particular secret, the greater the chance it'll leak. Can we vouch for every one of them?' Val had named at least ten people from the Society who had received invitations to Fenella's party. I didn't know if they had all chosen to attend, but I knew that half the people on her list were not close acquaintances of mine. I simply didn't know if they could keep their mouths shut.