Part 40 (2/2)

By the time he finished, sweat had beaded on his forehead, though the incantation had consisted of no more than half a dozen words. Nothing happened as the last syllable faded to silence. The candles did not gutter; there was no charge on the air.

”Well, that was entirely without purpose,” Rafferdy said, leaning back.

Mr. Bennick regarded him. ”Was it? In that case, hand the locket back to Mrs. Baydon.”

Rafferdy did so, and gladly. His jaw ached, and his throat was sore; he took a sip of wine.

”Oh!” Mrs. Baydon exclaimed. ”Something is wrong-I can't open it.” She turned the locket around and around but to no avail.

”Well, it was quite easy for me,” Rafferdy said. However, when she handed it back to him, he found he could no longer open the locket. At first he took care not to damage it, but he soon gave that up and tried with all his might. However, the tiny hinge would not budge.

”You cannot open it that way,” Mr. Bennick said. There was a pleased look on his aquiline face. ”No one at the table can. It's been sealed with magick, and only magick can open it again.”

”Nonsense,” Rafferdy said, and kept trying to open the locket, though without success. ”There must be some trick.”

”What trick can there be?” Lord Baydon said. ”It was in your hand the entire time.”

”It's true, Mr. Rafferdy,” Mrs. Baydon said, clapping her hands and laughing. ”It had to have been magick that locked it shut.”

He scowled at her. ”Magick, yes, but we already know who in this room was the real magician. You spoke the incantation even as I did, Mr. Bennick, and with more proper inflection, I am sure. It was you who locked it, not I.”

”I can prove to you quite easily that was not the case,” Mr. Bennick said.

”How so?”

”Do you recall the words of the incantation? Yes? Then hold the locket in your hand and speak them again.”

”I will not. I am finished with this ridiculous farce.”

”But we are not,” Lady Marsdel declared. ”If you are so certain you cannot work magick, Mr. Rafferdy, what have you to fear? Now, speak the words! You are very clever-I have no doubt you can recall them.”

Calls of ”Hear, hear,” went around the table.

Rafferdy glared up at Mr. Bennick. You have gotten your revenge against me again, sir, he wanted to say. First you cursed me with the wretched ring, and now you're making a mockery of me.

However, he tightened his hand around the locket, then spoke the six words of the incantation. He did not know if it was from his prior experience or from the energy of anger, but this time the words were easier to utter.

”There,” he said, and thrust the locket at Mrs. Baydon.

She accepted it and put a fingernail to the thin crack where the two halves met. It opened easily under her touch.

”Marvelous!” Lord Baydon exclaimed.

Mrs. Baydon laughed, and Lady Marsdel applauded by striking a spoon against a dish. Even Mr. Baydon seemed amused.

Rafferdy, however, was not. It's a trick, he wanted to say. Yet it wasn't. He had handled the locket himself; there could be no other explanation. Somehow, Bennick had made him to do magick. But how? And moreover, for what purpose? The former magician returned to his seat. His expression seemed neither surprised nor leering. His dark eyes were as unreadable as ever as he picked up a fork and ate his supper.

”You really did it, Mr. Rafferdy,” Mrs. Baydon said, smiling at him. ”You performed an enchantment. You cannot deny it.”

”I must concede it appears so,” Rafferdy said grudgingly. ”You've bested me, Mr. Bennick, though I have no idea how. Nor can I see what opening and shutting a locket has to do with real magick.”

”That is the very foundation of magick,” Mr. Bennick said. ”It is the opening of things that are shut and the shutting of things that are open. It is also about the binding and unbinding of things. You should come speak with me sometime if you wish to learn more.”

”I don't wish it, thank you very much.”

”Come now, Rafferdy,” Mr. Baydon said, scowling across the table. ”Clearly you have a talent for this stuff. There are men who pay hundreds of regals a year to go to university in hopes of learning the smallest amount of magick, and here Mr. Bennick's given you a lesson for free and offered you more. Surely you must want to know how to wield such power.”

”What I want is another gla.s.s of wine,” he said, and handed his empty gla.s.s to a servant.

”My offer remains open if you change your mind,” Mr. Bennick said.

Mrs. Baydon laughed. ”You're wasting your time, I'm afraid, Mr. Bennick. I fear magick seems too worthwhile. Our dear Mr. Rafferdy has never had an interest in anything that might be remotely useful.”

”Or perhaps he simply has yet to find the right use for it,” Mr. Bennick said. His glance went to Rafferdy's hand and the ring there.

”Well, since you all want so badly for me to perform another trick, I will oblige you,” Rafferdy said.

”And what trick is that?” Lady Marsdel demanded.

He rose from his seat. ”I shall make myself disappear.” And bowing to her ladys.h.i.+p and the other guests, he took his leave, retrieved his hat, and went out into the night.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

T HE BELLS OF St. Galmuth's were tolling as Eldyn walked past Duskfellow's graveyard and deeper into the Old City. He kept the shadows close around him as he skirted the ragged fringes of High Holy. It would have been safer to take a hack cab, but he would be spending too much as it was that night. He went swiftly, a wraith in the dark.

All at once the night air brightened, and Eldyn turned a corner onto the west end of Durrow Street. Despite the late hour, crowds of people moved up and down the street. Some went boldly, others furtively, all of them searching for the theater most likely to cater to their tastes. Music and laughter spilled out of the open doors, along with colored light that s.h.i.+mmered on the air like a glamour. Eldyn moved down the street, forgetting his stiff fingers and aching back, forgetting the dim apartment over the shoemaker's shop and Sas.h.i.+e's reproachful looks.

Over the last quarter month, since attending the performance at the Theater of the Doves, he had returned to Durrow Street several times. However, with no special coin to grant him admission, he had been forced to pay for his ticket like everyone else.

He knew that it was wrong, that it was frivolous, that he should save the money for his and Sas.h.i.+e's future. Each time he walked home, he vowed he would not return. Only then would come a particularly awful day at Sadent, Mornden, & Bayle, or a quarrel with Sas.h.i.+e, and he would find himself here once again.

Like tonight. Eldyn walked past the theaters. A performer or two stood before each one, crafting illusions and conjuring phantasms. These were small things, meant to intrigue and entice and also to indicate the nature of the performance that would take place inside. The true wonders would be revealed only to those who entered.

In front of one of the theaters, a pair of illusionists tossed b.a.l.l.s of blue and green fire back and forth. Beyond, a man, his face powdered, danced with a lithe figure swathed in a white cloth, then pulled away the sheet to reveal nothing but air. Across the street, a lady-or what seemed to be a lady-in a silver gown used a wand to draw glittering squares in midair, then pushed them open as if they were windows, revealing seascapes and mountains and sun-drenched fields beyond.

Eldyn watched each performer for a few moments, then moved on, trying to decide where to go. The second time he had come to Durrow Street, he had gone to the Theater of the Doves again. Since then he had gone to the Theater of Dreams, the Theater of the Veils, and the Theater of Mirrors. In each he had seen wonders and visions: confections of light and sound that, like sweets, only left one hungrier the more one consumed.

A man in a black suit beckoned to him. As Eldyn drew near, he saw that the other was unusually thin, and though his face was carefully powdered and rouged, it did not hide the hollowness of his cheeks.

”Look,” the man said, and with a palsied hand he gestured to a gilded cage that hung from a stand.

Eldyn looked into the cage, expecting to see a jewel-colored bird like those from the Theater of the Doves. Instead, on the perch inside the cage sat a creature the length of his hand. It was naked and looked like a tiny woman except for its gossamer wings, green hair, and curling tail. The creature let out a trilling laugh as Eldyn gasped. Its tail coiled around its body, caressing, probing; the creature writhed on the perch, eyes glowing red.

The man in the black suit gave a grin as skeletal as any adorning a tombstone at Duskfellow's. ”You'll see the full-size ones inside, and more. Come, enter the Theater of Emeralds.”

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