Phoenix and Ashes

this point had he volunteered, he was hardly inclined to do so. No one even gave him so much as a sour look, with his disability so clear for anyone to see, and he saw no reason to throw his life away in the trenches.

For which Alison was grateful. It would have been impossible to find another solicitor she could have let in on her secrets, much less one as well-connected. In fact, if he was ever called up in despite of his eyesight, she had a little plan in mind to take out his foot or his knee, thus rendering him completely useless as a soldier. It would be easy enough to find someone who would shatter a kneecap for a few pounds; she hadn't given up all of her old contacts when she'd married Robinson. She hadn't told Locke about her plan, of course. He wouldn't have been pleased, even if it allowed him to escape conscription.

That is, she didn't think he'd take such a plan well, but you never knew. He might have had a plan of his own, like shooting himself in the foot. That one not only got you out of being conscripted, it got many a man out of the trenches and home.

Robbie Christopher, his 'hired man,' had gotten off by virtue of the fact that he could dislocate both shoulders at will. The trick had not only come in handy for escaping conscription, but for escaping police custody in the past.

Robbie was extremely useful to Locke, and not just as a driver and lifter of heavy objects. Robbie liked fires. Locke sometimes arranged them. Robbie liked hearing other peoples' bones break. Locke went places where his slight frame would attract unwelcome attention without someone like Robbie around. And it would not have surprised Alison at all to learn that Locke also arranged for Robbie to break other peoples' bones for a consideration. Locke was clever enough to fix things so that Robbie could enjoy his favorite pastimes without being caught. It was a profitable partnership, no doubt.

'No, I wanted to tell you in person that I've found a loophole in the law regarding your inheritance problem, and I cannot believe that I didn't think of it sooner,' Locke told her, with an air of triumph. 'All we have to do is to arrange for the girl to be rendered incapable of taking care of herself in some permanent way, and when she's twenty-one the entire estate will be assigned to whoever is her guardian and caretaker. Since you have been her guardian all this time, that will be you, and that wretched solicitor who is the trustee of her fortune will have no more to say about it.'

Alison smiled, slowly. 'What would you suggest?' she asked. Locke laughed, and leaned back, one arm cast carelessly along the back of his side of the booth they shared. 'My first thought was to drive her mad, of course,' he replied. 'Since we wouldn't want the unwelcome inquiries that an accident might cause, and you certainly wouldn't want to leave her still capable of speaking for herself, so that lets out breaking her back. You're an Earth Master; you ought to have enough nasty beasties at your beck and call to do that. The fact that she's got powers herself means she'll see them, doesn't it?'

Alison frowned slightly. 'There are a great many hobgoblins and wraiths that would do,' she admitted, 'But I don't like to use them. They're expensive in terms of power. Perhaps some other way—'

He shrugged. 'We have a year to plan it out. We should be able to think of something. Aren't there poisons that make one mad? I seem to recall something about hatters—'

'Hmm. Mercury, I think.' Alison tapped her cheek with one perfectly manicured nail. 'Finding a dose that wouldn't kill her could be a problem.'

A very nasty smile crept over Locke's face. 'You know,' he said, leaning over the table and lowering his voice to almost a whisper, 'There are—the illnesses that one doesn't talk about in polite society—that do the same thing.' He raised an eyebrow. 'I could arrange for that—if you could arrange for the disease to act rather more swiftly than it usually does.'

Alison stared at him for a moment, then suppressed smile of her own. 'Now that is an interesting thought. Especially if I were to lodge a complaint with the police that she had run away, perhaps with a soldier, and she was to be brought back home by you very publicly, and in a—less than pristine state.'

Locke spread his hands wide. 'Sad thing, but an old story these days,' he said. 'Sheltered little country-girl, handsome fellow, and Til marry you when I come home, but why should we wait?' Men are such cads.'

'And she needn't even actually leave the house,' Alison said thoughtfully. 'Carolyn bundled in a cloak could stand in for her when you 'return' her. No one would think twice about her not wanting to show her face after such a disgrace.'

'The only thing I can think of that would cause a problem is—she still is showing signs of coming into her power as a Fire Mage, isn't she?' Locke asked. 'And the nearer she gets to twenty-one, the harder it will be to keep her suppressed.'

'Distressingly true; mind you, I've seen no signs, no signs at all, that she's coming into any significant power, only that she isn't ever burned, no matter what she does around fire,' Alison replied, and pursed her lips. 'Still, all the more reason not to use magic to drive her mad. Much better to use something purely physical.'

Locke shrugged. 'It's all one to me; one will be expensive in magical coin, the other in real money. I'll have to find the proper man— and it will have to be someone who wouldn't be missed, because when the job is over, if we want to keep things quiet, Robbie will have to take care of him.'

'Well, Robbie would enjoy that, wouldn't he?' She smiled silkily.