‘Now, in his memory, she’s continuing his work to bring Holmland back to its people.’
‘It’s her work too, Aubrey. She’s not just filling in for him.’
‘I didn’t mean that.’
‘I’m glad.’ She paused. ‘I know you didn’t. Forgive me.’
‘Of course.’
‘I can be a little prickly when people make assumptions about women.’
‘Really?’
This time, the squeeze on the shoulder was more of a pinch. ‘Don’t affect innocence, Aubrey. You know me very well.’
‘Let’s say I do. Is that a bad thing?’
‘That you know how I feel about the way women have been treated? No. I’d say it suggests a certain familiarity.’
‘And you’re uncomfortable with that?’
‘Would I be sitting on your knee if I were?’
‘No. Probably not. Certainly not.’
‘There you are, then.’
18
A sublime time later, during which they didn’t talk at all, George and Sophie came back. Aubrey was disappointed when Caroline detached herself from his embrace, but understood that a time and place for everything was a useful, if unsatisfying, motto.
‘I say.’ George wore a huge grin and he leaned over the backboard of the lorry. ‘You should hear all the magical stuff that Sophie’s been getting up to, old man. Sounds as if she could be useful for whatever you’re planning here.’
Sophie playfully tweaked him on the shoulder. ‘George, Aubrey is an expert. I am a learner.’
‘Sophie had some special instruction from Commander Craddock’s people,’ George said.
‘Not enough,’ she said, ‘but they said that my talents are mostly in the magic of seeming and illusion.’
‘Which is how you were able to slip into Baron von Grolman’s factory,’ George pointed out, ‘even though your magical talents were as rusty as an iron anchor.’
Aubrey blinked. ‘All anchors are iron, George.’
‘Are they? That’s a lot of rust, then, which is my point.’
‘A point that we’ll allow to slide gracefully by. Sophie, I have two items that you’ll be most helpful with.’
19
Aubrey encouraged Sophie to create a small light for them to work by, and he was pleased to see how readily she managed the spell. As basic as it was, doing spellcraft like this was a way to refine one’s talents and keep them at one’s fingertips. He ignored the occasional flickering of the little floating ball of light as Sophie maintained it while they scratched away at spells in notebooks.
Caroline, George, von Stralick and Madame Zelinka left the spell workers alone in the rear of the lorry, but Aubrey heard them outside, discussing supplies, ammunition and communication.
‘Aubrey,’ Sophie said, holding out her notebook, ‘what do you think?’
The first thing that struck Aubrey was her bold handwriting, and how few crossings-out she’d made, even though she’d covered page after page with spell elements. He felt his hand moving to cover his own notebook, suddenly aware of his customary mess of workings, made worse by handwriting that his masters at Stonelea had despaired over, resigning themselves to the fact that ‘scratchy’ was the best it was going to get.
Crosses, substitutions, arrows to second thoughts written vertically in margins, letters and numbers getting closer together as the ideas came faster and faster… His pages were typical Aubrey work, not really fit for public consumption, not unless he actively wanted to inspire a headache in the reader.
Conscious of her anxious gaze, he worked his way through Sophie’s spells and was impressed by her approach. It wasn’t the way he would have done it, but that was the point. He’d asked her to help, so he had to support her way of going about it. It was good – clever, efficient, smooth in its application of the Law of Seeming – but it simply wasn’t his way.
He was aware enough to realise that this was a leadership lesson, coming at a time he hadn’t been expecting it. The point of delegation wasn’t giving someone a job and then doing it for them. That defeated the whole purpose.
He could see a few places where the interlocking spells could be refined, and he knew that the co-efficient for parameter in the spell that would help people lose their bearings wasn’t in the right place, but these were small problems, things he could help with.
As he assisted her with these improvements, he realised that, soon, Sophie was going to face a major choice in her life. Her avowed career was journalism, but she also had an eye on politics, much as Caroline and Aubrey had. She was also proving to be a capable member of a special missions team, so that career would no doubt be open to her if she chose. On top of that, Aubrey could see that she had an aptitude for magic.
Choices, he thought, and was immediately glum. Such choices, such thinking about the future was currently pointless. The immediate future was war, and it was so all-encompassing that it was impossible to see anything on the other side of it. ‘After the war’ had already become a wistful, longed-for time, somewhere in the never- never.
A figure emerged from the shadows. Caroline. ‘We have a few hours before dawn. I suggest we all get some sleep.’
Even though Aubrey felt startlingly alert and alive, he understood the need for rest. ‘Excellent idea,’ he said to a world that, in this immediate vicinity at least, was remarkable.
20
‘You are right, Fitzwilliam.’ von Stralick took the binoculars from Aubrey and focused them carefully. ‘This is no ordinary unit.’
The next morning, Aubrey and von Stralick were lying, prone, looking over the village of Korsur. The troops were still in place and still uncomplaining as they made breakfast. Extremely businesslike was the best description he could come up with, and he recorded that thought.
‘I’m not heartened by that,’ he said.
‘You shouldn’t be. The commander is the extremely well-connected Colonel Kirchoff, once head of the Imperial Household Guard. In a trade where brutality is tolerated, he has a fearsome reputation.’
‘Which makes me wonder why he and his troops aren’t at the front instead of guarding a village full of old people.’
‘A point that may be of some interest to you. I heard that after Kirchoff left the Imperial Household Guard he formed an elite unit under the direct control of your Dr Tremaine.’
‘You haven’t mentioned this before.’
‘If I tried to tell you everything I’ve heard of Dr Tremaine doing, we’d be here until doomsday.’
The awkwardness of that figure of speech struck both of them at the same time. Von Stralick shrugged in apology before going on. ‘Kirchoff’s unit has undertaken a number of tasks for Dr Tremaine. Unpleasant tasks. Unsavoury tasks.’
‘It must be useful, having a special unit you can order around when you need it.’
