A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)(65)

“Witches are first?” I frowned.

“Enough questions.” Hargrove startled me with his brusqueness. “I used to tell your father this, when he got off on a ridiculous tangent. Knowledge is as powerful as fire. The brighter it burns, the more it devours. Now we must pay for our lessons, little one.” He extended his hand, fingers wiggling.



I gave him a sovereign, wincing as I did so. “I sold three silk hair ribbons. I’ll have to tell Lilly I lost them, or she’ll be out of her mind with worry.” Scowling at him, I said, “You’ve made me a thief.”

“I notice you’d no qualms stealing that bread and cheese,” he answered, pocketing his money. The church bells struck six. I leaped to my feet. How had I let time slip by like this? “Blast. I’ll never get through the ward at this hour.”

“Leave it to me.” Hargrove guided me to the curtained-off area that contained his cot and magic trunk. Pulling the bed aside, he revealed twelve odd little squiggly symbols that had been carved into the floorboards, forming a circle about three feet wide. “Get in. This will take you home.”

“What is it?” I stepped inside.

“A porter’s circle. Old magician’s trick. It will take you wherever you wish. But you must think clearly of the place, or it might become confused and drop you in northern Africa.”

“What are those lines?” I inspected the squiggles around my feet. Something about them looked rather familiar.

My dream of the Seven Ancients, the night of Korozoth’s attack. I’d stood in a circle of stones whose carvings were very similar to these. A chill slid down my spine. I’d learned not to take dreams for granted.

“These are letters borrowed from summoning circles, reconfigured for our purposes,” Hargrove said.



Summoning circles. These markings felt wrong. “Can’t I be like you and disappear on my own?”

“Oh, I’m not that special, chickling. My cloak, you see, has porter runes sewn into the fabric.” He swirled his coat, and I caught the glint of golden thread at the edges by his feet. There was nothing else for it but to use the circle.

“What do I say? Some magic words?”

“No, say ‘please take me home.’ It’s only polite.”

I did as he asked, thinking of the house near Hyde Park. With the loud rushing of wind in my ears, the room vanished.

—

“WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU COME from?” a startled Agrippa said. I realized with horror that I had appeared beside him on the street. Thankfully, there was no one else nearby. I tried for a nonchalant attitude.

“I was walking up the other way.”

Agrippa shook his head. “Goodness, I need to be more attentive. Can’t have Ancients popping up beside me, can I?” My heart sank to realize how he trusted me.

“May we do a lesson in the obsidian room?” I asked. Even if I was a magician, I could at least make him proud. Agrippa sighed and looked as if he wanted most to change into his evening clothes and have dinner. “I think I’ve made progress. It’s all the reading Lord Blackwood’s had me do.”

“Very well. A little lesson won’t hurt us.”

—



AGRIPPA FIDGETED IN HIS TAILS AND nodded at me, the image of patience. He wanted to eat. I wanted to prove myself.

Pouring a bowl of water before my feet, he said, “Lift it into the air and fashion it into an orb.” He yawned, understandably expecting little from this. For whatever reason, water was my trickiest element.

This time, I could feel the power like a second skin. I bent my left knee, and the image formed perfectly in my mind. I concentrated on it, wished for it. I didn’t speak, for I didn’t have to. The water formed, then lowered itself to puddle on the ground.

Agrippa looked surprised. “Erm. That was good.”

“Then let me try something more difficult.” I prepared myself for the fire maneuver.

In an instant, I had a swirling vortex of yellow-and-red flame spinning toward the ceiling. It burned so hot that Agrippa shielded his eyes and dabbed at his forehead with a pocket square. Even in my gown, I found it easy to manage everything. I fell into a sorcerer’s crouch with my left leg stretched outward, and spun the vortex faster and faster. When I flung both my arms wide, it exploded in a flash of bright light.

My powers responded beautifully to my every thought and wish. After so many years living at the mercy of my ability, I’d never imagined that control could feel so wonderful.

Agrippa coughed, swiping at flakes of ash that rained down on his coat.

“What on earth have you been doing?” he said.



“Studying, sir.”

Agrippa began to laugh. “My girl! My dearest girl!” He took my hands in his own. We swung about the obsidian room, much in the way I had celebrated with Hargrove that afternoon. He pulled me close and kissed me warmly upon both cheeks. Pride was written all over his face. I was giddy with happiness, almost drunk with it.

“I knew you could do this,” Agrippa said. Joyful tears glinted in his eyes. “You’ll knock the Whitechurches and Palehooks down a peg.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“Oh, bother that. We got there in the end, didn’t we?” He lit up with some new thought. “There are advanced techniques we can try. I’ve been teaching a couple of the fellows Russian stave movements. I was going to teach them to Gwendolyn, before she—” He stopped, that old sadness settling on him again.