Heart's Blood(71)

She saw Ferguson then, and came down the stairs in a rush that nearly extinguished her candles. "Jamie. You said you wouldn't be back by supper."

Was Ferguson the man Katriona had run away with? Then why was the ass still giving Pearl significant looks?

Pearl squeezed his hand and tugged, pulling him down into whispering distance. "Angus says this is the place."

Angus? Who-? Galloway? Angus Galloway could speak to Pearl and not to Grey? "The place-what does he mean?" Grey whispered back, the bad feeling rising to ominous.

"The place we were hunting. The murderer's lair."

Oh. But then- "Good God," Grey whispered, in prayer this time, not oath. "Ferguson is the murderer."                       
       
           



       

He felt battered, shaken to the soles of his boots. Ferguson. One of his Briganti. One of the men trusted to investigate crimes had been the-

Grey swallowed down the urge to vomit as realization slammed into him. They were in deadly danger. Worse, Pearl was.

"That's Angus's conclusion, too. He's powerful angry." She copied the Scot's accent for the last words. "We have to get Katriona away from him."

He had to get Pearl out of here. Somehow. He had to keep her safe.

Ferguson had ceased listening to Katriona's prattle. He was watching them, watching Grey. "I see you have finally reasoned out the truth, with the aid of all those spirits you have clustered about you."

"Yes." Katriona beamed a smile at them. "James and I are in love. We are to be married."

"I doubt very much those are his intentions, my dear." Grey stepped fully in front of Pearl, blocking her from Ferguson's view. He put his hand behind his back to keep holding her hand. The stories from Jax and Amanusa had emphasized skin-to-skin contact. "If they were, he would have spoken to your magic-master, rather than hiding you away here."

"Oh, but-"

"He killed Rose Bowers," Pearl said, her voice flat, apparently deciding in favor of blunt truth rather than oblique prevarication. "And Angus Galloway."

"Go," Grey urged Mary. "Take Galloway with you. Tell everyone. Bring them here."

"No. You're wrong." Katriona clutched her beloved's hand as the new spirits faded from Grey's awareness. He knew Mary did, at any rate, and could only hope Galloway did as well.

"It's more than likely he intends the same fate for you. And us as well." Grey put in his penny's worth of agitation. Perhaps Pearl was right. Truth might drive a wedge between them and get the girl away.

"No." she repeated.

"Not at all," Ferguson said with a smile. He hung his lantern from a nail in a nearby post. "The others-Bowers, did you say? And Galloway? They were insignificant. Small minds, small lives. Unimportant in the larger scheme of things. Surely as sorcerers, even if apprenticed, you ladies in particular must realize that magic requires sacrifice."

A look of horror came over Katriona's face as she stared up at Ferguson. She let go of his hand, threw it away from her, but he caught her elbow and pulled her gently to his side.

"Who are you to decide that?" Pearl demanded. "Rose saved my life. Shared her food with me when I had nothing. Who knows what other lives she might have saved? Angus had a sweetheart. He was going back to Glasgow to marry her in the spring. What gave you the right to destroy those lives?"

"The right of necessity, of the greater good. The dead zones have to be stopped!" Ferguson's eyes glittered.

Katriona cried out as his hand tightened, and tried to pull away. The flames of her candles flickered, then recovered when Ferguson forced her to stillness.

"So now you're going to kill Katriona for your cause?" Grey didn't know if direct accusation would help. He backed a step toward the door. Perhaps if he got Pearl to safety-

"Stop!" Ferguson threw out a hand, and Grey stumbled.

His legs felt confined in a barrel of tar or a vat of honey. He was no longer certain of the floor's location. He could see his feet planted firmly on it, but he couldn't register the sensation.

"Of course I don't mean to kill her," Ferguson said. "You convinced me, Miss Parkin, that death isn't needful."

"Besides, it didn't work," Grey said. "Did it?" He hoped nothing else would go numb from Ferguson's spell.

"It succeeded in summoning the greater spirit-"

"A demon," Grey interjected. "You piqued its interest, so it came acalling, no ‘summons' required."

"There are no such things as demons," Ferguson snapped out. "Or angels. Only greater and lesser spirits."

"And how do you know this? Conjury guild studies?"

"Studies. I could have been a conjurer, you know. Opened the conjury book just as easily as the wizardry."

Oho. Another magician feeling his virility in doubt because of studying the "feminine" wizardry rather than "manly" conjury or alchemy. Male wizards were rare and highly valued. Any boy who could open the wizardry book at all was pushed into that study. But they were teased mercilessly in school, no matter how much their instructors tried to stop it.

"If you don't intend to kill Katriona," Pearl said, peering around Grey, "what do you intend?"

Why did she keep talking? It kept drawing Ferguson's attention her way. "Why did you bring us here?" Grey said, hoping to pull it back to himself.

"To work with me. The deaths were able to summon the greater spirit, but not to compel it to carry out its task."

"That's because you can't compel a demon," Grey said between clenched teeth. Shouting didn't work when the other party refused to listen.

He didn't listen now. "With all of us working together, our combined magic should be able to both call and compel it."

"I wouldn't count on it," Grey said in the same undertone.

"What kind of spell did you have in mind?" Pearl asked.

Grey turned right around and goggled at her. Was she mad?

She looked back as if asking, Do you have a better idea?

They were both caught in the same tar-magic. They couldn't run away. Nor could they leave Katriona alone with the madman. So no, he didn't have a better one.

"Are you with me then?" Ferguson sounded doubtful. As well he should.

"What is it, exactly, you are trying to do with this spell?" Grey turned slowly back around to face Ferguson again.

"At least we can make sure he doesn't change his mind about killing anyone," Pearl muttered as she eased half a step to one side. Short as she was, she couldn't see anything standing directly behind him.

Grey twitched, but didn't object. Though he did have to keep reminding himself she was a powerful magician in her own right, passed into full guild ranking in a matter of months.

"I want it to shut down the dead zones." Ferguson sounded as if his intent should be obvious.

"You do realize that the return of sorcery made them shrink for the first time since they appeared," Grey said. "And that we can wall them up and prevent them from growing. You were there when they did it over in Bethnal Green. You know."

"Yes, yes. That's why I brought the young sorceress here. But the zones are growing again, and walling them off does nothing to eliminate them. They should be gone." Ferguson was shaking his head. "Sorcery is all well and good, but it's not powerful enough to give us the results we need now. We don't have time to wait. We must call on the greater powers to crush the zones."

"And how is it you intend to construct this spell?" Grey inquired. It was quite a struggle to keep his tone mild. Sarcasm seemed to be called for, but wouldn't be constructive.

"Ah!" Ferguson gestured with the hand not holding Katriona, and the tar-barrel magic nudged Grey and Pearl forward.

The magic wasn't strong enough to force them. Grey didn't think it would be much of a struggle to stand fast, but that would reveal their intentions, and perhaps bring down worse, more effective magic upon them. All they had to do was survive until help arrived. So he followed Ferguson's "beckoning."                       
       
           



       

"I have a book," the wizard said, retrieving his lantern from its nail as he led them toward the back wall.

"Of course." Grey's smile was more of a twitch. "There's always a book," he muttered.

"What was that?" Ferguson looked back.

"Lead on." Grey waved him forward. "Show us this book of yours."

"Actually, the book itself is put safely away, but I've copied out the spells-"

"All of them?" So, likely it wasn't a very big book.

"All the important ones. I've had it since I entered the academy."

Grey's mental image of the book grew from a slim pamphlet to an inches-thick tome.

"The spells are complicated." Ferguson led them to a huge desk with cubbyholes that looked to have been built in place along the wall. He hung his lantern from a waiting hook and used one of Katriona's candles to light another on the desk. "And they are difficult to work."