Heart's Blood(78)

"Sir William is at the hospital to manage things there," Grey said.

"No, he isn't." Pearl pointed. "He was in the team with Katriona." The fourth team she hadn't been able to see till now.

"Still," Grey said, "I think our talents might be of more use here. The ordinary doctors can manage at the hospital. Our best wizards are needed here, where there are sure to be victims scattered all through this destruction."

Here! Mary flickered in and out of her physical form, dancing near a crumbled wall. The angel power let Pearl see her without touching Grey. There's somebody here. Alive, alive-o!

"There, for instance." Grey pointed as he led the way.

Meade, who had been the conjurer in Amanusa's team of magicians, brought his superb organizational skills to bear on the search and rescue. Conjurers led the search. Alchemists stabilized the rubble through which the ordinaries dug. Wizards, sorcerers, and medical doctors treated the injured, calling in alchemists as needed to handle the power burns. Those gifted with the angel power poured it out freely on any who needed it.

They worked their way through Waterloo Station and its surrounds, moving slowly back through the destruction. They had just pulled the last living victim in the station from beneath a cage of twisted iron and broken glass, and laid her with the other patients on the platform. She would receive first aid for her immediate needs, then be transported to Magdalene Hospital over on Blackfriars Road, or the New Bethlehem Hospital farther south.

The youngest sorcery student, Nan Jackson, was helping Pearl stanch the woman's wounds. Amanusa and Elinor were treating another patient with severe power burns, now that Mr. Archaios had quenched the fire. They'd drafted a woman from those volunteering to help who'd proved to have strong wizardry sensitivities, and set her to work with salve and bandages. Magicians of both genders were working all through the smashed railway station, when an unfortunately familiar voice came booming through the broken girders.                       
       
           



       

"And the abomination of desolation was called forth by the whore of Babylon," Cranshaw intoned. "The foul stench of women's magic has called forth demons out of hell-"

"Shut up!" Elinor's voice brought Pearl jerking around to stare. "Just shut your mouth up. We are sick to death of listening to you spout your stinking bilge. You're not even quoting Revelations correctly."

Elinor stood toe to toe with the towering Cranshaw, glaring up at him like a terrier taking on a stork. Pearl looked around. Harry was clear across the station, on the other side of the tracks, helping a group of mixed ordinary engineers and alchemists stabilize the roof structure so it didn't fall on their heads. Grey was-who knew where? With his spirit searchers.

I'll tell Mary, Angus rumbled at Pearl, and vanished.

"You finish this," Pearl whispered to Nan. The girl would do just fine. Amanusa still worked on the burn victim and scarcely seemed to notice, deep inside the victim's blood. Pearl got to her feet, but waited. Elinor might not need any help.

"Do you deny that demons have walked the earth only since females have begun working their magic?" Cranshaw was shouting.

"Demons have walked the earth since time began," Elinor retorted. "This one was defeated only when all four of the magics were bound into a protective wall. A wall held together by women's magic. Women who were here, willing to stand up against the demon. Where were you?"

Elinor dared to poke him in the chest with her finger. "When we were fighting the demon, when the magisters of the conjurer's guild, and the alchemists, and the sorcerers, all fought together to defeat the demon, where was the magister of the wizards?"

"Who called this demon?" Cranshaw shouted louder.

Why didn't he answer Elinor's question? Pearl edged a step closer. She could answer his.

Cranshaw loomed over Elinor. "What brought it forth from hell? Women's magic has called it out!"

"That's a lie." Pearl spoke into the brief gap while the wizard took a breath, before he got wound up. "James Ferguson called the demon. I was there. I saw it. He called the demon. He admitted to murdering Angus Galloway and Rose Bowers."

She paused, just an instant, for effect. "Isn't James Ferguson one of your wizards?"

"He is one of your wizards," Cranshaw said. "Ruined by your perverse teachings. And we have only your word that James Ferguson called the demon."

"You have mine." Katriona stood up, a few patients away.

"Another female magician." Cranshaw's lip curled in a sneer.

"And my word as well." Grey strolled through the rows of moaning wounded as if on a Hyde Park promenade. His cravat was missing and his coat was torn, but he looked as elegant as always to Pearl. "I was also present when Ferguson called the demon. Three witnesses, Cranshaw. One more than the council requires."

"One less," Cranshaw retorted. "Yours is the only valid witness. These others are not council members. They are steeped in evil. They are-"

"Are we?" The last of Pearl's patience evaporated. She relaxed her tight grip on the angel's power and let it bleed into her. Her skin, her aura. It worked as she hoped it would. She began to glow. "Is this evil, Magister Cranshaw? Would an angel have shared its power with us if we had been consorting with demons?"

Elinor began to glow, too. And Amanusa, and Grey, and Katriona, and Harry, hurrying across the tracks toward them. Archaios glowed, too. Cranshaw looked stunned, then he began to gather himself for another attack, his face going red, his brow lowering.

Elinor spoke first. "Nigel Cranshaw, you are not fit to be magister of the wizards. You cowered in fear when every magician was needed to do battle with demons. Your false teachings have so warped the wizard's guild of England that one of them actually used his magic to call a demon, which results you see here. It was no thanks to you that a few of your wizards defied your edicts and answered the call today, or the carnage would have been worse."

She rose onto her toes and slapped Cranshaw across the face. "I challenge you for the title of magister."

"You can't," Cranshaw sputtered. He looked stunned, as if a bunny rabbit had suddenly attacked him.

"She can," Harry said, puffing only a little from his run across the station. "And she has. Magister of the alchemist's guild bears witness to the challenge."

"Magister of the conjurers' guild bears witness to the challenge," Grey said immediately. He began to damp down his glow again.

Good idea. Pearl damped hers. Easier said than done. The angel power didn't want to go back in her box.

Jax helped Amanusa to her feet as the newfound wizard stepped in with her salve. "Magister of the sorcerer's guild also bears witness to the challenge," Amanusa said.

"This woman is only an apprentice." Cranshaw pointed at Elinor. "Apprentices cannot challenge-"

"Actually-" The ponderous tones of Sir William Stanwyck echoed through the chamber. He glowed, too. "Apprentices can. According to time-honored tradition, an apprentice can issue challenge to advance in council rank. The practice was established when master magicians would hold apprentices back unfairly, to maintain their own status."

"You can stop it," Cranshaw said. "You can forbid the challenge."

"I could." Sir William stroked his silver mustache with a forefinger. "But the magisters of the other three guilds have witnessed it. And I-"

"Three guilds? There are only three, not four. Sorcery is not a guild."

"Shall we put it to a vote?" Sir William thundered. "Now? After this epic battle, where the sorcerers were present-even students-and the wizards' magister was not? You think they will not be voted in?"

"But-"

"Challenge has been called and witnessed," Sir William said. "Challenge will take place-" He looked around at the devastation and the weary rescue workers. "Five weeks from today, to give us a week for the holidays. Details to be arranged."

He turned a sour look upon Cranshaw. "I find myself in agreement with Miss Tavis. You are not fit to be magister of the wizard's guild. And I am sorry to know it."

Sir William turned away from Cranshaw to take Elinor's hand. Pearl had been told that Elinor was the council head's goddaughter, but she hadn't believed it till this moment.

"I will see that guild secrets are properly open to you," he said, patting her hand. "You were right, and I was wrong. I am sure it thrills your heart to hear that."

"It does," she said with a gentle smile, "and it doesn't. I never meant you any harm. I just-"

"Wanted the magic." Sir William's smile was rueful. "I should have understood. Change is never easy. Perhaps it is time for the next generation of magicians to take over." He patted her hand again. "But not today."

He looked around at the destruction. "Today, we have enough to do."



IT WAS WELL past dawn before all the living were found and dug from the rubble. Grey didn't know how they would determine who had died, since many victims had no remains to be identified. Make lists of the missing and match them as best they could, he supposed. Did demons leave behind ghosts? He hadn't seen any.