“All is well, Miss Howel. Please sit,” he said.
“Where am I? What’ve you done with him?” I took a faulty step backward and collapsed. The bundle that was Fenswick slid off the bed with a grunt. Agrippa took a chair. The door closed again, and I heard the lock turn. “It’s not my fault.” I was nearly in hysterics. “I didn’t choose to be this way.”
“Enough now.” He sounded gentle, understanding. I didn’t trust it.
“I’m no follower of Mary Willoughby!” I said. My head threatened to split in two. “I didn’t choose to be a witch. I don’t want to die!”
“I’m not going to kill you,” he said, his tone soothing. I wouldn’t believe him. I couldn’t.
“Where is Rook?”
“He’s all right. He’s waiting below.”
“Is he a prisoner, too?” I gripped the side of the bed. “He’s not responsible for any of this.”
“You’re not prisoners, neither of you. And you’re not a witch, either, Miss Howel,” Agrippa said. He smiled, bemused and, as far as I could tell, delighted. “You’re a sorcerer.”
Whatever I had been about to say was lost. My mouth hung open, but no words escaped. I blinked. Agrippa might as well have said You are a lost Babylonian princess or You are a rare species of cod. Both made as much sense as my being…I couldn’t even think the word. While I sat there, Fenswick extricated himself from the blankets and stomped over to Agrippa.
“You don’t want this one,” he said, waving his four arms at me. “I can’t believe you had me travel all the way from London through the Undergrowth just to see to a dangerous psychotic. As if it’s easy getting to Yorkshire in no time flat. I hate traveling through Faerie. It’s too easy to lose your way.”
“Doctor, perhaps you’d grant Miss Howel and me some privacy? I’ve a feeling I’ll need to answer some questions.” Agrippa watched me, judging my reaction.
“Very well,” Fenswick said with exaggerated dignity. He flicked a piece of lint from his sleeve, walked under the bed, and did not come out again.
“Where?” I asked. My voice sounded hoarse. Even though I’d been trained to always keep a straight back, I rested my elbows on my legs; I couldn’t seem to get enough air.
“Faerie is located out of the corner of one’s eye or on the edge of a shadow. It is wild, but a fast shortcut through England.”
“Oh,” I said, as if that were a natural explanation. Swallowing, I shook my head. “How on earth can I be a sorcerer?”
“I can explain that. The prophecy seemed to call for a female child, but how old are you?”
“Sixteen.” Prophecy?
“I knew we needed a different translation, but you try persuading Palehook…I’m sorry,” he said, noting my baffled expression. “This must be hard to take in.”
“I’m sorry, a prophecy?” There was a faint ringing in my ears. None of this made sense.
“I shall explain more in due course, I promise you. Right now, what you need to know is that the prophecy calls for a girl to rise and fight in a time of great need. It mentions this girl’s use of fire.”
“But I thought all magical women were witches. There hasn’t been a female sorcerer in hundreds of years.” Not since Joan of Arc, in fact, and look where that got her.
“Not all magic is equal. Witches cannot control fire, water, earth, or air. They work with the life force of plants and animals. Only sorcerers control flame. And magicians are tricksters by nature. They deal in underhand spells and manipulations. The fact that you risked exposure to protect your friend, especially when you believed you would be killed as a result, proves you are not one of them.”
My breath came in shallow gasps as I realized that I might not die tonight. I put my head in my hands.
“Now, listen, Miss Howel. I’ve never seen another girl who could do what you’ve done, and I’ve searched for four years. I’ve never met another sorcerer who could burn and walk away unscathed. As I say, sorcerers control flame.” He took the lit candle from the table and collected the fire into his palm, as he had done before. “But we cannot create it.”
Searched for four years. That was why he’d come to Brimthorn, why he’d tested the girls. “What does this mean?”
“That I will take you to London, if you’re willing, to be commended by the queen. You will become a royal sorcerer, and when you’re ready, you will fight alongside us. You’ll join my household, live and train there. Not to worry, there’ll be six others your age, all young men, of course.”
“Young men?” What on earth would that be like? The only boy I’d ever known was Rook. And there would be so many of them….
“They are all gentlemen. One of them is your benefactor, Lord Blackwood. I know he’ll be proud to meet an accomplished young lady from Brimthorn.”
I would meet the Earl of Sorrow-Fell? Study with him as an equal? I nearly lay back onto the bed so that I could wake up from this dream.
Agrippa continued, “I can teach you to use a stave to control the fire and to master the other elements.”
“Control?” I whispered. Was such a thing possible? For years I’d lived at the mercy of my power, praying it wouldn’t come upon me at an inopportune moment. To think that I could be its master and not the other way around…
It all seemed too good to be believed.
“I would go to war with you?” I wished I hadn’t smashed that vial of medicine. My head felt several sizes too small.
“Yes.”
Though I’d never seen a Familiar until today, I knew what happened to the villages they plundered and the victims they left behind. I’d heard men tell horrific tales of families torn to pieces inside their homes, of entire towns burned to the ground. Hadn’t I yearned to do something about it? My childhood games had been full of battling the Ancients, of destroying them. Could those dreams come true?
And as a sorcerer, I would belong in ways I’d never allowed myself to dream of before. I knew what life at Brimthorn would bring: years of hunger and cold, of teaching young girls how to do figures while my own life passed by in a blur, and one day I would be an old woman and still chained to the spot where my aunt had left me when I was a child. Now I had a chance to become something.
“Will you join us?” Agrippa asked.
“What about Rook?” Great destiny or not, I wouldn’t leave him behind.
Speak of the devil. There were voices in the hallway. I got to my feet, still unsteady. Agrippa held my arm to support me.
Rook told the men who pursued him, “I’ll see her if she’s awake. Nettie? Where are you?”
“Rook, I’m in here!” I cried.
Agrippa banged on the door and called for it to be opened. A moment later, the constable entered, holding my friend by the shoulder. When released, Rook hurried toward me.
“Are you hurt?” he said, taking my face in his hands. His blue eyes blazed with concern. He looked human again, like his old self. Mud smeared his face and had dried in his hair.
“No. I’m a sorcerer.” I didn’t mean to laugh, but I couldn’t help it. Rook’s eyes widened.
“You can’t be,” he said, gripping my arm. “Are you sure?”
“You seem less surprised than I was.” I laughed so hard I began to hiccup. He let me lean against him until I stopped.
“Well, after today I doubt anything could surprise me again. A sorcerer, of all things.” He tilted my chin up and smiled.
“I know it’s mad to say, but it’s true. And I think I’m going to London.”
Rook’s smile faded somewhat. “Then I suppose this’ll be goodbye.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “I’m glad for you.”
“No, I have even better news. You’re coming with me.” I knew it was daring, but I turned to Agrippa. “He is, isn’t he?”
Agrippa looked as if he didn’t know what to say. Rook turned me to face him again. “Nettie, you can’t have me along. I don’t belong in a sorcerer’s world.”
“Miss Howel,” Agrippa finally said, “the situation’s not as simple as you’d like.”