A/N - I lied... Francesca is introduced in Chapter 4. Whoops.546Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxm2R3RH5q
3. Making Excuses
Rory
I walked briskly down the street next to the Medici’s Manor – my employer’s house, thinking about the raid the night before. My eyes closed briefly, as I remembered the instructions the Trustees’ had relayed afterwards. The same ones as always. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t compromise your mission. I had known that before they’d used Jake’s betrayal as an excuse to wrest control of the Liberation from me. But, I reminded myself, they’d had to send me away before people stopped coming to me for guidance.
I shook my head to shake off the bitter feelings, remembering one of the first pieces of advice Aatiqah, my mentor, had given me so many years ago. His creased face swam into focus in my mind’s eye and my lips mirrored his silently. Bitterness is a plague. It eats your flesh until there is nothing left but a bag of skin and bones and the illness. So don’t let it consume you. Rise over the bad and see the good. That is the only way to survive and leave your soul intact and undamaged.
In the distance, a clock tower chimed midmorning pulling me from my reverie. My eyes flew open as I realized how late I was and I took off at a run down the street. I spun around a corner, cursing under my breath. I couldn’t afford to be late today… I’d been late too many times in the past couple of weeks. I hoped desperately that no one of any importance would notice my late arrival again. Mariah, the cook, would but her attention was of little importance unless she told the housekeeper or one of the upper housemaids.
I needed to focus on my reason for being late. What excuse had I been using this week? Right, my mother was ill and I’d needed to fetch a doctor this morning. I could extrapolate upon that, I concluded as I walked up the drive of an old-fashioned Italian building, my mother was so much worse today that I had needed to fetch the doctor before coming to work.
Imposing arched windows stared down at me as I made my way up the lane. The villa had yellowy beige brick walls and an ornate front door and pillars on the front porch. A hexagonal room jutted off the right wing of the house. In the circular window of the attic, I could just see the silhouette of a person looking through it. The building as a whole was smooth edges and sweeping, patterned roofs. It was as beautiful and elegant as those who lived there.
Elaina Medici and her daughter were, of course, Magicians. Elaina had lustrous raven black hair that she usually wrapped up in an elegant bun. She was tall with ice blue eyes and a reputation as a ruthless enemy. Her daughter, Francesca, was like her but she had hazel eyes and a very different personality. Unlike her mother, who was cold and calculating, Francesca, age seventeen, was likely to wait to see the outcome of an event before making her move. It almost made her more dangerous than her mother because she was meticulous in planning every detail of a scheme before putting it to action – and usually succeeded in achieving its objective.
I sighed and pushed open the servants’ door at the back of the house. Mariah, their young cook, confronted me at the door.
“Ai-yi-yi Mel-eessa, where in the name of Ge’rge Willeem have you beene?!” she demanded.
“Getting the doctor,” I lied smoothly.
“Mel-eessa! Tis’ thee third teeme thees week!” she shrieked.
“I know ‘Riah! I know!” I snapped, acting worried, which wasn’t hard because I was – just for an entirely different reason, “My mother’s sickness is worse today, and I had to fetch the doctor for her!”
“M’lady Medici’s beene wantin’ thee een ‘er room fer thee past dieci minutoes!” she wailed, “‘Ere teek thees wit’ you!”
I grabbed it and rushed up the servants’ stairs to the attic, chuckling at Mariah’s antics. I sobered abruptly as I realized Elaina was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. She had never deigned to speak with me before. I knew she liked to poke her nose in her daughter’s affairs and wondered if she had decided to hire the services of her daughter’s maid to spy on Francesca. My heart quickened at the thought. If so, I could beg a favour in return and finally be rid of this sham. I stopped outside the attic door and took a moment to compose myself before I knocked.
“Come in,” said the rich, accented voice of Elaina Medici, “You are late. I called for my tea dieci minutoes ago.”
“I’m very sorry milady,” I said humbly, setting the tray on a table.
“Good,” she said coldly, “Melissa, I want you to tidy my rooms, in addition to my daughters today, please.” My heart soared. Yes! This was exactly the opportunity I had wanted! “Also, I was wondering if you could work this weekend and take it off the week after next. As you know, we have that garden party this weekend and we really do need another serving girl. We’ll pay double your daily wage, of course.”
“Of course,” I responded eagerly as my stomach tied itself in knots. That wasn’t good. I had booked the weekend off to avoid the garden party. “What time would you want me to start?”
“About three in the afternoon would be good,” she replied, her lip curling in a cold smile, “And Melissa, do try to be on time.”
“Yes ma’am,” I saluted her crisply, curtseying with a strained smile pasted across my face, “Is there anything else I could get the lady?”
“No,” she said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand.
I fled the room gratefully. I scurried down the stairs, managing to keep my composure for mere seconds before covering my face with my hands and darting into a dark recess. I did not need a mirror to know that the colour had drained from my face completely. It seemed that in the span of a few moments I had achieved the goal of my mission in this house but that it had come at the cost of certain discovery. I glared at the mahogany panelling of the alcove, glancing down at a small table tucked away in the corner.
It didn’t matter that I had erased all traces of my existence in other houses I’d worked in over the years, if I went to that garden party, someone would guess who I was. Too many people knew what I sounded like and, no matter how well I had disguised myself in the past, there was no disguising my eyes. Yet, if I didn’t show up at the garden party Elaina Medici’s suspicions would become justified. For what ordinary maid would fear serving Magicians who may or may not recognize her for what she truly was?
I shook my head to clear it. The solution to this problem needed some careful thought and I was in no state to try thinking it through. I briefly wondered what the Trustees would suggest and quickly banished the thought. I had no need – no desire – for their aid.
I trudged down the staircase to Elaina’s apartments. I paused at the door trying to work up the satisfaction I should feel after months of dropping subtle hints, but the triumph of the moment seemed cheapened somehow. Now that I finally had the opportunity to go and look around Elaina’s rooms… The thought trailed off. I really didn’t like my odds for making it through the party alive and still free.
As I pushed my way through the door leading to Elaina’s bedroom, magical mechanisms bombarded me immediately. There were several Concealment Charms in her bedroom alone. I could feel dozens more throughout the rest of her apartment. They were easy enough to deal with, as they were all quite weak.
The Viewing Spell, on the other hand, worried me. Elaina would be able to see everything I did in the suite in a Collecting Ball – a sort of Crystal Ball that recorded anything that happened in her rooms. The only way to get past it was to put a Cloaking on it… make the Viewer see something other than what I was actually happening. The only problem with the Cloaking was that it used magic… and if I used magic, traces of my spell could be used later to track me.
As I glanced around the room, I smiled. Elaina always had liked her luxury and it was exceedingly obvious in these rooms. They were spacious and grand. A huge canopy bed took up a quarter of her bedroom. Her walls were painted scarlet and beige with intricate patterns that were imbued with Charms so they would change on a whim and never fade in the sunlight that streamed through her windows. It was fantastically Elaina all over.
I promptly got down to work. It was a strain to cast the Cloak after my endeavour of magic the night before but I managed to cast it without leaving an excess of magical energy. I simply programmed the viewer to see me dusting or picking up something up off the table when I was actually looking at what was behind the Concealment.
Concealments didn’t require any magic to reveal what was behind them unless they were very powerful and complicated. These were neither. I simply had to know they were there and get close enough to the hidden object to see what it was. The Concealments in her bedroom mostly contained Mystical Artifacts and Spell Books. I quickly flipped through them and committed them to memory. Her reception room didn’t have anything in it. This was normal, as Elaina would often receive magic-using visitors in here that would see through the Concealments in an instant.
Things began to get interesting in her study. Concealments covered almost every square inch of the room. Behind them were pentacles, notes on spell usage and blueprints of other Magicians’ houses. It was all information she could use to bring an enemy down if they became enough of a threat to her or her daughter. This was what I had come for. This was why I had wanted to enter her chambers in the first place. I had blueprints for many of the houses she had and many additional houses. I also knew most of what she knew about her colleagues and more. I had worked for most of them in the past. I activated a carefully planned Memory Charm I had readied earlier to help me remember every object or note I looked at.
The last thing I searched was her desk. A single piece of paper lay on the otherwise immaculate marble surface. I leaned closer, hoping that nothing would prevent me from seeing what was on it. No luck, the shapes of the letters were malformed – unrecognizable to all but the sender and the receiver. I smiled slightly; someone had Warded this message so that none except the most powerful Magicians could read it. Automatically I was curious. What did the note say? I bent closer and frowned at the scribbles on the page. Under my eyes, they slowly reformed into letters that were at least familiar, even if they didn’t make sense. My interest hooked, I attacked the note with determination. A code, I thought. Elaina and her cronies were planning something big if they didn’t trust a mere Ward to guard this message from prying eyes like mine.
I sighed. I didn’t trust my Memory Charm to retain this. The note was Warded so heavily that the spell wouldn’t have any effect on it and would probably make me forget it more easily. I knew that Charming the message to try to see what it meant wouldn’t work either, but if I cast an Unravel on myself, it might let me decode the real message. I cast the spell quickly feeling the energy drain out of me like a leaky bucket. If this kept up, I would reveal my identity through sheer exhaustion.
The letters began to crawl across the page slowly, then more rapidly as my Unravel took effect. Within a few seconds, the letter had rearranged themselves into their hidden message. I pulled a scrap of paper from my dress pocket, and I started to scrawl down the message.
Elaina,
The Renewal of the Magicians Might comes on the hundredth anniversary of the Fall. You are well aware of what that means and so I ask you, my faithful servant, to prepare the others discreetly.
You expressed doubt at our chances of success the last time we spoke. I assure you, we will not meet any resistance from the Hidden Ones. Their only hope lies with two inexperienced teenagers. I have planted the seeds to draw out those in hiding. They believe the twins in the Prophecy will save them, but one is still imprisoned and the other is under the watchful eye of our faithful “Trustees” within the Liberation. I have also sent my son to make sure they are not reunited and, thus, are powerless to stop us from them destroying them.
The only elements left to arrange is your part of the plan. Have you acquired the items we need for the Awakening? I have prepared our esteemed leader for his revival - all that remains to be done for his rebirth is the addition of the final ingredients that you will provide on the eve of the Fall. I shall see you in person soon to work out the final details of the plan.
Yours Truly,
Gedeon of Titan
A tremor rippled down my back as I absorbed the implications of what I had read. None of it made sense in a strict sense except that my intuitions had been correct. Something large was afoot and it didn’t sound promising for our resistance. I didn’t know who the “Hidden Ones” were – could Gedeon have meant the Liberation? But if he had, why hadn’t he just said? The existence of the Liberation was no secret from the Magicians. They knew we existed – we had been pestering them for too many years to be a secret. And what of the “Fall”? I had never even heard mention of the “Fall” and I had been spying on the Magicians’ leaders in Parliament for years. For that matter, who was Gedeon of Titan? Foreboding numbed my fingers, and I slowly unclenched them from the edge of Elaina’s desk and stared down at smooth ebony bordering the marble.
Titan sounded familiar – as familiar as Gedeon felt foreign on my tongue. It was the old family name of an extinct line of Magician’s. Another fact about the family tickled my memory but it wouldn’t step out where I could see it… A legend from before the Fall of the High Races… I shook off the feeling; it was just a myth. I would have to think on this later.
I quickly finished, taking no more time than it normally would to tidy a room. I didn’t dare try to obliterate the traces of magic I’d left in her room because I was so exhausted. For now, I was counting on her magic to cover mine. I quickly descended the stairs to Francesca’s rooms.
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