Captive Magics

11 - The Promotion

As if meeting the King wasn't enough, Leander would soon meet the Grand Mage himself whilst yet again lugging tottering stacks of paper between floors. Lissy was in discussion with two men at one end of a corridor near her office, voices echoing from the hard walls, and Leander was unable to prevent his feet carrying him towards them.

"It is what Jerome feels will be most useful," the Grand Mage was telling her. He was clearly the Grand Mage because of his elaborate robes, and being overweight and someone who wore it badly he appeared to be melting into a puddle of burgundy and purple silk. Leander thought he might be younger than he looked, but his hair was turning grey and thinning above his tired face.

"I thought my talents may stand me in better stead elsewhere," Lissy replied. Her tone was politely reserved, and Leander instantly knew she was unhappy.

"You are exactly what the Home Office requires," the other man said, with an insincere smile on his rattish face. "It's an excellent position in Records and Information Deposition, and very valuable employment. Lots of desk work."

"It's a clerk's job. I don't want desk work," she told them bluntly. The Grand Mage looked uneasy as the other man produced an artificial-sounding laugh.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Of course you do. You will come to adore it. It's a much more ladylike position. Nathaniel is better suited for the place in the GM's office. Lots of zip and go and fighting spirit required, what with the war and all. Right Arthur? We can hardly have you on the front line when the need calls, can we? I must go, the King was rather desperate to see me and I find myself running late. Goodbye Arthur, Miss Harper." He turned on his heel and left just as Leander reached the small gathering.

"No more filing, thank you Leander," she put a hand on his arm and he stood at her side, taking note of how she looked white even by her own pale standards. "I don't work here anymore."

"I am sorry, Elspeth, it was out of my control," the Grand Mage said uncomfortably.

"You are the Grand Mage," she said, making a rather insolent, accusatory statement sound somehow quite an acceptable thing to say to one of the most powerful men in the country.

"I know, I know, and I should have taken charge. The thing is, the job is under Jerome, and I thought he would choose the best, so I gave him free rein..."

"Nathaniel is not the best."

"No, but you cannot expect an uncle to see that in his favourite nephew."

"Can I not keep the job I am in presently?" she begged.

"You work for the Home Office presently," was his reply. He checked his pocket watch and then awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. "Chin up, dear girl. I'm sure you'll make the position your own. I have to go now, but I hope to see you soon. And well done again on the printing press front, it was good that you destroyed it but even more impressive that you understood how to harness the runes. I'm not sure I could have done that." He smiled like a man with a guilty conscience and swept away in a swirl of robes. Lissy faced dead ahead without moving and Leander wondered whether she was going to faint or scream or hit something. Abruptly she whirled around.

"We are leaving. Get my coat. No, you can carry my things. They cannot stay here."

Her effects were harvested from the drawers of her desk and hurriedly stacked on the tea tray. Leander was most of the way through wrapping her teapot, cups and saucers in spare paper before he realised his hands were free and he had wrapped them entirely of his own accord. Lissy was too distracted to realise, and when she marched him past the banner with the rude poem and onwards downstairs he wondered if she had even noticed her momentary loss of control.

"Is your new job so very bad?" he asked when they were settled in the cab.

"Awful. A desk job? For me?! What is the point of an extensive and well-honed skill-set and specialisation in magical devices if I am to be stuck behind a desk every day?! Nathaniel, who is the biggest, most useless irritant ever created, is born to that. Everyone can see he's so lazy he's nearly asleep, and Jerome thinks he has enough zip and vigour to work for the Grand Mage?!"

She was terrifyingly silent the rest of the way home, and Leander carefully avoided looking at her until they got to the steps of the house. She flew out of the cab before it had fully stopped and flung herself through the door into the house ahead of Leander, who mechanically paid the driver as the sound of smashing china rang out. He entered, reassured by the knowledge she was unlikely to want to see him for the rest of the day. His legs took him to the kitchen and placed him in the corner chair, and he settled down for a long wait.

It turned out to be very short. Realising he had full control of himself he slowly stood, not quite daring to believe it. But it was true.

Peculiarly, now master of his own body again, he felt taller and stronger than normal as though he could run for miles without tiring. Jogging silently to the door he peered out, contemplating escape. He had thrown a glance behind him and quietly slipped out before he had chance to think, and after shutting the door with a bare whisper he was hurrying off down the road.

Three houses away and he slowed almost to a halt. Where was he supposed to go now? He had spent all his change on the cab, and with pockets empty of money he couldn't get anywhere very fast. It would be a problem when Lissy noticed and summoned him back before he had managed to walk several miles across the city to Caroline's house. She had only lost control now while distracted, never once when she went out to goodness-knows-where for the day and left him alone in the house. Distance would be no object.

He stopped, turning uncertainly on his heel and looking at the respectable houses around him, battling with himself over knocking on a door. It was no use: the thought of trying to explain his predicament to some politely bewildered neighbour was utterly unbearable. In this state of deflated quandary he continued his aimless wander until he reached the church for which the street was named. On a whim, he opened the huge door and slipped inside.