CHAPTER SIXTEEN #3
‘Welcome to my menagerie,’ said the King. ‘I have a special interest in creatures of severed magic. Ex-Magicians with missing limbs, the daemoted, you know.’
‘Oh,’ said Dot, terrified.
‘I am a man of science,’ said the King, roving. ‘That might surprise you, child. How must I find the time? Well, my hunger knows no satiation. I forge the time from idle moments or late evenings. I must.’
He waited patiently for her to enquire further.
‘You study ex-Magicians?’ asked Dot in a very small voice.
‘And other curiosities,’ said the King, eyeing Dot’s hand.
‘What makes a being magical? What specifically animates that vital part of the corporeal soul? What is the link between spirits and the rest of us? I would like to find out. We have discovered how to remove magic – that is of course the daemotion. Do you know that particular area of scholarship?’
‘W-well, I learned about it at university,’ said Dot truthfully.
‘So, you are a scholar of the Royal Institute. What area did you specialise in?’
‘Article Thirteen,’ she said carefully. ‘I did – well, I did quite a lot of research.’
‘So, you’ve an interest in my legacy,’ said the King, ‘Tell me, child, do you know the truth of the article, or just what they printed in the papers? Are you sure you did a lot of research?’
Despite her fear, Dot bristled. ‘Article Thirteen was introduced because of a rogue spirit,’ she said.
Behind her, the grand doors to the menagerie opened. The King smiled and held up a hand to the incumbent guest, commanding them to pause. His gaze returned to Dot; she did not dare turn around.
‘Go on,’ said the King. ‘Dazzle us with your knowledge.’
‘Well, the constitution was changed,’ said Dot, ‘You, your Majesty, changed it. The Prohibition on Magic came in after the crimes of a rogue spirit had come to light. His magic was stripped away, and that spirit was the first in hundreds of years to be turned into a daemon – I mean, there are only five or so daemons on record.’
‘And what of the crime?’ came the voice of the new guest behind Dot. The words sounded rasping and wet. She now noticed the dank smell of pond water and glimpsed a figure, peripherally, hidden in the shadows by the door. Still, she did not dare take her gaze away from the King.
‘A spirit has to commit a truly vile crime to be Daemoted,’ said Dot. ‘The daemon in question captured thousands of spirits. He put them in cages, not unlike these, and performed experiments on them.’
King Ellarde Custre IV smiled at Dot. ‘You did not name the daemon.’
‘Salamander,’ said Dot.
‘The very same,’ said the King, in a gleeful hush. At last, Ellarde Custre IV nodded for Dot to turn around. As she did, her eyes landed on that very creature she had seen photographed in the newspaper.
Salamander leered from the shadows, long, amphibian, with glistening, translucent skin that was almost white. His newt-like body stood tall on two legs, his short arms crossed. He gazed regally over Dot’s head to the King.
And Dot clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself shrieking.
‘I am a busy daemon, Ellarde. Have you my cages ready?’
‘I have more than that,’ said the King. ‘I have a specimen of great interest.’
The King snatched Dot’s afflicted hand and raised it in the lamplight.
Whatever discomfort Dot had hitherto felt was multiplied beyond belief, for now the daemon Salamander gazed at her affliction with more than a gentle interest – in his eyes was a hunger insatiable. Dot made to pull her hand away.
‘Now, now,’ said the King. ‘This is the very daemon you did your research on, child. The inventor of the puppet master’s charm, no less. Salamander is, like myself, a creature of science. He has a right to his examinations.’
‘What is the puppet master’s charm?’ whispered Dot.
‘She’s curious,’ said Salamander, drawing closer. The reek of pond water thickened. ‘A woman after my own heart. I will tell you about it – the conduence charm is my name for it, Miss . . .?’
‘Knox,’ said Dot.
‘Miss Knox,’ said Salamander with an uncanny smile. His head tilted sidewards at her, his gaze fixing Dot in place. ‘The conduence charm is a spell of my own invention. I expired just about every spirit I tried it on; in my clumsiness, I stole the magic right out of them.’
The King laughed at this. ‘How humble. Salamander here is over a thousand years old. It was far less your clumsiness, than your power, dear Sal.’
‘Today, I am your dear,’ said the daemon. ‘Yet, at your convenience on any other day, I am the “hubris” which caused your downfall.’
The King chuckled uncomfortably and turned back to Dot.
He cast an aged hand at the daemon, who still stared at her.
‘Publicly, I oppose him,’ the King said.
‘Politically, I resent him. Privately, I am in awe. Salamander’s curiosity is much like yours, it seems, child, and mine. I, too, hunger for magic.’
‘So, these cages?’ asked Dot.
‘Perceptive,’ hissed the daemon.
‘As soon as the Severed Magic reform is pushed through the House of Representatives and Article Thirteen is amended, I shall have my own zoological gardens,’ said the King.
‘Very soon daemons, ex-Magicians, every kind of strange and bizarre creature will populate this room, examinable for the purposes of the Sorcerous Sciences. Salamander, I believe, aspires to his own imitation of my menagerie.’
‘Imitation,’ said the daemon, ‘is not my aspiration. Now, girl. Show me your skin.’
Salamander lurched forward, his eyes so extremely fixed on Dot’s affliction that she began to cry out – until a calm hand swept her back and away.
‘Right shame,’ said Theodora, now at Dot’s side, ‘that Minister De León keeps thwarting those proposals.’
The witch bowed deeply and, without another moment, steered Dot from the room.
‘Apologies, your majesty,’ called Theodora over her shoulder. ‘Apologies, daemon Salamander. Knox and I have a prior engagement.’
It wasn’t until Dot was once again sat in her favourite armchair in the living room, hands around a mug of tea, that her ragged breath slowed at last.
‘Remind me,’ said Theodora, ‘never to abandon you in a hallway again.’