Chapter Ten
Mr. Thornton was worried about something and trying to hide it.
Delia knew him well enough by now to pick up the signs of his tension, his hesitations as he reported on what was happening with the hex investigation, occasional subtle hints that he was thinking about something other than whatever they happened to be talking about.
Perhaps he resented his visits to keep her informed, but if so, why did he not go back to visiting only once a week, as he had before the assault on the castle?
With three babies to feed, Mr. Thornton had arranged to add another milk goat to the herd. Mind you, Delia’s two older charges had expanded their diet.
Sapphire was eating grass and hay, with the occasional handful of grain. Just as well. At four months of age, he was now more than twice as heavy as Delia, and even two milk goats would not have been able to keep up.
Mary’s digestion must have been human, for she still took most of her meals from the bottle.
But they were also giving her small quantities of porridge, mashed vegetables, and other food.
She, too, had grown alarmingly, and was now too heavy for Polly to lift.
Fortunately, while the human torso was that of a baby, the snake body kept a different chronology, and she was capable of gliding quickly along beside Polly, the human parts of her sitting serenely above seven feet of undulating snake.
As for little Theodosia, the sphinx, who was even cuter now that the egg tooth had fallen out, she was growing so quickly she was half as heavy again after just over a week, and if she kept on at the same pace, the output of the extra goat would certainly be needed to keep her satisfied.
Each day, Delia met Mr. Thornton. She told him what her charges had done since last they spoke, always conscious that he had important affairs he needed to be about and could not possibly be interested in the minutiae of raising three magical creatures, two of them human.
Her life was immeasurably better than it had been at Nettleford Manor, but it was still remarkably boring.
However, she had to contribute to the conversation somehow, and what else did she have to talk about?
“Mary has learned how to climb,” she said one morning, “and now nothing is safe from her. Now that she is growing so long, she needs only to take the top two thirds of herself off the ground, and she is tall enough to place the middle part of her snake body on almost any piece of furniture, and then lift her tail end up. This morning, she managed to reach the top of the wardrobe. We think she started on the sofa, and from there went to the chest of drawers.”
She and Mr. Thornton were effectively alone. Sister Agatha was their chaperone, but she was deaf in one ear—the one currently turned toward them—and was sitting in the far corner saying her rosary.
“Mary sounds like a little minx,” Mr. Thornton said.
He was quite correct. There was no harm in the little lindwurm, but she had a large helping of mischief mixed with an adventurous spirit.
“Once she was up there, she became stuck. The wardrobe is next to the door, you see, so there was no convenient surface for her to lower herself down on to. I had to climb up on a chair and coax her into turning back the way she had come.” Delia sighed.
“I expect she is too young to learn from the experience, so Polly and I have moved all the furniture so she cannot reach from one tall piece to another.”
Mr. Thornton smiled. “It is a good idea, I think.”
“But you cannot possibly be interested in Mary’s explorations, Mr. Thornton.”
“I am fascinated,” the dear man insisted.
“Miss Nettleford, I must apologize if I seem a little distracted. I have some difficulties to work out, but these meetings with you are the highlight of my day. How is Sapphire? Does he still follow you everywhere and insist on sleeping close enough to touch you?”
“What is troubling you, sir?” Delia asked. “Is it something I can help with?” A silly question, for Delia was stuck here in seclusion with the nuns, so what help could she give? “If nothing else, Mr. Thornton, I could be a listening ear.”
“You should be aware of my problems in case they become your own,” Mr. Thornton said, in a tone that suggested he was considering the matter rather than stating a conclusion.
“Yes.” That was far more definite. “I should tell you. Miss Nettleford, I have kept this to myself for I did not wish to worry you, but I would have you armed against those who wish you harm.”
What an alarming start to his intended disclosure! “The Welsh mage, do you mean?”
“He may be involved,” said Mr. Thornton, “but my main concern is right here in the castle.”
Delia leapt to a conclusion. “You have found the traitor who set the hex?”
However, he shook his head. “I have not found evidence,” he said, regret toning his voice.
“I think I know who it is, but I cannot prove it. I almost cannot believe it. Except I do not see who else it could be. Also, what evidence there is points in that direction, Captain Harewood agrees with my conclusions, and my instincts tell me I am right.” He heaved a great sigh.
“It has to be my Uncle Percy. Or, I suppose, someone close to him, but he had the best chance.”
“Lord Percival? The castellan?” Not that Delia was questioning Mr. Thornton’s conclusions.
She had only met the castellan twice, but he had made her uncomfortable both times, praising her in an unctuous manner that appeared flattering on the surface but seemed patronizing when she thought about it afterward.
“I know,” said Mr. Thornton. “It seems unlikely, does it not? But…”
“It does not seem as unlikely as I think it should be, if that makes sense,” Delia said.
“There is something about him, isn’t there?” Mr. Thornton sounded satisfied with her response. “But I think I need to tell this from the beginning.”
He told her about a barrier to magical translocation, and how he and the captain of the guard had experimented to find out its nature, its extent, and what it was for.
“It is a barrier on me, Miss Nettleford. If I give Captain Harewood something I have spelled and that he can trigger with his own gift, it works as long as Captain Harewood is at least five hundred yards away from me. The barrier goes in a dome around me, and possibly in a bubble, because we’ve tried burrowing. ”
“They are afraid of your power,” Delia suggested.
He shrugged. “Perhaps. We discovered the barrier when I tried to translocate messages to London. That was our first experiment, by the way. Captain Harewood took the messages outside and sent them with no difficulty. The reply came only today. They couldn’t reach me from their end, and they didn’t know where a reply would be safe, so they had to send their letter to someone they trusted in Manchester, and he came here in person to meet with Captain Harewood. ”
He grimaced. “So, London is aware of the hex on the water, of the birth of the sphinx, and of the barrier. And the Duke of Findlater says that the mage-trace on the hexed object is that of the Welsh mage. He is certain that Emrys of Dolgellau, the Welsh mage, made the hex. But there is another, fainter, mage trace, and he believes it to be the trace of the mage who placed the hexed object and triggered it. He recognized the Welsh mage trace from previous battles, but the other he knows well. The object has been handled by his brother, our Lord Percy.” He looked down at his feet, as if ashamed.
Or disappointed? It was hard to tell, but he was the man’s nephew, after all.
“Did Lord Percival not have a look at it when you found it?” It was not so much that Delia could not believe Lord Percival to be a villain, as that she wanted to close all loopholes.
“He did, but His Grace says that such a strong mage trace cannot have been left with just a passing touch.”
Delia had another objection. “I thought Lord Percival’s gift was very weak. Would he have enough magic to get it into the well room? And to trigger it?”
“As to triggering it, yes. Even the weakest of gifts can start a spell if it has been keyed to that person. His Grace also had a suggestion for how Uncle Percy made his way into the well room without being seen by the guards. Remember that he wouldn’t set off the defenses because he is castellan of the castle, so the only issue to be explained is that the well is guarded at all times, and none of the guards saw him. ”
With a nod, Delia acknowledged that she realized both those points.
Mr. Thornton shared the information that was the key to the mystery.
“The Duke of Findlater says that his brother has one strong gift. He can make himself invisible. His Grace is sending a contingent of guard with a senior mage from the King’s Council to arrest his brother, and he warns us to be very wary until he gets here. ”
Before he had even finished his sentence, the alarm trumpet sounded, warning that the castle was under an external attack. Bangs indicated that magical blows were being aimed at the castle.
Leaping to his feet, Mr. Thornton said, “Keep the babies inside, Miss Nettleford. Stay away from the windows. I shall return as soon as I can to let you know what this was all about.”
He was heading for the door even before he finished speaking, and in a moment, he was gone.
Sister Agatha had put her rosary away and was waiting for Delia.
“I shall see you back to the babies, dear,” she said, “and then find out what I can do to help the defense.” Sister Agatha was one of the most powerful of the convent battle mages, despite being deaf in one ear.
Indeed, the deafness was from a combat injury.
While Delia was once again relegated to being protected. She did her best to keep her sigh hidden. If all she could do was stay in one place and leave the warriors to do their job, she could at least do that without complaint.