The Collected Christopher Connery (18 page)

“Would you mind taking a quick peek at Connery before you
go to sleep?” asked Nia. “After the adventure we had last week, I’ve been
checking on him a few times a day to be sure that everything is – well, present
and accounted for.”

“Sure.” Then Arthur made a face. “You know, the fact that
I just agreed to check on the body parts we keep under the bed without batting
an eye is kind of disturbing.”     

Nia only smiled and changed the subject. “Should I take
care of your jaw before you go? It won’t take a moment.”

“No thanks.” Arthur scratched the back of his neck with a
sheepish smile. “To be honest, it’s a good conversation starter.”

I’ll bet.
Gail figured a slim handsome guy like
Arthur who could talk like a professor but still handle himself in a scrap
would be attractive to a lot people – Xavier included. She’d experienced a
similar phenomenon herself after getting roughed up during tough cases, though
she didn’t have the Academy mystique to help her out.

Nia was clearly trying to look disapproving, but since it
was impossible to giggle disapprovingly, it didn’t work so hot. “Fine, but
don’t come crying to me when it’s still hurting you in the morning.”

“I won’t. Oh, do you want me to take Marianne’s hat for
you?”

“Oh, yes!” Nia pulled the hideous hat from her bag and
passed it to Arthur. “Thank you.”

He flipped the ugly thing in his hands. “I’m still
thinking about putting it on Connery.”

“Aw, he’d look just darling.” Gail propped her cheek on
her hand. “Maybe we can get some cute mittens for his hands too. The kind with
the fuzzy little balls on them.”

“Maybe some earmuffs to keep his head warm?” Arthur
suggested. “I don’t think they could make the hat any uglier. They might actually
improve it.”

“You two are both ridiculous,” Nia said through another
fit of giggles. “Can you imagine what the Directors would say if I brought
Connery back wearing a hat and fuzzy mittens?”

“I don’t know,” said Gail. “They might applaud your
creativity.”

“And the hat would probably look better on Connery than
it would on Marianne,” Arthur added.

That resulted in a peal of laughter loud enough to
attract the attention of some band members, but Nia was either too amused or
too tipsy to notice. Gail was glad. Nia’s smile was too pretty to be shuttered
by self-consciousness.

After Gail and Arthur exchanged a few more Connery
accessorizing ideas to see if they could make Nia fall out of her chair
laughing, Arthur took his leave, tossing the hat up and down as he walked from
the dining room. It made it look like a lopsided orange bird trying to take
flight.

Gail shook her head with a smile then wiped the back of
her hand across her forehead, feeling slight dampness at her hairline. Now that
the late-night crowd was packing into the room, it was beginning to get a
little warm. She considered asking Nia if she wanted to dance, noting the
bright-eyed way she watched the dancers whirl across the floor, but then she
figured what they really needed was fresh air.

Grabbing up her coat from the back of her chair, Gail
stood and said, “Hey, do you want to take a quick walk? It’s turning into a
furnace in here.”

“Oh, yes, it’s such a lovely night. When Arthur and I
were going to the picture show, I think I even saw the moon once.”

That meant the night had stayed dry, but Gail still
hooked her umbrella over her arm before helping Nia up. The Illuminator
stumbled a little as she tried to disentangle her legs from the chair.
“Careful, princess. Aren’t there rules about Academy magicians getting drunk on
the job?”

“I am not drunk,” Nia replied primly. “I am perhaps
slightly inebriated, but I am confident our walk will alleviate any symptoms.
Anyway, since it’s my night off, I am not technically on the job at all. Therefore,
even if I were drunk, which I am not, it would be an entirely acceptable state
of being.”

“Whatever you say, princess, but even slight inebriation
can be dangerous in high heels, so why don’t you let me help you at least until
we get outside?”

“I could walk across black ice in these shoes, thank you
very much.” But Nia didn’t object when Gail linked their arms or when she
helped Nia with her coat at the door.

As Nia has said, the night was exceptionally clear for
the start of the rainy season. A brisk wind whipped the clouds across the sky
like sheets on a clothesline and a few times Gail also caught a glimpse of the
moon.

Nia tugged lightly on her arm. “Where shall we go,
detective?”

“Why don’t we head over to the bridge? It’s not far and
we’ll get a better view there.”

Nia smiled. “That sounds lovely.”

The walk to the bridge was mostly silent, but not
uncomfortably so. On the way, Gail pointed out a few interesting sights, things
not mentioned by your average tour guide.

“That’s the best sandwich shop in the entire city.”

Nia squinted doubtfully at the tiny, somewhat ramshackle
building Gail was pointing to. “There? Really? It looks, well, unsanitary.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. Trust me, you won’t find
anywhere better. Now, the Golden Bough, that big fancy place near the Academy?
That’s a place you have to watch out for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
heard them nearly getting shut down because of rats in the kitchens.”

Nia shuddered. “Thank you for the warning.”

When they reached the bridge, Gail leaned her arms on the
thick stone railing and looked down at the dark water. She didn’t care for
rivers much more than she cared for rain, knowing all too well how quickly they
could turn from placid to deadly, but watching them from bridges wasn’t so bad.
From this distance, the water looked almost harmless.

When she looked up from the water, she found Nia scowling
up at the sky, arms crossed tightly over her chest and all evidence
martini-induced silliness gone.

“Are you thinking about Connery again?”

“Yes,” Nia admitted, sighing. “It just doesn’t make
sense. I’ve checked my work again and again, but even though everything is
perfectly right, the results have all been – well, perfectly wrong.”

“Hm.” Gail turned around, leaning back against the
railing. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.”

“But time is of the essence! If we don’t find Connery
first, his associates may realize what’s going on and retrieve him, which means
we would have to chase down
them
which would require even more time and
resources.”

“Maybe that’s already happened,” said Gail with a
grimace. “Maybe one of Connery’s buddies is running around with this piece.”

“I considered that, but I’m not sure it’s possible.
Firstly, why would Connery’s associates be wandering abandoned lots and alleys
and secondly, the other pieces of Connery – the head and the arms – don’t have
any tagging spells on them. I was careful to check. They have some
anti-putrefaction spells in place to stop decay, but breaking the spells that
hid the pieces also broke their direct link to their fellows. I can use them to
find the hidden pieces where Connery’s magic is strongest, but no one could use
the hidden pieces to find us, if you follow.”

Gail thought she did. “Well, that’s a relief at least,
right?”

“I suppose, but that also means that if someone else
found a piece of Connery and removed it from its protections, we likely won’t
know it until we discover the empty hiding spot.”

“Great.” Gail rubbed her eyes with one hand. “So what
you’re saying is that Connery is moving around on his own? And that’s the
protection on this bit?”

“So it would seem,” Nia sighed then turned to Gail with
an abruptly contrite expression. “I’m sorry, detective, you were trying to make
this a nice evening and now I’m spoiling it.”

Gail laughed. “Don’t worry about it, princess. We had to
get back to work eventually.”

“Still, I did have a lovely night.” Nia smiled at her
then dropped her eyes shyly to the sidewalk.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Gail hesitated for a moment.
There’d been a question knocking on the inside of her head for most of the
evening, but she wasn’t sure if she ought to let it out. She was pretty sure it
wasn’t her business, but knowing that wouldn’t make the question go away – in
fact, it would only make it start pounding harder. What the hell? She might as
well toss it out and see what happened. “Could I ask you something?”

“Hm?”said Nia without looking up.

Gail decided Nia deserved a little warning about the
topic. “It’s about your brother.”

That got Nia’s eyes up. “Arthur?”

“Tell me to fuck off you want, I won’t be offended, but I
can’t help being curious. You said his magic is bound. What exactly does that
mean?”

“Oh! It – well, there are spells that can stop a magician
from using magic, bind it inside them. No matter how powerful their magic was
or would have been, the binding prevents them from accessing it. They can still
do some passive magic, of course. There’s no stopping that.”

“Like how Arthur can taste Connery’s magic?”

“Yes, exactly.”

Gail thought for a moment. “But why would they do that to
him? Does it have something to do with him being a ward?”

Nia didn’t answer right away. She seemed preoccupied by a
crack in the sidewalk.

“Remember you can tell me to fuck off,” Gail told her gently.

“No, it – you should know. With you working so closely
with him, it would wrong not to tell you.” But Nia still didn’t continue for
several minutes, so Gail watched the sky instead, letting her eyes follow the
clouds swirling and twisting in the wind.

Finally, Nia spoke again, in a voice so quiet that Gail
had to step closer to hear her. “Do you know the difference between a normal
ward of the Academy and a bound ward?”

Gail shook her head. Except for knowing that the
Illuminators were the Academy’s cops, the Academy hierarchy was a complex
mystery to most laymen, Gail included.

“A normal ward is just a person whose magic isn’t
powerful enough to reach the first level of professional magicianship. They’re
usually identified by the time they reach fifteen or so. Some people are late
bloomers and come back from wardship to full magicianship when their power
grows strong enough, but that’s rare. When it becomes clear a person will never
pass their first exam, they become a ward. They stop their magical schooling,
but can pick up a trade if they like and often take up important non-magical
jobs around campus.”

“And do they have their magic bound?” Gail asked.

Nia shook her head. “No. What would be the point? Most
wards are too weak to even light a candle. In fact, many go to live among
laypeople, finding it more comfortable than living with other magicians. The
reason they’re called wards is because if they choose to stay, the Academy will
provide for them throughout their lives even though they can’t technically
contribute. That’s foolish of course; they obviously contribute, but just not
magically,
which is what these hierarchies are based on, you understand.”

“Yeah,” said Gail. “I follow you.”
More or less.
“But
Arthur’s not like that?”

“No, Arthur was brilliant. When we were children, there
was no one except my mother I admired more. He excelled at all of his lessons
and his teachers were always saying how clever and driven he was. I’m sure he
would be an Illuminator now too if – if only –” Nia’s voice cracked. Gail
almost put an arm around her shoulders, but judging by the way Nia was hunching
in on herself, the touch wouldn’t have been welcome.

“What happened?”

“An accident. It happened a long, long time ago. We were
nine years old. Some older boys had caught a rat. Even at the Academy we can’t
keep them out entirely. They should have just let it go, left it to the cats,
but –” Nia swallowed hard. “I didn’t see it myself, but apparently they took it
upon themselves to kill it, and not quickly.”

“Little shits,” Gail said under her breath. She didn’t
exactly love the rats either, though she admired their resilience, but if a rat
had to be taken care of, there was no excuse for not doing it as quickly and
cleanly as possible.

“Like I said, I don’t know what Arthur saw when he came
across them, but it must have been… He told them to stop, to let it go. He told
me later that he wanted to try to save it, if it could be saved, and if not, at
least put it out of its misery, but the older boys laughed at him. One of them
shoved him. He was going to get an adult, but then one of the boys, he took the
poor thing and –”

This time Gail did put an arm around her. “It’s all
right, I get the picture.”

“Arthur was so angry. He – he lost control of his magic.
One of the boys died. The other three were badly injured. One lost a hand. Poor
Arthur was terrified. He didn’t mean to do it. He just wanted them to stop
hurting the rat.” Nia’s voice had taken on a dull flat quality as she leaned
against Gail’s side. “I heard they found him just sitting there, covered in
blood, with the dead boy’s head in his lap and the rat in his hand. I suppose
the magic must have killed it too, which was probably a mercy at that point.”

“So it was an accident? He didn’t mean to hurt anyone?”

“No, he didn’t. He just wanted to stop them. It is like –
like a match being dropped into gasoline. He couldn’t have stopped it.”

“But they bound his magic anyway?”

“Yes, of course.”

“But if it was accident –”

“If they thought he had done it on purpose, they would have
executed him.” Nia pulled away from Gail to glare down at the river. “The
binding wasn’t punishment for what he did to those boys. The problem was that
he lost control. He dropped the match. He didn’t mean to, his hand trembled,
the flame burned his fingers, a gust of wind tugged it away, but the match was
dropped. And that can never happen.”