Lily and the Prisoner of Magic (15 page)

‘My whiskers aren’t itching,’ the voice from the basket commented. ‘It all feels like familiar magic to me – apart from the key spell, which is simply archaic. Effective, though, unless of course you happen to have a stray princess lying around.’

Gus’s tone suggested that he was trying to be rude, but Princess Jane wasn’t listening. ‘Those girls over there are staring at you,’ she commented, eyeing two smartly-dressed girls who were walking towards them from the palace mews.

Lily glanced round. ‘Oh, no…’ she muttered. ‘They must have been visiting their father. Or else he’s already got them dancing attendance on the queen, as part of the plot.’

‘Who are they?’ Rose murmured. ‘They feel familiar.’

‘They’ve probably been filled with the same poisonous spells as Georgie,’ Lily sighed. ‘Their names are Cora and Penelope Dysart, and their father is a counsellor to the queen. He’s always making speeches to the newspapers about how awful magic is, but he’s a magician himself.’

‘Ohhh…’ Georgie moaned suddenly, doubling over. ‘I can’t stop them!’

‘What is it?’ Lily asked anxiously, one eye on Georgie and the other on Cora and Penelope, who were coming ever closer, holding matching parasols.

‘Don’t let them get close,’ Georgie whispered, collapsing to the pavement.

A few passers-by stopped, and Rose crouched beside Georgie, holding her head and fanning her gently. ‘Please don’t worry. Just the heat. She’s rather sensitive to the sun, poor child.’

‘Get away,’ Georgie moaned. ‘Get away, it isn’t safe…’

Rose sat back in surprise as Georgie’s words died out, the whispers spiralling into a greenish-grey vapour that was stealing from her mouth.

‘What is that?’ someone muttered behind them. ‘Look at her!’

Lily saw the Dysart girls turn and hurry quickly away. One of them – she couldn’t be sure which – cast a triumphant smile at Lily over her shoulder.

‘They did it,’ she muttered. ‘It was their spells, calling to Georgie’s somehow. We have to get her back to the theatre.’

‘I don’t think we can move her now,’ Princess Jane said quietly.

The greenish smoke was pouring out of Georgie’s mouth – no one was going to believe that she had only fainted from the heat now.

‘We have to!’ Lily hissed. ‘Someone’s probably gone looking for the Queen’s Men already. We’re right outside the palace, we have to—’

‘Lily, be quiet! What is that green stuff?’ Henrietta muttered, hoping that no one was looking at her. ‘What is it doing?’

Lily stopped. She had been thinking about getting Georgie somewhere safe, but Henrietta was right. She crouched down next to Rose, watching the spell swirling around her sister. She remembered the dusty wolf that Georgie had accidentally created to fight Marten, and hoped that this strange smoke wasn’t as dangerous.

‘Do you know what the spell is?’ she whispered to Rose.

‘It isn’t something I’ve ever cast myself, but I think it’s a binding spell. It shouldn’t be green like this – we shouldn’t be able to see it at all. Your sister’s fighting it, I think, as well as she can; she’s added the colour. It’s supposed to trap someone so they can’t move. Stay back.’

‘Can you get rid of it?’

‘Not without making it obvious that I’m a magician too. I think if we stayed away from her it would just seep away eventually. But we don’t have that much time.’ Rose looked around anxiously. ‘Here they come.’

A column of men in dark uniforms was striding towards them from the palace, and the crowd of bystanders shifted restlessly. Lily heard a few hisses.

‘We need to get away! They’ll take her. We can’t let them.’

‘This spell – you can take it off?’ Henrietta muttered to Rose. ‘In private?’

Rose nodded. ‘I think so.’

‘Then be ready, Lily. Run fast.’ Henrietta darted away from them, scuttling into the green smoke with her head down and clawing at Georgie’s arm. Lily saw Georgie begin to shift, and lift her head wearily, and then the cloud of smoke swirled and thickened and darkened. It sealed itself around the little black dog, and Georgie screamed, ‘Henrietta, no!’

But the smoke had gone, and Henrietta lay limply on her side.

And as far as Lily could tell, she was dead.

Georgie seized the faded bundle of black fur, and Lily ran to help her up. ‘We have to run, she said to run!’ she told Georgie. ‘Come on!’

‘You get them away,’ an old man muttered to her. ‘No one’s going to tell them where you went. Hurry now!’

Lily nodded to him. She seized Henrietta from Georgie, who could hardly stand up, grabbed her sister’s hand and dragged her away. Rose and the princess followed, and they hurried down the wide road, watching the crowd knit themselves together in front of the advancing men.

‘Through the park,’ Rose muttered, panting. ‘They already know what we are now; I can hold them off there if they’re chasing us. I don’t want to hurt anybody.’

But the crowd seemed to have delayed the Queen’s Men for long enough. There was no one following them as they headed back through the park, threading their way along quieter streets to the theatre.

As they hurried through the yard into the passageways under the theatre, Gus leaped out of the covered basket, swarming up Rose’s arm to lean over and sniff at Henrietta’s limp body.

‘She shouldn’t have done it,’ he muttered. ‘It was meant for a human – the queen, I suppose. Too much spell for someone so small.’

‘You mean you can’t wake her up?’ Lily looked at Rose, her eyes widening in shock. ‘No! You said you could!’

Rose sighed. ‘I didn’t realise what she was going to do.’

Lily hugged Henrietta close, missing her solid warmth, and tears ran down the side of her nose and splashed onto the dusty-looking fur. ‘I didn’t either. Bad dog…’ she added, in a miserable whisper.

‘What happened to her?’ Sam gasped, walking out of the carpentry workshop with Peter following him and seeing Henrietta in Lily’s arms. ‘Did she get knocked down?’

‘It’s a spell,’ Lily told him in a choked voice, letting him cradle the dog in his massive hands. ‘She did it so we could escape – it was one of Georgie’s, the bad ones.’

‘I’m sorry!’ Georgie cried. ‘I didn’t mean to!’

‘Can’t you take it off?’ Sam demanded, staring at her.

Georgie started to shake her head, but Rose frowned. ‘Perhaps she can. Here.’ She hurried into the workshop. ‘Lay her down.’

Sam swept the workbench clear of wood shavings with one sleeve, and laid Henrietta gently down.

Rose pulled Georgie forward. ‘I know you don’t think you can, but you changed that spell. My guess is that you were frightened it would hurt Lily, or us, and you were trying to protect us all. And if you can do that, if you’ve got enough control to alter the spells, then you can lift this if we help you.’

Georgie nodded doubtfully. She stood in front of the workbench, one hand held out, just touching Henrietta’s fur. ‘I can feel the spell on her,’ she admitted. ‘But it doesn’t feel like part of me, like my magic ought to.’

‘It came out of your mouth,’ Lily said suddenly. ‘Please, Georgie. It’s Henrietta.
Please
.’

Georgie closed her eyes and laid her hand down flat on Henrietta’s side. Then she pinched her fingertips together like someone picking up a thread, and pulled, winding something around the fingers of her other hand.

‘What’s she doing?’ Sam whispered loudly.

‘It’s like a cocoon,’ Georgie said, her voice echoing a little, as though it came from a long way away. ‘A silk moth. All wrapped up inside.’ She kept winding the thread of magic round her fingers, and the others could see it now, a fine, green thread, the coil growing thicker and thicker. ‘You have to help me hold it,’ she muttered at last. ‘It’s heavy.’

Lily reached out, cautiously picking at the bundle of poison-green magic round her sister’s fingers. It stuck, and buzzed, and she could smell it now as well, metallic and nasty.

‘What are we going to do with it?’ she asked Rose, but the old magician was already holding out a little silken bag, woven with magic. Lily could see the spells glowing and pulsing along the woven fabric.

‘We’ll keep it,’ Rose explained. ‘No point in wasting a strong spell. It may not be something I’d want to cast myself, but it might be useful. Keep unwinding it. You –’ she pointed to Peter – ‘hold Georgie up. She’s weakening. Georgie, be careful. Don’t breathe it in, remember.’

Peter frowned and came to stand behind Georgie. She was still uncoiling the thread, but more slowly now, and her head was hanging. Georgie shifted wearily as Peter put his hands on her shoulders. ‘I’m bringing her back, I promise,’ she whispered.

‘She moved!’ Lily said suddenly, accidentally pulling on the green thread in her excitement.

Henrietta jerked, and growled faintly.

‘Sorry, sorry! Henrietta, come on, wake up!’

‘Not if you’re going to pull my whiskers out like that,’ the black pug answered, in a whisper.

‘Can you move?’ Rose asked, stuffing the last of the spell-thread into the bag.

Gus leaped onto the workbench, tickling his silver whiskers across Henrietta’s fur. ‘It’s gone,’ he reported. ‘She’s clean.’

Henrietta surged upright, the fur along her spine rising. ‘Of course I’m clean,’ she snapped. ‘You – you cat!’

Lily picked her up, holding her so that the small black head tucked under her chin. She could feel how tired Henrietta was. ‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ she said, trying to sound cross. ‘What if we hadn’t been able to get rid of the spell?’

‘Well, we couldn’t pick
you
up and run away, could we?’ Henrietta yawned. ‘And I didn’t notice the cat volunteering. I am very tired now. I should like a sleep, in the middle of your bed, Lily. And when I wake up I will have a whole meat pie, from the man with the stall round the corner. Send Ned; he may as well make himself useful.’

‘
S
o you really think you can get us to him?’ Lily whispered, digging her nails into her palms anxiously.

Rose nodded. ‘I couldn’t feel any magic that had been changed – not for the outer spells anyway,’ she added warningly. ‘I can’t tell what’s been done inside.’

‘You should go soon,’ the dragon rumbled. ‘Before your sister’s spells gather any more strength.’

Lily glanced over at Georgie, who was leaning back against the dragon’s tail, huge dark shadows circling her eyes. ‘Tonight?’ she asked Rose hopefully. ‘If you’re strong enough, Princess,’ she added, looking at Princess Jane, and Rose, and remembering how old they really were. But the princess didn’t look as though she’d been running away from her sister’s guards only that morning. Her eyes were bright blue and sparkling, and she was smiling and tickling Gus behind the ears, as though she wasn’t a wanted fugitive at all.

‘I think we should move quickly,’ Rose agreed. ‘As soon as it’s fully dark.’

‘Tonight. We’ll have Father with us tonight, Georgie! We might even be able to start getting the spells off you tomorrow!’ Lily told her gleefully.

‘Don’t be too hasty,’ Gus purred. ‘You don’t know what it’s like in there.’

Lily’s smile faded. ‘No. I suppose not. It’s just that we’ve waited so long. I can’t help being a little excited.’

‘How do we get in? How does the key spell work?’ the dragon asked curiously, staring down at Princess Jane.

Lily swallowed. ‘I don’t think… Argent, I’m sorry, but you’re so big, people will see you. We have to sneak up to the prison.’

‘But I want to be there to protect you!’ The dragon reared his head up in surprise. ‘Look what happened when you went out without me before!’

Gus climbed carefully up the dragon’s tail, trotting along his back to the spot between his wings so he could talk to the enormous creature. ‘Don’t worry. This time I won’t be hiding in a basket. I will make sure they don’t do anything stupid.’

‘So will I,’ Henrietta put in swiftly. ‘The cat as well.’

‘Heroic isn’t always helpful,’ Gus hissed at her, his whiskers sparking crossly.

‘Ssshh!’ Rose sighed. ‘Stop bickering. I wish we could prepare for this more. But Argent’s right, at least we’d better make sure we understand how the key spell works.’

‘It seemed quite simple the couple of times that I did it,’ the princess said doubtfully. ‘I just stood in front of the door – it’s hidden, of course, but there’s a particular figure in the carving to look for. She has a robe on, with a Greek key pattern around the edge, as a clue. All I had to do was take her hand, and then in her other hand she would hold out the key.’

‘It’s really that easy?’ Lily said doubtfully. It seemed a little simple for something so important.

‘It only works for a member of her family, Lily!’ Georgie pointed out. ‘It’s one of the most secure spells there is!’

‘Yes… I suppose they never thought one of the family might change sides. Sorry,’ she added quickly. ‘I didn’t mean that to sound rude.’

The princess nodded. ‘I know. But I don’t think I have changed sides, Lily. The rest of my family changed, not me. I should have seen the way it was leading, when Archgate was built.’

Rose sighed. ‘I should never have agreed to be part of it,’ she said bitterly.

‘Don’t be stupid.’ Gus stared down at her from the dragon’s back. ‘If you hadn’t, we would have no chance of getting beyond the main door. Think of it as forward planning. We should have known we’d have to burgle the place one day.’