Rebel Magisters (19 page)

I turned then to face him, and he smiled. “Yes, I did notice you. You’re chaperone to the granddaughter, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“And here I am, forgetting my manners, though it wasn’t proper for me to speak to you in the first place without a formal introduction. I hope you’ll forgive me. I’m Baron Pierce.”

I gave him a slight curtsy. “I’m Verity Newton.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Newton. Let’s just pretend that some mutual friend introduced us.”

“I don’t really have friends here. Only my employer.”

“And most of my friends have died. I wouldn’t have come at all, but this is something of a command appearance for someone in my station. Have to support the Empire, and all that. I do hope you don’t mind if I don’t ask you to dance. My dancing days are long behind me.”

“I’m not much for dancing, myself. Not in this crowd, at least. I’d be sure to cause a collision.”

“Ah, but the right partner would take care of that. In my youth, I could have steered you without incident around the floor.” He grinned wryly. “Though in my youth, dancing like this would have been quite scandalous. We did patterned country dances. None of this holding each other so closely.”

Although I’d enjoyed being treated like I was visible, I needed to move on and see what I could learn. I was just about to make a polite farewell when a sound like a series of small explosions shook the room. In spite of his age, the baron managed to leap in front of me, shielding me with his body. All around us, people screamed. A couple of ladies fainted. Someone nearby dove under the punch table.

I looked around for the source of the noise and saw the word “Freedom” hanging in the air over the dance floor. I noticed then the sense of magic in use. Had this been the rebels’ plan, a demonstration at the ball?

“Those young fools,” the baron muttered, seemingly forgetting my presence. “Just making a spectacle, no thought for consequences. That’ll make it harder on the rest of us.”

That took me aback. It wasn’t the response I’d have expected from a member of the nobility. I considered asking him about it, but he didn’t seem to realize he’d spoken aloud, and I didn’t want to put him on his guard. Instead, I said, “It was lovely meeting you, but I must find Lady Flora.”

I fought my way through the crowd, searching for Flora’s golden curls and hoping she was safe with her grandfather. Was the single word exploding magically over our heads the extent of the demonstration, or did they have something else planned?

“Ver—Miss Newton!” I whirled and saw Henry squeezing between people to get to me. “Do you see Flora?”

“No. You’re taller than I am. Can’t you see her?”

He got closer to me and put his hand on my shoulder, gripping tightly enough that we couldn’t easily be separated. “This must be what they had planned,” he murmured into my ear.

“Do you think there’s more?” I asked, turning to face him.

“I hope not.”

I suddenly felt that paralyzed sensation that came with the magical dampener. Before I could react, the room suddenly went dark. Not only did the “Freedom” vanish, but all the lights in the room, which presumably were powered by magic, went out.

As had happened to Henry and me the first time we’d experienced the device, everyone froze at first, but soon they realized that they could move and were only hampered magically, and then they panicked. Henry pulled me closer against himself so that I was partially shielded from the mob. We had the advantage in knowing what was happening, but I imagined it would be terrifying to face the effects of the device in that setting with no warning. A dull roar rose from the crowd as people gradually found their voices again.

Then a single female voice rose above the din, singing clearly, “The colonies are free, to live in liberty. This is our cause.” The tune was the anthem of the British Empire, but the words were quite different. Other voices, male and female, joined the song. “Free from the tyrant’s tax, free from all Parliament’s acts. Free from the governor on our backs, let freedom ring!”

There were more voices than I would have expected, but then I remembered how many people had been at Camilla and Brad’s house, preparing for the tea raid. If all those people were at the ball, the rebels might outnumber the loyalists, especially among the young people. If I wasn’t entirely mistaken, I also thought I heard the baron’s voice joining in, very softly.

“Should we go find them and get them to turn it off?” I whispered, directing my voice at where I thought Henry’s ear might be. The range of the device meant it had to be very close.

“They’ve made their point, and now it could get dangerous,” he murmured in reply. He began moving, guiding me and shielding me from the crush of humanity as we made our way very slowly through the crowd. My eyes had grown more accustomed to the darkness, and now I could make out the windows along the rear of the ballroom, as well as a faint light that I assumed was the entrance. That at least gave us a target to aim for.

Before we were halfway across the room, the sensation of being stifled lifted and the lights came back on. “I guess they won’t need persuading,” Henry muttered, and he changed direction, fighting our way to the governor’s dais, where the governor was having words with a few other nobles and some uniformed soldiers. As we approached, I caught the governor saying, “…the tea, and now this. You need to get things under control.”

“Of course, Your Grace,” the man he was speaking to said, bowing. “It’s probably just a prank. You know, those Rebel Mechanics are quite active here.”

“This is magic, so I doubt they had anything to do with this,” the governor snapped. “This was done by our people. I want to know who.”

Flora’s dance partner got her to the dais. Both of them looked somewhat the worse for wear, their clothes crumpled from the crush. “I’ll go bring you some punch, Lady Flora,” her partner promised as I took her arm to help settle her in her chair.

“Are you all right?” I asked her.

“What is this?” she asked.

“It seems to be a little political demonstration, but there doesn’t appear to be much more than this display. We should be perfectly safe.”

“I’m sending you home, right away,” the governor said. “Lyndon, you escort the ladies. I’ll sort this out here.”

Henry and I exchanged a glance. If the Mechanics had used the dampener, that meant they were likely outside, so leaving might not be the best way to keep Flora out of danger. Or had they brought the device nearby secretly and then hurried away with it? Surely the soldiers would have noticed if there were an angry mob outside. I couldn’t help but wonder if the timing of the device had been lucky coincidence or if they’d coordinated with the magisters.

Henry straightened and moved decisively toward Flora and me, acting the way I had seen him directing the Bandits or interacting with the rebels, but then he remembered that he was supposed to be the vague, absentminded amateur scientist, especially in front of the governor. He stopped and wavered, even swaying slightly. “Oh, dear!” he said, blinking rapidly behind his glasses. “I suppose I should have the carriage brought around.”

Before he could leave I called out, “Lord Henry! We need to get our wraps.”

“Of course! I’m sorry. It completely slipped my mind. I should escort the two of you to the cloakroom.” He took Flora’s arm and I prepared to follow behind them, but he gestured with his other hand, and I hoped I didn’t blush as I stepped forward to clutch his elbow. “Now, both of you hold on,” he said. He nearly tripped on the bottom step of the dais as he left, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

He might have been playing his role to the hilt, but he was quite adept at maneuvering us through a panicking mob. I barely brushed against anyone as we crossed the ballroom. All three of us paused to catch our breath when we reached the stairs where we’d entered. “We’ll go to the cloakroom and meet you back here,” I told him, and then I took Flora’s arm to guide her. It wasn’t nearly as chaotic here as it was in the ballroom, but there were still people frantically trying to leave.

“What is all this, Miss Newton?” Flora asked me as I draped her cloak around her shoulders. “Is there really a rebel group among the magisters?”

I was about to reassure her that it was nothing when I noticed that her eyes were bright and her face flushed. She was excited, not scared, which was both surprising and troubling. “There appears to be, though how serious they are remains to be seen. All they did was make a statement about freedom, when they could have done far more in this crowd.”

“But why would magisters want to rebel?” she asked, knitting her brow.

“I wouldn’t know. But perhaps you could write an essay on the subject for me, speculating on possible reasons.”

I expected her to protest the way she usually did about anything even resembling schoolwork, but she nodded as her eyes went unfocused in thought, as though she was already mentally composing.

When we made it back to the foyer, Henry was just returning. “It’s something of a madhouse out there, with so many people trying to flee all at once, and there seems to be a bit of a crowd outside, as well. There’s no chance of the carriage getting anywhere near us.”

“We’re not that far from home,” Flora said. “Couldn’t we walk? We’d be there sooner.”

Coming from Flora, that was like her announcing that she didn’t much care for fashion, and both Henry and I turned to gape at her. Oblivious, she began walking forward, forcing us to hurry to catch up with her.

Henry took both our arms once more. If it was a madhouse in the ballroom, it was even worse outside. The street was clogged with carriages jockeying for position. Ball attendees and their servants milled about on the sidewalk in front of the mansion, searching for their carriages. Across the street, barely visible in gaps between the carriages, a crowd of people stood, watching the spectacle.

I couldn’t tell in all the chaos who that crowd might be, until a voice rose in song. “Yankee Doodle went to town, riding a steam pony.” More joined in on the Rebel Mechanics’ theme song. They didn’t seem to be doing any more than standing there and singing, but their presence was obvious.

Henry tugged at us, pulling us down the street and away from the scene, but Flora hung back. “What is that?” she asked.

“I believe it’s the Rebel Mechanics, and you can be sure they’re up to no good,” Henry said. “Now, come on, we should go before they start causing trouble.”

She began walking again, but she looked back over her shoulder. “They’re just singing. So, there are magisters rebelling and there are these Mechanics who also want to start a revolution. I don’t think people like the government much.”

We were silent for the rest of the walk home. Flora still seemed to be lost in thought, and Henry and I didn’t dare talk in front of her. The trip really was quite short, and I was sure we were home in less time than it would have taken to find our carriage. When we made it inside, I asked Flora, “Do you need any help?”

“I can ring for a maid myself,” she snapped before stalking up the stairs.

Henry normally would have scolded her, but he was preoccupied. He sighed as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know what they were thinking,” he murmured. “Now the governor knows for certain that there are rebels within the magister world. That will make my job more difficult.”

“Surely this isn’t the first time magisters have expressed dissent.”

“Never quite this blatantly. Between this and the tea, which the authorities seem to be blaming on magisters, we will no longer be above suspicion, which eliminates our advantage among the rebels.”

I glanced around, making sure we were still quite alone, but even the butler had gone away. “Speaking of which, do you know a Baron Pierce?”

“I know of him. Why?”

“When the message appeared, he said something a lot like what you just said, that this would make things more difficult, and I think he was singing along with the rebel song. Is it possible that there are dissenters higher up in the ranks, not just among young people?”

“I’ve hoped it was the case, but I’ve never seen any evidence. I expected it to be more among the middle-class magisters, the ones who are doing most of the work and providing the magical power without having the titles and privilege, but I suppose people with titles might also get involved at that level.”

“You did,” I reminded him. “Someone doesn’t have to be young to see a need for change.”

“The question is, how do I approach him? It’s not as though I can just start talking about revolution. What if he meant something different when you heard him?”

“I was the one talking to him, so I could bring it up without you putting yourself at risk.”

“But then you’d be putting yourself out there.”

“He was already sympathetic to me as a chaperone, so he might not think anything of me being curious about his political views, even if I was mistaken. But you can’t reveal your role. The real problem is, how do we even speak to him again? Is he someone you could call upon?”

“Not really. The rules are rather touchy about who can do what. If he called upon the governor and didn’t leave a card for me, then I can’t call on him directly.” Noticing my skeptical look, he smiled and said, “See, this is why some of us are rebelling. All these silly rules will be swept away in our new nation if I have anything to do with it.”

“It’s a pity we can’t manage to just bump into him,” I said. “Is there someplace in Boston that everyone goes?”

He grinned. “There’s church on Sunday, and all the nobility will likely attend the same one in this neighborhood. We’re sure to pass him before or afterward, and you could greet him. We’ll just have to find a way to be away from the governor and the children when you do so.”

“That sounds like a rather vague plan.”

In Which

I Engage in

Eavesdropping

Not that I was able to come up with anything better.
We loaded up two carriages for the short trip to the church, where the governor made a grand entrance before taking his place in a reserved pew. I wasn’t sure whether I was more relieved or insulted when I learned that I wasn’t expected to sit on the family pew. It was nice to be away from the governor and my duties, but I felt very alone sitting at the back of the church.