Sorcerer to the Crown (Sorcerer Royal, #1)

by Zen Cho

“There are advantages to being outcast,” said Zacharias. “One is set at liberty from many anxieties. There is no call to worry about what others will think, when it is clear that they already think the worst.” “I suppose

that he should stand beyond reproach in word and deed, since his colour seemed to prove a ground for any allegation. He was content—or at least resigned—but he needed no reminder of how he was circumscribed.

“I was but an infant,” said Zacharias. He added, with some awkwardness, “I was travelling with my mother and father, who belonged to the captain of the Minerva.” A fine line appeared

The statement brought up the old anger and confusion, followed by the accustomed guilt, that he should be so ungrateful as to resent the man who had rescued him from bondage. And yet he did resent Sir Stephen, even now. “I don’t see why you feel obliged to him at all,” said Prunella. “What right had he to part you from your parents when you were so young?”

Sophia Kendle was a pretty young creature, vastly proud of having been snapped up in her first Season. She had fallen madly in love with Prunella the moment they met: “I am sure you are destined to marry a duke, you are so pretty and clever, and then your not knowing anything of your family is so romantic,” she declared.

“Good day, ma’am,” said Zacharias, after a pause. He could not decide whether to thank her for coming, or upbraid her for ruining his windows. The former would be more politic, of course, but the latter would be such a satisfaction to his feelings.

“Oh, I do not deny my vampiresses have mishandled the affair,” said Mak Genggang. “They feared I should tell them to go to their relations if they confessed to any. Absurd creatures! As if I did not know one might disagree with one’s relations, and wish to live apart from them! They are my women, however. I am bound to defend them, however stupid they are. Any offence to them must be furiously resented!”

“I commend your courage, Zacharias, but I beg you will not be foolhardy,” said Damerell. “Midsomer’s supporters are not all of the Society, but they are numerous, and he has chosen for his allies those most irrational, most furious, most immovably opposed to your existence.

measures. “They used to say that a man became a magician who was too scheming for Parliament, too bloodthirsty for the Army, and too much of a bloody sodomite for the Navy.

“He can hardly miss her,” remarked Prunella. “Think of our fishing—our ships—they will be overturned if her antics are not stopped,” said Lord Burrow. “Exert your influence, man. Govern your wife!” “If you think, sir, that is within my power to restrain Laura,” said Midsomer wearily, “then all I can say is, you must not have been attending.”

know, the most astonishing thing is, ’twas she who cried off! He only came to the mortal world after, but I don’t believe the two things were connected, for it is my belief he intended to leave Fairy all along. He was always a great one for insects, and we haven’t many in Fairyland—they have a dashed peculiar habit of growing minds, and turning into fairies.”

Damerell said dangerously, “Rollo, you may not have observed that Zacharias is striving to contain a fireball, and I am in imminent danger of having my best pair of top-boots ruined by a hex. We are not at leisure to discuss your family’s eccentricities. If you are so well acquainted with the lady, however, may I suggest that you ask her to desist? She might take it better from her cousin than from any of us.”

of the wind. “What business have you here?” “Go for her throat, Rollo!” bellowed Prunella, galloping along on her sea-horse. “Rip it out and ha’ done with it!” Rollo gave Prunella a look of terror.

mortal. Oh no! They would soon discover why she was named Without Ruth.

“Lorelei,” she trumpeted, “do I indeed find you in a tantrum? For shame! To be two thousand years old and still so naughty!”

The dragon’s jewelled eyes met Zacharias’s without alarm. “Nothing will wake him,” said Leofric. He licked his chops. Zacharias saw that Sir Stephen no longer had a left hand. That was why Leofric’s jaws were red. It did not trouble Sir Stephen, for he was dead.

“Who would render such service as I have purely for love?” said Leofric. “It is no more than the bargain every sorcerer strikes. I have performed my end of the contract. Now it is come time for my remuneration.”

“My beloved, I discharge you from any need for revenge. I have murdered enough for the both of us.

Your allegiance is not to magic alone, nor to all humanity, but to your own portion of humanity, to the country that nurtured you—” “And enslaved my parents?” said Zacharias.

Pity and affection strove within Zacharias against implacable truth. But they could not triumph forever. Nor could Zacharias’s loyalties ever be as clearly delineated as his guardian’s. He had always understood this. Sir Stephen, he knew, had not.

alas. Fortunately she was transformed instantly into a lamia. That was a piece of great good luck, for it does not happen to all poorly mothers, you know. But it could hardly be expected that her son should be anything but a vampire after that.”

Zacharias, looking at her with new eyes, saw the signs of the transformation she had undergone. The nails on the slim brown fingers were long and yellow; the lips were blood-red, and she licked them from time to time with an unnervingly long tongue. “How extraordinary!” said Zacharias, feeling this did very little to describe the situation.

“Indeed,” said Zacharias. “That brings me to another announcement I wished to make today.” “Another announcement!” said Lord Burrow: he had begun to think of his dinner.

“I have never been so happy to have risen before noon,” said Damerell.

“You have perhaps been working too hard, Wythe,” said Lord Burrow. “Perhaps you should take a sabbatical. A holiday will set you up.”

The Presiding Committee had not made up its mind as to how it stood on Prunella, and had fallen into two camps: one that glared at her, and another that pretended she was not there. Prunella found both equally diverting.

Prunella was not particularly interested in the discussion. It was clear to her that she was Sorceress Royal, and if the Society wished to quarrel with the fact now, they would soon think better of it. Leofric, however, was a subject in which she had considerable interest, and she felt no compunction in interrupting the Committee’s ditherings for this.

The procedure might cause Zacharias some discomfort, but if she acted quickly enough, he would scarcely notice it. Since his mouth was already open, she decided to take time by the forelock, and plunged her arm down his throat.

Prunella withdrew her arm in triumph. Zacharias was clutching at his chest, his face twisted in a grimace. He bent over, his hand pressed to his heart, and let loose an enormous sneeze. “Is this he?” said Prunella. A dragon sat on the floor, looking astonished. It was far smaller than Rollo, and not half as attractive, for its skin was leathery with age, and its amber eyes had a hardened, cynical look.

“But,” argued Prunella, “if Zacharias were to live till he were seventy—which let us say he will, because the Bible says so, though it would be no surprise were he to be killed off earlier, living as he does in a nest of snakes and scorpions in human form—if, as I said, he were to live to a ripe old age, defying assassins, and being Sorcerer Royal all that time, that would require of you forty-six years of bondage. You have only rendered Zacharias a few months of service. Even if we were to be generous and allow it to be a year, you would only be entitled to one sorcerer, in compensation for your service to Sir Stephen, and two percent of another.”

“Yes,” said Leofric, and Prunella’s hand flashed out. She seized Nidget by the scruff of its neck, and, with a strength she had not thought she possessed, threw the elvet at Leofric. Leofric darted forward. A snap of his jaws, a heartrending wail from Nidget, and Nidget vanished.

But it had had to be done, and she had her mother’s own capacity for ruthlessness. The daughter of a Grand Sorceress—the heir to the Seven Spirits—could not hesitate to act for fear of any consequence. “Tjandra, Youko—to me,” said Prunella quietly.

before he recollected that it was no longer his. She was not afraid. And her lack of fear—her certainty that her familiars would come to her—communicated itself to them. The familiars valued fidelity, but above all, they esteemed power.

A ravening dragon to whom one has no connection may be criminal, but the familiar of a friend can only be eccentric.”

Prunella curtsied and managed to smile, though she hardly felt like it. She was already learning the price of power. For that moment at least it was small comfort that she knew herself capable of paying it.

“Well, there is no need to explain anything to you, Zacharias,” said Sir Stephen. “You always knew me and Maria as well as we did ourselves. Never was there such an observant child. Your nurse said she never knew such a feeling little creature. Why, you will not recollect this, but when you were quite a little boy, no more than three or four years old, you used to take my hand when I visited the nursery, and ask if I were very tired, in such a solicitous manner as, combined with your imperfect pronunciation, was quite absurdly moving.” Zacharias did, in fact, remember this. He had been instructed to ask the question by his nurse, who considered that, as a charity case, he should make special efforts to win his guardian’s affections.

to become a parent is invariably self-interested, it is my belief that a parent’s obligation is to the child, and the child’s obligation is to itself.

Now you are liberated from your office—which I know you entered for duty’s sake—I hope you will concern yourself much more with what you desire. With what would give you joy. You have given me such joy, my dear boy. That I shall remember, wherever death may take me.”

“You seem troubled, sir, if you don’t mind me saying so,” said the caterpillar. Zacharias experienced a brief internal struggle, but decided upon candour. “I am simply at a loss to account for the preternatural intelligence of you and your brethren,” he said. “I thank you for the compliment, but I am not certain my brethren are so very intelligent,” said the caterpillar cheerfully. “They seem tolerably addlepated to me!” “Oh pipe down, Gilbert,” said one of its fellows, without rancour.

“I am due another assassination attempt, I see. I must arrange for this wretched Bloxham to be sent away. He is not an ill-looking creature, despite his inability properly to orchestrate a murder. I might see if the Fairy Queen desires an addition to her retinue.”

“He dislikes me extremely,” said Prunella agreeably. “It is ever so diverting to see him sitting in Committee meetings, gnashing his teeth because I gave him his step. He is tremendously useful: because he will insist on openly regretting Midsomer, everyone else is terrified of agreeing with him in anything. All I have to do to ensure a motion is passed is persuade Kendle to vote for the opposite course.”

“They all quake at my approach, if that is what you mean,” said Prunella. “It is that I caused the death of my familiar that frightens them the most. Everyone considers my want of feeling perfectly appalling.”

“You mistake me,” said Zacharias. He fixed an unseeing gaze on the teacups on the table, his pulse beating high in his throat. “I said that I fulfilled all the conditions you specified. If—if profound attachment is what you require in a suitor, you should have no cause to complain of me.” Prunella turned and fixed Zacharias with an intent gaze. “Zacharias,” she said, “do you mean to say you offered because you are in love with me?”

“Lady Wythe will be pleased,” she said. “She always said it was a shocking thing to marry for money.” “So it is.” “She told me I ought to marry for love, but contrive to fall in love with a man of substance,” said Prunella. Her frown deepened. “It will gratify her that I have followed her advice.” “I beg you will forgive my impertinence,” said Zacharias, “but would you object very much to a kiss?” Prunella looked crosser and pinker than ever. “I should have thought I had spoken in terms suited to the meanest understanding. If you need to ask I cannot think you have understood me at all.” “I thought it civil to ask,” said Zacharias.

“Why, the school,” cried Prunella. “The school for magiciennes. Not that it will be restricted to girls—we intend to open it to the labouring classes, and foreigners, and half-castes, and irregular persons of all sorts. That is all a great secret, of course; if the parents were to have wind of it, we should never bring it off. Lady Wythe is prodigiously fired up about it, and goes about all the great houses in town, demanding that they contribute either funds or daughters. Though we have enough money to start out with, for the Society has given us all we need for the nonce.”