The Master Magician

CEONY HAD NO giant paper gliders at her disposal and didn’t want to involve Bennet any further in her dark-rooted hobby, so she set to work on getting to Aylesbury herself—work that would let her get out of Aylesbury quickly, without needing to find an untarnished mirror.

She recalled the spell being in The Apprentice’s Reference Guide to Siping, a book that was now long overdue at the Maughan Library. Though this trip to Mg. Bailey’s estate had been focused on Folding, Ceony had not possessed the heart to leave behind all her references and supplies for the other materials magics. In fact, she’d brought about two-thirds of them with her, all crammed into the bottom of her suitcase.

After scrolling through the table of contents, Ceony flipped to page 84, the header of which read “Speedy Footwork,” under the chapter title “Travel.”

She reviewed the spell carefully; she had never performed it before, and if she botched it, she’d have to travel through mirrors, assuming she could find a good one in Aylesbury, which would take time.

She counted out her round rubber buttons and came up two short for her shoe size, which meant she had to borrow two from Fennel’s paws. Using a Siping lancet—the only Siping tool she owned—Ceony carved the buttons with a meticulous hand: a half circle here, a slit there. Mistakes forced her to borrow two more of Fennel’s rubber paw pads. Finally, she laid the buttons out on the floor in the specific, zigzag pattern shown in the book, five for each shoe. Then she placed her most comfortable shoes over them and commanded them, “Merge.”

The rubber made a sucking noise as it adhered to the soles of her shoes. Crossing her fingers, Ceony slipped the shoes on and said, “Quicken, times two.”

She took one step, then another, a normal walking pace. However, she found herself on the other side of the room twice as quickly. She smiled, relieved. “Cease,” she commanded the shoes, and she prepared the rest of her spells, stowing them away in her purse alongside her pistol. She had only one round left; if only she had access to a forge. Smelters had spells for making a bullet hit its intended target, but such spells had to be crafted from molten metal, and there was no time for her to achieve such a feat. Not today.

She slipped the rest of her materials and spells into her bag and took the servants’ stairs down to the main floor, where she took the back exit out of the mansion. Enchanting her shoes to increase her speed tenfold, Ceony ran to the Central London Railway station in less than ten minutes, startling far more than ten passersby on her way.



Ceony stood outside a locked room in Aylesbury’s council building, ear pressed to the door. The officer’s words came through as only mumbles; no one was angry enough to shout bits of useful information to her. The clock on the wall across from her read 4:36.

She had sought out the council building second, after the sheriff’s office, and had seen several police officers exiting an automobile across the street—more than she would consider necessary for a town of Aylesbury’s size. The London police department patch on one man’s uniform had tipped her off: these were Mg. Hughes’s men, and now they sat behind this door discussing something important with an older man who Ceony could only assume was with Criminal Affairs.

She fished through her bag, pulling out a tiny, square mirror about twice the size of her thumbnail. Ensuring she had no witnesses, Ceony pinched her necklace, murmured her incantations, and became a Gaffer. She then slid the mirror under the door near the jamb, out of sight of those gathered in the room, and walked away.

Ceony didn’t go far, just to the end of the hallway and around, where she found two chairs and a fern perched outside an office door paned with frosted glass. She sat and pulled out her ledger, trying her best to get some studying accomplished while the men in the room discussed affairs relating to her.

She noticed a newspaper, still rolled, nestled against the door beside her. Read “Education Board” on the front in large, blocked letters.

She eyed the door. There were no electric lights on inside, just the gleam of the sun from an open window. An office of some sort, perhaps.

Leaning over the armrest of the chair, Ceony grabbed the newspaper and unfolded it. The article in question read, “Mg. Cabinet Education Board Rules Against Opposite-Sex Apprenticeships.” The subtitle: “Board estimates the disbanding of over 100 magician apprenticeships. New ruling to take effect 14 September.”

Ceony blanched as she began to read the article. Oh God, they’ve listed names.

She skimmed first, searching the four-column article for any mention of “Thane” or “Twill,” but she found none. Releasing only half a breath, she read the brief summary of a Mg. Blair Peters, a Gaffer, whose relationship with her apprentice had caused nationwide scandal in Scotland last year—