The Paper Magician

Mg. Thane laughed—light laughter that didn’t come from the chest or the throat, but somewhere in between. “Ah, I understand. The plot thickens.”


Ceony flushed. “No, what I said earlier was sincere, really. But people should talk over dinner, especially if they’re going to live in the same house, and I thought my wages would be a good place to start, is all.”

“The school board decides your stipend,” Mg. Thane said, scooping up some tomato-basil pasta onto his plate. “So yes, you have one. I believe it’s ten pounds a month, plus anything else I decide to pay you on the side.”

Ten pounds? She focused on loading her own plate to hide her wide eyes. More than she had thought. She could send half of that home every month, should she be frugal.

She glanced back to the paper magician. “And . . . what will you pay me on the side?”

Mg. Thane held his fork loosely in his hand. “I’ll not starve you, if that’s your worry.”

Ceony considered his tuna and rice and thought to make a point on the note of starving, but she bit back her tongue and took her seat. The paper magician made no move to say grace, and she seldom did, so she cut herself a morsel of chicken, watching him from the corner of her eye.

He stabbed his fork into two pieces of pasta and raised them to his lips. He tasted them, chewing, and his eyes brightened just a bit more. “I’d say, Ceony,” he said after swallowing, “had I not been present for the lessons, I’d think you’d found a way to enchant pasta.”

Ceony smiled. “You like it?”

He nodded, scooping up another bite. “It tastes just as good as it smells. That’s a sign of a well-rounded person. I should congratulate you.”

“On my person or my pasta?”

Light danced in his eyes. He didn’t answer.

Ceony tasted her chicken, relieved it wasn’t too dry. Three bites into her own dinner, Mg. Thane said, “Oldest of four.”

“Two sisters, one brother,” Ceony replied. “Do you have a large family? You seem like someone who suffered through a great deal of sisters.”

“I’ve suffered through a great many people, but none of them sisters. I’m an only child.”

That explains a few things, Ceony thought.

A few seconds of silence passed between chewing bites. Not wanting the time to grow long, Ceony asked, “When do you get groceries?”

He glanced at her. “When I run out, I suppose. Groceries are my most dreaded chore.”

“Why?”

He lowered his fork and leaned his chin onto his hand, elbow on the table edge.

“They require going to the city,” he stated. “And it’s hot out, besides.”

Ceony paused as she cut into the next morsel of chicken. “Do you freckle?”

He laughed. “Now there’s a conversation turn—”

“I mean,” Ceony began, “I could understand not going outside if you freckle.” She glanced to her hands, spotted with freckles of her own. They had a tendency to cover any bit of skin exposed to the sun between March and October.

“I don’t freckle,” he said. She must have been frowning at her hands, for he added, “And there’s nothing wrong with freckles, Ceony. Heaven forbid you look like everyone else in this place.”

Ceony smiled and shoved some pasta in her mouth to keep the grin contained.

“And since you have so much extra time,” Mg. Thane said, “your first quiz will be tomorrow morning.”





CHAPTER 4



MG. THANE KEPT HIS promise by giving Ceony her first quiz the next morning—six o’clock in the morning, to be precise, and with Jonto as his messenger. Ceony awoke to the skeleton’s Folded countenance grinning inches from her nose and shrieked loud enough to bring Fennel, who had been sniffing for mice in the living room downstairs. Ceony commanded the skeleton to “Cease” as Mg. Thane had earlier, and to her relief, the paper butler fell into a harmless heap of cardstock bones at the foot of her bed.

A small, almost thoughtless spell, but for the first moment since bonding to paper, Ceony felt like she might actually have some real power.

Mg. Thane quizzed her on the different paper types he had shown her in his office the day before. Thanks to her keen memory, Ceony got all of them right. The paper magician graded her with a content nod, then left her to her studies.