The Collected Christopher Connery Read online

  Nia busied herself with opening her umbrella as she tried to think of a polite way to answer. Of course they had mentioned Arthur. Some of the Directors, the council of experienced magicians who led the Academy, did not approve of him accompanying her. A few of the dissenters had argued that he was needed at home. Highly trained in both mechanics and medicine, Arthur’s skills, non-magical though they were, were extremely valuable to the Academy. But the rest had fallen back on the old mainstay: He’s a danger to himself and others. All bound magicians are, but ones like him especially.

  Nia knew perfectly well that Arthur was no danger to anyone, but the Directors’s fears were understandable. As a bound ward of the Academy, Arthur’s movements were carefully regulated and he was not allowed to leave the Academy without a chaperone. Years ago, his magic had been locked inside him with special spells. Most bound wards underwent the procedure later in life as punishment for some misuse of their talents, but Arthur had been bound young, at only nine years old.

  The reasons were classified, but Nia knew them. She had been a witness at his trial after all.

  Fortunately, she had eventually managed to convince the Directors to let Arthur join her. No one would prove a better assistant, regardless of his past.

  “They just asked me if you were prepared,” she said at last. “I told them you always were.”

  Arthur snorted. “At least I kept an eye on the clock, not that it did any good.”

  “Oh, hush.” But Nia let herself smile. Despite his tendency to fuss, she was glad Arthur was with her. She couldn’t rely on anyone the way she could rely on him.

  Passing through the wide doors, Nia and Arthur made their way across the lawn to the car. The rain was coming down hard now, but this close to the Academy, the lawns were magically shielded, giving the children space to play even on wet days. Farther away from the main buildings, however, the magicians in charge of the gardens and the wards who assisted them were running to and fro, getting the tents and sunlamps ready for another rainy season.

  Outside the protected area, the rain gleamed on the tarp covering their car. The paint job was magically enhanced, of course – after magically powered lights and structural waterproofing, rain-resistant paint was the Academy’s most lucrative product – but it couldn’t stand up indefinitely to to the tainted water.

  Despite his protests, Nia helped Arthur uncover the car before tucking herself into the front seat. It was a slightly tight fit with all the suitcases and boxes stacked in back, but the last thing Nia wanted to be was unprepared. She had only been named a full Illuminator two years ago and had expected to be confined to internal work for at least a year more, but the Directors had specially selected her for this assignment. They needed a magician with exceptional magical skill and a knowledge of old, defunct magics. Nia possessed both.

  “If you do well,” they had told her, “you could go a long way toward redeeming your name.”

  Redeeming her name from Arthur, that was. And from her mother.

  If you do well. She would do better than well. She would accept nothing less than success. As Arthur slid into the driver’s seat, Nia pulled a book from her handbag and began reviewing some of the circles she might need to draw during the assignment. She knew most of them by heart, but it never hurt to refresh her memory.

  After deftly negotiating the narrow roads that twisted through the Academy campus, Arthur turned into the city proper – and almost immediately had to brake sharply to avoid running down a few careless pedestrians.

  “I hate driving in this part of the city,” he grumbled as he jerked the car back into motion. “No one pays any damn attention. I just hope we survive long enough to get to the station.”

  Nia wasn’t worried. Arthur had a natural affinity for cars and other mechanical things. When he wasn’t doing surgery, he helped in the workshops, building generators, motors, and even working on the prototype automatons.

  Her confidence was well placed. Despite a few frustrating minutes spent trapped behind a slow-moving trolley, they made it to the laypolice station without incident. And they were only half an hour late. Surely that wasn’t too bad.

  She could see her new layman partner standing on the steps, swaddled in a plastic poncho. Nia still wasn’t certain she needed a layman’s help, but the Directors had said that this detective was the closest thing they had to an expert on Mr. Connery. She supposed their experience might prove useful.

  Realizing the car had been stopped for nearly a minute, Nia pulled up the hood of her own poncho, took a deep breath, and prepared to meet her new partner’s acquaintance.

  4

  Gail Lin

  The magician was late.

  Gail had arrived early, already regretting her decision. After the rent check had been handed over, the need for money didn’t seem that urgent and she was beginning to think she had agreed to be part of something distinctly unethical. Connery was dead and the world was a little brighter for it. Did she really want to reverse that?

  But she should have thought of that yesterday. If she backed out now, she would be kicking her career in the teeth and she couldn’t afford to do that, not coming from where she did.

  So here she stood, battered old suitcase at her feet, rain splattering against the hood of her poncho, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and twirled it between her fingers. She had quit over a year ago, but having one in her hand sometimes helped put her mind at ease. And if this was how the case was starting out, her mind was going to need a lot of easing.

  Finally, about an hour after the appointed time, a shiny black car pulled up to the curb. It had the Academy seal painted on the side and was bigger than most cars on the street. She’d have preferred something a little more discrete, but discrete wasn’t what the Academy usually went for.

  A long few seconds after the car slid to a stop, the passenger side door opened and a young woman – damn, she looks barely twenty-five? – stepped out. Gail might have taken her for the Illuminator’s assistant if it weren’t for the bright flame-shaped pin on her lapel, just visible beneath her poncho.

  “Good morning! I’m so sorry we’re late. Arthur ran into traffic.”

  The driver, who Gail could only assume was Arthur, got out of the car as well. He didn’t say anything, but if he had rolled his eyes any harder, they would have tumbled out of his head and gone bouncing down the sidewalk. He walked over to Gail and held out one gloved hand.

  “Uh.” Gail awkwardly shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

  Arthur smiled slightly and pointed down at the suitcase at her feet.

  “Oh.” Gail immediately let go of his hand. “Uh, I can handle it. Thanks. You don’t have to –”

  Before she could finish, he picked up the suitcase anyway and walked around the back of the car.

  Well, thought Gail, shoving her cigarette back into her pocket. This is going well.

  “I hope you weren’t waiting long,” the Illuminator said. “We really did try to be on time, but the city is always so crowded! I don’t know how you stand it every day.”

  “I’m not sure either. Now –”

  “Oh, Arthur, let me help you.” An instant later, the Illuminator had flitted from Gail’s side to help Arthur load the suitcase into the back. Gail took the quiet moment to study her new colleagues. If she didn’t miss her guess, the pair were siblings, if not twins. It’s nice to see that this is a family affair.

  Then the Illuminator was back. “You must be Detective Lin.”

  “That’s me. Sorry, ma’am, but they didn’t give me your name.”

  “Oh, of course.” The Illuminator held out a hand for Gail to shake. “I’m Nia Graves. Arthur is my brother and assistant.”

  Score one for the ace detective. “It’s nice to meet you. Uh, look, don’t take this the wrong way, but do you know much about Connery, ma’am?”

  Nia waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, yes, I’ve read several case files.”

&n
bsp; “Okay, but –”

  “Anyway, we can discuss the case once we check into the hotel. Come along, Detective Lin, we don’t want to waste the day!” Flashing an aggressively bright smile, Nia opened the passenger side door and vanished into the car again.

  Biting back a sigh, Gail slumped down the steps and plopped into the backseat after shoving aside several book. As soon as she had shut her door, Nia twisted around to speak to her.

  “I was told you had some reservations about the case when it was presented to you, detective, so I wanted to let you know upfront that there is no need for concern. All we need to do is locate Connery and then Arthur and I will return him to the Academy where he will be dealt with in utmost security.”

  Gail thought that he had been dealt with pretty well already. “Look, I know I said that I –”

  The car engine roared to life and Arthur turned them sharply out into the street. Gail immediately fumbled for her seatbelt.

  Nia smiled wider. “Don’t worry, detective, Arthur has plenty of experience driving in the city.”

  The sound Arthur made in response was significantly more noncommittal as he put his foot to the gas and roared off into the thickening traffic.

  Apparently, Nia was perfectly comfortable sitting backwards because she stayed that way throughout the fifteen minute journey, deftly talking over any objections or misgivings Gail tried to voice.

  As they approached their hotel – a palatial institution that went by the humble name of The Crown of Crossbridge – she was saying something about tracking Connery using strands of hair that had been recovered from the scene. Then she cheerily waved a small bag containing said hair, making the whole exchange feel a little surreal. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to seeing bags of bloody hair. She just wasn’t used to seeing them in the hands of women who looked like they spent their days quietly reading by magic light.

  “The first thing we need to do is track down his head,” Nia said as they pulled up to The Crown. “That’s the part most closely connected with the hair, obviously, and once we have the head, we can find the rest of him.”

  “Do we even know how many pieces he was chopped into?” Gail asked as she got out of the car, rubbing her hip where the sharp corner of a book had jabbed her. The rain had lightened up a bit, but she still made sure the hood of her poncho was firmly in place. “If they really went to town on him, we’ll be looking for a long time.”

  Arthur grimaced in response, but Nia only looked thoughtful as she stepped out on to the sidewalk. “You make a valid point, Detective Lin. The report by the Illuminator at the scene was admittedly… lacking in detail, but considering how little organic matter was found at the scene, it was likely he was cut into pieces large enough to easily carry away.”

  A passing man looked sharply at them, but Nia didn’t seem to notice and continued talking as they entered the hotel’s bustling lobby. “Furthermore, considering how little time Mr. Connery’s underlings had to do the deed, they couldn’t have gotten too carried away. No, I think we can safely assume that he’s intact enough to make our job possible.”

  “Unless they did more work on him later.”

  Nia frowned as if she didn’t appreciate Gail’s pessimism.

  Chopped or minced, it makes no difference, Gail girl. You agreed to do this and now you’re stick in it. Just think about the money. Hefting her suitcase in one hand, Gail said, “Anyway, I guess we’ll just do the best job we can. How about I drop my stuff upstairs and meet you down here in ten minutes?”

  Nia’s frown flipped into another beaming smile. “Certainly, detective! Ten minutes exactly.”

  Pretty sure the magicians would not be back downstairs in ten minutes exactly, Gail took her time getting herself settled in her room. It was simultaneously plush and uncomfortable in the way that only expensive hotel rooms could be, but it far way nicer than her apartment and it was nice to get a door between her and her new associate for a few minutes. This Miss Graves seemed nice enough, but she was… eager, a trait that Gail couldn’t help associating with overconfidence and fuck ups.

  But the case wasn’t going anywhere, so after unpacking her suitcase and washing her face in the bathroom sink, she headed back downstairs. Much to her surprise, Nia was already there, waiting alone by the door.

  Bracing herself for another explosive round of talk, Gail walked over, raising a hand in greeting.

  Nia offered a sharp smile that looked like it would shatter if she held it too long. “Hello, detective, Arthur’s just gone to get the car. I hope you found your accommodations adequate. I thought they might be a trifle small, but –”

  “This is easily the biggest space I’ve ever lived in,” Gail couldn’t help saying.

  “Oh! I – well… I – ah.” The smile was little more than a ghost of its former self as Nia turned her attention back to the door.

  Good job, Gail, this is her first time out of the Academy and you’re being an asshole to her. She probably didn’t even volunteer for this assignment. You were the one who did that. The truth was a hard pill to swallow, but it was the truth. However stupid she thought this plan was, Illuminator Graves wasn’t to blame for it.

  So, taking a deep breath, she put on her best friendly face (which had never been all that good; her dad used to tell her she had been the most disgruntled-looking baby he’d ever seen) and asked a question that had been bugging her ever since the magicians had picked her up. “So, your brother, can he – uh – talk?”

  “Of course he can,” Nia answered as she adjusted her hat. “He’s just not supposed to talk to anyone outside of the Academy.”

  “Oh. Why?”

  Nia didn’t answer right away. She bit her lip and glanced around as though she thought someone might attempt to listen in. “Very well, I can tell you, but only if you promise not to let on to Arthur that you know. He would be so embarrassed.”

  “All right,” Gail said slowly, wondering what the hell she was talking about. What was wrong with the guy? Did he have some sort of embarrassing magical disease that made him quack like a duck whenever he opened his mouth?

  “Arthur is a bound ward of the Academy, you see.”

  Gail did not see.

  “That means he isn’t allowed to leave the Academy campus unaccompanied.”

  Still blind.

  Nia finally seemed to notice the blankness on her face. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

  “Can’t say that I do.”

  “He’s a ward of the Academy,” Nia said again as if repetition would help Gail understand. “That means he’s not a full magician. He never completed his education. That happens sometimes. Some people just don’t have enough talent. Some leave to live in the city, but most just live and work at the Academy, doing other things.”

  “Okay, so?”

  “But Arthur’s not just a regular ward, he’s a bound ward, which means he –” Nia looked around again, clearly keeping an eye out for Arthur. “Which means he was expelled.”

  “Expelled?”

  “When he was nine years old. Honestly, he’s lucky that he wasn’t killed for what he –” Nia swallowed the rest of her words. “It’s simply that… that…”

  Gail decided she might as well put an end to the uncomfortable conversation. It really wasn’t any of her business anyway. If the Academy figured it was safe to send the guy out into the world, then he probably wasn’t dangerous. “Okay, I think I get it.”

  “He’s very talented,” Nia said with sudden defensiveness as if Gail had implied otherwise. “His magic has been bound, but he’s excelled in other fields. He’s a surgeon, you know.”

  No, Gail had not known. How the hell could she have known that Mr. Silent Driver had a medical degree? “Look, you obviously know more about this than I do, but it’s going to be a bit uncomfortable if he can’t talk to me. We’re all supposed to be working together, right?”

  “Oh, but –” Nia stopped short, her brow wrinkling as she loo
ked pensively through the glass door. “Actually, I think you may be right.”

  “Really?”

  Nia smiled at her, an actual smile rather than the forced one she’d been flashing all morning. It made her look older but also less strained. “As you said, we are supposed to be working together. Frankly, I think it annoys him to have to stay quiet all the time.”

  “Uh, yeah, it’d annoy me too.” When Nia turned toward the door again, still smiling, Gail let herself wonder what the kid had done to get himself expelled from the Academy. It must have been something pretty serious if the Academy didn’t even want him talking to people. Still, if it happened when he was nine, Gail wasn’t going to judge him too harshly. Kids did dumb shit. She had a distinct memory of herself at around that age attempting to escape the children’s home by jumping across the neighborhood roofs. She had broken one leg and both arms and was lucky she could still walk straight.

  When Arthur finally returned, shaking out his umbrella conscientiously before stepping on to the lobby carpet, Nia practically leapt on him in her eagerness to tell him the news.

  “Arthur! Detective Lin and I have been talking.”

  Arthur looked at his sister then at Gail.

  Damn, Gail thought. He sure knows how to arch an eyebrow. I wonder how long he spent practicing that look in the mirror.

  “And we’ve agreed that there’s no reason you can’t talk to her.”

  That seemed to surprise him, sending the second eyebrow up to join its buddy.

  “The rule makes sense for little trips outside, I suppose,” Nia added quickly, “but if we’re going to be working with Detective Lin, it makes no sense for you to be silent around her. Don’t you agree?” When Arthur slowly nodded, she smiled so brightly that an outsider would have thought that she’d been the one freed from silence.

  Deciding it was time for her to step in, Gail offered her hand to Arthur again. “I guess I can say hello properly now.”

  This time, Arthur returned the handshake warmly. “Hello. It’s – er – nice to meet you. Properly, I mean.”