An Apprentice Without Magic, page 29
part #2 of Magic Missing Series
Dickey sat back, looking across the room. “How many people can she control at once?”
“Not many. Two or three closely. Pollen effects wear off, but she is an artist, most likely a magician, and a criminal. She kept the revolt going all the way to the end.”
“That she did,” Dickey said. “I will have to go to the king.”
“Will he see you?” Sam asked.
Dickey shrugged. “I’ll see what the Chief has to say.”
~
Dickey and Sam walked into the constabulary. A squad of City Guards stood immediately, Captain Fork among them.
“Dickey Nail. You are charged with breaking and entering the residence of Teri Punch and have violated the oath of the constabulary. I have been instructed to incarcerate you in the name of the Minister of Justice, Lord Issak Bolt.”
“Go, Dickey. I’ll send someone to get you out,” Chief Constable Bentwick said.
Fork looked at Sam. “You are Nail’s partner, aren’t you?”
“I am training under him,” Sam said.
“Take the boy,” Fork said. “He came in with him. He will be interrogated along with Nail to see if he should be charged as well.”
The guards removed Dickey’s weapons.
“I need my wand,” Sam said.
“You don’t need anything,” a guard said.
“I’ll give it to the Chief Constable,” Sam said.
The guard didn’t take his purse with gold tips, at least not yet.
Sam looked at Bentwick, who looked a bit defeated. “A word to the chief before I go,” he said to a guard. The man didn’t let him out of his grasp, but Sam was allowed to get closer to Bentwick. “Take my wand and my notebook, and talk to Antina Mulch and tell her what has happened. My brother works with her.” Sam slipped a gold tip into his pocket and left the notebook, wand, and his purse in Bentwick’s hands.
Bentwick nodded. “I know and will do what you say. Keep up your spirits, lad.”
With what Antina told him about Banna, he had no idea what would happen to the both of them. Banna was capable of anything.
They were taken to a small jail in the basement of the Ministry of Justice. It was designed for prisoners awaiting trial, and Dickey wasn’t very happy about where they were being held.
“No comforts here,” Dickey said as they were put into the same cell.
“What happens now?” Sam asked.
Dickey shrugged his shoulders. “This is all new to me. I’ve never been in jail before. Whatever you do, tell the truth. Don’t try to lie. We were investigating the theft of your dog and found footprints outside. We went inside an unlocked door to see if your dog was inside. That is the truth,” Dickey said.
“Do I tell them you were knocked out by a woman?”
“The truth. How much did you write down in your notebook?”
“Everything. I gave it to the Chief.”
Dickey nodded. “Good thinking. At least the truth won’t die with us.”
“D-die?” Sam said.
“The guards were killed, weren’t they? Bolt and Fork are capable of anything, as is Banna Plunk.”
Sam sat down on one of the two cots. A thin mattress covered wooden planks. Dickey had said no comforts. At least they were allowed to wear their coats.
“Nail, you are first,” a guard said.
Dickey pressed his lips together and nodded to Sam as he left. With Dickey gone, Sam thrust his hands in his pockets as he got up and paced back and forth. He realized that he still had the little book that Antina Mulch had given him.
He pulled it out. The book’s title was in Vaarekian cursive, something Sam hadn’t learned. The volume hadn’t been read many times. Sam turned to the first page, and it didn’t take him any time to see, like the cover, it was a Vaarekian book, not one in court language. Antina had taught him the differences during his months of instruction.
Sam found it to be a treatise on the philosophy of pollen, written by a Professor Plunk at the Vaarekian University of Tolloy. Sam had no idea where Tolloy was, but he had to wonder if Banna Plunk was related to the professor.
The cultures on Polistia all looked at pollen manipulation as a manifestation of magic. Magic was a mystical power that could be augmented any number of ways. Toraltians were taught that pollen was part of the natural manifestation of the pollen that existed all around them in the world.
The professor argued that men could apply their will during the creation process, and that mystical power would augment the naturally-occurring stuff.
Sam had called pollen manipulation ‘magic’ before, but he used the term because everyone else did. Professor Plunk actually believed in magic, and he said that pollen artists were actually magicians who brought in additional powers to make their pollen creations more real than any human using their own capabilities.
Was this something Antina thought would cheer him up? He continued to read about pollen magic. The professor described the kind of talent that Banna Plunk had, and, Sam suspected, Les Oakbrush had possessed as well. Oakbrush was also responsible for masks and pollen creations that astounded everyone.
Sam could tell the difference between what Les Oakbrush created and anyone else, but he suspected Banna Plunk could have bested the man. Oakbrush was able to put pollen patches on the Mount Vannon maps, just as Banna Plunk put patches over her names in the Fealty Mining records.
All kinds of what Sam thought were Banna Plunk innovations were described in the book. Pollen magicians could also create pollen that would kill a man or make him black out. Banna had at least mastered the blacking-out part, but she hadn’t killed anyone with pollen that Sam had seen evidence of during his encounters with her, including the poor strangled woman.
He read about three-quarters of the little volume. Although he sped through some parts and couldn’t understand all the terms, he learned that a pollen magician could link pollen effects so that the suggestion properties of sheep pollen could be mixed with Polistian deer pollen to make a man a forgetful slave. There had to be a mystical force that only select people could exercise, if Professor Plunk were to be believed.
Sam heard a commotion down the hallway. He shoved the little volume back in his pocket and waited for the sounds to come to him.
Dickey struggled with the guards. His speech was slurred, and Sam found out why when he came into sight. Someone had pummeled his partner’s face into a swollen mess.
“You are next,” the guard said.
Sam took off his coat after slipping the volume back in its place and put it around Dickey’s shoulders.
“It doesn’t fit, lad,” one of the guards said, jeering. “It won’t do you no good to fight us.”
Sam took a deep breath. “You just said a double negative,” he said. “It won’t do me any good, so I won’t.”
The guard looked confused, and then enlightenment brightened his face. “You are a right smart one.” He cuffed Sam on the side of his head.
The world spun. Sam wondered if his head had fully healed since the damage done to him by the ward. He staggered outside the room and fell against one of the guards.
“I didn’t hit you that hard,” the guard said.
“A recent injury. I think you made it worse,” Sam said as the walls began to wobble and his sight blurred until it went away, along with his wits, altogether.
~
“He’s waking up,” a voice said.
Sam wanted to see Winnie’s face above him, but a man’s face was all he could see. It was familiar. He blinked and looked into the eyes of Issak Bolt, the Minister of Justice.
“That he is,” Bolt said. “At least we know you aren’t faking it.”
Sam’s head hurt, so he didn’t respond. He turned to see the face of the maid he had passed in the hallway of Banna Plunk’s mansion. This was Banna Plunk because someone had removed Sam’s spectacles. Her face was distorted by the pull of pollen patches that hadn’t been the case in the city of Mountain View. Looking at her more closely than ever before, he realized that she was years younger than he thought.
“Can I sit up?” Sam said. “Where are my spectacles?”
“Here,” Bolt said. He put them out for Sam and then withdrew them before Sam could grasp them. The Minister of Justice liked to play games, it seemed.
“Funny,” Sam said.
Bolt raised his arm to hit Sam in the head again.
“Don’t!” Banna said. “He won’t be of any use to us comatose or dead.”
Sam didn’t know any reason why he would be of any use to them, anyway.
“I’ll answer any questions you might have,” Sam said to the minister. “Do you know where Emmy is?”
That brought a smile to Bolt’s lips. “Miss Punch has made a gift of the hound. I have admired Emmy for months.”
He took Banna’s hand and kissed it. Sam guessed that Banna wore an attractive face to go along with a very stylish dress. Now that he could see her, Sam noticed she looked very fit for a woman approaching middle age. That only reinforced the theory that she had been the one breaking into the Royal Recorders.
“What do you know about the arson case I took over?”
Sam looked at Banna and at the Minister. No one else was in the room. Dickey had told him to speak the truth, so he would.
“Banna Plunk used pollen magic to enter the Red Marine Shipping offices after hours. She built a pollen ledge from there to the window of the file room holding the Mountain View and Mount Vannon district records and used pollen patches to remove her name from the Fealty Mining Company documents. She started the fire as a distraction and left a ward that I underestimated, and it hurt me.”
Sam looked at Banna. “I heal a little better than most people, but my injuries were worse than I thought, Banna Plunk.”
Her eyes flashed. “You must be mistaken. I am Teri Punch.” She leaned over and slapped a gob of something on Sam’s neck. “You are mistaken, aren’t you? I am Teri Punch.”
Sam felt a tiny urge to agree but didn’t. “I’m not mistaken. I’ve seen you before in your mansion. We talked in the hallway after you tortured Lennard Lager on the second floor of your Mountain View mansion.”
“Impossible!” she said.
“What is the boy babbling about?”
She was about to say something to Minister Bolt but kept her mouth shut and gave Bolt a weak laugh, as Sam heard it. “He thinks I was the arsonist. We both know it was Dickey Nail.”
Sam snorted. “How could it be Dickey? Why would he do such a thing? He has nothing to do with the Fealty Mining Company.”
Bolt looked a little confused. “It was Dickey Nail.” He looked at Banna, who nodded.
Sam sighed. “You have him under your control. It doesn’t matter what I say, does it?”
She looked at Bolt. “Sit down outside. I will talk to the boy alone.”
Bolt nodded and glared at Sam as he left the room.
Banna Plunk pulled a chair closer and sat down. She glared at Sam. “Who are you?”
“Sam Smith, originally from Cherryton. You are Banna Plunk, the driving force behind the revolt. Why did you do such a clumsy thing?”
Banna pressed her lips together, looking perturbed. “I won’t answer that. I’ll only say I learned more about working with others than I thought I would.”
Sam nodded. “So you are Banna Plunk. Why did you steal Emmy? I bought her from Lennard Lager.”
“He got Emmy just like Bolt. I gave her to them. You killed her sisters, you know. They came from the same litter.”
“I didn’t,” Sam said. “Your men did. I just reversed the dogs’ loyalties using Emmy. They became my friends, and when your men attacked, your dogs attacked them.”
Banna’s eyes narrowed. “No one told me that.”
“Why would they? Everyone was running from the constables.”
She looked away and took a deep breath. “Why have you badgered me? Did Harrison Dimple put you up to following me to Baskin?”
Sam laughed. “We have met by pure chance. Chief Constable Bentwick thought I’d be useful as a snoop. He offered me the apprenticeship. I’m sure Harrison supported my appointment, but he didn’t initiate it.”
“Chance?”
Sam nodded.
“What makes you so special? You defeated the masks; you detected wards that should have been invisible. How can you see pollen so much better than anyone else?”
“It’s not that I see pollen well, it is that I can’t see pollen,” Sam said. “You are wearing a disguise. I only know that because of the outfit you are wearing. Your wig is made out of pollen, you are wearing pollen patches on your face, but it’s probably covered by a pollen mask, making you look much younger than you really are.”
“You are immune to neural pollen?”
“I suppose so, yes,” Sam said. “I imagine you put a pink and yellow pollen patch on my neck, but it wouldn’t stick. It has no effect on me.”
Sam thought Banna would be angry, but she looked at him with a dumbfounded face.
“You are not human. What am I to do with you?” she asked.
“I’d rather you not kill Dickey or me.”
“Bolt and his nephew beat Dickey. They didn’t even ask him a question. They did all the talking. Brutes, the both of them.”
And you aren’t, thought Sam?
“I won’t have to worry about you much longer,” she said. “I am adept at changing plans. I have a few more things to do, and I am finished in Baskin. You and your partner will be put in another prison and will stay there until I am gone, or you die there.” She shrugged.
“What about Emmy?”
She laughed. “You’ll have to take her from Minister Bolt.” Her laugh had a sinister feel to it, more like the Banna he imagined. “I certainly hope we don’t see each other again.” She gently patted Sam on the head and left the room, locking the door behind her.
Sam put his head back against the wall. The bed was more comfortable than the padded board in the cell. He might not enjoy such comfort in his short life again.
Banna Plunk was nothing like he imagined, at least from their encounter. She almost seemed rational. Something was driving her, but Sam didn’t know what. How could he with such a short talk? If he got out, he had more questions to ask Antina Mulch.
Chapter Thirty-Four
~
N ow that the excitement had died down, his head began to hurt. He closed his eyes and was shaken awake by a guard.
“Get up.”
Sam rose. His head felt much better. He hoped his ability to heal had staved off some of the damage his head had incurred. He followed the guard back to the cell. Dickey was sitting up, but leaning against the wall.
“Sam! Are you all right?”
Sam nodded. “For now. I had a different kind of interrogation than you,” he said. “I understand Fork and the Minister worked you over.”
“They did,” Dickey said. He seemed to have collected his wits enough to smirk in the dim light. “All they did was recite what I did, but their version was a bit different from mine. They think I was the arsonist at the Royal Recorder’s Office. How absurd! I make them angry.” His partner lifted the corner of his mouth into a smile. “I can’t say I’m unhappy about that. Did they make you talk?”
Sam shook his head. “They didn’t have to. There is nothing I told them that wasn’t in our report, but I even mentioned Banna Plunk. Ask me why.”
Dickey glared at him.
Sam cleared his throat. “Banna Plunk was in the room with Issak Bolt, no one else. The minister is under Banna’s spell. A magic spell.”
“She used pollen?”
“With a magic twist. When your eyes stop swelling, I’ll let you read the little book Antina gave me. There are pollen magicians around us, those who call upon an additional ability to use pollen that the rest of you can’t. The book talks about it.”
“A tall tale,” Dickey said. “There isn’t any such thing.”
“Then tell me why Banna is so good? There was a pollen artist that was part of her group in the revolt, a man named Les Oakbrush, if that was his real name. He was very, very good.”
“If I accept that, what difference does it make?”
“None, except the Minister of Justice does whatever she tells him to do. The effect doesn’t last long, nor can it be applied to many. Perhaps it is a limitation of the magic. I don’t know. I skimmed the book as it was,” Sam said. “It was in Vaarekian, as well. I could have misread some things, but I got most of it.”
“A lot of good that will do us.”
Sam nodded. “I know. I had an interesting conversation with Banna Plunk. She sent Bolt out, and we talked, frankly, to each other.”
“She admitted to being the arsonist?”
Sam nodded. “I don’t think she was behind the guard murders. I think that was Captain Fork’s doing, but that is speculation. A guess.” Sam managed a smile. “I think she is playing her own game and is trying to amass a fortune. I don’t know what she will do when she gets it. Why else would she be involved in schemes to get rich? She has sought out a gold mine, jewels, and who knows what else she is planning?”
“Banna Plunk said all that to you?”
Sam shook his head with wonder. “It wasn’t the conversation I expected. I thought she would be angry and want to kill me, but she was rational and open. I thought it strange. She doesn’t think the way I do, that is for sure.”
“There are criminals like that. They often rise in the ranks to lead, or they are killed early on because the rest don’t understand them. I’ve learned that from a gang boss or two,” Dickey said.
