Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dread.”
    “I have no doubt of it,” Light Spinner said, bluntly. “But the needs of the Empire come first.”
    Elaine nodded, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the older woman. Light Spinner had worked to gain power – and, as the Empire’s structure dictated, responsibility. Right now, she was the law of the land; if she chose to alter the Empire’s laws, there were few who would dare to say no. Elaine would never have sought such a position, even assuming that she could have held a lower position against ambitious subordinates long enough to climb higher. It would have kept her firmly in the public eye.
    “I saw the Levellers outside,” she said, changing the subject. “Are you going to do anything about them?”
    Light Spinner shrugged. “There’s no point in doing anything about them,” she said, snidely. “What can they do to us?”
    Elaine had to smile, although she managed to conceal it a moment later. Light Spinner was Millicent’s aunt – and Millicent had never been very good at handling critical remarks from those she considered beneath her. She would never have ignored the Levellers, even if they were powerless mundanes. It was far more likely that she would have sent out the City Guard to arrest and enslave them.
    But Elaine knew that Light Spinner was right. It was true that mundanes couldn’t pose much of a threat to magicians, yet harsh action might well rebound on her. Mundanes who happened to hold important posts might take offence, while the more forward-thinking magicians in the city might start worrying about who she would lash out at next. Elaine had never considered that the Grand Sorcerer was constrained, not until she’d been invited to join the Privy Council. Building the Empire had taken centuries; destroying it would take mere years, if the Grand Sorcerer became a tyrant.
    Light Spinner looked up at her, suddenly. The magic field shifted, drawing Elaine’s attention towards her. This was the meat of the matter, she realised; this was why she’d been summoned. Fighting the compulsion to pay attention was difficult, almost impossible. But somehow she held her own.
    “We are critically short of magicians in all categories,” Light Spinner said, bluntly. “Quite apart from Inquisitors, we need warders, enchanters, curse-breakers and alchemists. We may have to start widening our net when it comes to recruiting new magicians.”
    Elaine swallowed, knowing just how much tradition Light Spinner was talking about throwing away. Unless they were powerful or wealthy, common-born magicians often received very limited training rather than attending the Peerless School. Elaine herself wouldn’t have been able to attend without someone paying her fees. The gods knew that her Guardian hadn’t been willing to pay more than the bare minimum for her.
    “We may also need to teach them some of your magic tricks,” Light Spinner added. “Do you think that you could teach a class?”
    “I’m not sure,” Elaine confessed, finally. “It might be possible.”
    She had worked on improving the basic spells, but actually explaining how magic spells actually went together? Writing her own spellbook would be the work of years, even with her new and unique insights. But she could understand why Light Spinner wanted the information. Many of the new magicians would be on the same level as herself, at least when it came to raw magic.
    But she didn’t want to face a class. She had enough problems facing two or three people at once.
    “I can try to work out a basic syllabus,” she said, wincing at the thought of how the Spell Masters at the Peerless School would respond to her work. One of those who had tried to hammer spellwork into her head had been given, she saw now, to pushing too much power into his spells. They had worked, but they lacked the elegance that allowed her to save power. “But I don’t know how well they will work for new students.”
    She’d tried to teach Dread a few spells,