Chapter Fifteen

The cheers of the crowd drowned out my mutter of, “I told you so.” I turned to Rod to see his reaction and was surprised to see a grim-faced Merlin standing just behind Rod.

“Want I should disperse the crowd, boss?” Sam asked Merlin.

“That will not be necessary, thank you, Sam,” Merlin said evenly. “As I understand it, free assembly is a right in this society.” He gestured toward Rod and me. “Now, if you two would care to join me in my office, I believe there are some things we should discuss.”

Rod was pale with shock, and I was sure I was livid with fury as we followed Merlin up to his office. He motioned us to take seats at the conference table and went to the wet bar to make tea the old-fashioned way, without magic.

While Merlin worked on the tea, Rod tried to process what had just happened. “So Ivor Ramsay was the one behind Idris’s schemes all this time?” he said, frowning in disbelief. “But that’s impossible! He was the one who let Owen fire Idris and had us take action against the threat of dark spells on the open market.”

I turned to him. “Of course he let Owen fire Idris. How else could Idris go off and be the initial front man for the new company? And then Ramsay could call for taking action. We wondered how Idris has known our moves all along. He was getting it from the top. Ramsay knew everyone in the company. No one would have thought anything of him wandering in and asking how things were going.”

“I’m still not sure I get it,” Rod said. “Why would he pretend to help fight against Spellworks, only to go take over? He could have just started his own company to begin with.”

“Yeah, but then he wouldn’t have been able to take the moral high road,” I said. “They’d have been merely a competing company. This way, they’re here to save the magical world. Why he needed to do that at another company, I don’t know.”

Merlin brought tea to us and joined us at the table. “I had hoped that by lulling Mr. Ramsay into complacency, I could encourage him to show himself,” he said. “I will admit, I did not anticipate this development. Magical wars were so much easier in my day when we simply attacked our enemies directly. It was all about demonstrating power, not about developing an image and swaying public opinion.”

“How did we not notice this?” Rod asked. “Now that I think about it, there were red flags, but I’ve always thought the guy was wonderful, and I never suspected anything. No one did, except you, I guess.”

“And me,” I said under my breath.

Merlin gave the slightest chuckle. “You, of all people, should realize what he was doing, Mr. Gwaltney. As I understand it, you’re quite the expert on attraction spells.”

“You mean he’s been manipulating us all along?”

“Yes, and doing it so expertly that even accomplished wizards are not aware that his appeal isn’t natural. I discovered it by being analytical, comparing his actual behavior to the way he was perceived. I had no preconceptions and was studying the situation.” Merlin pulled an antique-looking watch out of his vest pocket. “And then I obtained this clever artifact that blocks the action of spells like that. I’m afraid in recent weeks it has been more difficult for me to play along and act like I am as affected by his charisma as everyone else, but by then I’m sure he already knew I suspected him.”

Rod shook his head. “You’d think I would have noticed what he was doing. And what about Owen? Is what Idris said true?”

Merlin stared into the depths of his teacup and sighed. “I do not know for certain. I have seen no documentation to that effect, but I had my suspicions. When I was brought back, I initially devoted myself to learning everything I could about what had happened in the intervening years.” He gave a wry smile. “That was a rather extensive project, as there were a great many years. I was curious about that last threat because I believed it was more urgent than the one I’d been brought to face, so I did a fair amount of study on that. Meanwhile, I was getting to know Owen rather well—he was the one who did the spell to restore me, and he was one of the very few who spoke my language. He served as my interpreter until I learned modern English. I was intrigued by the amount of power he had and was curious about his origins, and even more curious when I learned that he knew nothing about his origins. More research uncovered some interesting parallels.”

“What parallels?” I asked.

“It is not public knowledge, but those directly involved in the fight against the Morgans knew Mina had been with child, but she no longer was when she was defeated, and the child was never found. Meanwhile, Owen was abandoned soon after his birth and then adopted from foster care by the Palmer family. He was discovered by the wizard Council when he caused some trouble for his adoptive parents as his powers began to manifest. From the report I read, it would seem that this family did not handle it at all well, and he went back into the foster care system. The wizards got him out of the mundane system and sent him to James and Gloria Eaton, who had the expertise to bring him up with the training and discipline that would be required to manage his great power. The timing and circumstances were such that I thought there might be a connection.”