Magicians of Caprona - Diana Wynne Jones [85]
“We were discussing you, Tonino,” said Chrestomanci. “You helped Angelica fetch the griffins, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Tonino. He remembered the damage they had done and felt alarmed.
“And you helped in the kitchen-spell?” asked Chrestomanci.
Tonino said “Yes” again. Now he was sure there was trouble.
“And when you hanged the Duchess,” Chrestomanci said, to Tonino’s confusion, “how did you do that?”
Tonino wondered how he could be in trouble over that too, but he answered, “By doing what the puppet show made me do. I couldn’t get out of it, so I had to go along with it, you see.”
“I do,” said Chrestomanci, and he turned to Antonio rather triumphantly. “You see? And that was the White Devil! What interests me is that it was someone else’s spell each time.” Then before Tonino could be too puzzled, he turned back to him. “Tonino,” he said, “it seems to me that you have a new and rather useful talent. You may not be able to work many spells on your own, but you seem to be able to turn other people’s magic to your own use. I think if they had let you help on the Old Bridge, for instance, it would have been mended in half a day. I’ve been asking your father if he’d let you come back to England with me, so that we could find out just what you can do.”
Tonino looked at his father’s worried face. He hardly knew what to think. “Not for good?” he said.
Antonio smiled. “Only for a few weeks,” he said. “If Chrestomanci’s right, we’ll need you here badly.”
Tonino smiled too. “Then I don’t mind,” he said.
“But,” said Angelica, “it was me who fetched the griffins really.”
“What were you really fetching?” asked Guido.
Angelica hung her head. “Mice.” She looked resigned when her father roared with laughter.
“I wanted to talk about you too,” said Chrestomanci. He said to Guido, “Her spells always work, don’t they? It occurs to me you might learn from Angelica.”
Guido scratched his beard. “How to turn things green and get griffins, you mean?”
Chrestomanci picked up his glass of wine. “There are risks, of course, to Angelica’s methods. But I meant she can show you that a thing need not be done in the same old way in order to work. I think, in time, she will make you a whole new set of spells. Both houses can learn from her.” He raised his wine glass. “Your health, Angelica. Tonino. The Duchess thought she was getting the weakest members of both Casas, and it turned out quite the opposite.”
Antonio and Guido raised their glasses too. “I’ll say this,” said Guido. “But for you two, we wouldn’t be celebrating tonight.”
Angelica and Tonino looked at each other and made faces. They felt very shy and very, very pleased.
Author’s Note
The World of Chrestomanci is not the same as this one. It is a world parallel to ours, where magic is as normal as mathematics, and things are generally more old-fashioned. In Chrestomanci’s world, Italy is still divided into numbers of small States, each with its Duke and capital city. In our world, Italy became one united country long ago.
Though the two worlds are not connected in any way, this story somehow got through. But it came with some gaps, and I had to get help filling them. Clare Davis, Gaynor Harvey, Elizabeth Carter and Graham Belsten discovered for me what happened in the magicians’ single combat. And my husband, J. A. Burrow, with some advice from Basil Cottle, actually found the true words of the Angel of Caprona. I would like to thank them all very much indeed.
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The Magicians of Caprona
Copyright © 1980 by Diana Wynne Jones
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