The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey

that sleep is more
important than anything else before a battle.”
    Ha ,
Nan thought, as she and Sarah followed Karamjit out of the study.
There’s
gonna be trouble; I kin feel it, an’ so can he. He didn’ get that
tiger by not havin’ a nose fer trouble. But—I reckon the
trouble’s gonna have its hands full with him
.
    ***
    “I’m
glad you aren’t angry with me—”
    Isabelle
and her husband had turned to each other and said virtually the same words at
the same time. And now both laughed.
    “Oh,
we know each other far too well, my love.” Frederick took her in his
arms, and she laid her head contentedly on his shoulder. “Far too well.
So, you were annoyed because I was being the warrior and not giving you credit
for being one in your own right.”
    “And
you were annoyed because I was planning on wandering off into danger without
thinking,” she said, ruefully. In hindsight, she had very nearly made a
dreadful decision. And yet it had seemed harmless enough; the address of the
medium was suitably genteel, no real harm had come to Katherine except to be
fleeced of a few “gifts” in order to see what she thought was her
son.
    Isabelle
now acknowledged that she just hadn’t thought deeply enough.
    “I
would never have made that mistake in India,” she admitted, “I
would have assumed there was an entire clan of thieves behind the fraud. Or
worse—”
    Because
there had been worse. It was not always money that was at stake in India, and
there were worse fates than death.
    “You
were thinking of your friend—”
    “And
not of danger.” She nodded.
    “I
think—” he paused. “I think danger here has become more
subtle than when we first lived in England. The attacks are indirect.”
    She
frowned a little. “I would have said, more petty. And that bothers me. We
know there are great occultists with cruel agendas still living here. So where
are they?”
    “In
hiding.” He paused, and released her. She stood away from him a little,
looking up into his face. “I wonder if they are not waiting for science
to make people forget that they ever existed.”
    “So
that they can return to prey on the utterly unwary?” She shivered.
“An uncomfortable thought.”
    “But
not one we need to confront tonight or tomorrow.” He smiled down at her.
“
Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof
.”
    “True
enough.” She took his hand, and looked coyly up at him. “And since
it happens to be night—”
    He
laughed.
    ***
    The
medium lived in a modest house just off one of the squares in the part of
London that housed those clerks and the like with pretensions to a loftier
address than their purses would allow, an area totally unfamiliar to Nan. The
house itself had seen better days, though, as had most of the other homes on
that dead-end street, and Nan suspected that it was rented. The houses had that
peculiarly faded look that came when the owners of a house did not actually
live there, and those who did had no reason to care for the property
themselves, assuming that was the duty of the landlord. Mem’sab had
chosen her gown carefully, after discarding a walking suit, a mourning gown and
veil, and a peculiar draped garment she called a sari, a souvenir of her time
in India. The first, she thought, made her look untrusting, sharp, and
suspicious, the second would not be believed had the medium done any research
on the backgrounds of these new sitters, and the third smacked of mockery. She
chose instead one of the plain, simple gowns she preferred, in the mode called
“Artistic Reform”; not particularly stylish, but Nan thought it was
a good choice. For one thing, she could move in it; it was looser than the
highest mode, and did not require tight corseting. If Mem’sab needed to
run, kick, or dodge, she could.
    The
girls followed her quietly, dressed in their starched pinafores and dark
dresses, showing the best possible manners, with Grey tucked under
Sarah’s coat to stay warm until they