But Lady Callista reappeared, looking suitably apologetic. I beg your pardon, sire, I seem to have left my fan behind. Ah, there it is.
What did she want now ?
Do you know what curious news I just heard, sire? she asked. That by the bolt of lightning you saw, a great elemental mage has revealed herselfa girl of about your age.
Of course she would ask him about the girlwhat good minion of the Inquisitors would not? He acted bored. Should I care?
She could be very important, this girl.
To whom?
Atlantis does not expend its wherewithal on needless concerns. If the Inquisitor is
after the girl, she must be important in some way.
And why are you telling me this, my lady?
Lady Callista approached him and placed a hand on his arm. This close she smelled of the subtle yet potent fragrance of narcissus. Does it not concern you, sire, that the Inquisitor is halfway to finding this possibly very significant young woman?
Very few of his subjects touched him without express permission. Lady Callista dared take the liberty because she had once been Princess Ariadnes dearest friend. Her touch was warm and maternal, her person present and interested in a way that his perpetually preoccupied mother had never been.
Titus yanked away. Madam, if you seek someone to stand up to the Inquisitor, you are looking at quite the wrong man. I am the heir of a princely house well past its hour of glory. That is burden enough. I am not going to spearhead some quixotic cause for which I have neither the desire nor the talent.
Lady Callista laughed softly. Dont be silly, sire. Im looking for nothing of the sort. My goodness, why should I want anything to destabilize the current situation, which favors me so?
She walked backward until she was on the pedestal and curtsied again. However, should you ever decide to spearhead a quixotic cause, sire, you must let me know. Stability does grow tedious after a while.
CHAPTER 
4
Canary cage in hand, Titus entered the rail coach, the link to his other life. He could almost smell the coal burning at the heart of the yet-distant steam engine, feel the rumble of the wheels on the tracks.
Dalbert brought his luggage, and then closed the door of the coach. Something to drink for the journey, sire?
Thank you, but hardly necessary.
Dalbert glanced at his watch. Brace yourself, sire.
He pulled a large lever. The coach shook. The next moment it was no longer in placid storage in the castles uppermost reach, but a thousand miles away on English soil, part of a train that had departed from Mansion House station, London, three quarters of an hour before.
Slough in five minutes, sire.
Thank you, Dalbert.
Titus rose from his seat to stand before the window. Outside it drizzledanother wet English spring. The land was green and foggy, the trains motions rhythmic, almost hypnotic.
How strange that when hed first arrived in this nonmage realm, he had hated everything about itthe sooty, offensive smells, the flavorless food, the inexplicable customs. Yet now, after nearly four years at his nonmage school, this world had become a refuge, a place to escape, as far as escape was possible, from the oppression of Atlantis.
And the oppression of his destiny.
Two shrill steam blasts announced the trains arrival in Slough. Dalbert pulled down the window shades and handed Titus his satchel.
May Fortune walk with you, sire.
May Fortune heed your wish, replied Titus.
Dalbert bowed, Titus inclined his headand vaulted.
None of the opening spells Iolanthe knew worked. She did not have power over wood. Water was useless here, as was fire. She could keep herself safe from fire, but were she to set the trunk aflame, either from inside or outside, shed still succumb to smoke inhalation.
Unless someone freed her, she was stuck.
She didnt often give in to panic, but she could feel hysteria rising in her lungs, squeezing out air, squeezing out everything but the need to start screaming and never stop.
She forced her mind to go blank instead, to breathe slowly and try for a measure of calm.
The Inquisitor wants me?
Badly.
The Inquisitor was the Banes de facto viceroy to the Domain. Once, when Iolanthe had been much younger, shed asked Master Haywood why mages were so afraid of the Inquisitor. His answer shed never forgotten: Because sometimes fear is the only appropriate response.
She shuddered. If only shed listened to Master Haywood. Then the light elixir would have been safeand shed never have brought down the lightning.
She dropped her face into her hands. Something cold and heavy pressed into the space between her brows: the pendant the prince had given her before he shoved her on her way.
A new smidgeon of fire revealed the pendant to be a half oval made of a gleaming
silver-white metal, with faint tracery on its surface. At first it remained icy to the touchproximity to her fire made no difference. Then, for no reason she could discern, it warmed to room temperature.
The princes presence had to be one of the most puzzling aspects of the day, second only to Master Haywoods anguished ignorance.