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Owen caught my eye as they brought him in. I could see the question on his face and realized that he didn’t even know if what we’d found was useful. I nodded, and his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
And then the hearing began. Rudolph read off a list of charges, which included the earlier conspiracy to commit magical crimes plus charges of escape and evasion. He added, “And these crimes are even more alarming when taken in context with the allegation that Owen Palmer is none other than the son of Kane and Mina Morgan, who were so disastrous to the magical community. We know he can’t help the accident of his birth, but we also know he has great power—a power he may have inherited from his alleged parents—and there is also the possibility that the capacity for darkness has been inherited, as well.”
Merlin leaned forward. “As I understand, these were merely allegations made by someone with a personal grudge against Mr. Palmer. Has anyone presented any proof? The person who made the allegations doesn’t appear to be present today, as he is also a fugitive.”
Ramsay then stood. “I took the liberty of asking Mr. Idris to accompany me here today after he approached me to explain how he came by this information.” A man in a hat and jacket stood at the back of the room and made his way down the aisle. He must have come in at the last second, or I would have recognized Idris. I wasn’t sure what Ramsay’s game was, since it was more than likely that Idris learned it from Ramsay.
“This is most unorthodox, Ivor,” Rudolph said. “Mr. Idris has broken numerous magical laws and escaped from legitimate custody. In fact, he’s known to have committed more magical crimes than even Mr. Palmer is accused of. It’s hardly fair to have Mr. Palmer as a prisoner while we do nothing about Mr. Idris. We will listen to your evidence and take your cooperation into consideration, but Mr. Idris, I’m afraid we will have to take you into custody first.” He waved a hand at one of the guards, who moved toward Idris.
“I was framed!” Idris screamed, suddenly breaking into a run and charging toward Owen. “It was him! He did it! It’s all his fault!”
I shouted a warning to Owen, who whirled just in time to see Idris running at him. With his hands bound, Owen was practically helpless. Idris sent a magical attack in his direction and, acting as if on instinct, Owen threw his hands up in a defensive position, and his lips moved silently, like he was doing a spell. He was in the containment circle that kept anyone from using magic, so the spell was useless for defending himself or attacking Idris.
But then Merlin fell out of his chair with a cry of pain, like someone had hit him with a powerful spell.
“See, he’s found a way to breach the circle!” Ramsay shouted. “He’s attacking Merlin, even now! He has to be stopped!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Owen went a sick gray color and froze. I thought Gloria would come right out of her seat and take on Idris herself, but the guards finally got to him and pulled him away from Owen.
“I didn’t attack Merlin,” Owen said, his voice so faint it wasn’t much above a whisper. “I wouldn’t, ever. I don’t know what happened. I was just defending myself from Idris—and I did that without thinking. It shouldn’t have done any good, since I’m in the circle.”
“Likely story, when we know what he is,” Ramsay scoffed. “We saw him do a spell, and we saw Merlin, not Mr. Idris, suffer the effects.”
The audience erupted into arguments and discussion. Rudolph rapped his staff on the floor, and the room went silent. “We will deal with the alleged attack on Mr. Mervyn in a moment,” he said. “Given his attempted attack on Mr. Palmer, I am not sure how seriously we can take accusations made by Mr. Idris. Obviously, there is a personal grudge, as Mr. Mervyn mentioned. Mr. Ramsay, I hope you have additional evidence.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Merlin said. “I happen to have proof that Owen Palmer is the son of Kane and Mina Morgan. Miss Chandler, if you please?”
While the audience muttered in surprise at Merlin being the one to provide proof, I took the letter and the key out of my purse and brought them up to Merlin. “This note was left with Mr. Palmer when he was left as a newborn at a fire station,” Merlin said, then he read the letter out loud. I watched Ramsay’s face the whole time, as he first went red, then the color drained entirely from his skin. There was a gasp from the audience when Merlin read the signature, then Merlin said, “And now the key.” I went to Owen, who held his hands out, and placed the key in his palm, giving his hand a squeeze as I did so. Then I stepped to the side so the Council could see the key glowing in his hand. “The Council will notice that the key glows at his touch,” Merlin pointed out. “That is proof that he is, in fact, the child in question.”
“Who did she mean when she said ‘he’ wasn’t what he seemed, and what did she hide?” Rudolph asked eagerly.
“Fortunately, Mr. Palmer had the opportunity to obtain those materials before he was recaptured,” Merlin said, his lips twitching like he was trying to fight back a smile. He waved a hand to start the recording, and Ramsay’s voice rang through the room, saying, “The three of us can have unprecedented power, if you will just agree to play your part.”
The voice of a young man said, “What do you want us to do?”
Ramsay’s voice said, “I need you to play the villains—only for a while. You need to terrify the Council enough that they’ll revive Merlin. Then the three of us can defeat him, and there will be no one left to challenge us.”
The room exploded with shocked shouts. I would have expected Ramsay to deny it, but although his face briefly turned a purplish color, he sat totally still and looked almost casual. “These are very interesting allegations, Ambrose,” he said. “But I must say, it’s a clever bit of fakery. You can’t trust anything Mina Morgan did. We know the kind of person she was.”
Merlin, now smiling openly, said, “I have more documentation, as well as photographs. Mina was quite thorough. The current situation sounds rather familiar. Did you use Phelan Idris the way you used the Morgans? You certainly used him as an excuse to revive me.”
The outraged yelling from the audience grew even louder. Rudolph pounded his staff for order, but everyone ignored him. Most of the people seemed to be aghast that their hero was turning out to be a villain, but then voices rose in support of Ramsay. It was the people I’d recognized as part of the protest mob, and they moved down the aisle in lockstep, practically in formation. Ramsay stood in the aisle, with them at his back. “You cannot diminish the support I enjoy with a few baseless accusations,” he said as his supporters chanted his name.
I turned to look up at Merlin, who gave a subtle nod. Suddenly, the supporters reeled and blinked in confusion as the spell broke. Some of them didn’t even seem to know where they were or how they got there. When they realized they were standing in the aisle in the Council chamber, most of them slunk away to take seats. That event sent a fresh wave of murmurs through the crowd.
“I would suggest that if you have bought any tokens from Spellworks, you discard them immediately,” Merlin said dryly, raising his voice to be heard above the tumult. “They only leave you open to manipulation.” There was a rustling and clattering sound as the former mob members emptied their pockets and tossed charms and amulets on the floor. Merlin turned to address the rest of the Council. “I believe that is evidence that Spellworks was not what Mr. Ramsay led us to believe. It was merely his vehicle for manipulating people and events.”
“And so all of these charges against Mr. Palmer were part of that scheme?” Rudolph asked, sounding like he was waking up from a dream and wasn’t yet sure what was real.
“Aside from the escape and evasion, yes. But I think you can see why escape and evasion were necessary,” Merlin replied.
o;Likely story, when we know what he is,” Ramsay scoffed. “We saw him do a spell, and we saw Merlin, not Mr. Idris, suffer the effects.”
The audience erupted into arguments and discussion. Rudolph rapped his staff on the floor, and the room went silent. “We will deal with the alleged attack on Mr. Mervyn in a moment,” he said. “Given his attempted attack on Mr. Palmer, I am not sure how seriously we can take accusations made by Mr. Idris. Obviously, there is a personal grudge, as Mr. Mervyn mentioned. Mr. Ramsay, I hope you have additional evidence.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Merlin said. “I happen to have proof that Owen Palmer is the son of Kane and Mina Morgan. Miss Chandler, if you please?”
