Caroline was a model of patience as she explained successively to Sophie, then George, then Hugo, who had darted back to the base to fetch a piece of equipment needed by the Enlightened Ones, that she was, indeed, well and that while she appreciated their concern she wasn’t about to take to her bed and become a valetudinarian.
George and Sophie went off to work on another article they were writing together. After waiting for Aubrey to make repairs to the antenna array and after listening to his warning to keep the time on air brief, Caroline tested the wireless. Her scowling told Aubrey the situation before her words did. ‘I still can’t get through.’
Aubrey gazed upward, through the wooden floor of the factory, through the roof, and chewed his lip. ‘I’d hoped that disposing of that creature might have freed the air.’
‘If one was made, then more would have been.’
‘Not necessarily true. If the spell was enormously complex, the cost could be too great. But Dr Tremaine has organised his spellcasting, systematising and delegating it. Distributed spellcasting?’
Caroline closed the wooden door of the telegraph cubicle. She linked her arm with his and led the way to the stairs. ‘You always say that Dr Tremaine is the foremost magician of our age.’
‘He wouldn’t have been appointed Sorcerer Royal if he wasn’t, not with his background.’
‘It seems to me, however, that it’s not just his spells that are revolutionary, if that’s correct.’
‘His spells are staggeringly innovative.’
Caroline let go of Aubrey’s arm and sat at the oval table. She played with a brush, one of the props they were using to make the place look like a real bookbinder’s workplace. At the other end of the large, open space, near a sunny window, Sophie was using a typing machine while George was scribbling with a pencil. ‘I’m guessing that Dr Tremaine is doing more than inventing innovative spells,’ Caroline said. ‘He’s also changing the way magic is done. He’s like that motorcar manufacturer, the one who’s broken the process into its individual parts and changed his whole factory to that end.’
‘Rivers? Harold Rivers?’
‘That’s the one. His mass production has meant that motorcars are rolling out of his factories at an unheard of rate.’
‘But we’re talking about magic, not machines.’
‘Aubrey, I may know nothing about magic, but I can see systems at work. I have the distinct impression that Dr Tremaine is working on that level as well as the coalface of spell casting.’
Aubrey had never felt that he was the sole repository of good ideas. ‘I think you may be right, but the implications scare me.’
‘They scare me as well, which is why we have to stop him.’