Free Council of Blades by Paul Kidd Page B

girl hard into her seat.
    "Not from the country… of the country!" The boy slapped his hands onto the table and leaned toward Miliana, who leaned backward in her chair in blank sur-prise. "It's time to liberate the people from the tyranny of magic! Don't you see that a system of mechanics is the only means of ever freeing the world from mere autocracy?"
    "You're right. I don't." Miliana speared forward, sharp light glinting from her lenses. "Magic is the one thing that anyone can have. The one thing that can free us from-from being ordinary!"
    "Aha! Aha!" Lorenzo stuck a finger up into the air, dis-lodging a shower of grime into his cuff. "And how is this achieved? Through hard study. Through long, arduous learning and dedication! It's repression through and through!"
    Moving from scorn to absolute irritation, Miliana fold-ed up her arms.
    "Look, I fail to see how my sitting on my noble backside reading books on magic represses a bunch of people that I've never even met."
    "Well, that's my point, you see." Lorenzo threw open his arms, frightening the green furry thing sleeping on the mantelpiece. "Sorcery is only learned through long years of very intensive, very expensive study.
    Only the nobility can afford it-placing magic squarely in the hands of the autocratic classes. If there's ever going to be any real equality, we have to place a means of power into the hands of the masses!"
    The girl stared at him in absolute bewilderment.
    "What do you want to go around giving power to the masses for?"
    "So that they can take part in the process of their own political rule!"
    "Political rule?" Miliana blinked in amazement. "Have you sat back and watched what these palace dwellers do to each other all day? It's daggers in the back and internecine warfare twenty-four hours a day!
    If you go around getting everyone to carry on like that, we'll all be dead within a week!"
    "Well, I don't mean that everyone should kill each other." Lorenzo ran fingers through his hair, disturbing a sooty spider which absailed quickly down to the floor. "I mean that we can break people away from the current tyranny of study!"
    Miliana bridled.
    "What have you got against study?"
    "It is class prejudicial!"
    "But you study!" Miliana pointed a finger straight at Lorenzo's nose. "You already admitted that you study things!"
    "Um…" Lorenzo blinked, then hit upon an explana-tion. "Ah, yes, but only to serve a noble end!"
    "So you're saying you're against knowledge?" Miliana angrily shoved a book across the table to crash against Lorenzo's arms. "That's what you're saying, isn't it? We should all drag ourselves down into the mire!"
    "No! Look… you've made me forget everything I want-ed to say." Lorenzo floundered about in a bog of frustra-tion. "Study is what I want to spread! Everyone should be able to do it. It should be a basic right for every man, woman and child."
    "All right then-so they can all study magic, and then everyone will be happy." Miliana gave a sarcastic, joyous wave. "What's your problem now?"
    "Yes, but… but not everyone can do magic! I mean-the talent might not be there." Lorenzo paced back and forth like a caged animal, albeit a rather scrawny one. "What we need is an equalizer, something that can be a bit like magic for people who can't actually do magic, either because of poverty or inability."
    Miliana heaved a sharp, irritated sigh.
    "A unique power."
    "Yes!"
    "For everybody."
    "Absolutely!"
    The girl felt it best to let the conversation drop and lie like a dead thing on the ground.
    "You're a loony."
    "I'm only thinking of the masses."
    "Yes." Miliana reached for a textbook and primly opened the cover. "Obviously you haven't tried smelling the masses lately."
    She tried to dismiss him with her pose, but it seemed Lorenzo Utrelli Da thingamajig was made of sterner, dumber stuff; the man regarded her with a look of unfeigned amazement and tried to catch her eye.
    "Um… Miss? Milady?"
    "It's Miliana."
    "Oh-Miliana!" Lorenzo let