Free Sons of Liberty by Christopher G. Nuttall

had those years, she thought, sourly. Master Thomas had thought highly of his young protégée. Hell, if he’d stayed loyal, Gwen doubted she would ever have been called to the colours herself. He could have stayed in the corps and made changes from the inside.

    She shook her head as she opened the hidden door and made her way down the secret staircase. A year of butting heads with the bureaucracy - and the various vested interests that made up the Royal College - had taught her that change, true chance, came slowly. And if she hadn't managed to find two new talents, the Royal College wouldn't have changed anything like as much as it had. The old men - and they were old men - in charge hated the thought of anything changing.

    And Master Thomas could keep them in line, she thought, as she reached the hidden exit in the lower basement. They don’t take me so seriously.

    Learning against the wall, she reached out with her mind, testing to make sure no one was there to see her when she opened the door. She had no idea why Master Thomas had converted the servant corridors to secret passages, but she had to admit they made it easy to get around the vast building without being detected. Only Doctor Norwell and Lord Mycroft knew they even existed, although she suspected that some of the aristocratic magicians had guessed. Servant passages were meant to keep the servants out of sight, away from their betters. She opened the door, stepped through into the corridor and closed it hastily behind her. The Healer Ward was just down the corridor.

    “ Lady Gwen,” Lucy said, as Gwen stepped through the door. “You are well?”

    “ Well enough,” Gwen said. Lucy might be used to irritating men, but Gwen doubted the Healer could do anything to cure her real problem. “Is he still in the ward?”

    “ I’m afraid so,” Lucy said. “Even feeding him has been a bit of a problem.”

    Gwen nodded, then walked down the corridor. There weren't many patients in the ward, not when it normally took only a few minutes for the Healers to work their magic. Indeed, the only real problem was the shortage of Healers. They were a rare breed, apparently, and every Healer they'd found had been female. Luckily, the prospect of being healed was enough to convince men to visit a female Healer. Male doctors might as well have been butchers for all the good they could do.

    Major Shaw was sleeping in a metal chair, straps wrapped around his wrists and ankles. He looked normal at first, Gwen thought, until she saw his eyes. They were twitching backwards and forwards under the eyelids, as if they were on the verge of popping out of his head. She took a step forward, unsure what - if anything - she should do. If there was a way to cure his mind through magic, Lucy would have found it by now.

    “ You inflicted a great deal of harm,” Lucy said, quietly. “Did you know ...?”

    “ No,” Gwen said. “I ...”

    Major Shaw jerked awake, his blue eyes flickering from side to side before focusing on Gwen. He opened his mouth and screamed, a high-pitched sound that was so loud Gwen stumbled backwards, covering her ears. Lucy pointed a finger towards the door; Gwen nodded and hurried back out of the ward. Behind her, the screams continued to echo until one of the orderlies slammed the heavy door closed.

    Gwen cursed under her breath, feeling yet another stab of guilt. Charmers had been known to cause mental breakdowns, when their victim was unable to hide from reality any longer, but such breakdowns rarely lasted long. Even a weak-willed man could come to terms with what had happened to him, if he tried. But Major Shaw seemed to have been completely broken, perhaps for the rest of his life. He had been an arrogant bastard who’d gotten over a hundred good men killed ...

    ... And yet he doesn't deserve to be broken, Gwen thought, bitterly. It was her fault. In hindsight, there were plenty of other options she could have used. But in her frustration and