Much Ado About Magic (Enchanted, Inc. #5)

Much Ado About Magic (Enchanted, Inc. #5) Page 104

“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.