also confirmed the presence of a spell, but hadn’t been able to identify the spell. “It may take weeks, even months, to deconstruct the spell,” she concluded, “if we can do so at all. There are no visual components, so it’s a matter of trial and error.”
Lily had already figured out that she was the only Unit agent in the room. The questions that flew after Sherry’s report made it clear that most of the others knew diddly about magic. They weren’t stupid questions. Just ignorant. A couple people seemed skeptical about the validity of magically derived evidence. One guy was downright hostile.
“. . . scientific method means the results can be duplicated. You can’t say that about dancing around naked all night then coming up with—”
“Mayhew,” Drummond said, “shut up. She’s the expert. You aren’t. If you can’t flex that steel-trap mind of yours enough to accept that, you don’t belong on this team.”
Mayhew shut up. Lily didn’t think his mind had flexed, but he did shut up. She took advantage of the brief silence to say quietly to Sherry, “About IDing that spell . . . Cullen’s in town.”
“Excellent! He’s just what we need.”
Drummond had good ears. He zeroed right in on that. “Are you talking about Cullen Seabourne? That damn consultant you wanted?”
“That’s right. He arrived last night.”
“And you thought it was somehow okay to bring him in when I haven’t authorized—”
“He’s working pro bono for now.”
Sherry’s eyebrows shot up. “Cullen?”
Lily flashed her a grin. “Amazing, isn’t it?” She looked at Drummond. “We need to know more about the spell on that knife as quickly as possible. For example, if we know what tradition it’s drawn from, that may limit our suspect pool.”
“Explain.”
Sherry fielded that one. “With a few exceptions, practitioners can only work spells derived from or couched in their own tradition. A Vodun priest wouldn’t be able to cast a Nordic rune spell, for example, or an Egyptian zoan. There’s more overlap among the so-called pagan traditions, but even there, variations in symbology and sourcing make it difficult for a North American shaman to use most Wiccan spells without altering the spell.”
The MCD guy—Brassard—spoke up. “But there are exceptions.”
“Sorcerers are said to be able to work in multiple traditions.”
He snorted. “They’re also said to be rare. As in, there aren’t any.”
“You’re confusing sorcerers with adepts. Sorcery is a Gift, not a level of ability. We have no adepts in our realm anymore. Sorcerers are extremely rare, but that Gift does still appear from time to time. Also, we know very little about the nonhuman traditions, such as gnomish or elven magic, so I have to consider them possible exceptions.”
Sjorensen spoke up gravely. “You said something about adjusting spells. What does that mean?”
Sherry blessed her with a smile. “Advanced practitioners can often adapt a spell from a foreign tradition to their needs. But that would be information, too. If this spell shows signs of drawing on multiple traditions, you’ll know you are looking for an advanced practitioner.”
The woman directly across from Lily frowned. “Don’t we already know that? They harvested death magic and used it to kill Bixton. That sounds pretty advanced.”
Sherry shook her head. “Unfortunately, death magic can be harvested by someone with only a moderate understanding of magic if they get hold of an accurate rite. Your suspect may be quite advanced, or only the equivalent of a bright middle-schooler willing to put out a lot of effort.”
“Which is why,” Lily added, “once someone starts down that path, they usually practice with animals at first. That’s a possible way to track our perps, or to provide corroboratory evidence. And only one guy has to be skilled. The others involved in the rite may be completely ignorant. There’s some disagreement,” she added with a glance at Sherry, “about whether they even have to be Gifted.” The disagreement she knew about was between Sherry and Cullen.
Sherry’s eyes twinkled. “True. I personally believe all the participants must possess some trace of magic, but that’s a theoretical preference on my part. Obviously I can’t test it.”
Erin Hoffsteader said, “What about the spell on the knife? That has to be pretty advanced.”
“We don’t know that,” Sherry said calmly. “Not yet.”
“In fact,” Lily put in, paraphrasing Cullen again, “for all we know, our perps didn’t enspell the knife themselves. They could have found it or bought it. It’s even possible—not likely, but possible—they got hold of a pre-Purge artifact with an intact spell.” She looked at Sherry. “If the knife’s