nodded, and Master Courtney intervened. “Elizabeth, let’s table those questions for now. It’s more important to stick to the matters at hand.”
Will opened the book and thumbed to the location of the spell he had been thinking about, then he pushed it across the table. “I’ve used this spell several times in the past few days. It kills vampires without hurting humans. It also passes through solid objects, so if it could be made larger, and extended in the vertical as well, so that it will pass through the sewers and hidden underground areas, it might do the trick.”
They studied the spell for several minutes, then David McCandish asked a pertinent question, “How long do we have to design this thing?”
Master Courtney looked pointedly at Will. Swallowing quickly, he hurried to answer, “Until tomorrow morning. If we don’t manage to do this and clear them out before then, the king plans to do something drastic.”
“Define drastic,” said Elizabeth.
“I can’t,” said Will. “But it’s safe to say there might not be a city here anymore.”
She frowned. “So, he’s planning a ritual of his own, but with less selectivity.”
Will shrugged. “I don’t know the specifics, but in my experience he rarely bluffs.”
David nodded. “It makes sense, according to a certain brutal logic, though the idea is horrific.”
Master Courtney had been busy sketching something out on a large sheet of paper. He pushed it over so that his two associates could examine it. “I’m thinking something roughly along these lines, but we’ll need to do the calculations carefully to sort out the specifics.”
The two other researchers glanced at one another, then Elizabeth pointed something out. “The tolerances are too tight. This looks like an imitation of some of the old historical rituals. We need to think in modern terms if this is to be doable.”
Alfred Courtney lifted his brows and sat back with an air of resignation. “Go ahead and do a rough estimate of how many sorcerers we will need to do it in ‘modern’ terms.”
Elizabeth and David both set to with pens and paper, muttering and drawing. In the end, after fifteen minutes of figuring and quarreling with each other, they had reached different conclusions. David spoke first. “It can’t be done.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No, it can, but we need time to build a ring and significant control structure.”
David glared at her. “He just told us we don’t have the time for that.”
“But it is technically possible,” she remonstrated her colleague.
“Don’t be such a pedant!”
Master Courtney leaned in to stop the fight that was brewing. “We are going to do it and we will only rely on quick chalk markings and human participants. Pretend you’re making this thing according to the theoretical tolerances we’ve discussed in my research.”
“But that’s all speculative,” argued David. “We don’t really know how they did those things.”
“We will when we succeed,” said Lord Courtney. “Because we have here someone that can replicate what our forebears used to do routinely.” His eyes fell on Will.
“Surely you jest,” said David. “He’s just a student!”
Master Courtney ignored him. “We should get to work. It might take the rest of the day to work out the details.”
Janice and Will looked at each other, then she asked a question. “Should we leave? We don’t really know enough to help.”
Elizabeth gave her a stern glance. “Stay quiet and do as you’re told. There’s no better time than the present for you to learn a little.” She addressed the Head Researcher. “They might be handy doing some of the brute work.”
Will frowned. “Brute work?”
Master Courtney chuckled. “Figuring large products and quotients.”
“Oh,” said Janice. They wanted them to solve simple math problems while they dealt with the more complex results. “We can do that.”
In the end their contribution turned out to be mostly symbolic. All three of the researchers were blazingly fast when doing simple figures, the result of many long hours doing such rote work. They gave Will and Janice token problems now and then, but it was clear they weren’t