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had worked relentlessly to tune a dozen or so to
her own spells, since her experiment with Harry in alchemy-style
wand work. These were the best of them. And they would pass, even
with the magic she'd borrowed from the Book, because once collected
by her and stored in wands tuned to her, the magic became
hers.
    With a sour expression,
Dodd smacked the wands one at a time back into Rosato's hands, as
if he hoped to break, or at least crack them. The cheat. Rosato
gave them back to Elinor, who tucked all but the yew wand back into
her quiver. Finally, the preliminaries were done. Time to
begin.
    The moment had arrived. Was
she as good as she thought she was? As good as Harry thought she
was? He thought much more highly of her talent than she did. Was he
right?
    She had worked hard
preparing for this contest of magical skill. She was ready. And if
she failed, Dottore Rosato was there to flush the worst of the poison from her
system and keep her from actually dying. He would do the same for
Cranshaw, if it came to that.
    She stepped up to the
table. As challenger, she would go first. She took her yew wand,
saturated with the best neutralizing magic she could call, and
thrust it into Cranshaw's potion. It was a standard belladonna and
wolfsbane potion, relying on the natural poisons in the plants as
well as the magic pushing the poisons to greater heights. It was,
as Dr. Rosato had said, a competent potion. The natural malevolence
of the plants meant that a little magic could do a great deal with
it. It was something of a lazy man's potion.
    It also meant that it
wouldn't take much magic to render it harmless. The plants' poisons
could be untwisted... so. Elinor stirred the potion counterclockwise, slowly
releasing the magic from her wand to turn the venomous mixture into
nothing more than a nasty-tasting tea--if not for the poisonous
magic that remained.
    There, Cranshaw had been a
little more creative, somehow tying knots in the inimical magic
binding the poisons together. Elinor studied the concoction,
curious as to how he'd done it. She exchanged her yew wand for one
made of maple imported from America, carefully laying the steaming
yew on the stone table top to avoid damaging anything.
    Dodd scowled at the wand
exchange, but Cranshaw's smug superiority only got smugger. If that
was a word. He thought he'd won. He hadn't. Elinor just wanted the
maple to see more clearly. The hard wood conveyed her magic sense
smooth as silk.
    Cranshaw's magic wasn't
knotted, so much as tangled, Elinor realized. She combed her magic
gently through it, teasing the strands free. The tangles bound the
magic together, combining the belladonna's deadliness with the
wolfsbane's and holding it, even when the chemical composition of
the poisons had been neutralized. The tangles were deadly, but
chaotic.
    What if she could actually
tie knots in the magic? A square knot or a bowline for instance, or
perhaps a slipknot... The possibilities were endless.
    "This is why I hate
wizard's challenges." A spectator in the back of the hall raised
his crackly old-man's voice. His companions tried to hush him, but
he kept going. "They just stand round staring into cups. There's no
explosions. Or even trousers falling down."
    Elinor had to bite her lips
to keep from laughing. But he was right. She needed to get on with
it and stop messing about with Cranshaw's magic. She combed the
last of the tangles free and picked up the goblet, holding it high
for a moment to allow the presiding judge--and everyone else--to
see it. Then she downed the potion, drinking it in as few gulps as
possible.
    Gah, it was foul stuff. She couldn't help making choking noises and
had to spit in the goblet, trying to rid herself of the taste.
Rosato handed her a peppermint.
    "What is that?" Dodd
pounced, snatching the candy from Elinor's hand.
    "It is a peppermint,"
Rosato protested. "It is allowed!"
    Cranshaw took it from Dodd,
shaking it in his fist at the dais. "No magical assistance