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fire. Be careful you don’t burn your clothes.”
    Gwen held out one hand and summoned a blaze of fire. It roared upwards towards the ceiling, but the air was cool. Master Thomas reached forward and pushed his bare hand through the flames. Gwen scowled as she concentrated. The flames weren’t real. They were just illusions she’d summoned.
    “Close your eyes,” Master Thomas instructed. “Concentrate on the flames. You want them to be hot and warm and hot and warm and...”
    Gwen flinched backwards. For a long moment, she had felt the flames burning in her mind. A second later, a wave of heat had struck her and sent her tumbling backwards. She opened her eyes and saw a roaring pillar of flame, so bright that she could barely look at it. Her hand wasn’t burning, but her arm seemed to be on fire...
    She closed her hand and the flame vanished. Her dress was smouldering; quickly, heedless of what her mother would say, she tore at her sleeves until they were bare. The skin below was red, burned by the heat. Her hand seemed as pale and perfect as ever.
    “Blazers don’t burn themselves,” Master Thomas said, softly. “Doctor Norwell thinks that it is caused by something in their minds, something that tells them not to harm themselves. But they can set their clothes on fire and that does burn their skin.” He nodded towards the bowl of water. “You might want to cool yourself, and then we will try again.”
    Two hours passed slowly. Gwen’s dress was almost totally ruined, but she had managed to master the talent, at least to some degree. Creating illusions was possible, Master Thomas assured her, yet it took years to become really skilful at creating ones that would fool an outside observer. It was easier to summon fire, or beams of energy that could burn through wood and even metal. The classroom’s lack of decoration was explained. Young magicians, according to Master Thomas, frequently destroyed the room back to bare stone.
    “Your Blazing will probably never be as good as a pure Blazer’s,” Master Thomas admitted. “However, by combining Blazing and Moving, you will be able to shield yourself in a manner that no pure Blazer could match. However, learning to combine both talents without actually thinking about it requires years of practice. You’ll be working with some of the younger apprentices to develop your powers over the next few weeks. I may also make you work with some of the more qualified magicians. They, however, are likely to be more jealous of your position.”
    Gwen nodded, soberly. Some of the looks she had received from a few of the apprentices made sense, all of a sudden. Of course none of them would be able to reach the highest position in the magical world, not when they could only master one talent. And if a male Master arrived, Gwen was certain that she would be sent back home and told to marry well.
    “Tell me something,” she said, suddenly. “What happened to the other Masters?”
    “I’ll tell you when you are ready to hear,” Master Thomas said. He made a show of checking the pocket watch he wore in his waistcoat. “For the moment, we will go for lunch. Eat well, Lady Gwen. There is an entire afternoon of hard work up ahead.”

 

    Chapter Four
    W ould all passengers please return to their seats,” the stewardess requested. “The airship is about to land.”
    Jack leaned back in his chair as the airship began to descend over London. From high above, the Thames was nothing more than a silver band running through the darkened city. London had been sprawling out ever since the Romans had arrived and nothing, not war, famine or even death, would ever slow the city. It had expanded out until the green fields of England were facing the risk of being turned into housing blocks or factories to feed the country’s endless appetite for manufactured goods.
    He smiled at the stewardess as she paused in front of his chair. The stewardess, no doubt used to far crasser behaviour from