Chapter Nineteen
‘I am not really a plague,’ Gussie said later, once Mr. Ballantine had been persuaded into leaving the slumbering Lord Maundevyle alone. ‘I spoke in jest, of course.’
‘Then you cannot turn an unWyrded person Wyrded?’ said the Runner.
‘Well, yes, I can,’ she admitted. ‘But only if they possess some latent capacity for it already. I could have no effect whatsoever on any ordinary human.’
‘You’re sure of that, are you?’
Gussie opened her mouth to say, with her customary confidence, that of course she was, but was obliged to close her lips again without speaking. Was she certain? She had, until recently, firmly believed herself unWyrded. Since then, her abilities had been tested only on Lady Maundevyle’s three children, two of whom had been deeply affected by proximity to
