A Sprinkling of Thought Dust
Page 32
AN UNENCHANTING SOLUTION
August 26
Electrum yawned and slid the scroll back onto the branch. It was afternoon and he’d already been through several shelves of scrolls in the royal library. So far he’d found no reference to humans and enchantments. He heard a small cough and turned to see Simon.
“Glad to see someone moving the scrolls around. They get very dusty without use, and I don’t seem to find the time for dusting.”
“I’m sure you have more intriguing duties to which you must attend.”
Simon looked tired. “I was hoping you might have news.”
“No sign,” Electrum said. “We looked the last two nights. The cloak would have faded by now so the ship and everything on it has certainly dissolved.”
A faint smile flickered across Simon’s lips. “I suppose that other than having the tapestry in our possession, it is the best news we can expect. We will hope it did not fall into the wrong hands.”
Electrum remembered Simon’s earlier warning about the tapestry having the key to keep the gates open. “Would someone be able to use it to close the gates?”
“The information is used to calculate the positioning of glowstones.”
“Glowstones? Like the ordinary ones we use in lamps?”
“The same, but arranged in a complicated pattern. They create a pulse field. We call it a gate. Moving them will affect the gate, but it can easily be restored. It is conceivable, however, that someone could create a destructive pattern. One that would emit a pulse that would collapse the gates permanently.”
“But that could leave people in the wrong realm or even stranded in the Tween World.” Electrum shivered at the horror of it.”
“Yes, a most alarming thought. It is why the gatekeepers exist and why their work is secret.”
Electrum nodded.
“Since there is nothing more we can do at this time, perhaps I can help you. Were you looking for something particular in the scrolls?”
Electrum forced his thoughts away from gate destruction. He needed answers for Trevor. “Something on humans,” he began.
“Humans? As in giants of the Tween World?”
Electrum nodded.
“Thinking of expanding our trade lines?”
“More along the enchantment line.”
Simon raised his eyebrows. “Would that be casting enchantments or...breaking them?”
Electrum cleared his throat. “Breaking.”
Simon nodded thoughtfully. “I see.” He pulled down a scroll and started scanning it. He muttered as he ran his finger down a list of references.
“Enchantments, types of, seasonal, subjects of, casting...ah here we are...breaking.” He slid the index back in its place. Bending down, he pulled out a scroll from under a lower branch and blew off the dust. He held it out. “I believe this might answer your request.”
Electrum took the scroll back to his room. It was about an hour before twilight when he finally found the right section. The letters on the yellowed page blurred and shifted in the spotty light coming through the branches. He uncovered the glowstone lamp and rubbed his eyes.
How to unenchant a human child. The subject must be in the place where he was first enchanted, with the area largely unchanged. Boulders, trees, and other vegetation such as mushrooms should be as close to their original state as possible. Pookah dust must be stored in a crystal paned flask and aged for at least two full nights of moonlight. The dust must then be sprinkled on the subject while he is bathed in the light of a lunar eclipse.
Bother, he thought. What did the clearing look like? He remembered sitting on a mushroom and waiting for Trevor. No, that was last night.
He thought hard back to the night when Trevor had shrunk. There had been a lot of confusion. He didn’t recall any flowers, but was there a mushroom? All his concentration had been on the boy and the cat.
He remembered flying down and landing on – a rock or a mushroom? The cat had sniffed him and he jumped down. He was pretty sure it was a rock. Tonight he would check out the clearing when they met with Trevor.