Stolen Hearts

by Sasha L. Miller

  "Nothing I found," Callisto said, frowning miserably. "I don't even know how he knew—how he found out that I'm a fairy."

  "You're new to town," Mervyn said, his suspicions confirmed when Callisto nodded. He made another note about that—how had the wizard figured it out? "I take it you didn't cast anything."

  "Not in town," Callisto said, shaking his head. "It's … it's a few days travel from home to here, and I know no one saw me. I was at home; we have special areas that can't be seen."

  "What spell did you cast?" Mervyn asked, noting that down. If the mystery wizard could both detect fairies without seeing them cast and draw energy from them without a binding … Mervyn didn't even want to think of the consequences of such power.

  "It was … a tracking spell," Callisto said quietly. He frowned briefly, but finally added, obviously reluctant, "Tracking my brother. He's been in the city on business, but he was supposed to come home a few weeks ago."

  "A tracking spell—did you embed it in something?" Mervyn asked. That would lend the spell the appearance of a wizard's charm and suggest Callisto was a wizard, not a fairy.

  "Of course," Callisto said, sounding offended at Mervyn's insinuation. "I'm not that careless."

  "I was just making sure," Mervyn said, noting that down. "Do you still have it? Or did you extinguish it?"

  "It went out when I found him," Callisto said, and then he winced, half-raising a hand to his chest before clenching his fingers into a fist and dropping his hand back to his lap. "It was stupid, too. He's got a lover or something and was too wrapped up in that to write or even realize he was supposed to be home."

  "Would you like me to find him?" Mervyn asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer to that. Non-consensual bindings were stupidly viewed as the bound fairy's fault, when usually they were snatch-and-bind jobs like this.

  "No," Callisto said miserably, staring at his lap. "He was upset I was here in the first place; he'd just be angrier to know what happened."

  "As you wish," Mervyn said. Perhaps he could get Denzil to help find the brother anyway. "What side effects does the heart charm have?"

  "Side effects?" Callisto repeated, obviously thrown by the change in subject.

  "The function is to draw energy from you and replace the beating of your heart. How else is it affecting you?" Mervyn asked, trying to not sound overly clinical but pretty sure he failed.

  "Oh, um," Callisto stammered, his pale cheeks gaining the faintest hint of color. "I'm cold?"

  "All over or just your extremities?" Mervyn asked, making yet more notes.

  "All over," Callisto said, twisting his fingers together nervously. "It's worse in my fingers though? And my feet. I think that's why my fingers shake so much?"

  "Could be," Mervyn said, adding 'shaky fingers' to the list. "Any weakness? Shortness of breath?"

  "Both, but only if I try to move too much or do a lot," Callisto said, looking more miserable as Mervyn wrote that down. "It also hurts?"

  "A lot or a little?" Mervyn asked, making a note to get a pain-blocking charm for Callisto as well as a warming charm.

  "A lot," Callisto said hesitantly, as though admitting a great weakness.

  "Anything else?" Mervyn asked, adding a few reminders to himself about what to look out for when building the replacement charm.

  "No," Callisto said quietly, looking down at his hands.

  "Good, good," Mervyn muttered, taking a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. "Here's what I propose. It will take me a few days, minimum, to build the replacement charm, possibly longer if I can't reach my consultant. In the meantime, I will supply you with charms to ease the cold and pain you're experiencing. I can also offer you a room here until the replacement charm is in place, unless you prefer to stay somewhere else."

  "I—" Callisto blinked a few times, startled. "What will it cost?"

  "Nothing," Mervyn said firmly, setting down his pen and pulling off his spectacles. "At most, I'd ask you to help me track down the wizard responsible, but this never should have been done to you, and I'm not going to compound the matter by asking you to pay to fix it."

  "But that's not fair to you, either," Callisto argued, frowning. "The charm—it's going to take a lot of work and time—"

  "I like a challenge," Mervyn reassured him. "And I'll take it out of your attacker's hide when I find him, so really, don't worry about it. Shall I have Evandie prepare a room for you? It would be easier to have you here in case I have to make adjustments during the process."

  "If you don't mind," Callisto said, and he likely didn't have anywhere else to go, but Mervyn wasn't going to press that point.

  "I don't," Mervyn said firmly. "Do you have your things with you, or shall I send someone to have them fetched?"

  "They're here. The woman who answered the door—Evandie?" Callisto asked, continuing when Mervyn nodded. "She took them to put somewhere while I waited."

  "Easy enough, then," Mervyn said, pulling back his sleeve and pressing a button on his watch. Evandie had a matching one—it would alert her that he required her presence.

  Sure enough, a moment later, Evandie knocked briskly on the door before entering. She didn't spare Callisto even a glance, just stared at Mervyn with a displeased look. Glancing at the clock on the mantel showed why—it was half-past three, time for Evandie's usual tea.

  "I'm sorry, Evandie, but could you make up a room for Callisto? He'll be staying with us a week or so," Mervyn said, ignoring the pinched look that overtook Evandie's face. She really did not approve of Callisto. "Settle his things, please, and let me know when everything is ready."

  "Yes, sir," Evandie said crisply, frowning briefly at Callisto before disappearing again.

  "Would you like a tour of the house?" Mervyn asked, picking up his notebook and pen and heading back across the room to lock them back up. "You're welcome to go anywhere you like, though I do ask you stay out of the basement. It's where I work my spells, and it's usually dangerous for anyone but me to be down there."

  "Okay," Callisto said, standing up slowly and pulling his jacket close around him.

  "Actually," Mervyn said, picking up his glasses and tucking them into his front pocket. "Let's go down there first, and I can get you set up with the heat and pain charms."

  "I won't object to that," Callisto said quietly, twisting his fingers together nervously. "Um, thank you, for everything. You'll have to let me help you in some way—"

  "None of that now," Mervyn chided, gesturing dismissively. He led the way from the room, being careful to tailor his stride to Callisto's. Callisto moved slowly, probably because of his lack of heart. Mervyn stifled another flash of anger at the wizard who'd done this. He'd fix it, and then he could afford to be distracted by his anger.

  "This door leads to the basement," Mervyn said, somewhat unnecessarily as he opened the door to reveal a set of stares descending to the lower floor. "It's always unlocked, but like I mentioned before, past a certain point it isn't safe for anyone but me."

  "Right," Callisto said, and he sounded exhausted. The tour could wait—certainly the house wasn't huge, and Callisto could figure everything out on his own later, after he had a chance to rest.

  "Follow me," Mervyn said, starting down the stairs slowly. "The safe zone downstairs is edged in white; please don't leave the confines of the white lines without my express permission."

  "Okay," Callisto said softly.

  The rest of the walk down the stairs was quiet but for Callisto's slightly labored breathing. Mervyn didn't rush him, keeping his own steps slow and measured even as he wracked his brain trying to remember where he'd stored the charms he'd need for Callisto.

  The pain-blocking charm was easy; it would be in one of the two health-magic rooms, probably in his emergency kit. The warming spell might be in there as well, but it could also be in the fire-magic room, since it was a heavily modified fire charm.

  "I'll be right back," Mervyn said distractedly as they reached the bottom o
f the stairs. He ducked into the room on the far left first, sifting through the bins and boxes of charms and miscellaneous tools before finally finding the pain-blocking charm he'd been thinking of. There were also two others, one stronger and one weaker, that he'd forgotten about. Hesitating a moment, Mervyn finally picked up the strongest—having your heart replaced by a shoddy charm probably rated a high-level pain-blocking charm.

  Ducking back out into the hallway, Mervyn was unsurprised to find Callisto sitting on the bottom steps, looking just as awful, if not more so, than he had earlier.

  "Pain-blocking charm," Mervyn said, crossing the peeling, slightly faded white line that bordered the safe area of the basement.

  The charm looked fairly innocuous, but Mervyn had never been a big fan of flashy charms that were obvious about the magic they held. The pain-dulling spell was embedded in a cheap, colorful, woven bracelet that simply tied around the wrist.

  To Callisto's credit, he didn't look dismissive or disbelieving when Mervyn showed him the charm, thought it could be that he was too tired to care about much.

  "May I see your arm?" Mervyn requested politely, continuing to speak as Callisto offered his right arm. "This is a high-level pain-blocker. You should still have sensation; it targets the pain and nothing else. Still, you should be careful, since you won't feel much pain unless you hurt yourself very badly while you wear it. It's also limited—it will absorb pain up to a certain point, and then the spell is done, so let me know when it wears off."

  "I will," Callisto said quietly, watching as Mervyn carefully tied the bracelet's trailing ends together. A quick sigil scrawled in the air and a few murmured spell words activated the spell, and about half the tension melted from Callisto all at once.

  Mervyn smiled, pleased, and Callisto smiled back, just a little.

  "Are you still feeling any pain?" Mervyn asked, straightening up and letting go of Callisto's arm.

  "Not … hardly any," Callisto said, gingerly touching his chest where the heart charm rested. "It's much better."

  "I'll tweak the next one, if that one runs out before I'm done with your replacement charm," Mervyn promised, pushing his hair back off his forehead.

  "This one works," Callisto said, shrugging. "You don't have to go to any extra trouble."

  "It's no trouble," Mervyn said absently, only half paying attention to Callisto's protest. It really wasn't—he'd have had to make the charm from scratch anyway; tweaking it to handle a little more pain wasn't that difficult. Not waiting for Callisto's reply to that, Mervyn headed into the fire work room.

  Unfortunately, it was the least organized of his work rooms, since he spent the least amount of time on his fire spells. They weren't very complicated and the potential for disaster was a little too high. Mervyn liked his little house; he didn't want to burn it down, as inevitably happened to most of the wizards he knew who played with fire too much.

  It was also the smallest work room, and it only took Mervyn fifteen minutes to determine the heating charm wasn't there. He headed back into the main room, ducking into the second of his health-magic work rooms. A quick search of that room turned up no charm, and Mervyn paused, trying to figure out where he'd left it.

  He hadn't made it that long ago—he'd been experimenting with a new way to finish the charm … which meant he'd probably left it in the main work room rather than putting it away properly.

  Callisto was still sitting on the stairs, looking like he was dozing with his eyes open, and Mervyn flashed him a sheepish smile before he headed into the biggest work room. He did most of his spell work in here, unless it was more delicate like fire or communications charms.

  The heat spell was sitting on one of the side tables, half-covered by a reference book on water charms. He picked it up, frowning at the girly locket on the necklace. He hadn't remembered that, but he doubted Callisto would care, so long as it worked. It wasn't as though it was a permanent charm.

  Stepping out of the work room, Mervyn hefted the necklace as he crossed over to where Callisto was sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

  "This charm is simpler," Mervyn said. "And I am sorry about the charm object; I'd been experimenting and it was handy. All you have to do is clasp it around your neck and it will begin working. It can also be taken off without breaking the spell, but only clasp it if you're wearing it, otherwise the spell will be wasted."

  "Okay," Callisto said, glancing down at his still-trembling fingers. "Can you? I don't think I could manage it."

  "Oh, right," Mervyn said, shaking his head. "Sure, no problem."

  "Thank you," Callisto said, standing up slowly and resting a hand against the stairway wall for balance. He was slightly shorter than Mervyn, so it was an easy thing to position the necklace around his throat.

  "This charm is like the pain-blocking charm," Mervyn said quietly, fumbling with the tiny clasp on the necklace and trying to not notice how close he was standing to Callisto. "It will run out after a while, so let me know when it no longer works and I'll get you a fresh charm."

  "I will," Callisto said then tensed up, his breathing going ragged even as he blindly reached for the wall. Mervyn finally managed to close the clasp, dropping the necklace so the locket fell against Callisto's collarbone.

  "Hey, it's okay," Mervyn soothed, hesitating, but in the end giving into the urge and wrapping Callisto in what he hopped was a steadying, reassuring hug.

  Callisto didn't reply, but Mervyn didn't really expect him to, distracted as he was by the pull of energy. It lasted longer than it had last time, and Mervyn wondered if there was anything he could do to ease it for Callisto—but he probably should focus on the replacement heart charm instead.

  "Sorry," Callisto muttered, pulling away from Mervyn's grip. He looked even more exhausted than he had before, and Mervyn frowned worriedly.

  "Don't apologize," Mervyn said, shaking his head and letting Callisto go somewhat reluctantly. "How is the charm working?"

  "Oh, um, it's working well, thank you," Callisto said, and Mervyn nodded, pleased the new spell end had worked.

  "How much energy do you have left for him to take?" Mervyn asked quietly, gesturing for Callisto to head upstairs. "I hate to say it, but I don't think he's the type to ration."

  "Right," Callisto said wanly, moving slowly as he started the climb back upstairs. "I think … half? And it will replenish somewhat, though not as much as if …"

  "If you had your own heart," Mervyn finished when Callisto paused. "Okay." So he probably had roughly three days to replace the charm before the wizard drained Callisto of energy, given it had taken him three days to get Callisto down to half, though the wizard might cast more freely, the longer he pulled from Callisto, so maybe fewer than three days.

  "Is there anything I can do to boost your power production, to gain more time to build the new charm?" Mervyn asked as they reached the halfway point of the staircase.

  "No," Callisto said, shaking his head a little. "It just takes time. Like wizard energy?"

  "Right," Mervyn confirmed, making a note to ask Denzil the same thing. He might know something Callisto didn't, or be able to give Callisto some of his energy. Mervyn waited until they reached the top of the stairs before he tapped the button on his watch to summon Evandie again, already half-distracted by the work ahead of him.

  "Unless you have objections, I'll let you go rest now and save the tour for later," Mervyn said, smiling a little at the relief Callisto couldn't hide.

  "I appreciate it," Callisto said, looking uncomfortable for a second before asking, "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to repay you?"

  "There really isn't, and please don't worry about it," Mervyn said, wondering how he could get that thoroughly across to Callisto. Maybe Denzil could help convince him?

  "Evandie," Mervyn greeted as she appeared from the staircase that led to the upstairs. "Can you bring Callisto to his room and make sure he's settled? I'll be downstairs for the rest of the afternoon."

  "Yes, sir,"
Evandie said, gesturing for Callisto to follow her. She gave Mervyn a last disapproving look—it wasn't an encounter with Evandie unless she disapproved of something—and then led the way up the stairs.

  Mervyn waited until they were halfway up before heading back down to his work rooms. He had a letter to write and a replacement heart charm to build.

  Part Two

  Callisto woke up thrashing, the nightmare that had frightened him awake fading rapidly. Callisto let it fade, sitting up and letting the twisted bedcovers pool in his lap. He was breathing heavily, and his heart should have been beating rapidly—but the metal charm in his chest didn't beat, and that was more unnerving than any nightmare.

  Touching the charm briefly, Callisto sighed. Perhaps he should have mentioned the lack of heartbeat to Mervyn, but the wizard was already doing so much, for nothing, and Callisto couldn't bring himself to ask for even one thing more.

  Even if he wasn't entirely convinced Mervyn wouldn't ask for something, once his own charm was installed in Callisto's chest. At least this way he'd know who the charm belonged to, though Mervyn did have fairy lights, so that was something.

  Not that it mattered much what Mervyn's intentions were at this point; Callisto could either keep the current charm and die when the wizard drained him of power completely or he could take a chance with Mervyn and maybe get this fixed somehow.

  Mervyn seemed to be good at what he did, so there was that. The pain-blocking and heating spells worked wonderfully, with no glitches or side effects that Callisto had noticed. Whenever anyone back home had gotten a health charm from the village wizard, they'd all complained about one thing or another due to the shoddy workmanship.

  Hesitating, Callisto finally decided to get out of bed. Maybe a look around the house would give him more insight into Mervyn, since the wizard had managed to give away very little about himself. Was it standard practice to house clients, Callisto wondered, or was it something special that Mervyn was doing for him? To keep him off the street and keep him safe, or to keep him safe for Mervyn?

  Callisto wanted to think he was reading Mervyn right, and that Mervyn was being straight with him about just wanting to help, but he'd been naïve enough to think he'd be safe in a city where no one knew him.