Stolen Hearts

by Sasha L. Miller

  Except his brother, but since Denzil had told him to get lost in as snotty a way as possible, Callisto didn't really think he was going to find any trouble from that quarter. Denzil would assume Callisto had gotten home fine until he heard otherwise, and since it was a week's journey, Callisto had some leeway to get this fixed before anyone noticed.

  If he was careful, he could play it off as getting distracted by the city's sights and distractions—the same excuse Denzil had used the first time he'd come to the city, but their parents had accepted it then, so they'd probably let it slide so long as he was properly apologetic.

  Callisto sighed, moving slowly towards the bureau set against the far wall. The dull ache in his chest flared briefly before being countered by the pain-blocking charm, and Callisto fervently hoped that stayed working until Mervyn had the replacement charm ready.

  Pulling open the top drawer, Callisto started, because all his clothes were folded and neatly laid out—including the previously dirty clothes Evandie had confiscated when she'd first settled his things. So she'd come in while he was sleeping and had managed to not wake him—that was unusual; he didn't sleep that soundly even at home.

  Granted, the last few days had been anything but restful, especially since he hadn't been able to sleep very long without the pain in his chest or a nightmare waking him. Having the pain-blocking charm and a secure, if not safe, place to sleep must have knocked him out quickly and let him sleep deeply.

  Callisto shook his head, forcing his mind to stop wandering. Pulling his shirt over his head, Callisto grimaced as the charm in his chest pulled against skin and muscle. Ignoring it as well as he could, Callisto picked out a fresh outfit and slowly got dressed. It took him much longer than it used to, which was sadly becoming usual. Despite the pain-blocking charm and the charm for warmth, he still got light-headed and short of breath whenever he moved too quickly.

  Leaning on the bureau slightly, Callisto glanced around the room. It was daytime—probably the next day, considering how heavily he'd slept and how late in the afternoon he'd stumbled across the strange sign out front that declared "Wizard for Rent" in flowery, cursive letters.

  The room wasn't huge, but it was handsome enough, with warm, pleasant colors and sturdy, if plain, furniture. It had a single paining hung above the small fireplace that depicted the Cliffs of Medrell in shades of green and blue.

  A guest room, obviously, since there were no personal effects and nothing of value, Callisto decided. So perhaps Mervyn did allow clients to stay here often? Or he just lived alone and had to do something with the extra rooms, Callisto told himself firmly, pushing away from the dresser and heading for the door.

  He should probably find the kitchen, Callisto decided, even though he wasn't hungry. He hadn't been hungry since…since before he'd been attacked, and he really needed to stop shying away from even thinking about it, but it was overwhelming and still terrifying and he hadn't even heard anything until it was too late, and—

  Callisto shook his head. Food. He needed to eat, to keep his strength up so Mervyn's charm would seat well. Nodding to himself, Callisto stepped out into the hallway, hesitating briefly before heading in the direction he thought the stairs were.

  Thankfully, they were where he thought, and he headed downstairs slowly, pausing at the bottom to catch his breath. He pressed his hand to the charm under his shirt for the thousandth time and tried not to think about anything other than breathing and what he might find for breakfast.

  "Are you all right, sir?" The words were spoken in a flat monotone, but they made Callisto jump anyway. Evandie just stared at him implacably, but that was still better than the rampant disapproval she'd been radiating yesterday.

  "I'll be fine," Callisto said, more quietly than he meant to.

  Evandie didn't call him on it, though why she would was beyond Callisto. She nodded briskly, saying, "Follow me, then. Master Dugray said to bring you to the salon if you were up."

  Callisto hesitated, but finally nodded, falling into step behind Evandie. He almost asked why, but in the end he just tried to keep up with Evandie without getting completely out of breath. Thankfully, the salon wasn't far from the stairs. Evandie knocked briskly, and then opened the door, preceding Callisto in. She said something to Mervyn, but Callisto wasn't paying her any attention, too busy panicking because Denzil was sitting on one of the sofas, holding a tea cup and looking just as surprised as Callisto felt.

  Denzil didn't do magic. He had as little to do with wizards as their parents did. So he was here because of Callisto, and Mervyn had already broken one promise.

  "You said you wouldn't try to find him!" Callisto shouted, sounding a little shrill but not really caring. He stumbled back a few steps, and then turned and fled. Denzil couldn't know. If Denzil knew, then he'd tell their parents, and then Callisto couldn't go home and he couldn't pretend it had never happened and—

  Callisto stopped, breathing heavily and feeling more than a little light-headed. Leaning against the closest wall, he struggled to catch his breath, blinking rapidly as his eyes watered—obviously a new symptom, Callisto decided fiercely. Pushing away from the wall, Callisto moved further into the room he'd fled into. It was a massive library—two stories tall, Callisto realized with a start. There was a balcony extending out above a small army of bookcases.

  More importantly, there were chairs—a matching set of chairs and a sofa—set up nearby. Callisto headed for them, grateful for the respite despite knowing how short it would be.

  How much had Mervyn told Denzil? Why had he gone and found Denzil in the first place? What else had he lied about?

  Pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, Callisto tried to calm down. There had to be a reasonable explanation—maybe Mervyn had tried to track down where it had happened, looking for clues perhaps, and Denzil had been in the area?

  Or maybe he'd just heard Callisto had a brother who was a fairy and had hoped to get his hands on an undamaged fairy? Except Callisto didn't remember mentioning Denzil was a fairy, and Denzil hadn't seemed alarmed, not that Callisto had stuck around long enough to gauge his reaction.

  He didn't know what to do now. It wasn't like he could run away; he'd be dead in a week or shackled to a wizard for the rest of his miserable, and likely short, life.

  "Callisto?" A quiet voice spoke from too close, and Callisto jerked upright, startled but unsurprised to see it was Mervyn who'd come after him and not Denzil. Denzil probably wouldn't want anything to do with him, now that he was wizard-tainted.

  "Are you all right?" Mervyn asked, then shook his head impatiently, pushing his spectacles back into place. "That's a stupid question, of course you're not."

  Callisto didn't reply to that, not sure what to say. He wasn't, and he'd already thought it couldn't get worse, but then Denzil had shown up.

  Mervyn sighed, rubbing at his forehead tiredly. He sat down in one of the nearby chairs, giving Callisto some space.

  "For what it's worth, I didn't know Denzil was your brother," Mervyn said, frowning in annoyance—not at Callisto, but at the library door. "He told me he didn't have any family, and I never pushed him on it."

  "Then why is he here?" Callisto asked, then wished he'd kept his mouth shut. He sounded stupid, childish, and like he was about to cry. What a lovely scene he was making here.

  "Oh, um, he's my consultant?" Mervyn offered sheepishly, focusing on Callisto instead of the door. "I told you I needed to consult—I never mentioned his name, did I? That would've saved a bit of trouble. I've been working with him for a few years now, whenever I need help with a project that could use a touch of fairy magic."

  "Denzil doesn't do magic," Callisto protested, but then he didn't know that for sure, did he? He hadn't known Denzil was seeing someone, after all, and he didn't know what-all Denzil got up to in the city, except some trading business for their parents. He mostly lived here—it was rare when he made trips home, and then he only stayed a week or two before heading right back to the
city.

  "Did you tell him?" Callisto asked quietly, folding his hands together in an attempt to still their trembling.

  "Yes," Mervyn said, grimacing. "I am sorry. It wasn't my intent—I only meant to help you, and to do as well as I could with this charm. I didn't think there could be any relation between you two, since you said you were from out of town, and Denzil has lived in the city for as long as I've known him."

  It did make a certain amount of sense, too; if Denzil did have anything to do with magic, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, least of all family. And Callisto didn't doubt he'd keep quiet about family too, since that was what they were all taught to do, to keep the rest of the family safe if one of them was forced into a binding. Callisto never should have mentioned yesterday that he'd been looking for his brother.

  "If you want, I can keep him separate from you until the new charm is ready? I'll still need his help, but I don't see why I couldn't keep you two apart if that's what you'd prefer to do," Mervyn offered, looking pensive and worried.

  "He doesn't want to see me?" Callisto asked, sinking lower in his chair. But why would Denzil want to see him? He'd sent Callisto away, mad at his interference, and then Callisto had managed to get himself caught and tapped by a wizard.

  "That's not—" Mervyn began, shaking his head. "Why wouldn't he want to see you? I only offered—you seemed so set against me finding him, I thought you might appreciate not having to deal with Denzil along with everything else."

  "I don't know," Callisto said after a long pause, still not entirely certain Denzil would want to talk to him. He'd screwed up the first rule of being a fairy: never let a wizard know. "Denzil and I were never close. I don't know what he'd think—"

  "He doesn't blame you," Mervyn said, calm and serious and sympathetic and Callisto didn't know how he managed it. He was barely holding onto his composure, and Mervyn had only gotten flustered and angry when he'd realized what the other wizard had done.

  "Why not?" Callisto asked, not a little bitterly. "Obviously I did something to attract the wizard's attention. He wouldn't just go around randomly picking people to do this to."

  "What if he did?" Mervyn asked, and he sounded so sure, but the wizard had to know Callisto was a fairy, else there was no reason to take the risk of replacing his heart. "You can't be the first—a wizard of his intelligence wouldn't have gotten the charm right the first time. He may still be trying to refine the charm and gotten lucky and found you."

  "Some luck," Callisto muttered, but that made a twisted sort of sense. The heart charm obviously wasn't perfect, and he had been careful to not reveal what he was.

  "Anyway, Denzil wouldn't blame you, no matter what the circumstances," Mervyn said, and he said it with such conviction that Callisto almost believed him. "He and I have been working together for a while now, and we've tricked a number of fairies out of forced bindings. He never blames the fairies, and he sympathized over your situation, even before he knew it was you."

  "You tricked fairies out of bindings?" Callisto asked, not quite ready to deal with Denzil being sympathetic.

  "Yes," Mervyn said, actually smiling at that. "Denzil has a high level of energy retention. He can store a lot of energy, which makes him especially appealing to wizards. We've tricked a fair few wizards into dissolving their bond with the coerced fairy, in order to bind Denzil. Usually, we bind him to me temporarily, so that the wizard we're tricking can't actually bind to him."

  "What else does he do with magic?" Callisto asked quietly, a little sad that he knew so little about Denzil.

  "Not much," Mervyn said, shrugging and not quite meeting Callisto's eyes. He was lying, Callisto realized, startled that it was so obvious. "He helps me with my spells sometimes; right now we're working on a spell that will allow unbound fairies to keep from being bound unless they want to be."

  Callisto nodded, but he was more curious about what Mervyn wasn't telling him. Still, it was interesting that they were trying to build a charm like that—it had been tried before, of course, but most wizards had no interest in helping fairies keep their magical energy to themselves. Besides, it wouldn't really protect fairies now, not if a wizard could just tear the heart out of any fairy and draw their energy forever after.

  "I know, that's not much comfort to you now," Mervyn said, sighing. He grimaced, standing and pushing the hair out of his eyes. "I can give you some time, if you prefer, to decide whether or not you want to speak with Denzil. I do need to get back to working on the new charm, however."

  "I'd like some time," Callisto said quickly, then winced because how stupid was it that he couldn't even face his own brother.

  "All right," Mervyn accepted without so much as blinking. "I'll have Evandie make up a tray for you in here, since I'm sure you're hungry. Unless you'd prefer to stay somewhere else?"

  "Here's fine," Callisto said quietly, even if he felt less like eating now than he had earlier.

  "Leave any books you take out on that table there," Mervyn said, indicating a long, narrow table set against the far wall. "Evandie gets tetchy when the books are put back incorrectly."

  "Okay," Callisto said, then blurted out, "Thank you, for everything." Mervyn smiled again, and Callisto really thought he should do that more often.

  "My pleasure," Mervyn said. "If you need anything, or if anything changes with the charm, tell Evandie and she'll let me know."

  Callisto nodded, even as he resolved to make as little trouble as possible for Evandie and Mervyn. He'd done enough to upset the household already.

  Mervyn left slowly, shutting the door behind him with a quiet snick. Callisto sighed, burying his face in his hands for a moment before finally making himself get up. He could distract himself with a book or two, keep busy and not worry about all the complications that were cropping up it had been just supposed to be a quick trip into the city and back, not this mess.

  *~*~*

  Mervyn shut the door to the library behind him, and then stood there a moment, not really willing to face Denzil quite yet. Denzil was furious—and rightly so—but that meant he'd be hard to put off. He'd want to talk to Callisto, and Mervyn was determined to follow Callisto's wishes on the matter.

  Even more unfortunately, Denzil was always the one who spoke to and kept calm the fairies for which they were doing magic. Mervyn wasn't very good at it, and he had no idea what to say to Callisto to reassure him and calm him down.

  At least Callisto didn't seem to be worried about Mervyn trying something funky on him when he installed the replacement charm. That was an upside, if not a very bright one.

  Sighing, Mervyn tapped the button on his watch to summon Evandie, then quickly outlined what he wanted her to do for Callisto. Oddly, she didn't seem at all put out, like she usually did when Mervyn pulled her from her routine to do something else. That done, Mervyn headed back to the salon, rubbing briefly at his forehead to forestall the headache he could feel coming.

  Denzil was pacing, tension obvious in every line of his body as he irritably stalked the floor. He turned sharply as soon as Mervyn opened the door, scowling when Mervyn shut the door behind him.

  "Where is he?" Denzil demanded loudly, nearly upsetting a chair as he stalked back across the room towards Mervyn.

  "Resting," Mervyn said, ducking around Denzil to reclaim the seat he'd been sitting in before Callisto's dramatic exit. "You never told me you had a brother."

  "And?" Denzil said defensively, crossing his arms. He made no move to reclaim his seat, but Denzil usually preferred to pace and move and throw his arms around crazily when he was upset or angry. "It never came up, did it? Besides, he's a lot younger than I am; I have almost nothing to do with him, especially since I moved here."

  "What happened that night, Denzil?" Mervyn asked, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on his thighs to stare intently at Denzil. "Callisto told me that you two fought, and then he left."

  Denzil cursed, shaking his head. "You mean to tell me—that happened four nights ago?"

/>   "Not long after he left, from what he told me," Mervyn said quietly, trying to soften that blow. "He said he didn't do anything obvious to attract attention, so it may have just been a wizard looking for a fresh test subject who got lucky and grabbed an actual fairy."

  "Or it could be my fault," Denzil said, sitting down heavily in the chair across from Mervyn. "I meant to tell you, but I hadn't had an excuse to come over this way. I thought—I think there's someone watching me, trying to peg me."

  "Okay," Mervyn said slowly, wondering if it would do any good to knock Denzil upside the head. "How long?"

  "A few weeks, maybe less," Denzil said, scowling. "And shut up, I was handling it. I sent Callisto away because I didn't want them tracking him, too."

  "If they're after you, and were testing on Callisto, they may have all the confirmation they want," Mervyn pointed out, even if a sibling relation was no guarantee that both of them were fairies. "Has anything happened in the last few days?"

  "No, but I've been busy and on the move a lot," Denzil said, shaking his head in emphasis. "If they tried something, I missed it or they missed me."

  "You should stay here, then," Mervyn said, frowning thoughtfully, then added, when Denzil looked ready to protest, "If only until we replace the heart charm in Callisto's chest."

  "Okay, fine," Denzil said snappishly. "But I have to write some notes, and I'm going to find that goddamn wizard as soon as Callisto is recovering."

  "I'll help," Mervyn said mildly, unsurprised at Denzil's fervor. He didn't ask about Denzil's lover, either, even if he was curious. Denzil would tell him if he wanted to, and lie if Mervyn asked.

  "How is he?" Denzil asked, looking worried and guilty.

  "He's scared, worried, exhausted," Mervyn said, snagging his previously discarded cup of tea and taking a quick drink before adding, "He's afraid you're angry at him, though I'm not sure if he thinks that because of your argument or because he's a power source."