Imperative: A Quinn Larson Quest

by P. A. Wilson

  I tapped Edrinda on the shoulder and pointed behind me. I needed room to test the bricks. She didn’t look happy about moving but did take a step to join Clarence. Both Kobolds stood well into my personal space. It wasn’t worth arguing with them. I just started searching.

  Maeve had told Olan that I would be able to find the brick easily. Unfortunately, we had two different definitions of easily. I didn’t see a brick with a label that read “look here” or one painted in white. I would have to work it out.

  If it was obvious to Maeve, maybe it was about my point of view. I was currently facing the Sidhe door. If Fionuir wanted to access the amulet, she would be facing away. I turned around and stood as close as I could to the door without touching it. From this angle I could see two bricks slightly out of line, one on each side of the door.

  I didn’t put much faith in my ability to open both without a problem. And as I waited three other bricks seemed to shift out of place. Okay, clearly this was a trap, unless the Sidhe kept lockers like a bus station. I had a flash of Sidhe lined up opening their lockers and trying to hide their treasures from each other. That was clearly wrong.

  It was probably an illusion spell. I pulled a chestnut seed out of my pocket and breathed on it before tossing it into the air. As it spun back to earth, the illusion broke and the bricks all faded back into alignment.

  A wisp slid onto my head. “I can penetrate the brick if that will help.” It had a clear voice like a child of six or seven.

  Just what I needed, a will-o’-wisp exploding behind the brickwork. I thought back at it, “No, not yet. I am not sure that is safe.”

  It floated off my head.

  I touched the wall to my right and ran my fingers up and down pressing on each brick in turn, the bricks were cool and none yielded. I tried again on the left hand wall. Nothing.

  I closed my eyes to concentrate better. This should be easy. What had Olan told me? Yes, Maeve said it was close to the door. If I was Fionuir would I want to step out into this dampness? Only if I had to. She would want to open the door and reach her hiding place without coming into the corridor.

  I turned my back to the door and pretended to open it. Left hand on the door, right hand to the wall. I hadn’t tested the bricks right next to the door. Now I ran my fingers up and found a loose brick about two thirds of the way up. My fingers tingled as a sealing spell warned me off. That wasn’t going to stop me. I had a little book that gave spells used by thieves in the middle ages. In anticipation of tonight I had memorized it. I whispered the spell into the space where the mortar would have been and waited. The tingle subsided and I stuck my fingers into a hole that appeared in the side of the brick.

  Something pricked my finger but the brick came loose. The wisp must have moved away because the light faded, but I saw the amulet and pulled it out of the hole, put the brick back in and slipped the small rock into a pocket.

  The wisps had now fled the length of the corridor and we were in pitch dark. I reached out and touched a spiky shoulder. “Go,” I whispered and held onto a spike as the Kobold led me back to the stairs. I knew we couldn’t rely on the wisps.

  We made it to the top of the stairs with no major injuries. I had stubbed the same toes three times on the way up. I could hear Reardon, but someone had closed the door because there was no light coming through. I gave a quick pat to the shoulder in front of me before I spoke. “I don’t know why the wisps left, but someone should have a quick peek before we step into the room.”

  I assumed the shoulder belonged to Edrinda, because she spoke. “Quinn, what are you talking about? The wisps have already given the all clear.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Clarence left me with Edrinda while he brought Lionel. Between the three of them they got me back to Cate’s place.

  “I’ll make some tea,” Lionel said.

  “You have blindness curing tea?” I heard Clarence ask.

  “No, but tea is always a good idea.”

  Someone touched my arm and led me a few steps into what I thought was the living room. “Sit,” Clarence said, giving me a gentle push.

  I felt the couch hit the back of my legs so I sank into the cushions. I was left alone. I could hear them talking in the kitchen. Well, I could hear that they were talking and the sound came from where I thought the kitchen was. They carefully kept their voices low, but I could still cast simple spells even though I was blind. I cast a spell of hearing and their voices became as clear as if they were standing beside me.

  “He can’t see how will he cleanse the amulet?” Clarence asked.

  “I can do it,” Lionel said.

  “Maybe we can find another wizard to do this, what about that spirit wizard, Joaquin what’s his name?” Clarence said, ignoring Lionel.

  “He’s in Bolivia,” Edrinda said over the sound of the kettle boiling.

  “I can do it,” Lionel’s voice rose a bit.

  “What about Orville Mueller?” Clarence suggested.

  “Maybe. I can ask around,” Edrinda said.

  “I can do it,” Lionel shouted. “If you don’t think I can, we should bring Olan into it.”

  Neither Kobold answered.

  “That’s the best suggestion,” I called from the living room. “Can someone find Olan?”

  “No need to find me, I’m here.” Olan must have landed on the couch because I felt a breeze across my fingers.

  “Where have you been?” I turned to where I thought he was.

  “Scouting around, but now I’m over here.” His voice came from the opposite direction to where I faced.

  “Great, tease the blind wizard.” I turned to face him and felt another breeze. “Stay in one place.”

  He chirped and said, “You take all the fun out of life, Quinn Larson.”

  Someone took my hand and placed a warm mug in it.

  “So, you heard what happened,” Clarence said.

  “I hear you let someone blind my favorite wizard.”

  Lionel’s voice came from across the room. “I don’t think anyone let it happen, Olan.”

  The impending argument was already giving me a headache. “Forget who is responsible. We need to figure out how to fix this. I have what we went there for. We’ll have the other ingredient soon.”

  “Okay,” I heard the sigh in Olan’s voice. He really liked a good argument. “Tell me what happened, exactly.”

  “I cast a spell to release the brick. The lights dimmed and I thought the wisps were leaving. I reached in and grabbed the amulet and by the time I put the brick back, it was dark.”

  “When Quinn touched my shoulder, I didn’t think anything of it. We followed the wisps to the top of the stairs; they went through and came back with the all clear signal. That’s when Quinn mentioned it was dark.”

  Olan hopped onto my shoulder. “The lights dimmed right after you cast the spell?”

  “That’s when I noticed it.”

  “Do you think that’s important?” Lionel asked. I felt sorry for the kid. He was being ignored by the adults in the room. What everyone forgot about apprentices is they had power and they knew some things very well.

  Olan fluttered his wings in my face. “I don’t know, but it is information. I’m going to have to search for a cure. This might take a while. Unless someone gives us the components of the spell that took your sight, we might not be able to cure it.”

  “Thanks for the lesson in magic, Olan.” I was losing my last bit of patience.

  “Sorry, I am thinking out loud.” I felt his feathers brush my cheek as he flapped off my shoulder. “You will have to teach Lionel how to cleanse the amulet. We can’t afford to bring anyone else into this.”

  “We’ll both learn it.” I didn’t have a lot of confidence that Lionel would be able to accomplish the task, but he had a better chance than me. If I had learned the spell before it would be different. “If push comes to shove, we’ll hide it so at least we’ll have control of it.”

  “Not good enough,”
Olan cawed. “I am going to find out what is happening out there.”

  “Do you have the spell with you?” I asked in the general direction of Lionel’s voice.

  “Yes, I wrote it out.” His voice came from the kitchen. “Let me show you, um I mean, let me read it to you.”

  “Okay, but don’t just read it out; we don’t want to accidentally cast it.” I patted the couch next to me. “Sit here and start by reading the ingredients.”

  I heard his heavy footfalls cross the room and then felt a breeze. “Oh, hi guys.” Lionel said then I heard him gasp. “What happened?”

  “Who is it?” I asked. This blindness was getting more frustrating by the minute.

  “Burr and Sting,” Lionel said.

  “It looks like they ran into some opposition.” Clarence seemed to be in the same place he was last time he spoke.

  “Someone tell me what’s going on, please. Try to remember I can’t see.” It was going to take a lot of energy to get people to deal with my blindness.

  “Nothing to worry about.” One of the fairies answered me, I couldn’t tell which one.

  “If you were beaten it is something to worry about.” I kept my voice gentle so I wouldn’t put them on the defensive. “I have been struck blind. You have been beaten. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

  “I am Burr.” I could hear a slur in the fairy’s voice as though her lips were swollen.

  “Okay, Burr tell me what happened.”

  “We have the blood.” She put a warm jar in my hand. I held it out and felt Lionel take it.

  “When were you beaten?”

  “As we finished, maybe an hour ago. This is why we are late.” Sting spoke this time.

  “Lionel, describe their wounds.”

  “Burr is beaten badly around the face; I think she has a broken nose, maybe more damage I will have to see. Sting seems to have a broken arm as well as bruises forming on his face.”

  “Who did this to you?” I thought I knew but it is best to be sure.

  “Sidhe, two males,” Burr slurred again. “They will be sorry, though. When we finish this spell, Sting and I are going after them.”

  “I think we can assume Fionuir has realized we took the amulet.” It meant we had to work faster. “Did they ask you anything? Or, say anything.”

  Silence.

  “Let me rephrase that. What did they say?”

  Still silence.

  “Lionel, please tell me what’s happening.” I felt his hand on my arm.

  “I don’t think they are going to tell you. They won’t look at you.”

  Clarence growled. “I can make them talk if need be.”

  “No, haven’t they been through enough?”

  “Let me talk to them.” Lionel’s voice moved away from my side. “Alone, Clarence.” A new sound of authority in his tone impressed me.

  “They have left the room,” Edrinda said. “Perhaps this is not related to our plan. Fairies and Sidhe often have fights.”

  “I don’t believe this is a coincidence,” I said. “If they were followed here, or told their attackers where we were meeting, the Sidhe are already on their way.”

  “If that were the case, we would have been attacked by now,” Clarence said. “If the boy cannot get them to speak, what will you do? Just take the chance?”

  “We’ll deal with that if it happens. I’m going to have to give that boy a crash course in spell casting; it would help if you spent your time boosting his confidence instead of cutting him down,” I said.

  I heard a sigh and a slap of fist on armor. “Quinn is right, husband, help or shut up.”

  I sat trying to think of any other plan than teaching high level spells to someone else’s apprentice. I don’t know what the Kobolds were doing, but they were silent at least.

  Five minutes, or what felt like it, later I heard Lionel come back into the room. “The fairies are gone. But I have the information.”

  I waited and felt him sit beside me again.

  “They did find out that the Rose fairies would forgive Princess Elizabeth if we were successful,” he said.

  I didn’t like the way he had started with a different topic. “Is this a good news bad news thing? If so, just hit me with the bad news.”

  “Yes, get on with it,” Edrinda snapped.

  “Well, the two Sidhe who beat them wanted to know why they were visiting the other tribes. They asked if it had anything to do with you, Quinn. Burr and Sting didn’t tell them anything and they think they got away clean. They checked very carefully to make sure they weren’t being followed. They took the long way here and swear we are safe.”

  “That’s the bad news? It’s not that bad.” I waited for the other shoe to drop.

  “Well, when I checked their wounds, I found this.” Lionel put something in my hand.

  I felt the smooth edges of the object, it seemed to be teardrop shaped and about the size of a walnut. “They didn’t know they had this?”

  “No, it was hanging from the edge of Burr’s coat. There were a lot of pieces of debris there.”

  “What is it wizard?” Clarence sounded like he understood my earlier frustration.

  “It’s a gem.” I turned to Lionel. “Is it blue?”

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  “Maeve wears these on her clothes.”

  “You think she was there?” Lionel’s voice was hushed.

  “I hope not. This is complicated enough.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “No, it’s your right hand.” I stopped Lionel from passing his left hand over the lump of coal we were using as a model amulet. “Using your left hand will change the spell and I don’t have time to figure out how to fix that.

  It was hard enough to train someone when you were blind but to train someone who couldn’t seem to remember from one try to the next where he was making mistakes was impossible. I had Edrinda read the spell to me and then asked Lionel to narrate as he practiced the moves. It wasn’t working.

  “Look, Quinn. I have an idea,” Lionel said, frustration bleeding out of his words. That was the other problem, he kept blaming himself every time he got it wrong, which made him less able to get it right.

  “Anything will be better than trying this again. I’m sorry I’m such a lousy teacher, Lionel.” Maybe a bit of blame taking would help his self-esteem.

  “No, I’m sure it’s just because you can’t see.” He sighed. “So, when Cate taught me a spell she would take me through it a step at a time. We would put the ingredients out in order, just like we have now. Then I would talk through the spell until I could do it without reading. Then I would do the motions while talking until I got them both right, then I would try to cast the spell.”

  “And how long did it usually take to get you to the casting point?” Clarence called from the kitchen.

  “It depended. And, she always had a dissolve spell ready. Just in case. That came in handy more than once.”

  It might work, I really worried that Lionel wouldn’t be able to pull this off. But really the spell couldn’t go wrong. It would work or it wouldn’t. The thing is we would only know when a fairy got pregnant; two days at least. “It has merit, and maybe by doing this, we can find some other way to deal with it. Maybe we can work together, or something,” I said without thinking.

  “Really?” Lionel sounded so eager I felt bad about my earlier impatience.

  “Let’s start with the ingredients. List the ingredients in order.”

  “Batwing powder, clover pollen, fairy blood…” Lionel listed the twenty ingredients in order and completely accurately; including the fact that the raindrops needed to have been caught in a Foxglove flower.

  “Perfect,” Edrinda confirmed.

  “Okay, talk me through the moves. Take your time. This spell can be cast very slowly if necessary.” Unfortunately like most spells, no one else could speak while it was being cast.

  “I take the Batwing and using my right hand,” he pau
sed and I assumed he was waiting for confirmation. I nodded. “I gently pour it into the crucible.”

  He stumbled a few times but Edrinda corrected him and we let him go forward.

  “This seems to be working. Okay, keep going through this until you have it right without us prompting.”

  We sat through this process for an hour. And Lionel’s ability dropped the longer we did it. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. “We need rest. Lionel, stop. Let’s have some tea and try again later.”

  After we rested, I told Lionel to go back to reading the spell and walking through the motions. Maybe he would build some motion memory and then be able to do it without the writing. We couldn’t have Edrinda hold the paper because she would get in his way. He couldn’t hold it because he needed both hands for the spell.

  “We need a plan B,” Clarence said. “Can’t you just memorize the spell and cast it?”

  “We can’t take a chance that I will spill an ingredient, or reach for the wrong one. When this is over I’ll figure out how to be a blind wizard. Today we need to find a way for Lionel to cast this one.”

  “I’m sure he’ll manage to learn it. Maybe not in time, but eventually.” Clarence laughed and I looked to see if Lionel had heard. He was so deep in the spell he wouldn’t have heard a train run through the room.

  Someone coughed and I heard Clarence’s armor creak as he turned.

  “Olan. You look like crap.” I felt Clarence move away.

  “I have been fighting for my life. You should see the other bird.” Olan’s voice was weak but he sounded jaunty.

  Great, another complication. “Who were you fighting with? Or, should I guess?” I asked.

  “Well a certain Irish crow. She started it. It was nothing I wanted.”

  “I doubt that, but it sounds like you finished it.” I wondered how badly he was hurt. “Clarence, what does he look like?”

  Lionel sighed and said, “I’ll go find Edrinda; she’s got a healing touch.”

  “A few feathers missing and he’s limping a bit,” Clarence reported.

  Olan chirped a laugh. “Well, that only needs time to heal. It is not serious. I thought I might find a way to get your eyesight back and it worked, I found this book.”