When the sisters had come to see me, they’d sometimes come together, sometimes dropped by one by one. And there was that lovely time when Catherine brought her baby son for me to meet and stayed for a week, and we had so much fun calling out butterflies for the baby to watch and playing with all our silly little magic tricks.
But years passed and things changed, and the gap between the old way of life and this new one, that they seemed to find so easily available, had grown wider each day. My bad leg had gotten worse, especially with the fall rains, and worse still with the fierce winter winds. My eye, then…or rather, the scar…I was so used to it that I only wore my patch, when I went to the market.
My life was a slanting slide, a slippery slope, inevitably going towards quieter, smaller ways, while my sisters lived under the noon sun. I could only wonder how all this happened so effortlessly for my sisters, how easily they all slipped into their new roles, carrying their shimmering dresses as if born wearing them.
But I still felt at home here.
Chapter 9
I stirred awake from dreamless sleep and was relieved to find myself on my lovely soft rugs at home, a blanket tangled around my legs. But I was sure I’d hear a knock. I perked up my ears, and when another loud knock at the door verified my worries, I jerked to sit up.
Was it the demon? Could he have found me?
I glanced around looking for weapons of any kind. The first suitable thing I found was a shoe, so I picked it up, fully preparing to wind all my remaining magic around it and take an aim.
I could also call up firebolt, to throw right in the demon’s face, there was an idea…
No, I was still too sleepy, I wasn’t thinking rationally. The demon had masses of my magic now, my very own, and I had so little of the same kind left. There was no fair fight to be made of that.
The door opened with a croak, and a hooded head peeked in, and I almost burst into tears and laughter at the same time. It was my Elsa!
I scrambled up, kicking at the rugs and blankets, and dashed to hug her.
“Aw, I thought I’d find you here, Amalia! Oh, you poor thing…What a mess we got into, right?”
“I got into,” I corrected, wiping at the tears and laughing. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
“Are you okay?”
“Considering! I guess. There’s still life croaking in me…Should I make tea? I’ll make tea! And I have muffins.”
I’d baked them to celebrate the invite to the christening, and how wonderful life was starting to look for so many of us sisters. That day, I’d still thought I’d been invited to the Royal Castle.
“Muffins? You’re something else, Amalia…Baking here in the little hut.”
“Oh, one must have muffins…So, you got my ether message?”
“No, I just guessed you’d come home. What message was that?”
“Never mind, I can tell you everything in person. But are things okay now? How are you all doing at the Castle? Are you safe there, after all this?”
Elsa gave a sharp, desperate-sounding huff and sat down on the rug, folding her arms in her lap.
“It’s a disaster.”
I offered her a muffin from a wicker basket. She picked one, sniffed it, and greedily bit on it, and — being home, like we were — didn’t stop to finish her mouthful in order to speak.
“Ooh, we had a visitor!” she said, stretching it out in the most venomous tone, waving with one hand, and munching. “The Fae Queen! She flew down that evening, late in the night, after those awful events at the christening, with the black magic just getting darker and darker over the baby. This was when we had already all retired into our chambers at the castle. She arrived with a rumbling storm, broke in, and strode the halls in her glowing, airy capes like some angry moth. Of course, she’s taller than the king, and glowing, so by heavens, she was a sight. A monstrous moth of lightning and brimstone. We were told off, oh, so badly. Somehow, she had already heard of what we’d done at the christening, giving our magic as offerings. And for some reason, it was horrid, in her mind. Suddenly we were these unknown rogue witches wielding fae magic without telling anyone — or that’s how she saw it. Did you know we were supposed to report our magic powers? Did you know we were supposed to get a formal training? And then take a safety exam? There’s a safety exam! And you know what? We all took it right then and there, this safety exam, Lily, Rafaela, me, and everyone, all of us girls…and not one of us passed. But how could we? We’d never heard of it! Did you know about a safety test?”
Elsa glared at me practically holding her breath, at all this outrage, I imagined, and that muffin stayed up in the air. I could only shake my head.
“No, I didn’t think so…” Elsa concluded. “None of us have even heard of it. How could we follow the rules, if we don’t even know them? The Fae Queen looked at us like we were the worst of outlaws.” Elsa put the last piece of muffin in her mouth.
“Wait, it can’t be illegal to wield fae magic? How could it be? We were born with it.”
“I know! As if we could have torn it out somehow? As if we’d deliberately done all this on purpose?…But that wasn’t the point. Our crime was not telling the fae. That was the bad part. What you’re supposed to do is show up and report. If we’d only known and done that, they would have given us this formal training, so we’d have some idea of what on earth we’re trying to do. And if we’d passed the safety test, we would have perfectly well been allowed to go on with our lives, wielding lawful magic. That’s how she put it. Lawful magic.”
“Oh my…” But Elsa’s expression told me there was more, something worse than this. I sighed. “What is it, Elsa? What are you not telling me? I can see you’re not telling me everything.”
A silence hung heavy, as we stared at each other. I read hopeless devastation in her eyes.
“She took it all away,” Elsa spat, and squeezed her mouth into a quivering line. Then Elsa dropped all her strong facades and tossed her hands up. “That vicious, heartless glowworm took all of our magic away! Can you believe that?”
“She couldn’t do that? That’s simply too much. Are you sure…?”
“She twisted it somehow, so we wouldn’t know how to hold it and how to make it move anymore.” Elsa wiped the tears from under her eyes with a quick move. “Can you believe the nerve?”
“But that’s crazy.”
“And she’s a real fae, she’s the Queen of fae, no less, so we had no place to argue with her. Perhaps it’s the law, then.”
I crawled up to give Elsa a hug. “Maybe she was so angry she wasn’t thinking right. Maybe we’ll figure out a way to calm her down. I’m sure you’ll all get your magic back. It is yours, after all. She can’t just take it.”
“Thanks…I sure hope you’re right.”
“At least you found your way back here,” I pointed out.
Somehow, Elsa had found the shag, even though it was hidden under its thick layers of our home-made magic. The thin sheets of blue glow caked on top of each other, masses of them. The shields were strong. To regular people, the shag was invisible.
“I did, didn’t I. Perhaps it’s not all lost,” Elsa said in a hopeful voice. She frowned at the wall. “I can still see the ward layers quivering all over the walls here. So, I suppose my magic sight is all right, or at least as much as it ever was. It’s just that I can’t do anything with my powers anymore. I’ve tried, believe me.”
“But our reserves always grow back, eventually,” I said carefully.
Elsa refrained from answering. Maybe she knew more than I did. Maybe the Fae Queen had made sure their magic reserves weren’t going to be filling up? Like Elsa said, the Queen had somehow twisted their magic. Maybe they’d have plenty, but wouldn’t be able to make use of it?
“How is the little baby princess?” I asked, instead, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“There’s still a thin gray veil of effects over her, and not knowing how things are going to turn out is breaking everyone�
�s heart, but I think she’s getting better. The curse should have done its work by now if it was going to, right? It seems to me things are looking quite promising. You know what the Fae Queen did? She took a look and shook her head at us, saying nothing. She did not lift the curse. That sure changed how I feel about her…I used to think she was kind.”
I bit my tongue. Perhaps the Fae Queen had seen the demon’s magic working on the curse already and saw it best not to meddle right then.
But I couldn’t mention the pact with the demon, no matter how I wished I could now plan everything with Elsa and talk catastrophes into little teensy weensy passing gray clouds, as we used to do, and as we so well knew how to do, making so much laughter out of what should have been such misery.
The remaining magic veils hovering over baby Aurora understandably worried those who didn’t know what it meant, but I knew. It meant that the curse would always follow her every step…but not hurt her until her eighteenth birthday.
Even with that said, the day of her eighteenth birthday was coming, and it would end her life as she knew it.
Still, all was well, until then. All was well for now.
And there would be plenty time to figure out how to unravel the rest of the curse.
Chapter 10
The sun wasn’t properly up yet, when I made my way to the well in the twilight. Elsa had left in the early hours, to ride back to town. I had the house all to myself again, and the silence was almost screaming how things used to be. But so much had changed.
Morning dew had caught on the branches of lily of the valley and made the blooms bow. All over, the water beads stuck to leaves of grass like nature’s jewelry. Taking a deep breath to wake up from my day-dreaming, I pushed the branches of the willows aside, so my horns didn’t get stuck— they were no larger than a thumbnail, but I hated being reminded of them — and I could reach to lift the well’s lid.
When the lid came off, my reflection in the water swam and swayed, as if scared to send back what it saw. But this effect wasn’t entirely about me. There was something close. Something evil. I could sense it in my gut.
I swirled around to meet the beady eyes of the gargoyle demon from the roof.
I could only scream in surprise.
“What am I reading in your slow, lazy mind? You thought you’d run from me? Me? A darkling? I smell your magic and I sense your fear, you sorry wench.”
I refrained from answering. What difference did it make, whether I’d tried to run?
“I see you’ve piled a lot or ward spells over your little shag, but this kind of thing won’t stop me, you understand? You’re too used to human ways. Understandable, as you’ve never seen real magic in action…But I’m not here to talk, I’m here to collect my down-payment. There’s so much work to do, I need it now.”
“Didn’t you already take enough?”
“I need it for our plan to work. That’s what we agreed on, in case you don’t remember? You give me the magic; I build the spells. We agreed I would perform something extraordinary, but for it to work, I need energies to work with. I need more. But I’ll only take a little…It’s not going to kill you, witch. You’ll just be a little weak. Not much worse than a cold, it can’t be? So, stop whining and take responsibility for your actions.”
“We didn’t agree to—"
“We agreed to the outcome, and for the outcome, I need magic. And you promised me access to yours. So there we have it.”
I had never been as low of reserves in my entire life as I’d been the past two days, since I’d spent my magic to the last drop. How could the demon possibly still take more? From which reserves? I’d probably die, that’s what.
“You won’t die, wench. You’ll get what you asked for, and I what I need.”
“Are you really reading my mind?”
“I’ll say, I read simple thoughts…” The demon’s voice thinned and the sentence ended with laughter.
“You’re one mean bargainer.”
“Why, thank you!”
“It wasn’t a—”
Never mind. The creature was getting ready, crouching and putting its paws together, to focus and draw out the rest of my energy. This didn’t seem fair, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was unfair about it. Had we agreed on this? I wasn’t sure.
But I had agreed to giving him magic. And I had—no going around it—brought on this whole mess to begin with. I closed my eyes and focused, to check how much, exactly, I had left at the moment. To watch it while it went.
And magic still flowed in me, alive and well, but a drizzle was dripping in the demon’s direction.
I had no options. I couldn’t think of a better solution than letting him take it and hope for the best. Maybe he’d hold his end of the deal, we’d be done with this, and things would turn well…and one day, I’d laugh over all this and think, oh, foolish me, whatever might I have thought.
It was over sooner than I thought, and I found myself coming to, waking up from some absence spell, still standing. The spell wasn’t enough to make me trip; I regained my balance just as the demon flung its strangely jointed arms and stepped back.
Then I couldn’t see which way he stepped. Perhaps he used the magic to make himself invisible, or perhaps he wished himself away or moved too fast for my eye to catch. He was gone.
I stood shivering. He had left me empty, weak, and dizzy. But the sun of energy inside me, ever glowing, it was still there. It was just diminished, weakened, a little out of touch. It was still there, alive and true.
Except, when I picked up the pail beside the well, everything went white, and I sunk to my knees.
Chapter 11
I woke up on a stone floor, shivering from cold, freezing to the barrow of my every bone. A layer of dust coated my clothes, an inch thick.
This place was a dimly lit room with red tile walls. The little light that there was seemed to come from the adjacent room’s window.
It appeared to be early morning or evening twilight. Of which day? And where?
I pulled my palms over my face and shuddered at the dust caked all over me. I clamped my mouth shut, as I vigorously brushed all the muck off, and then I sat up, breathing in.
Whatever was in that dust, smelled long-forgotten. The amount of it chilled me and twisted my stomach. How could a layer of dust this thick have fallen during the time I’d been asleep on this floor?
I distinctively remembered a castle…as if I’d seen a glimpse of it long ago, briefly. Clean, new, and smelling of fresh wood and roses. But now…A dank smell.
Had that castle in my image been this one? Where was my memory from? From the hazy moments before falling asleep? So, how long had I exactly been trapped here? Here. This strange place.
There were no furniture at all, not in this room or the other one, for what I could see. It was as if I’d been abandoned in an empty building…
I turned my eyes to the window again. The sky was darkish, dappled by light blue clouds, but that was all I could make out.
I brushed the dust off a fallen, loose tile on the floor to press my palm against it. If I still had magic, I could listen to this room: what had happened here and what this building could tell me. I was met by a booming, low vibration, but no words, no images. The only thing that was obvious was that the building was perfectly dripping with magic.
Strangely aware of my vision being blocked, I fumbled for my eye-patch and lifted it a little. Light streamed in and lit up my view in a disorienting fashion.
Oh!
I could see with my bad eye. I could see with two eyes, now. What a strange feeling, after how many years?
Confused, I took my eye-patch off and eased the string over my head. Then I turned to look behind me and all around. I closed my good eye, just to make sure…But which one was the good one? Hah! They were both good, now. Yes, I could see with either one at a time.
As my reluctantly excited mind caught up, a thought made my heart jolt. I had suffered plenty scratch
es and bruises years back, growing up, as stepfather Victor had made sure of that, and some scars had stayed etched in me. Apprehensive, I pulled up one of my sleeves to check the most memorable scar on my arm. It wasn’t there. My arm was fine, the skin smooth.
I had both my perfectly good eyes, seeing just as I used to ages back, and none of my scars were there. What sorcery was this? Lovely!
Oh, the demon had done something good, then…But was that to keep me complicit in his plans? I already was, though. Complicit. Guilty.
Whatever the reason, this did seem quite encouraging.
Sighing out, I stood up and dusted off my clothes as well, and then I set out to find the closest door.
Perplexingly, there were none. I went down staircases and walked through room after room. I found cabinets, baths, and reading rooms.
There was no entrance hall or door to this place that I could find.
One lobby was quite strange, though. Every time I tried to pass through it, a dizziness overcame me, and I had to turn back. The first time, I paid no attention, thinking I was still unwell. The second, I began wondering, and the third, I thought it obvious that there was a reason for it. But what reason that could have been, I had no answers for.
Chapter 12
I set down the brass bowl I had found in the kitchen. I’d eaten so much my stomach ached. I’d found the cabinets full of the food in the pantry, and I’d thought, I’d die of hunger anyway, if I didn’t eat, so I’d gobbled up everything I wanted.
But the bowl I was using was not for food…I’d absent-mindedly gotten out my magic cauldron bowl to put the food in. I always had it in my skirts pockets.
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