"Look into the mirror too. He'll need something to focus on besides his own eyes," the sorceress said. She put her hand on Marcus's forehead again, fingers pointing down, and in this awkward position, she forced Marcus's eyelids open so he could stare blankly into the hand mirror she held with her other hand.
If he could have willed Marcus to meet his gaze in the mirror, Sebastian would have. Instead he watched as Marcus's eyes failed to focus.
"Say his name!"
His voice was probably the last one Marcus wanted to hear, but he didn't say that. Instead he leaned closer and said in his ear, "Marcus. Marcus, it's me, Bastian. Look at me, Marcus."
Marcus's eyes flickered, then focused.
"Hold him tight!"
Sebastian tightened his arms around Marcus at the sorceress's command, though his body had not tensed. "Marcus, look at me."
"Bastian?"
The sorceress drew back her hand from Marcus, still holding the mirror. "He's back," she said, quiet triumph in her voice, though she held the mirror for a few seconds longer.
"Bastian?"
Sebastian released his hold on Marcus, and slid off the bed, letting Marcus down gently to lay on his back. He turned to the young woman. "Thank you. What do I owe you?"
Her head tilted to one side as if considering. "Tell me something you've never told anyone."
"What? What kind of payment is that?" Besides confusing, he added silently.
"The kind I require for this service," she said. "It seems a small enough price, to save the one you love."
He shot a glance at Marcus, who still looked pale, and his eyes were closed again. "He's okay?"
"He sleeps, he'll be fine in a few hours. You'll need to test his Eye again. I don't know if a bad glamour sickness can damage it, but you should—well, I'm sure you know what you should do," she finished in a tone of reprimand. She remained seated on the bed.
Sebastian looked again at Marcus. "I won't tell you in his hearing."
She nodded her head in agreement. "I need a minute more, if you don't mind. Magic costs, you know, so the price paid can't be anything too easily given up."
It made him feel marginally contrite, to realize she felt too weak to move, but was that worth what she asked? Then again, what use could she have with one of his secrets? It cost him; it didn't necessarily benefit her. Even still, when she finally held her hand out that he might help her to her feet, it was shaking. He led her across the room. "Are you all right?"
"Mirror spells are tricky," she said in an offhand voice, looking at him expectantly.
"I know you've figured this out already, but I love him. I've never told anyone. I'll never tell anyone else." His glance went involuntary towards the bed again.
"Why?"
"Because everyone I love abandons me. I can't bear it again." He looked at the sorceress sharply, aware he'd told much more than he intended. "What will you do with that information?"
"The information? Nothing, that is not..." She waved vaguely. "However, I can say you might miss the best part of life if you never take chances. Although given the revolving door on your bedroom, I supposed that might count as taking chances."
"Thank you for the personal comments."
She smiled. "If you ever need more magical help, you know where to find me. The Prestcotes have a long and well-earned reputation in the City of Dreams."
Sebastian found himself in the rare position of lacking something to say. Relief that Marcus was all right was mixed with the unpleasant feelings roused by his "payment" and the sorceress's uncanny and unasked for opinion of his sex life had him out of sorts. "You can make your way? Should I call a carriage?"
"Pish, I'm fine."
Nine
Kitty sent a note around to Marcus a day later, asking after his health. She knew he'd be fine, but she wasn't sure if Sebastian Moreaux would be around, keeping an eye on the man he loved. She smiled, finally seeing exactly how to get everything she wanted, while giving Marcus Allegro and Sebastian Moreaux what they wanted. Needed. An elegant symmetry that would have made her ancestors proud.
She invited Marcus to her rooms, never admitting he was the first male visitor since her grandfather had passed. She had spent her time since freeing him from the glamour-sickness scripting what she would say. But for now, she served him hot tea with just a hint of suggestibility in it.
"So have you decided to stay at the ecole after all?"
Marcus nodded slowly. "Bastian says I have may have the Eye, that I need to be trained. I-I don't know how I'll be able to..."
"How long?"
He shrugged. "Maybe I can ask to be transferred to another mentor."
"Moreaux is the best, the youngest master—but of course I understand. Is there anything you might have changed about," she waved both hands in one of her vague gestures. "What passed between you?"
Marcus swallowed several large gulps of tea and his brow creased in thought. "I wish," he said slowly, "I wish I'd given him what he wanted."
"What he wanted?"
Marcus smiled faintly. "Sex. I'd like to have that one night, to remember."
She sat back, trying to hide how smug she felt. "What if I told you there might be a way?"
*~*~*
"...and if you're naked, you know, except for the slippers," Kitty said, "then you look naked." She stepped from behind the dressing screen and Marcus gasped, his face burning. "What do you see?" she asked.
"Bastian. Naked. By Deo, you even sound like him." Marcus stared, unable to look away from that expanse of lightly muscled chest and a dusting of hair that led downward to—he gulped. He skipped over that part to look at his—her—feet. They, too, appeared bare.
She took off the slippers and Marcus spun away, seeing a naked Kitty now. "Scarred! For life!"
"Serves you right for looking at me like I was a piece of meat and you hadn't eaten in a week."
He didn't say anything, and even when he thought she might have gone behind the dressing screen again, he continued to stare at the wall. It wasn't Kitty's body burned into his brain, but Sebastian's. Or maybe it was Kitty as Sebastian. Oh damn. How did the slippers know what Bastian looked like naked? Or did their magic draw from his own imagination? Damn. He rubbed at the heat in his cheeks, willing it to go away.
"Here's the thing, you wear the slippers in front of multiple people at the same time, they're all going to see someone different, right? Their own heart's desire, so that will give it away there's magic in play. You've got to see Sebastian alone." Her voice was muffled and then she said, clearly, "You can turn around, I'm dressed. And we need to discuss price, now that you know what you're getting. For thirteen hours."
Marcus sucked in a breath and let it out shakily. "Right," he said. He never expected Kitty to let him have them without a price. He gave her a smirk. "You can have my first born."
She laughed. "Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen." Her expression sobered. "You know that's an old wives' tale, right? People belong to themselves, magically speaking. You can't give me one, even if it's a baby, even if," she snickered, "you managed to impregnate a woman."
Marcus childishly stuck out his tongue. His childhood aversion to girls had stuck with him as he grew to manhood. "What then? I thought you didn't take money for this sort of thing?"
Kitty tilted her head. "No, I need something more precious than money." She hesitated. "Something of sentimental value, perhaps?"
Marcus shook his head. He had nothing to remember Sebastian by, that was why he wanted the green velvet slippers.
"Sebastian gave you nothing?" she asked, gently insistent.
He gave her a wry smile. "Nothing but wet dreams."
Her face lit up. "I can use that!"
"What?" His cheeks heated up in embarrassment at her enthusiasm. He'd not mentioned it with a view to Kitty's payment.
"That's what I want," she said, rooting around in a basket on her shelf. "Next time you," she paused as if noticing his embarrassment for the f
irst time. "Next time, save the result in this vial." She held up a small, ordinary looking glass vial, cork half stuffed inside. She frowned. "Though it might be better if you're awake."
His blush deepened. "Are you sure that's what you want? I mean, what will you do with it?" Marcus asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know.
"It will form the basis of a fertility spell," she said, and beamed at him. "Someday, some lonely woman will have a beautiful child!"
*~*~*
The green velvet slippers were, in a word, hideous. They had pointed toes that curled slightly in a style not seen in hundreds of years, which was how old Kitty claimed them to be. The green velvet had a slightly faded look but it was as soft and thick as if new, and the beaded embroidery across the vamp looked as bright and perfect as if done recently.
It puzzled him, when he could think about it, why Sebastian had exposed his game before claiming his prize. He'd said right from the beginning that he'd wanted to fuck Marcus, so why stop when he was just hours away from winning it all? At first Marcus had been grateful for that, at least, but now... Now he wanted that one night. Just to know what it was like.
He had no idea what he might look like in the slippers, and Kitty couldn't tell him. "I just see you, Marcus," she said. "The glamour doesn't work on magic users. So keep your clothes on while I'm in the room, yes? Because I love men like you love women. Sebastian will see whom he loves most."
"He'll probably see himself," Marcus muttered. But he hoped it was a man, because Kitty had explained that the illusion didn't extend to touch. "If he sees you as a woman and he grabs for your cooch, he'll be shocked."
Marcus had already decided that if Sebastian saw the illusion of a man, he'd go as far with him as he could reasonably get away with. He knew the time and place. Sebastian was having a salon, and Marcus would hide when Sebastian finally sent everyone away—everyone, he hoped—and then put on the shoes and look like whomever Bastian loved. Kiss him. Fuck him. Everything he could get of Bastian, to remember for the rest of his life.
During the salon he endured the usual jokes, the too-hard arm punches, the exaggerated groping, the remarks on his hair or face or clothes and suffered watching Bastian stick his tongue in every mouth pressed to his. Please, he thought, please don't take anyone to your bed. And he didn't. When the room was quiet, Bastian sat on a chair, one leg draped over the arm, his clothes askew from a dozen or so men and women touching him. He was alone though, and Marcus, now behind a curtain, pulled the slippers over his shoes. The green velvet, subdued as it was, was still garish in his eyes, but as Kitty had demonstrated, the illusion hid even the slippers, so it didn't matter they were so very green.
He stepped out from behind the curtain, unnoticed by Sebastian, who was frowning, eyes half closed. His body was too tense for him to be sleeping, though. Marcus knew him that well. He cleared his throat, and Bastian startled. His eyes widened, then he glared. "Marcus. What the hell are you still doing here?"
Marcus just stared, unable to say a word. He was wearing the magic slippers, why weren't they working?
"Why are you staring at me like that, like you didn't expect to see me? It's my place," Bastian said irritably.
"Y-you can see me?"
"What, you think you're invisible?" Bastian gave him a tired glare and raked the hair off his forehead. "Get out, Marcus. I can't—I can't deal with you right now."
Marcus could barely nod before scurrying from the room. Outside, he just stood in the streetlight and took deep breaths until the fear turned into anger. He took off the ugly slippers and marched to Kitty's shop. He pounded on her door until a light came on and she opened up, half dressed, hair a mess, and irritable. "Don't you know better than to anger a sorceress?" Then she recognized him. "Marcus? Done already?"
"They didn't work," he growled, tossing the slippers at her. He missed.
"That's impossible," she said, turning to look behind her. "Come in, come up, tell me what's happened?"
Marcus followed her up the stairs and sat heavily on her settee, ignoring her longing looks towards her bed. "They didn't work. He saw me."
"Are you sure? They always work."
"He called me by name, told me to get out." He sighed, and rubbed at his eyes. "Maybe he's got an anti-magic spell on him, or something, but I tell you, it didn't work!"
Kitty was staring at him with bright eyes. "Hold that thought." She rooted around a packed bookcase and pulled out an ancient book, opening it. "This is, well, never mind what it is. Hmm, let me see."
"What? Is there some special circumstance under which the slippers don't work?"
"It could be because of the Eye, but that seems unlikely," she said absently. She stared at the book, but Marcus wasn't sure she was actually seeing it.
"You wore the slippers and I saw Bastian, and he says I have the Eye."
"True," she said, her voice distant. The she blinked and turned to him. "Send him a message, asking to meet you at your room in the morning. I need to experiment."
He shook his head. "He won't come."
"You stay here."
"That doesn't make sense," Marcus complained, writing the note. "He won't come. I'm going to my room."
Kitty sighed and muttered something while looking at him. "Sleep," she said.
He fell back on the sofa and she hoisted him into a more comfortable position before leaving.
*~*~*
Kitty carried the slippers to Marcus's rooms. She'd put a mild compulsion spell on Marcus's note,so Sebastian would show up, whether he really wanted to or not. She stripped and stuffed her clothes under Marcus's bed, and then pulled one of his sheets off to wrap carelessly around her waist. If Sebastian had an anti-magic spell on him, which she doubted, he would think Marcus had excellent taste in women. If he didn't, that would confirm her conclusions. Although it seemed logical, there'd been no notes in the book, and logic didn't necessarily apply to magical items.
She opened the door so Sebastian would think he had come upon her unawares and stood in the morning light streaming in the window.
"Marcus, what the hell is so urgent it couldn't wait for a decent hour—oh damn. You could have--"
Kitty spun around with a startled squeak, and nearly lost her sheet. Sebastian Moreaux was staring at her in the same hungry manner Marcus had. How interesting.
"Put some damn clothes on. You invited me over, you couldn't get dressed?" He turned away.
Kitty said, "I didn't think you'd come," knowing Sebastian heard Marcus's voice. This was fascinating.
He glanced over his shoulder. "Marcus, I'm not staying if you won't—"
Kitty dropped the sheet and Sebastian Moreaux went pale and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him. She grinned. So that was what happened when the magic slippers were faced with the wearer being seen by the one who loved him. Sebastian loved Marcus, so naturally that was who he'd see when Marcus was in the slippers. Who else? In all the generations the slippers had been in the Prestcote family, nobody had ever tried to use them on the people they loved, only the ones they wanted to trick. She, Katherine Anne Prestcote, would be the first to add a new notation to the book since her great-grandmother.
Back at her rooms, she noticed Marcus asleep on the divan. He had shaved off the fuzzy beard to attend the salon, yet sleep still gave him a more masculine appearance. Perhaps because his lustrous eyes were closed. She smiled, thinking of his payment, and brushed her hand lightly over his golden hair. "Wake up, sleeping beauty. You were right," she added when the confusion cleared his eyes. "He sees you."
He blinked a few times. "That's what I told you," he said irritably.
Kitty opened her mouth to correct him, and decided against it. It would be far more amusing, far more satisfying, to resolve this another way. "I have a few more experiments to conduct, but I think I may have this figured out." She paused for effect. "Or I could return your payment?"
He scowled and blushed at the same time. So cute. "I want what I paid
for. Do you have some other item...?"
"No need, at least not yet. Return to your rooms; go about your day as usual. I should have news on the morrow."
His pretty mouth tightened and released, leaving a troubled, anxious look. "Thank you, Kitty."
"Eh," she said, hiding a smirk.
Ten
Kitty had violated any number of minor laws regarding influence and compulsion spells, but since she was doing no harm, her conscience didn't trouble her over-much. It never occurred to her that the men might not appreciate her interference. It was clear how they felt about each other, except to each other, all she was going to do was help them communicate.
She looked askance at the green velvet slippers. Just because she now knew they wouldn't disguise Sebastian's appearance didn't mean she had to tell him that.
She smiled. Those damn slippers were finally going to do some good in the world.
*~*~*
Marcus sighed and shrugged off his jacket and waistcoat, hanging them carelessly on the back of a chair. His favourite part of this room was the large window near the bed. The light was perfect for sketching, and painting, if his canvas was small enough. He opened his sketchbook and idly began to draw, not surprised to see Bastian's face emerge from the pencil strokes. He had to get past this; it was eating away at him. He couldn't, wouldn't let himself be broken down just because Bastian didn't love him. He needed to reconcile it, put it in the past and stop accepting Bastian's invitations. Why did Bastian still invite him? To be the entertainment?
Somehow he made it through the rest of the day, remembering to eat. He paid extra for a hot bath, hoping to relax, then fell into bed without bothering with night clothes, curious to know what Kitty would have to say the next day.
But sleep would not come. Of course not. So he was awake when the door to his room creaked open, not loud, but familiar. "Who's there," he demanded in a low tone.
"Marcus, you're awake. Good."
Was that Sebastian? He opened his mouth to ask, but was cut off.
"Just listen to me, I only have tonight to tell you this. I-I love you, and I know that must sound really strange coming from a stranger."
City of Dreams Page 5
