The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3)
Page 16
“Roger that. Well, this thing is almost out of magic so I’ll sign off. Meet you at Big in about a week.”
“Will do. Go.” The Caller went still and she put it into her pocket. Every bit of tension from the past two weeks knotted her shoulders and neck. She definitely needed to have that bath before calling Master.
Aran regarded her steadily, his expression one of cautious neutrality, as if he were contemplating saying something he shouldn’t. “Is it that vital, that you know exactly how our blood is formed?”
“Right now, I have no idea how to counter the ink. Until I do, over a dozen souls are trapped as an ink drawing. Does that answer the question?”
He stared at her face a moment more, weighing and measuring, before he dipped his head a fraction. “I will find you the answer.”
She blinked, not expecting him to say anything like that. “You will?”
“Go bathe,” he encouraged with a faint smile. “I’ll find out and report back to you.”
As desperately as she wanted and needed to know, Sevana had enough foresight to realize that by doing that, she might be damaging the ties she had with the Fae. For this emergency, fine, breaking the rules was acceptable. But what happened with the next emergency, when she needed their help? Life was unpredictable. She couldn’t swear that something like this wouldn’t happen again.
“Aran. I don’t want you to get us both into trouble. We’ll pay for rashness later.”
“You are not of us, but you are with us. You can ask this question and be allowed to know.” More practically, he added, “You just didn’t ask them the question, so they assume you didn’t need to know.”
Well, in that case, “Fine, go ask.”
He didn’t move. “While I’m asking, anything else?”
“I have a feeling I’ll need certain elements to counter this. I won’t know exactly until I have this all figured out, but I can guess on a few things, and at least two of them can be found here. Ask them if I can take what I need along with me.”
“That is understood. Of course you may. We may need a guide so we can gather it ourselves, so I will ask in advance for one.” He quirked a brow. “You know how the spell works, then?”
“I’m still not sure. But I have a sneaking suspicion.” Her gut feeling was that it was a portal spell and not a transformation spell. Master had concurred last night, while they were updating each other on their progress, but at the moment neither of them had any evidence to support it.
Aran seemed to realize that he wouldn’t get anything more out of her than that. He took off to go find her whatever answers he could. Sevana threw the Caller, her notebook of today’s findings, and such into her bag before heading back out.
The Fae had kindly put together a trail guide of sorts for her. They must have realized that to her eyes, everything looked the same, and so they arranged for a trail of stones to light up the path. They were color coded—white leading back to her rooms, blue to this workspace, and green to the common areas that the Fae all shared. Rincavornon had told her about them when he brought her and Aran lunch. It was thoughtful but also necessary—Sevana was not one to wait but the sort to blaze ahead until she figured it out. She would undoubtedly have gotten lost in this confusing labyrinth without them.
She followed her white stones back to her rooms, stopped long enough to grab a towel and a clean set of clothes, then went for the bathing rooms. At the doorway, she abruptly remembered that she had a notebook in her satchel, which really shouldn’t get wet. Pausing, she dropped it next to the wall, out of the way, then continued on.
The water was slightly too hot, as it had been the day before, but Sevana didn’t mind it. As she sat and soaked, she pulled out her box lens and gave the water a close scrutiny. It seemed as if the whole thing was heated by an underground source of magma. Mixed into the water was a variety of minerals like silica, calcium, sulfate, magnesium, chloride, fluoride, potassium, and oxygen. Well no wonder it was good for relieving stress from the body! With that combination, it was tailor made for it.
Satisfied, she made mental notes, then started plotting how to incorporate this into Big. The magma was out, of course—she’d have to find a way to make an artificial heat source—but the rest of the minerals shouldn’t be a problem.
From the doorway, she heard Aran’s voice. “Sevana, there is a male voice coming from your bag.”
Eh? Oh, right, the Caller. “That’s likely Master trying to reach me. Pull it free and tell him I’m busy and will talk to him later,” she called back.
There was the sound of rustling cloth as Aran opened her bag, then he said pleasantly, “Hello.”
Master’s voice was clear even from here. “I believe I’ve seen you in the background as I’ve spoken to Sevana.”
“I am Arandur. You are Tashjian Joles?”
“That’s right. Pleasure, Arandur. Is Sevana around?”
“She’s completely naked at the moment. Can she call you back?”
Sevana aimed a glare at the doorway. That was not what she had told him to say.
“Bathing in that hot spring of yours, I take it.” Master chuckled, the sound gravelly and warm. “She can’t resist those. I normally would say let her soak, but something extraordinary happened. Get her out.”
Alarmed, Sevana spluttered, “Aran! You come in here and I’ll turn you into a toad!”
“She can hear us, I take it?”
“I’m just outside the doorway,” Arandur explained. His tone had a note of amusement to it. He seemed to find this whole conversation entertaining.
“In that case…” Master raised his voice to a shouting level. “Sevana! It’s a portation spell disguised as a transformation spell!”
WHAT?! Sevana threw herself out of the water, slipping on the wet rocks as she did so, having to scramble and dig her fingers into the grass to avoid crashing head first back into the springs. With nothing more than a cursory wipe of her body with the towel, she threw on clothes and then wrapped her wet hair turban fashion to keep it out of her eyes. In less than thirty seconds, she was dressed and racing out of the room.
Aran was sitting cross legged on the ground, the Caller resting in his flat palm, as comfortable as if he were having tea with a longtime friend. “You certainly know how to get her to move,” he said to Tashjian. “I’ve never seen a woman exit a bath that fast.”
“It’s all how you phrase things.” The smirk was clear even on that miniature face.
Sevana plopped down next to Aran so she was eye level with the Caller, demanding, “What? How do you know?”
“You know that mirror of mine that I like to use to find things? I brought it with me, because finding anything in your storerooms is like a treasure hunt without the treasure map.”
Sevana made a noise of impatience. “And?”
“The portraits arrived about an hour ago. As we were carrying them in, I took one past the mirrors, and for a split second, I thought I heard a young voice trying to say something. It happened so fast, I thought it was my imagination, but then it occurred to me about ten minutes ago that mirrors are often able to give us insight into magic. So I took the princess’s portrait back to the mirror and held it up. She was not only able to talk to me, but she was moving. It was like seeing a ghost image of her.”
Sevana was torn between doing a jig of pure happiness around the room five times or cursing the air blue. She was happy to finally have an answer, because now that she knew what the spell was, she had a better idea of how to safely extract people from its clutches. But portation spells were one of the trickier ones to deal with. Curses were easier, you broke the magic binding that person, and poof! They were fine. Portation spells were far more complicated. Just cracking the spell would not ensure that everyone came out hunky-dory.
“I can’t tell if you’re pleased or upset?” Aran ventured, voice lilting.
“Both,” she grumbled. “Master. Did the princess give you any idea of what happened?”
“She was completely caught unawares. They seem to be trapped in that ‘between’ area, where the people are not properly in one plane or another. They can all see and talk to each other, so at least they are all in the same area. It gives me ideas.”
Good. She was sadly out of those at the moment. “Update people so the families at least know they’re alright.”
“I’ll do so tonight. Sweetling, do you have all the answers you need up there?”
“Not yet,” she glanced at Aran’s face as she responded. “But I’ll have them all shortly.”
Aran gave her a confirming nod, silently stating that he did have answers for her.
Making a snap decision, she promised, “I’ll leave the day after tomorrow. If there’s any ingredients that you think will come in handy, tell me tomorrow, so I have time to collect them.”
“I’ll ruminate on that tonight and let you know in the morning.”
“While you’re ruminating, think on this, too. We need to find a method to draw this evil magician out in the open.”
Master’s mouth opened, but he paused before speaking and closed it again with a thoughtful hum. “It’s true, none of us have the faintest idea of who he is or where he comes from. We’ll have to think of some tactic to draw him out.”
“We don’t stand a chance otherwise,” Sevana agreed.
Aran pitched in, “We will aid you. The Fae as a nation are highly displeased with this man.”
Those words sent a shiver up Sevana’s spine. She didn’t even like making these people mildly annoyed at her, and she was considered to be part of their nation. To have a whole magical race out for your blood was terrifying. “We’ll welcome the aid. This man has proven that he is a master at getting around people’s wards and shields. None of the magicians I know of stand much of a chance of fighting him one-on-one.”
There was a cold, hard light in Aran’s eyes. “This man has eluded you before. He will not be able to do so again. You have Our word on that.”
“Is your brain going to implode or explode?” Aran inquired with mock-worry. “I need to know so I can duck.”
Sevana levelled a glare at him, or tried to, but her eyes weren’t quite cooperating. She had indeed been given an information overload and her eyes were crossing under the weight of it. His joke about her brain being on the brink of bursting was not far wrong. It felt like it wanted to do just that.
“I warned you that it would make your brain bleed,” he added when he didn’t get an answer.
“You did,” she sighed, rubbing at her temples. Aran had made good on his promise to get her information, and while he had been very precise, it was at the same time almost mythical. It reminded her of those riddles that didn’t have just one answer, but each individual could come up with their own.
She hated those things.
Aran had done his best to explain it so that she could put it into hard, logical numbers, but the Fae just didn’t think like that. They did things by feel, by insight, or by tradition. It was maddening, trying to talk to them about this, as they just didn’t approach things the same way that she would.
“If it helps?” Aran reached into a breast pocket on his vest and handed her a folded sheet of paper. “This came from our master ink maker here. When I explained how you break things down and analyze them, he did his best to do it the same way.”
Curious, she unfolded the paper. There, in front of her astonished gaze, were the exact numbers she had been looking for.
Pine tree resin – 4
Dragon ash – 5
Spring water – 8
Fae blood – 7
Black dye – 1
Kracken ink – 7
Fae blood – spring water, sunlight, moonlight, song of earth, ore of stars, spirit
Sevana felt her mouth run dry. She had to swallow, three times, just to get it to work and even then her voice was little more than a croak. “Spirit?” No, wait, that wasn’t what she had meant to say.
“He was unsure how else to say it in your language. There is no other word that comes close,” Aran responded, hands splayed apologetically. “But is not your own spirit undefinable? It is not something magic or science can create. Without it, a person is a husk, and nothing more.”
That was definitely true. “So taking what you said, and what he’s written down for me, and merging them together…” she trailed off, her overused brain struggling to understand everything it had been presented in the past hour. “The Fae become what they are because your mothers consistently feed you a diet and expose you to magic to directly link each part of your body to a certain element of the world?”
“That is a highly crude oversimplification, but…yes. In essence, that is exactly what they are doing.”
Sevana flopped backwards, sprawling on the cool grass in the main section of their guest quarters. Cool grass was nice on her overheated brain. “There is nothing about you that will link to other planes of existence?”
“None,” he confirmed. Aran cocked his head, lifting up slightly onto his knees to see her face better. “Is that what you needed to know?”
“Yes. But even if I had asked that question before, I wasn’t sure you would know exactly what I meant by it.” It had taken days of being here and explaining how magic worked before they had even grasped the basics.
“And now? You are satisfied?”
“I am,” she agreed, letting her eyes fall closed. Ah, better, the lack of sensory input helped her brain settle some. She seriously hadn’t felt like this since she was twelve, and Master had decided that she could learn all the history of Windamere in two weeks. Those two weeks had been a nightmare.
“Then you wish to go back?”
“We need to,” she agreed without opening her eyes. “But there’s certain things I feel like we’ll need later, so I want to get them while I’m here.”
“Like?” He reached out and touched a finger to her forehead, cooling the skin and easing the headache that was trying to form.
Sevana sighed in relief. “You wonderful man,” she purred, eyes rising to half-mast. “How did you know?”
“There were gathering lines around your eyes and between your brows. I had a feeling.” There was a smile in his voice. He shifted so that his left hand joined the right, both of them moving to her temples and drawing small circles there.
Sevana melted, becoming increasingly boneless. “You can stop doing that in about a hundred years.”
Chuckling lowly, Aran drawled, “Or until my arms fall off?”
“Whichever comes first,” she agreed. His headache cure was so effective that it had nearly turned her brain off. But hadn’t he asked her something? It eluded her and she had to prompt, “You asked me something.”
“Hmm? Oh, yes. What did you want to get while we are still here?”
“Like the ingredients to make Fae ink.”
Aran’s hands jerked back in a flinch of surprise. “You’re going to make ink?”
“No,” she denied, feeling a pout forming. If she had known that answering was going to make him stop, she would not have asked it for at least another hour. Resigned, she pushed herself back up to a sitting position with a groan. “I’m not. I’m going to make something else with those ingredients.” There was something strange about his expression and the way he was positioned next to her. It felt as if he wanted to say something, or there was something he was thinking about and not sharing.
She expected him to ask her a question, but that wasn’t what came out of his mouth. Instead he stayed on topic.
“I don’t follow.”
“Ask me tomorrow on the ride home?” she requested. Sevana didn’t intend for that to come out plaintively but it did. “I don’t have the brain power to explain now. Just contact the right people here and get me the ingredients, in large quantities if you can, as we’re going to have to make a lot of this.”
Aran’s eyes searched her face for a long moment. “You already know the solution.”
~ ~ ~
When she’d told Aran the night before that she wanted to leave the next day, she hadn’t meant at daybreak. But apparently Aran was one of those evil Morning People that liked to leave before the birds were even awake. He rousted her out of bed, badgered her until Sevana was dressed and semi-coherent, then loaded her on his chellomi. She did have the wherewithal to double check that he had enough of the ingredients packed. After that, she was happy to bid people goodbye and get on the chellomi.
It took some time before she was truly awake. In fact, they were clear of the woods entirely before she felt like she could answer complicated questions. Deciding that she didn’t want to explain everything twice, she called up Master, holding on to the Caller with a firm hand so that she didn’t accidentally drop it.
It took more than a minute before there was an answer. When Master did change into the Caller, he was wearing his favorite robe, hair mussed and all over the place, and there was a distinct glare aimed in her direction. “Sweetling, do you know what time it is?”
“No,” she admitted cheerfully. If she had to be up, he did too. It was only fair.
“Who got you up and moving this early?” Master barely got the question out before his eyes went up to Aran’s face. “You? Don’t do that, you scamp. She’s cranky in the morning and worse than a wet cat about getting revenge later.”
“I’ll dodge,” Aran promised laconically. “We’re on our way back now.”
“Ah? Then, sweetling, you have all the information you need?”
“I have more than that. I have a theory and the ingredients I need to test it.”
Master’s lingering sleepiness vanished instantly. “Oh-ho. Do tell.”
“First, let me answer the question Aran asked last night.” Turning slightly, she looked up in his face. “You asked me what I was going to make if not ink? First, let me explain how things normally work. If this was a curse, I’d find the opposite types of elements that the curse was made out of, cobble together a more powerful version, and hit the curse with it. It would break the spell and free the cursed instantly.”