Audey tossed the burning stick into the fire. “He took it.” Her color was high, her eyes brilliant. She looked powerful, vulnerable, trembling on the edge of fear.
“Yes,” Zel said, “he took it.”
“So.” Audey’s hands gripped each other over her heart. “So.” Then, bringing her joined fists to her mouth, she cried, “Oh, Zel, you don’t know what we’ve done!” and she burst into tears.
Strangely, this only served to calm Zel, almost to reassure her. It wasn’t really over; she had known as much, without knowing that she knew. She doffed her servant’s coat and laid it over the back of a chair. Audey watched, done with her brief storm of tears.
“Tell me,” Zel said.
They sat on a low couch by the fire. Audey poured two glasses of wine that then sat on a table, untouched.
Audey spoke to her hands. “We laid a curse on the Torrends. That night, when you first found us. We had never worked such a powerful magic, nor such a dark one. Oh, it was so hard! And then, when the owl died, and you ran, we realized some of you had worked its way into the spell. Everything was wrong. Or at least, everything was changed.”
“Why the Torrends?”
A calm question, calmly answered:
“Because if that family falls, they will take half the witch-haters with them.”
“And you will be free.”
“No.” Audey looked up, a reflection of Zel’s wryness in her smile. “No, but at least we would have a little room to breathe. Then we might begin to think about freedom.” Her look changed. “You know, it isn’t only for my sisters and me.”
“Isn’t it?” A small silence. Then: “So the charm I took to Willam Torrend wasn’t really a love charm, it was a curse on him and his family.” Oh, poor Gannet. Poor man.
But Audey shook her head. “It was both, I think.”
“You think?” Zel gave her an offended stare.
“I think.” Audey held her eyes. “You are the wild element in all of this, my heart. You come tearing into our lives pulling Gannet and Willam Torrend in your wake, you with your dark eyes and your lion’s soul. You broke our curse. We tried to mend it.” Her mouth quirked. “Mending a curse with a love charm. Zel, I cannot begin to predict what might come of such a thing. What was in your mind as you danced? What was in your heart when you killed the bird?”
Zel reached for a glass of wine to give herself time for thought. “I don’t know. Freedom. Anger. Love. I loved her.” She swallowed tears. “I never hated him.”
“So.” Audey smiled a difficult smile. “My heart, you may have saved us from becoming doom-bringers in spite of ourselves.”
Zel met her eyes briefly, looked down into her glass. “I don’t know that I could be sorry if that were true.”
“I know,” Audey said. “I think I might almost be glad.”
Zel took a sip. The wine was red as rubies in the firelight, sweet and warm going down.
~ ~ ~~ ~
Holly Phillips is the author of the award-winning story collection In the Palace of Repose. She is a full-time writer and part-time editor, and likes to refer to herself as a “professional fantasist.” Her most recent novel, The Engine’s Child, was published by Del Rey in 2008. She lives on an island off the west coast of Canada and is hard at work on her next book.
ENDLESS SKIES
Rick Sardinha
Rick Sardinha is a professional illustrator/fine artist living and working on the outskirts of Providence, Rhode Island. His passion is to create in traditional oil media, however, he is just as comfortable in front of a computer and often uses multiple disciplines in the image creation process.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine
For literary adventure fantasy short stories and audio fiction podcasts, visit our magazine's website at
http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/
“The Sword of Loving Kindness,” Copyright © 2008 by Chris Willrich
“Architectural Constants,” Copyright © 2008 by Yoon Ha Lee
“Silk and Shadow,” Copyright © 2009 by Tony Pi
“Driftwood,” Copyright © 2009 by Marie Brennan
“Unrest,” Copyright © 2009 by Grace Seybold
“Dragon’s-Eyes,” Copyright © 2009 by Margaret Ronald
“Kreisler’s Automata,” Copyright © 2009 by Matthew David Surridge
“The Alchemist’s Feather,” Copyright © 2009 by Erin Cashier
“Mathematics of Faith,” Copyright © 2009 by Jonathan Wood
“The Mansion of Bones,” Copyright © 2009 by Richard Parks
“The Tinyman and Caroline,” Copyright © 2009 by Sarah L. Edwards
“Blighted Heart,” Copyright © 2009 by Aliette de Bodard
“Father’s Kill,” Copyright © 2009 by Christopher Green
“Thieves of Silence,” Copyright © 2009 by Holly Phillips
“Endless Skies,” Copyright © 2008 by Rick Sardhina
tmp_48d41530aaad86c106555e2e52630fd9_VLf2O0.fixed.tidied Page 35
