by H. L. Burke
Taking up the volumes, he left his room and headed down the hall. The old floorboards creaked under the worn, red carpet. He’d used to know just where to step to avoid that, so he could sneak down to the kitchen for late night snacks. Oh, how Annie had fussed over the crumbs he’d left behind. He smiled then sighed.
Auric rapped gently on Rill’s door. No response. After a moment, he knocked again. There was a rustling and the door creaked open.
Rill blinked at him, still in her cotton nightdress. Her downy hair stood up like feathers on a frightened chicken. He smirked.
She flushed. “Auric, why are you up? It’s barely dawn.”
He held forth the books. “I wanted to give you these.”
She stared at the offering. “Those are magic books.”
“Yes, which is why I thought you might like them.” He flipped open the top book. “This one shows how to enchant your own stylus.”
“Oh, I already know—” She stopped and swallowed. “After what happened yesterday, I don’t think you should test Dad any further.”
Auric snorted. “It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving, Rill. Coming here was a mistake. I’m better off in the Capital, where I’m respected and wanted.”
Her jaw dropped. “But I want you!”
He gave a weak smile. “My offer still stands. Pack a bag and come with me. Father will get over it. He can’t expect you to live your whole life hiding away from the world.”
She dropped her eyes. “I can’t, Aurry. He needs me.”
“Why? He has his precious Jericho.”
Her cheeks reddened in a way he didn’t like.
“He’s your precious Jericho, too, isn’t he?” he mumbled.
“I don’t … I mean … maybe.” She angled away from him.
He sighed. “Rill, you could do so much better. Not just because he’s a nobody, but because you could be someone apart from who you marry. You have the potential to be a great magician in your own right. If you stay here, you’ll fade away like Mother did. You’ll never be happy.”
“But I am happy, Aurry.” She touched his arm. “Please, give Dad one more chance.”
Part of him weakened, longing to run back to his room, unpack his bag, and never leave her. But then the thought of Mother, of how Father used her memory to cage Rill, stoked the fire within him, and he shook his head.
“No, I think I’ve done enough harm here.” He stroked her soft cheek. “It won’t be so long this time. Now that my studies are over, I should have a chance to visit a few times a year. Maybe I’ll even find a way to get along with Father for short spans. Who knows? Miracles happen.”
He laughed, but it caught in his throat.
“You’ll at least say good-bye to Dad?” She grabbed his arm. “Stay for breakfast. He’s always in the best mood over his morning tea.”
“I need to get going. I don’t want to risk missing my train.” No, if he saw Father, they’d only fight again. Best to leave while there was still some good feeling left between them.
***
Rap, rap, rap.
Jericho groaned and pulled his pillow over his head.
Rap, rap, rap.
“Jerry! It’s me, Rill! Please open the door.”
He sat up. “Just a second!” Jumping out of bed, he glanced towards the piece of paper with the “wake up call” spell he’d enchanted before turning in for the night, a tonal spell combined with a symbol for the time he’d wished to wake. It hadn’t activated, meaning it was before six. What was Rill up to at this hour?
Jericho pulled on his trousers and half buttoned his shirt before opening the door. Rill burst into the room, still in her dressing gown. Heat rushed through him at the sight of her.
“What’s wrong?”
Her bottom lip shook. “Auric left.”
Jericho hoped his relief wasn’t visible. He touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“Yes, well, that isn’t why I came here. When Auric told he me planned to leave, I went looking for Dad.” She swallowed. “I thought maybe he could convince Auric to stay, or at least they could say a nice good-bye, but he wasn’t in his room.”
“Probably fell asleep in his office again.” Jericho nodded.
“I wasn’t finished. I went to his office already, and I banged on the door for a good fifteen minutes.” She let out a jagged breath. “He didn’t answer, and it’s locked … from inside, so he must be in there, but he isn’t answering. Dad never sleeps that soundly. What if he tripped and hit his head?”
Jericho raised his eyebrows. “Go get dressed. I’ll check on your father.”
Rill departed, leaving Jericho to swiftly finish dressing. He rubbed the back of his hand against his bristly chin; no time for that now. Grabbing his stylus and a penknife, he left the room.
The smell of baking bread rose from the kitchen. Annie was up and working. Normally she’d bring Master Spellsmith his tea and a breakfast tray around six.
Reassuring himself that his employer was simply sleeping soundly rather than injured or dead, he took the stairs three at a time and entered the shop. His skin tingled as a haze of magical energy surrounded him. He froze. The faint scent of alder wood lingered in air. Master Spellsmith had done some sort of large spell, more powerful than anything Jericho had encountered in recent memory.
He rattled the door knob. “Master Spellsmith, are you all right?” No answer. Taking out his stylus, he scratched a simple magical equation onto the wooden door. An electric current shot up his fingers into his wrist. “Blast!” He stepped back, shaking his hand.
Footsteps echoed up the stairs.
“What happened?” Rill asked.
He tucked his stylus into his pocket and took out his penknife. “There’s some sort of magical ward on the door.”
She wrung her hands. “What are we going to do?”
Jericho slipped the blade into the latch which gave a pleasing click. He grinned. “Fortunately it’s warded against magic but not common sense.” The door creaked open. Before he could stop her, Rill rushed in, shouting for her father.
Other than the bookshelves and Hedward’s cluttered desk, the room was empty.
Rill shuddered. “Do you feel that?”
Jericho nodded. The magic buzzed like a swarm of gnats.
“What is it?” She drew closer to him. “Look!”
On the far wall, a bookshelf had been moved to reveal the wooden paneling behind it. Singe marks formed an archway in the wood. Master Spellsmith had worked some sort of spell, though the energy of its activation had been enough to eradicate the symbols used.
Jericho sniffed at it. It definitely had Master Spellsmith’s signature, but again with more power than he’d ever seen the magician use on a single spell. This wasn’t like the master who was usually so careful about spikes in Fey energy. What could’ve driven him to harness so much of it for a single spell?
“And this?”
Jericho turned and found Rill stooped over the desk. Amongst the papers, books, and wooden quires lay an assortment of small bottles.
She picked one up and sniffed it. “Rosemary oil, I think.”
He took it from her and raised it to his nose. A strong odor, like a mix of pepper and evergreen, bit at him. “Yes, I think you’re right.” Beside the bottles rested the map Master Spellsmith had been working with the day before. Circles of red ink indicated various Fey rifts that had opened in the surrounding area.
“Do you think this is important?” She pointed at the map.
“Maybe. Your father has been obsessed with measuring and tracking the Fey rifts for well over a year now, though.” He touched the map. “He thought they were growing in strength and frequency.”
“Were they?”
“Yes, but we both assumed it was due to the Republic’s Magician Corps, so it isn’t as if there was anything we could do about it.”
She bit her bottom lip. “The Magician Corps? Auric was going to join that before he decided to come home instead. Wha
t does it have to do with Fey rifts? I thought they were natural.”
Jericho hesitated. The subject of the Magician Corps often infuriated Master Spellsmith, so they didn’t talk about it often. Still, he was surprised Rill hadn’t heard about it through other sources.
“I don’t get out much.” She flushed and lowered her eyes.
“Well, it’s Capital politics. Doesn’t really affect Mountain’s Foot,” he said. “Rifts are natural, to an extent. You know about the barrier between here and the Fey Lands?”
“Yes, I’ve read about that.” She brightened. “The Fey Lands and our mortal worlds are essentially on top of each other, like the area above and below the surface of a pond, separated by a thin, invisible barrier. Rifts are openings between the two worlds that let magical Fey energy into the mortal lands.”
“Right. They open naturally, and like many natural phenomena, they are hard to predict. Some are larger than others, but most are pinprick holes that only remain open for a short while before they reseal.”
Rill leaned closer to him, intent on his every word.
He smiled then continued. “We use the energies that come through the rifts to power our spells, but it’s a finite resource. There is only so much Fey energy in a given area at one time. Now a place like Mountain’s Foot only has need for so many spells, and we can easily get by on what is provided naturally.”
“But the Capital with its large population, they use theirs up?”
“Yes. The answer to this was the founding of the Magician Corps and the opening of artificial rifts, larger, longer-lasting ones, sometimes permanent, that would allow a constant influx of Fey energy.”
“Explains why Aurry and Dad fought over his attending the Academy, but not so much where Dad has gotten to now.” Rill took up the map to examine it, revealing an envelope beneath addressed to Auric.
Jericho picked it up.
“Oh, we can probably catch up with him.” Rill stepped towards the door. “He’s only been gone about a half hour.”
“It’ll take too long.” Jericho slipped his penknife under the wax seal and popped it open.
“Jerry!” Rill gasped. “That’s not yours.”
“Your father has disappeared, Rill. We can apologize for reading Auric’s mail later.”
She crossed her arms. “Well, at least read it out loud.”
He swallowed a smirk before pulling the letter out and unfolding it. “My dear son, I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. Your mother’s disappearance has weighed on me for years, and I have greatly regretted the turmoil it has caused within our family. However, you must understand that she did not leave willingly. I have put all my cunning into devising a way to bring her back, or at least to verify her fate if it is too late to save her. I had thought to spend more time planning my attempt, but I need you to know that I speak the truth, and I see that will not happen without proof.” Jericho glanced over the letter at Rill.
She sucked on her bottom lip, her eyes wide and worried.
He cleared his throat and continued his reading. “I ask that you look after your sister while I am gone. If all goes well I will return with answers before you have become aware of my departure, but if you are reading this, it must be assumed that things have gone awry. Rill must be your primary concern. She is precious, and I cannot overstate the need for her to be safe. Your loving father, Hedward Spellsmith.”
“What does he mean?” Rill snatched the letter. “Where did he go? And how?”
Jericho shrugged. He examined the walls. The window also proved locked from the inside, and as far as he could see there was no other exit. “He must’ve used some sort of magical transportation spell.”
Her eyes snapped up from the letter. “Those exist?”
“Theoretically. Your father always said they took too much magical energy. He taught me simple homing and short-distance teleportation spells, but this—” He traced the blackened lines on the wall. “This is something altogether different.”
Rill’s shoulders slumped and her bottom lip quivered.
Jericho drew a deep breath. “This has something to do with your mother, obviously. Do you have any idea what he meant about her being taken?”
“I was only five when …” She choked. “I barely remember her. Aurry might know something.” Tears glistened on her cheeks.
Jericho took her hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb. The story of Master Spellsmith’s disappearing wife had been fodder for the town gossips back when he was a boy, but there had never been enough details to fuel more than speculation. Some said she’d run off with a lover, though no matching man had disappeared alongside her. Others suggested that she’d gone mad and walked into the river, which had been at full flood that spring. Search parties had combed the surrounding woods for weeks. However, no one found any sign of her, and soon the story faded into the town history. Jericho had never brought it up for fear of upsetting his employer.
“Jerry, you have to go after Auric.” She drew his hand up to her cheek. “Please. He might know what’s going on with Dad.”
His mouth suddenly dry, Jericho nodded. “I’ll catch him before he leaves. In the meantime, go through the papers on your dad’s desk. See if you can figure out exactly where he went or what he did, but be careful. I have a bad feeling about this, and I don’t like leaving you alone here, even to go get Auric.”
She kissed his fingers and a shiver cut through him. “I’ll be fine. In spite of what Dad thinks, I can look after myself quite well, thank you. Now, go get my brother before he gets on that train.”
Chapter Eight
Auric strode down the old dirt road under the cherry blossoms. He’d thought about borrowing a horse, but hadn’t wanted to rouse Will. After all, the train wouldn’t be in Mountain’s Foot for at least another hour. The walk wouldn’t kill him.
Birds sang in the distance, and Auric whistled along in an attempt to raise his spirits. He had nothing to regret. Leaving was the right decision, and Rill would probably be fine without him. After all, she’d always had an easier time adjusting to Father’s moods than he did. Things that set Auric off like a bomb she absorbed with a smile.
Hoofbeats pounded in the distance. He glanced back and found a rider gaining on him. A moment later he recognized Jericho on one of their carthorses.
Auric set down his bag and crossed his arms as Jericho pulled rein a few feet from him. “What do you want?”
“Your father’s in trouble.”
A cold hand gripped Auric’s heart as he thought of all the possible harm that could’ve befallen the older man: a heart attack, falling down the stairs, choking on his breakfast … He stood up straighter. “What do you mean?”
“He’s disappeared.” Jericho dismounted, his dark eyes earnest. “This morning Rill went to check on him, found his study locked from the inside and enough magical energy around the workshop to power a year’s worth of spells.” He held forth an envelope. “This was on his desk.”
Auric took the letter, then scowled. “It’s open.”
“Rill was worried.” Jericho shrugged. “We couldn’t make anything of it, though. She thought you might understand.”
Well, as long as it was Rill, not Jericho. Auric pored over the words. His chest tightened. More of this nonsense about Mother? Really? He wadded the letter up and dropped it to the ground. “My father is having a ridiculous tantrum because he can’t convince me to believe his delusions is all. I’m sure he’ll get over it and turn back up.”
Jericho’s face darkened. He drew a deep breath. “Look, I know you and your dad don’t get along, but there’s more to it than that. You need to come look at the spell he did. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before—”
“Yeah, Jericho, that really doesn’t bother me.” Auric snorted. “I’m sure there are a lot of things you’ve never seen before, the inside of a schoolhouse, for instance.”
The apprentice’s fists clenched, and he took a step forward. His should
ers rose and fell. “I get it: you don’t like me, and your relationship with your dad is rubbish. I also get that your little sister, who you claim to love, is sitting at home, next to tears because her dad is missing and her brother has abandoned her. She needs you, so see if you can manage to act like a man instead of a spoiled toddler, if only for a few hours.”
Auric recoiled.
They stood, staring at each other. The birds merrily continued to tweet as if nothing were wrong. The horse nickered and stomped the earth.
Finally Auric allowed his shoulders to relax. “If Rill’s that upset, I’ll come home, if only ʼtil Father gets back. Can you be a little more detailed about this supposed never-before-seen spell my father did?”
“It has something to do with rifts.” Jericho reached into his vest pocket and withdrew the map Father had been working on the day before.
Auric unfolded it and examined his father’s markings.
“Your dad has been obsessed with them for a while,” Jericho continued. “Like I said, I’ve never seen a spell like this, but I’ve read about them, or I think I have. If it were anyone but Master Spellsmith, I’d say he opened an artificial rift to the Fey Lands.”
Auric swallowed. “My father would sooner give up magic.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought too, but there’s a marking on the wall of his study that looks a lot like a doorway.”
Auric choked. “You’re saying he went into the rift? That’s impossible. Even if he had reason to, humans can’t survive in the Fey Lands. The quantities of Fey energy in those realms would tear us apart.” He scratched at his beard. “I mean, you can alleviate the effects.”
“Using materials with anti-Fey properties?” Jericho asked.
“Yes.”
“Like highly-concentrated rosemary oil?” Jericho raised an eyebrow.
Auric swallowed. “You found that?”
“About five empty bottles with traces of it on his desk.”
“Damn you, Father, what did you get into?” Auric massaged his forehead. “Look, if he went into the Fey Lands on some fool’s errand, he only has a limited amount of time, even with precautions. How long do you think he’s been gone?”
