Imperative: A Quinn Larson Quest (20 page)

If it was obvious to Maeve, maybe it was about my point of view. I was currently facing the Sidhe door. If Fionuir wanted to access the amulet, she would be facing away. I turned around and stood as close as I could to the door without touching it. From this angle I could see two bricks slightly out of line, one on each side of the door.

I didn’t put much faith in my ability to open both without a problem. And as I waited three other bricks seemed to shift out of place. Okay, clearly this was a trap, unless the Sidhe kept lockers like a bus station. I had a flash of Sidhe lined up opening their lockers and trying to hide their treasures from each other. That was clearly wrong.

It was probably an illusion spell. I pulled a chestnut seed out of my pocket and breathed on it before tossing it into the air. As it spun back to earth, the illusion broke and the bricks all faded back into alignment.

A wisp slid onto my head. “I can penetrate the brick if that will help.” It had a clear voice like a child of six or seven.

Just what I needed, a will-o’-wisp exploding behind the brickwork. I thought back at it, “No, not yet. I am not sure that is safe.”

It floated off my head.

I touched the wall to my right and ran my fingers up and down pressing on each brick in turn, the bricks were cool and none yielded. I tried again on the left hand wall. Nothing.

I closed my eyes to concentrate better. This should be easy. What had Olan told me? Yes, Maeve said it was close to the door. If I was Fionuir would I want to step out into this dampness? Only if I had to. She would want to open the door and reach her hiding place without coming into the corridor.

I turned my back to the door and pretended to open it. Left hand on the door, right hand to the wall. I hadn’t tested the bricks right next to the door. Now I ran my fingers up and found a loose brick about two thirds of the way up. My fingers tingled as a sealing spell warned me off. That wasn’t going to stop me. I had a little book that gave spells used by thieves in the middle ages. In anticipation of tonight I had memorized it. I whispered the spell into the space where the mortar would have been and waited. The tingle subsided and I stuck my fingers into a hole that appeared in the side of the brick.

Something pricked my finger but the brick came loose. The wisp must have moved away because the light faded, but I saw the amulet and pulled it out of the hole, put the brick back in and slipped the small rock into a pocket.

The wisps had now fled the length of the corridor and we were in pitch dark. I reached out and touched a spiky shoulder. “Go,” I whispered and held onto a spike as the Kobold led me back to the stairs. I knew we couldn’t rely on the wisps.

We made it to the top of the stairs with no major injuries. I had stubbed the same toes three times on the way up. I could hear Reardon, but someone had closed the door because there was no light coming through. I gave a quick pat to the shoulder in front of me before I spoke. “I don’t know why the wisps left, but someone should have a quick peek before we step into the room.”

I assumed the shoulder belonged to Edrinda, because she spoke. “Quinn, what are you talking about? The wisps have already given the all clear.”

Someone touched my arm and led me a few steps into what I thought was the living room. “Sit,” Clarence said, giving me a gentle push.

I felt the couch hit the back of my legs so I sank into the cushions. I was left alone. I could hear them talking in the kitchen. Well, I could hear that they were talking and the sound came from where I thought the kitchen was. They carefully kept their voices low, but I could still cast simple spells even though I was blind. I cast a spell of hearing and their voices became as clear as if they were standing beside me.

“He can’t see how will he cleanse the amulet?” Clarence asked.

“I can do it,” Lionel said.

“Maybe we can find another wizard to do this, what about that spirit wizard, Joaquin what’s his name?” Clarence said, ignoring Lionel.

The impending argument was already giving me a headache. “Forget who is responsible. We need to figure out how to fix this. I have what we went there for. We’ll have the other ingredient soon.”

“Okay,” I heard the sigh in Olan’s voice. He really liked a good argument. “Tell me what happened, exactly.”

“I cast a spell to release the brick. The lights dimmed and I thought the wisps were leaving. I reached in and grabbed the amulet and by the time I put the brick back, it was dark.”

“When Quinn touched my shoulder, I didn’t think anything of it. We followed the wisps to the top of the stairs; they went through and came back with the all clear signal. That’s when Quinn mentioned it was dark.”

Olan hopped onto my shoulder. “The lights dimmed right after you cast the spell?”

“That’s when I noticed it.”

“Do you think that’s important?” Lionel asked. I felt sorry for the kid. He was being ignored by the adults in the room. What everyone forgot about apprentices is they had power and they knew some things very well.

Olan fluttered his wings in my face. “I don’t know, but it is information. I’m going to have to search for a cure. This might take a while. Unless someone gives us the components of the spell that took your sight, we might not be able to cure it.”

“Thanks for the lesson in magic, Olan.” I was losing my last bit of patience.

“Sorry, I am thinking out loud.” I felt his feathers brush my cheek as he flapped off my shoulder. “You will have to teach Lionel how to cleanse the amulet. We can’t afford to bring anyone else into this.”

“We’ll both learn it.” I didn’t have a lot of confidence that Lionel would be able to accomplish the task, but he had a better chance than me. If I had learned the spell before it would be different. “If push comes to shove, we’ll hide it so at least we’ll have control of it.”

“Okay, but don’t just read it out; we don’t want to accidentally cast it.” I patted the couch next to me. “Sit here and start by reading the ingredients.”

I heard his heavy footfalls cross the room and then felt a breeze. “Oh, hi guys.” Lionel said then I heard him gasp. “What happened?”

“Someone tell me what’s going on, please. Try to remember I can’t see.” It was going to take a lot of energy to get people to deal with my blindness.

“Nothing to worry about.” One of the fairies answered me, I couldn’t tell which one.

“If you were beaten it is something to worry about.” I kept my voice gentle so I wouldn’t put them on the defensive. “I have been struck blind. You have been beaten. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

“Burr is beaten badly around the face; I think she has a broken nose, maybe more damage I will have to see. Sting seems to have a broken arm as well as bruises forming on his face.”

“Who did this to you?” I thought I knew but it is best to be sure.

“Sidhe, two males,” Burr slurred again. “They will be sorry, though. When we finish this spell, Sting and I are going after them.”

“I think we can assume Fionuir has realized we took the amulet.” It meant we had to work faster. “Did they ask you anything? Or, say anything.”

“Let me talk to them.” Lionel’s voice moved away from my side. “Alone, Clarence.” A new sound of authority in his tone impressed me.

“They have left the room,” Edrinda said. “Perhaps this is not related to our plan. Fairies and Sidhe often have fights.”

“I don’t believe this is a coincidence,” I said. “If they were followed here, or told their attackers where we were meeting, the Sidhe are already on their way.”

“If that were the case, we would have been attacked by now,” Clarence said. “If the boy cannot get them to speak, what will you do? Just take the chance?”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens. I’m going to have to give that boy a crash course in spell casting; it would help if you spent your time boosting his confidence instead of cutting him down,” I said.

I heard a sigh and a slap of fist on armor. “Quinn is right, husband, help or shut up.”

I sat trying to think of any other plan than teaching high level spells to someone else’s apprentice. I don’t know what the Kobolds were doing, but they were silent at least.

Five minutes, or what felt like it, later I heard Lionel come back into the room. “The fairies are gone. But I have the information.”

I waited and felt him sit beside me again.

“They did find out that the Rose fairies would forgive Princess Elizabeth if we were successful,” he said.

I didn’t like the way he had started with a different topic. “Is this a good news bad news thing? If so, just hit me with the bad news.”

“Yes, get on with it,” Edrinda snapped.

“Well, the two Sidhe who beat them wanted to know why they were visiting the other tribes. They asked if it had anything to do with you, Quinn. Burr and Sting didn’t tell them anything and they think they got away clean. They checked very carefully to make sure they weren’t being followed. They took the long way here and swear we are safe.”

“That’s the bad news? It’s not that bad.” I waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Well, when I checked their wounds, I found this.” Lionel put something in my hand.

I felt the smooth edges of the object, it seemed to be teardrop shaped and about the size of a walnut. “They didn’t know they had this?”

“No, it’s your right hand.” I stopped Lionel from passing his left hand over the lump of coal we were using as a model amulet. “Using your left hand will change the spell and I don’t have time to figure out how to fix that.

It was hard enough to train someone when you were blind but to train someone who couldn’t seem to remember from one try to the next where he was making mistakes was impossible. I had Edrinda read the spell to me and then asked Lionel to narrate as he practiced the moves. It wasn’t working.

“Look, Quinn. I have an idea,” Lionel said, frustration bleeding out of his words. That was the other problem, he kept blaming himself every time he got it wrong, which made him less able to get it right.

“Anything will be better than trying this again. I’m sorry I’m such a lousy teacher, Lionel.” Maybe a bit of blame taking would help his self-esteem.

“No, I’m sure it’s just because you can’t see.” He sighed. “So, when Cate taught me a spell she would take me through it a step at a time. We would put the ingredients out in order, just like we have now. Then I would talk through the spell until I could do it without reading. Then I would do the motions while talking until I got them both right, then I would try to cast the spell.”

“And how long did it usually take to get you to the casting point?” Clarence called from the kitchen.