Spindle (Two Monarchies Sequence Book 1) (8 page)

“What now?” she asked.

“Put it in my pocket,” said Luck. “No, not that one: the big breast one in my overcoat.”

Poly dropped the vial into his front pocket and saw what looked like a wince pass fleetingly over Luck’s face, prompting her to ask: “Luck, why am I doing this?”

Luck gave her a blank look. “This time you need to feel around for a scrap of paper: it should be wrapped around a wick.”

“Yes, but
why
?”

“Because I need that piece of paper,” said Luck.

“Yes, but why didn’t you get it out yourself?”

“Didn’t know it was there, then. Paper, Poly.”

She sighed and twitched the tiny scrap away from a smooth wick, withdrawing her arm and displaying it to Luck.

“Good. Now tear it up.”

She did so with raised brows and scattered the pieces with a flick of her fingers. It occurred to her that Luck waited until she finished before he let go of the scroll.

“Was it another antimagic spell?” she asked, watching Luck carefully. From the corner of her eye she saw the scroll unfurl, spit a few useless drops of magic, and fizzle out.

Luck, watching the scroll with unfocused eyes, didn’t seem to notice her gaze. “No. It was a bomb.”

Poly took a moment to count to ten, afraid that she would do something unbecoming in a princess if she didn’t. Then, she said, very carefully: “What was it I pulled out of the scroll?”

“The trigger and the accelerant.”

“I see. I suppose it didn’t occur to you to tell me I was putting my hand into a bomb?”

“I didn’t want you to worry. Come along, Poly, it’s time to leave.”

It’s going to take more than ten,
thought Poly a little wildly, as Luck strode away.

-are staying?-
asked Onepiece. His voice was hopeful.

“No,” said Poly. “We’re going with him, even if it’s only to hit him.”

The passage through the mountains wasn’t as straightforward as it looked from the shelter. When closer, the gentle, meandering incline that Poly had seen turned out to be rather steeper than it promised. And despite the fact that the path looked quite clear and straight through the mountains on either side, the reality of it consisted of zigzags to avoid the narrow, ankle-breaking gullies and steep banks that sprang out of nowhere.

Onepiece enjoyed himself immensely, leaping from tuft to tuft with his tongue lolling out, but Poly found it a struggle in her skirts and whaleboned bodice, and even Luck slowed down a little. Long before the shelter below was out of sight, Poly’s underarms were chafed from the carefully set sleeves of her grey gown and sweat had soaked through the back of it.

Her shoes, which were meant for courtyards and not mountain-climbing, were soon pinching painfully at every step. Poly abandoned them after a few, unpleasant hours, refusing to believe that even a princess would be expected to put up with the agony simply for appearances sake, but endured the dress for some time longer in the hope that she could induce Luck to change it into something more comfortable when they stopped to rest.

However, as the morning wore into afternoon it became increasingly obvious that Luck had forgotten about lunch, rest, and possibly even his travelling companions as well. He was still striding effortlessly ahead when Onepiece became too tired to trot any further and wheedled his way into Poly’s apron pocket; and Poly, making a determined effort to catch up, came to the conclusion that Luck was using a Keep Away spell, since he always stayed just that little bit ahead no matter how hard she tried to match his pace.

When it became evident that no rest break was forthcoming, much less something to eat, Poly stopped by a large sun-warmed rock and hefted her tired body up on it to rest anyway. She was curious to see how long it would take Luck to notice she was no longer following– if he ever
did
notice.

-are there?-
asked Onepiece, poking his nose out and yawning. Poly thought enviously that it looked like he’d just woken up.

“Just a rest stop,” she told him, absentmindedly patting his head. “You can go back to sleep.”

He sniffed the air curiously but evidently decided to believe her, because he tucked his nose back into the pocket, and after a few moments of furious scrabbling to get comfortable, seemed to fall asleep again. Meanwhile, Poly studied her grass-stained toes and wished she didn’t feel quite so hungry.

It was only a few minutes later when Luck wandered into sight again. He sat down next to Poly without having to jump himself up and didn’t complain about having to return for her, which Poly thought was tantamount to an apology, coming from Luck.

They sat in silence until Luck said: “You haven’t got shoes.”

“They hurt. They’re on a rock back there somewhere.”

“Oh.” Luck was silent again, and Poly had an idea that he was trying to hazard her out. “I could have got you more.”

“I couldn’t catch up,” she reminded him, without rancour.

“Huh. I’ll have to turn that off: I forgot that you don’t twitter at me. I expected a princess to twitter more.”

“No, we only twitter at lapdogs and suitors,” said Poly, successfully repressing a small, pointed grin at Persephone’s expense.

“Oh,” said Luck. “I’ll remember that. Do you want shoes?”

“Not until we reach civilisation,” Poly replied carelessly, resolving to enjoy the freedom of bare toes for just a little longer. “But I need a different frock.”

Luck looked blank but was obliging. “All right. What do you want?”

“Something light and loose,” said Poly. “Whatever girls are wearing now. I don’t mind, just so long as I can
breathe
again.”

When the cool touch of magic had come and gone, Poly found herself in a loose-fitting smock with short, full sleeves and a hemline somewhat higher than she’d expected. It was bright, butterflower-yellow, and had even bigger pockets than her old grey gown. When she checked, she found that both Onepiece and her books were already in them, Onepiece muttering at the change in his sleep.

Her pantaloons, somewhat sad and dusty and decidedly lacking in ankle-ruff, were noticeable by a good two inches. Poly supposed that girls now were wearing their pantaloons daringly below the knee and considering it somewhat less daring than it had seemed three hundred years ago.

She retied the laces of her pantaloons at the knee, exposing a rather white expanse of slender leg, and observed the lower half of her shins below the yellow cotton. She thought she might easily be able to get used to this style of dress.

As they climbed higher Poly began to notice sheep on the slopes around them. At first it was one or two, then little clusters of five and six, and before long every expanse of green around them was dotted with a multitude of fat white sheep.

The lambing must have gone well, thought Poly, eyeing the flocks with a professional eye, because there were a great many of them. They were old enough to walk properly while still young enough to be adorable, and Poly found the corners of her mouth lifting slightly at the familiarity of the sight. Civet had run its economy solely on the wool trade, leaving such high-profit animals as skerries and gnau to Parras for the less costly and more sure return of wool. Gnau leather was highly sought after and certain to turn a truly startling profit if only one could stop the creatures dropping dead from fright every time a crow cawed overhead as it flew past; and while skerry fleece was even more popular than gnau leather, the animals were tiny, and required delicate shearing to salvage as much of the fleece as possible. Wool was not exactly exotic or even very comfortable, but everyone used it, and the benefits of mass production had easily allowed Civet to keep financially equivalent to the more luxury-based economy of Parras.

Of course, thought Poly, wrinkling her brow: that was before three hundred years, and expansion, and
New Civet.
Though the sheep-scattered mountains certainly seemed to suggest that New Civet had followed Civet’s rather than Parras’ example. She wondered if they would come across any skerry when they climbed higher into what had once been Parras.

Unfortunately, all they came across as they climbed higher was rain. It was late spring, Poly guessed, judging from the bright green of new foliage and the gusts of wind that came with the rain, so the rain wasn’t bitterly cold. It did make her hair feel twice as heavy, however, and she began to fear for the remaining books she had carefully concealed in her pockets. They were old and delicate, and certainly not to be bandied about in inclement weather.

Poly patted her pockets absently, finding the bright yellow material already soaked with moisture, and sucked in a shallow breath of regret. No doubt they were already ruined. She tried not to mind too much, but a small sniff escaped her anyway. Onepiece, once again trotting under his own power, kept up a constant stream of complaint in the back of her mind.

Poly was rather blindly wiping the rain from her glasses when Luck stopped abruptly. This time she stopped herself from tumbling into him with a quick half-step to the side, and reflected crossly that things would be much easier if Luck were to call marching orders. Or if he would walk by her side like any normal male instead of striding on ahead.

“It’s raining,” he said. Poly thought he sounded surprised.

“It’s been raining for the past half-hour,” she told him, amused in spite of herself.

“I don’t like being rained on.”

“Oh. Well, there’s not much you can do about it, you know.”

Luck tilted his head back to observe her, a puzzled line between his brows. “Of course there is,” he said.

He sketched a tiny figure in the palm of his hand, then blew out his cheeks and huffed it toward a convenient rock-ledge that was currently running along the path beside them.

As Poly watched in astonishment, a white, tent-like structure bloomed, just a little taller than Luck and twice as long as it was high. She reached out a hand to touch the insubstantial stuff, expecting to feel her fingers pass through something like mist, only to discover that the pearly whiteness was in fact cold and springy.

“What is it?” she asked Luck, but he was already stepping through a thin gap in the stuff. A puff of warm, displaced air succeeded him, inducing Poly to follow after him without wondering further about anything but that the shelter was warm, and above all, dry.

She found her clothes dry and soft immediately upon stepping inside, which pleased her greatly. Onepiece, following close behind and about to vigorously shake himself, looked affronted and decidedly less pleased about the business. Nevertheless, he trotted after her as she walked curiously around the shelter, her fingers lightly touching the taut surface, and was interested enough to try burrowing at the white sheen that stretched below them and indented with each footstep before springing back.

Luck, sealing the parting with two pinched fingers, shot the dog a green-eyed look.

“Don’t do that.”

Onepiece gave a small, growling bark but did as he was told, and sulkily climbed into Poly’s lap when she sat down.

His flowing train of thought-speech said:
-poor Onepiece, poor puppy. white is tight and warm but it’s sneezy-

Poly amused him with her fingers for some minutes, twinkling them past his nose and tapping his paws while he watched in fascination and tried to capture them between his tiny teeth, before she said casually: “You have them too, darling.”

Onepiece looked suspicious.
-have fingers, yes. clumsy and heavy-

“Well, they needn’t be clumsy,” Poly said reasonably. “Your legs must have been heavy and clumsy once. How is it you can walk and jump now?”

-lots of walking-
said Onepiece shortly, and she had a brief inrush of hazy memories that spoke of aching bones and aching cold.

“It’s just the same with fingers,” she told him. “You must use them, or they’ll stay clumsy.”

-dog is warm-
Onepiece said sulkily.

“It’s warm in here.”

There was a barely audible huff from the puppy.
-huh. fingers. no use-

“Rubbish,” said Luck, making them both jump. He sat down next to Poly, stretching out his long legs comfortably in front of him, and roughed Onepiece’s ears. Onepiece gave a sigh of pleasure and flopped forward on Poly’s knees.

“Can’t do that with paws,” pointed out Luck, giving the puppy one last scratch. He seized Poly’s hand and threaded his fingers through hers, displaying their linked hands to Onepiece. “Can’t do this with paws, either.”

Onepiece’s stream of consciousness slowed, stopped, and threw out one hiccough of an idea.
-mum?-

Poly thought she caught the sense of a very tiny, human Onepiece holding the much larger hand of someone else, and was taken aback at the wave of longing that swept over the puppy.

“Perhaps,” she said. “But you’ll have to be human again.”

There was a moment of utter silence from the puppy, while Poly became aware that Luck was still holding her hand and was now tracing the spiral of antimagic with one finger, a frown on his face.

Then an overwhelming surge of clear magic shook the shelter, and the tiny, naked boy that was Onepiece was back again, huddled in her lap. His eyes were at first wild and frightened, but when Poly wrapped her arms around him, disengaging her fingers from Luck’s, he gazed up at her in perfect contentment.