The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) (18 page)

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.”

“I’ve thought
of
a
solution while talking to Master. But I’ll have to get home and try
it out to see if it’ll work or not.” Stumbling up to her feet, she weaved her
way into her room. “Wake me up in the morning.”

~ ~ ~

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.”

“A simple
solution,” Aran observed. “You can’t do this here?”

“Right, because
it’s not a curse, it’s a portation spell. And a transformation spell mixed in.
That’s what makes this tricky. This acts like a curse, but it’s not. It’s a
perfectly legitimate spell that’s doing what it’s designed to. On the surface, it’s
not the slightest bit evil or underhanded, either. That’s how it got around the
protective wards of the Belen King and the princess. Their wards would have
protected them against anything overtly dangerous.”

Aran let out a
soft hum of understanding. “So this is, what?”

“Two spells we
have to counter. Well, a spell and a half. And the only way that I can think to
do that is to create another door to the portal where people are trapped.”
Satisfied he knew enough to keep up, she turned back to Master. “I think we
need to take the same ingredients that are used to make the ink and make a wash
with it.”

Master lit up
as her words penetrated. “
The wash, since it has the same ingredients, will
activate the spell all over again and give us a gateway to the person trapped.
”

“And it won’t
affect the original drawing in the process, so it can’t injure or somehow warp
the people.” Sevana grinned at him. She did adore moments like these, when they
were so in tune with the other that they could continue each other’s thoughts.

Stroking his
chin, Master asked almost rhetorically, “
But will it work just like that
?
Will they be able to step out themselves
?”

“I don’t think
it’ll be that convenient. We can try it, of course. I’d be pleasantly surprised
to be proven wrong.”

“
But you’re thinking
that we’ll need some sort of interface instead, something to act as a new
gateway.”

“Exactly. And
you’ve found a good candidate already.” She arched an eyebrow at him.

Master snapped
his fingers together in recognition. “
The mirror. Of course. Perfect. Or it
will be, if it works. I think you’re right and that it will. If you read me the
ingredients of the ink, I’ll make a wash while waiting for you to come.”

Sevana shook
her head. “No, I brought ingredients with me. I think it should be the same elements
and strength, as exactly as we can match, so that the spell doesn’t alter.”

Behind her, she
heard Aran say to himself, “So
that’s
why she wanted them.”

“
That’s
sound thinking, sweetling. In that case, let me examine the spell anew and see
if I can find any holes in your theory. You say you’re on your way back
?
Good, I’ll expect you in four days or so then.
”

A thought
occurred and she asked, “Do you have a full length magical mirror?”

Master
instantly responded, “
Of course…
” only to trail off sheepishly and
admit, “
Just not here. Mercy, but that would be difficult, wouldn’t it?
Yanking full grown adults through that small mirror I have. No matter, I’ll
have Morgan buy me something large enough and do the necessary spellwork on it.
We’ll have a working mirror large enough for the job by the time you get here.
”

Satisfied, she
shooed him off with her free hand. “Then get to it. If I think of anything
else, I’ll call you.”

“
So bossy,
”
Master complained with a mock-sigh. Then he grinned when she stuck her tongue
out at him. “
Have a nice ride, sweetling.
”

Sevana growled
at him wordlessly. Horrible man. He knew she hated riding.

Cackling,
Master signed off and the Caller went still.

Aran seemed to
sense what she was thinking and apologized, “Even a chellomi can only go so
fast.”

Resigned,
Sevana just sighed.