Lost Magic (The Swift Codex Book 3) (33 page)

I flipped onto my belly again, grumbling incoherent rants at the man. Valerin flew beside me silently, waiting with a patience that Mordon didn't always display. My shoulder was burning. I decided. “Guide me home, Valerin. And after that, I would like pain management.”

Valerin hid his joy, but he didn't do the best job of it. He was sort of cute when he was that happy. I did not let myself think on it. He asked, “Did you work the shoulder too much?”

“No, but it doesn't feel nice.”

A cheerful, warm little old man with round glasses was the Settlement's healer and historian. He talked to himself when he had no one to listen to him, and it didn't take me long to see that he firmly believed that I had strained my shoulder doing the dirty while on the wing. Valerin was appropriately red-cheeked and tongue-tied, and that did nothing to back up my insistence that my shoulder had been previously injured.

We'd gone to a large building with high, arched ceilings. It surrounded a central courtyard where a great tree grew—one of the trees with fortune scrolls tied to its trunk and lower branches. Offices of various kinds faced this tree. The healer's office proved to be little more than a sitting room followed by a plain examination room. It would have been perfectly ordinary if not for a full alchemical and potions lab set up against the far wall.

“That is the oldest fable in the lot,” the healer said. “And I know not to believe a word of it. Julius will be highly pleased with this addition to our family. Her hatchlings will deliver easily, you can tell by the placement of her pin bones—I am the obstetrician, Lady Feraline, don't you fear. I'll see you again in the morning to check on your 'strained shoulder'.”

The chill thought hit me that with the way this old man talked, Mordon would be sure to hear all about this visit. Whether or not he believed the tale, it would not be a pleasant thing for him to hear. This whole 'wearing the alternative' had not included doing things which would jeopardize my current life. And this to top off the point I'd been avoiding thinking about. The thing which cut me deeper than I ever thought possible.

Anna.

She's always be Anna to me, even if she was Josephina reincarnated. All at once, she'd become a part of my life, almost all of my life, had changed everything about it. Even my relationship with Mordon, my home, my view on what was safe and what wasn't. I'd sworn to protect her, and now I'd failed. I had confidence in the plan to get her back. I couldn't believe in anything else.

The evening air felt crisp and fresh on my skin, bringing a glow to my cheeks and numbness to the tips of my fingers. Several sneezes disrupted my peace, but the hayfever stopped before it really got started. Beneath embroidered slippers, the grass bent as I walked on it. All about us, the world was tinged in hues of peach and gold, casting me into little short of a genuine wonderland.

When Valerin had showed me to the best place to watch the sunset and we'd sat down, I put my head in my hands. And I started to bawl my eyes out, much to my chagrin. I hated crying. It felt so weak. Valerin's arms encircled me in an instant.

“It will be fine, I will talk to Julius, he will put a stop to any rumors. No one believes Tacitus anyway. I'll talk to your fire drake, it's nothing to cry over. He'll understand.”

I swallowed my tears. “It's not that. It's Anna.”

“We'll get her back.”

“I know.” I bit my lip hard, hating to admit it but hoping that he'd understand. “But
I
won't get her back.”

“They become part of you fast, don't they?” Valerin rubbed my shoulder. “You don't have to lose her. You'll always be welcome to visit. If you stay, you could become one of her primary caregivers.”

And then I knew I was in a contest between two loves of my life. One I'd always known I might have to surrender. But what would life be like without her now that she'd changed everything? I felt conflicted, truly conflicted, over what to do after she was safe. Valerin wasn't a bad choice, I had to admit, though it was still rather early to know for certain. Selestiani wasn't a bad place, either. And the quality of living might be higher than the one currently at the Colony. The phoenixes had that influence. But, amidst all my uncertainties, one thing I knew for certain: I had to get Anna back safely.

It was either brilliant or very dumb. I couldn't decide which. Before we committed to sending people into a sorcerer's backwoods mansion, we needed to do some reconnaissance because there was the chance that Anna wasn't even present. It could all be a decoy. If it wasn't a decoy and Anna truly was there, well, then it was guaranteed to be either a trap or a death pit.

“I think its tail needs to be shorter,” Leif said. “I have never seen a mouse with a tail that long before, and it might get caught in doors.”

Mordon closed his eyes and released a long, slow breath which I knew meant he was nearing the end of his patience. The mouse he'd stitched together creased under his thumb. Valerin and I supervised the puppet construction and were to take part in enchanting it. A great many people had come to see what we were doing and one too many had already commented on its tail. But we couldn't shorten it or else it wouldn't have sufficient range.

Sadly, we'd wasted precious hours before this in the sunshine, sitting on benches beside the hot spring while the sea monsters played, debating our alternatives ad nauseam. Our one and only good news: we thought we knew which house Anna was being kept in, thanks to Barnes having bribed one of the catering staff who was on duty for a banquet at Cole's recreational lodge. But how solid was the information? While Barnes assured us they hadn't lied, nor was it likely that they would be trusted with delicate intelligence.

We had to get inside first, to know if Anna was even present in the house. It was very possible that Cole would find it necessary to keep her apart from him. It was also very possible that he would be egotistical enough to show her off as his prize.

From that point, my reddened skin dictated a move indoors. Aloe burn-healing cream had turned my flesh a goopy green tinge for a couple hours, but now I was remarkably returned to normal. We sat in the retro-inspired lounge where I'd written my letter.

Eventually we'd agreed, over the course of a rice-based meal served in reed baskets, that we couldn't risk sending an actual person inside Cole's residence. Additionally, we needed to keep spells to a minimum until we knew what we were dealing with.

“Can we make the tip out of thread so it isn't as obvious?” I asked.

“That's one idea,” Mordon said. “It would serve as an adequate antenna so long as it was at least two twisted strands. A dark color would help it blend in, too.”

All I had to do was glance at Valerin and he disappeared in immediate pursuit of dark thread which would fit Mordon's specifications. I watched as he left the rooms, and then realized that all of the Selestiani were out of earshot. I flopped backwards on the couch.

“He was easy to train,” Mordon said. “Imagine what you could teach him to do in a full week. Near-telepathic fetching of tea, brew, perhaps even guessing what you'd like for dinner.”

“
Feeling jealous?”

Mordon chuckled, making me smile despite myself. He said, “I was thinking of ways to make myself more appealing on a personal level.”

I crossed my arms. “You could start by doing a little market research to find what your target customer wants first.”

Leif put his head down and stifled a groan. “Fera, must we do this now?”

“Yes, we must,” I said and motioned to the little mouse. It was a fairly convincing replica thanks to the real-life model we were borrowing from one of the kids, a white-furred and red-eyed version of the espresso fake currently in Mordon's hands. “Because Mordon isn't going to be able to keep it animated and life-like at the same time. But I can.”

“If anything goes wrong, I'll be the better one to be closest to the danger,” Mordon said. It was hardly a new debate, and I was beginning to wonder if I was confusing personal feelings with practicality.

“Fine. What is the greatest distance that the mouse has to relay at?” I asked.

“Fera,” Mordon said, stopping when Valerin reappeared with way too much thread. Taking advantage of Mordon's employment with the mouse tail, I addressed Leif.

“Let's do a test run first. It won't take long. You and Barnes and Lilly and whoever else, figure out some rough numbers. Then one of us will hide behind a screen and operate it. If Mordon can do it and you think it's good to go, then he can be the one to operate the puppet. But if you think that I'm the better choice then you'll have to take the risk that I might find myself in danger.”

“
I don't know if I like that,” Lilly said. She wriggled her foot and considered matters. Even Valerin watched her as she folded her hands in her lap and sighed. “But I don't think it can be helped.”

“Glad we're in agreement,” I said. “Valerin, where can we set up our trial? And if you can appoint a few people to judge who makes the puppet act like a mouse better, that would be great. Wouldn't want to have preferential judges spoil a good competition.”

“I will do as you want,” Valerin said, “but don't think that I am any more willing to send you forth than anyone else. I'd rather see you safe, and I'm sure that the others would prefer that Lord Meadows goes, as well.”

“But this is about getting Anna back, not about who to send into danger. And whoever it is that must go, must be the one most likely to succeed.”

Valerin pointed a square finger straight at me. “I know that and so do the others.”

“
Besides,” I said, “if you want me as part of this community, you'll have to grow accustomed to my hare-brained schemes, as the others like to call them. Now can we keep this going so we can get it over with?”

The test was simple, though we all had to find a system for anonymity. A screen was set up, one for each of us. In the end we added Valerin to the contest though I wasn't clear on the reason why. There was an audience who all claimed to be able to spot a mouse and Leif directed a distraction. Behind the scenes Lilly and Barnes and a bunch of intrigued observers watched the illusion cast through the mouse's enchanted eyes, able to see everything that the puppet saw in real time. Owing to Mordon's cleverness with pupetteering, the mouse proved to be a good spy.

When I had a basic lesson in controlling it, I waited for the white flag which denoted that it was my turn to take control of the mouse. When it came, I eased into the spell. Viewing the world through beads for eyes turned all the colors a funny shade of dark red. I followed the set path and advanced the mouse along the edges of the room and hallways, avoiding detection through quick dashes between hiding places, until I had taken the mouse as far as I could.

“The illusion on our end has cut out now,” Barnes called, loud enough that I could hear it.

I returned the mouse to the original position and waited. A short time later, we were all brought together and people compared their notes. When everything was tallied up, “the second person” proved to be the winner. Valerin rotated his shoulders and cracked his knuckles when it was announced that I was that “second person”.

“If there's nothing else,” I said, “let's give this recon a field test.”

After going through an absurd number of portals and hiding our tracks with enough spells to make my own head reel, we arrived at the place they were keeping Anna.

Ragweed pollen in the air made my hayfever flare, rendering me into a sneezing, teary-eyed mess within minutes of our arrival. Lilly was quick with a potion which worked well, but I lost a few minutes to recovery. By the time I could see farther than the tree across from me, the others had already found Cole's lodge.

It was a log cabin mansion on a picturesque lake with a sandy beach, fir trees, and a boat out on the still water. The scent of wood smoke wafted on the air and we heard people's laughter. Against the light from the inside, we saw people carrying drinks and talking in every room except for two or three. Due to the late hour of the night, I assumed that Anna must be kept in one of these rooms to allow her to sleep. No one I had ever spoken to claimed to enjoy disturbing a sleeping baby.

As we cloaked ourselves and I learned how to do a disguise spell, we went over the plan again. It was fairly straightforward. Nevertheless, we went over it all again and then again. Just to be sure that we understood what was happening and what to do if things went wrong. Then Barnes put a stop to the fussing.