An Unexpected Invitation

by Ceillie Simkiss

  I shook my head. The storms were due to start any day now. Besides, I wasn’t sure I could trust the mail service with something so delicate as what I wanted to send. I forced a trembling smile onto my face and took a sip of my tea, making a show of how okay I was.

  “It isn’t the end of the world. I planned to travel to see them at mid-summer anyway. We will just celebrate later, that’s all.”

  Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. I knew that they didn’t believe me either, but they let me get away with it this time, sipping their own cups of tea. It wasn’t like there was anything they could do to stop time or make me any less prone to motion sickness. This was just the way the Goddess had built me, and I’d just have to deal with it. If I had just known about it earlier, I would have been able to make my journey in shorter bursts.

  We finished our cups of tea in silence as I thought about how much I hated my motion sickness. I’d missed events before because of it, but it broke my heart at the thought of not being able to celebrate with Ambrose and Oriol.

  Ambrose was my oldest friend. We’d grown up on neighboring estates and for a while, everyone was convinced our parents would marry us off. Fortunately, we hadn’t let that get in the way of a grand friendship.

  I knew him better than I knew myself, even after all these years apart. I could only imagine how beautiful the wedding would be, and it would have been nice to see all of my old schoolmates. But it wasn’t meant to be.

  “I should probably head out if your stitches are holding up?” I asked

  Graham pulled the blanket aside and inspected his leg. Aislinn and I peered at the stitches as well. It was a healthier color already and there was no blood or pus leaking out.

  “Well, it looks gross, but it doesn’t look infected or anything. It should be all right, so long as I stay off of it.”

  “Which he will.” Aislinn’s voice was stern and loving. Graham raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

  “Are you sure you don’t want any lunch for the road? I’ve got some leftovers from breakfast that would make a good snack.”

  I smiled at them both.

  “I have plenty of food at home. Thank you, though. I’ll leave some of my lotions and potions here for you. If you need me…”

  “I know. We’ll send Molly for you if we need you again, but I think we’ll be all right,” Aislinn told me. “Are you going to ride back? We’ve still got Sunset in the barn.”

  “Goddess, no!” I barked a laugh. “I’ll have a leisurely stroll back down this mountain alone with my pony, thank you very much! But really, don’t hesitate to call on me if you need me.”

  I got halfway down the mountain before I heard hoofbeats coming from behind me. Sunset pricked her ears at the sound, and I turned on the gravel path to see Molly atop her own horse.

  “Did your father pull out his stitches already? I’ve barely been gone ten minutes,” I said exasperatedly when she’d caught up to us.

  “No, no. Pa’s fine,” she said with a wave. “I just had an idea that might help you.”

  “With what?”

  “With that wedding you want to go to!”

  I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “And how do you know about that?”

  “You know exactly how I know it, Miss Beatrice,” she answered frankly.

  She had a bad habit of eavesdropping on all of the adults in her life. It usually worked to her advantage. Maybe this time it would also work to mine. She slid off her horse while it was still moving, much more gracefully than I thought I had ever been. She jogged to catch up with me, tying her mare to Sunset so that she could talk to me without worrying about her horse running home without her.

  “So, you want to go to this wedding but you can’t travel fast enough in time to make it work, right?”

  I sighed.

  “That about sums it up, yeah.”

  “Well, you’re a witch, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am. What does that have to do with the price of eggs in Elisad? It’s not like I can fly.”

  “Flying is not the only magic that you have at your disposal for traveling.”

  “Well, I don’t have that kind of magic at all, as you well know,” I reminded her.

  Now it was her turn to get exasperated with me.

  “Miss Beatrice, you are being a pain. You have other kinds of magic. I’ve seen you transform into squirrels and mongoose before.”

  “I don’t understand how that helps me travel. I still get motion sickness in animal form.”

  “Right, but what if you transformed into something inanimate? Would you still get motion sickness?”

  I pondered the question while I walked, knowing that my face had gone from wide open to scrunched up in a matter of minutes. It always did when I was thinking hard about something.

  I hadn’t tried transforming myself into anything inanimate since graduation, or anything much at all recently. Transforming yourself wasn’t difficult. The hard part was having someone around to help you come out of your transformation when you needed to, especially when you lived alone like I did.

  “That,” I told her. “is an excellent question. I don’t think I’ve ever tried it.”

  She propped her hands on her hips and grinned at me, looking just like her mother.

  “Well? What are we waiting for?”

  “We? You gonna help me out?” I laughed.

  I desperately wanted to go to the wedding. If there was a way for me to do that without being incredibly sick… Hope began to bubble in my chest, but I tamped it down quickly. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and then have to deal with the crushing disappointment later.

  Molly shrugged as if it didn’t matter. Knowing her, I could tell by her unblinking eye contact that she desperately wanted to be a part of this.

  “I figure you’ll need help with something, and I’m your assistant, so… yeah! Unless, of course, you don’t want help?” Her words tumbled out, almost too fast for me to understand them.

  “I will need help for at least one part of the spell,” I assured her.

  She yelped with glee and hugged me tightly, surprising me.

  “You won’t regret this, Miss Beatrice! I promise!”

  Her fingers trembled as she untied her mare from Sunset’s saddle. With a graceful leap, she was back on her own horse and trotting down the path towards her home. I watched her until she got around the bend.

  Well, I thought, this is certainly going to be an experience.

  Part Two

  Three days later, I was glad that I had tempered the hope that I had felt that day in the woods. So far, Molly and I had only managed to get on each other's nerves and remember the reason that I hadn't done the personal transformation spell in years.

  That reason was that it was complicated and finicky and frustrating. I caught myself tugging at my hair and slamming my hands on the table more often than not.

  Judging by the slammed door that rattled the cabin’s thin walls, Molly wasn't having any more fun at this than I was, for several reasons. It had been raining for two days, which had caused the roof to leak. The other reason was that I’d transformed… partially. The lower half of my body had transformed into one of the extra large wooden stools I kept next to the counter. The upper half, from what I could see, had just gone stiff and become patterned like wood grain. It wasn’t something glamorous or fun.

  I tried to mutter the counterspell but found that my jaw was too stiff to move easily, like the rest of my upper body. This wasn’t the first time I’d been unable to speak it aloud.

  Ugh, I thought. Next time, I’ll try something with more options for movement.

  Molly walked back in a few minutes later with a bucket of cold water from the well. It looked like she’d dumped another over her head. Water was dripping off the ends of her hair and down the back of her dress. It was getting rather warm in here, despite the cool ocean air that swirled around the island all year round.

  We stared at ea
ch other for a few breaths. I watched as her eyebrows knitted in confusion and then relaxed when she realized what had happened… again.

  “Nimue,” she said with a sigh. The name we’d chosen as a safeword released me from the spell and I felt better almost immediately. My joints were less stiff and the wood grain pattern began to fade from my skin.

  “Thanks, Molly. Mark that one down as yet another attempt that didn’t work. What number are we on now?”

  She looked down at the list on the table and deliberately made another mark.

  “That was attempt number thirty-seven, Miss Beatrice. I swear, I didn’t think this would be this difficult.”

  I grimaced and unfolded myself from where I’d been sitting on the floor. I definitely needed to pick something more flexible to turn into next time.

  “Honestly, I didn’t think it would be, either. I used to be kind of all right at this stuff, but I guess I got rusty. I definitely feel rusty right now.”

  I hobbled around the cabin, keeping one hand on a surface at all times, just in case. Most of my furniture was made of pliable, pale beech against the dark washed wood of my walls.

  “You were a wooden stool - or half of one. How are you feeling rusty?

  She was sassing me. I fixed her with a glare that had once made her flee from my presence in fear. Of course, she’d been three at the time. It didn’t have nearly the same effect now. She grinned back at me and we both started to laugh. I continued my aimless wandering around the cabin, turning away from my young companion.

  “I think I need a break and a good long walk before we try again. What do you say we go into town before we try again? I’d like to get some lunch that I’m not in charge of preparing and pay a visit to Winston.”

  Molly grimaced at the name. I bit back a laugh.

  “Not Master Winston,” she whined. “He always treats me like a child and offers me the weird candies he keeps in his robes. Who even wears robes anymore?”

  “He was very fashionable in his day,” I said with a laugh. “Besides, he’s been a good friend of mine since I moved here.

  As Molly had mentioned, he was a meticulous dresser. He had a tendency to wear billowing robes of all colors year-round, which hadn’t been in style in a very long time. However, he didn’t care. In his opinion, the brighter and more opulently decorated, the better. Aislinn was usually in charge of the embroidery on his new clothes, as one of the best stitch witches I’d ever met. As a result, Molly saw him fairly regularly.

  “And his day was like a thousand years ago,” she grumbled while she wrapped her cloak around herself. She wasn’t entirely wrong. No one was really sure how old he was. Molly’s grandmother, the oldest woman on the island at 73, remembered Winston being an adult when she was a little girl. If you asked him about it, he would always change the subject or say that he was older than dirt. He appeared to be in his mid-forties by human standards, but as a member of the fae, he didn’t age like the rest of us.

  This afternoon, like any spent in his company, was sure to be interesting.

  Both Molly and I felt significantly less annoyed with both the spell work and each other after stuffing their faces full of seafood stew at a restaurant near the docks. There was nothing like a good meal to smooth away the sharp edges of irritation, especially when there was no good reason for the irritation.

  It wasn’t hard to find Winston from there. Our island was small, and although we saw a lot of visitors, nobody came to the island that would be mistaken for Winston.

  All we had to do to find him was ask the nearest sailor where we might find him.

  She pointed us just around the corner to the island’s only store. How convenient.

  “Why are we visiting Master Winston again?” Molly asked from behind me.

  “He’s the only other person on this island who might be able to help me with this spell. Nobody else would have the training to do this.”

  I slowed my pace to allow her to catch up as I replied, noticing that she was walking more hesitantly than I had ever seen her walk. I wasn’t sure why.

  “What going on with you? Are you really this uncomfortable with him? Or are you just being a teenager?”

  She looked down and pressed her lips together stubbornly.

  “You don’t have to tell me, but you also don’t have to go see him with me if he makes you uncomfortable.”

  Her eyes brightened at the offer, and she gave me a small smile.

  “Thank you for offering, but I can handle him. I’m not eating any of his weird candy, though.”

  I snorted.

  “That’s fine. It’s not very good. Plus I should be taking all of his attention anyway. ”

  “Okay, but if you need an out, just tug on your ear or something.”

  Her smile morphed into a smirk.

  “Tug on my ear? What am I, a jester?”

  At just that moment, my jaw dropped. Winston’s normally melodic voice roared through the air making sure that we knew he was there before we could see him.

  We rounded the corner to see the man standing on the stairs that led to the town hall, his robes flowing around him in the wind, his voice louder than I’d thought physically possible from the willowy man. His salt and pepper hair was sticking nearly straight up, making him look absolutely ridiculous, and a little bit frightening.

  “Oh goddess, what is he on about now?” Molly muttered.

  “Where is he?” Winston was yelling at the building’s doors. “Where is Atticus? Return him to me at once!”

  I turned to look at Molly, confused and concerned. She shrugged at me as if to say she didn’t know who he was talking about either. As the witch of the island, I tended to know everybody. I wasn’t aware of anybody on the island named Atticus.

  Winston continued to yell at the doors. People from up and down the street were peeking out their windows, apparently scared to come out and say anything to him. He had one fist raised above his head, with something white clutched in his fist.

  “It’s Sunsday,” Molly reminded me. “Nobody’s even in there.”

  “He seems to have forgotten that.”

  I cleared my throat and yelled to get his attention when he stopped to take a breath. At the sound of my voice, several neighbors began to mind their own business for the first time since before we’d entered this street. Winston whirled around, ready to yell at whoever called to him, and nearly tumbled down the carved stone stairs. His arms windmilled before catching the banister while Molly and I watched in horror.

  I dropped my satchel and rushed up the stairs, taking care not to slip on my way up. He sat down hard. I knelt down on the stair below him and gave him a once-over.

  “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to scare you! Are you hurt?”

  He shook me off with a grumble. He didn’t appear to be injured as he leaned his back against the wooden banister and stretched his legs out along the stair. His heavily embroidered forest green robes slid apart showing off his long, wiry legs.

  “I’m fine. I need to find the fools who sent me this notice. How dare they send me this notice on a day when they won’t even show their faces to the public!”

  I realized that the flash of white that I had seen in his hand while he was yelling was an piece of parchment when he shook it in the direction of my face. I heard Molly coming up behind me, and changed my position to match his. My legs were much shorter than his, and I was plumper. Where he fit neatly on one stair, my wide hips barely managed to stay on the stairs in that position. Twisting so that we could see each other, I held my hand out.

  “May I see the notice? Perhaps we can help you find them.”

  Without a word, he thrust the parchment into my hand. Molly came up and sat at my feet, my satchel nestled between her own muddy feet on the stair below us. I read it out loud.

  “Master Winston Tolliver,

  This notice from the Maredudd Town Council to inform you that we have been notified of an illicit magical creature, specificall
y an addanc, being housed at your residence. This creature is commonly known by the name of Atticus. Per Maredudd Ordinance 33.5-1, the addanc has been confiscated. You may appeal this decision by visiting the Maredudd Town Hall….”

  My voice trailed off. It listed the hours that town hall was open, but I didn’t care about those at the moment.

  “You had an addanc? In your house?” My voice was nearly a screech. “On purpose?”

  He sniffed imperiously as if my question was ridiculous. It wasn’t. Addanc were a terrifying fae creature that resembled both a beaver and a crocodile. It had the size, weight, and teeth of a crocodile, but its body was shaped like that of a beaver. It also tended to eat people. Especially when they set foot in what the addanc considered their homes.

  “Of course he doesn’t live in my house,” he told me as if this were the most ridiculous thing I’d ever said. As if I were the ridiculous one in this conversation. “He lives in the lake that he created behind my home. But yes. His name is Atticus and we’ve been friends for years.”

  I spluttered. Winston ignored me and kept talking.

  “Atticus and I became friends when I was but a wee thing. He curled up on my lap and went to sleep when I was lounging in a pool. I am horrified that they went onto my property and took my Atticus away! He is not a thing to be snatched! Molly here knows that.”

  I whipped my head around to glare at her.

  “Is that why you’ve been acting so weird about coming out here, Molly? Did you know about the addanc? How come I didn’t know about the addanc?”

  “Atticus!” Winston corrected me. I threw my hand up to show him I didn’t care. I was focused on Molly. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to go see him.

  “I, uh… met him a few weeks ago. I spilled something on my shirt while Ma was doing a fitting with fancy-pants over here. I was trying to clean it in the lake, and he popped out and chittered at me as if I were doing something wrong.”

  “He is a bit territorial.” Winston sniffed again. I rolled my eyes. That was probably the understatement of the century. “But he didn’t attack you, so really, consider yourself lucky that he even warned you with his presence.”