Unbaked Croakies: A Magical Cozy Mystery with Talking Animals (Enchanting Inquiries Book 1)

by Sam Cheever

  As Lea chanted, pale green energy rose from the floor inside the circle and lifted toward the ceiling, filling the magical cylinder she’d created with her circle.

  She stood at the center of the magic and used the parchment wrapped Licorice Root to fan the smoke coming from the bowl in the center.

  Smoke rose from the bowl and thickened, spinning into a charcoal gray column that spread outward and took shape.

  A denser part at the top formed into wide shoulders and sprouted a shape from its center that coalesced into a head. The torso narrowed to a waist, bumped slightly out into hips, and broke into two columns that became legs.

  The smoke was shaped like a man.

  I grabbed Alice’s arm. “That looks like the guy who was in here before the vortex showed up.”

  Alice nodded.

  We watched as the smoke-man turned to look at Lea, who was still chanting softly. Still waving the parchment-wrapped bundle in his direction.

  Smoky hands found blurry-edged hips. He seemed to be glaring at her, determined not to obey the dictates of her magic.

  But Lea lifted the parchment to her mouth and blew softly on it. The effect was immediate. The smoky shape was blown toward the wall where the vortex had been. As it touched the drywall, the picture hanging there disappeared, along with the drywall behind it, and the vortex reappeared.

  Smoke-man blew through the vortex. To my shock, Lea didn’t hesitate. She stepped closer and then followed him in.

  Alice and I looked at each other, wondering what we should do. Finally, we turned and ran toward the connecting door, threw it open, and ran into the library.

  There was no sign of Lea or smoke man.

  “Where’d they go?” I asked.

  Alice opened her mouth to say something but never got the chance.

  A thunderous roar and a whoosh exploded from the bookstore. We ran back to the front, arriving just in time to see a column of flame blast toward the ceiling, flare violently, and then dribble down Lea’s magic cylinder like water sliding down the sides of a glass tube.

  Too late to catch her, we watched Lea collapse bonelessly onto the carpet.

  Her clothes were actually smoking. And her skin was blistered and red as if she’d been burned. She was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor inside the circle she’d drawn. The chalk edge was smudged where her hand lay upon it. She had chalk on one fingertip, leading me to think she’d smudged it on purpose.

  “Where’d she come from?” I asked Alice as the Keeper ran over and knelt down beside Lea.

  Alice ignored my question and reached for the witch, her hand snapping back as if she’d been burned by the contact. Holding her hand against her chest, Alice lifted a haunted gaze to me. “I need to call the doctor.”

  My eyes went wide. “A regular human doctor? Is that a good idea?”

  Alice pulled a phone from her pocket. “Don’t be daft.” She punched a number and, a beat later, spoke into the phone. “I need your help.”

  As Alice disconnected, Lea groaned. Her fingers twitched as she came awake.

  “Don’t move, sweetums,” Alice crooned. “Doctor Whom’s on his way.”

  I blinked. “You called Doctor Who?” Okay, that was just too crazy, even for Croakies.

  “Whom,” Alice corrected me. Her gaze jerked up as a breezy whoosh filled the room, followed by a soft thump. “Your human is showing,” she said, smiling gently. “Over here!” she called out.

  I stood as a man hurried around the shelves, my gaze widening with surprise at the sight.

  He looked to be about five feet tall. Maybe less. His form was pear-shaped only more…sloped. He wore a cloak of feathers that drooped from narrow shoulders and covered wide hips over short, skinny legs. His bowed calves were covered in fitted, yellow socks, making them look too much like bird legs, and his feet were bare, the toes long and curved downward like claws.

  Tugging a stethoscope out from under the feathered cloak, the doc blinked slowly at me through enormous eyes, which were set close together on either side of a sharp, beaklike nose. His lips pursed as his owlish gaze settled onto Lea. “Whooo?”

  “The earth witch from next door,” Alice said, moving away from Lea so the doctor could come closer.

  He didn’t so much crouch beside Lea as…nest…there, placing the scope on the curve of her throat and then at her temple.

  “Um…” I started to say, but I was shushed by Alice. My lips slammed shut.

  Doctor Whom sliced a curved finger claw into the skin of Lea’s wrist, and I stepped forward. “Hey!”

  Alice glared at me. “Be still!”

  Frowning, I crossed my arms over my chest, watching as blood beaded along the scratch he’d made.

  Whom lifted the blood-covered claw toward his nose and sniffed. Then he turned away and hawked several times, regurgitating a small bundle of bones and fur that landed on the carpet beside him.

  “Ew!” I objected loudly.

  Alice rolled her eyes. “Watch and learn.”

  The good doctor scooped the contents of his stomach from the rug and carefully packed it over the slice he’d made in Lea’s arm. Then he settled down with his back to us and began whistling softly.

  Nothing happened for long minutes. I started to get restless, moving from foot to foot and trying to see beyond the doctor’s feathery bulk to Lea. “Maybe we should take her to the hospital,” I whispered to Alice.

  Whom’s head turned nearly backward to glare at me. “Patience, young woman.” He frowned, glancing at Alice. “Whooo?”

  “My apprentice,” she admitted, seemingly without joy.

  I bristled. “Look, I’m getting tired…”

  Whom whistled again.

  My gaze slid past him, to the substance rising from Lea’s arm. I watched in fascination as oily black smoke saturated the ball of stuff the Doc had plastered over Lea’s wound. When the smoke stopped wafting out and the last of it had settled into the “poultice” Doctor Whom had put in place, the Doc reached over and gathered the blackened goop with his claws, flinging it over his shoulder. It dissipated on the air with a soft pop of sound.

  Lea sighed and her eyes came open.

  She looked from Whom to us and then back to the doctor. “That bad, huh?”

  Whom laughed. “A minor hex poisoning. Nothing we couldn’t nip right in the bud.” He unfolded himself from the nesting position and dropped the stethoscope back around his neck. The doc pulled a pad of paper from a pocket and scribbled on it, tearing off a sheet and handing it to Lea. “Your bill for my services,” he said. Then he reached into a different pocket and tugged out a small rodent, holding it by the tail. It wriggled in terror, its little paws beating the air. “One mouse a day for a week. Here’s your first dose.”

  Lea reached out and took the frightened critter, rubbing a soothing finger along its trembling body. “Thanks, Doc.”

  He spun his head all the way around and smiled. “Pleasure. Good day to you all.”

  The rotund little owl-man waddled around the shelves and I hurried after him, fascinated to know how he’d gotten to us so quickly.

  An oversized wooden birdhouse squatted in the center of the open space at the front of the store. One wall of the small building rested against the table where I’d been working on my notes. The doctor’s conveyance had lifted the table a few inches off the floor on one side, dumping several sheets of paper to the carpet.

  I made a small sound of delight at the sight. He opened the door of the charming structure, and several more mice ran out, escaping to relative safety underneath the bookshelves.

  “That should cover the rest of the week,” he called over his shoulder. And then he disappeared inside, slamming the door firmly closed.

  A beat later lights emanated from the windows of the small building. Doctor Whom’s birdhouse lifted off the carpet, spun several times, and disappeared with a whoosh.

  “Holy owl spit!” I said, grinning widely. “That was icy.”

  Le
a came up and stood beside me, still holding the tiny mouse. It fixed me with a shiny black gaze, and I reached out to stroke a finger over its tiny white head. “You’re not really going to ea…”

  Lea covered my mouth with her hand. “Shhh! You’ll scare the little guy. Of course not. None of us follow Whom’s after-treatment orders. We just take our ‘medicine’ so he doesn’t eat it.”

  The little mouse gave off an alarmed shriek and Lea blanched. “Oh. Sorry.” She settled the creature to the floor. “Off with you now. Find your friends.”

  Alice sighed. “I’ll have to have a talk with Fenwald. He’s quite the hunter, you know.”

  Our gazes slid toward the front windowsill, where said hunter was licking his nether regions in the sun, oblivious to the newly arrived rodent family mere feet from his nose.

  I snickered.

  Lea had better sense. She cleared her throat. “Okay, so that was interesting. Whoever that was, he did go directly to the table and take the suitcase. Before he picked it up, he held a palm over it, and the thing jumped around as if he was drawing something from it.”

  I felt my eyes go wide. “You think there was something alive in there?”

  Lea seemed to consider that for a moment, then she shook her head. “Something that had been magically attached, but not necessarily alive.”

  “Magically attached?” I asked.

  “She means the suitcase was under the power of something. Or someone,” Alice clarified. She narrowed her gaze on Lea. “You suspect a mage?”

  “Specifically a wizard,” Lea agreed. “He probably attached a masking spell to the suitcase so you couldn’t read any negative energy from it. That all but ensured you wouldn’t lock it into the toxic magic vault.”

  Alice curled her lip.

  “What?” I asked, only about half understanding their conversation.

  “Wizards are nasty,” Lea said.

  “How’d he get back out with the artifact?” Alice asked the witch.

  Lea sighed. “I can’t be entirely sure.” She raised her gaze to ours. “He…” She bit her lip. “After he lifted the suitcase, he turned around and…” She shook her head, clearly struggling with what she needed to tell us.

  “What is it?” Alice asked, impatience in her tone.

  “He saw me. He shouldn’t have been able to see me. He was only a shadow. Something that happened in the past. But the shadow turned and saw me and…” Her gaze turned haunted. She shuddered violently and rubbed her arms, hugging herself.

  “What is it?” I asked. “What happened in there, Lea?”

  The earth witch expelled air in a rush, looking thoroughly spooked. “He threw a hex at me and I flew out of the divining. He cast me out of something that happened in the past. I didn’t even know that was possible. We’re dealing with a deadly and powerful wizard.”

  8

  This Is Your Legacy Magic

  “Could you tell what he looked like?” I asked the witch.

  Lea shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. What we were looking at was simply a shadow of what happened.” She rubbed her arms as if chilled. “There shouldn’t have been any crossover between the past and the present.”

  “Except there was,” Alice offered.

  “Yes.” Lea sighed. “I need to run some tests. Do you mind if I hang out here for a while?”

  “That’s fine, sweetums.” Alice glanced at me. “We’ll just get back to work.” She all but danced toward the closet beside the tea counter, pulling out a coat and slipping it on. “I’m going to retrieve an artifact,” she happily told the room at large.

  Excitement filling me, I hurried over. “I’ll get my stuff.”

  “Don’t bother. You can’t come with.” Alice said it with such glee, it took me a moment to grasp that she was shutting me down.

  “What? But why? I need to learn…”

  “Because I can’t close the shop, so you’ll stay here in case customers come in.”

  I bit down on the urge to ask her why she couldn’t close it. She’d likely done it countless times before I’d come around. But part of me wanted to stay and watch Lea work without Alice around to interfere. That sounded almost as good as going artifact hunting. “Will I be able to go with you soon? I need to learn.”

  “Of course, sweetums. You have a lot to learn. And much of it is here.” She patted my hand, giving me a smile that almost looked sincere. “Detective Grym was right. I pushed you too hard before. I’m going to give you some time to learn the ropes in the store before we move on to the next thing.”

  That sounded reasonable, so I nodded. “Okay.”

  Alice headed for the door. “I’ll bring dinner back.” She grinned. “Tacos?”

  The day was looking up. “That sounds great.”

  I watched her leave and then started toward Lea, intending to ask her a lot of questions. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

  The front doorbell jangled and I looked over to find two women coming into the store, chatting and laughing happily.

  Customers.

  Barely biting back a sigh, I headed in their direction.

  I’d never seen the shop so busy. Of course, I’d only really spent time there for the last two days. But hardly anyone had come into the store the day before.

  An hour later, Lea came around the end of the shelves with her small magic bag. She looked tired. “I’m done for now. I’ll get back to you with the results of my tests.”

  I nodded. “Do you want some tea? You look done in.”

  She smiled, “Thanks. That would be nice.”

  Lea sat at the table with my newly stacked notes, and stared into space as if she were utterly drained. A few minutes later, I settled tea and a plate of cookies on the table and joined her there. “I’m tired too,” I told her. “It wasn’t nearly this busy yesterday.”

  Lea sipped her tea, a knowing spark in her turquoise gaze.

  I raised a brow. “What?”

  She laughed softly. “I’ve known Alice for three years now. I can’t remember her ever wrangling an artifact on a Monday. It’s her busiest day.”

  I read between the lines for what Lea didn’t say. “That’s why she left me here. She saw an opportunity to escape a hard day’s work and took it.”

  Lea grinned around her cookie, which was fortunately something Alice purchased at the local bakery instead of making it herself. As evidenced by the fact that we both still had our teeth.

  “That rat,” I murmured, sighing.

  “At least you’re getting dinner out of it.”

  I laughed. “She is right, though. I do need to learn this part of the business. The magic stuff will come soon enough.”

  Something in the way I said it made Lea tip her head. “You’re not comfortable with the magic?”

  I held her gaze for a long moment, wondering if I dared confide my doubts to her. After a moment, I decided Lea was trustworthy. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing…magically speaking. I was never formally trained. My ability has pretty much consisted of getting bad headaches and drawing random floating objects.”

  Lea’s expression tightened, and I immediately regretted telling her. I’d been afraid of exactly that reaction. The reaction of a seasoned magic user when faced with a clumsy novice. I didn’t ask her what the face was about. I just started to climb to my feet. “Well, I guess I should get back to work…”

  Lea’s hand came out and clasped mine. “If you ever need advice…” She hesitated as if unsure whether her offer would be welcome. Then she smiled. “I’m just next door.”

  My surprise must have shown because she gave my hand a squeeze. “We’ve all been there, Naida.”

  I collapsed back into my chair. “I doubt you were ever where I am. I’m terrified Alice will figure out I’m a fraud.” As soon as the words slid past my lips, I panicked. My head shot up and I covered my mouth. “You won’t tell her?”

  Lea stared at me for a long moment. Then she reached out wit
h both hands, palms facing me, and waved them in front of my face, about six inches away.

  I blinked in surprise. “What are you doing?”

  She let her hands drop. “Your aura is purple, did you know that?”

  “Um…”

  “Sorcerers generally have auras that are anywhere from lilac to deep purple. The depth of the color informs the level of power you possess.”

  “But I’m not a sorcerer,” I objected.

  Lea picked up her tea. “Your power ranges in the upper third. Not the deepest purple, but certainly not lilac.”

  “What are you telling me?” My voice was breathless. I was suddenly terrified to fail her assessment.

  “I’m telling you that you come from a powerful line of sorcerers. Even untrained, your magical aura is strong. I suspect you will only grow in strength with training.” She grimaced. “I’d bet my favorite hex that Alice knows you’re strong, and her treatment of you is probably based on a mix of jealousy and the knowledge that you can take care of yourself, despite her inadequate training.”

  I thought about that, not really believing it. “I wish that were true.”

  “I assure you it is. I can see it.”

  I leaned over the table. “But I’ve been told I’m not magical.”

  “If that’s true, then why are you here?”

  I shrugged. “Someone thought I might like it.”

  I expected her to ask who that someone was, but she didn’t. Instead she asked, “Why did they think that?”

  I chewed my lip for a beat before I told her. “Things started…following me…when I turned eighteen.”

  “Following you?”

  “Yes. It’s hard to explain.”

  Lea’s face took on a strange look and she slowly smiled, nodding to something over my shoulder. “You mean like that?”

  I jerked my head around and sucked air in surprise. Reaching up, I quickly snatched the slim volume of magical spells from the air where it hovered. I looked around to make sure there were no customers in the area. “That’s been happening more since I came to Croakies.”