by P. A. Wilson
Spells & Other Charms
P. A. Wilson
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Preview
Chapter 1
Also by P. A. Wilson
About the Author
Acknowledgments
1
Master Vollont looked at me and I tried not to see the pity and disappointment. I knew I wasn’t the best apprentice, but everyone, including him, said I had promise. I just didn’t know how to convert promise to talent— or ability.
“Quinn,” he said, with a sigh. “You must work on the basics. You have the power to do the more complex spells, and I know they are more interesting, but the basics are there for a reason.”
Yeah, the basics were boring, but that’s not why I skipped them. I just couldn’t quite get the hang of them and that made me feel stupid. I was lucky, I guess, to be his only student. Having his full attention meant I got much more training than other apprentice wizards. Having his full attention also meant I couldn’t get away from it. “Yes, Master Vollont. I will focus on the simple spells.”
“I am happy to hear it, but that isn’t why I called you here.” He rose and opened the door to his study. I turned to see what was coming next and froze.
A witch stood there.
Well, when I say stood there, I mean that she was coming in and taking the seat next to me. I was frozen, but the rest of the world kept moving.
She had red hair.
I never thought I’d find that attractive, but it was beautiful and it shone as though the sun lived there. Her grey eyes seemed to look beyond me. I wanted to reach out and touch the freckles that sprayed across her fair skin to see if they were real, or painted on.
“Quinn Larson, meet Cate Witherspoon. I have taken on her training as a favor to an old friend.”
She nodded to me.
“I… I… Pleased to meet you.” I managed to stutter out the words without passing out from embarrassment.
She gave a short smile and then looked back to Master Vollont. “Do you need me to demonstrate my abilities?” I expected her to speak with confidence, but she sounded worried.
“That will not be necessary,” Master Vollont said.
My mind came out of the fog that her appearance had dropped on me. Was she here because I was going to be sent somewhere else? Master Vollont only took on one student at a time. I should have worked harder and not pushed at the higher-level spells so much. If I had to go to a new master, I would be starting all over again.
It occurred to me that Cate was thinking the same thing. Here I was worried about what might happen to me, and it was happening to her.
“Quinn, do you agree?”
Oh, man. What had I missed?
“I’m not sure,” I said. What I wanted to say was that I agreed. But I knew better than to just jump in. That’s what usually screws up my spell creation.
“As usual you weren’t listening. Quinn, I despair of making you into the wizard you are destined to be. I said, I would like you to work as a team. I want to enter you in the annual competition, and I want you to win.”
How had we gotten from my inability to master the simple spells to entering the annual competition? “As a team?” I felt like a fool repeating his statement, but I needed to be clear. Was this his way of deciding which of us to keep?
“Yes,” Master Vollont said in the tone I knew meant that there was no more information coming.
“Okay, I can do that.” I hoped the doubt didn’t echo in my words.
Cate fidgeted with her hair, glancing at me and then back to Master Vollont. “If you believe that is the best idea, then I would be happy to enter the contest on your behalf. Do you have any advice?”
Master Vollont waved his fingers toward the door, which opened silently. “No. I believe between the two of you, there is enough talent and creativity to come up with a spell sequence that will win us the trophy.”
I stood up and thanked Master Vollont. When Cate stayed seated, I jerked my head toward the open door. “I think we should talk this out. The contest is only four days away.”
She glanced at Master Vollont who was now reading through a book of spells. He wasted little time with niceties. Cate would need to get used to that. When we were dismissed, we needed to go.
I took Cate to the kitchen to plan our contest entry over a snack. I hoped that we could get to know each other, but I was as bad at talking to girls as I was with basic spell craft.
“Tea?” It was the best I could do.
“Sure. So, what do you think our plan should be?”
I stalled by filling the kettle and lighting the stove. Planning was another thing I didn’t do often. “What level of spells are you doing right now? I mean we can’t just make a spell sequence up and then realize neither of us is able to do it?” Good. Well, at least it was better than any other opening line I could think of at the moment. I wished I’d had some preparation time for this, but Master Vollont probably had his reasons for springing it on me. And by it, I meant Cate, not the contest.
“My last master had me trying some level threes, but I wasn’t able to cast them consistently.” She looked in the cupboards for mugs and tea. “What about you?”
I couldn’t seem to lie to her. It was something about her eyes, like she could see right into me. “Well, I’ve tried some level four spells. To be honest, not very successfully.” I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell her I wasn’t able to cast about twenty percent of the basic ones. I had managed a handful of level two and one level three spells.
She put the mugs on the table and looked around for the teapot. I jumped up. Cleaning the pot and making the tea would give me some thinking time.
“Well, I don’t think it’s about the level of spell. We could try to make a sequence of level one and two spells into something that would win. It’s about creativity after all.” She didn’t sound too confident. Maybe she liked to cast high-level ones too.
I couldn’t quite let go of the feeling she was here to replace me. “What happened to your last master?” I didn’t look as I asked the question, just kept my attention on making the tea. When she didn’t answer right away, I wondered if it was something bad. “I mean, if you want to tell me. If it’s none of my business, just let me know.” I still didn’t turn to look at her.
I heard a deep sigh and then she started talking. “She got sick. I tried to heal her, or at least make her more comfortable, but I’m not a healer. I became a burden so she found me a new master. Well, all of us really. There were three of us learning from her.”
There were tears in her voice.
“I guess you miss her… and your friends?” Maybe she had a boyfriend. I didn’t want to hear it. I turned with the hot teapot in my hands to catch her wiping her eyes. “Sorry I’m just being nosy.”
“No, it’s okay. I think she’s dying and it’s hard. She was really old. Maybe five hundred years. I don’t think she should have taken us on, but teaching was her passion.”
I poured the tea and changed the subject again. “So, for the contest, maybe we can do a presentation of the seasons. A spell for each one, and have them all fade from one to the other, like a year?”
She grinned at my change of subject. At least that’s what I thought until she spoke.
“It’s a bit basic. We need to be more creative than something a first-year student could do.”
I felt the heat in my face and wished I didn’t have the pale skin that goes with my own red hair. “What were you thinking then?” I heard the sulk in my voice. “I mean, that was just an idea. We can do anything.”
“In the last contest, the winner put a lesson in his sequence
. We need something more than just a series of spells. We could tell a story.”
The tears had gone, and now she was confident. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it didn’t sound like she was asking anything, it sounded like she was expecting me to just agree.
“I don’t know; it seems like a lot of work. Do we have time?” The problem with arguing with her was that I didn’t have a better idea. Stalling and making her sell her idea seemed like my only tactic.
“Don’t you think about the contest? Isn’t that why Master Vollont asked me to…” She closed her lips, but it was too late.
“What did he ask you to do?” Had they been planning behind my back?
She looked into the tea for an answer. Tapping her fingers on the side of the cup to fill the silence. I figured she was debating whether to tell me the truth, or to find a nice way to tell me to mind my own business.
Looking up from the steaming tea, she said, “Don’t take this the wrong way. If I were in your shoes, I’d be worried about a new student. Especially since Master Vollont isn’t known for taking on more than one at a time.” She took in a deep breath. “He told my old master that he needed me to help you focus on the fundamental spells, and that you were talented but too eager to leap ahead. She told me so I was prepared.”
It hurt. It wasn’t news, but it still hurt that she knew my weakness. “And if I don’t, will he pass me along to a new master?”
That made her sit back. Her eyes widened and I felt my resentment fade at the real surprise she showed. “No. He isn’t getting rid of you. I’m the burden here. He’s only taking me on because he owed my old master a favor. I’m the one who has to prove she’s worth his time.”
I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t quite let go of the feeling I was a disappointment. It wouldn’t help us if I sulked, so I decided to just focus on the contest. “You were going to enter before you came here?”
“You really didn’t think about entering?” She shook her head at my stupidity. “I thought every apprentice figured out their plan in case they were allowed to enter.”
I hadn’t given it a thought because I wasn’t ready and Master Vollont wouldn’t have entered me in the contest until I was ready. Of course, now he had entered me. “Maybe it’s just you. What were you going to do if you were entered?”
“I was going to tell the story of how the sidhe came to this place.” She got a dreamy look on her face as she thought about it. “I know we don’t have any sidhe here, but I was going to move to Vancouver when I graduated to full witch. They have sidhe, and fairies, and sprites.”
It was an easy story to tell. The current court of sidhe was in North America because they rebelled. The story would be an achievement because it covered rebellion in Ireland, and voyage by sea, and a trek across the continent. As I understood it the sidhe didn’t much go for manual labor, so the lesson would be obvious. We do what we need to when it comes to survival.
What I didn’t expect was the passion for the story that shone out of Cate’s eyes. She really loved the idea of creating this spell sequence. The feeling that she was going to take over my place with Master Vollont faded as I saw how much she cared for the magic involved. Okay, maybe I should just stop worrying and make this happen. After all, there couldn’t be that many spells for me to screw up.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
She straightened. “Really? You don’t have some other idea?”
I shrugged. It was easier to let her think I was giving in than admit I was stumped. “You’ve given it a lot of thought so it’s probably almost ready to go.”
All doubt left her. “Okay. I have a list of spells, maybe we can decide which ones you can cast and then we just practice.” She pulled a sheet of paper and a pen from her pocket.
When Cate had written out the full list I knew we were in trouble. There were thirty spells. All of which should have been easy for me. The big word in that statement is should. Maybe ten of them were fine. I had no trouble casting them any time I thought about it. Another five I might be able to do with some luck. The rest I hadn’t even tried. And I couldn’t tell Cate that.
* * *
For three days, we worked through the story between regular lessons. I gave up sleep to study the spells I couldn’t cast. Cate didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t pulling my weight. The spells that were the hardest for me were at the end of the story and that’s when we were both worn out with spellcasting and Cate made as many mistakes as I did. It was a relief, but it wouldn’t win the contest.
I stumbled on the last spell again, so I said, “Let’s take a rest. We need to figure out how to keep our energy strong at the end. We’re putting too much into the sea journey.” I knew I was just bringing up problems but I was too tired to do anything else.
Cate ran out of the room.
What had I said wrong? I could keep trying, but it was just getting worse each time. Eventually Cate would realize I wasn’t helping her cast some of the spells.
She came back with a slim book in her hands. “The contest rules. You are brilliant!”
I loved to hear that from her, but I had no idea what she was talking about. “Have you gone crazy? I just said we need a break.”
“No. You said that we needed to find a way to keep our energy strong. The rules don’t say we have to cast all the spells directly. How are you with making charms?”
It took me a second to follow her reasoning. Then I got it. “We can put the storm spells and the rebellion spells into objects and that takes away the major energy use. You are the brilliant one.” I had looked at some of the charm creation spells, but they were all level three. “Except I haven’t tried any of those spells, and we have a day.”
* * *
By midnight I had managed to infuse half of the spells we needed. I seemed to have a knack for creating charms. It was a relief to be competent in front of Cate, and to finally think I was capable of learning. We’d looked through the stores of things charms could be made of, and we were running out of supplies.
Cate dug around the reference books for ideas. There was no going back at this point, we were both too tired to cast the spells we needed if we couldn’t make enough ahead of time.
“What do we have left?” I asked as I sealed a lightning spell into a blown eggshell.
“Three more eggshells, a frozen bubble and a crystal web,” Cate answered. “We need six more devices and we need to get it done within the hour or neither of us will get enough sleep to manage it. I don’t want to fail at this point, Quinn.”
I didn’t want to let her down. The contest didn’t mean that much to me, but making Cate happy was worth anything.
“Okay, can you finish the rebellion spells? That will use up the last of the devices.” I needed to pull a miracle out of the air. If Cate could take over I could do some research. I’d only glanced at the instructions for setting the charms before. “There must be something.”
“You are better at it, but I can.” She passed me the book. “I guess if we rest, we can pull it off.”
It was time for honesty. “I can’t get those spells to go right.” Instead of feeling ashamed, I felt relieved. Maybe if I’d spoken up sooner, we could have worked something out. Too late now, but maybe I could learn a lesson.
“I can’t carry the whole weight,” Cate said. “Maybe we should go tell Master Vollont that we can’t do it.”
I was not going to let that happen. I was tired of telling him I couldn’t do things. “Can we ask him for advice instead?”
Cate focused on the eggs. I could feel the magic build as she formed the starburst spells. One settled into the shell. One dissipated, and the third blew the egg into shards. “Damn.” She looked up at me and I saw tears of frustration on her lashes. “This isn’t going to work. Maybe if you were better at the sound spells, or if I was better at setting charms, but it’s not going to work in time.”
“I don’t want to let him down. Cate, can we please ask him for adv
ice first?”
“No. Damn, Quinn, don’t you read anything. The rules are clear. We have to do this by ourselves. It’s supposed to show what we’ve learned and what we do with that knowledge. We have to get this right.”
I tried not to shout back. It was mostly my fault, but she was to blame too. Why did she have to be so determined to go overboard with the sequence? “Fine.” I shouted despite my efforts to remain calm. “We’re not getting anywhere. Go. Rest. I’ll finish the last spells. Just don’t say anything to Master Vollont until morning.”
She slammed her hand on the table, eyes blazing. “If this goes wrong, it’s your fault for not being honest with Master Vollont. I will go rest. But if you haven’t found a solution by morning, I’m telling him.”
2
I watched as she stormed out of the room. She hadn’t noticed, but her actions had shattered the crystal web and frozen bubble. Now I had to find so many holders it was impossible to solve the problem. I rubbed my eyes trying to remove the burn from staring at spells all night. It didn’t work.
I laid the charms book on the table and cleared the mess from the three broken charm holders. The act of wiping down the table helped me clear the cobwebs from my mind. This wasn’t going to be solved by doing the same thing over and over. The more we could put into charms the less we’d have to do in the competition. So, I had to forget how tired I was and figure something out. I could sleep for days afterward.
I knew if I just opened the book, I’d fall asleep halfway down the first page. The real problem was that we needed holders for the spells, so I grabbed a scrap of paper from Cate’s pile and listed the criteria for a charm holder. It had to be a container of some sort. It had to break on impact and it had to be stable.