Heroes: A Raconteur House Anthology

by Honor Raconteur

  With a grumble of rocks and a howl of wind, Big demanded, Can curse be broken?

  “I think so.” She looked up at that, trying to reassure them both. “My master says it can be. But I think I’ll need help. I’ve studied the curse all of today and some yesterday and I don’t have the elements I need to make a counter-curse. I’m not quite sure what’ll work best right now, though. But if I need to go into Noppers Woods and get some things, I’ll need your help, Baby.”

  The cat pressed his head against her chest in a gentle butt and purred against her, his own way of promising his help.

  Woods dangerous, Big warned her.

  “It’s why I’ll bring Baby with me,” she reassured him. “And I’ll have wands and a protective charm too. I should be okay.”

  Big obviously didn’t agree as he let out a long, eerie moan.

  “Morgan’s life is on the line, Big,” she retorted, brows snapping together. “If I have to go in there, then I will.”

  Big let out another unhappy sigh.

  Glancing up at the sky, Sevana found that the sun was quickly sinking toward the horizon. It was becoming unreasonably cold, too. “I better get back. I’ll come and visit again later, alright?”

  As she turned to go, Baby bounded a few feet ahead of her and looked back, as if wondering why she was so slow. She blinked at him, confused at first. “Are you coming back with me?”

  Baby cocked his head at her in a gesture that clearly said, Of course. Silly question.

  Smiling, she shook her head in resignation and waved him on. She didn’t know what Aunt Morena would think about having a giant cat in her house—or what Hinun would think, for that matter—but she, for one, was glad to have a friend right now.

  A familiar wrinkled hand appeared on top of her book, blocking her view. Annoyed, she looked up into Master’s face, who seemed amused at her preoccupation. “Will you stop that?” she asked him crossly. “I’m working.”

  “Sweetling, you’ve been working for the entire morning, and you skipped breakfast entirely. It’s now time to eat lunch and feed your patient.”

  Oh. Had that much time really passed? She looked out the window and discovered the sky had climbed up high in the sky while she’d been preoccupied. Her stomach made strange gurgling, growling noises at this mention of eating. Sighing in defeat, she put the book and pencil down and climbed over a sleeping cat to follow Master to the kitchen.

  At least it smelled like it should today. Fresh biscuits, cured ham, and fried potatoes were all on the table waiting for them. Sevana slid into her usual chair and piled food on her plate without direction. Master sat next to her, also eating, although he paused long enough to give a few praises to the cook, which made Morena smile briefly.

  Since she had Master nearby and in a talkative mood… “Master, have you come across eggshell powder from a harpy before?”

  “I have indeed. Not often, as it’s not typically used in a curse. After all, you can’t cast it, and most curses by design are casted.” He paused and took a long drink before continuing, “But it’s a nasty, nasty element. In fact, before we leave here, I think I’ll go up and dispel any remnants of that curse from the ruins. No sense leaving the danger there for others to trip over.”

  In other words, he’d already thought of the counter? Before she could open her mouth and ask, Morena stepped forward and leaned over the table, lip quivering.

  “Master Tashjian, will you? I’m so afraid now that other children will end up like Morgan.”

  “Of course, my dear hostess, of course,” he assured her with a genial smile. “It’s against the code of Artifactors to leave such a curse be. We’re tasked with the safety of the public in general. Really, I’m surprised that it’s been left alone for as long as it has.”

  “Everyone thought the curse mostly gone,” Morena admitted dismally. “It was the ruins themselves we thought a hazard. They’re crumbling now after years of neglect.”

  “Understandable. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

  While this was heartening, it diverted the topic away from what she really wanted to discuss. “But Master, how will you do so? That’s a lot of ground up there.”

  “Fortunately, most of the elements I need are in Noppers Woods.”

  Which were enchanted woods, right. She’d banked on being able to collect elements for a counter-spell from there herself. Wait, most? “You brought other elements with you?”

  “Well, I had an idea or two of what this curse was likely made up of. I put a few things in my pockets before we left.”

  Had he now? She eyed the baggy pockets on his jacket thoughtfully.

  Master wagged a chiding finger at her. “It’s a resource that you shall not tap into until you give me a viable option, young Artifactor.”

  She sat back with a thump and stuck her tongue out at him. “Go bald, old goat.”

  Tashjian laughed outright, patting her on the head. “You’ll find a way, Sevana. You always do. Don’t let your frustrations get the better of you. Think about it logically and remember: not all problems require a magical solution.”

  No, but she’d certainly feel better if she turned her master into a frog for a few hours.

  Morena cleared her throat, getting Sevana’s attention, and hefted a tray with Morgan’s lunch on it. “Come along, Sev. We need to feed Morgan.”

  Grumbling under her breath, she followed her aunt from the room, plotting a way to get at Master’s pockets without him being the wiser. As soon as they were inside Morgan’s room, Morena sat the tray down on the bed and turned with both hands planted on her hips, lips pursed. “Sevana, you shouldn’t speak to your master like that. It’s not respectful.”

  “That man adores being teased and argued with,” Sevana responded wearily. “And he drives me barmy. Don’t be fooled by that nice act he’s giving you.”

  Morena kept lecturing even as Sevana went about feeding Morgan. “You’ve always had a blunt tongue to you, child, but you’ve gotten sharper ever since you left. It’s better to speak kinder to people.”

  “My sharp tongue has been honed by Master,” she retorted. “Argue with him.”

  “And don’t take your frustrations out on me, young lady.”

  Sevana opened her mouth to say something back, paused, and realized she was doing exactly that. Growling, she focused instead on feeding Morgan and getting every drop of water and broth into him without spilling in the process.

  Morena watched her for a long moment in silence before saying softly, “Ralston and I were surprised when your parents wanted to send you off at six to be an apprentice. That was such a young age, and we argued with them about it. But apparently they saw something that we didn’t. You’ve learned so much and become so capable in just three years. Even your master trusts you to work alone now.”

  He was the only one that did. Sarsen, Gilon and Hinun constantly checked up on her, convinced she was going to blow something up. (And she did, about once a year. It must’ve been a genetic tendency, as her father did the same thing.)

  With the bowl and glass dry, Morena took the tray from her and paused long enough to put a kiss on her forehead. “Good luck and keep working, Sev.”

  “I will.” Master had given her three hints at the table. One, there were at least two possible solutions to this puzzle, one of which wasn’t magical at all. Two, some of the elements that could be used to break the curse could be found in Noppers Woods. And three, and perhaps most importantly, he had the missing element on him that would make it possible to break the curse.

  Determined, she went back to work.

  On the fourth day of their stay in Milby, Sevana had run out of ideas.

  She’d done everything that she could possibly think of, all to no avail. She’d hit a wall, and it was time to try something different, but she couldn’t think of what to do that didn’t involve high levels of danger.

  Sitting next to Morgan at the end of the bed, she stared at his face for long mome
nts, feeling like it was hard to breathe. She didn’t know what to do anymore. What could she possibly do now?

  She’d spent three days in this room running numbers and possibilities and hadn’t gotten any closer to a solution. At this rate, Morgan would die of old age before she found one. If Noppers Woods had some of the elements she needed, then she knew of a good way to start testing possibilities. But doing so would mean actually going into the woods, and doing that would be taking her life into her own hands. She didn’t want to mindlessly sacrifice her life for his, but writing out theories on paper didn’t get her any closer to a solution, either.

  A rough tongue started lapping at her cheeks. Shoving Baby’s face away, she leaned out of the reach of his tongue, spluttering. “Baby, what are you—”

  The cat, being larger and more persistent than her, stretched out his neck to reach her. It was only then that she really noticed the silent tears slipping from her eyes. With the back of her hand, she wiped at her cheeks roughly. “I’m alright. I’m alright, I tell you, so stop.”

  Baby, knowing better than to listen to her, plopped himself half in her lap and put his head on her shoulder, wrapping her up in a heavy but warm cattish hug. She hugged him back and buried her face in his fur, gratefully hiding her tears.

  They stayed like that for a long moment before a soft knock came at the door. “Sweetling?”

  Not lifting her face up, she said in a muffled voice, “Master, you’ve got to help. I can’t find a way to break it.”

  A gentle hand caressed her hair. “Sweetling, you’ve only been at this four days. It’s alright. He’ll survive until you can find a solution. But locking yourself up in here day-in and day-out is going to make cobwebs in your head. You need to go out and get some fresh air, do something entirely different, let your back-brain chew on the problem.”

  She lifted her face and glared at him through the tears. “Why won’t you do anything?!”

  “This is your problem,” he reminded her gently. “You took it on. So it has to be solved by you. It’s alright. I have complete faith you’ll find a solution.”

  Angry and hurt, she buried her face in Baby’s fur again and muttered, “If you’re not going to help, go away.”

  Sighing, Master gave her one last pat on the head before leaving the room in a steady tread.

  So he wouldn’t help? At all? She’d always harbored the feeling that if she tried her best, and failed, then he would step in and save Morgan for her. But it looked like he wouldn’t. If that was the case, then…she had to go. Even if it was dangerous, even if it meant doing something reckless and stupid, then she’d have to make that gamble. Master had been right on one point—just sitting in this room hadn’t given her any answers.

  Hardening her resolve, she lifted her face, wiping the tears away with her shirtsleeves. Sitting next to Baby, she made a list of all the possible elements that might work against the curse. Then she circled the ones that she could likely find in the woods. That didn’t take more than an hour and she had several hours yet to go. After all, the adults would never hear of her going into those woods. She, being a child, was a prime target for several not-so-nice species. So if she was to go, she’d need to do it while everyone was asleep. It was easier to get forgiveness than permission, and all that.

  Frustrated, unable to move until the cover of darkness, she shifted around to sit on the edge of the bed. Morgan slept peacefully, of course, not so much as twitching. For some reason, that serene expression bugged her. Here she was, working and thinking so hard her brain cramped, and what did he do? Just sleep and wait for her to solve the problem. As unreasonable as it sounded, she grew increasingly mad at him for it.

  Acting on an evil impulse, Sevana straddled his hips and lifted her wand, whispering a command to activate it. Then with great, loving care, she started writing words in black ink all over Morgan’s fair skin.

  Idiot.

  Gormless twit.

  Plonker.

  Berk.

  Ligger.

  Git.

  Dume.

  Wa—

  “Sevana, what are you doing?!”

  Startled, her ink smeared to the right and made a thick line right across Morgan’s nose. Feeling a little guilty at being caught red-handed, she looked up at Uncle Ralston’s face.

  He had his arms crossed over his chest, brows together in a straight line, and he was giving her that purely parental look of I can’t believe what this child is doing.

  “He deserves it,” she defended herself sullenly.

  Ralston rolled his eyes, took in a deep breath, and obviously prayed for some kind of patience. “Sevana, is that ink washable?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then I suggest you find a way to get it off of him, young lady. And you’re doing supper dishes tonight as penance.”

  Her shoulders slumped and she refused to look at either the boy she still sat on or her uncle as she muttered, “Sorry.”

  Ralston just sighed, turned on his heel, and left the room.

  Sevana rubbed at her chin as she looked down at Morgan’s face, now scrawled with black letters. Sarsen had taught her this particular spell, but she couldn’t remember if he’d taught her the reverse of it. Oh wait, he’d been about to when Master caught them and said not to teach her any more ‘tricks.’ Darn the luck. It looked like she had just exchanged one set of trouble for another.

  Well, at least she had something to do while waiting for night to fall.

  Sevana had heard stories about Noppers Woods, of course, seeing as they were only a short trip from the village. No one had ever dared taken an axe to the trees of those woods or done any hunting in them and for very good reason. Noppers Woods were enchanted with some very dangerous and intelligent races living in them. The Fae alone would give anyone pause.

  The night air felt unreasonably cold, and Sevana blessed the fact that she had put on two heating charms before leaving. Baby slunk along at her side, totally unfazed by the weather, but he had a nice fur coat to protect him from the cold.

  The ruins looked eerie and haunted at this time of the night. The shadows were long and deep, looking pitch black in most areas, with the moon’s pale light not giving her any real illumination. Sevana had to pick her path carefully even with the ball of light hovering over her head and lighting her way.

  With her diagnostic wand out in one hand, she found several trace residues of the curse lingering on the surface of the stones. She found the strongest one she could and started pulling things out of her pouch. First, she’d try the elements that she already had. If they had no effect, then she would go into Noppers Woods and gather different elements. She did not, by any means, want to go into those woods if she didn’t have to. Master’s warnings were not to be taken lightly. Even being out here, in the open, so close to the woods held a significant amount of danger. It was better than being in the woods themselves, but not by much.

  Nervous, she kept one eye over her shoulder as she un-stoppered a vial of rainbow mist and splashed some on the curse from a safe distance. With only a power level of three, she didn’t expect much to happen, and nothing really did. It could have been ordinary water for all the reaction she got. Hmm. Alright, how about this? She pulled out a mirror and angled it to where the moon’s light was reflected directly onto the curse. Oh? That had some effect.

  She pulled her notebook out and jotted down the effect of reflected moonlight. It would need to be paired up with other elements, of course, as by itself it couldn’t break the curse. But it looked promising.

  Putting the mirror away, she rummaged around in the dimly lit pouch. Let’s see, next was—

  “SEVANA!”

  She instinctively straightened up and whirled about, eyes searching the darkness. Uh-oh. She knew that voice all too well. Master sounded absolutely livid. Stone the crows, but usually he slept through the night like a dead man. She should have had hours yet to experiment and test her theories before he showed up. For that matter,
she should have had plenty of time to sneak into her bed and act like a good little apprentice before he even noticed her missing.

  He rounded a crumbling wall in the next second, a ball of light hanging just in front of him, lighting his way in a blue-white ray. It cast his face into eerie shadows, making him look ghoulish and even more frightening. She swallowed hard. This…did not look good.

  Master stomped right up to her, grabbed her by both shoulders and shook her hard, then shook her again for good measure, making her teeth rattle in her head. “Child, have you taken leave of your senses?!”

  Her pride made her face him without flinching, so even though her stomach quivered in a nervous jitter, she still met his eyes as she answered, “Not so’s I’ve noticed.”

  Master raised his head to the sky—probably praying for patience, he did that a lot with her—took in a deep breath, and let it slowly out again. Usually he just took one, but this time he took in another deep breath before he finally looked at her again. “You’re in ruins known to carry a powerful curse, a curse your friend fell victim to, ruins that are right next to enchanted woods that carry a whole host of dangerous creatures, and you’re doing all of that in the dead of night. I’ve seen you do some reckless things, sweetling, but this is outright stupidity.”

  He always listened to her side of things. Sometimes he even saw her point and let her try something when it didn’t speak to his better judgment. She didn’t feel that this would be one of those times, but felt a deep need to try and explain it anyway. “I had to come at night. I wanted to test if reflected moonlight or captured moonlight would work on the curse.”

  Master searched her eyes. “Just that?”

  “No, not just that!” she exploded, yanking herself out of his grip, arms flung out in a wild gesture of frustration. “You won’t check my work! I can’t tell if I’m doing the math right, I can’t tell if the elements that I think will work on the curse actually will work. I can’t very well just test things blindly on Morgan—odds are I’ll accidentally kill him. The only thing left to try it on is the curse itself. Since you won’t help me, I have to depend on myself, and that’s by doing things however I can!”