Stolen Hearts

by Sasha L. Miller

  "He will come back," Baldric said, pacing closer to the cage. "If only for you. I'm not stupid, you know. Between the way you two act together and this, he'll be back."

  Mervyn looked up, frowning, and his heart dropped. Baldric held a medium-sized, clear jar in which sat a heart. It slumped against the bottom of the jar, and even in the fluorescent glow of the warehouse lights, Mervyn could see it was half-rotted. Probably still alive enough to link Baldric to Callisto, but returning it to Callisto's chest would kill him.

  "You can't even keep an organ from rotting?" Mervyn demanded, uncaring that he sounded angry and not taunting.

  "It doesn't need to be fully alive," Baldric said, sneering. "What, were you hoping to put it back?"

  Mervyn said nothing, just glared at the nearest of the three charms that made up the spell cage. The more charm points in a spell cage, the stronger it was. A cage had to have a minimum of three points, so this was a fairly weak spell cage.

  "You were!" Baldric crowed, apparently interpreting Mervyn's silence as affirmation. "How cute! What's he giving you? Probably the bond, though that won't be an issue soon enough."

  "What do you mean?" Mervyn asked, distracted. Did Baldric have some way to force the removal of a bond?

  "You'll disband it, or I'll kill you both," Baldric said, shrugging. "I have no use for a fairy that's bound to another wizard."

  "Ah, and here I was overestimating your skill again," Mervyn said, rolling his eyes. "Of course you'd resort to physical threats instead of spell casting."

  "There's no way to break a bond with a spell," Baldric said, scoffing at him.

  "Just like there's no way to take a fairy's energy without a bond," Mervyn said, shifting so he could sit more casually on the floor. It was no more comfortable, but he doubted anyone could sit comfortably on a concrete floor without pillows in his pants. It probably wasn't smart to taunt Baldric so much, especially with the idea of a spell that didn't exist, but Mervyn had played it stupid and reckless so far. It would be strange to change his tune now.

  Baldric stared at him suspiciously for a moment before shaking his head. "You're lying. It can't be done."

  "All right," Mervyn said nonchalantly. "I'm lying."

  "Shut up," Baldric said, scowling. He turned his back on Mervyn, moving to set the jar that held Callisto's heart on a nearby table. He fussed with the instruments on the table for a moment, obviously impatient, and Mervyn took the chance to study the spell marks on the nearest charm.

  It was a fairly simple spell, but Mervyn had expected nothing less of Baldric. The charm he was looking at reached out to the other "like" charms in the close vicinity, however many there were, and formed an energy barrier between them. An additional component allowed the caster to flood the area with energy—the shock Baldric had inflicted on him earlier.

  It drew that energy directly from Baldric, which meant that the longer Mervyn stayed in the cage, the more energy it drew. The energy flood would also draw a lot of energy from Baldric, but Mervyn was pretty sure he didn't want to incite any more of those.

  The simple spell Baldric had used for the spell cage would be easy enough to offset, if Mervyn could get an uninterrupted moment or two to cast the counter spell. Unfortunately, there wasn't much Mervyn could do to that end from within the cage.

  "Do you work with many fairies?" Baldric asked, turning back towards Mervyn. "Probably, since you work with Denzil so often. He always talked about you being a 'good' wizard, but that can't be all true if you bound Callisto to you."

  "And if Callisto accepted the bond willingly?" Mervyn asked, not even deigning to acknowledge Baldric's terribly unsubtle attempt to get more fairies through him.

  "Then I guess he'll come back even more quickly," Baldric said, flashing a grin. "You seem like the sort of wizard who would take good notes."

  Mervyn laughed, shaking his head. "I don't take notes about anyone I treat."

  "Not even for billing?" Baldric asked, apparently thinking he was being sly.

  "Billing is only necessary if you charge people. I'm sure Janan has grumbled about his stupid younger brother who gave up working at the hospital to work for people who can't pay," Mervyn said, laughing again when recognition finally dawned on Baldric's squished face. "There's no way you can find anyone I've worked for based on paperwork."

  "Then you'll just have to tell me," Baldric said, stalking back over to the spell cage. "How many fairies have you worked with?"

  Mervyn stayed quiet, looking up at Baldric with a small smile. He was probably going to get shocked again, but there was no way he was going to let Baldric do to any other fairy what he'd done to Callisto. "They gave me false names, false residences… if fairies were stupid about hiding themselves, you would have found more by yourself," Mervyn said, rolling his eyes. He paused thoughtfully then shrugged. "Though, given your level of intelligence, maybe not."

  Baldric snapped out the spell words to kick off the energy flood again, and Mervyn jerked, unable to hold still as the energy jolted through him again. It was weaker than the previous flood of energy had been, so Baldric was probably trying to conserve his energy where he could.

  "Tell me the names anyway," Baldric ordered, his raised voice echoing towards the ceiling.

  "No. Is that really all the shock you have left?" Mervyn asked, scoffing derisively. "It must be so hard, being restricted to using just the energy you have naturally."

  "Shut up. Give me the names, or I'll make it worse," Baldric said, scowling. He looked and sounded like nothing more than a petulant child whose mother wouldn't give into his demands for another treat.

  Mervyn just laughed, crossing his arms and staring up at Baldric challengingly. "Do it, then."

  Baldric would shock him and demand names again. Mervyn would refuse and hopefully be able to keep taking the abuse until Callisto returned. Then, hopefully, Mervyn would be able to break the spell cage while Baldric was distracted, and then he and Callisto could overpower Baldric, whose energy resources would be low enough that he couldn't cast any large spells.

  It wasn't a great plan, but getting stuck in a spell cage was rather limiting.

  "Fine," Baldric snapped, speaking the spell words like curses. Mervyn braced himself, but it did little good as the energy flooded through him with more intensity than he thought possible. It only lasted a few seconds, but it hurt, and Mervyn didn't remember screaming, but Baldric certainly looked pleased with himself.

  Mervyn focused on calming his breathing, ignoring the way his skin still tingled with pins and needles, as if it had all fallen asleep at once. This really wasn't a good plan, but he wasn't giving up any names, fake or real, and he didn't have any other options.

  "Names," Baldric demanded, stepping right up to the edge of the spell cage. "Give me names, and I won't do it again."

  "No," Mervyn said, shaking his head dismissively. "Do you really think they'd come to me at all if I gave them up that easily? Fake names or not, I'm not telling."

  "You'll change your mind," Baldric said confidently. "Unless you really don't care about Callisto. Then you might stay quiet even when I give him the same treatment. How will it affect that charm you've given him, I wonder?"

  Mervyn just shook his head. A spell cage wouldn't work on Callisto—he could easily disrupt its magic with his own, since fairy magic didn't require a charm or a spoken spell.

  "This would be simpler if you just told me what you know," Baldric said, turning away from Mervyn and walking back over to the table where he'd left Callisto's heart. "I wouldn't have to do a thing to you or Callisto if I had another fairy to work with."

  "Do you really think I'm as stupid as you are?" Mervyn asked, watching Baldric's shoulders stiffen at the insult. "You're not going to let either of us go. We know too much, and the entire point of your heart charm is that it allows you to draw from multiple fairies at once."

  "Well, then you know the more fairies with the heart charm, the less draw there is on any one fairy," Baldric said
, picking up the jar with Callisto's heart inside and shaking it back and forth. Mervyn winced, but there wasn't anything he could do for it. "Don't you want Callisto to suffer less?"

  "He's not suffering now," Mervyn said dryly, flexing his fingers as the last of the pins-and-needles sensation faded from them. "And you don't have a decent charm to use anymore since your workmanship is obviously subpar to whoever created the original."

  "It's not hard to get new charms," Baldric said, but he was lying and terrible at it. He had no charms, but wanted to keep Callisto and find more fairies anyway.

  "Sure, I believe that," Mervyn said flippantly. "You're as good a liar as you are a wizard."

  "Shut up," Baldric said darkly, stalking back towards the spell cage. "You are the most insufferable—"

  Baldric cut off, turning on his heel when something clattered behind him. Mervyn took the chance and started chanting, pulling a blank scrap of fabric from a pocket to serve as the charm. Baldric whipped back towards him, furious.

  "Stop that," he snapped, but Mervyn ignored him, even when Baldric started chanting the spell to flood the spell cage with energy again. Before Baldric could complete the spell, however, another tool came flying out from being a large metal press, presumably where Callisto was hiding. It hit Baldric square in the back, and he fumbled the spell words then cursed heartily.

  Mervyn finished his counter to the spell cage in the next moment, wincing at the clatter from behind the metal press as he pulled energy from Callisto. He'd forgotten that casting from scratch would hurt Callisto. Standing, Mervyn pitched it at the perimeter of the cage. It caught in the energy flow, and the entire cage flashed blue before disappearing.

  Baldric cursed again, reaching into his pocket for a new charm. Mervyn reacted instantly, pulling out a charm of his own and tossing it at Baldric. It wouldn't work, of course, but it was enough to make Baldric jerk back and drop his charm.

  Callisto threw another tool, hitting Baldric on the upper thigh and making him fumble the jar he still held. "I'll drop it," Baldric yelled, threateningly tipping the jar. "You don't want me to kill your heart, do you?"

  "It's too late," Mervyn said, scowling. "There's no recovering it from that state, and you know it."

  "I can rejuvenate it," Baldric said confidently, still lying terribly, but Callisto probably couldn't see him from where he was hidden. "It's not an easy process, but it can be done."

  "There's no way to 'rejuvenate' rotted flesh," Mervyn said flatly, wishing he'd been able to break the news to Callisto more gently. "You really are a terrible liar."

  "I'm not lying, and it's not rotting," Baldric said, but he wasn't nearly as annoyed as he'd been when Mervyn had called him on his other lies. "Come out and see."

  "If it's not rotting, why would you even need to rejuvenate it?" Callisto asked skeptically, stepping out from behind the metal press. He still held a handful of instruments, but he looked otherwise unarmed.

  "Good point," Baldric said nastily then threw the jar at Callisto. Callisto jerked back a step, and the jar crashed to the floor at his feet. Mervyn winced, but he couldn't do anything about that for the moment because Baldric had lunged right at him.

  Mervyn stumbled back, thinking Baldric was going to try another charm, but he wasn't chanting and the glint of steel in his hand didn't register until Baldric was right there, and Mervyn could see the knife clearly.

  What kind of wizard used a knife? Mervyn thought, baffled, and then Baldric was right there, driving the knife into his leg. Startled—why aim for his leg?—Mervyn nonetheless toppled, and the pain hit about the same time he hit the concrete floor. He landed hard on his ass, vaguely registering that Baldric was running away.

  Probably to replenish his charms, Mervyn decided, wincing but making himself sit up. The knife was either extremely well-placed or poorly-placed, Mervyn saw, depending on Baldric's goal. It wouldn't kill him—Baldric had missed the major artery—but it would incapacitate him quite well.

  Behind him, Baldric fell with a thump and a muffled cry, and Mervyn really hoped he'd tripped over his own feet. Shifting, Mervyn pulled out a scrap of cloth, really wishing he had something sturdier to charm that he could throw—

  "Are you all right?" Callisto asked, dropping down to the concrete beside Mervyn with a crack of knees that made Mervyn wince in sympathy.

  "Good enough—Baldric?" Mervyn asked, twisting to see, because if Callisto was here then it was probably safe.

  "I tripped him," Callisto said, frowning worriedly at Mervyn's leg. His pants were soaked with blood around the knife. "He, um, fell and isn't moving. I think he's unconscious."

  "Can you go check?" Mervyn asked, grimacing briefly. "I'd rather not let him run off and rearm himself with more charms."

  Callisto hesitated, but finally nodded, pushing himself to his feet and disappearing behind Mervyn. A moment later, he said, "He's either out or faking it really well."

  "Hit him as hard as you can," Mervyn suggested, shucking his jacket. He tore out a large strip of the cloth lining, smiling a little when he heard a meaty thump behind him.

  "He didn't wake," Callisto said, and something rustled from where he was. "He should be secure for a few minutes."

  "Good," Mervyn said, bracing himself and then pulling out the knife, clenching his teeth against the fresh surge of pain. He threw it away and immediately pressed the cloth from his jacket against the wound.

  "Are you sure you're okay?" Callisto asked worriedly, returning to Mervyn's side.

  "I will be," Mervyn said, pressing the cloth more firmly against the wound in his leg. "This is barely a scratch. Are you all right? How are Denzil and Malone?"

  "Malone went to get more help and to put Denzil somewhere safe. Denzil's just knocked out—he walked into a charm that Malone warned him about," Callisto said, rolling his eyes, and Mervyn stifled a smile. "Um, is there anything I can do for that?"

  "No, I just need to wrap it, then take care of Baldric so if he wakes before our reinforcements get here he can't use his magic for anything," Mervyn said, then frowned. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I had to draw from you."

  "It's fine," Callisto said, reaching up and almost touching his charm before curling his fingers into a fist and dropping it back to his lap.

  "Baldric didn't hit you or anything, did he?" Mervyn pressed, frowning worriedly.

  "No, I'm fine," Callisto said, glancing towards the scattered remnants of the jar that had held his heart.

  "I'm sorry," Mervyn said belatedly, wincing. "There was nothing—he really is a terrible wizard."

  "It's okay," Callisto said, actually touching the charm in his chest this time before meeting Mervyn's eyes. "I hoped—but I sort of expected it anyway."

  "You can go hit him again, if you like," Mervyn offered, which earned him a faint smile.

  "I'd rather make sure you get fixed up," Callisto said, frowning at his leg. "What—what else did he do? I could feel something…" Callisto trailed off, looking entirely too worried about Mervyn considering that he'd just lost his heart.

  "Nothing much," Mervyn lied, because Callisto didn't really need to hear about the spell cage and how stupid he'd been to get caught in it. "Some energy spell, which is probably why you felt it."

  "You were in a lot of pain," Callisto said then suddenly stripped out of his jacket. He pulled off his shirts—the long-sleeved shirt then the worn-thin undershirt.

  "Not that I mind, but why are you taking off your shirt?" Mervyn asked, wondering briefly if something was wrong with Callisto's charm.

  "You need a bandage," Callisto said, smiling a little shyly. "Don't change the subject. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

  "No, he really did just zap me," Mervyn said, pleased that he could still get Callisto to smile.

  "Just zap you," Callisto muttered, shaking his head as he pulled on his long-sleeved shirt again.

  "I think I annoyed him by telling him how bad he is at magic," Mervyn said, smiling as Callisto tore his undershirt into wide st
rips.

  "Do you need one of these for a charm for him? Since he killed all of yours with his counter?" Callisto asked, lifting one of the strips of fabric.

  "No, I have spares. Are you okay with me casting another spell?" Mervyn asked, grimacing as he lifted his leg up a little. "We could just gag him."

  "I'd rather be sure," Callisto said, shrugging. He didn't sound worried or hesitant about it, so Mervyn decided to let it be for the moment. "Are you sure you're okay?"

  "He barely hit me," Mervyn said, shifting his leg so that Callisto could get a better angle and wincing at the pain that flared. "Wrapping it will fix me right up."

  "The knife was buried in your leg, and you're bleeding through that," Callisto said, jabbing a finger towards the bunched fabric Mervyn was still pressing to the wound. "And you think he barely hit you?"

  "He didn't hit bone or any major arteries, so it's mostly muscle damage. I promise it looks worse than it is," Mervyn said, smiling in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

  Callisto scowled, looking startlingly like Denzil for a moment, before gingerly wrapping one of the strips of shirt around Mervyn's leg. "I'm sorry."

  "Just knot it with the rag under it," Mervyn said when Callisto hesitated. "Tighter… there, good. Why are you sorry?"

  "You got hurt, a lot," Callisto said, picking up another strip of fabric and not meeting Mervyn's eyes.

  "Callisto," Mervyn said, waiting for Callisto to finish tying the strip into place before continuing. "It's not your fault. We weren't even supposed to run into Baldric; Malone and Denzil were. I'm not a battle wizard, otherwise I wouldn't have had my ass so badly kicked, and you're not trained at all. We still did better than Denzil and Malone did."

  "Neither of them were stabbed," Callisto pointed out, obviously not any less upset.

  "They also didn't get him," Mervyn said, trying for flippant, but it fell flat. "It's okay, really, Callisto. The only thing you should be worried about is your heart."