“Me too,” Brinley spluttered.
“But where’s Unda?” Tabitha asked, craning her neck over Brinley’s shoulder as if she might be hiding him in her back pocket. Tabitha began to roll up her sleeves angrily. “They have to give him back, too. First they take him. Then they take you! I’ll make them give him back. I’ll—”
“Tabitha!” Brinley said sternly. “Calm down.” She placed a hand on the girl’s arm.
“Oh,” Tabitha said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
Brinley patted her arm, walking her toward the shore of the lake. “Unda is on his way up,” she said. “He’s just talking with the merking.”
“Oh. The king?” Tabitha said. She put her hands to her face in horror. “I hope he’s not angry with me. I’ve burned up his lake!”
“Not all of it,” Brinley said, grinning. “Besides, you didn’t really hurt any of the merfolk, though they were getting quite nervous.”
“Oh, good,” Tabitha said, relaxing. “That’s wonderful.”
“Are you okay?” Archibald asked, coming up to them. He placed his hands on Brinley’s shoulders and looked her over for damage. When he was satisfied that she was all right, he asked, “What did you find out?”
“Unda came to the merking,” Brinley explained. “The king agreed to use his magic to hide Unda if Unda would return their people to the sea, but the food they fed him made him sick. It made him lose his memory, I think. I don’t think it was meant for humans. But the merfolk thought that he was faking, and they got angry with him, so they locked him up.”
“That’s terrible!” Tabitha exclaimed.
Archibald shook his head. “It was just a big misunderstanding?” he said. “Who would have thought?”
“Unda remembered in time, though,” Brinley said. “I gave his power back and it all came back to him. He’s working it out with the king now.”
At her words, two shapes emerged from the water. One was a young man with dark hair and eyes the color of the sea. The other was a burly fellow with a watery green beard. Brinley could see the spot on his belly where skin turned into scales. Unda and the king were still chatting in a strange, cooing language that sounded like nonsense. Then Unda shook the king’s hand and walked the rest of the way out of the water. Brinley noticed that his clothes were completely dry the moment they left the water. She, on the other hand was freezing, now that her damp clothes had cooled in the air.
“I do not have the time to move their whole city now,” Unda said. “But I promised them that when the war is over, I will.”
“How did they get here in the first place?” Brinley asked.
“They came out of the sea long ago, searching for a quiet place to live, I think, and they found it. But now the sea calls to them, and they cannot find their way back. The rivers have changed since then. Some have dried up altogether. And always they must fear the nymphs who rule the waters of Aberdeen. They would not be pleased to find a city of merfolk. Several of their people have left to find the path but none have returned.” He waved at the king and the large man nodded and slipped back into the water. “Soon they’ll be back where they belong.” he said.
“Speaking of soon, it’s well after noon,” the Swelter Cat said to Brinley. “Your time’s running out while you just stand about.”
Brinley sighed. “Come, Unda. I want you to meet my friends.”
Chapter Seventeen
In which Molad crosses a line
The first thing that Hugo noticed was the horrible taste in his mouth. He wondered for a moment how it got there. He hadn’t eaten anything strange for breakfast, had he? Then the pain in his leg surged to the forefront of his awareness and he gave an involuntary gasp.
“It’s okay,” a voice said.
He felt a cold compress cover his forehead, and someone squeezed his hand. He squeezed it back automatically, then released it and reached for his leg. He needed to touch it, to feel it. It must be ripped in two to feel like that. Hands stopped him, holding him back.
“No, Hugo,” the voice said. “You mustn’t touch it. They said you’ll feel much better in a couple of hours.”
“Brinley?” Hugo asked blearily, opening his eyes to make sure. Yes, it was her. What was she doing here? “Where am I?” he asked, realizing that he didn’t actually know where here was.
“You’re still in the castle,” Brinley said. “Tuck’s castle, in Tourilia. You fought a dragon this morning, so they tell me.”
“But how did you get here?” Hugo asked. He racked his brain in vain, but the last thing he remembered was Kuzo’s tail coming out of nowhere.
“I felt your pain,” Brinley said. “So I came.”
“Where were you?” Hugo asked, trying to take his mind off his leg.
“I was with Unda,” Brinley said.
Hugo opened his eyes again. “Really?”
“See for yourself,” Brinley answered, shifting aside to reveal a young man sitting in a chair. He was of medium height and build with dark hair and a thoughtful expression, even in sleep.
“He’s very tired,” Brinley explained, looking very tired herself. Her hair was askew and there were lines under her eyes. “We had a long day.”
Hugo gave a low whistle. “I guess so.” He glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings. He had been placed in what looked like a room designed for sick people. His bed was adjustable, and there were chairs all around it so that many people could visit him at once. He remembered a couple such rooms at Caraway Castle, but he had never been unfortunate enough to stay in them. He gave Unda another glance. “How did you find him?” He shifted onto his elbow so that he could look her in the face and winced as the pain in his leg doubled.
“You shouldn’t move,” Brinley said, pushing him back onto the bed.
“Yeah,” Hugo said through gritted teeth. “Got it.”
“I’ll tell you my story,” Brinley said, “if you tell me yours. Nobody really knows how you got like this. Cannon was knocked out, and nobody else was there.”
“Right. Okay.” He glanced around the room. “Where is everyone else?”
“Dinner,” Brinley said.
Hugo’s stomach grumbled loudly at the mention of food, and he looked hopefully at the table beside his bed, but it was empty.
“They gave you a special medicine,” Brinley said. “They say you will be mostly better by tomorrow, but you can’t eat anything until then.”
Hugo grimaced. “Figures.” He shifted his weight more carefully this time and began to tell Brinley the story of his confrontation with the dragon, but was careful to leave out the parts about Molad. When he was finished, she sat back in her chair thoughtfully and folded her arms across her chest.
“It’s amazing that you were able to learn how to do that dragon dance thing so quickly,” she said.
He shrugged, not meeting her eye. “I got by, I guess.”
“That’s not what Tuck says,” Brinley said. “He says that you did it as well as he could have, and after just a day’s practice…” She waited for him to explain.
Hugo was staring very hard at a small knot in the wood of his bed frame. He could tell Brinley knew he was holding back. How did she do that? It didn’t matter. He had to find a way to satisfy her without explaining all about Molad. She wouldn’t like that, he knew. She wouldn’t like the way he had bartered with him, but what did she know about it?
“Well,” Brinley said, “if you’re not going to tell me how you did it, then I had better tell you about my day.”
Hugo brightened. “Yeah?” He wished that he had kept his mouth shut instead. Now he looked like an idiot.
Brinley shrugged. “I’d rather you keep the truth to yourself instead of lying to me,” she said, then launched into the account of finding Unda. When she got to the part where Tabitha threw the cursed rocks into the lake, Hugo burst out laughing.
“It’s funny now,” Brinley said, “but it wasn’t funny at the time. You might not wan
t to mention it to Tabitha. She feels pretty bad.”
“I bet,” Hugo said, chuckling.
When Brinley had finished her story, Hugo leaned back and closed his eyes. “I can’t imagine Tabitha as a dragon,” he said. “Where do you suppose she learned to do that? It doesn’t sound like a very easy thing to do.”
“I think it is quite hard,” Brinley said, smiling. “Animus almost didn’t believe it when he heard, and later he told me that not even Belterras can take the shape of a dragon. Tabitha said it happened by accident once, and now she can do it whenever she wants.”
“I wish I could do that,” Hugo said. “It would have come in handy today.”
Brinley laughed.
At that moment, the door to the room burst open and Tabitha walked in, followed by Cannon and Animus. Behind him came an elderly female gnome wearing a white apron, then Archibald and a strange-looking cat.
“Hugo!” Tabitha cried. “Where is your hair? Your head is so shiny now! Can I touch it?”
Hugo was spared from answering when the king of the gnomes entered the room. “Ah!” Tuck said. “The hero has awakened! How is your leg?”
“A bit better,” Hugo said. It actually did feel better than it had when he had woken up. He didn’t know what kind of medicine they had used, but it must have some sort of magical properties. When Kuzo’s spiked tail had struck his thigh, he hadn’t expected to walk on it for several weeks. Now he felt like he might be able to do it by the end of the night.
“Does this hurt?” Tabitha asked, slapping the bottom of his foot with the flat of her hand.
Hugo screamed, and Tabitha leapt back in surprise.
“Ah, good,” the gnome in the apron said. “No nerve damage.”
Hugo gave the old gnome a scowl, and Tuck said, “Hugo, this is Armesa. She is my chief physician. She thinks that you might be up and about as soon as tomorrow.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?” Armesa asked.
Hugo glanced down at his toes. He could just see them protruding from the heavy white bandage that was wrapped around his entire leg. “I can barely even move my leg,” Hugo protested.
Armesa coughed. “Your leg is immobilized,” she said shortly. “I asked you to move your toes.”
Hugo tried. He felt a sharp pain in his leg, but he was able to flex his big toe. Tabitha must have thought that his toe looked funny wiggling at the end of the bandage, for her fingers moved almost automatically, reaching out to pinch it. Luckily, Armesa swatted her away.
“Now the others,” Armesa said, and Hugo winced as he tried to wiggle his remaining toes.
“How are you healing me so fast?” Hugo asked. “What did you give me?”
“A special concoction,” Armesa said. “Brewed together and taken orally every hour, also wrapped on the wound.”
“What’s in it?” Hugo asked, intrigued.
Armesa recited the list of ingredients, ticking them off on her fingers one by one.
“Taro root, balewyrth, jagunda, yumis, and tobacco. Brewed together.”
“That’s it?” Hugo asked, disappointed. He had been expecting some sort of magical elixir.
Armesa waved a hand. “Mages are easy to heal when the Magemother is around to bless their medicine. Makes it all work ten times better than on normal people.” The physician sounded almost annoyed.
Hugo turned to Brinley, who was blushing slightly. “You blessed my medicine?” Hugo asked, pushing himself onto one arm again.
Armesa slapped his arm at the elbow, causing him to fall back down. “She sat by your bedside all afternoon, too. The least you can do is sit still long enough for the medicine to work.”
“Sorry,” Hugo mumbled. He risked another glance at Brinley but found her staring at the floor. He wondered why. And why was he so afraid to look at her, anyway? She was just the Magemother, after all. He thought suddenly of the look on her face when he had awakened. She had been relieved, like she was really worried about him, and she had been holding his hand. Cannon caught his eye from the corner of the room and winked. He hoped nobody noticed that.
When Armesa was finished, the others wanted to hear the full story, since, as Tabitha put it, Cannon was knocked out for the good parts.
He told much the same version again, and he was slightly surprised when no one commented about his strange success with the dragon dance like Brinley had. Mages were always accomplishing strange things, he reminded himself. Most likely they all suspected that there was something else to the story, but unlike Brinley, they all realized that it was none of their business.
“Well,” Archibald said when he had finished, “you are picking up all sorts of new skills. A job well done, if I may say so.”
“Thanks,” Hugo said, trying not to let on how much it meant to him to receive praise from his old tutor. “Archibald, when did you get a cat?”
“I am not his possession, Paradise brat,” the cat snapped. “I could leave this procession at the drop of a hat.”
Archibald grimaced at the Swelter Cat. “How he came to be with us is a long story, Hugo. And not a very pleasant one. Better for another time.”
“Indeed,” Animus said, raising an eyebrow. “I believe the most pressing business is to come up with a plan to retrieve Gadjihalt’s sword.”
“Really?” Hugo said, hoping that the fear he felt didn’t come across in his voice.
Animus nodded. “There are two difficulties. The first is that he is in the Ire. A few of us—a small group, I should say—might enter the Ire and succeed in finding him, but that leaves the other difficulty.”
“You mean that he won’t just hand over his sword…” Brinley said.
“Precisely. There are two possibilities. The first is that we may get lucky. Gadjihalt swore loyalty to the Paradise kings. He took sacred vows, which cannot be broken lightly. He is, in fact, bound by magic to fulfill them.” He nodded to Hugo. “We have discussed this previously. At the height of his power, Shael made it possible for Gadjihalt to break these vows and live, but it seems unlikely that he will enjoy the same freedom from his obligations now that Shael is imprisoned. Given this, Hugo, as a member of the Paradise line, should be able to challenge him to a duel that he cannot refuse. There are laws regarding this in the knight’s code that Gadjihalt once swore to uphold. If it works, we are in luck, for it means that Hugo, as the younger duelist—”
“Will get to pick the weapons,” Hugo finished, his eyes going wide. “I could request to use his own sword to fight him.”
Animus nodded. “Correct. If this happens, we can retreat the moment Hugo has Gadjihalt’s sword, and there may be no need to actually fight him.”
“Thank goodness,” Hugo said, leaning back. “I like this plan…Other than the whole sneaking into the Wizard’s Ire and challenging Gadjihalt to a duel thing.”
There were a few chuckles, but Archibald was frowning. “You said there were two possibilities,” he said to Animus. “What happens if we aren’t lucky?”
Animus nodded ponderously. “If we don’t get lucky, Gadjihalt will still be exempt from the magic that binds him to honor his vows, and he will simply refuse. At that point we would be forced to actually fight him.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Brinley said.
“I should think not. As Shael’s second-in-command, he will have many resources at his disposal. Also, he will be surrounded by guards wherever he goes. Should we have to fight him, he will not be fighting alone.”
“You’re more than a match for him though, aren’t you, Animus?” Hugo said.
“Hmm,” Animus murmured. “Perhaps, under normal circumstances. But in this case, I will not merely be fighting. I will also be protecting you and whoever else goes with us. Also, we will be within the Wizard’s Ire, and that place sometimes has a strange effect on magical powers. I went there once to save the Magemother, but I took a great risk doing it, and I do not relish the idea of repeating the experience.”
Hugo nodded slowly. “Either way, I
guess you and I have to go.”
Animus nodded. “Cannon should come too, I think, and no one else.”
There was a chorus of objections from around the room, but Animus held up his hand. “No one else is essential to this quest,” Animus said. “And every person who comes risks a great deal. It does not make sense for those to venture in who do not absolutely need to.”
Nobody had anything to say to that, and after a moment of silence Hugo decided to break the ice with a question that had been troubling him. “Hey, how did I get out of that dungeon?”
Animus brightened. To Hugo’s surprise, he slapped Cannon on the back. “My apprentice here carried you out.”
Hugo blinked at Cannon. “Really?”
Cannon pursed his lips pompously. “Well,” he said, “I figured it was the least I could do after you just stood by and let that dragon knock me out.”
Hugo blushed, but left the comment alone.
“All right, people,” Armesa said, “everybody out.” And the room emptied, leaving Hugo alone with Brinley again. For a moment, the thoughts he’d had earlier crowded in on him again, but he pushed them away, focusing on the present moment, and looked at her.
“You didn’t answer my question earlier,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I think that you do.”
“They didn’t ask,” Hugo noted, looking down.
“Because they know that’s my place,” Brinley said. “Also, they all know what the answer is anyway, and they know there’s nothing they can do to help you.”
He glanced up at her and found her eyes searching him. It made him feel uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to look away either. She had pretty eyes. How had he never noticed that before?
“It’s the darkness, isn’t it?” Brinley asked. “That’s how you were able to do it.”
Hugo stared at his hands. “Molad.”
Brinley straightened. “You named it?” she asked, sounding afraid.
Hugo sighed. “You wouldn’t understand, Brinley,” he said, more sharply than he intended. “I mean…I just don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?”
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