Spell Hunter fr-1

by R. J. Anderson

  And yet, was it really fair not to tell her?

  Knife sipped the chicory until its hot bitterness revived her, then set the mug down and held out her hands for Linden. “I’ll take her now,” she said, but Wink’s face was averted, and she did not respond.

  “What is it?” Knife asked.

  Wink lowered her head, her cheeks coloring. “It’s just…I know it can’t be very nice being a Hunter, and I really wouldn’t want to do it myself. But you can go out whenever you like, and even if it’s cold and miserable you at least get to see and do new things every day, and, well…” She picked a loose thread from Linden’s smock and rolled it distractedly between her fingers. “I’ve spent my whole life in this room sewing the same patterns over and over, and sometimes I envy you, just a little.”

  Knife watched her for a moment in silence. Then she set down her cup and rose to fetch a stick of charcoal and a piece of paper. “What are you doing?” asked Wink, but Knife only shook her head, sat down at the table, and began to draw.

  She meant to sketch some of the clothing she had seen the humans wear, much as Jasmine had done for Heather. But though she concentrated with all her might, the figure she traced was a crude one, barely recognizable as human. She was attempting to clothe it in one of Mrs. McCormick’s pleated skirts when the charcoal broke in her hand; she threw it down and crumpled up the paper in frustration.

  “Knife,” Wink said in a hushed tone, “was that really…a picture? But where did you learn-”

  “From Paul,” said Knife, too miserable to guard her tongue anymore. “But I haven’t talked to him in so long, and I’m starting to forget everything he taught me.” She slumped forward. “I miss him, Wink.”

  Wink untangled Linden from her curls and put the baby down hastily. “A human,” she breathed. “Thorn said you’d been to the House, but I never guessed you’d been that close.”

  Knife sat up, the color easing back into her face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. If the Queen finds out that you know, we’ll both be in trouble-”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Wink quickly. “Just tell me. Tell me everything.”

  When Knife had finished, Wink did not move for a long time. Then she raised her head, her face white except for two spots of color on her cheeks, and said, “You have to go back.”

  “Back?” said Knife.

  “To the House. To him-that Paul.” She clasped her hands against her heart. “I can feel it’s important, this connection you have with him. And if you wait much longer, you might lose it completely-Knife, we can’t let that happen.”

  “We?” said Knife. “Wink, I already told you, the Queen-”

  “The Queen is wrong!” Wink burst out, with a passion that startled them both. She flushed and glanced nervously at the door before continuing in a lower voice, “Wrong about this, I mean. And you’re wrong, too, to try to protect me from her. I know I’m not strong like you, or clever like Thorn, but I want to help-so for the Gardener’s sake, let me do what I can!”

  “You do help,” said Knife, and all at once it seemed natural to put her hand on Wink’s shoulder. “You’ve done so much already, I didn’t dare to ask for more. Are you really sure about this?”

  Wink sniffed, then nodded. “I’ll look after Linden whenever you need me to, day or night, and I won’t tell the Queen or anybody.”

  “Then I’ll go,” said Knife quietly. “Tonight.”

  “Knife!”

  Paul slid up the window so quickly that Knife nearly fell off the ledge. Recovering her balance, she hurried forward, into the House’s warm embrace.

  “I was beginning to think you were out,” she said, shaking the sleet from her cloak. “I knocked and knocked-”

  “I thought it was hail,” Paul said. “God knows I didn’t think there was a chance of it being anything else.” His mouth flattened. “Where have you been?”

  He had missed her, too, Knife realized with a flare of happiness. “I’m sorry,” she said. “The Queen gave me a…new responsibility, so I couldn’t leave the Oak at night. I’ve only just been able to get away.”

  “You could have left a note,” said Paul.

  “You thought I’d forgotten you?” She spoke lightly, hoping to wipe the shadows from his face, but they only deepened.

  “I thought you were dead,” he said.

  Knife sat down hard on the windowsill. “Oh,” she said.

  Paul passed a hand over his eyes. When he took it away, the anger had vanished, leaving only weariness. “Well, never mind that. You’re here now. So…how have you been?”

  Confused. Frustrated. Lonely. “I’m all right,” she said. “But-” She looked up into his face. “I need your help.”

  Quickly she explained about Heather’s diaries, and what she had learned about the Oakenfolk’s past interest in humans. “I know it sounds strange,” she finished, “but it’s important. There’s a connection between your people and mine-and that diary may be the only way to find out what it is.”

  “And you think this could help you get your magic back?” said Paul.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “So where do I fit in?”

  Knife bit her lip. “I have to get to a place called Waverley Hall. And this morning, I saw you driving a car…”

  “You want me to take you there?” He looked surprised, but not displeased. “Well, I probably could-just not right away. I’ve still got six lessons left, and then I have to pass the road test.”

  Relief washed over Knife. “I can wait that long,” she said.

  Sixteen

  “He’s really going to take you there?” exclaimed Wink. “Knife, that’s wonderful! When do you leave?”

  “It’ll be a few weeks yet,” Knife said, pulling off her cloak and hanging it up to dry. “Paul needs time to prepare, but he’s promised to give me a signal when he’s ready.”

  “You mean…you’re not going to see him until then? But-”

  “It’s all right,” Knife reassured her. “We talked about it, and we both understand that it’s for the best.” Tempting as it was to take full advantage of Wink’s offer to help, she knew it would be unwise to try and see Paul any more than necessary. The Queen had already caught her sneaking out at night once; she might easily do so again, and then their whole plan would be ruined.

  “I know,” said Wink dolefully. “But if you don’t see him, then you won’t be able to draw-and I really wanted to see that picture.”

  Knife let out a disbelieving laugh. “Is that all?” she said. “Well, give me some paper and I’ll see what I can do.”

  This time the lines flowed smoothly, and soon she had completed three sketches: not only the skirt she had failed to draw before, but a blouse and tailored jacket to go with it. “Here,” she said, handing them to Wink.

  The Seamstress gazed at the drawings, oblivious to Linden’s attempt to climb up her skirts. Then her eyes welled up and she let the pages fall back to the table. “They’re so beautiful,” she said in a quavering voice. “And I would love to sew them, if I could only figure out how…but then I couldn’t wear them, or everyone would want to know where I’d got the ideas from. And what’s the good of making something beautiful that nobody else will ever see?”

  “I know,” said Knife. “It’s hard. But I promise you, Wink, it won’t be this way forever. Once I get Heather’s second diary, and once we know the truth-” She clenched her fist around the charcoal, feeling it crumble against her palm. “Things in the Oak are going to change.”

  “This is your request?” asked Amaryllis incredulously, looking down at Knife from the height of her carved throne. “Three days away from your duties, nothing more?”

  It had been Thorn’s idea that Knife should ask the Queen for three full days, to make the claim that she was going out to look for other faeries more plausible. “I’d like to do some more exploring,” Knife said, trying to keep her voice casual. “Not now, of course, but once the ground’s thaw
ed and the crows stop flocking…”

  The Queen’s brows rose. “Exploring, you say. What do you hope to find?”

  Here it comes, thought Knife. Please the Gardener she doesn’t use the Sight on me-and that I’m not as obvious a liar as Paul thinks. Aloud she said, “When I was gone for those two days last summer, I came across a place that reminded me of a Wyld. I didn’t see any faeries there, but it made me think that if I looked around a little more, I might find some-or at least a clue to help us figure out where they went.”

  Amaryllis’s lips parted, but she did not reply, and as the silence deepened, Knife’s temptation to fidget became an even stronger impulse to bolt. Had the Queen seen through her request? But finally, Amaryllis spoke:

  “I have long yearned to send out an emissary to search for other Wylds,” she said. “Yet in a hundred years and more I have found no one fit for such a task, let alone willing. That you have come to this of your own free will, and would ask it of me as a boon-it is more than I dared hope.”

  She spoke quietly, without a trace of her usual imperious manner, and Knife’s stomach twisted with guilt. “It’s not too much,” she said. “I’d be glad to help.” After all, she told herself, just because she was going to find Heather’s second diary didn’t mean she couldn’t keep her eyes open for other Wylds on the way. And there would always be time to make a proper survey later.

  “Then I would be pleased to grant your petition,” said the Queen, and for the first time Knife saw her smile. “But you need not spend your Midwinter Gift on this. Save your request until you have thought of something that you, and you alone, desire. Whatever you ask, I swear it shall be yours.”

  “Aren’t you afraid I’ll ask for half the kingdom?” Knife said, shaken.

  “I know you do not want it. And that is well, for I would not wish such a burden on anyone.” She smiled again, but thinly. “You may go. Come again when you are ready to leave-or when you know what you truly want.”

  “I will,” said Knife.

  As she walked back down the Spiral Stair, the Queen’s words reverberated in her mind: Whatever you ask, I swear it shall be yours. How much did she mean what she had said? Amaryllis was not given to making promises she did not plan to keep. But then, she did not know how close her Hunter had already come to betraying her.

  Or did she?

  Soon winter began to lose its grip on the Oakenwyld, finger by icy finger; frost melted into dew, and rain coaxed life from the frozen ground. Crocuses exploded into bloom at the foot of the Oak, and new grass dappled the lawn.

  For Knife, however, spring that year was marked by a different sign entirely-a piece of yellow paper stuck to Paul McCormick’s bedroom window, announcing in bold letters:

  I PASSED!

  When she caught sight of the note, Knife was just returning from her morning’s hunt. She knew she ought to wait for nightfall to respond-but that was hours away. Did she dare to visit him now? She cast a furtive glance at the Oak, then shoved her pack beneath the hedge and doubled back around the front of the House.

  He was still in his room, as she had hoped. The curtains were open, a shaft of sunshine slanting into the room and making the dust motes dance. And in that beam of golden light sat Paul, half dressed and with his hair still tousled from sleep, lifting weights.

  One hand gripped the heavy barbell, the other the wheel of his chair; his clenched fist lifted and curled toward his shoulder, the lean muscles of his arm flexing. His hair stuck damply to his brow, and beads of perspiration slipped down his back. Helpless, the Queen had called him, but looking at Paul now, Knife could see nothing but strength.

  She had missed him more than ever these past few weeks, seen his face a hundred times in her dreams. And yet she was suddenly struck by how beautiful he was, in a way she had never noticed before. Her heart bounded giddily at the sight of him, as though he were some marvelous work of art the Gardener had created just for her. Paul. Her human. Her friend.

  She raised her fist eagerly and rapped upon the glass.

  Paul stopped exercising at once, snatching up a shirt from the bureau and pulling it on before skimming across the room to meet her. He flung up the window, and she stepped through onto his outstretched palms.

  “You got my message,” he said with a flash of a smile.

  “I did,” said Knife. “And I was so glad, I couldn’t wait to talk to you. Can we go, then? Soon?”

  “I don’t see why not. For a while I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get in, but then I looked up this Waverley Hall place in a guidebook and it turns out they give tours, so that’s all right. When it comes to stealing the diary, though…”

  “It isn’t stealing,” protested Knife. “It’s got no value to them, and anyway, how can they miss it when they don’t even know it’s there?”

  “They won’t,” said Paul, “unless they catch us with it.” He spoke solemnly, but there was a spark in his eye she had not seen before; he seemed to be looking forward to the adventure, and Knife felt her own spirits lifting in return.

  “They won’t catch us,” she said confidently. “How soon can we leave?”

  By the time Knife returned to the Oak, she was glowing with satisfaction. Everything seemed to be coming together perfectly: Paul had permission to use his parents’ car, he’d called ahead to make sure that Waverley Hall would be open for them to visit, and barring some unforeseen disaster, they’d be leaving tomorrow.

  Tomorrow! It felt so unreal to think of getting into that strange metal wagon with Paul and speeding off to a place she’d never visited before, so far away that she couldn’t even see it from the top of the Oak. To him the journey was nothing; he didn’t even think it would take long to get there. But to Knife it was as exciting-and daunting-as a trip across the world.

  She had just dragged her meat-heavy pack into the cold room and was about to unload it when she heard a thump from the corridor outside, followed by a muttered curse. It sounded like…Campion? Frowning, Knife looked out and saw the Librarian staggering past with a teetering armload of volumes, one of which had just fallen onto the floor.

  “I’ll get it,” said Knife, stooping to collect the book. But its spine had cracked, and the pages came loose in her hand.

  “You’ve ruined it!” screamed Campion. She dropped the rest of the stack and launched herself at Knife, who barely had time to throw up her hands before the other faery barreled into her. Together they tumbled to the floor, and it was all Knife could do to hold Campion at bay: Fingers stiffened into claws, she seemed determined to scratch Knife’s eyes out.

  “I was only trying to help!” Knife shouted at her. “I didn’t mean any-Campion, stop!”

  “I know what you’re up to! You want to destroy them, and leave me with nothing!”

  “What are you talking about?” panted Knife, grabbing the other faery’s wrists as she glanced down at the pages scattered over the floor. Could it be that Campion had found some more books about humans? But no, the damaged volume was just a simple herbal, and the rest looked just as ordinary.

  “I’m taking them away,” Campion spat at her. “Where they’ll be safe. You’ll never find them-and she won’t either-”

  “Campion, nobody wants to take your books! Will you just listen to me?”

  The other faery stopped fighting, and looked confused. Then the wildness came back into her face and she shrieked, “You’re trying to trick me!” as she flung her weight against Knife again.

  First you become fretful and short-tempered, said Thorn’s voice in her memory. Sometimes even violent…

  Horror shivered through Knife, and she stumbled back. “No,” she breathed. “Oh, no.”

  At that moment the kitchen door flew open and Mallow marched out. “Well, I must say this is a fine way to behave!” she exclaimed. “What would Her Majesty say if she could see the two of you brawling in the corridor like a pair of cats?”

  “Call Valerian,” Knife gasped at her, still wrestling with the furiou
s Campion. “Get the Healer-hurry!”

  Campion writhed free of Knife’s grip, leaped up, and lunged at Mallow. “You!” she spat. “You greedy, selfish, miserable thief! I know what you took from the archives, when you thought I wasn’t looking-”

  Mallow’s ruddy cheeks turned pale as dough. She stumbled backward, then turned and rushed away. Taking advantage of the distraction, Knife pulled Campion’s feet out from under her and brought her crashing to the floor, then leaped onto her back and sat there while she rifled through her belt pouch for something to tie her up with.

  Campion struggled mightily, but she was smaller than Knife and much less fit; it was not long before she collapsed, her frenzied energy spent. Knife bound her wrists and ankles together with twine, and was just about to heave the other faery onto her shoulders when she saw Valerian hurrying toward them.

  “There you are!” said Knife, climbing off Campion’s back and stepping aside to let the Healer take over. “She just flew at me-” But Valerian held up a hand.

  “Let me look at her first,” she said, slipping an arm around Campion and rolling her over onto her back. The Librarian immediately began to thrash about again, hissing into her face, “I know what you are! I’ve seen the records. You’re not one of us, Motherlesschangeling!”

  Valerian went very still. Then she said quietly to Knife, “You were right to call me.” She reached into the pocket of her apron and took out a small bottle, which she pressed against Campion’s lips. The Librarian spluttered and tossed her head, but in a moment her eyes glazed over and she went limp.

  “Now,” said Valerian, “we can carry her back to her room.”

  “I had thought-I had hoped,” said the Healer as they laid Campion down upon her cot, “that we were done with this.” She brushed back the hair from the Librarian’s forehead, letting her hand rest there. “No fever yet, but it will come.”