by Blythe Baker
And she walked around the corner and headed back toward the hall of the council of eleven.
I slumped against the wall, brushing some hair from my eyes. My heart was pounding, and I rubbed my cheek with a shaky hand.
“Wow…” Bliss said, coming to stand beside me as we stared off after Delilah. “What in the world just happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I was so sure that she’d say yes to keep that information about Evan Foster secret…”
“I had no idea that Evan had an affair with her,” Bliss said.
“Neither did I,” I said, straightening up. “I just guessed, based on what she had said about him, and vice versa.”
“So he didn’t tell you anything about her?” Bliss asked.
I shook my head. “Nope. I thought I was just making it up, and since he was dead, there’d be no way for her to check the facts.”
“So you lied?” Bliss asked.
“Yeah…” I said. “I did.”
“I never thought you had that in you,” she said with a surprised look.
I sighed. “That doesn’t matter right now,” I said, knowing I’d feel guilty and awful about it later. “What matters is that she didn’t agree to help me, and now I’m stuck.”
“Well, blackmail certainly seemed to work,” Bliss said. “At least…it almost did.”
I frowned at Bliss. “I really don’t like the word blackmail…”
“What else would you call that?” Bliss asked.
“Motivation,” I said. “If only there was something she’d want to protect more than her reputation…”
What of that book? Athena asked. She and her sister have been determined to keep it from you since the first time you met Silvia.
“That’s a good point,” I said, looking at Bliss. “Athena said the book of spells might be motivation enough.”
“Yeah, but we have no idea where that could be,” Bliss said.
“She never denied knowing its whereabouts,” I said. “She just diverted my questions with her own questions. So she obviously knows.” I stared out one of the enchanted windows along the corridor, and I could see some of the bases of the great blue trees. “Didn’t you say that some of the spell weavers actually have living quarters here?” I asked.
“Well, yeah,” Bliss said. Then her eyes widened. “You don’t think she’d have stashed the book here, do you?”
“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “And if we can get our hands on that book, then we can use it as a bargaining chip.”
“But she’s going to completely lose it if she knows we broke into her room…” Bliss said, worry creasing her forehead.
“Well, then maybe she’ll take me seriously,” I said. “So…do you know where she lives?”
“I do,” Bliss said nervously. “Are you sure about this, Marianne?”
“I am,” I said.
I’m not, Athena said. I think we need to take some time, reevaluate this idea. Perhaps even sleep on it.
“No,” I said to her. “There is no other option. I need her help, and she is not going to listen to me otherwise. Now, come on. Let’s go find that book.”
6
The giant blue tree that held the spell weaver’s quarters was only a short walk from the council hall. It wasn’t as ornate on the outside, but Bliss insisted that it was stunning on the interior.
As we walked, my eyes moved from spell weaver to spell weaver, lingering for a few moments at a time. I recognized some of the people around, as I’d seen them in Faerywood Falls.
“Hey, is that Mrs. Sydney?” I asked Bliss, pointing to a woman who was sitting in a garden, reading a floating book.
“Yeah,” Bliss said. “You wouldn’t think that the nice woman who packs your grocery bags would be an advanced spell weaver, would you?”
“No…” I said. “And I could have sworn I saw Karla Reeves back in the council hall.”
“You might have,” Bliss said. “When she’s not doing shifts at the bank, she’s here working on some of the barters in the Hollow.”
“Barters?” I asked.
Bliss nodded. “Yeah, we don’t use money here, obviously, since why would you need money when you can use magic to make something? Spell weavers often barter with one another for things instead, like someone who is gifted in alchemy might offer to pass on some tonics or salves in exchange for a spell song or some kind of specific magic like that.”
“That’s fascinating,” I said.
My eyes fell on a pair, man and woman, as they walked past, as gracefully as Zara. They, like her, had ears that were pointed at the end.
“So…I meant to ask back in Zara’s office, but I didn’t want to be rude,” I said. “What’s with the – ” I reached up and touched the tips of my ears.
Bliss smiled. “Oh, the ears? Yeah. If you live in the Hollow for a certain length of time, the potent magic here starts to change your features. Hair and eye color, height, the way your face is shaped. You wouldn’t believe how old Zara actually is.”
“So you won’t have those changes?” I asked.
“Not unless I move here permanently,” Bliss said with a chuckle. “Which wouldn’t exactly make Mom happy, would it?”
“No, definitely not,” I said.
There was another set of stairs made of the roots of the blue tree that lead to the front doors of the homes of the spell weavers.
“Now, we have to be careful,” Bliss said. “A lot of these places are protected with enchantments. And if someone catches us trying to break in, I’ll be thrown out of the guild. So will you, come to think of it.”
I smirked at her as we reached the door. “Yeah, but you’re already a pro at breaking into places,” I said. “Like Mrs. Bickford’s?”
Bliss’s face flushed red. “Come on, it’s this way,” she said, turning away as we walked inside the large, round doors.
It was like stepping into a modern hotel. Everything was sleek and shining, with minimal decorations. A large crystal chandelier hung down from what looked like a five story tall ceiling, and more enchanted windows filled the walls on either side of the doors.
A smooth desk made of white stone spanned most of the opposite wall, and a solitary woman stood behind it, ears pointed just like Zara’s.
“Good afternoon, ladies,” the woman said with a smile as we approached. Her hair was shockingly red, and her lips were the exact same shade. “Whom are we visiting today?”
“Delilah Griffin,” Bliss said with a smile.
The woman behind the counter lifted her hand, and spread it across the open air in front of herself. Words in glowing letters appeared in front of her like a computer screen made of clear glass. The spell weaver scanned through the words with the tip of her finger. “I’m sorry, but Lady Delilah is not expecting visitors today,” the woman said pleasantly.
“I know,” Bliss said. “But her birthday is coming up, and we wanted to surprise her.”
The woman’s smile didn’t falter. “How thoughtful. But I’m sorry, she explicitly said no visitors.”
“I see…” Bliss said, looking hopefully at me.
Drat, I thought. She really is just an unpleasant person all around, isn’t she?
Perhaps, Athena said. But there must be another way to get up there.
“Excuse us for a second,” I said, and smiled at the woman as I gently tugged on the sleeve of Bliss’s shirt and pulled her away from the counter.
“What? Did you come up with something?” Bliss asked.
“Is this the only way up to Delilah’s home?” I asked.
“Yes,” Bliss said. “It’s a way to protect their private things.”
“Makes sense…” I said. “We should have asked to see someone else on her floor, that way – ”
Bliss shook her head. “There aren’t floors, exactly. It’s magic that moves people between the homes directly.”
“So we can’t ask to like, hang a sign on her door or something?” I asked
&nb
sp; Bliss shook her head.
“Oy…” I said. “Alright, what about us sneaking around and finding the way up?” I asked.
“I…don’t know,” Bliss said. “It’s like a teleporter, and the woman at the desk is the only one who controls that spell.”
I threw up my hands in defeat. “I give up. Fine. Hold on.”
I turned around and marched back to the desk.
“Look, I appreciate you doing your job and everything, but I really need to get up to Delilah’s room,” I said, allowing a note of plea to be heard in my tone. “You see, Delilah borrowed something of mine, and I know she’s in council all day…but I really, really, need it back. Like, now. It’s urgent.”
The red-haired woman behind the counter looked at me with sympathy, her smile becoming a little sadder. “I really am sorry, but I – ”
“Please,” I said, looking her straight in the eye. “It would mean so much to me if you’d let me just run up there and grab it. I promise I won’t be more than a few minutes, and she’ll completely understand. Please…I think my life may depend on it.”
The woman searched my face, and apparently she heard the sincerity in my words.
That last part may have been a bit much…Athena said somewhere behind me.
Yes, I know, I said back to her through my thoughts. Wow, you know, it’s so much easier to communicate like this with you. Do you think it’s because we’re in the Hollow and there’s all this magic around?
That’s likely it, Athena said. But don’t avoid what I said. That’s twice you’ve lied today.
…I know, I said.
“Alright,” the woman behind the counter said. “I can see that the two of you are nothing more than apprentices, and are likely no danger at all to Lady Delilah’s place. However, just to be sure, I am sending one of my eye spells up with you to make sure that you are doing as you say. Agreed?”
The hairs on my arm stood up, but I nodded. “Of course. That’s completely fine,” I said.
“Good,” the woman said, her bright smile returning. “Then right this way, ladies.”
She gestured for us to follow after her, and Bliss hurried to walk beside me.
“An eye spell, huh?” Bliss whispered under her breath. “You better be able to find this quickly.”
“I know,” I said. “But this is our best chance, right?”
Bliss didn’t respond to that.
The woman walked over to another dais that looked like the one in the middle of the council hall, and told us to step up onto it.
“Alright, you’ll have a few minutes to look,” the woman said. “But if I see anything strange, I’m coming straight up.”
I nodded.
A wand suddenly appeared out of thin air, and the woman gave it a gentle, circular wave.
A hovering orb of pale white smoke appeared, almost like an opaque bubble.
She waved the tip of her wand toward us, and the bubble slowly meandered through the air toward us.
“See you in a moment,” the woman said. As she spoke another word, the room around us suddenly became silent and misty. Everything then turned completely white around us.
“What’s happening?” I asked, staring around into the vast nothingness.
“It’s just the teleportation spell,” Bliss said. “It’s like a little pocket dimension, moving us up into the tree.”
The dais was still underneath my feet, and I could still see Bliss, Athena, and the small eye spell that the woman at the front desk had sent along with us.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re moving, though…” I said.
“It’s alright, it’s just – ” Bliss said.
But as quickly as the mist around us had appeared, it faded away…
And we were standing inside a round foyer of a lavishly decorated home.
If I’d thought Delilah’s home back in Faerywood Falls was nice, then that place looked like the inside of a rotten barn compared to the place she had here. Everything was made from rich woods, priceless stones, crystal, and glass. There was a domed ceiling above our heads, filled with enchanted windows that must have looked out from the very top of the tree. Hallways branched out in all four cardinal directions, each leading to a room more lavish than the next.
“Come on, we don’t have long,” I said. “Let’s find that book.”
“Let’s split up, then,” Bliss said. “I’ll go this way, you go that way, and Athena can go a third.”
“Sounds good,” I said, and I started down the hallway directly behind me.
The hall itself looked like it had been carved from brass or bronze, with intricate designs on every surface.
It opened up into a giant living space, with sleek, gorgeous sofas, a roaring fireplace encased in crystal so clear it looked like an abstract glass sculpture, and low tables with lamps lit by floating balls of magical light.
“Wow…she really does like modern furnishings, doesn’t she?” I said loudly, hoping the others would hear me.
“I don’t know, her bedroom seems more gothic and Victorian than modern,” Bliss said back.
And her kitchen and dining looks more like something out of a science fiction book, Athena said.
I turned and looked around. How in the world were we going to find this book in such a short amount of time?
I glanced over my shoulder and saw the eye spell hovering in the opening of the hallway. I could feel the watchful gaze of the woman down in the lobby.
I looked up and saw that there were more rooms overhead, including a library spanning every wall along a balcony that overlooked the living room.
My stomach plummeted as I stared up at it. If she’d tucked that book away, how in the world would I ever find it among all the rest of those tomes?
No…the book was precious to Silvia, and likely just as precious to Delilah. There was probably very little chance that she’d just leave it on a shelf out in the open like that.
She’d have kept it in a much more secret, safe place.
But where?
I looked around on every surface. Delilah had stacks of books everywhere, but none of them looked at all like the book I remembered from Abe’s shop. It made me more frustrated, though, the longer I searched, because I wondered how well I really remembered what the book looked like. It had been months since I’d seen it, after all. How could I be sure that I hadn’t just simply forgotten what it looked like?
I was just heading up to the library to try and desperately stare at as many bindings as I could in the time we had left when Bliss called out.
“Hey, Marianne!”
My heart skipped. “Yeah?” I called back.
“Is the grimoire you’re looking for red?”
My heart skipped again. “Yes!”
I hurried down the stairs as quickly as I could, raced back to the main lobby where we’d been teleported, and ran down the opposite hall to where I’d heard her voice from.
I skidded to a halt just inside a bedroom that was bigger than my entire house growing up. There was a bed that was probably the size of two king sized beds smooshed together, draped in silk blankets and sheets. Along the far wall, there was a sunken floor where a copper bathtub stood, surrounded by a myriad of tables of different shapes and sizes, all with thick candles spread across them, dried wax clinging to the sides. She also had a fireplace, a gorgeous chaise lounge, and a wardrobe that was so beautifully ornate that it was probably worth more than I’d make in a year working for Mr. Cromwell.
“It’s over here,” Bliss said. She was standing on the other side of the gargantuan bed, pointing at an end table made from a rich, cherry wood.
I walked around the bed, which felt ridiculous with how long it took, and saw Bliss pointing at an old, red tome with gold gilding along the spine.
My heart raced. “That’s it,” I said. “Good eye, Bliss.”
I walked over to it and picked it up. It had good weight in my hands, but felt lighter than I remembered.
�
�It’s weird that it was just sitting there on her end table, almost like she was reading it before falling asleep,” Bliss said.
“Who cares?” I said. “We’ve got what we came for, so let’s get back downstairs before the woman at the desk comes looking for us.”
With one last look around Delilah’s lavish room, I walked back toward the teleporter pad, the book clasped tightly in my arms.
We stepped onto the marble dais, and I looked around. “What do we do?” I asked. “I don’t know the spell.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bliss said. “Going back down is easy. We just stand here for a few seconds and it takes us back automatically.”
Magic was probably something I’d never fully get used to.
Sure enough, the white mist returned, obscuring our vision to Delilah’s rooms, and not more than a moment later, it faded and we were back in the foyer.
“Find everything alright?” the woman asked. With a brief flick of her wand, the opaque bubble spell popped, and faded from existence.
I held the book up. “Yes, thank you.”
“Now be on your way…” the woman said. “Before Lady Delilah knows you were here.”
We didn’t have to be told twice.
As soon as we were back outside, Bliss turned on me. “Okay, so what next?” she asked.
“We go wait for Delilah outside the council hall,” I said. “And show her we have the book. We just have to make sure we do it in public. And if we frame it like a student asking for help on something…” I said.
Bliss’s eyes narrowed. “So, I don’t exactly mind this whole new, edgy side of you, but…what’s gotten into you? Where is all this coming from?”
I shifted the weight of the book in my arms, pressing it more tightly against myself. “I already told you. This is the only lead I have about my family. About what it means to be a faery.”
Bliss shh’ed me, looking around.
I dropped my voice as we made our way through the sun-drenched grass back toward the tree where the council hall resided.
“You can’t help me, Athena can’t help me…no one in Faerywood Falls can help me,” I said.
“That’s why I wanted to get you in here,” Bliss said. “So you’d have access to things like our library, and maybe be able to ask questions in an innocent enough manner – ”