“Why? Do you think I can’t teach someone?” Cate was on the defensive. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I really didn’t know if I wanted it to be good or bad.
“No, I just meant it was a lot of work. Anyway, I need to talk to you, in private.”
Beacon started to rise. I waved him to sit back down. “No, Beacon, you and Cate.” I waited for Lionel to take the hint, but he just looked at Cate.
She shrugged and looked at me. “He’s my apprentice, what you say around him will be under that oath.”
The apprentice oath was strong and Lionel would lose substantial power if he violated it. Still, he looked young enough to regain any power loss if he misspoke. Unfortunately, that was also young enough to open his mouth at the wrong time. I figured if Cate was vouching for him, I should accept it. And I wanted to just take her word, but this was more than life or death. “Lionel, this is important. Do you recognize that the oath you took as apprentice covers any information you learn while in the presence of Cate?”
I saw his Adam’s apple bounce then he nodded and said in a voice that was still breaking. “Yeah, I do. I’ll take another oath if you want.”
“No need. I wanted to make sure you understood the importance.” I looked at Cate and Beacon. “I need you to agree that you won’t speak of this after.”
“You are very serious tonight, Quinn,” Beacon said. “I trust that your words will merit this weight you bring to them.”
“Okay, Quinn, just get on with it. As long as you aren’t planning to kill someone I’ll keep quiet. If you plan to kill someone, I’ll report you to the council.”
I settled back in the chair and took a long gulp of the beer. “Have you noticed anything odd about the fairies lately?”
Cate shook her head. “The fairies are odd all the time. I haven’t noticed anything different.”
“They are tense,” Beacon said. “They are keeping to their own patches of garden. When they come out into the world, they are furtive and nervous.”
“I’ve noticed they have been hanging around the Sidhe,” Lionel blurted. “They don’t usually do that. Even if they are kind of related, the Sidhe treat them so poorly that the fairies just avoid them.”
Cate glared at him and his face flushed a bright red. I guess being her apprentice must be difficult. To be fair, being anyone’s apprentice is difficult. He looked at me from under downcast eyes. “Sorry. I should not have spoken.”
“That’s okay, Lionel.” I don’t quite know why I felt it was important to undermine Cate, but he was closer to the truth than she was, so he should get to speak. “You’re right. The Sidhe are up to something.”
I told them what I knew and Olan added his voice to answer their objections. After they were convinced I was right, we sat in silence. I got up and refreshed their drinks and noticed that the amber had done its job when I was able to see clearly from the table to the bar.
We got halfway through that round before anyone spoke. I had promised myself I wouldn’t be the one to speak first. I was surprised when Lionel was the one to break the silence.
“What is it you want us to do?” He asked after looking at Cate for permission to speak.
“We need to stop them.” I waited for them to agree. Lionel was the first to nod, he looked at Cate and she smiled at him before saying, “He’s right we can’t let the Sidhe destroy our world over a political dispute.”
I looked to Beacon. My plan only needed one other person to help, but if he was willing to join, we would be stronger.
Beacon sighed and then swallowed his cider. Wiping his lips with the back of this hand he stood. “I do not wish to die in a fight with Fionuir. I carry an obligation to her. If I actively oppose her, I will wither and die within two days. Thus far I am safe, if I go further with your plan, I will not be.”
He threw some coins on the table. “I thank you for your hospitality wizard, but I will pay for my own drink just to be safe. Do not worry. I think keeping the secret so far will not imperil my health. If I could I would wish you luck but that might be going too far.” He winked at me before walking away to join a table of Kobolds.
Olan hopped on the back of Beacon’s vacated chair. He didn’t waver at all, that bird sure could hold his liquor. “Are you in, Witch?” He asked.
Cate frowned, I knew that look. She was weighing the alternatives. For her there were always more than two choices. Within a few moments, she nodded. “I am in, but Lionel is not.”
Lionel sputtered his objection and she waved her hand in a silencing spell. “It is too dangerous to you and us to have an untrained wizard at war with the Sidhe. You will go now and wait for me at home.”
I could see the fight in the boy’s eyes as he slowly unfolded himself from the chair. He stood at least six foot three but the oath he took to become an apprentice forced him to obey. Cate took some mercy on the boy. “I will let you become involved if I feel you have the skills. While I am here with Quinn, you can study the second level spells you have been eying.”
Lionel’s eyes shone and he opened his mouth but no sound came out when he tried to speak.
Cate laughed. “Try not to blow up the house in your studies.”
We waited for Lionel to leave the pub before speaking. When the door shut behind him, Cate leaned forward. “Do you have a plan, or do you need someone to take this to the next level as usual?”
Olan cawed his laughter. “She’s feisty, Quinn. I like her.”
I rolled my eyes and pretended to ignore him. “I have an idea. But, the details are still fuzzy.”
“As usual. I remember when we both had to learn and perform the hunting spell. You had a general idea how to go about it but couldn’t be bothered with the details. As I recall you ended up successfully hunting a rock.”
“I’ve learned since then.” I guess there was no way we were going to be more than rivals. I tried to make my peace with that. “I don’t know enough to create a detailed plan. That’s where working together will be better.”
“So, what’s the idea? I know you aren’t going to kill her. Even you know that will be a violation of your oath as a spirit wizard. And you can’t order me to do it either. Just because I’m an earth witch doesn’t mean your oath is bypassed.”
“I don’t want anyone to die. There have been enough killings already. We need to stop this, not participate in more deaths.”
“Just tell her your plan,” Olan said. “Stop the mating fight and get on with business.”
Cate blushed at that and I pretended I didn’t hear him. “Fionuir has somehow cast a layer of spells on the Gur amulet. If we can find the amulet, maybe we can remove that layer.”
“Makes sense.” Cate looked at the bottom of her wine glass. “How about another round?”
I signaled to Mark who called over the sprite waitress. Olan winged his way to the front door which opened as he approached. When the drinks were deposited and the empties removed I leaned closer to Cate; she smelled of flowers and citrus. I said, “We need to know two things to accomplish the plan. What she did to the amulet because that is important to reversing it, and where the amulet is.”
“If you can do that, what guarantee do you have that Fionuir won’t start again?”
“The Sidhe only change queens every fifty years. If she remains queen through this cycle, she won’t need to give extra power to her followers. If she loses, she won’t have to campaign for queen for another thirty or so years.”
“So, it’s just buying time.”
“A lot of time. And hopefully enough to find a way to discourage this kind of thing in the future.”
“Okay how do you think we can get either piece of information?”
That was the detail I hadn’t gotten to. Cate was right; I wasn’t good with the details. “That’s your area of expertise. Where do you think we should start?”
She chuckled and I felt the vibration in some very private places.
“See, I knew you would get stuck on the important stuff. Talk this through with me. There are only three places we can touch this. The fairies, the other Sidhe and Fionuir.”
“Fionuir won’t give us anything. I tried.”
“So the fairies and the other Sidhe. Oh, and I guess the rival for queen. Someone knows something.”
I told her what Princess had said.
“It’s unlikely we’ll find the mate of a shunned fairy, unless you’ve gotten much better with the hunting spell.” She raised her eyebrow.
“We probably want to leave that to the last resort.”
