Magic Under Stone

Moreover, I must say I’m fascinated to learn more about his work and how matters unfold with the fairies. He’s a very intelligent man. Hollin would never have talked to me about magic and politics, but Dr. Greinfern sits and talks to me and explains things very thoroughly. I think he’s lonely himself, poor man.

Karstor barely referred to the arrangement, merely saying he thought it better if Annalie stayed with him, but he did call her Annalie, not Mrs. Parry. He wrote me a very long explanation of jinn.

It’s hard to get much concrete information about jinn, because they are surrounded by a certain magic that makes people forget them and what they’re capable of. Besides that, their history belongs to antiquity, and surely is as much myth as fact. It’s commonly believed that they are humans with a streak of demon blood. I am never inclined to trust anything that brings up demons. Writers love to bandy about the notion of demons because they’re very sensational. I suspect storytellers have done the same for thousands of years. But whether or not they have demon blood, jinn are certainly powerful-and pitiable, really, it seems to me.

Thousands of years ago, it is said the jinn did something or another to infuriate a king who was, in turn, favored by the angels. The king cursed the race of jinn to serve his kingdom of men forevermore. Even after the king died, even after his descendants died, even after his palace fell into ruins, the jinn would be trapped forever in the king’s collection of vessels-oil lamps and decanters and such. To this day, any man who finds one of the vessels can expect the jinn to serve him.

This matched the myths I had heard. Sometimes my father even used to say, if I wished for something impossible, “Travel west for thirty days and your wishes will be answered”-a reference to that palace in ruins. I was never sure it was actually real. Travelers spoke of it, but no one I knew ever actually found a jinn. Then again, maybe they would forget about it if they had. It made my brain hurt to think of it.

Karstor continued with a list of things jinn were rumored to be capable of and not capable of. Nearly everything one could imagine appeared on the first list. If the myths were true, we were most definitely out of luck.

“I believe the best defense is likely spirit protection,” Karstor concluded. “Unfortunately spirit magic is not so common. I’ll try to find Ordorio and send him home, wherever in God’s name the man might be, and in the meantime, I’ll see what help I can provide. Don’t worry.”

Don’t worry? This hardly seemed a time not to worry. I sat for a long time, chin in hand, the other hand tapping the folded letter against my leg, pondering all these troubling letters-Hollin growing tanned and strong somewhere while Karstor and Annalie shared an apartment and a jinn of unknown power looked for Erris.

Of course, I shouldn’t be disturbed by Annalie moving in with Karstor. The logic was sound, the arrangement likely very proper-Karstor was old enough to be Annalie’s father, and while kind, he had always struck me as a private, withdrawn person. But was it really the only safe place she could go?

I suppose I wanted Hollin and Annalie to have a happy ending, just as I wanted a happy ending for Erris and myself. What would Hollin do if he came back? If Annalie was lost to him, and Erris lost to me?

Was I worried Hollin would continue to express interest in me?

Was I even worried I might be tempted to reciprocate?

Hollin was fully alive. Safe. Handsome. I didn’t love him-no, of course I didn’t, but… what if he changed enough that I could?

I almost could. I hated to think I would entertain the idea, even for a moment.

I love Erris, I told myself. Insisted.

But Erris didn’t show me passion. Not like Hollin had. I had a flash of memory-when Hollin and I had fought the dark spirits off together, and he had pulled me close to him and said, “Thank God,” fiercely and earnestly.

Then I would remember all the awful things about Hollin-the uncomfortable moments, the cowardice, the fact that he was married-and hated myself for ever thinking of him fondly.

Sometimes I wished he would never write me again. It always left me confused, and the last thing I needed was more confusion.

Chapter 15

The magic that came most easily to humans was fire. I didn’t need spell books to tell me that. Everyone knew it. Some people even suggested that humans were born of the fire element, just as they said fairies were born of the earth, mermaids of the sea, and winged folk of the sky.

Erris had told me everything has a spirit to be tapped into. Therefore, I needed to tap into the spirit of fire.

The sun set early now, so that by five o’clock we were lighting a candle to eat and work by, but on one particular afternoon, I decided to build an outdoor fire. Celestina was still wary of dabbling in magic, especially fire magic, but Erris and Violet agreed to help. Erris insisted on hauling the logs into place. He was the only one of us who had ever built a fire outdoors, and he seemed invigorated by the task, so I kept my fears about his fragility to myself.

Violet was so bundled up she probably could have survived a fall from a cliff. The snow from earlier in the week had melted, and the forest around us was a blue-tinged black in the dusk. We sat together on an old wooden bench and watched Erris get the fire going with a scrap of paper to catch the kindling.

I watched the small red sparks dance. Memories of my childhood stirred, but I couldn’t recall exactly when I’d been around an outdoor fire. It must have been a long time ago.

Erris had on the hat he’d bought in Cernan and leather work gloves, and he walked back and forth with a pitchfork, fussing with the logs. He looked very absorbed, rugged and content, nothing like a prince, but very much alive. The fire popped and the dark logs shifted.

“Do you feel anything?” Violet whispered.

“Like… magic?”

“Yes.”

“Well, no,” I admitted. “But I imagine it must take time. Magic can’t just happen in a moment, or everyone would be a sorcerer.”

Fairy magic, I thought, may have begun with the earth, but it didn’t end there. Fairies could heal and cast illusions and any number of things. Human magic was the same. I only needed to find some way to tap into the spirit of things, as Erris said. What did fire mean? Heat. Light. Warmth. In the winter night, the fire didn’t feel destructive, but life-giving.

Still, it could burn. I didn’t want to hurt myself like Celestina. I didn’t try to cast magic at first yet. I just watched the flames lap at the logs, and I watched Erris, and I allowed my thoughts to wander to different futures. What it would mean if Erris became flesh and blood, what would happen when Hollin came home, what the fairy kingdom was like…

After a time, Violet went inside with a complaint about her face being too hot and her back too cold, and left us alone. I knew what she meant-I felt a bit like a half-cooked roast myself.

I wonder if I could move the heat. Surely that couldn’t be too difficult.

I reached into myself, becoming acutely aware of the warmth on my face and chest. I took a deep breath through my lips, pulling the heat into my lungs, and held it there a moment. Then I exhaled, concentrating on moving the warmth back to my spine, up through my neck and down to my feet.

Briefly, I felt it-stronger than I expected, even-energy moving through me and dissipating. I repeated the action, and that time, I held the heat in my spine a moment longer.

I laughed. I was shocked by what I’d done, but just as pleased.

“Everything all right?” Erris walked over to me, using his pitchfork as a walking stick.

I was still grinning. “I think… I just felt a bit of magic.”

“Just now? What did you do?”

“The heat that’s coming off the fire? I think I moved it. Inside me.” I explained exactly what I had done.

“That’s wonderful. See? You’re a natural talent.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“No, I’m serious.” He sat down next to me. “Maybe it’s just a small spell, but what strikes me is the way you did it. You didn’t try to move mountains right off. And you used your breath. They always tell you to use your breath.”