Taking Flight

“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” Perina admitted.

Kelder looked out the window and decided maybe that was a mistake after all, because it wasn’t Krithimion on the other side of the glass at all, it was someplace where waves were smashing against black rocks at the foot of a high, curving cliff and ancient, crooked buildings of rough stone stood atop it; the window seemed to be somewhere on the clifftop, looking along the rim, with the sea to the left and the buildings to the right.

That was mighty magic, he was fairly certain.

“As long as we’re here,” Irith said, rising, “Kelder and I are a little short of money just now. Were there any little errands that you’d like done?”

Kelder stepped to the next window and was relieved to find a perfectly normal view of Krithim, laid out below them like a collection of toys; the only unsettling thing about it was how very high up they were. The wizard’s workshop was clearly atop the tallest tower in the castle.

“Oh, I can’t think of any just now,” Perina said, as she, too, got to her feet, “but I can loan you a few pieces of silver if you like, and when you find that countercharm that will cover it. It would be worth, oh, I’d say ten pieces to me, and I could give you half of that now.”

“What if we don’t find it?” Kelder asked, breaking his silence.

“Oh, Kelder, don’t be such a bore,” Irith said.

“Then you’ll find some other way to pay me back,” Perina said, dismissing the problem with a wave.

Kelder hesitated, but he was tired of doing stupid little jobs and constantly worrying about where the next meal was coming from. Five pieces of silver — that was fifty in copper, four hundred bits. Added to the handful they had, that would make life a good bit easier all around.

Irith threw him a questioning look, and he nodded.

“Thank you, Perina,” the shapeshifter said, “that would be wonderful.”

“Wait right here, then,” she said. “I’ll get my purse.” She hurried to the spiral stair.

That left Irith and Kelder standing a few feet apart, with no one else in the room. Kelder said quietly, “She seems to know a lot.”

“Hmm?” Irith looked at him questioningly.

“Well, I mean, all this magical stuff here, and all those powerful wizards she was talking about — if she doesn’t know the countercharm it must be pretty obscure.”

Irith shook her head. “Silly,” she said, “don’t let Peri fool you; she’s not part of any inner circle or anything. She inherited all this stuff from her mother — she was a great wizard. And she collected stuff, weird stuff — a lot of it is accidental one-of-a-kind things that nobody knows what they do, things that happened when a spell went wrong. It’s not Peri’s magic. Peri’s just a name-dropper; she met all those people when she was little and they visited her mother, or her mother took her along visiting them, or maybe she just heard her mother talking about them. She probably hasn’t seen Thorum in fifteen years, and she probably never met Fendel at all. She probably hasn’t read half these books. In fact, she probably hasn’t read any of them.”

“Oh,” Kelder said.

“The countercharm could be in one of them,” Irith said, “but we’d never find it. We’d probably get killed by some silly warding spell if we tried to look for it.”

“Oh,” Kelder said again.

Then Perina reappeared, descending the stair, a velvet purse in her hand.

“Here we go,” she said, pulling out a handful of coins.

When the money was safely tucked away — three pieces in silver in Kelder’s purse, two in Irith’s, and the rest back where it came from — Irith kissed Perina goodbye and stepped to the window.

“Must you go?” Perina asked, as Irith opened the casement.

“I’m afraid so,” Irith said, as wings sprouted from her shoulderblades.

“Well, take care.” She and Kelder watched as Irith stepped up on the sill, and then flew away.

Feeling suddenly awkward, Kelder said, “Well, I guess I’ll be going, too.”

Perina smiled at him. “Oh, I’m sure,” she said. “Tell me, though, lad, how did you meet Irith?”

Kelder shrugged. “Just bumped into her on the highway,” he said.

“You’ve taken a fancy to her, haven’t you? I can always tell these things.” She smiled a smile that Kelder supposed was meant to be conspiratorial; it came off as condescending, instead.

“I suppose,” Kelder mumbled.

“It shows,” Perina said. “At least, to someone as experienced as I am, it does.”

“I’m sure it does,” he muttered, embarrassed.

“I might be able to do something for you, you know,” she said.

Kelder blinked.

“I really don’t know Fendel’s Infatuous Love Spell,” she said, “but I do... Oh, it isn’t you she used it on, is it?”

“No, of course not!” Kelder said uneasily.

He didn’t think Irith had used any spells on him, but how could he be sure she didn’t have others, less powerful than the one she had used on Ezdral? That was an unpleasant notion.

“Oh, good, I didn’t think so,” Perina continued, smiling — smirking, almost. “Well, then. I don’t know that one, but I do know some others. There’s the Infallible Love Philtre, and, well...” She paused and cleared her throat. “There’s the Spell of Aroused Lust, which isn’t exactly a love spell — and others, too. And I was wondering whether you might be interested.”

“To use on Irith?” Kelder asked.

Perina nodded, her smile coy.

For a moment, Kelder seriously considered the idea. He wanted Irith, wanted to marry her, and if she were enchanted, the way Ezdral was, he could have her, for as long as he wanted. She wouldn’t argue with him any more. She wouldn’t get bored and fly away. She would be very much in his power.

It was tempting, no doubt about it.

But it would also be cruel, and unfair, and disgusting. And it might well cause just as much trouble in the long run as the spell on Ezdral. It would be far better to let Irith make up her own mind. She liked him, he knew she did. She would marry him, eventually, without any spells. She would come back to Shulara. Zindre’s prophecy said as much.

Of course, this might have been part of the prophecy, this offer of a love spell; by turning it down he might be voiding Zindre’s promises. All the same, he was resolved to do so. Magically-induced love was not what he wanted.

And then, after he had decided that he wanted Irith to love him naturally if she was going to love him at all, he remembered something.

Spells didn’t work on Irith any more. Wizardry could not affect her. She had challenged wizards to magical duels, and then laughed at them as their spells left her untouched. Any love philtre, potion, or aphrodisiac would be utterly useless on her.

Did Perina know that? Was she trying to trick him?

Or did she have some other purpose in mind?

“I don’t have much money...” he began.

She waved that away. “No, no,” she said, “for you, it’s free.”

“Um... Why?”

“Because I just want to see you youngsters happy, that’s all!”

“Well,” said Kelder, “thank you, I appreciate it, and I’ll think it over.”

“You do that,” she said, as he made his escape, out the door to the stairway.

The question of just why she had made the offer gave him something to think about all the way to the bottom.

Chapter Twenty-Nine