“I didn’t agree to it,” Acair said shortly. “Ionlyagreed to the bargain of no magic and that only becauseyourbeloved Soilléir threatened to turn me into a birdbath if I didn’t.”
She pursed her lips. He wasn’t altogether sure she wasn’t trying to keep from laughing, but there it was. His situation was ridiculous.
“Well, he definitely could,” she allowed.
He looked at her suddenly, wondering why he’d never thought to ask her the question that had clouted him so suddenly on the side of his head. “Could you turnhiminto a birdbath?”
She clutched a pearl necklace she wore, something that he wasn’t entirely sure wasn’t made from calcified souls of thoseshe’d frightened the very hell from, and manufactured what he imagined she supposed was a look of horror.
“Why would you ask?” she hedged.
“Because your dear aunt Cailleach said I possessed power that left Gair’s looking like rubbish,” he said. “Or words to that effect.”
“She exaggerates.”
He suspected his great-aunt didn’t do anything of the sort, but it was obviously going to take more effort than simply asking to have an answer from his dam.
“I’m not going to let that go,” he muttered.
She looked slightly pleased, if such a thing was possible for her, then tapped her pencil against her chin. “I have to ask—because I’m a bit pressed for anything interesting to do at the moment—why you find yourself somewhere besides Fuadain of Sàraichte’s barn, if that’s where you were meant to serve out your sentence.”
He wasn’t sure if she didn’t know or if she were simply trying to dig a few details out of him, but he supposed in the end it didn’t matter. Answers were the price for being allowed to hide under her very utilitarian but terrifying spells of protection, spells he would certainly be having a closer look at whilst she was napping.
“The tale is long,” he warned.
“I have all day.”
He started to thank her for having cleared the decks for him, as it were, when he was interrupted by trills of laughter coming from the front parlor. He was absolutely certain that wasn’t Léirsinn making that noise, though not altogether certain Mansourah of Neroche wouldn’t make that sort of noise if pressed, but he paused just the same and looked at his mother.
“Who is that?”
She smiled blandly. “I invited a pair of your cousins to come to take in the view. You’ll hit upon which ones without having to peek around the corner, I imagine.”
“Ah,” he said, wishing he weren’t so damned tired. “I remember Léirsinn having said something about that.”
“I wasn’t going to keep that handsome young prince all to myself.”
“Generous of you.”
“One of my greatest faults,” she said seriously. “Besides, I owe Fiunne a favor. Actually, I might want a favor from those two rapacious gels at some point, so no sense in not doling out those sorts of chits whilst I’m able, don’t you agree?”
“Heartily,” he said, not having to look far for where he’d obviously come by many of his best strategies.
“Now, continue on with your tale,” she said. “You were in Sàraichte, then what?”
He supposed there was no reason not to tell her about the entire sorry business. “This is where things become a bit dodgy,” he admitted. “I hadn’t been in the south but a day or two when I noticed that Léirsinn was seeing what I can only call spots of shadow. I thought perhaps they were patches of spells laid by the local wizard to lighten purses without the effort of leaving his fire, but I began to watch what happened to those who stepped in them and concluded that I was judging poorly.”
His mother frowned thoughtfully at him. “What happened when you stepped inside one?”
He spared the briefest of moments to be gratified that his mother would have expected nothing less of him, then permitted himself a shudder at the memory.
“I felt as if a part of my soul had been torn from me,” he said.“I managed to wrench myself free, but it was absolutely excruciating.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t repeat the experience for anything, though I think it’s been different for others. I’ve heard there are those who seem to crave a tussle with the damned things.”
She studied him. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me who told you that.”
“I vowed I wouldn’t.”
“AndIvow I don’t recognize you. You’d best get through this year quickly lest you lose yourself entirely.” She tapped her pencil against her notebook thoughtfully. “So, lest you sully your vaunted code by a bit of dishing with your mum, let me state it for you: you’re here to try to find out who might have created both the spots and that thing in the corner.”
