“And live.”
“One could hope,” he agreed.
“No wonder you wanted that other spell.”
He nodded carefully. “Indeed.”
She would have asked what the spell could do, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Either it dealt out death or turned whoever was in the vicinity—including her, she imagined—into mushrooms. With Acair, she just never knew.
He stared off down the path for a moment or two, then looked at her. “You’re sure you won’t remain here and wait for me?”
“How will you collect those flinty bits of yourself you leftbehind if I’m not there to look?” she asked. “Just so I know, is there some particular piece of mischief you combined here, or was it just general naughtiness and the pinching of doilies you should feel bad about?”
“Well, I didn’t murder anyone,” he muttered.
“What did you do, then?”
He dragged his hand through his hair. “If you must know, I stole one of her spells, then stepped aside when she blamed my older brother Garlach for it.”
She frowned. “That doesn’t sound like anything any other young lad wouldn’t do.”
“I was thirty-five at the time,” he said. “A bit past being young.”
She wasn’t surprised. “Is that all?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t be certain, but I fear she might have laid a spell on him that causes warts to spring up all over his face every time he sees a beautiful woman.”
“How long did that last?”
“It is ongoing.” He shrugged. “He’s not a pleasant man and this, ah, affliction of his has caused him to lose what little chance he’s ever had with even the most desperate of lassies. I should say that it serves him right given that he is completely lacking in any redeeming character traits, but...” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I have suffered the odd pang of regret now and again for his plight, given that I was responsible for it. Or that might have been indigestion. I never can decide.”
Léirsinn smiled in spite of herself. “Have you thought about just asking her to remove it?”
“And admit my part in it? She would likely take the damned thing off him and put it onme.”
“Couldn’t you take it from him?”
“The better question is, would I? The answer is, now that I think about it, nay.”
“Did you do a good deed yesterday?”
He drew himself up. “I’m sure I did.”
“I’m sure you didn’t. This could count, you know.”
He tugged her along with him down the path. “We’ll need to move forward in silence now. Spells everywhere and all that sort of rot.”
It took her a fair tromp along soft paths before she realized what bothered her the most. It was one thing to walk into his mother’s house where she was fairly sure they wouldn’t die. It was also something to be chased by black mages but trust that Acair would somehow get them to safety.
For some reason, she didn’t care at all for their current errand or the feeling of the forest.
They were being watched and she had the feeling it wasn’t by Mansourah.
“Acair?”
He smiled briefly. “Ah, my name. How it rolls from the tongue of a lovely woman, aye?”
“You’re insufferable.”
