“Seven!”he answered with the high dudgeon that only a kid many years away from driving age could muster.
“Gotta be thirteen before you can touch ley magic,” she reminded him, shaking her head.Even that was an arbitrary age.What fae magic did to adult human nervous systems, it did even worse to developing ones.Kids that got sizzled never did grow up right.She should know—she’d started riding the lines way too young.Probably it had messed with her head, though it could be argued that she’d started out bad.
She handed the bag to Zazu who took it reverently.“Carry that for me?And,” she said, returning her attention to the budding ley rider, “you’ll need three more years after that to be licensed to ride the lines.”
“But Auntie Bandit, the moms let me…”
Cha barked out a laugh.“I know that’s not true, kid.”Not only was Dy too responsible of a sorceress to risk a kid’s—any kid’s, but particularly her kid’s—brain development by letting them touch magic too early, but Phinny wouldn’t like it.And what Phinny didn’t like, didn’t happen.She had bodacious ta-ta’s and an even bigger will.“Edur and Xavvy, you know I love you, but no hugs until you wash off that mud.”
“It’s not mud,” Xavia protested.
“Yeah,” Edur chimed in.“It’s actually—”
“I donotwant to know,” Cha interrupted.
“The moms wouldn’t have to know about me riding the ley,” Phin Jr.argued, tagging at her heels with the other kids as Cha picked up Inigo, who clutched at her neck babbling nonsense.He’d gotten so big since she last saw him.She carried him toward the cottage with pretty eaves and flourishes worthy of a gingerbread house.Dy and Phinny had a nice spot here.Not fancy, but comfortable, with the spreading limbs of oak trees casting deep shade over the pond, rosy moss spun by tiny haltija fae wisping dreamily in the slight breeze.It was peaceful and homey, something Dy hadn’t known she wanted until Phinny provided it.
“Your moms knoweverything,” Cha told Phin Jr., smiling as sunnily as she could manage when Phinny burst out of the teal-painted doorway.
“That’s right I do,” Phinny declared, bodily blocking the doorway to the cottage, particularly effective with her very pregnant belly on assist.A big, wide-hipped, full-breasted woman with a mind as sharp as her tongue and a temper as hot as her fiery hair, Phinny seemed like a sweet-faced milkmaid until she opened her mouth.“And I know you arenotallowed here, Arantxa Evermore!”
Cha managed to disguise a wince.“No need to break out punishing full names, Phinny.I just arrived and I haven’t done anything.”
“Being a bad influence already,” Phinny replied with a sour expression for Junior.
“I told him no,” Cha protested.
She sniffed, planting fists on curvaceous hips.“You need onlyexistto be a bad influence.Why are you here?”
“Visiting old friends?”Cha asked hopefully.
“No, you’re not.Something’s up.What?”Phinny wasn’t magical herself, but she possessed a definitely uncanny ability to know what was going on with her family.But Cha hadn’t even talked to Dy yet, so Phinny couldn’t have picked up any vibrations, yet.Could she?
“It’s been a while,” Cha tried.
“It’s beena whilebecause you are banned from visiting,” Phinny retorted.“Remember my prize egg-laying hen?”
“I left Katu in carriage form, didn’t I?Besides, I brought you a present.”She held out a hand and Zazu promptly handed over the bag.“Top breeder, they promised,” Cha said, as Phinny took the bag and peered in suspiciously.“I never knew a chicken could be so expensive.”She’d spent twenty-five silvers from her championship purse on the fluffy, irascible creature, but she considered it a business investment.“They’re much cheaper already roasted.”
The hen in the bag let out an indignant squawk that matched the expression on Phinny’s face.“I don’t care what you had to pay.This is basic amends,” Phinny said, lifting the bag, “not worthy of a resumption of privileges.”
“The news I bring is worthy,” Cha assured her, not bothering to argue the merits of the fancy bird.
“What is it?”Phinny showed no signs of budging.
“I just need five minutes with Dy.”As a diversionary tactic, Cha thrust Inigo at Phinny, slightly off-center, so the other woman moved to the side to reflexively catch her child in the arm not holding the irate hen.Cha took full advantage of the sliver of an opening between the door-dragon and the bright teal frame, angling her narrow body sideways and popping into the kitchen, feeling not unlike she’d skidded at high speed between a rhino-carriage and a scythe-tree.“It smells fantastic in here,” she told Phinny with genuine enthusiasm, sniffing appreciatively as the other woman scowled and belatedly hastened after her.“Roast beast?”
“None for you!”Phinny snapped.“All you kids, outside.Xavvy and Edur, you wash off whatever that is at the well.Junior, take Inigo and do not, I repeat,do nottouch that carriage.There’s a fence around that ley for a reason.”She handed him the toddler, then the thrashing chicken bag back to Zazu.“Give her the good roost.”
The girl nodded enthusiastically, poking her face in the bag to coo at the chicken with a bravery that impressed Cha and worried her what kind of penalty she’d earn if her gift clawed out the eyes of one of the kids.“Here,” Cha said, “there’s one for each of you.”She handed a bag of fancy spun-sugar fae candies to Junior, glancing at Phin as she did.“For after the littles are washed up.”
Zazu, Edur, and Xavia banged out the screen door, happier about the prospect of washing now, while Phin Jr.set Inigo on his bare feet, walking with him more slowly, fishing out one of the special—and expensive—treats for the delighted toddler.
Phinny whirled on Cha.“Spun-sugar, really?”
Cha smiled weakly.“I just wanted to—”
“I don’t care.Youwill leave.You maynottalk to Dymphna.She’s asleep and—”
