Freya slapped my shoulder playfully, but it actually rather hurt. “So, you can do it?” I asked her.
Freya sighed. “Yes, I can do it. I’ll have to refresh the rune every three or four hours, but it’s actually a relatively easy one, not too draining.”
“If you’re sure …”
She nodded.
I turned back to the captain. “How did you fall in with a blood witch like Erik anyway? You see what a manipulative character he is.”
The captain straightened. She looked as if she was going to say something but grimaced instead. “Times are tough. Having a witch as a benefactor makes things much easier.”
“Fair enough.” My eyes lingered on the aquarium. “You have a deal, but I have one condition.”
The captain raised an eyebrow as she puffed her cigar until she was obscured by smoke. “You have my attention, witch.”
I gestured to the aquarium. “I require one of your piranha. Just the teeth, really.”
Captain Mary barked a laugh and leaned forward. “Tell you what: I’ll cook one up for you tonight and keep the teeth on the side.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We settled intoa routine over the course of the week. Freya refreshed her runes every few hours, while I woke her during the night to ensure she kept them intact. Auggie’s suggestion had proved the perfect solution. I was rather proud of him. I still wasn’t ready to believe in divine intervention, but perhaps the knowledge alchemists spread wasn’t completely useless.
We made good time, and the captain seemed happy with our progress. I, however, was not as happy with how long my potion was taking to reduce in the kitchen. After five days of ruminating, the water simmering and slowly reducing, the concoction was refusing to bubble and brown, like it was meant to.
Is something wrong with it?I wondered, pacing the small kitchen. I ticked off the ingredients on my fingers. Moonbeams from brackish water. Hangman’s toe. Piranha teeth. Smoke from a dragon’s breath. Stone chipped from the victim of a gorgon. Bramble root. It was all there. I supposed I had to trust the recipe Mother had provided. I didn’t have much choice.
“Are you terribly worried?” Narcissa asked from her perch on the counter.
I sighed. “I just don’t want to make it worse.”
“How could it be any worse? She’s stuck in the body of a slimy, green rodent.”
I sent her a look.
“I’m just saying what everybody is thinking. And anyway, she seems to be adapting very well to her new body. If the potion doesn’t work, perhaps she’ll be better off this way.”
“It’s going to work,” I told her.
“Then stop delaying and give it to her.”
I stared at Narcissa, then nodded, pulling the pot from the stove to allow it to cool. “Thank you. I needed that.”
Narcissa bumped her head against my arm. “The sooner you return her to her human form, the sooner you can lift this awful curse of coughing up furballs when I’m in the mood to hunt.”
“Who said I was going to lift it?”
Narcissa didn’t blink as she gazed back at me, as if waiting for me to admit I was joking. Just to keep her guessing, I didn’t.
When I strode into the quarters I’d been using for the past few days, Therese was sitting on top of my pillow, a spider in her mouth. She quickly devoured the arachnid and watched expectantly as I approached with the cup of amber liquid. It steamed with warmth and had a rather pleasant aroma for something filled with such vile ingredients.
“Is that it?” Auggie asked, standing from the desk where he’d been writing letters back home to his alchemist friends.
“It is,” I said, holding up the cup.
“And this nightmare will finally be over,” Therese sighed, tongue flicking out to lick her eyeball. “I hope Father hasn’t been overly worried.”
“I didn’t give him any indication that you would be in any danger. As far as he knows, this is a rather pedestrian trip,” I assured her, as Freya entered the room.
