As Eris’s head cocked, the hair grew long and white, the face aged, darkening even more. “Interesting.” Eris stroked a long finger along a thinning lower lip. “Manticore venom can produce one of the most powerful forgetting potions in this world. Very... interesting. How much?”
“I will give you one.”
Eris’s lips puckered. “For one, I can turn him into a toad. Or perhaps a rat, like the one on your shoulder.” Eris trailed a finger in front of Kaelan’s face. “You would make a very handsome rat.”
“Hardly,” Hero muttered.
Kaelan’s jaw flexed. His gaze never strayed from Eris.
Oh, now you listen, Magda wanted to snap at him. Another faint shudder passed through her, the ghost of lingering desire.
“And for two?” Magda asked.
“For two, I can transform him as you wish, but the effects will not last long. A few weeks at most.”
A few weeks... that might be enough time, but what if it wasn’t? And what would he do after?
“For three?”
Eris tapped a finger against a jaw that had grown longer and softer as they spoke. “Tell you what. For three, I will change the small important things, enough to fool even the keenest, and I will give you the means to change them back or not, but only once. For three, plus the ichor-gold glove in your pocket, I will give him the ability to change however he likes, at will, whenever he wants, within the confines of his mass. No bigger, no smaller, but anything he wishes.”
“I don’t like being spoken of as if I’m not here,” he said.
Eris’s brows arched. “I can’t change his personality though, sorry.”
Magda chewed her lip. “What do you think, Kaelan?”
“Being able to change my appearance at will could be quite useful,” he said.
She nodded. “You would be safest that way.”
“But it’s not necessary,” he said. “The glove might prove just as useful. They’re not easy to come by.”
“No, they’re not,” she admitted, “which is probably why Eris is willing to give you such a great power in exchange for it.”
“Oh, he’s right,” Eris said, lip curling. “It is aggravating being spoken of as if I weren’t here.”
“You can’t give up everything,” Kaelan said. “Didn’t Damion say you’d need some of the venom when you reach the Spire?”
She nodded. “To buy provisions and favor at court. The elders will expect tribute, or they might choose to side with Lavana, which could lead to a duel, even though I have the Enneahedron.”
Eris’s head cocked, inspecting Magda with eyes deepening to violet.
“It’s a test of greed,” Kaelan said. “I don’t need to change my appearance at will, only once. Everyone already thinks I’m dead. To ask for more is unnecessary.”
“Yet, you seemed so cupidinous a moment ago,” Eris said to him. “Ravenous. But I see you’re more interested in gluttony of the flesh. And just imagine, you could be a different man every night and who would know? Sorry, you don’t have the capacity to change gender. That requires a certain transcendence of the soul which, I’m afraid, you don’t possess, little Elf Prince.”
“Can we be done with this, please?” Kaelan asked, nostrils flaring as he glared at the witch.
Magda watched Eris, but her mind was elsewhere. Was it a test of greed? Or something else? Perhaps it wasn’t a test at all. With Eris, it seemed more like a dare.
Yes, money was useful. She would need it. But money could be gained by many means. What Eris was offering Kaelan was much rarer. Changing Kaelan’s appearance only once might be sufficient, but what if he was found out again? The thought of him dying... of that cold hollowness consuming her again...
He would never really be safe so long as underneath he remained, as Eris put it, the Prince of prophecy.
“All right,” she said, tossing the sack down beside the pooling ivory folds of Eris’s gown.
“Prudence in the face of love,” Eris said in a tone of disappointment. “How very—”
