She held out the ladle, intending to hand it back to the girl, but the young lady shook herhead.
“No, grandmother, keep drinking. I can hold the bucket steady for you,” she insisted. “You must bethirsty.”
“Well…I guess I am,” Angelique said lamely. She took another ladleful and—under the girl’s watchful eye—athird.
I am going to have to use a chamber pot as soon as this girlleaves!
“Thank you, dear,” Angelique croaked when she could drink no more. The girl looked like she was going to protest, so Angelique plunked the ladle in the bucket. “Your kindness and good manners are very becoming. In fact, I cannot stop myself from giving you agift.”
Angelique cast off the illusion—and perhaps, shemayhave been guilty of using a bit of her magic to make her hair glow golden and her eyes swirl blue andpurple.
The young lady dropped her bucket, spilling water on her skirts as she gaped at her. “You’re a LadyEnchantress!”
In training, Angelique longed to correct her, but Evariste told her under no circumstances was she to let that factdrop.
“Oh, stars and skies!” The girl hurried to curtsy, almost tripping on her bucket in theprocess.
Angelique held a hand out to her and said soothingly, “Fret not, child. I mean to grant you aboon.”
And here’s the importantbit!
Angelique cleared her throat and held her hands aloft like a composer as she twitched invisible strands of magic into place. “Today only, whenever you speak, not only will a word drop from your lips, but either a flower or a jewel as well. This boon shall last until the sun sets thisevening.”
She held her breath as she twisted the last bit of the spell and watched it settle around the younggirl.
The young lady stared wide-eyed at Angelique. “What do you mean?” sheasked.
Two lilies, a topaz, and a ruby fell from her mouth, plopping onto the tipped-overbucket.
Hah-hah! I did it right! I can’t wait to tell Roland he missed this moment oftriumph!
Angelique scooped up the flowers and jewels and placed them in the bucket. “Here, you might want to hold this for the rest of theday.”
“Thank you, Lady Enchantress. You are very kind,” the girl said. Four roses, two diamonds, and two orchids fell into thebucket.
Angelique smiled in satisfaction at a spell successfully placed, but she noticed something was off with thegirl.
She was smiling—and still bobbing in a curtsey every few seconds—but she didn’t have the overflowing joy Angelique was led to believe boonsbrought.
“Are you dissatisfied with your boon?” Angeliqueasked.
The girl’s eyes widened, and she shook her head with obviousfright.
Angelique chuckled. “You have nothing to fear, dear,” she said, imitating Sybilla’s way of speaking. “But as an enchantress, it is my duty to grant boons folk actuallywant. I am merelycurious…”
“I am very grateful,” the girl said, spilling pearls into her bucket. “The flowers are very beautiful and thejewels…”
“The jewels?” Angeliqueasked.
The young lady’s smile seemed a littlestrained.
Angelique folded her arms across her chest as she mused over the boon. When instructing her, Evariste had said the giving of jewels was a common boon, and she hadn’t given it much thought. But now, as she thought back toherchildhood as a soldier’sdaughter…
“They’re going to be bothersome, aren’t they?” she guessed. “If many people know you have a hoard of jewels, your home might get robbed, and selling them will be a pain.” Angelique frowned slightly as she considered theconundrum.
“I can take them to Fillia, but it will be difficult to get a fair price for them—no one will believe how I came to possess them,” the girl admitted as flowers and jewels spilled into herbucket.
“You could keep a few and…make a jewelry set, I guess?” Angeliqueventured.
