“What do you mean by advanced spellwork?” Roland twitched histail.
“I’m not sure what else you would call it,” Angelique sighed. “He’s teaching me how toseespells and the way magic is shaped to create them, and then adjust them to my ownliking.”
“Isn’t that work for a first- or second-year student?” Roland asked. “You’ve been apprenticed to Evariste for nearly fourteenyears.”
“Yes, and I’ve done this sort of thing with my own spells, but previously I didn’t have the control necessary to be able to adjust another person’s spell. The closest I came to it was modifying the curse on Princess Rosalinda of Sole, and that was under dire circumstances.” Angelique frowned and tapped the leather-bound book that held her carefully copied notes. “It’s a fairly advanced subject. I’ve gotten good at being able to read another mage’s work, but I find modifying to still betricky.”
“Why?” Roland pointed his pink and black nose to the ceiling. “With your kind of magic, it should be an easy thing to slice through the spellwork and add your ownmodifications.”
Angelique grimaced. “Perhaps, but if I cut the wrong thing, the spell will collapse—or possiblyimplode.”
“An encouragement to keep you from growing sloppy and lazy,” Roland decreed. “You should follow my example. I read thisentirestack of books while you were gone wrestling with that robber-child.”
“I did notwrestlewith Goldilocks,” Angeliquesighed.
“Then how did you get her to stop breaking into peoples’ homes?” Rolandasked.
Angelique kept her eyes on her notes. “An illusion with bears might have beeninvolved.”
“Bears?” Roland scoffed. “You enjoy inflicting wild animals upon children, don’tyou?”
Angelique opened her mouth to reply when she felt a shiver of foreignmagic.
Curious, Angelique shuffled to the staircase—absently patting the visiting, arm-sized dragon that was curled up in front of the workshop fireplace as she passedby.
There. Another shiver of magic. It took Angelique longer than it ought to, but she eventually felt it radiating from just outside the frontentrance.
“Angel, could you get the door?” Evariste shouted from the library. “It feels like a messenger isoutside.”
“Yes, Master!” Angelique scooped up Roland when he nearly tripped her, then hurried down thestairs.
“Must you run with the elegance of a baby cow?” Rolandcomplained.
Angelique patted his back. “You are such an encouragingpet.”
“Assistant!”
Angelique chuckled as she hopped off the last step. She put Roland down and raced him to the front door, nearly wiping out on a new, thick floral rug Evariste had received as a gift from the King ofTorrens.
She took a moment to tug her clothes straight—even though they were home, she and Evariste wore matching shirts and trousers that were tree-themed today—then yanked the dooropen.
Outside, there was a mass of glowinginsects.
“Fireflies?” Angelique ventured as she watched the light emitting from the bugs’abdomen.
“Suchrareskills of observation,” Roland said. He couldn’t seem to help himself when he stretched one paw out and tried to bat at a waywardbug.
The fireflies began to move, re-organizing themselves until they were arranged together so their light madeletters.
Lord EnchanterEvariste?
“Keep an eye on the bugs, Roland,” Angelique ordered before she retreated farther into the house. “Master Evariste?” She leaned against the open library door, peering in to see her teacher on the ground, surrounded by precariously stacked piles of books. “I think it’s a message foryou.”
“Ah, yes. Very well, give me a moment to extract myself, and we can see what all the hubbub is about.” Evaristesmiled.
Angelique inched inside the room and helped Evariste push a stack of books out of the way, then followed him back to the frontdoor.
“Fireflies?” he said when they rejoined Roland. “Must be from theCouncil.”
