Angelique straightened up and caught Odette’s worried expression. “Fret not,” she ordered, doing her best to act like an enchantress even though she was sweating like a pig. “This is much easier than the time I added the modifier to Prince Severin’s curse. He was running around—out of his mind thanks to his curse—so I couldn’t weave my modifier as much as I had to forcibly applyit.”
Odette nodded. “I heard an enchantress aided Prince Severin before a merchant’s daughter broke hiscurse.”
Angelique snorted as she teased the strands of the spell apart. “Elle—his wife—is many things, but ‘merchant’s daughter’ would probably be the last title I would think to apply toher.”
When Angelique had physically loosened the spell enough, she gathered up the tiny thread of the spell she had prepared before. She brushed her finger across the loop, settling the silver strand into thecurse.
Angelique watched with narrowed eyes as her silver magic turned golden when submerged in the red haze of Rothbart’s spell. Her thread coiled through the curse, swirling around Odette with the rest of thecurse.
That was perhaps the easiest modification I’ve done yet. The spell didn’t fight back or need to be cut or adjusted. My magic just slipped the modification in. But it is strange that the curse so easily accepted it. Usually magic won’t mix—unless the spell wasdesignedto contain a modifier. But what sorcerer would dothat?
Odette exhaled through clenched teeth, though she stayed perfectly still as the magicchurned.
Angelique nodded in satisfaction—thinking it was over—but to her surprise, her magic followed the spell from Odette to Zina. The young woman yelped as the curse crackled to life—Angelique’s magic effortlessly pushing along it. After a few moments, Angelique’s modification to the curse wound around to the next person and on and on it continued until it spread to eachsmuggler.
Angelique kept her facial expression mild as she turned back to Odette. “I’m sorry, I hadn’t thought—I ignorantly forgot the spell would pass through all of you as well after it was cast uponyou.”
“It won’t cause any harm?” Odette asked as the youngest Black Swan Smuggler—a small boy, yipped when Angelique’s magic passed through his curse. The red haze of the spell made the beach glow an eerie red in the dark of thenight.
“No,” Angelique said. “It’s merely applying itself to everyone—it’s why I had to cast it on you or Zina. It will apply itself to everyone—even those not here—as it is piggy-backing on Rothbart’s curse and is not constrained by distance.” Angelique bobbed in a slight curtsey. “I apologize—a full-fledged enchantress would haveknown.”
This is why I don’t like people calling me an enchantress when I don’t have theexperience!
Yakov lazily waved. “I disagree, Lady Enchantress. I have heard of the many ways you have helped the continent over the past few years. You are a very powerful magicuser.”
Angelique pressed her lips together and watched critically as her magic wound through the curse of the last Black Swan Smuggler, then began to fade. “Power is nothing without knowledge, and sadly, I have gaps in myeducation.”
Benno tilted her head. “How can thatbe?”
“The Master I apprenticed under disappeared several years ago. I have not been able to finish my apprenticeship in his absence.” Angelique tried not to droop, even though the familiar tale left a bitter taste in her mouth and twisted herheart.
It seems I am resigned to always missEvariste…
She turned to Odette—a professional smile back on her lips. “The modification to the spell has finished. It can be broken now whenever you meet itsconditions.”
Odette shivered a little. “Will Rothbart know you changedit?”
“Not unless he studies it closely. I wove it in pretty well, and his spell is freestanding—which means it’s not attached to his power, so he wouldn’t have felt me manipulateit.”
Angelique hesitated.How do I explain therest?
“What is it?” Odetteasked.
“The makeup of your spell is particularlyconfounding.”
Odette shifted warily. “What does thatmean?”
Angelique glanced at the shimmering moonlight that played on the lake. “It means that after you break the spell, you’ll retain the spell that makes you tougher, and you’ll be able to turn into swans atwill.”
Odette blankly stared at her. “I thought the modifier would break thespell.”
“It does—it breaks the spell that makes all of this happen to you outside of your will. Though you say you bear the curse the Arcainian princes had, I must disagree with you. I saw their curse, and it was much darker and more twisted. It took away all sense of self, while it seems you keep hold of your humanity even as birds. But that is not all. This spell…” Angelique rubbed her fingers together, struggling to voice what made it so unusual. “It’s done with several different strands. When I break the free-will constraint, the rest of the strands will remain intact. Of course, if you wish to have the entire thing removed, it can easily be done after the first part of the spell is broken, but you will bear no ill effects from it should you choose to let the other strandsbe.”
A male smuggler whom Benno had introduced as Misha—one of Odette’s seconds-in-command—narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps it is because it’s an early version of thecurse.”
Angelique frowned as she considered the idea, then shook her head. “No. Rothbart has the spell laid up too nicely for that. He’s done this on purpose. It’s almost like an exit strategy—all he needs to do is snap the one strand. Butwhydid he build it thisway?”
Angelique was quiet for a moment as she contemplated the possible implications.I might be able to figure it out if I watch Rothbart long enough, but I don’t think it would be good to spy on him when a wyvern is wreaking havoc on the locals and villages.She straightened, then said for the smugglers’ benefit, “I will ponder the subject later, but for now I have a more pressing matter. What do you know of thewyvern?”
