Still, I should be able to find my way out even without a map.
“The archives aren’t that large.” I told Isa when she offered to rescue me. “I can find the exit.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
I’d have to learn the route eventually. I could no longer trust Marc, so I had to find a way to explore the scrolls down here myself. My experiment today had not been a resounding success. Getting any scrolls out of their cubbyholes was difficult if they weren’t close to the ground. I had to jump up, catch myself on the shelves, and bat the others out. Not having been born a cat, I lacked their natural grace.
I looked up, my back half sinking down without my conscious thought. “I’m an idiot.”
“You’ll get no argument here, but is there a particular reason to mention the fact now?”
My whiskers twitched. I hadn’t meant for Isa to hear my comment, but her response was worth it. I barely knew her, but I’d miss her when she returned to Leort. Around her, I didn’t have to put on an act. “The shelves don’t reach the ceiling. I’m a cat. I can scale them and walk across the top.”
“Well then, do it already.”
I sank onto my haunches and leapt. I didn’t reach the top, but my paws caught on the shelves, and I scrambled the rest of the way up. Several scrolls ended up kicked out of their niches. I peered down at the floor. It seemed climbing the shelves was more effective than purposefully trying to pull scrolls out.
Isa’s voice carried over the shelves. “Are you all right?”
“The only casualties were scrolls. Not that they can truly count as casualties. They’ll be back in their spots as if nothing had happened in a few minutes.”
“Playtime as a child must have been truly frustrating if your toys disappeared every few minutes.”
I made my way across the shelves towards the main room. I still had to follow the maze—I didn’t trust myself not to slide right off a shelf if I jumped over a gap—but at least I could see the path from up here. “There’s a playroom immune to the tidying enchantment. Sebastien Truthhold recognized his children’s frustrations and asked his father to tweak the original spell.”
I reached the final stretch of the archives, and Isa spotted me. She fell into step below me, walking to the exit. “Was his father the first duke, or did many of your ancestors contribute to the enchantments?”
“As far as I know, only Duke Valois and his heir, Sebastien, made Truths. Sebastien’s journals indicated that his children could not use the node that way, but never explained why.”
Isa paused a few steps into the main room, turning back to face me. She raised a brow. “Are you coming?”
I looked down at the floor. Not that great a distance, until I remembered that I was about a sixth of my former height.
One hand flew up to cover Isa’s mouth, doing nothing to muffle her giggle. “Scared to jump? Don’t worry, I’ll save you.”
She stepped forward, reaching up. She was short, her hands just reaching high enough to grab me under my front legs. I could have evaded her grip. I wasn’t scared to jump down, but I knew my landing wouldn’t improve the image Isa had of me. Letting her carry me couldn’t be worse, and it at least ensured I wouldn’t injure myself.
She held me against her body for a moment, her fingers brushing through my fur. Then she plopped me on the nearest desk.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice thick.
“Ooh, it hurts your pride to accept help, doesn’t it?”
That wasn’t the issue, but I didn’t plan to correct her assumption. My attraction to Isa was something best ignored. If I weren’t cursed, I’d take her hatred as a challenge. There were moments when she forgot why she hated me and simply enjoyed arguing with me. If I were a man, those arguments could lead somewhere.
But I was a cat. Nothing more than a fluffy annoyance in Isa’s eyes.
Moreover, our time together would be short. Soon, she’d return to Leort. I’d probably end my days as a hermit in my own castle, endlessly searching for a way to break my curse and lamenting the fact that I had let her go.
I thought about the contract I had asked Marc to bring to Leort. It was late enough in the day that the secretary should have reached the town. Riding, it was possible to make the trip to and from Leort in a single day. Since Marc had several errands to take care of in town, he wouldn’t return until late tomorrow. Then, I’d witness the contract, pass it through the node, and say farewell to Isabel Cardh.
“You said I summoned you to the archives?”
She pulled out the chair behind the desk and sat. “Yes. I needed a break from reading Demeret, and when I put the book down, I could feel the node power pulling me here. Given the terms of ourcontract, I assume you had a task you wanted my help with. What were you doing in the archives?”
“I was seeing how hard it is to do the job I had set Marc on my own. If I summoned you, it wasn’t a conscious decision.” I had been thinking about how much I wished Isa could stay and help me, though. If I had to be stranded at Rose Castle with only a single person for company, I’d much rather her than Marc. And that had nothing to do with the effectiveness of their respective contracts.
