He smiled. “Never close all the doors right off is my motto. And Sìle said he knew the man who madethisparticular charm?”
“Aye, though how he would know that I don’t know. He also said the man who made this also makes horseshoes.”
Acair choked. She would have patted him on the back, but he held up his hand before she could.
“I’m well,” he managed. “Did he say where?”
“He didn’t, just that he would arrange an introduction if I liked.” She paused and looked at him. “An elven king, no less, arranging things for me.”
“I think you underestimate your ability to make an impression,” he said with a smile. He held the charm up and studied it for a moment or two. “Does it do anything odd?”
“It grows unusually warm from time to time.”
“Well, there is magic folded into the silver, but damned if I know what it is from just a quick look.” He shook his head. “Horseshoes and dragons. I think, darling, that your quiet life in a barn was perhaps an illusion.” He handed it back to her. “Let’s go sleep for a pair of hours, then we’ll pore over those books and see if we can find what we’re missing.”
She imagined it might take more than a pair of hours to leave her equal to doing anything but pacing and fretting, but she was desperate enough to try almost anything to give herself a bit more strength.
She thought she might understand why a mage might want the same, though stealing that strength from someone else was something she couldn’t fathom.
“Sleep,” Acair said, standing and holding down his hand for her. “We both need it.”
She let him pull her to her feet, but she found she couldn’t move. “I’m afraid to close my eyes.”
He winced slightly. “And me with no spells of ward. Let’s do this. You sleep and I’ll keep watch, then we’ll trade. Here, we’ll bring your coins with us. Just don’t use them on me, aye?”
She nodded, gathered up the coins he’d made her, and hoped she wouldn’t have to use them on anyone else quite yet.
She realized only after she’d woken that several hours had passed. If Acair had slept during any of that time, he didn’t seem inclined to mention it and he made no complaints about having remained awake so she could sleep. He seemingly had no compunction about nodding off with her manning the defenses, though, so she suspected he hadn’t even napped.
He was a very light sleeper, though, in spite of that. Brushing the table still laden with the remains of their breakfast with only the back of her hand had him sitting up, fully awake. She waved him back to his rest and took up a post in front of the hearth.
She wished desperately for a horse and an open field. The urge to flee was almost overpowering.
She gave herself a good shake and walked over to look at the books left spread out on the sofa. She sat down and picked up the first one she came to without any idea of what she was looking for. She did that with horses more often than not. After all the years she’d spent looking them over, she had become confident in her ability to spot a gem amongst lesser offerings.
What had served her best, though, was to simply get on their backs and allow them to show her what they could do. Perhaps that didn’t work with books, but she was out of ideas on what might. Perhaps starting from the top of the pile and working her way down would reveal something she couldn’t have foreseen.
She started with the barn ledger. She could hardly believe the dates there, but if Acair’s sire had lived a thousand years already, perhaps a stablemaster who had been let go a hundred years previously wasn’t unthinkable. She tucked a few details away for discussing with Acair later, then looked through the other things they’d brought with them. Interesting, but not particularly noteworthy.
She wound up finally with her own book in her hands. She sat back against the sofa and closed her eyes, holding it close. It was a very odd feeling to have something in her possession that she’d had as a child, then lost. She was tempted to wonder how it had found its way into King Seannair’s library, but perhaps that could safely be left to Prince Coimheadair to investigate.
Stranger still was why that first story was missing. If Slaidear had indeed been the one to have taken it, the question was why would a grown man have removed a tale about a dragon from a children’s book?
Admittedly, the dragon had lost his soul and gone looking for it in odd places, but both the dragon and his search had been nothing more than a product of someone’s imagination. It wasn’t as if the dragon had said…
She felt her entire being stop. Her heart, her breath, her swirling thoughts.
Full stop.
It wasn’t as if the dragon had said anything, was what she’d been thinking.
But the beast had…
“Léirsinn?”
She was certain she’d jumped half a foot, right off the divan. She knew she’d thrown her book up into the air because a hand reached out and caught it. The rest of the books next to her tumbled to the floor at her feet.
Acair looked at her and held up his hands slowly.
