AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lindsey the cat peers up at me as if to ask me why I stopped scratching between her ears. Yeah, I bet that did feel good. Sighing, I resume the skritching.
“Do not believe any of them who say they have no interest in the crown.” Malin flashes his eyebrows. “If they did not desire it, they would not cling to their titles here. They’d flutter off to the countryside like Lord Ceomar or Lady Orome. Any house noble who claims to have no interest in the crown is lying to you.”
Could be cynicism, paranoia, or truth. Especially if someone’s of a mind to use assassins. Claim not to want power and then take it when you’re the only one left standing. Ugh. I hate it when my search for answers only makes me ask more questions.
“Tell me about your magic, if you wouldn’t mind?” I ask. I suspect had I not been presently sporting wings, I wouldn’t get as far with my line of questioning. But Malin seems fascinated by them. Also, there’s a chance he might fear me.
“We use spells and rituals to guard our fortunes. Some hexes and counter hexes.” Malin examines his rings. “Were I to resort to magic to seize the crown, those who stood against me would experience a rapid downturn of fortune. Perhaps sickness or frailty, bad luck… and so forth.”
Okay, here’s a guy saying ‘I could curse my foes to death if I wanted to I simply haven’t yet.’ Not sure how to take that. I’ll file it away for now and wait to see if my daughter can find anything inside the manor.
“Very well. I must be on my way.”
“Yes. And please, do try to ferret out the source of this invasion from your world before any of us fall to an assassin’s blade.”
Damn. I can’t tell by his expression and slightly threatening tone if he’s challenging me or genuinely hoping I succeed. I get the character was written to be creepy. This is so frustrating. Oh well, nothing more to do here…
I nod once at him, then leap onto my wings. Malin stands out on the balcony watching me fly, no doubt trying to figure out what I am. Lindsey stares down at him for a few minutes until the manor house is so far away even my eyes can’t make out Malin’s form.
“He didn’t do any magic at all,” says Lindsey. “He could have.”
“Lucky for him,” I say.
“Yeah, I think he sensed you weren’t someone to mess with.”
“See my prior comment.”
“Hey, you pet me.”
“I did, yes.”
“Why?”
“Nervous. And you are a cat.” I shrug. “Sorry.”
“I don’t know if I hated it or not. Turning into a cat is weird. It’s like… I half wanted to eat Tammy when she scurried by as a mouse. I think this polymorph business is a bit too strong. Hurry up and get back to Demetria’s place so I can turn back to myself before I get stuck thinking like a cat permanently.”
“Okay.” I flap a little faster.
And yeah, I’ll teleport back for Tammy later. Want to give her enough time to case the joint. Here’s hoping my witchy daughter can take care of herself.
Pretty sure she can, but that won’t stop me from worrying.
Yeah, I think I’m going to be sick.
Chapter Six
Nald
Allison tried to tune out the bouncing, rocking distraction of being in a horse-drawn carriage.
Distant seeing, reaching out with psychic feelers in search of Nesanth still hadn’t accomplished anything. Theoretically, having a person’s true name might be enough to home in on them and get some sort of idea of where they are or what they look like. For Allison, though, she’d never quite gotten it to work that way. She needed more, like a telephone connection to someone, hearing their voice… or a treasured item. Attempting to work essentially cold, having only a (probably made-up) name to find a being of great power who didn’t want to be found proved futile.
She opened her eyes and summoned a tiny amber lightning spark to orbit around her fingers, essentially the same spell she used when she needed to fight a dangerous paranormal monster only at a much, much weaker power level. The glowing spot weaved in between her fingers, danced over the back of her hand, and went around again in a loop as she directed it. Her magic responded to her intention readily.
Ever since the wraiths, as Sam called them, attacked, she’d been fiddling around with her magical abilities, testing them to see how this world affected them. Thus far, her witchcraft appeared to be more or less the same as back home with two notable exceptions. First, it didn’t tire her out as much here. This realm had significantly more ambient magic floating around, which reduced the ‘work’ needed to do things.
The second difference related to conjuring objects out of thin air. Here, such items remained in existence for several hours. In the normal world, items she pulled out of nowhere tended to vanish back into nothingness after only fifteen minutes or so, faster if she lost track of it. For example, if she made a screwdriver to tighten one screw, as soon as she put it down and looked away, it would probably disappear. Folklore said witches like Allison who conjure things like hammers, saws, or screwdrivers aren’t technically making the item out of nothingness, they’re ‘borrowing’ it from someone else in the world, pulling the item through a magical wormhole (or faerie gate) of sorts. Any time a person can’t find an object they know where they put it, chances are, a witch is borrowing it. As soon as they’re done with it, it goes back where it came from.
