P. Wilson: Imperative

“Luck”

The clash of swords started again then stopped. “Bird, I will slice you open if you don’t get out of the way.”

I sent my thoughts to Lionel, now, do it now! He must have heard me. Murmurs of a spell carried across the room. Then suddenly the room went cold and silent.

Then I heard breathing, then gasps of breath and a thud.

“Lionel, what is going on, damn it.” I pushed myself up. If this didn’t work, I was going to blunder into the battle. If everyone was frozen I would have to fix it.

“It’s done,” Olan said. “The boy did fine.”

“What was the thud? Is someone hurt?” No one answered. “Someone talk to me.”

“Fionuir fell over,” Edrinda gasped. “We’re fine. It’s over.”

We were in my workroom. Fionuir was resting on the couch where Princess had been. Princess and Diablo had left while we were in battle.

I checked the integrity of the spell and was impressed with Lionel’s expertise. When he learned a spell he cast solid magic. “Any ideas what we do with her?”

“She’d make a nice ornament if you just stand her in the corner there. You can always hang a coat on her,” Olan said.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m thinking I’d like to survive her reaction when we free her. We will eventually do that, I’m not going to keep her in this state forever. She’s aware, remember.”

“I think we need to get the amulet stored as far away from her as we can think of, and if she’s aware, we need to deal with her first,” Clarence said. “Do you have any more of that tea? And honey, I think the fairies took it with them.”

I told him where to find my stash of rare honey and heard him going up the stairs. It made me realize that I was going to need someone to do my shopping and other errands until I either cured the blindness or learned to handle being blind. Humans managed so I’m sure I would figure it out. And maybe I could get Maeve to give me that book back when she’s officially queen.

“There are a few places we can put her where she’ll be out of the way. We can throw her into a dimensional fold. As long as no one finds her we’re the only ones who could pull her out.”

“We can’t all cast spells, Quinn. What happens if you and Lionel aren’t available?” Edrinda asked.

“If need be, I can deal with it,” Olan boasted.

I ignored him, and added another item to my list of things to fix: return Olan to pixie form. I thought for a minute and then came up with the solution. “I can spell the release into a charm. All you have to do is say the words and you can free her.”

“Okay,” Lionel’s voice chimed in. “Let’s agree that the plan is to be together when we release her. But, in an emergency, I can’t think what kind of emergency would be that required releasing Fionuir, we can do it alone.”

Olan flapped back onto my shoulder. “If you find you need me, you know how to find me. Just call my name and whistle. I’ll be moving along now.”

“Is she really aware?” Lionel asked.

“Yes,” I struggled up and walked toward my couch. “Can someone move her? I need to create the spell down here and I don’t want her hearing what the components are.”

“Will you need her back?” Edrinda asked. I felt her move beside me.

I place my hand on the shell of air frozen around her. “No, I can create the fold and send it to her if you put her precisely where I say.”

I felt the air warm under my hand and assumed that Edrinda was moving Fionuir. “Put her in the bathroom. If you stand her on the blue and green tiles beside the toilet, she should stand upright without help.”

I heard footsteps on the stairs and went over to my bench. “Lionel, get me the ingredients and two of the gray stones in the bowl on the third shelf of the middle bookcase.”

We cast the spell and Fionuir disappeared. At least that’s what I’m told. The Kobolds left and I was trying to figure out how to tell Lionel to go home. I was tired and I needed sleep.

“Quinn, you said you were going to find me a new master,” Lionel said.

“Yes, I remember. Can you give me a day or two?”

I heard him fill the kettle. “Do you want some tea?”

“Sure, but we need to talk about this.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking.” I heard mugs clatter on the counter. “We’ve been working together really well the last couple of days.”

I had half expected this. He was right; the last few days had gone really well. But, I didn’t have the time for an apprentice. I had to figure out how to get my sight back, not how to train a wizard. “Look, Lionel. You will make someone a great apprentice. You have a strong talent and when you focus, you cast perfect spells.”

“Thanks. So, it wouldn’t be too much trouble to teach me.” The kettle boiled and I heard him pour water into the teapot.

“I don’t have time to teach anyone. I have to reverse this blindness spell. I have to figure out how to survive until I do. I have to try to find out who killed Cate, and I have to figure out how to get The Morrigan to turn Olan back into a pixie.” I was hoping I could appeal to his caring side, and get him to leave the poor blind wizard alone.

“And, you’ll need someone to help you for a while. Someone to do errands, someone to read spells.”

“I’m hoping to find the book; perhaps Maeve will give it me in payment for removing Fionuir from the race. But I can hire someone to help me.”

“Oh,” Lionel paused. “Here’s your tea.’

I wrapped my hands around the warm mug. “Oh, what?”

“I thought you knew, but now I really think about it, you can’t have known.”

I ignored the convoluted words. “Known what?”

“Um well,” he stopped speaking again.

“Out with it.”

“I’m sorry, but Fionuir had the book in her pocket. She dropped it in the fight and I saw her pick it up.”

“Great, we just sent the only way we know to get my eyesight back into a dimensional fold.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” I sipped tea. “There will be another way.”

“I could help you find that other way.” Lionel’s voice was quiet as though he hadn’t intended for the words to be spoken. As though speaking them gave me too much power to say no, or yes.

“I’m not a good teacher. I’m not patient in the best of cases and since I can’t see, I can’t tell if you are doing it right.” Aha, I’d get out of this with logic.

“You taught me the spell to contain Fionuir. If you can do that in the heat of battle…”

“I wasn’t in the heat of battle. And we were desperate. If you failed one way or another, it wouldn’t have gotten any worse.” I could feel the argument slipping out of my grasp.

“Quinn, please? I’ve learned more from you in the last two days than I learned in the whole time from Cate. She was great, but really nervous about giving me the green light.”

“As she should be. Apprentices have been known to cause a lot of damage.” I squirmed at the memory of some of the damage I had caused. “You deserve more than I can give.”

“Bullshit.” Lionel slammed down beside me on the couch. “Look, if you don’t want to commit, why don’t we agree to do this until you’ve got your sight back? Then we can decide how to go from there.”

“I don’t know.”

“You are almost out of bread and I don’t see any fruit here, you need groceries.”

Okay, he had a point and if I could find a way to get my sight back it would only be for a while. “Okay, until I can see again.” I hoped I wouldn’t regret this.