Chapter 2
1412 Words
2
“Again?” Gwill quipped.
“Summon Maddock,” Tristan commanded him as he lifted me into his arms. He strode toward the stairs with a grim face as Gwill disappeared. “He may perhaps have a cure for this poison.”
“What kind of poison is it?” Chloe asked as she hurried along beside us.
“That remains to be seen,” Tristan replied.
I rubbed the black spot. The dart hadn’t left so much as a bruise. “Then maybe it isn’t that bad.”
“The shadows around the feathers bore the magic of a dark elfennau,” he told me.
“You mean like one for night?” I guessed.
He shook his head. “No. The elfennau of the shadows. My elfennau.”
“Can you not reverse the effects, My Lord?” Chloe pleaded.
“I would need to know what spell was cast over the dart,” he replied.
We reached my room and Gwill poked his head out of the nearby wall. “I don’t know how, but she’s gone without a trace.” He floated out and crossed his legs beneath him. His face was a picture of confusion and frustration. “I couldn’t follow her at all. I couldn’t even be sure she was gone except that her footsteps led to the road.”
“She no doubt took a carriage,” Tristan surmised as he lay me on my bed and stepped back. “I will inquire in the village and woods whether anyone saw the vehicle.”
“What about that high and fancy fae queen?” Gwill suggested. “Maybe she knows how to get rid of something like this.”
“Perhaps, but the chance of that is very unlikely,” Tristan warned him.
“Why?” I asked him.
“If she found the spell in the tome, then Rhia may not know the reverse spell,” he explained. “There are few even among the immortals who know them.”
“But it’s still worth a try, isn’t it?” Chloe pleaded with him.
He studied me for a long time before he gave a nod. “Yes, it’s worth the try.”
“And when that door opens at midnight tonight I’m going with you,” I told him.
He shook his head. “You should rest.”
“I feel a little tired, that’s it, and that might’ve been from the excitement,” I pointed out.
“Do you know how the curse is supposed to affect her?” Chloe wondered.
He sighed. “If my guess is correct then the curse drains your life force as the last one did, but in a different and more painful manner.”
The color drained from my face. “What do you mean?”
“The drained life force is transferred to another, reinvigorating them as a vampyre would be replenished by the blood of their victim,” he explained. “The extraction is akin to a piece of you being torn away.”
“How long does she have?” Chloe asked him.
He shook his head. “There is no telling. The spell depends on the power of the thief, and the distance they are from their victim. Should they remain at your side and have a great deal of power then you would be drained in a day.”
“Then can’t we just take her far away?” Chloe suggested.
“The curse would take longer, and the pain be prolonged,” he pointed out.
“And I don’t think that woman’s going to be very far away,” I added.
Tristan arched an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”
“I’ve seen that woman before. Twice before,” I revealed as I nodded in the direction of the road. “Once after we destroyed the cursed chest, and again at the Casino Crag after we stopped Mottershead. I think she was somehow connected to both troubles because she didn’t look too happy either time.”
“That curse must be eating at your mind already if you think someone’s still connected to that chest,” Gwill spoke up. “Since you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you that it was given to that girl’s family over two hundred years ago.”
Tristan folded his arms over his chest and cupped his chin in one hand. “And yet that would explain their desire to steal the book with such a life-thieving spell. Perhaps this woman has stolen life for that long, and the cursed chest was merely one source of food for her.”
Chloe’s hand flew to her mouth. “That’s terrible! How could someone torture Alex for so long?”
I looked to my feline friend. He had limped into the room and sat down beside the bed. “You remember that woman who captured your soul, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Like it was yesterday. She was soft-spoken, but her voice gave me chills.”
I raised my eyes to Tristan and noticed his eyes had a faraway look in them. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re thinking about what she said with that family stuff, aren’t you?” Gwill guessed.
“She must have been attempting to confuse me,” Tristan surmised.
“You’re sure you don’t have any family?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “I came from the darkness and knew only darkness for a great many years. If shadows have family then I am unaware of them.”
Alex set his head on the bed and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have protected you.”
I smiled and stroked his head. “It’s not your fault. How could any of us have known someone was breaking in when even Gwill didn’t?”
Chloe turned to the floating shadow and frowned at him. “How come you didn’t feel her when she came onto the property? Or even into the house?”
Gwill shrugged. “How should I know. The grounds are attuned to intruders and nothing more dangerous than a fly should be able to pass through the boundaries without me knowing.”
“How are the boundaries attuned?” Alex questioned him.
Gwill nodded at Tristan who had stepped away from us and into the far corner. “We have an arrangement where I use his magic to strengthen my powers and I protect the place with that, and in return I get some nice magic to feed on.”
Alex furrowed his furry brow. “So it’s attuned to Tristan’s magic, so what if someone who had Tristan’s magic came in?”
My eyes widened. “Like a relative!”
“An intriguing idea, but there must be a more plausible explanation,” Tristan insisted as he turned to face us. “We shall wait for Maddock to arrive on the morrow, and tonight we shall speak with Rhia.” He marched through our number and out of the bedroom.
Chloe blinked at him before she looked up at Gwill. “I have never seen him so stiff and cold. Did we say something wrong?”
He nodded. “Yeah, we mentioned family. It’s not his favorite topic.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Shouldn’t he be happy to know he might have family?”
Gwill opened his mouth, but paused and snapped it shut. His face drooped and his lips turned down in a scowl. “No, but that’s his problem to tell you.” He floated through the walls before we could question him further.
“Wait a sec!” I shouted, but he didn’t pop back out. I dropped my hand onto the sheets and sighed. “Why do those two do that?”
“They don’t mean anything by it,” Chloe assured me as she fluffed the pillows behind me. “It’s just-well, they’re used to not talking about themselves. And Lord Tristan has been alone for so long that I don’t think he believes there’s hope that anyone knows who he really is.” My face fell and I turned away from her. She smiled and set a hand on my shoulder. “At least, that’s what I thought until you came, Chris. I think you know him better than even Gwill now, and maybe that scares him a little.”
I grasped her comforting hand and smiled up at her. “Thanks. I really needed that.” Alex nuzzled my free hand with his soft, cold nose. I laughed and scratched the top of his head. “We’re just going to have to get him out of his shell, aren’t we?”
Alex blinked up at me. “He has a shell now?”
I snorted. “No, it’s just a figure of speech, silly. It means we’re just going to have to show him that-” A sharp pain shot up my marked arm. I winced and clutched my limb.
Alex put his two front paws on the bed beside me and looked between my arm and my tense face. “What is it?”
The pain passed as soon as it had come. I dropped my clutching hand and smiled at him. “It’s nothing. Just a little bit of pain leftover from that dart.”
Alex frowned. “That looked like more than a little bit of pain.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted, but I couldn’t help but be reminded that Tristan had said the same thing to me not too long ago. He hadn’t been fine, and as I looked down at my bruised arm, I wondered if I wasn’t lying to myself, too.
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