Sara said to William, “Will you take me back so I can pay? And I need to have our things brought here.”
“I can do that. Both. I can do both,” he stuttered, then reached for her elbow as if that was the proper way for them to walk together. Sara ceremoniously accepted his arm again, and as they departed, Prin thought she walked just a bit closer than necessary.
After they had departed, Prin went back to stand on the terrace. The morning sun struck it full on, which meant that it would be in the shade for the afternoon. She fell into a chair, satisfied and anxious at the same time. Brice had been unusually quiet, but she had taken the time to observe him and liked what she saw, but another subject had to be broached.
“Brice, sit and talk to me.”
He sat uncomfortably as if expecting his good luck to come to an end. “I need to thank you again.”
Prin stood again, leaning on the rail and looking over the little terrace to the street below. Nobody was within hearing distance. She settled back and said, “You are different than other people, but I expect you know that on some level.”
“Excuse me?” He rose.
“Brice, sit back down and listen.”
He sat on the edge of his chair again, wary and ready to bolt.
Prin spoke in a gentler tone. “I will be blunt. You’re different. You know it. But you are not alone. Sara and I are much like you. Different, but sort of the same.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice almost broke.
“Things around you sometimes happen. Things others cannot do, cannot explain.”
“Like what?”
She decided to be even more direct. “Magic.”
He was on his feet again, fear flooding his normally pleasant face. He looked ready to leap over the railing and run off. She saw his shallow breathing coming fast. Escape had probably been his only way of coping and staying alive. His eyes darted to the doorway.
Prin understood she had underestimated his fear and reaction. She should have waited for Sara and consulted her, and she didn’t know what to do except let him bolt. Without thinking, Prin held up her index finger as if pointing, and grew a tiny flame at the tip, then increases it, before shutting it down.
He sat again, mouth hanging open.
She said, “We’re trying to help you. What I just revealed could cost me my life, so you are now indebted to me. And you need to listen to me like your life is in my hands.”
“What?”
“You have magic powers. Somewhere inside of your mind, you know that. But I don’t think you understand it, or how to use any magic, and when you tried some magic in the past, bad things happened uncontrollably, probably to many people around you. People became angry. You had to run to survive and ended up working on a ship. That’s all guesses, but true?”
He nodded, his mouth still open, but he appeared to be less likely to panic and run. He said, “How do you know all this? This magic? And me?”
She decided to answer truthfully. “There’s a shimmer around your head, and fuzziness that only a sorceress can see.”
His hands went to his head.
Prin said, “I think it has something to do with magic being in you. I heard that’s how they know which boys have the powers to become mages, so they take them from their families for training when they are younger than you.”
“My parents have been dead for a long time. I barely remember them.”
Prin smiled, and tried to stifle it, but not before Brice saw.
“That’s funny to you?”
Prin sobered. “Not the reality of their deaths, just our similar circumstances, so I understand your problem. I lost three fathers a short while ago, but you said they are dead for a long time. Is there a way to be dead for less time?”
“Three fathers? Are you some kind of freak? I’m beginning to wonder if I should have stayed in the sailor’s rooms on the pier where I’d just be living with drunkards and thieves.” But his actions belied his words. He did not deny his problems or powers, and he had settled back into the chair so bolting would be harder.
Prin said, “Relax, Brice. We’re going to explain it all, or what we know, and we’re going to try to hide that fuzziness, so others don’t spot you like we did.”
“You keep saying, we. Is Sara also a sorceress?”
“Yes, but I hope she’s not mad at me for telling you that without her being here. Listen, we are running from powerful mages, and neither of us is a decent sorceress, yet. We’re almost as weak and uneducated in the powers of magic as you. But we have books that will help us learn, and that’s why we rented this place. Before going back to the ship, I hope to know a dozen spells. And in those books, there may be things a mage can learn.”
Sara was standing behind them, listening. She said, “And if there is not, we may be able to locate a book or two on how to train a mage.”
Brice leaped at her voice, but Prin only smiled. She said, “Everything good?”
“Rather than have Mrs. Lamont put other renters here at the end of a month if the refit of the ship is not complete, I made a deal for two months, and we forfeit what we don’t use. But the price was lower per month.”
Brice said, “If the two of you are enchantresses, prove it.”
Prin said, “I already have with the finger-fire. But we have in a few other ways, too. We also did it when we spotted you from among all the others at the shipyards.”
Sara said, “Brice, we’ll prove it again, but not now. Right now, we must buy a few supplies, but I’ve marked some pages in the journal I’m working on, and some are simple enough spells.”
“Like what kind of magic?” Brice asked.
Sara pulled one of the inside chairs close to the terrace. “Okay, there is what I call a dry-spell. When it rains, I don’t get wet. The water sort of flows over my skin and clothing to the ground. There is a love potent that will make someone like another, or with the stronger version, make them love that person. Of course, there are limits to them. Oh, and I have arrows that never miss what I aim at.”
Prin said, “I’ve used a forget-spell where a person breathes in the fumes of a purple grape, and they sit down and forget everything for the rest of the day. And the no-see-me spell, like the one Evelyn has at her tree. I sprinkled the powder on me, and it didn’t make me disappear, it made people look everywhere but at me, even when they were close enough to touch.”
“You didn’t tell me about that,” Sara said.
“I was in the pool at the creek at Evelyn’s, and two hunters came into the clearing. I couldn’t run or hide, so I sat still. They went right through the clearing without seeing me, but they were so close I heard everything they said. It had to be one of Evelyn’s spells, or maybe one left over from someone using the tree before her.”
Sara looked excited. “I hadn’t heard of a spell like that, and certainly didn’t know you used one, but I think I found a similar spell in the journal but didn’t understand when it talked about seeing, and not-seeing.”
“What’s first?” Prin asked.
“Shopping,” Sara said. “I have a list of things, besides food.”
Brice asked, “Do the men where you come from also shave their heads?”
Sara glanced at Prin for confirmation, then said, “Brice, we only met you today. While we hope to get to know you and that all of us become great friends, the truth is that we’ve already placed our lives in a stranger’s hands by speaking to you. It was a foolish choice. We should have been more cautious. But, we need to keep a few things to ourselves—at least for a time.”