“It looks like it was meant to be a clockwork version of my-my sister.”
“Your sister? Do you think she was ever-Do you think she-?”
“I don’t think her spirit is here, no,” Erris said. “Besides the obvious question of why Ordorio would have trapped her in such a way, we would know. You sensed there was something strange about me from the start, didn’t you?”
Violet seemed torn between stepping closer to the clockwork woman or farther away. “But why would he make my mother out of clockwork?”
“That is still a mystery to me,” Erris said. He lifted her arm and then carefully turned her over. The plate on her back with the keyhole had no mark at all. “And I think she’s broken, besides.”
“Yes,” I murmured. I was no expert on clockwork, to be certain, despite how often I wound Erris, but the clockwork woman was dusty and neglected, and moreover, appeared unfinished. Her armature looked prone and fragile laid out on the table, and it was hard to imagine her making any movement on her own power.
We resumed our search of the room, but now we were more interested in clues than magic books, although I set aside a few prospects in that regard as I went along.
I tried to hide my excitement at our discovery. If Ordorio had been experimenting with clockwork, maybe he did know how to free Erris. Maybe we hadn’t been sent here only to help Violet.
It was Erris who found the battered leather-bound notebook, full of Ordorio’s small handwriting and sketches of clockwork parts and mice.
“‘Three mice have been put into the death sleep,’” he read. “‘Three other mice were killed. The mice placed into death sleep could be coaxed into inhabiting clockwork bodies, but the dead mice have thus far been unsuccessful. Is it possible that a spirit is unwilling to inhabit a contrived body without retaining some tether to its true form?’”
Erris looked at me, briefly, then back at the book.
“‘Experimented with cat,’” he continued. “‘The cat has been sick and listless as of late, yet attempts to persuade it to inhabit a clockwork form were unsuccessful until the cat was placed into a death sleep. There seems to be a natural resistance in living beings to inhabit these artificial houses, unless they are placed in death sleep, in which case…? Thus far, I am still unable to raise the dead without a body, but I am excited by the prospect that death may be preempted by death sleep. How long will the cat continue to live in its clockwork body?’”
Violet chewed a fingernail. “Papa was trying to raise the dead without a body?”
“I suppose it would be a great goal for a necromancer,” I said, thinking of Karstor telling me how such a thing was impossible.
“He managed to revive mice and cats into clockwork bodies from a death sleep,” Erris said softly.
“What is a death sleep?” I asked.
“It’s like being frozen. You don’t need food. You don’t age. But typically, it doesn’t last forever. People tend to wake from it at some point, so you can’t just keep them comatose for decades. Another spell commonly used by human necromancers.” Erris was still flipping through the book, but he briefly glanced at the clockwork woman. “And clearly, he had hoped to revive my sister, but I think he failed.”
“That’s disturbing,” I murmured. “Why wouldn’t he simply let the dead stay dead? I don’t really like necromancy one bit. But what about you? Do you think he’s the one who did this to you?”
Erris slowly nodded. “Maybe you were right, Nim.”
Our situation was still precarious, but if Erris would share my hope…
“But why would he do that?” Violet asked in a panicked voice. “Uncle Erris, you told me human sorcerers cursed you! Would my father do something like that to you?”
“Sure he might,” Erris said. “He left to fight the fairies. He cursed me, but then he fell in love with my sister and defected. I guess only he can tell us for sure, but either way…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but he met my eyes, and there was a spark there I hadn’t seen since I had first freed him from the depths of the curse.
Chapter 13
We had a good snowfall that night. Erris played the piano, and Celestina the guitar, and I showed Violet a folk dance of Tiansher. We were a mess of cultures, and nothing matched, but I found it all the more fun for that.
In the evening, I wrote a letter to Karstor explaining our situation, asking for his advice-perhaps he had some elementary books on magic or information about jinn. Karstor would want to protect Erris just as I would, and I was fairly sure he wouldn’t disapprove of a woman learning magic, although I hoped he wouldn’t ask us to return. I had come to like having the woods around me, and the space to breathe, and I didn’t want to leave Celestina and Violet vulnerable.
The next morning, Erris went out to gather firewood, and when he asked if I wanted to accompany him, I happily agreed. This, more than anything, seemed proof that his mood had changed.
The air made my lungs feel scrubbed clean on the inside. There was snow on the ground now, a few inches deep in most places and pocked with animal tracks.
“Snow hare,” Erris said with a smile, pointing at the soft Y-shapes, the big hind feet splayed forward and the small front feet behind.
“Oh, I wish we’d see one. They must be cute.”
“But shy.”
The light was beautiful in the morning, full of golden patches where the sun struck, and blue shadows. The snow squeaked under our feet. Erris carried a basket in one hand and with the other, a walking stick he had found with the umbrellas by the door. His foot was obviously still troubling him, and he limped.
“Does it hurt?” I asked. It might be a difficult subject, but I was too concerned not to ask.
“No. I’ve just lost feeling in the part that broke off.”
“Even after you fixed it?”
“Well, we glued it in place, but it’s not the same. I’m wondering if it damaged the enchantment somehow.” He stopped walking. “Nim, this morning after you wound me, I sat and reread every word of Ordorio’s notes. I think those were studies he did while in school.” There was an ominous tone in his voice.
“Oh?”
“He talks about the clockwork mice, and the cat. Their bodies broke down quickly, strained by the magic, he guessed. He was always mending them and renewing the enchantment, but finally he let it go and put them back to their bodies and lifted the death sleep. The sick cat died. The mice were fine.”
His brown eyes met mine briefly, and then he looked out into the snow-dusted tangle of bare branches beyond us. “The good news is, I am starting to believe you’re right. Annalie sent us here because Ordorio is either the person who cursed me, or he knows who did. Maybe he even knows where my body is. The bad news is, I don’t think the feeling in my foot is coming back. My whole body has felt a little sluggish since I was in the water. This body isn’t going to last forever.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be gathering firewood,” I said nervously.
“No, I want to,” he said. “I need to be out here. My magic is stirring. I need to teach it to Violet.” He started to walk again.
“I was reading about human magic last night from one of Ordorio’s books,” I said. “It all sounds so… destructive.”
“You know, back home we had a magic tutor,” Erris said. “He said a lot of wise things I barely paid attention to at the time, but I find now make a lot of sense. He talked about magic of all the races, and he said that human magic is often thought of as destructive, because a lot of humans don’t value their connection to the natural world. They kill birds for sport, they hunt whales for oil, they cut down trees and don’t plant new ones. Their magic is thought of similarly-potent, but lethal.”
“I’m not like that!” I said. “And I don’t want to be. And why do fairies get such nice magic? Talking to mushrooms? Surely you’re not all benevolent. Your cousin doesn’t seem to be.”