“I’m sorry,” Luka said. “I wish you were not a kind young man, because these are not kind times. I don’t need a good heart, Ifra, I need someone trustworthy, and you are not a good liar. It is now my wish that you will be bound to serve the one who sits upon the fairy throne until the end of your days.”
Worse than hearing the words was the feeling that swept over him-a sickening feeling, like a vise clamped around his heart, forcing his will to obey whatever Luka asked of him. He had known this feeling before, when he had to grant a wish he didn’t really want to grant, but this feeling was far worse-as if he not only had to grant the wish, but he was the wish. Angry, magic heat swept across his skin, but he couldn’t release it. His magic belonged to Luka. He stayed on the floor. He couldn’t bear to look Luka in the eye.
“I know it must be hard for you, Ifra, but if it helps, know that you are precious to me. I’ll care for you. I reward men for a job well done, and I’ll reward you too. You’ll have anything you want-money, feasts. A lovely wife. When you come back, if you wish, I’ll throw you a feast and invite all the loveliest girls in the fairy kingdom. Your work may be distasteful, but you will protect my kingdom and my people, and when you aren’t working for me, your hours will be all your own. I have no doubt the people will love you. You’ll be a hero.”
Ifra took a deep breath, absorbing the words. He could have a wife. He would be a hero. If he had to be bound, most jinn would envy the situation. Was it really worse than his childhood, snatching fun only when his tutor wasn’t looking? He got to his feet. “All right, master.” He couldn’t call him Luka anymore, not when the king had done this to him. “What would you have me do?”
“I want you to bring me Melia’s daughter unharmed, and destroy the clockwork body of Erris Tanharrow.”
Chapter 17
The shortest day of the year passed us by, celebrated with music and popcorn and a pie made from jarred summer cherries. The mornings were positively frigid, and the stove wouldn’t hold a fire overnight, so I came downstairs every morning to find Celestina bundled in a coat thrown over her long underwear, getting it started so we could all have tea.
“I know you’re afraid of magic,” I told her one particularly frigid day. “I certainly understand why. But you should learn to warm yourself. It’ll make the morning more pleasant.”
She didn’t resist for long. That cold kitchen, with all the water too frozen to drink, could’ve motivated anyone to sorcery. I showed her how to draw the warmth from the stove, very slowly, using her breath. It took her several mornings to master, but I saw her eyes light the moment she had it.
“We’re going to turn into a houseful of witches,” she said with a grin.
Her words turned out to be even truer than I expected.
One day in January, after a week of surprisingly mild weather, with just enough snow to make everything lovely, I heard a soft knock on the door. Erris was outside with Violet, and Celestina was in the kitchen. I was just coming downstairs with some of Ordorio’s books-I’d been extracting what kernels of information I could from them.
I supposed I was as good a person to answer the door as anyone. And the jinn hadn’t been much for knocking in the past, so I had no reason to assume it was him. Still, I took an umbrella from the stand by the door and held it behind me.
A small woman stood, clad in a black velvet hooded cape, clutching a bag and an armful of books. She smiled. “Dr. Greinfern sent me. I’m the help you requested.”
“Annalie?” I bent my head to look beneath her hood. “Mercy me, it is you! Well, come in out of the cold! And the light. How can you be here?”
I had only ever seen Annalie Parry in a room lit by the glowing, firefly-like orbs of the spirits that followed her everywhere. There was no sign of them now. She was out in the daylight like an ordinary woman, although with gloves and a hooded cape, which she now pushed back, revealing her thick chestnut hair caught in a loose knot at her nape.
“I didn’t really go to Karstor’s because he was worried about me. He wanted to see if he could lift the curse, but I didn’t tell you in case it failed. I’m still sensitive.”
“That’s… that’s wonderful!” I hardly knew what to say. She was the last person I’d expected to see. “Did you take the train up?” What a ridiculous question. Did I think she’d stolen a ride on the back of a magical bird?
“Yes. Goodness. I hadn’t been on a train in so long, but it was nice. I sat near the sweetest family. They own a big strawberry farm down south and the little girl told me how to make strawberry cake. So earnest. But then when I got here… well, the people here in Cernan are… charming, aren’t they? They told me Ordorio-”
“Sold his soul to the devil?” I offered.
“Yes, and that some sorcerer was training a coven of witches here.” She wiggled her fingers, mocking the ominous warning. “Of course, the fellow looked at me like he thought I’d fit right in.”
“No, they don’t exactly like us in town,” I said. “But we keep to ourselves.”
“At least this house is out of the way,” Annalie said. I was glad she seemed chatty. Much chattier than she used to be. She hardly seemed the mysterious, almost frightening woman Hollin wrote about in his letters and that I remembered. “And it’s a lovely house too. So Roscardian, the stone and the arched windows. And the gloomy interiors.” We were passing the parlor, with the painting of the Queen of the Longest Night and all the somber wooden furniture.
“You should see the portrait galleries,” I said.
Celestina came stalking into the room, wiping her hands on her trousers-a gesture she immediately stopped when she saw Annalie. “I thought I heard voices. Who-?”
“This is Annalie Parry,” I said. “Annalie, this is Celestina, Ordorio’s…”
“Everything,” Celestina said. “I do all the cooking and cleaning and I take care of his daughter, or I used to, before Nim and Erris came along. And I am so sorry I look such a state! Nim, why didn’t you tell me if you knew she was coming?”
I looked down pointedly at my own trousers, which had dirty knees.
“She didn’t,” Annalie said. “I didn’t even really know I was coming until I left. Well, I’ll tell you all about it over a cup of coffee. I brought coffee in my bag in case you haven’t any.”
The coffee was exclaimed over, and promptly brewed. Celestina brought out yesterday’s raisin buns, warming them and sliding a little fresh butter over their tops to freshen them. Erris and Violet came in while Celestina was placing the afternoon refreshments on the table, and Annalie’s presence had to be explained again.
Annalie patted the stack of books she had brought, which now sat before her on the table. “I’ve been studying magic more earnestly since the events of the past year. Karstor and I have been corresponding about it ever since, in fact. Karstor is much more open with me about magic than Hollin ever was, and he understands the spirit world. I’ve brought some useful books, but I’m hoping my presence will be more useful. I can enlist the aid of the spirits to create a protection spell.”
“How did Karstor lift your curse?” Erris asked.
I should have been the one asking questions, paying attention to this new information about magic, but my mind kept wandering. As Annalie explained some business about spirit gates and something called a “soft exorcism,” I watched her. She was out in the world, her curse lifted enough to have freedom, but she looked sad and a little harried. She spoke with a strange note of urgency I couldn’t place, and she sometimes glanced up or to the side as if she saw someone who wasn’t actually there. I realized, then, that since she was no longer followed around by spirit orbs as she had once been, she must be looking for them, unconsciously perhaps. Her lost spirits. Her friends.