“I am off to do some more research.” Olan called as he fluttered outside.
I could have used Olan when I cast the spell, but we did need to split up to get more information, so I nodded and took Princess Elizabeth downstairs.
Ten minutes after I cast the spell, I noticed that she kept nodding off between questions. It wasn’t because of the spell. It was because she didn’t have any reserves of energy. She was only a few steps away from death.
“Princess, why are you so thin?”
“I am being punished. I failed to get the lotion.” Her voice was barely audible. I fetched the bottle of honey from my kitchen. Fairies practically lived on sugar. Releasing the binding, I poured honey onto a plate. “I said I was being punished. I cannot eat that until I am forgiven.”
“What do you know about this problem?”
“Only that babies stopped and the other Real Folk couldn’t help. Then the Sidhe came to tell us they would fix it.”
“They have an amulet.” I reminded myself not to give away too much information. “It has something to do with your problem.”
“Yes,” she choked out the words, eyes on the honey. “Fionuir painted a spell on it. Then we had no babies.”
That got my attention. If Princess Elizabeth had seen something, maybe she held the clue to breaking the spell. “Did you see what happened?”
“No. My lover did. He said she put some brown liquid on the amulet and it glowed.”
I considered asking if she would take me to her lover, then realized she’d probably try to kill me the minute I released her. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“You are stopping the Sidhe. If I kill you, then we can continue to breed. And, maybe I will be forgiven.”
“Why did you fail?”
She squirmed in the binding. I loosened the spell a little when I saw the raw wounds on her arms. Her gaze never left the honey. But I knew she couldn’t eat it. Fairies are stubborn about their ethics. Rose fairies were the worst. If I forced her to eat, she would be shamed and maybe killed by her clan.
I waited a few minutes. “Do the other fairies know why you failed?” Tears were sliding down her cheeks. “Is that why you are being punished?”
She sobbed in a breath and nodded.
I knew she would tell me now. That’s how the spell worked; if you could get one hard truth out of the subject then the others would follow. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”
Now it was time for patience while she fought the compulsion to tell me. If I spoke to her before she answered, I would have to start again. I’m not sure she would survive long enough for that. If she spoke, I could cast a spell to preserve her until I could solve this problem.
She turned her head away from the plate of honey, a grimace pulled at her mouth but she tucked her head into her shoulder. If it weren’t for the trembling of her body, I might have thought she was sleeping.
I’d left a small window open upstairs so I wasn’t surprised when Olan swooped into the room while Princess Elizabeth struggled against her compulsion. I motioned with my head for him to land near me. When he was on the ground, he looked at Princess.
“Did she tell you what you need?”
“Not all of it. But we were right, Fionuir cast a spell on the amulet, painted it with brown liquid.”
“Why is she biting her lips?”
“There’s something more and she’s trying not to tell me. She will.”
Olan gave that little bird shrug. “If she doesn’t know what the spell is, why bother?”
“She failed to get the potion. I figure it’s important to find out why. Maybe we can just break the routine enough to make the Sidhe bored. Did you get anything on your travels?”
“Yes. There is a pattern. My source says the Sidhe need a sacrifice every three days at minimum. He didn’t know why but he heard them talking after one of the killings.”
“Who’s your source?’ I watched Princess. She had stopped struggling and was listening to us. Maybe she figured she could find a way to try again. Then her shoulders slumped.
Olan fluttered his wings. “You won’t know my source, but he comes when humans die violently.”
I put my finger to my lips and then pointed at Princess.
Tears dripping from her chin she sobbed again before speaking. “I failed because I couldn’t kill the human they picked for me. It was a child.”
“They pick the victim?” That was something I hadn’t considered. “Do you know why?”
“Something about the energy they need.” Her voice was fading, there wasn’t much more time to get information.
“Do you know why they need it so often?”
I could see it was taking her longer to find the energy to speak, so I gathered my preserving spell while I waited.
“To keep the spell fresh without using their own energy.” Her eyes closed and I cast my spell. She would stay alive but immobile for at least a month.
“She probably knows more,” Olan said, hopping onto her lap. “You could have asked another question.”
“I didn’t want to kill her. I don’t need a stain like that on my energy.” I wasn’t usually in a position to consider violating the spirit wizard’s oath. I didn’t use sacrifice in spells, and until now, I have never felt the need to end someone’s life. “If I am going to kill, it will be Fionuir, not some poor victim.”
“She would have killed a human to breed.” Olan croaked. “These fairies don’t value humans at all.”
“Olan, that is her problem to deal with not mine. But I will remind you that she didn’t kill the child. Wouldn’t kill the child, and she is suffering for that mercy.”
He hopped back down to the floor. “She would have if it hadn’t been a child. The children are the only ones who still believe in fairies.”
I’d had it with his attitude. “Maybe if your damn humans cared about something other than themselves they wouldn’t get in harm’s way.”
Olan flew at my face. I dodged and only got struck by a feather, but it left a shallow cut on my cheek. “Wizard, do not make this the fault of the humans.”
He was right. It was the Sidhe, not the humans causing problems; this time. “Okay, let’s both agree to stop trying to piss each other off and solve the problem.”
I waited for his response but he said nothing. I looked around for him and saw him strutting along the top of a bookshelf. “Olan?”
“Okay, I can see we are wasting time. A truce until we solve this.”
I wasn’t aware we were at war about anything but decided on discretion rather than trying to figure out what I had done recently that Olan might take affront to, other than the humans dying. “I don’t think Fionuir would go to all this trouble to spend time feeding a spell she cast.”
“No. She’s got to be giving her followers something for their trouble otherwise they wouldn’t keep it up.”
“The only thing Sidhe covet is power. All kinds of power.”
I removed the binding spell from Princess and lifted her onto the sofa. She would be fine there for a while. The sofa was soft enough not to leave pressure bruises.
“I’m hungry, let’s get upstairs.” It felt too odd to be discussing plans with a fairy passed out on my couch. She was like a life-sized doll that had been left behind after a tea party.
Olan flew up to my shoulder. I guess we were back to being on the same side in this fight. Unfortunately that wasn’t likely to continue. This fight had too many sides: Sidhe versus Fairy, Fairy versus Human, Morrigan versus Olan. And probably ten more I had no idea about.
I opened a can of soup and put it on the stove. Olan perched on the back of a chair and watched me prepare. “Did you already eat?” I asked.
“I am not hungry yet. Hurry up. We need to be on our way.”
“Where?” I guessed what he meant but it was time he took some responsibility for planning this fight.