“That will cost you these eggs.” The sound of his voice whispered through my head like leaves in autumn.
I released the eggs to his control. “You can have them. I have a request. The other items are to pay for that.”
“You have to pay for more than my attention.” The vodka bottle tipped over and rolled toward the edge of the circle. It bounced back from the power that held the spirit inside. “You owe me an apology.”
“I might give it as payment if your information helps me.” I know I wasn’t wrong, but apparently that wasn’t the point. “My apology and the rest of the objects in the circle.”
A rustle like wind in dry leaves flowed from the depths. “I wish the apology in writing.”
“I won’t break the circle.”
The rustling turned to the sound of rattling. An image of bones falling in a pile came to me. Ranseed spoke again. “I wish some form I can show to others.”
I didn’t know whether to just cave-in, or to make him work for it. I needed this and he had me by the family jewels. Well, time is long and eventually things come full circle.
“I agreed that if you give me the information I need, all the information, I will create a spell for the apology for you to show the entire spirit world.”
He laughed and I heard fire consuming a forest. “I hope I have what you need. The price will be worth it. What do you ask?”
I had already figured out my questions. “Have you heard about Fionuir’s interference with the fairies?”
“Yes, her little play for power. The Sidhe are like drunken teenagers. They only see what is in front of their face. I find it odd they have no concept of the long view given their lifespan.”
I couldn’t argue with his opinion. Even if I wanted to it was my opinion too. “I’m trying to stop her. I need to know how to make the fairies fertile again.”
“There is no way. Something is blocking the access to their spirits.”
“I heard there was a way to temporarily make fairies fertile.” Had Ezeral lied? Or was Ranseed trying to increase payment?
“There is something that will increase fertility temporarily. I created it to help recover the population after a plague three hundred years ago.”
Finally, progress. “Okay, that should do it.”
“It won’t. The spell needs the same access as the normal process. I said that is blocked. You have difficulty listening don’t you?”
I chose to rise above the bait. “Can you create another spell? One to make fairies fertile for the next few months. Something to give us some time?”
“Or, perhaps you can do something to convince the Sidhe to stop,” Ranseed said, sounding like steam escaping a kettle. “Something for leverage. Perhaps take away the Sidhe’s ability to breed.”
I didn’t care for the idea of escalating the conflict. “It will only make things worse. Besides, they only breed every few years. It’s likely they won’t even notice.”
The sound of leaves in the wind came again. I guessed that was him sighing. “Quinn, you sound so genuinely sad. I appreciate your concern for my fairies, but there is nothing. You will need to find another way. I have been trying to solve this since Fionuir started her little campaign. I only have one way to help them have children, the normal way. Fionuir has chosen an effective tool to carry out her power play.”
He used my name, which was promising. “I suppose you don’t know how to find the Gur amulet?”
“Is that what she used? Interesting. The Druids may have to come out of hiding. No, I have no way to help you there. I wish you luck, Quinn Larson. I think I will miss you if the Sidhe take you. Now my apology.”
“If I solve this problem, will you return my apology?”
“No. That is about the past. But if you succeed, I will owe you one favor.”
I released the necklace and vodka. Waited a minute until Ranseed swirled the dust again, then I laughed and scribed in the dust I am sorry I disagreed with you. You were right. I was wrong.
I dismissed Ranseed and cleared the circle.
Summoning spirits took a lot out of me, more now that I was directing energy to heal my injuries from last night. I mulled over what I could do next as I went upstairs to make a sandwich: tuna on rye with melted cheese.
As I popped the last bite in my mouth, Olan opened the door and landed on the table beside my plate. “Any more of that bread?”
I nodded and went to get the crusts. “You have a spell to open the door? What else have you been up to?”
He flapped his wings and settled his feathers before answering. “Just flying around searching for information. What have you been doing with your time?”
I told him what I had learned but I sensed that he wasn’t really listening because he pecked at the bread so loudly I thought there was a woodpecker in the room.
I finished with, “I don’t know where to go from here.”
He stopped eating and looked at me with his head cocked to one side. “I think we need a new plan. Something more active.”
That made me suspicious. “What kind of active?”
“We need to take the game to Fionuir. This time not just to ask questions. We need to raise the stakes, cause a bit of commotion.”
I tried to picture Olan as a chickadee causing commotion and had to stifle a laugh. “I don’t think we have enough people on our side for that. Look what happened last night.”
“That was them setting a trap, and you got out of it with just a bit of damage.”
“You think they killed that woman just to set a trap? This has gone way beyond a play for power.”
Olan shook his head, or waggled it and I took it as a shake. “They didn’t kill her, it was an illusion. It was a trap.”
It was a relief to know there wasn’t a dead woman waiting to be found. I tried not to worry about how I missed the fact that she was an illusion. “If they are setting traps, we must be causing problems.”
“If that’s how you want to look at it, so be it.” Olan hopped over to me. “We can’t have secrets if we go on the offensive. We need to know what obligation you agreed to.”
“I can’t tell you that. We can just make a plan.” I figured since I couldn’t do any harm as spirit wizard, the obligation would not come into play.
Olan flapped his wings, I took it as annoyance and kept talking, “What kind of plan did you have in mind?”
He paced across the table clacking his beak.
Yep, annoyance. “Olan, I can’t understand you. Speak human.”
“We could take Fionuir captive. We could hold her until she gave us the amulet and the reversal spell?”
Hmm, kidnapping. “Not a bad plan if you can figure out how we get to her and hold her. And, if we do get that far, what’s to say she won’t just wait us out. Eventually the fairies will band together to rescue her if they can’t breed.”
He chirped agreement and asked, “But it won’t interfere with your obligation?”
I wasn’t going to fall for such a blatant trick. “It won’t interfere with my spirit oath either. But that doesn’t mean it is a good plan.”
He flew up a few feet and then settled down. “How do I know what to suggest if you don’t tell me what you promised her?”
“Olan, we can’t know what will happen. We just need to make a plan that doesn’t violate my oath and not worry about anything else. Cate might be able to help. Her oath is different from mine.”
“You do know that if we break your promise to Fionuir, even by accident there will be problems.” He returned to the pile of crumbs.
“Yes.”
“I worry that we are missing something important or ignoring something obvious. It be a good idea to include Cate in this, she has a sensible head on her shoulders.” Olan clacked his beak again and flew past me to the door, so close I had to dodge. “You will be sorry. I can tell you that. If we don’t have all the information at hand, we won’t succeed.”
Chapter Nineteen
I couldn’t say I disagreed with Olan but I knew what would happen if I told him I agreed to do no direct harm to her or any other Sidhe. I would find myself on the sidelines. That wasn’t where I intended to be. I knew, I don’t know why, but I did know that this was my job.