Lionel touched my hand and dropped the amulet into it.
I sent my senses out, enveloping the amulet in my energy. It did feel cleaner.
“Let’s get out of here.” I held out my hand and Lionel led me back to the others.
“It is done,” Lionel said with all the gravity of someone three times his experience.
“Where are Burr and Sting?” I asked.
“We are here.”
I heard two sets of feet hit the ground. “You know what to do.”
I heard them run and assumed they were on their way to tell the fairies to start procreating.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Everyone except Olan and Lionel had gone home. There was nothing to do now but wait. We should know in a couple of days if we were going to be knee deep in fairy babies any time soon.
Olan was resting; I could hear little chickadee snores coming from the region of the couch. Lionel and I were in the kitchen drinking clover tea. The book Olan had stolen on the counter in front of us.
We’d managed to open the book with a simple command spell. “It’s in some sort of code,” Lionel said.
“Well, it’s probably spelled to keep secrets. If we knew the right spell we would be able to read it. If you remember the myth of the key book, it is a spell inside a spell. The key to opening the first spell will be the key to the spell inside.”
“So, if we figure out how to read the book, that same thing will be the spell inside?” Lionel’s confusion came through in his tone.
“No, let’s say we need walnut powder to read the contents of the book. We shake a little powder on the page and the words are suddenly legible. Whatever the spell is that we find inside, will need walnuts in some form or another to work.”
I heard pages flipping. “There must be four hundred pages. Will each one have a different key?”
“Well, in four hundred pages there will probably be about two hundred spells. I don’t know if there are two hundred keys. But the only way I know to find out it to test every powder and filter I can think of.”
Lionel groaned. A sound that every apprentice makes many times. “Can we narrow it down? Like trying things that we know are included in spells that do something to sight?”
Not a bad idea. When he wasn’t so nervous, Lionel showed real promise. “It’s as good an idea as any.”
“Cate had a bunch of herbs and crystals around because she was learning healing.” His voice moved away as he spoke. “Here are some of them.” I heard him put a box on the counter.
“Describe them to me.”
“A quartz crystal, a packet of ground carrot seeds, a packet of spider web, a sheet of rice paper…”
“Wait, spider web? Is that about curing blindness?”
“Yes. This is her eye cures box.”
“I felt a web in the basement.” I couldn’t help but feel a little hope creep into my heart.
I heard paper unfolding. “We have six webs here. I guess we drape the web on a page?”
“Makes sense. Okay we get six chances. Where should we start?”
Lionel pushed the book toward me. “Are you feeling lucky?”
I pushed it back. “You are the one on a roll, you find the first spell.”
He took the book and I heard pages whirr.
“This one,” Lionel announced. “I’m picking up the web and shaking it out.”
“No need for the play by play. Just tell me if it works.”
Moments passed, I tried not to fidget, spider webs were difficult to handle. Lionel’s sigh told me everything.
“Sorry, Quinn.”
“Okay, can you mark that page so we don’t waste another web on it?”
“I’ll tack the pages together with a bit of gum. We can remove it later.”
I took the book and passed my hands across the pages. I didn’t feel any special pull to a page, but I did feel power. It was beginning to look like this might actually be a key book. I let the book choose, laying it on the table and letting it fall open naturally.
“Okay put a web here.” I smoothed the pages flat.
After an age, Lionel sighed again. We went through another three webs without finding a cure for my problem; although one page did reveal a spell for repelling flies from a blood sacrificial altar.
“Lionel, the last one is yours. You choose. If it doesn’t work, we can always try again. At least we know it acts like a key book.”
Lionel took the open book from my hands. I heard him flicking through the pages, like he was scanning for a particular spell, even though he couldn’t read what was on the page. Then he stopped looking.
“Hold the book open to this page.” He pressed it into my hands. “Maybe you have to be holding the book for the spell to work.”
I held the book out, open to the page he had found. I waited while he unfolded the last web. I felt it touch my fingers as he draped it across the page.
“Did your sight fade, or did it go all at once?”
“A bit of both. When I found the brick and released the disguise spell, it seemed to get dark. When I pulled out the amulet, the lights went out.
“So she’s smart. We need to cast two spells to give you back your sight.”
“You can see the spell?” I didn’t want to get too excited.
“Yes, it’s pretty complex. Even more than the cleansing spell.” Lionel raised his voice above noise that was coming from the direction of the front door. “What the heck is that all about?”
I felt him move away.
“Be careful.” I said above the noise was coming closer to the door; voices shouting and something being thrown around. “I don’t think I can help you if it comes to a brawl.”
Lionel laughed and I heard the floor squeak in front of the door. He pulled it open and the noise changed into a single female voice.
“Answer the door. I wish to speak to the witch.” It was Fionuir.
I felt my way to the hall. “You are not welcome here, Fionuir.” I called before Lionel could say something stupid like ‘come in’.
She laughed. “It is not your house. Is the witch in?”
Lionel coughed. “I am afraid…”
“No she is not.” I overrode him. “But she hasn’t expressed a desire to have you enter her home.”
I reached forward to pull Lionel away from the door. “Leave.”
“Wait, Quinn.” Lionel struggled out of my grasp. “I wasn’t going to ask her in. But perhaps she has something to tell us about…”
“Lionel, be quiet,” I said. Fionuir was just waiting for a slip.
She wanted into Cate’s place and thought Cate was alive, so the Sidhe probably didn’t have anything to do with the demon. She was after the amulet I’m pretty sure. We hadn’t done anything to hide it yet. If she got into the living room she would see it on the coffee table. “Fionuir, you have been asked to leave this house. Without express invitation from the resident, you cannot enter.”
“I know the rules, Quinn. But you may have forgotten that if enough of my property is inside this house, I can enter to remove it.”
“There is not enough of it here for you to do that.” A book and an amulet were only almost enough. “Leave.”
“No.” Fionuir laughed and I heard jewels bouncing down the hall. “I think that might be enough.”
Damn. “Lionel, tell her she is welcome into one room.”
He stuttered out the limitation just in time. Fionuir walked into the kitchen and spun around. “This will be enough I think.”
I hoped the book wasn’t sitting out on the counter. I prayed that Lionel had slipped it into his pocket. Fionuir hadn’t noticed I was blind so maybe if it wasn’t sitting under her nose, we could pretend it wasn’t here.
“Lionel, pick up the jewels and throw them out the front door, as far as you can. This will only work if we let it.”
I heard him scramble around. “Fionuir, what is it you want?”
“Your damn bird pet, has stolen something from me. I want it back.”
“Why did you come here?” I didn’t see the point of denying the theft.
“You were not at home. I heard you were playing house with her.”
I heard her footsteps clacking on the tile floor. “Where have you hidden it?”