“We won’t?” Telleth asked, looking at her in surprise.
“No, we won’t,” Kilisha said.
Kelder looked up and growled, “Speak for yourself.”
“Kelder, we can’t tie it up. It’s impossible.”
Kelder stopped grabbing at the spriggan and looked at her. “Why is it impossible?” he demanded.
Kilisha hesitated, unsure what to say-she couldn’t explain about the spriggan being like an athame; the true nature of a wizard’s athame was a Guild secret, and she could be killed for revealing it.
Finally, as Kelder and the children stared at her expectantly, she simply said, “Magic.”
Chapter Thirteen
It took some time to sort everything out, but in the end Kil-isha was satisfied.
The dish and spoon had been moved the previous night from their cages to solid, securely locked boxes in Ithanalin’s bedroom- Yara had said it made her nervous having them watching her from the cages-and they were still there. The coatrack was leashed in the corner of the parlor. The end table was securely tied to the kitchen table. The rug was rolled up and tied-it hadn’t absorbed any athame magic-and tucked away in the pantry.
Yara and the children had retreated to the rear portion of the house, where Lirrin and Pirra were playing a sort of tag with the animated table.
Kelder had seated himself on the floor, blocking the front door, and Kilisha sat facing him, blocking the door to the workshop.
And the spriggan was sitting cross-legged between them, unbound.
“Tell us what happened,” Kilisha said.
“Don’t want to,” the spriggan said.
Kilisha sighed in exasperation. “I know we can’t tie you up,” she said, “but there’s no reason we can’t hurt you!”
The creature squealed and covered its head with its hands.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Kilisha quickly added, “but it’s very important you tell me what happened yesterday.”
Trie spriggan sniffed, slid its hands down to its face, and peeked out between spread fingers.
“Not hurt?”
“If you answer all my questions, I won’t hurt you.”
“Soldier hurt?”
“He won’t hurt you, either-if you answer my questions.”
“Will answer, yes.”
“Good.” Kilisha adjusted her position, then asked, “What happened yesterday?”
“Was here,” the spriggan said, dropping its hands. “Had fun, watching magic, but knew wizard not want spriggans, so when wizard came out, spriggan hid under rug, yes?”
“Yes, I understand,” Kilisha said.
“Wizard stepped on rug!”
“So the mirror told me.”
“Ran out, rug slipped, wizard fell, said bad magic words, wizard’s thoughts go everywhere.”
Kilisha glanced uncomfortably at Kelder. She hoped he wasn’t really following this.
“Some thoughts hit spriggan, more knife than wizard, all mixed up. Spriggan ran, ran, ran. Too mixed. Remembered stepping on and stepped on.”
“That must have been confusing,” Kilisha said.
The spriggan nodded. “So ran,” it said. “And rug chased after, and table.”
“They were chasing you? That’s why all the furniture ran off?”
“Don’t know all,” the spriggan said. “Rug chased spriggan, table followed rug. Others, don’t know.”
“They probably just panicked,” Kilisha said.
“Yes, yes! Very scary!”
“So then what?”
“Ran a long time. Got tired. Got caught. Rug wrapped up spriggan-but then rug not move! Not crawl while wrapped on spriggan, no!”
“The rug couldn’t move without letting you go?”
“Yes, yes!”
“So what did it do?”
“Rug waited. Table just stood. Very boring. No fun.” The spriggan stuck out its surprisingly long and forked tongue at the memory.
For a moment Kilisha wondered how the rug had been able to hold the spriggan when a securely tied cord could not, but then she realized this was clear proof that the rug was alive, possessed of a partial soul and not just a sort of magical machine; athame magic did not work on being held by a living person, only on any sort of inanimate binding.
That didn’t explain how the rug had gotten the spriggan back home, though. “Then what?” Kilisha prompted.
“This morning rug hear wife’s voice, get excited. Tug at table until table push rug and spriggan against wall, then push up between table and wall until on top. Then rug slap table to tell it where to go, and we run run run after wife!”
Kilisha smiled. It would seem that Cauthen’s Remarkable Love Spell had done its job, and yielded not just one of the escapees, but three. The love spell had apparently inspired the rug to find a way to get home with its captive.
“And here we are,” she said.
“Here, yes yes.”
“And you’ll stay here?” Kilisha asked. “I know we can’t tie you up-will you stay here until I get everything ready to restore my master?”
“Don’t know,” the spriggan said, cocking its head thoughtfully to one side. “Is fun?”
Kilisha grimaced. “Don’t you want to be put back the way you were?” she asked.
“Don’t know,” the spriggan repeated.
“It wouldn’t be so confusing,” Kilisha offered helpfully.
“You’d be you again, an ordinary spriggan. And Ithanalin would be himself again.”
“Don’t know. Like wizard. Like magic.”
Kilisha didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Like you” the spriggan added.
“Then do what I ask, and stay here.”
“Mmmmmmm... Maybe,” the spriggan said.
Kilisha decided that would have to do. If the spriggan did escape she would just have to capture it again. At least now she knew that she needed it, that a part of Ithanalin’s soul had wound up in the little nuisance.
A cage or box might hold the spriggan, but somehow she doubted it. Spriggans were very good at getting through locked doors even without an athame’s magic.
Perhaps the rug could be convinced to wrap it up again-but Kilisha really hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, because even with the love spell she didn’t trust the rug completely. There was a possibility it might either get bored and free the spriggan at an inopportune time, or accidentally smother the creature. She had no idea how vulnerable spriggans might be to asphyxiation.
For now, she intended to just rely on the creature’s self-interest.
It had been a good morning so far. She had Ithanalin’s body, and the rug and table and bowl and spoon and coatrack and latch and spriggan, and most of the ingredients for Javan’s Restoration. She still needed the chair and bench and couch, and jewelweed, whatever that was.
And Kelder had locked the bench and chair in a storeroom near the shipyard.
She had finally remembered her intention to levitate above the city and see if she could spot the missing furniture, and she might still do that later to locate the couch, but fetching the bench and chair seemed more immediately helpful.
Carrying them by herself might be something of a challenge- she could use the Spell of Optimum Strength, even if the potion wasn’t ready, but they might struggle, and it might take two trips, which seemed a waste of time-and besides, this soldier Kelder knew where they were and she didn’t.
“Kelder,” she said, “can you help me bring the bench and chair home?”
“Of course,” the guardsman said.
“Then let’s go,” Kilisha said.
“Do you want to bring anything? Any magic spells?”
“Oh!” Kilisha paused; she realized she hadn’t thought about that very hard. She considered for a moment.