“Is he going to stay that way?” Telleth asked. Where Lirrin had sounded worried, Telleth sounded belligerent.
“Not if I can help it,” Kilisha said. “I still need two more things before I can bring him back to normal.”
“What arc they?” Lirrin asked.
“I still need something called jewelweed for the spell,” Kilisha explained. “I don’t know what it is-a plant of some kind, I suppose. There might even be some in the workshop, but I can’t tell.”
“We can get that from an herbalist, I’m sure,” Yara said. “Or from Kara, if it’s something only wizards use.”
“Who’s Kara?” Lirrin asked.
“Kara’s Arcana, on Arena Street,” Kilisha said.
“That’s where Dad gets lots of his stuff,” Telleth explained to his sister.
“I want Daddy back,” Pirra said, clearly on the verge of tears.
“We all do,” Yara said quickly. Then she turned to Kilisha. “Jewelweed?” she said. “You know, I said I don’t know what it is, but I think I remember it now. It has white flowers, and the leaves have healing properties, if I remember correctly. We can find that.”
“I’m sure we can,” Kilisha agreed.
“You said you need two more things. What’s the other one?”
“The red velvet couch from the parlor.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“No.” Kilisha shook her head- “It ran off to the west, with the other furniture, and Kelder chased it, but he lost track of it. I tried to spot it-I levitated up several hundred feet and looked at all the streets and courtyards I could, but I didn’t see it anywhere. I think I’ll need help finding it.”
“Who’s Kelder?” Pirra demanded.
“The soldier who was here today,” Kilisha explained.
“Oh,” Lirrin said. “There’s a boy across the back court called Kelder; I thought maybe you meant him.”
“There arc a lot of people named Kelder,” Yara remarked.
“Is the soldier going to bring Daddy back?” Pirra asked.
“No,” Kilisha said. “We need a spell to do that, not a soldier. But maybe he can find the velvet couch.”
“Can I help look tor it?”
Kilisha smiled. “Maybe,” she said. “Anyone who can help find it is welcome, as far as I’m concerned. We’ll all start looking in the morning, shall we? And we’ll ask all our friends and neighbors to help.”
“Couldn’t we look tonight?” Telleth asked. “The torches are bright, and a couch is too big to hide in holes or anything.”
“I want Daddy back,” Pirra said.
Kilisha looked at Yara, who said, “We might look a little. But it probably isn’t anywhere on Wizard Street, and I don’t want to go too far in the dark.”
“Kelder said he last saw it on the East Road,” Kilisha said. “It’s not on the street now, at least it wasn’t when I was looking a couple of hours ago, but it might have ducked in somewhere.”
“The East Road?” Yara said. Kilisha nodded.
“Headed for the gates’!” Lirrin asked, horrified.
“No, no,” Kilisha said quickly. “Headed west on the East Road, toward the Fortress.” The idea that it might have doubled back eastward, or turned north or south and headed for one of the gates, was not a pleasant one-but she couldn’t rule it out. Maybe she hadn’t spotted it from the air because she hadn’t looked outside the walls...
She would want to check on that tomorrow, if the couch didn’t turn up. She would ask the guards at the gates.
At least nobody was likely to have not noticed an animated couch, or forgotten seeing it.
“It’s in the Fortress, then?” Telleth asked.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Kilisha said. “How would it get inside?”
“Through a door!” Pirra said.
“The doors were closed,” Kilisha said. “We were over there today, and it’s all closed up tight because of some trouble in Eth-shar of the Sands. The couch might be near there-it was headed in that direction-but how could it have gotten inside with the guards there and the doors locked?”
“Oh.”
That ended the conversation for a time, and the five of them ate in silence. A few minutes later Kilisha took a final gulp of small beer, then pushed back her chair. “I need to finish that potion I was making,” she said as she rose. “I thought it might help catch the escaped furniture.”
“I thought you said you just need the couch and the jewel-weed,” Yara said.
“I do just need the couch and the jewelweed,” Kilisha agreed. “But I didn’t know that when I started the potion last night.”
“Then why are you finishing the potion?” Telleth asked.
“Well, partly because it still might be useful in finding and catching the couch,” Kilisha said, “but mostly because if I don’t, who knows what could happen? Unfinished spells can go wrong, the way the master’s did.”
“You mean you’d turn into a statue?” Pirra asked, her eyes widening.
“Maybe. Or something else entirely might happen. You never know what might happen when magic goes wrong. They say there’s a place in the Small Kingdoms where there’s a pillar of fire a hundred feet tall that’s been burning for a hundred years because somebody sneezed while doing a spell. And some people say that spriggans come from a magic mirror spell that someone did wrong, which is why they started turning up suddenly just a few years ago.”
“And Dad accidentally turned Lirrin and me into tree squids once,” Telleth said. “Right here in the kitchen.” He grimaced, and added, “It felt really weird.”
“Exactly. And he turned Istram into a platypus, as well. The master has always told me how very important it is to be careful with magic, and never leave a spell unfinished, so I’ll be finishing the potion tonight.”
“What about that stuff on the workbench, then?” Telleth asked. “The brown stuff in the bowl. Isn’t that an unfinished spell?”
“Yes, it is, but I don’t know what kind,” Kilisha said, frowning. “I don’t know how to finish it, and I want to bring the master back to life as quickly as possible so he can deal with it!”
“How did you know about that bowl?” Yara asked, glaring at Telleth. “Have you been snooping in your father’s workshop?”
“I just looked!” Telleth protested. “I didn’t touch anything! I didn’t even breathe on it!”
“Well, don’t even look unless Thani or Kilisha says it’s all right!” She looked up from her son to the apprentice. “Is there anything we can do while you’re finishing the potion?”
“I suppose it’s too late to get the jewelweed,” Kilisha said. “The herbalists will be closed by now. But if you can think of any way to find the couch, that would be good.”
“I could ask around,” Yara said thoughtfully. “Maybe buy a divination from one of the neighbors?”
“If you think it’s a good idea,” Kilisha said. “I don’t have the money for one.” Before any of the children could speak, she added, “And I don’t know any myself.”
“Thani never liked divinations,” Yara said. “He said that people always want to argue if they don’t like the answers they get.”
“He’s probably right,” Kilisha said.
“So he never learned any,” Yara said. “He said he could always buy one if he needed it.”
“Well, if he were animate right now, he could.”
“I’ll talk to some of the neighbors,” Yara said. “You finish your potion.”
“Yes, Mistress,” Kilisha said, bowing her head politely before she headed for the workshop.
A few minutes later, as she gathered the materials to complete her potions, she glanced uneasily at the bowl on the lamp; it was still simmering. She sighed.