The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) Page 18

  Pierpoint arched a brow at her. “A trifle extreme, don’t you think? But I get your point. Regardless, I don’t feel it’s necessary if it’s going to your friend. I’ll inform Aren of all of this. How much longer until the gadgick can be removed, do you think?”

  “Hmmm, I think we can take it out either late tomorrow or the following day. The water is draining out of the fountain nicely. We’re waiting for what little remains to evaporate just for the sake of caution.” No one wanted to be marked for transportation again by getting wet like Sevana had.

  “I’ll pass it along.” He cocked his head slightly and half-turned to look behind him. “Are they playing in the timber dam?”

  “They certainly are,” she confirmed, uselessly considering he could see it for himself.

  “Is that safe?”

  “Probably not. Master’s in there after all.”

  Pierpoint let out a short chuckle. “He’s mischievous in water, I take it?”

  “He’s mischievous all the time,” she corrected with a roll of the eyes. “Put him in water and he’s an outright devil. Why do you think I refuse to go in there?”

  He just laughed again, shaking his head. “I’ll go make the report to the king. Anything you want to add?”

  “Not a blessed thing.”

  “Then keep us posted,” he ordered before the Caller went still.

  She looked up at the pool as she put the Caller away, scanning the water for a certain head of blond hair. In this area of mostly brunettes, she spotted him quickly. Sky had stopped clinging to the sides and now splashed around energetically, even flip-flopping and swimming the other direction on the turn of a penny. Ohhh? Master had done quite well drown-proofing the kid, it seemed. Good. She didn’t need to worry about him anymore then.

  Putting her hands comfortably over her stomach, she leaned further back in her chair, closed her eyes, and took a well deserved nap.

  ~ ~ ~

  Even with the nice, sunny weather it took a full two days for enough water to evaporate before they deemed it “safe” to go anywhere near the fountain. With the pitiful little puddles of water here and there, the gadgick didn’t have anywhere near the power it needed to even activate itself, much less transport anyone.

  Hube had said that the decorative piece on the very top of the fountain had been carried over here intact, the only piece that had been moved without being dismantled first. Sevana pulled out a wand and scanned the area just in case, but the results came up positive very quickly, confirming that the gadgick had indeed been enclosed in the top part. She’d spent her free time examining it from a distance and had a fair idea of how to get the gadgick out.

  The fairy girl holding the jug of water looked pretty and all, but in truth, the design had a practical element to it as well. The jug she held had the perfect place to put the gadgick. In olden times, perhaps the gadgick hadn’t been left in place all of the time, but instead put in there when it was needed. (Sevana certainly wouldn’t have left it running all the time. The magical energy that wasted alone made her head spin.) The jug provided a place to put the gadgick where it didn’t run the risk of being damaged or knocked over but had direct access to flowing water. The decorative stone grill over it simply sat in place, several notches in the jug’s opening giving it stability and support.

  The only real problem she had was reaching the jug. The fountain stood a good five feet taller than she. Even standing on a chair wouldn’t give her the necessary height. But with the three-tier build of the fountain, trying to use a ladder would be beyond awkward. It really only gave her one option. “Sarsen, lend me a shoulder.”

  “You mean let me be your footstool,” he translated dryly.

  She gave him an impish smirk. Sarsen and Master had been too curious to let her retrieve the gadgick alone, so they had trailed after her when she announced her intentions. In fact, quite a few people from the village had shown up as well, although for what, Sevana had no idea. If they expected a show, they’d be sorely disappointed. Removing the gadgick would be anticlimactic in the extreme.

  Sarsen blew out a breath and sank to one knee. “Fine, fine. Climb aboard.”

  She swung one leg up and around so she could sit on his shoulders, like a child getting a ride from their father or favorite uncle. Sarsen held on to both of her legs just below the knee, giving her some stability, then slowly rose back to his feet with a grunt of effort.

  “You comment on my weight and I’ll kill you,” she warned him.

  “Did I say anything?”

  “I could hear you thinking.”

  “Children, no bickering in front of the clients,” Master scolded them. His words would have gone over better if his tone hadn’t sounded so amused.

  They left Master at the base of the fountain as Sarsen carefully stepped closer, putting Sevana within arm’s reach of the top section. She had to raise her hands high over her head to reach the jug, but she didn’t have to stretch that far, and she could mostly see what she was doing. The stone grating had been there for so long, though, it had more or less wedged itself into place. She had to tug, firmly, in rhythmic pulls before it started to slowly grate its way free.

  Expression tight in concentration, she put both sets of fingers through the holes of the grate and gripped firmly. The stone felt cold against her skin, and a little harsh, but not rough enough to be abrasive. Fortunate, that. She’d hate to scratch up her hands just getting this thing free. But she didn’t dare use magic of any sort, not after what happened last time.

  “Sev, I have to ask…” Sarsen hesitated, body tensing as if not sure how she would take this question. “Why did you end up on the far side of Kindin? What were you dreaming of to be transported to a primeval forest?”

  She let out a snort. “What makes you think I’d remember the dream?”

  “Well, the image had to be powerful enough for the gadgick to use it,” he pointed out a tad defensively.

  Sevana paused and turned to look at the top of his head. “I remember once, while we were both apprentices, that you dreamed you rode a pink, talking elephant across the Wasteland.”

  He stopped with his mouth hanging open, no good retort to be found anywhere. “Ah. Your point being that dreams don’t make sense?”

  “Nor should we expect them to.” She shrugged as she went back to the task at hand, yanking hard. Stubborn little piece of…ugh. “There’s a whole group out there that believes in dream studies, and the psychology behind it, but personally I feel like it doesn’t really matter.”

  “So there’s no rhyme or reason why you ended up in the woods in the dead of night.”

  “I blame it on Hinun,” she responded mock-serenely.

  “Why?” Sarsen seemed to find this funny as his shoulders jerked in a silent chuckle. “‘Cause he isn’t here to defend himself?”

  “He was sleeping with me and no doubt dreaming of hunting in the woods.”

  “That sounds plausible and all, but it doesn’t explain that smile of evil satisfaction you’re wearing.”

  “Children,” Master requested mildly from the bottom of the fountain, “Can you please focus?”

  The grate finally came free, tumbling into her hand with nothing more than a last groan of protest. She almost lost her balance after expecting resistance and not finding any. Fortunately, Sarsen’s grip on her legs kept her from toppling right over him and straight into the basin. Puffing out a breath, she righted herself again and put the grating next to a carved stone flower, propping it up temporarily. Then, very cautiously, she reached in with both hands and felt inside the jug. “I feel something cold and smooth. Not stone. Porcelain?”

  “Can you pull it free?” Master inquired, tone betraying a certain amount of caution.

  “I think so.” She didn’t feel any resistance at all this time. With her fingertips, she urged it to come out in slow degrees. When it came close enough, she grabbed it more firmly and pulled the top out of the jug entirely.

  Well, well
, well.

  It certainly resembled porcelain, her tactical sense hadn’t been wrong on that, but she’d never seen the likes of this before. It glowed faintly—thank all mercy she hadn’t used magic—with crisp lines of white engraved into the light gray of the body. It looked stunning, really. Sevana thought of written incantations as practical things, not particularly visually appealing, nor were they meant to be. But this was both. One hand on the top of the gadgick, she slid it free completely, balancing the base with her other hand. Oh? It didn’t have the simple cylindrical design that Jacen had shown her in his catalogue remnant. Instead, both ends flared out slightly, the interior of the gadgick completely hollow. Now that she could see all of it, she saw that the design around it was beautifully detailed. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have taken it for some sort of vase.

  “Well, sweetling?”

  “There’s still some residue of power left in it,” she responded. “I’d be careful, if I were you.”

  “Straight in the box it’ll go, then.” Master had taken the caution of fetching one of his ‘behave boxes’ from his workroom before coming here. He’d invented them ages ago, as a young apprentice, but still used them to this day. Once something was placed in the box, it was cut off from all outside magic and would be obediently dormant until released again.

  Sarsen slowly turned, facing Master, and she leaned forward just as Master lifted his box up. She put the gadgick directly into the box without anyone else touching it and he closed the lid as soon as she pulled her hands free. Sarsen barely got a good look at it during this process, but he didn’t utter a word of protest. Then again, after everything that had happened, he likely didn’t want to tempt fate by leaving it out in the open any longer just to satisfy his curiosity.

  Master latched a few seals and buckles into place, making sure that it couldn’t be casually opened, before he looked back at them with a satisfied smile. “We might have had a few bumps along the way, but the job is done.”

  “And thank all mercy for that,” Sevana grumbled as she slid off Sarsen’s shoulders and to the ground. “It’s too late for any of us to get any work done at this point.” It was, in fact, only a few hours until sunset. “Although I suppose I can remove the dam at the very least and let the fountain fill back up again.”

  “Replace the grill first,” Master reminded her.

  She flapped a hand at him. “Yes, yes. Are you leaving for Jacen’s now?”

  “Hmmm.” Master thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t know the roads well enough to navigate in bad lighting. I’ll wait until the morning.”

  She shrugged, as it didn’t really matter to her either way. “Sarsen, if you’d pitch in? We might as well start the cleanup.”

  “Sooner it’s done, sooner we can go,” he agreed.

  Sevana clapped her hands together loudly, raising her voice so the whole square could hear her. “Alright, folks! The problem’s solved, the show’s over, go on about your business!”

  This made people give a shout of joy and they clapped in celebration. A slight smile on her face, she put the grill back in place with a wave of her wand before she climbed off the fountain’s edge and headed for the dam. She just had one more thing to do tonight before she could be satisfied with a full day’s work.

  A guttural scream ripped through the night air, followed by the sound of tinkling glass as it shattered.

  Sevana went from a sound sleep to an upright position in her bed before she could even get her eyes open. What in all the wide green world was that?! Hinun, who had been asleep across her feet, was already off the bed and tearing through the door, low growls coming out of his mouth as he sprinted. Even Sky awoke as she rolled quickly out of the bed, her bare feet slapping against the wooden floor as she snatched up a protective crystal and a wand.

  “Master! Sarsen!” she called out, sprinting out of her room and into the dark hallway.

  With all of the noise going on, several people had awoken and come out of their rooms to investigate. She had to shove one curious trader aside just to get through. Hinun let out a high-pitched whine from Master’s room, and she knew in a flash of dread, just where the noise had been coming from. Swearing, she sprinted the distance and slid into the room.

  Master sat on the edge of his bed, a hand to his head, blood gushing out between his fingers. The window nearby lay in a spray of broken glass all over the floor, and the room looked like a storm had blown through it. Not heeding the splinters on the floor, she went directly to Master, snatching up a towel from the washstand as she moved and pressing it against his head. “What happened?” she demanded, even as she used her hip to nudge a hovering Hinun out of the way.

  “Thieves. But not your garden variety. These had a rather gifted magician with them. They’d nearly levitated the box out the window before I felt the magic and woke up.” He winced and looked up at her. “Sevana. They’ve got the gadgick.”

  Just the thought of that artifact in the wrong hands made her blood run cold. A lot of evil could be done with it. Making a split decision, she turned to Hinun and ordered, “Get Decker. Now.” She’d need his tracking skills for this. Then she turned further and saw Sky hovering in the doorway, his eyes wide at the scene. “Get Sarsen.”

  The boy nodded and spun on his heels, disappearing in a flash.

  “I can’t believe he slept through all of this,” Master said, almost as if speaking to himself.

  She snorted, not one bit surprised. “Don’t you remember that time the house was on fire? He slept right through that, too.”

  “I suppose his sleeping habits haven’t changed since childhood.” Master half-raised a hand toward the towel. “How bad is it?”

  “Not that bad. It’s just because it’s a head wound that it’s bleeding like this.”

  Sarsen stumbled into the room in the next moment, eyes wide in his face, his pouch in his hand. “Master! What in sweet mercy happened?”

  “Thieves,” Master explained again. “They were levitating the box out of the window when I woke up. I tried to stop them and they yanked the box forward, hitting me in the head, and then jerked it through the window glass.”

  Hence his head wound and the glass all over the floor. Got it. “Did you see any of them?”

  “Not a soul. But they had to have a fairly high level of ability to be able to do what they did while remaining on the ground. It would take a seer spell to see through the building and work a levitation spell at the same time.”

  She understood that without the explanation. That’s what made this whole situation so much worse. Sevana rose to her feet. “Sarsen. You deal with Master. I’ll go after the thieves.”

  “Not alone!” both men protested simultaneously.

  “I’ll take Decker, Hinun and Gid,” she assured them, already heading for the door. “I doubt any magician and his little band can handle an Artifactor prodigy, a huntsman, and two Illeyanic wolves.”

  “Sweetling,” Master called after her. She stopped in the doorway, half-turning to see him. He grimaced a smile. “Be careful. For my sake.”

  Careful? She’d done far more dangerous things than chasing down a group of stupid thieves. But she gave him a sloppy salute to reassure him—otherwise she feared he would try to follow along, despite the head injury.

  As she stepped out of the room, she found Sky huddled near the doorway, arms wrapped around himself. “Sky. Stay with Master and Sarsen, help them if you can. This time, you can’t follow me.”

  He looked up at her with solemn eyes. “You’re not afraid?”

  “What? You think they’re more dangerous than a water dragon?” she scoffed.

  The boy blinked, thinking that through, and then a fierce smile took over his face as he put the danger into perspective. “Take no prisoners.”

  She returned the wolfish smile. “You bet.”

  ~ ~ ~

  By the time Decker arrived at the inn, Sevana was more than ready to go. She had gotten dressed in
the darkest clothes she owned, put several useful things into her pouch, and strapped on not only her sword, but her long dagger as well. If it came down to a fight, she was more than ready for it.

  Decker’s stallion pulled to a sharp stop in front of the inn, two wolves in his wake. The huntsman looked as if he had thrown on the first clothes at hand, although she noted with approval that he also had several weapons strapped to him. “What happened?” he demanded before the stallion could come to a complete stop. “Your wolf was frantic to get us here.”

  “The gadgick has been stolen.”

  Decker could not have been more surprised if she had smacked him in the back of the head with a club. “WHAT?!”

  “You heard me. I’ll explain the details as we go, but we’re already a good thirty minutes behind them and losing ground fast.” Turning to the two wolves, she pointed toward the east side of the building. “I believe the thieves stood over there to do their work. Get a scent, if you can.” Hinun might not be able to pick out their scents from the rest of the villagers’—after all, he’d only been here a few days—but Gid could.

  Both wolves leaped lightly onto the porch and went directly to where she indicated, their noses to the ground, tails wagging slightly as they searched.

  Sevana grimaced, but bowed her head to the inevitable and extended a hand to Decker. “I’ll ride with you.”

  He quirked a brow at her. “You’re not going to ride your flying thing?”

  “I can’t see the ground well enough from the sky to do any tracking,” she explained with limited patience. “And it attracts too much attention. If we discover later that we need to ambush them, we won’t be able to with me flapping about up there.”

  “Good point.” He grabbed her hand and kicked one boot free of the stirrup, letting her get a good foothold to swing aboard with. Fortunately, his saddle design had enough room to accommodate two people, if barely. She felt a little squashed between him and the cantle, but she could still breathe. She wrapped both arms around his waist in a firm grip, already knowing that by the end of this mad chase, she’d be saddle-sore and cranky. If this wasn’t such an emergency, where she couldn’t go back to Big and get one of her other vehicles, she’d never consent to climb onto a horse.