Mistweavers 01 - Enchanted No More (25 page)

“Since your household is small—” Aric’s glance took in all four of the Waterfolk “—I’m sure that you have a personal and private ritual dancing area.”

“Underwater,” the naiader said stiffly.

“Of course.” Aric inclined his head. “I need to scout out the best place for the royal dancing circle.” He glanced at Jenni. She ate the last bite of her croissant, savored the swallow of coffee on her tongue and rose. Once on her feet she dipped a curtsy though she wore jeans. “Thank you for the wonderful coffee.” She met the eyes of each naiad and the naiader, cruised her gaze over the lady’s pert nose. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“You are very welcome.” Diamantina stood, too. “I’ll have some rooms prepared on this ground floor, looking landward for you two.”

“Thank you,” Aric said in a neutral tone.

Jenni said nothing. The best rooms would be either near the ocean or on the third floor, and definitely facing the ocean. Despite all her courtesy, the merfem didn’t think much of them. As Jenni followed Aric to the door, she glanced back to see the lady’s brow puckered and her mouth set in dissatisfied lines. Her eyes had deepened to a dark green with mysterious depths. Jenni thought she saw a flash of calculation.

“JINDESFARNE?” ARIC PROMPTED
. HE WAS holding the door open for her.

Lengthening her stride, Jenni passed him and walked out into the gray March morning. Aric closed the door behind them and joined her. Hands on his hips, he scanned the wooded area. “Before anything else, I need to make sure that I know every tree on her land.” He grimaced. “First just the ones around her house.” He bent and gave Jenni a quick kiss. “I’ll be chain traveling now, be back shortly.” With that he stepped into the nearest eucalyptus.

Jenni let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. She was alone. All by herself. The minor Waterfolk or the merfem might be watching, but she was in no one else’s company for the first time in a week. A few breaths of freedom until Aric stepped out of the tree. She walked closer to the cliff and stared down at the beach. Wherever the ritual would be taking place, she should be on the beach, close to where the orb might appear.

She settled into her balance to check the magical elemental composition of the land, feet wide, arms spread. Another sighing breath escaped her, then she drew in one damp with humidity, the taste of the salt of the sea and cold. She curled her toes in her shoes, opened her mouth and tasted magic. She closed her eyes for a better focus.

Overwhelming water energy. Not surprising. As she parsed each bit of energy for the house and the immediate bluff she sensed Aric coming closer as he checked every tree.

“Well?” they asked each other at the same time.

Jenni smiled, dipped her head at him to speak first.

He said, “No dryad trees. Haven’t been in a long time. I can’t tell why.”

“Maybe too much water magic? It’s about two-thirds here.”

Aric frowned. “Maybe. All the trees are acceptable for travel use.”

“Good.” Jenni didn’t much care, she couldn’t use them by herself and wouldn’t trust many—anyone other than Aric—to bring her through the tree network.

The concerned lines in his face deepened. “I think there might have been some shadleech activity. I found a stump or two of a pine that might have been cut down because they nested there.”

Her usual dread at the things trembled her nerves, and she lifted her hand and touched the sensitive back of her neck, felt the protective spiderweb inside and out. Better.

“Your findings?” Aric asked.

“Water two-thirds, earth one-sixth, fire one-twelfth and air one-twelfth.”

“Not too odd for a land that has hosted a merfem for a couple of centuries.”

“I would have expected a little more air.” Jenni rolled uncomfortable shoulders. “Too little fire.”

Aric’s smile was slow. He reached up and smoothed a curl of her hair that had been dangling by her face to behind her ear, his fingers feathering across her cheek as he did so. “You’ll remedy that.”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ll feel better about being here.”

Jenni made a moue. “I’ll bet you anything that there’s a fountain in my room.”

He shook his head. “No bet.”

A movement caught her eye and she found that the two naiads and the naiader had appeared and were staring at her and Aric.

The merfem’s companion said, “Your rooms are ready. Our lady felt you assess the elemental energies of our land. She requests that you don’t balance the magic until we have prepared our homes for the influx of visitors. Nor does she wish for you to visit the beach.”

Aric’s hand came over Jenni’s shoulder and the warmth of it made her realize how cold she was. Being inside would be good. He spoke and his voice was as cool as the air. “Doesn’t your lady know that drawing on a balanced mixture of energies will make your tasks easier? Your spells quicker and more effective?”

The naiader stepped forward, managed a stingy smile. “We are more accustomed to working with water energy. We ask that the elemental balancer does not alter those energies as yet.”

“All right,” Jenni said. “When do you think you’ll be ready for me to do my work? The sooner this area is balanced, the easier it will be to keep it so, and prepare for the ritual.”

“She will notify you,” the naiader said.

Jenni suppressed a sigh. “Fine. Can you lead us to our rooms?”

“Of course.” The second naiad’s smile was falsely cheerful, she turned with every expectation that Jenni and Aric would follow. Jenni did, and as she walked away, Aric’s hand fell. By the time they reached the door, the other naiad and the naiader had disappeared.

Well, they were true magical Lightfolk, not halflings.

She and Aric were given rooms at the opposite end of a hallway. Before Jenni could speak, Aric told the naiads firmly that they wanted to share a room. With a curled lip at Jenni, the naiad led them back to the smaller room with the lousier view. “For you, Treeman and halfling.”

Jenni stiffened, tired of the whole thing. “It appears that you aren’t so much in your lady’s confidence. Since she didn’t inform you how important this ritual is, and how much depends upon Aric and me.”

Now the naiad’s upper lip lifted. “Self-important.”

“Just important. You may address the Treeman as Sir Paramon, Representative of the Eight, and me as Princess Jindesfarne Mistweaver Emberdrake.”

The naiad froze midsneer. “Emberdrake is the name of the Fire King and Queen.”

Jenni continued, “That’s true. I see you have some tiny knowledge. My brother and I were adopted into the Emberdrake family last week. Mostly because of my import for the upcoming ritual.”

Aric pushed away from the doorjamb he’d been leaning against, arms crossed. “And since your lady wasn’t briefed by the Eight as I had anticipated, perhaps I should tell you, and you can tell her, that the ritual event may draw some Dark ones, so you should prepare any defenses you might have.”

The naiad’s mouth opened and closed several times.

“You may leave now. The household has much to do,” Aric said.

With a squeal of fear, the naiad ran.

Aric slung his pack on the bed, gave Jenni a smile. His hair appeared greener than ever due to the dull light from two small windows. Heavy drapes covered what Jenni thought was a sliding glass door. “Staying here is fine with me. The bed’s large.” He winked.

“And we certainly are away from everyone else.”

“All to the good. But I really do need to find a good place for the dancing circle. You’ll have to balance it.”

“I’ll have to balance a lot, the area, fine-tune the beach where I’ll stand during the ceremony, and the dancing circle. This house.”

Aric’s smile grew sly. “Why don’t you go ahead and balance the room, if that isn’t too much for you?”

“Might be a good idea,” Jenni agreed. She glanced around the room. “I’ll need a hot plate to brew the tea.”

His forehead wrinkled. “Tea?”

She took her knapsack and shook it, leaves rustled. “This is a huge deal. I intend to do every single thing right. By the book, our family books.”

Aric nodded. He walked up to her and rubbed his hands up and down her upper arms, kissed her. “I understand. I’m with you. All the way, Jenni.”

She wanted to believe him. She
did
believe him.

“Thank you.”

Jenni made tea and heated it in her hands, did her own rituals for entering the gray mist and balanced just the room and attached bath. It felt great—both practicing her craft fully the way she’d been taught by her family, and the chamber after she was done with it. Her magical senses had also been fully awakened and “tuned.” She could tell where her lover, Aric, was, and the lady whose house this was.

Aric was concentrating and doing his job. As she scrutinized his aura, she understood that despite what he said about the dryads and his home and his forest being his first priorities, he was content and proud to be the Eight’s man. He valued his position and defined himself with regard to it and the Eight. He wouldn’t be the same man if he resigned. And she cared deeply for the man he was.

More soul-searching for her, that he was tied to the Eight by his own bonds. She still didn’t trust
them
.

And from the chaos in the household, she wasn’t sure that the lady Diamantina trusted the Eight, either. Especially not to defend her. She’d called on allies of her own, and some were coming to swell the ranks of Lightfolk, who would dance the ritual and fight any Dark ones who showed up. Jenni got the idea that old, old caverns that the merfolk had excavated in this land when she’d first arrived were being opened.

Dinner was civilized and the naiads—a few Jenni hadn’t been introduced to before—were very courteous. Aric assured Diamantina that their room was fine with a stolid, bland smile that didn’t reveal he’d understood the insult, but if the lady was at all bright she must have known that he had—he and Jenni had. Or did she discount them as unintelligent, Jenni brought in to do one thing and one thing only and not smart about anything else?

Jenni didn’t care, but over the next week, as she became accustomed to the feel of the land, she understood that Diamantina hadn’t interacted with humans for a long, long time.

Magical traps were being set around the estate: underwater, on the beach, the cliff faces and steep slopes up the hills, the bluff itself and, of course, the house, though Jenni thought that the lady was ready to sacrifice that building.

And magical shields were being erected to hide any increased activity from humans. There were no roads to the place, not even close, and the only way to the beach was by hiking along it from towns many miles away. But the Eight were being careful.

The Air King, Cloudsylph, had arrived to get the lay of the land and consult with Diamantina. Both approved the large flat area covered with the dry grass of winter with the hint of greenness and tiny spring wildflowers low to the ground.

Jenni was given permission to balance the land, which she did with all the proper Mistweaver rituals, and it went very smoothly. When she stepped from the mist, she saw respect in Cloudsylph’s eyes. Later that day, Jenni was led to the main tunnel from the house to the beach by Diamantina’s companion naiad, who continued to give Jenni the notion that she was being weighed and found wanting. She’d already found the door down to the beach on her wandering, but hadn’t opened it without permission.

This was the way she’d take on the morning of the spring equinox, while the Eight and the great Lightfolk gathered to do their ritual. On the beach, she’d wait for the last bubble to rise from the ocean. The beach was where she’d step into the interdimension to sense its energies, balance what she could in the bubble and the moment it burst, equalize all the energies in the area so the Lightfolk would have the greatest amount of magic to work with to direct the creativity of the bubble.

There were elemental energies around the door, a trap, and she disarmed it by pulling some fire energy and flicking it at the spell, smiling from under half-lidded eyes at the naiad. Jenni gestured with her flashlight, she didn’t want to use magic when tech was good enough. “I’m afraid that I can’t reset the trap, and if I have to walk through a tunnel loaded with traps, I’ll have to disarm them all. So, if
you
can take them down for the time that I’m on the beach, it would be better.” Jenni brightened her smile. “You should have plenty of balanced energy to call on.”

The naiad scowled, she’d still refused to be formally introduced to Jenni, so Jenni didn’t know her name, not even a nickname that she was called. The woman muttered liquid syllables and Jenni felt pressure beyond the door release as the traps were removed.

Jenni nodded. “Thank you, and you might want to remind everyone in the household that if something happens to me before the bubble event on the way to the beach, the Eight will be displeased.”

With a green sharp-toothed smile, the naiad replied, “We won’t put the shields and traps up on the tunnel until after you’re down on the beach on the day of the dancing circle.” She looked down her nose, the nostrils of which were thin membranes that fluttered when she was upset, like now. “One of the lesser naiads will do so then. I will be dancing at my lady’s side.”

Of course they’d arm the traps behind Jenni, cutting off retreat if the Darkfolk attacked and she didn’t have enough energy to disarm the traps.

“Mmm-hmm,” Jenni said. “See ya later.” She opened the door and went through. She should reach the beach a half hour before low tide.

This tunnel wasn’t as pleasant as the Earth Palace ones she’d traveled through. All the walls and the floor glistened with wet, and since Jenni was living mostly in her magical nature of djinn—fire—the caves were disagreeable. She worried about slipping.

There was the scent of the ocean, and the throbbing pound of it, that almost made up for the wet…the Earth Palace had always had an underscent, and taste on the back of her tongue, of sulphur. Sea salt now lingered there and she liked the change.

The angle down to the beach was steep and the solid rock floor turned to rocky grit, then silty sand, and she considered each step carefully. When she reached the bottom, there wasn’t much space and she swung her flashlight around to see a small bulb of a room of dark stone draped with seaweed. Narrowing her eyes, she called up her magical sight and found the doorway outlined in blue-green-violet where water and air energy seeped through.

She could
feel
the great sheets of water energy from the Pacific Ocean restlessly shifting. Additional air energies rose from the foam of the waves where sky met sea. Around her was the rock and earth magic.

Jenni blinked and frowned at the cave door, wondering how much magical strength it would take to open it, and if she had enough natural energy within herself to handle it. The merfem was a greater Lightfolk, all the naiads and naiaders minor Waterfolk but completely magical. It was a good bet that there’d be no physical way to open the cave and it would be camouflaged outside from any humans who managed to hike up the coast to this beach.

Stepping up to the rock wall, she put her hand on the door, and
pushed
with all her magical strength. Nothing happened. She wasn’t accustomed to trying to influence physical objects with magical energy. Entering the gray mist wouldn’t solve this problem in the real world. With a huff of breath, she took a pace back, considered all the lessons she had and the few magical things she could do outside of the interdimension.