The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) (17 page)

Forus took them
around a slight bend in the trail and then stopped in front of a round looking
building. Instead of branches, this one was made of thick vine-like bushes that
spread up and over, tangling themselves to form sturdy walls. When she stepped
through the oblong opening, she found that the inside had those stone tables
that seemed to sprout out of the ground. It was clear aside from the tables
with a thick moss floor that smelled heavenly. She could hear water running
nearby so there had to be a stream behind or to the side of the building
somewhere.

Seeing that
Forus was waiting on her reaction, she assured him, “This is perfect. Um, how
far am I away from everyone else?”

“Some distance
away, but not far.” Forus’s tone had a
Why are you asking
note to it.

“Don’t approach
this place carelessly,” she requested, making her voice as firm as possible.
“While experimenting and analyzing elements, sometimes things go very wrong,
and I’ve been known to have explosions.”

Forus’s mouth
dropped. “Ex-explosions?”

“I don’t expect
it to happen here,” she assured him absently, her mind already switching over
to work mode. “Nothing you handed me has a volatile nature. But just in case,
call out a greeting before you get too close.”

“I will stay,”
Aran stated.

Sevana paused
in unpacking her bag and looked at him sideways. “You think you can stop an
explosion from occurring?”

He gave her
that enigmatic smile that suggested he was not about to answer that question
fully. “Do not worry, Forus.”

Forus did look
relieved that someone would be nearby to throw a bucket of water on her if
things went south. Really, the man’s imagination was blowing this out of
proportion. It wasn’t like Sevana would set the whole forest ablaze. At the
most, it would be just this section.

Shrugging, she
didn’t let this paranoia bother her, and went back to unpacking everything in
her bag. “Alright, let’s get to work.”

Half the
elements of Fae ink were ones that Sevana knew well. She did a surface level
testing of them, found the results she expected, and moved on. It was the rest
that she focused on intently.

Especially the
Fae blood.

Aran, for the
most part, sat cross-legged on the ground out of her way and just looked on.
Sometimes he grabbed one of her journals and read through it, asking her a
question when he felt it safe to interrupt her. But he never once got in her
way. Sevana adored people that could read the situation like he could and knew
when to be in her space and when to leave her be. Men like him had long life
expectancies because of that skill.

Sevana spent a
full day on the blood alone and didn’t get anywhere closer to an answer than
she had at the very beginning. Frustrated, she threw her wand down and pointed
an outraged finger at the sample lying on the glass dish. “What
is
this?!”

Glancing up
from the journal in his lap, Aran drawled, “Blood.”

“Blood isn’t
blood,” she shot back, temper flaring. Nine hours of working on an unsolvable
problem had made her usual patience disintegrate. “It’s a mixture of blood
cells, water, sugar, fat, protein, minerals, and salt.”

The man had the
gall to blink up at her as if he had never heard this before. “Really?”

Sevana grabbed
the nearest non-lethal object and chucked it at his head. Aran, laughing,
dodged and caught it in a free hand before levering himself up to his feet long
enough to put it back on the stone table.

Infuriating
man. He just sat there with all of these answers while watching her work her
brain to the point of overloading. “You know what Fae blood is made of.”

“I know what
I’ve been told. I think it will take one of our Mothers to answer your question
more fully, as they are the ones that are responsible for turning a human child
into Fae.” Aran handed her the journal. “Every Fae child is told that we are a
gestalt of the world around us. Our blood comes from the pure water
underground, our sight from the sun itself, our air from the wind, our flesh
from the clay of the ground.”

She would have
dismissed this as the ravings of an unhinged mind but the Fae were truly
magical, to the point that every diagnostic tool she had maintained their blood
was a cohesive substance that was pure magic. There was very limited data on
even how to categorize it. But if she took his words to be literal truth, then
how did their physical makeup become like this? How did a human body, made of
chemicals and bones and tissue, get transformed into something that more resembled
a collection of earthen elements?

“Don’t think
too hard about it,” Aran advised, “because it will make your brain bleed.”

“Literally?”

“Don’t know, I
don’t think too hard about it. Follow my example. It’s a good example.”

Growling, she
put her back to the table and leaned against it. Her brain was tired of going
in circles, her eyes ached from staring through a lens too long, and she was
fighting fatigue in her lower back. Probably because she had been bent over a
worktable most of the day. “I think,” she announced generally to the world, “that
I will go soak in your hot springs and analyze the water.”

“Still planning
to do that?”

“That, at
least, has an easy answer waiting for me.” And she’d find a way to duplicate it
and install one in Big. She wouldn’t rest until she managed it.

From the very
back of the table, her Caller stirred with a familiar sing-song voice. “
Sevana~
”

Sighing, Sevana
put her bath on a temporary hold and moved the Caller so it was on the edge of
the table and more visible. “Yes, Kip.”

“
I’ve gone
through every art market possible and I think I’ve found all of the portraits.”

“How many more
did you find?”

“
Three more.
They look much older than the recent ones. But! The reason I’m calling is that
I found the princess’s portrait.”

Sevana punched
a victorious fist into the air. “YES!”

“I knew that
would make your day.”
Morgan sounded completely pleased with himself, as he
should be.

“Where in the
world was it, anyway?”

“A fine arts
collector had it squirreled away. It wasn’t until we started searching known
collector’s rooms that we found it. Even then, the man’s hands had to be pried
off. Collectors are scary.”

“Truly.” Sevana
did not envy him the job of wresting back that portrait but she was very glad
that he’d managed it. “None of the portraits were damaged in any way?”

“
No. I made
sure to wrap them well before shipping them too, don’t worry.
”

Sevana’s mind
screeched to a stop. “Wait. You SHIPPED them?!”

“
Aren’t you
the one that told me not to send them through the clocks
?”

“Yes, I did,
but I didn’t think you’d send them off without going along either!”

“
Oh.
”
She could tell from the sheepish look on the Caller’s face that Morgan only now
realized that might be a bad idea. “
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
”

“Kiiiiip,” she
growled between clenched teeth, “if you have to track those portraits down
again, or anything happens to them, I’m coming after your hide.”

“
I’m tired
and making sloppy decisions, I’m not an idiot. It’s under royal escort by the
Sa Kaon Royal Guard directly to Big.”

“Wait, you made
it sound as if you just put it on the back of a courier’s horse. It’s under
royal guard?”

“
Of course.
You think the royal parents here are going to take any risks with their
daughter
?
Princess Farah herself is overseeing it taken to Big.
”

“That’s
entirely different than you made it sound like initially.” Sevana blew out a
breath. Sometimes talking to Morgan gave her minor panic attacks. The man was
bad for her heart. “Good. It should be safe enough that way. When are they due
to arrive?”

“
In four
days.
”

“You’ve updated
Master?”

“
I can’t
call you and him with updates. Not enough magic. You’ll have to call him. You’re
making progress up there
?”

“Technically,
yes, but I’m still finding enough stumbling blocks that it feels like I’m not.
There’s not enough magic in your mini-Caller to give you a full update. I’ll do
so when we meet back up at Big.” Pausing, she tried to think of anything she
needed to tell him. Nothing leapt to mind. “Short version is, I know the
elements of the ink now, so half the puzzle is solved. When I’ve completed my
analysis, I’ll be able to start working on the counter.”

“
Good. I’m
still in Sa Kao, can I report that
?”

“Yes. Also tell
them that while this was done with Fae ink, it was done without Fae knowledge.
Someone broke into here and stole the ink from their stores. They’re very, very
upset about this. If they ask who, it’s the same magician that cast the curse
on Bel and Aren.”

Morgan let out
a low whistle. “
What is he, a king assassin?”

“It’s looking
that way. But pass all of that along. Tell them I’ll be up here several more
days getting the rest of the information that I need, but then I’ll be back at
Big.”

“
Is Master
still at Big
?”

“Of course. I’m
feeding him information as I get it.” Although she was due to give him another
update today. After her bath she’d do so.

“
What do you
need me to do now
?”

“After updating
the royals? Not a thing, I don’t think. I don’t have enough information to plan
out a counter to this spell yet. When I do, that’s when I can hand out marching
orders.”

“
Roger that.
Well, this thing is almost out of magic so I’ll sign off. Meet you at Big in
about a week.”

“Will do. Go.”
The Caller went still and she put it into her pocket. Every bit of tension from
the past two weeks knotted her shoulders and neck. She definitely needed to
have that bath before calling Master.

Aran regarded
her steadily, his expression one of cautious neutrality, as if he were
contemplating saying something he shouldn’t. “Is it that vital, that you know
exactly how our blood is formed?”

“Right now, I
have no idea how to counter the ink. Until I do, over a dozen souls are trapped
as an ink drawing. Does that answer the question?”

He stared at
her face a moment more, weighing and measuring, before he dipped his head a
fraction. “I will find you the answer.”

She blinked,
not expecting him to say anything like that. “You will?”

“Go bathe,” he
encouraged with a faint smile. “I’ll find out and report back to you.”

As desperately
as she wanted and needed to know, Sevana had enough foresight to realize that
by doing that, she might be damaging the ties she had with the Fae. For this
emergency, fine, breaking the rules was acceptable. But what happened with the
next emergency, when she needed their help? Life was unpredictable. She
couldn’t swear that something like this wouldn’t happen again.

“Aran. I don’t
want you to get us both into trouble. We’ll pay for rashness later.”

“You are not of
us, but you are with us. You can ask this question and be allowed to know.”
More practically, he added, “You just didn’t ask them the question, so they
assume you didn’t need to know.”

Well, in that
case, “Fine, go ask.”

He didn’t move.
“While I’m asking, anything else?”

“I have a
feeling I’ll need certain elements to counter this. I won’t know exactly until
I have this all figured out, but I can guess on a few things, and at least two
of them can be found here. Ask them if I can take what I need along with me.”

“That is
understood. Of course you may. We may need a guide so we can gather it
ourselves, so I will ask in advance for one.” He quirked a brow. “You know how
the spell works, then?”

“I’m still not
sure. But I have a sneaking suspicion.” Her gut feeling was that it was a
portal spell and not a transformation spell. Master had concurred last night,
while they were updating each other on their progress, but at the moment
neither of them had any evidence to support it.

Aran seemed to
realize that he wouldn’t get anything more out of her than that. He took off to
go find her whatever answers he could. Sevana threw the Caller, her notebook of
today’s findings, and such into her bag before heading back out.

The Fae had
kindly put together a trail guide of sorts for her. They must have realized
that to her eyes, everything looked the same, and so they arranged for a trail
of stones to light up the path. They were color coded—white leading back to her
rooms, blue to this workspace, and green to the common areas that the Fae all
shared. Rincavornon had told her about them when he brought her and Aran lunch.
It was thoughtful but also necessary—Sevana was not one to wait but the sort to
blaze ahead until she figured it out. She would undoubtedly have gotten lost in
this confusing labyrinth without them.

She followed
her white stones back to her rooms, stopped long enough to grab a towel and a
clean set of clothes, then went for the bathing rooms. At the doorway, she
abruptly remembered that she had a notebook in her satchel, which really
shouldn’t get wet. Pausing, she dropped it next to the wall, out of the way,
then continued on.

The water was
slightly too hot, as it had been the day before, but Sevana didn’t mind it. As
she sat and soaked, she pulled out her box lens and gave the water a close
scrutiny. It seemed as if the whole thing was heated by an underground source
of magma. Mixed into the water was a variety of minerals like silica, calcium,
sulfate, magnesium, chloride, fluoride, potassium, and oxygen. Well no wonder
it was good for relieving stress from the body! With that combination, it was
tailor made for it.

Satisfied, she
made mental notes, then started plotting how to incorporate this into Big. The
magma was out, of course—she’d have to find a way to make an artificial heat
source—but the rest of the minerals shouldn’t be a problem.

From the
doorway, she heard Aran’s voice. “Sevana, there is a male voice coming from
your bag.”

Eh? Oh, right,
the Caller. “That’s likely Master trying to reach me. Pull it free and tell him
I’m busy and will talk to him later,” she called back.

There was the
sound of rustling cloth as Aran opened her bag, then he said pleasantly,
“Hello.”

Master’s voice
was clear even from here. “
I believe I’ve seen you in the background as I’ve
spoken to Sevana.”

“I am Arandur.
You are Tashjian Joles?”

“
That’s
right. Pleasure, Arandur. Is Sevana around?”

“She’s
completely naked at the moment. Can she call you back?”