The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) (23 page)

“Um, hello?”

The unknown
voice in the dead silence of the room was so shocking that all of them flinched
from it. Sevana bolted up to her feet, her ears automatically tracing the
source of the sound to the mirror.

There, looking
like a floating ghost, was the woman from the portrait. Her skin looked
slightly bluish, hair in a messier bun than the portrait had her in, lips
kicked up in a hopeful, if bemused, smile. “Are you still out there?”

Sevana
swallowed, hard, and tried to find her voice. “We’re here. Can you see us?”

“Oh yes, of
course. At least two of you. Um, I’m Milly, Milly Andrews, and you are?”

That was not at
all a Sa Kaon name. She must have been from Windamere originally, although how
she’d ended up in a different country was beyond Sevana’s ken at the moment.
“Sevana Warran. The man behind me is Arandur.”

Master stepped
into the mirror’s view and introduced in a shaky voice, “I’m Tashjian Joles.
Sevana and I are Artifactors.”

“Yes, Master
Joles, the princess has told us about the two of you,” Milly informed him, as
she did a curtsey to all of them. “Um, why am I still in the mirror?”

Sevana choked
on the explanation. She simply couldn’t force the words to go out of her mouth.
Master, more experienced with this situation than she was, found a way to
explain. “Our solution took several weeks to prepare, I’m afraid. And even
then, the main ingredient we used isn’t quite perfected yet. But the magic on your
portrait was failing, so we acted anyway, hoping to save you in spite of
everything. We just weren’t able to do so fast enough. I’m afraid, Mistress
Milly, that your physical body is no more. You are forever trapped in that
plane.”

Milly’s
expression didn’t change for several seconds. It was as if she simply couldn’t
comprehend what was being said to her. Then her eyes filled with tears that
slowly traced their way down her cheeks. “I can’t return home at all?”

“If there is a
way, I’ll find it,” Sevana vowed ferociously. “I will
not
let that man
win like this. You are in the mirror
for now
. That is all.” She met
Milly’s eyes squarely, feeling her own burn with unshed tears. “I am a prodigy,
a genius in this field. If I can’t find a solution to this problem, then there
isn’t one to be found.”

Milly wiped
away tears and gave her a brave smile. “Then I’m counting on you, Miss
Artifactor.”

Sevana had an
absolutely terrible night, tossing back and forth like a tormented soul. There
wasn’t a thing that she could think of to make the situation even more bearable,
and no solutions came to mind. Aside from turning back time. When she’d started
working on this problem, she’d had a feeling that time might be a factor, but
this was far too short a time frame. Spells shouldn’t end within months like
this, not spells this inherently powerful. She’d assumed she would have a year
at least to find a good answer. She’d worked hard on it and certainly hadn’t
been taking long breaks, so in all honesty it wasn’t like she could have found
a solution to this faster. Still, that feeling of guilt lingered and burned in
her chest.

Because of that,
she awoke in a foul mood, like a swamp witch crawling out of her den. She was
bleary eyed, grouchy, and her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Baby
was back in his usual spot on the mattress, Grydon sprawled out on the rug next
to her side of the bed. She had to yank her feet out from underneath the cat
and maneuver around Grydon, nearly tripping over him twice just getting her
feet on the floor. Really, why did they sleep like this? It was like running an
obstacle course every morning.

Pulling on
clothes at random, she put her hair up in a messy bun before staggering towards
the kitchen. Both creatures followed her out, then raced ahead, bounding with
endless energy. If only she could find a way to bottle that energy, she’d make
millions…wait. Nose twitching, she took in a deep breath. What was that
delectable aroma? Ten feet from the door, she stopped dead. Was that bacon she smelled?
And biscuits? There was something sweet in the air too, smelling hot and
tempting. Chamomile?

Entering the
kitchen, she took in the scene with her taste buds watering. Aran had cooked
breakfast. On the table was bacon, fresh biscuits, what looked like blueberry
jam—and where in the world had he found that, because it wasn’t in her
cupboards—chamomile tea and sliced apples. The beasts were already licking
their plates clean, because of course Aran had cooked for them as well, and
they were looking entirely too pampered and satisfied.

When she
stopped at the table, he put the last of the utensils down on the table before
looking up and offering, “Good morning?”

“It certainly
looks better than it did two minutes ago,” she responded. Taking a chair, she
dropped into it and reached for a biscuit. “Aran, why are you such a good
cook?”

“I spend the
majority of my time traveling,” he pointed out dryly. “There’s no one to cook
for me and one can only take so much hard tack before the body just rebels.”

That was a good
point. Filling her plate, she dug into the food with a sigh of bliss. Last
night had been terrible, but the day always looked a little better with good
food on hand. Baby and Grydon, with a breakfast in their bellies, bounded back
out the door again. No doubt looking for mischief. Sevana sent a silent prayer
to the heavens that they didn’t find anything that they couldn’t handle. She
didn’t want to come to their rescue today, not with everything else she needed
to do.

“I spoke with
Miss Milly last night at length after you and Master Tashjian went to bed.”
Aran had a cautious expression on his face as he said this, as if expecting an
explosion.

Sevana looked
him dead in the eye. She was no longer in the mood to cry or rage like she had
the night before. Her anger was now smoldering in a steady burn, driving her
forward but no longer controlling her. “And?”

When she didn’t
snap, he relaxed and sat in the chair next to hers, also filling his plate.
“She told me that the part that bothers her most isn’t the loss of her physical
body. Actually, she had three significant health problems that were causing her
a great deal of discomfort and pain. She feels better now than she has in the
past ten years. But she has four children, and trapped like this, she can’t see
any of them.”

So being in the
mirror was a mixed blessing. That only made Sevana feel slightly better.

“But,” Aran
continued, obviously not done, “I had a thought. What if you put that spell on
the mirror like you have on your Callers. And then give other mirrors to her
children? That way she can talk to all of them and see how they’re doing.”

Sevana froze.
Like the Callers? What he was suggesting wouldn’t at all work, the magic would
clash with mirror magic as the spells weren’t designed in such a way to
cooperate, but that didn’t mean that the theory couldn’t be applied to a
different spell that would work the same way. In fact, because she wasn’t
trapped in
that
mirror, per se, just in a plane that mirrors could
connect to, it would be far easier to just spell several mirrors to connect
directly to that plane.

“Sevana?” Aran
waved a hand in front of her face. “Still with me?”

In a voice
filled with worshipful adoration, she breathed, “If you didn’t have cooties,
I’d kiss you.”

A flush spread
across his face, turning the points of his ears red. “Eh, ah, what?”

Laughing, she
bounced up and raced for her workroom. Aran was several beats behind her, and
she could hear him mutter something to himself before he scraped the chair
back. She was too far away to catch anything except the sound of his voice, but
she was too excited about his idea to double back and ask what he had said.

Sevana skidded
to a stop in front of the mirror, bracing her hands on either side of the
frame. “Milly.”

The other woman
instantly materialized in the mirror, looking hopeful. “Yes, Artifactor?”

“I don’t have a
solution to the problem, but I have a temporary fix. How about I spell several
mirrors and send them to your children? That way you can flit between here and
any mirror of your choosing and be able to visit with them.”

The woman’s
eyes lit up. “Will they be able to see me? Talk to me?”

“Of course,
just like we’re doing now.”

“Oh heavens.”
Milly tapped a palm to her heart, moved beyond words. “Oh heavens. That would
make this so much better. Please, Miss Artifactor, please do that. In fact,
this might be better! Because two of my children moved off, I rarely got to see
them anyway, and this way I can see them whenever I wish to. Oh heavens, oh
heavens.”

“I can’t send
full length ones,” Sevana warned. “Smaller than this, something more like a
portrait size.”

“That’s fine,”
Milly assured her, still tapping her heart.

Aran entered
and sat their breakfast plates down on the table. “Sevana, eat. Milly, tell me
where your children are, and I’ll write that down so we know where to send
them. We don’t have the time or the mirrors right this minute, so I think we’ll
have to wait until after everyone else is released from the portraits.”

Sevana nodded
confirmation. He was right in that. “But after that’s done, I’ll send my
business partner Kip with the mirrors to your children, along with letters
explaining what happened and how the mirrors work. He’s a very trustworthy man,
he’ll make sure the mirrors arrive in the right place intact.”

“That sounds
wonderful,” Milly assured them both. “I understand, you need to focus on
getting everyone else free before they get trapped like I did.”

Glad that she was
patient and understanding, Sevana went back to her cooling breakfast and
scarfed it up. It was a shame she wasn’t still in the kitchen, as she would
have liked a second biscuit. Well, no matter, she had work on hand now.

Master ambled
into the workroom with a plate mounded with food. “Sevana, you cooked?”

“I did,” Aran
corrected.

“I wondered.
The biscuits were different than Sevana’s version. Aran, you can cook breakfast
any time,” Master told him seriously.

“I’ll do that,”
Aran responded with the same serious tone.

Eyeing his
former apprentice, Master observed, “You look better than I expected.”

“Aran has
thought of a palliative for this situation,” she informed him, nearly beaming.
It was such a relief, really, that she could offer this so that the poor woman
wasn’t trapped in one place and going mad with anxiety. “We’re going to spell
several mirrors and send them to Milly’s children so that she can talk to all
of them and visit as she wishes to.”

Master stopped
chewing, eyes widening. Around a mouthful he breathed, “Brilliant.”

“Wasn’t it?”
she agreed.

Arandur cleared
his throat, the tips of his pointy ears turning slightly pink. “You would have
thought of this too, after you had a chance to talk with her.”

“Whoever thinks
of the idea first gets the credit,” Master disagreed, smiling. “That’s the
rule. Still, that might be the cumbersome way to do it.” Picking up a piece of
bacon, he munched on it, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Perhaps we can
give Mistress Milly a way to use any mirror she wishes?”

Sevana stopped
short at the thought. Now that would be remarkably handy, if Milly could use
any mirror, any time. If they could give her a tool of some sort to make any
mirror useable to her, it was possible in theory to manage that. “You have an
idea?”

“Two or three,
all half-formed. I’ll work on that after we get this resolved.” He didn’t have
to clarify what ‘this’ was. “Speaking of, how is our wash doing?”

Since Sevana
was done eating, she put the plate completely aside and went to her wash and
her test parchment. Dipping a brush into it liberally, she smeared across the
only clean section of the parchment left. It was a light grey, the perfect
shade for what they wanted to do. “Perfect. Let’s get some people out. What
order?”

“Oldest first,”
Master and Aran said in near perfect sync.

“I have to
agree.” This was not a time for rank to take precedence. Sevana spun on her
heels before pointing at the portrait on the far wall. “It would be that one.”

“Mistress
Milly, I would advise not standing in the way while we’re doing this,” Master
said as an aside, putting his own plate out of the way on the top of one of
Sevana’s shelves. “In fact, I’d stay as far back as I could. We didn’t think
that any of you would still be in the mirror plane while we were doing this, so
working this magic might affect you as well.”

“I’ll stay well
back,” she promised, already scooting off to the side and out of sight.

Sevana picked
up the portrait of an old man sunning himself on a dock, putting it flat on her
work table, then reached for her brush. “Master, ready?”

“I am,” Master
assured her, wand in hand. “Aran, when we pull people out, you need to take
them into the next room and make sure that they drink something. They’ll be
dizzy otherwise. They’ve spent too long in that plane.”

“I’ll do so,”
Aran assured them. “Should I make them sit and rest?”

“If you can. If
they have questions, answer them, but make sure you’re here to help the next
person when we pull them out.”

Now that was a
thought. After being in this plane, no one would be able to travel by portal
for at least twenty-four hours. It would be too hard on them physically. “Big?”

She could feel
the mountain perk up as his name was called, his attention centering on her.

“We’re going to
have a lot of guests overnight. Make rooms and put beds into them. About, hm, a
dozen.”

Will,
the mountain assured her. In the far distance, she could hear groaning and
rumbling as rocks started shifting. Big was always prompt in filling her
requests.

Aran was quick
on the implications of this. “They’ll have to stay here tonight?”

“We won’t be
able to take them home until tomorrow,” she explained, turning back to the
portrait. “It will be too hard on their bodies. By tomorrow, they’ll have
recovered enough that a quick trip through my clocks won’t be an issue. We’ll
take them home then.”

“I’ll handle
Belen, you do Sa Kao.”

She rolled her
eyes at Master. “Of course. That’s where we both started this job after all.”
But their immediate attention should be on the first victim. Painting the
portrait with wide, quick strokes, she covered it completely with the wash and
was relieved when the magic in the ink pulsed in a steady way. Lifting it up by
the corners, she pressed it into the surface of the mirror for two complete
seconds before pulling it free again.

Master started
uttering the spell as soon as she stepped back, finishing with a firm, “
AESE NE FOLE
.”

A wizened
gentleman with wispy white hair and dark skin gingerly stuck a hand out. Aran
was right at his side, taking the hand and offering a support as the old man
tentatively stepped through and put a sandaled foot onto the floor. Blinking,
he looked around, saw three worried people looking back at him, and broke out
into the brightest smile that Sevana had ever seen. “Salutations! I’m free?”