Taking Flight

But it would also be cruel, and unfair, and disgusting. And it might well cause just as much trouble in the long run as the spell on Ezdral. It would be far better to let Irith make up her own mind. She liked him, he knew she did. She would marry him, eventually, without any spells. She would come back to Shulara. Zindre’s prophecy said as much.

Of course, this might have been part of the prophecy, this offer of a love spell; by turning it down he might be voiding Zindre’s promises. All the same, he was resolved to do so. Magically-induced love was not what he wanted.

And then, after he had decided that he wanted Irith to love him naturally if she was going to love him at all, he remembered something.

Spells didn’t work on Irith any more. Wizardry could not affect her. She had challenged wizards to magical duels, and then laughed at them as their spells left her untouched. Any love philtre, potion, or aphrodisiac would be utterly useless on her.

Did Perina know that? Was she trying to trick him?

Or did she have some other purpose in mind?

“I don’t have much money…” he began.

She waved that away. “No, no,” she said, “for you, it’s free.”

“Um … Why?”

“Because I just want to see you youngsters happy, that’s all!”

“Well,” said Kelder, “thank you, I appreciate it, and I’ll think it over.”

“You do that,” she said, as he made his escape, out the door to the stairway.

The question of just why she had made the offer gave him something to think about all the way to the bottom.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The question of Perina’s motives stayed at the back of Kelder’s mind for the rest of the afternoon, nibbling away at his attention as he met Irith at the gate and led her to Senesson’s shop. This time he knocked, and the two of them were admitted to the wizard’s presence.

Senesson was a bent, grey old man; Kelder wondered if he might have found some way to live past his time, but without ever learning any youth spells, because he could easily have been a century old-Ezdral would have seemed to be in the very flower of youthful vigor by comparison. The wizard had no teeth, making his speech hard to understand, and a strand of spittle hung swaying from one corner of his mouth. He cackled when anything amused him, which was often. He leered at Irith in a truly offensive manner, and Kelder could understand why Azraya had stamped out in a rage.

Senesson, who was only recently arrived in Krithimion, claimed to have met Irith before, long ago in another kingdom, but she didn’t recall any such encounter. The wizard invited Kelder to take a seat in the shop while Senesson and Irith talked business in the workroom.

Kelder sat and mulled over Perina’s offer, while in the next room Irith fended off the drooling old fool’s lecherous advances and determined, at least to her own satisfaction, that he knew no countercharm for Fendel’s Infatuous Love Spell. Kelder did pay attention to the conversation, however, and intervened when Senesson’s lust threatened to get out of hand.

Irith was not as angry upon departing as Azraya had been, but she came close.

By the time Kelder and Irith sat down for supper at the Leaping Fish he had come to the conclusion that Perina had either hoped to dupe him into giving Irith some other potion completely, not a love spell at all, or that she had some idea that if he used a love spell to control Irith, she could then control him, and thereby have the services of a remarkable and talented creature at her beck and call.

Kelder was not sure just what Perina would want with a tame shapeshifter, but he supposed there would be uses for one. With that out of the way, he began wondering whether Azraya would show up.

Asha and Ezdral arrived more or less on schedule; Asha was smiling and happy, Ezdral drunk and morose. The old man all but flung himself at Irith when he spotted her, and Kelder saw Irith flicker, as she started to turn herself invisible and then changed her mind.

Kelder pried Ezdral away from her, got the entire party seated around the table, and saw to the distribution of the meal the inn had supplied.

Azraya did not come, and even as he admired the way the lanterns lit Irith’s hair Kelder found himself a little disappointed.

Beautiful women, plural, Zindre had said-Kelder had not immediately thought of Azraya as beautiful, but now he realized that she qualified. Another phrase had been fulfilled, then. If the contents of Perina’s tower counted for strange beasts and mighty magic, then the whole prophecy was coming along nicely. Another great city, another vast plain, then a triumphant return home with Irith as his bride, and he would have made the entire prediction come true.

That was just as well; he was beginning to tire of traveling, of eating and sleeping in inns like the Leaping Fish.