Taking Flight

That left three of them, Asha, Kelder, and Valder, sitting in front of the fire.

“Tell me,” Valder asked, “who are you people, and how do you come to be traveling with Irith?”

Kelder had been made so comfortable so quickly that he had forgotten that Valder had no idea who he was. “I’m Kelder of Shulara,” he said. “That’s Asha of Amramion, and the man cadging oushka from your kitchen help is Ezdral the Sot. I met Irith on the Great Highway, and we just decided to travel together. We bumped into Asha in Angarossa, after she ran away from her father and her brother got killed, and we found Ezdral in Shan on the Desert.”

Valder considered that. “You seem pleasant enough, and I can see why Irith’s traveling with you,” he said, “and I suppose she felt sorry for the girl.” He nodded politely at Asha, who smiled. “But why in the World would Irith put up with the old man, or he with her?”

“She enchanted him,” Kelder explained, “a long time ago, when he wasn’t much older than I am now. She put a love spell on him, and then didn’t know how to take it off.”

“And she didn’t just fly off and forget about him?” Valder asked, startled.

Kelder was equally startled by accuracy of the innkeeper’s guess. “Well, actually,” he said, “she did, but then we ran into him in Shan, and he followed us, and when I found out why I said we should try and find a cure for him, not just leave him there.”

“That speaks well of you, lad,” Valder said. “Most people would have just left him to rot.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Kelder said, embarrassed.

“I would have,” Asha said. “Why didn’t he find his own countercharm years ago?”

“I don’t think he even knew it was a spell,” Kelder told her.

“I didn’t know Irith had any love spells,” Valder remarked.

“Well, she doesn’t use it much,” Kelder said. “It causes trouble. Like turning into a fish.”

Valder smiled. “I can see how it might,” he said. “So you’re looking for a countercharm?”

Kelder nodded. “I thought we could probably find one in Ethshar,” he said.

“You may not need to go that far,” Valder said. “Do you know the spell’s name?”

“Are you a wizard?” Asha asked, suspiciously.

“No,” Valder replied, “but my wife is.”

“It’s called Fendel’s Infatuous Love Spell,” Kelder said, wondering why a wizard would ever have married an innkeeper.

“Oh,” said Valder, grinning cheerfully, “that should be no problem, then-Iridith knows just about all Fendel’s spells. Fendel was in here just about five years ago, and the two of them traded recipes.”

This was too much for Kelder; his jaw dropped, then snapped shut.

“You’re teasing,” he accused.

“No, I’m not,” Valder said.

“Fendel the Great is dead, isn’t he?”

“Well, he wasn’t the last time I saw him,” Valder said, “but I don’t know for certain whether he is now. It seems unlikely; he’s been around for a very long time.”

Over his initial shock, Kelder remembered that Perina had said Fendel was rumored to still be alive. He moved on.

“Iridith,” he said. “Do you mean the famous wizard, Iridith of Ethshar?”

“I mean my wife, Iridith,” Valder said. “And she’s a wizard, and a good one, but I didn’t think she was particularly famous, and she’s from Ethshar, but I didn’t think she had a cognomen. She’s just Iridith.”

“But there are other people named Iridith…”

“And I suppose you’re the only Kelder from Shulara?”

Kelder decided that argument wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re trying to tell me,” he said, “that you’re married to a powerful wizard, and that Fendel the Great is a friend of yours? Why in the World would a wizard marry an ordinary innkeeper, and why would Fendel associate with one?”

“I like to think,” Valder said, with both amusement and sarcasm in his tone, “that Iridith married me because she likes me. And Fendel isn’t so much a friend as a business acquaintance; we met during the War.”

“What war?” Kelder asked, afraid he already knew.

“The Great War, of course,” Valder said. “How do you think Irith and I came to be friends? Those of us who live longer than normal-I wouldn’t go so far as to call us immortals, you understand, but on the other hand I don’t have any intention of dying any time soon-anyway, those of us who live more than a century or two tend to run into each other eventually.”

Asha was staring wide-eyed at the innkeeper.

“You’re telling me,” Kelder said, eyes narrowed, “that you’re hundreds of years old?”

“About two hundred and fifty,” Valder replied. “I’m under a curse, you see-Fendel made a mistake in a spell he put on my sword when I was in the army.” He pointed at the sword that hung above the fireplace. “I can’t die until it kills me, and it can’t kill me until it’s killed a few other men first, and the war’s over, which means I could get in trouble if I went around lopping off heads. Besides, I’m in no hurry to die.”

“Oh,” Kelder said, not sure he believed this.

“I don’t usually tell people this,” Valder added, “but if you dragged Ezdral here all the way from Shan on the Desert, at least your intentions are good.”