Aidan
Once Aidan had come to his senses, he ran for the washing tub he had found earlier and tried lifting it. Full of water, the tub was too difficult to move without help, so he grabbed the pitcher sitting next to it, filled it, ran back to the blaze, and threw the water at it. The water evaporated with a sizzle and hiss as soon as it came in contact with the flames. The fire, oddly enough, was not spreading, but remained a steady, thick wall between him and Slaíne. “Are you all right?” he shouted, but the sound bounced back at him, and he doubted she could hear what he said. Knowing it to be fruitless, Aidan threw down the metal pitcher, which clanged on the floor, and watched as the blaze sputtered and snapped. He paced.
What might have been fifteen minutes passed, and the flames were slowly burning down to nothing. Aidan could see Slaíne on the other side of the wall of fire. He shouted a few times, and he saw her mouth working as well, but there was nothing to be done. Another fifteen minutes, and the flames were ankle-high. Aidan tried stepping over them, but the fire flared up again, and neither attempted approaching it until the blaze was nothing but sparks on the floor.
Slaíne’s swearing was the first thing he heard as they flew at each other. “What was that?” she said as they checked each other for burns. “Are you all right?”
“Are you all right? How did you do that?”
“Me? I didn’t do that,” she said. “I thought….”
Relief at finding her unharmed was wearing off, and he found himself growing angry, something he could see reflected in her own eyes. “You thought that I somehow did that? Summoning fire is impossible.”
Of all things, Slaíne laughed, a real roar of sound that grated on Aidan’s nerves. But then she stopped and looked at him knowingly. “You angry?”
His mouth worked for a moment, opening and closing as if of its own accord, before he assessed himself, and realized there was no good reason for him to feel so. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I blamed you.” The words were difficult to say, and they cost him what was left of his patience. He turned his back and walked to the other side of the room. What is wrong with me? Looking back over the past few weeks, he realized what had caused his previous moments of misplaced anger with Slaíne. This was not the same. This was different, alien. It felt…other.
He became aware of Salem in the Beyond, trying to reach him through their peculiar connection. That threw some cold water on his temper, but the rage was still there, simmering.
“It might’ve been me fault,” she said, and it sounded difficult for her to admit. “But I s’pose ’twas neither of us. This house…it feels all wrong.”
That sparked something in Aidan’s memory, and his temper cooled a little more. He looked over his shoulder. “Hex called this place the ‘House of Curses’. You don’t suppose—”
“That this house is cursed? Maybe. I dunno.”
Again Aidan faced the wall. He needed to think. If this house was cursed, it must have been cursed by a wizard – presumably, Hex, their jailer. But didn’t something have to trigger a curse?
“Yes, somethin’ usually triggers a curse,” Slaíne conceded, reading his thoughts once again. “Least, that’s what happened with my curse. Don’t know if that holds true to all curses, but seems likely, don’t it?”
Putting his mind to a problem drained the rest of his rage, and he turned back to face Slaíne and approached her with caution. “Right. So, what did we do that might have invoked a curse? And does it matter?” Of course it matters, you great idiot, if you don’t want a large fire erupting unexpectedly every now and again.
Slaíne snorted. “Right. It do matter.” She waited a moment and then marched to the door, which she laid a hand on, speaking to herself. No wards that I can feel.
Aidan blinked, startled again at her having spoken directly into his mind. “How do you know?”
“Lemme answer your question with another. How does we know it were a curse and not something we— I did?”
“Well…I have no idea.”
“Wards, from what the elves did tell, are hot to the touch. But this place….” She sighed. “This whole place is cold to you and not to me. Why is that, you think?” Her look was expectant, reminding Aidan of a teacher looking at a particularly promising pupil.
After a moment of thought, he said, “Magic?”
“Right. Wizard magic must be cold. I’m cold to ya ’cause I’m a wizard. The house is cold because it’s under a wizard’s magic – curses.” She worried her lower lip before continuing. “But that nay does explain the heat of a ward and the wall of flame that came up ’tween us.” With a shout of frustration, she kicked at the door, only to be knocked backward. “Well, this keeps gettin’ stranger.”
Aidan nodded, his thoughts still churning, as Salem’s voice died out entirely from his mind. “The two are similar – the heat of a ward and the hot fire wall between us. Then the wall might have been a ward.” He sighed. “Ward magic must have heat. But as to what we did that would trigger a ward….” They stared at each other, willing the other to come up with the answer.
A smile twisted the corners of Slaíne’s lips, not an entirely friendly one. “The wizard must be afraid, if’n he’s puttin’ up wards around us. That’s something. We could use his fear to our ’vantage….”
“Or make him so suspicious he never lets us out of his sight.”
“Maybe it’s both,” she said, and Aidan knew she was referring to something earlier in their conversation, but she did not elaborate, and he did not press her for information. After a moment, she shook her head and moved away from the door. “There ain’t no ward on the door, but there’s now some magic that weren’t there before, keepin’ me from hittin’ it too hard.”
Aidan approached the door. He tried focusing on the inner workings of the lock, but they felt like nothing he had ever encountered before. Combining that with the fact that his abilities had changed, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to dismantle it…yet, at least. “What if I tried Dismissing us both?” He looked to Slaíne, who shook her head. “What?”
“Why don’t you try just yourself?” When he opened his mouth to protest, she waylaid him by saying, “My power is too strange in Nothingness. ’Sides, there ain’t a curse binding me to anyone no more. Won’t hurt to leave me.”
He studied her for a moment, and then closed his eyes and tried to focus on Releasing every object in the room. But every object, each an anchor holding him to Existence, proved to be too strong, and he found himself lying on the floor without knowing how he had gotten there. “Well, that didn’t work.”
Slaíne looked down at him. “It almost did. You faded for a moment.”
A pounding headache was forming behind Aidan’s eyes. He sat up and rubbed his brow, and noticed that Slaíne was doing the same. “I think I’ll wait before trying that again.” If I try again at all. He got to his feet and closed his eyes, feeling for his cache in Nothingness. As before, he had trouble latching on to any one object, but this time his reach didn’t overshoot the place for the Beyond.
“Anything there to pick a lock with?”
Aidan was aware that Slaíne had closed her eyes and was joining in his search. He did not stop her, but clenched his fists and forced himself to ignore her. “There’s nothing here that will do, save for the knife, perhaps.” They both opened their eyes, their headaches abating by a degree. He took up the blade and approached the door, exploring the lock with a squinted eye rather than his extra sense. Then, with nothing to lose, he inserted the knife’s tip and wiggled it around a little. “The blade is too thick. Could you try Dismissing the lock?”
“Me?”
“You’re the wizard.”
Slaíne sighed and said something unintelligible before approaching the door again. “I’ll try, but you gotta come to accept and understand yer own powers, Aidan. Summoning and the like is a borrowed ability. It ain’t common to my magic.”
Aidan stared at her blankly.
It would seem she was in no mood to explain how she knew anything at all about her magic or his ability, but reached out a hand and closed her own eyes. “Put the knife away. Yer makin’ me nervous.”
After one failed attempt, Aidan managed to Dismiss it. “Stop straining your body. The power to Dismiss comes from your mind.”
“Oh, hush. I’ll learn meself,” she snarled.
The stirring in Aidan’s chest began again as she tried using his power, but this time he did not fight her. He was tempted to offer more instruction, but thought better of it and simply watched as sweat formed on her brow. She’s going to faint if she holds her breath any longer.
Keep your thoughts to yourself, she pressed back. For a moment, instead of being Dismissed, it seemed that the door and its lock were bending their natures. Their Pulls had gone strange, and the quality was nigh liquid.
“You’re not Dismissing,” he said with a groan. “Slaíne, you’re adding new properties to the lock and door. Please, stop before you hurt yourself.” Or make the door even more difficult to open.
Cursing, she opened her eyes. Then, fingertips glowing and spitting blue sparks, she turned from the door and stalked away.
Aidan watched her a moment longer, wondering. Perhaps it was a foolish idea, but fire seemed to be tied to Slaíne’s anger, the one thing she had some control over. As soon as the thought had formed, she heard it and turned.
“That sounds real dangerous.”
“I know. It’s a risk.” He grimaced.
“An’ what if this wizard’s my one chance at learning magic? Can’t risk burning us all to a crisp.”
That was an excellent point. Aidan took to pacing, stopping when he heard a tiny popping sound. The door groaned on its hinges and opened a few inches. Not waiting to question why it had happened, Aidan seized Slaíne by the hand and pulled the door the rest of the way open.
“Why’d it open?” she asked him, her voice bouncing off the walls as they stepped out into the hallway.
Aidan hushed her and looked around. There were no human Pulls in the near vicinity, though he didn’t trust himself to be a good judge of this fact at the moment, what with his magic having changed.
This way.
The hairs on the back of Aidan’s neck rose and he looked at Slaíne. She seemed to have heard the words as well. “Where did it come from?”
She pointed with her free hand down a corridor to the left. “It sounded like it was comin’ from that way.”
“Then let’s go the other.”
They passed suits of strange-looking armor the color of pitch, and rich tapestries that told terrible tales and seemed to whisper at them as they passed. There were many rooms in the hall that seemed to stretch on for miles, and when they finally reached the end of the hall and were forced to choose right or left again, they came upon the first window. Drawn to the sound of calling gulls and roaring waves, Aidan looked through the immaculate glass and found himself staring down the face of a cliff. So the wizard Hex hadn’t been lying: the House of Curses was perched atop a sheer face of rock. Escaping would prove…problematic. Aidan turned to relate this fact to his mate, but again he heard the voice:
You can’t run. Open the door, Aidan.
Aidan’s attention was at once drawn to the left, where sat a round red door. He regarded it for a moment, and then turned his attention to Slaíne, a question on his lips.
They exchanged a glance before he reached for the brass doorknob and turned it.
The room was dimly lit, the floors a polished black that reflected what light there was. All the furniture – blood-red lounges and settees and an overstuffed chair or two – had been pushed to the side, making an aisle of sorts to a fireplace simmering with red flames. And by one obsidian wall stood the wizard. He stared at them both, his expression unamused.
After a moment of cool regard, Hex spoke. “I have lived many years, and in none of them have I sensed such a reckless use of magic.”
At once Aidan’s spine stiffened, and he felt Slaíne go rigid beside him. The air was charged with everyone’s anger, and the flames in the fireplace began to dance as they had the last time Aidan had seen the wizard.
Much to Aidan’s surprise, Slaíne said nothing to contradict Hex, but spoke directly into Aidan’s mind. Don’t let him bait you.
He shivered as the words curled around his thoughts and cooled his rage by a degree. “You’ve taken your time in summoning us.”
Steady, Aidan.
Aidan surprised himself by snarling at her, baring his teeth before recalling himself and cringing. What has gotten into me?
“You haven’t told him,” Hex said, sounding puzzled. “Why?”
“He knows what I am,” Slaíne replied, her tone measured.
Hex shook his head and some of the anger seemed to go out of him. “You,” he said to Aidan, motioning to one of the chairs pushed off to the side, “sit. If you’re not able to participate, you need to be off our field.”
Confused, Aidan hesitated. “What do you plan on doing?” He found himself putting his body between the two wizards, though he realized it was perhaps not the wisest of moves.
The male wizard regarded Aidan, measuring him with his eyes. “Testing her mettle. It shouldn’t take long. Then we’ll discuss what is to happen here.” He cocked his head to the side, listening to sounds that Aidan could not hear, and frowned. “This house is going to be the death of me.”
Aidan looked to Slaíne, but she seemed no more enlightened than he was.
“Right. Out of the way. We have only a moment.” Hex threw out his hand and Aidan found himself sliding across the floor and landing with a none-too-gentle thud in one of the chairs on the outskirts of the large room.
The two wizards stood facing each other, paces apart, a low growl rumbling in Hex’s throat. Before either Slaíne or Aidan could react, a continuous bolt of silver light flew from Hex’s fingertips and hit her in the chest. She screamed the most unearthly shriek Aidan had ever heard, her back arching as she contorted in apparent pain.
Aidan was on his feet in an instant, meaning to put himself between the older wizard and Slaíne, but Hex flicked his wrist, and Aidan went flying back. Again he was on his feet, knowing it was futile. Helpless, he was flung back once more as Slaíne continued to scream and her body took on a silver glow.
“Most wizards are half-human,” said Hex. “Usually the mother is a mortal.”
With apparent effort, Slaíne drew her hands in front of herself, attempting to stop the attack. She glowed all the brighter for her effort.
The older wizard’s face twisted and he said quite calmly, “But you have no mother, do you, Slaíne, daughter of none?” The flare of light doubled in brightness. “Too much concentrated power. Too much instability. I should kill you right here and now.”
“For pity’s sake, stop!” Aidan cried, attempting again to charge at him, only to be thrown back yet again. “Both her parents were mortal. They were woodworkers.”
Hex sneered at Aidan. “So she believes…so you believe. Her blood, however, is telling me a different tale.”
Now Slaíne stopped screaming, silver blood leaking from the tips of her fingers. She whimpered once and collapsed.
Panting, Hex let the bolt of silver light evaporate, leaving his victim on the floor shaking and writhing. “No, stay where you are, Ingledark. She’ll attack if you approach her now.”
But Aidan would not listen. He ran for her, and indeed, she lashed out with a bolt of light of her own, missing Aidan by inches. The bolt hit the chair in which he had been sitting, splintering it to pieces.
Slaíne looked at him, eyes wild, as he froze. I’m sorry.
Heart racing and hands sweating, Aidan only nodded. He turned to the older wizard, who watched him with interest. “Let her go,” Aidan said.
“She is too dangerous, Ingledark.” Hex still seemed out of breath, which brought Aidan some measure of satisfaction. “A wizard of single parentage is not unheard of, but a female wizard on top of that? I need to study this.”
“Slaíne is not some specimen in a jar to be poked and prodded for answers.” Hatred filled Aidan’s breast, and he found himself longing to destroy this wizard who had hurt his mate. So strong were his feelings that his vision began to blur around the edges, and everything around him seemed to take on a green hue. He closed his eyes and shook himself, willing logic and reason to return. He noticed a Pull approaching the door, and when Hex became aware of the new presence a few seconds after Aidan had, Aidan took advantage of the wizard’s distraction and threw himself down by Slaíne.
“I wouldn’t,” she murmured as he reached for her.
Aidan ignored Slaíne’s warning and lifted her partially into his lap. “Are you all right?” He felt foolish the moment the words left his lips, knowing well that she wasn’t. “Is there anything I can do?”
Silver tears rolled down her cheeks as he stroked her hair. “He ain’t gonna kill me, Aidan. Don’t worry.” The words came out a weak croak, and she only sounded half-convinced of their validity herself.
The Pull that Aidan had sensed was now at the door, which creaked open. The woman he had seen days before stood there, seeming uncertain of herself as she picked at the neck of her cloak with one hand. Then she looked down at Slaíne and swore.
“Jinn,” said Hex. “It’s all right. You can come in. Just don’t get too near to those two.” The ‘they’re not safe’ was implied in his tone, as if Slaíne were some wild animal and not a wizard like Hex himself.
The woman hesitated a moment more before shaking her head and slipping inside. “What happened?” she asked.
“Nothing to be concerned about,” Hex replied.
Jinn’s gaze met Aidan’s, a question reflected in her eyes. Before she could voice what she wanted to say, Hex interrupted.
“How did you get out this time?”
Her head snapped around so fast, Aidan swore he could hear her neck crack. “I’m sure you would like to know.” No other answer was forthcoming.
Slaíne shuddered and attempted sitting up, only to collapse with a grunt. It would seem that she would not be running to safety any time soon, but at least with the woman Jinn here, Hex seemed unwilling to attack again.
“Jinn, I wouldn’t….”
The strange woman ignored his warning and stepped fully into the room, hands clenched into loose fists. “Don’t mind me,” she said, her tone sweet yet somehow caustic. “Or should I go lock myself back up and wait for you to make up your mind whether or not you’re going to kill us all?”
“No one’s going to be killed, Jinn. I think you know that.”
Jinn moved closer to the wizard, slipping her hands behind her back as she put herself between Hex and Aidan. “Why should I know that?”
Aidan blinked. Perhaps it was bravado, or maybe the woman was unafraid of the wizard, but Aidan sensed something strange was at work. What is going on here?
Having heard his thought, Slaíne stirred and spoke back into his mind. She’s the one who was after us, yes?
“I think so,” he murmured, causing Hex to look at him oddly.
Don’t answer me out loud, Slaíne warned him. I don’t know if a wizard is s’posed to talk to other people like this.
Fortunately, Hex’s attention had returned to Jinn. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Jinn.” He did not sound sorry. He sounded amused to Aidan’s ears. Yes, something strange was going on here indeed.
Aidan, where she stands, I could stop her from e’er botherin’ us again. I’ve got a clear shot.
He was about to answer, when he noticed the woman’s hands start gesturing behind her back: one was open somewhat, though her fingers were curling around something, and the other hand was pointing to it. Let’s not be too hasty, Slaíne.
That seemed to upset his mate, but she did not reply, nor did she attack.
There’s something in her hand, he thought after a moment. I’m having difficulty exploring its Pull. Can you sense it? Indeed, judging from Jinn repeatedly pointing at her occupied hand, Aidan knew whatever it contained was meant for him.
Slaíne snorted as the wizard and Jinn continued to argue about many different things, none of them making sense to Aidan. I’m not used to Pulls an’ how they make a body feel. She hesitated. Lemme help you, though. Both of their eyes went to Hex for a moment, before she placed a hand over Aidan’s heart and closed her eyes.
It was at that moment that Aidan’s senses became heightened, and he was aware of a weak Pull in Jinn’s hand. Delaying no longer, he latched on to the object’s Pull and Summoned it into his own hand, swiftly tucking it into his sleeve and not a moment too soon: the wizard looked over Jinn’s shoulder at him, frowned, and then returned his attention to Jinn, who seemed to take offense at something and stormed out of the room.
Hex shook his head and sighed. “I had hoped to have a meeting of minds, but mortals are so very unpredictable.” The half-smile he had quirked faded and he approached. “I’m not going to hurt anyone.”
Aidan grimaced. “It’s a little late for that promise, don’t you think?”
“I’ll allow you time to rest and recover,” Hex said, ignoring Aidan’s words. “After that, we’ll begin training.” He held up a hand to waylay their questions. “There is nothing more dangerous than a wizard who has great power but no knowledge of how to wield it. I’ll help you, but in return I must ask that you do not attempt anything foolish.” His eyes narrowed. “Your door will remain unlocked and without a ward…for now. Just know that this house is not entirely safe for anyone.
“You’ll find food and drink in your room when you return. I suggest you bolt your door.” The wizard turned his back on them, and Aidan took that as their dismissal.
He helped Slaíne to her feet, though she proved too weak to support her own weight, so he lifted and carried her back to their room. Once they were back inside their quarters, Aidan gave the door a kick in an attempt to close it and set Slaíne down on the bed.
She sighed and her eyes closed. “You get the note?”
Aidan pulled his hand out of his sleeve and produced the piece of paper, which he unfolded. “It’s in Abrish,” he said, passing it on to Slaíne, whom he knew could read the northern language. “You can read it later, if you’re too tired.”
“I ain’t too tired, but there’s somethin’ you ought to know afore anythin’ else is said.”
He smoothed out her creased brow as she studied the note. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Slaíne sucked in a deep breath. “I know him, this wizard what’s got us, this so-called Hex.” She hesitated. “I nay did want to say nothin’, for fear what you might do. Promise me you won’t do nothin’ stupid.”
The hairs on the back of Aidan’s neck prickled as he regarded her. “How do you know him?” he said, reluctant to promise anything.
She shook her head and clenched the note in her fist. “Hex is the one who cursed me when I was a child.”