The Cunning Man, page 27
“She wouldn’t need a potion,” Adam said. It was impossible to sort out his own feelings for her. “It would be a lot of effort for something she could do a great deal easier just by snapping her fingers.”
“And she would, too,” Arnold said. “She’s just crazy.”
“She doesn’t know her own feelings,” Taffy corrected. “Give her time. She’ll sort them out sooner or later.”
Arnold didn’t seem to mind being contradicted in public. “What makes you say that?”
“Girls get attracted to boys, just as boys get attracted to girls,” Taffy said. She paused as the waitress returned, carrying a large tray of food and drink, and waited until the waitress was gone again. “Our bodies can mislead us as much as yours. It is easy to look at a handsome man, even one with a bad reputation, and let our feelings lead us into trouble. Or to deny those feelings and pretend they don’t exist. We are no more logical about our feelings than you. We just rationalise it differently.”
Arnold took a sip of his juice. “So, what do you suggest Adam should do?”
“Give her time,” Taffy said. “And see what happens.”
Adam flushed and looked down at his plate. The stew looked fine. He took a bite and decided it tasted fine too. It made no sense ... he shook his head, deciding it didn’t matter as he tucked into the meal. Perhaps everyone was at the Leveller meeting. Arnold had said the rest of the speeches were just going over old ground, but maybe others felt differently. Adam hadn’t really been exposed to Leveller thought until he’d come to Heart’s Eye.
The pub filled slowly, men - and a handful of women - making their way to the tables or up to the counter. Adam almost wished the pub had remained empty as they finished their food and tried to relax, sipping their drinks. Arnold had ordered juice - again - Adam’s lips twitched in amusement, although it wasn’t funny. Arnold didn’t live and work on the docks. He didn’t have to prove his masculinity by drinking himself senseless. It wasn’t as if Adam or Taffy would judge him for not touching the stuff.
“We’ll have to go soon,” Arnold predicted. “They’ll want the table.”
Adam nodded, then frowned as he saw a cluster of rough-looking men wearing homespun clothes enter the pub. They looked like farmers. Levellers often wore commoner clothes, but ... Adam had the feeling the men were real farmers. He wasn’t sure why he felt that way, yet ... the men’s eyes swept the room, alighting on their table. They marched towards the table before Adam could say a word. Their leader, a big beefy man who looked stronger than Praxis, grabbed Taffy by the arm and yanked her out of the chair. She screamed.
“This is my wife,” the leader said, as silence fell. He wasn’t quite shouting, but somehow his words echoed around the pub. “I am taking her back home.”
“Let go of me, you bastard,” Taffy shouted. She tried to pull free and nearly made it, only to have her captor catch her by the hair instead. “I’m not your wife!”
Adam wished, as a rustle of unease ran around the room, that he’d invited Lilith. Or Yvonne and Praxis. A magician could have ended the affair before it got violently out of hand. Instead, no one seemed to know quite what to do. Taffy’s husband - her unwanted fiancé, Adam corrected himself - was no longer in his homeland, and the rules were different here, but most of the settlers had grown up in lands where a wife was firmly in her husband’s power and he had every right to drag her back home. And he had an escort, four other toughs ... Adam wasn’t even sure how the bastard had found Taffy. They were practically on the other side of the world.
“Let go,” Taffy shouted. “Let me go!”
Arnold dove forward and drove his fist into the husband’s stomach. He doubled over, letting go of Taffy as he clutched his chest. Arnold’s action broke the paralysis as the toughs lunged forward, the rest of the patrons surging towards the farmers to kick them out. Adam picked up his glass and threw the contents into the nearest thug’s eyes, then followed up with a wicked punch aimed at his groin. The man staggered, but didn’t fall. He’d worn leathers ... Adam was impressed Arnold had managed to hurt his target so badly. Leathers weren’t exactly armour, but ...
The fight rapidly dissolved into chaos. Adam saw the bartender slamming down his shutters, an instant before someone nearly took his head off with a punch. He lashed out as hard as he could, the farmer barely staggering under the blow and drawing back his fist for a punch of his own a second before someone landed on his back and sent him, sprawling, to the floor. Adam hoped Taffy had the sense to run as he ducked another blow, then jabbed his finger into the tough’s eye. It wasn’t exactly honourable, but there were no rules in bar fights. The fighting grew worse as more and more people plunged into the chaos, hammering away seemingly at random. He caught sight of Arnold slamming a fist into a man’s head, nearly breaking it. His target crashed to the floor so hard the entire building seemed to shake. Arnold was stronger than he looked.
Arnold caught his eye. “This way!”
Adam followed him as he ran towards the back of the chamber. Taffy was waiting, looking terrified. Arnold took her hand and yanked her through the door, ignoring the squawk of protest from the staff as they ran through the kitchen and out into the back alley. Behind them, Adam heard someone bellowing for calm. The Guard had arrived, late as usual. The local guardsmen were supposed to be honest, trustworthy and completely incorruptible - Adam believed that about as much as he believed random strangers were actually the exiled Crown Prince of Tempat, who would ennoble him if only he gave them his life savings - but they weren’t keen to get into the fight. They might just let it burn out rather than risk their lives trying to break it up.
They kept running, slipping through the streets, around the edge of town and up to the university. Adam couldn’t help feeling as though they were being followed, but - when he glanced behind him - he saw nothing. Taffy was breathing heavily, on the verge of breaking down. She stumbled to a halt. Arnold muttered something - it sounded like an oath - and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder as they resumed the run. Adam was impressed. Arnold didn’t look that strong.
“Keep your eyes open,” Arnold ordered. “If there’s more than five of them, they could have someone lying in wait.”
Adam did as he was told, but saw nothing. The desert was shrouded in darkness. He remembered his earlier thoughts and shuddered, hoping Taffy’s unwanted fiancé and his men walked into the desert and got lost. It would be impossible for them to find their way out. He didn’t know how the travelling people did it. He put the thought out of his head as they kept running, never slowing until they reached the outer edge of the old grounds. The wards weren’t strong enough to keep out intruders, he’d been told, but - at the very least - they should alert the staff if unwelcome guests arrived.
Arnold slowed, then lowered Taffy to her feet. She leaned against his body, her eyes shining as she stared up at him. Adam was almost envious. He’d never had a girl - or anyone - look at him like that. Taffy would do anything for Arnold, after he’d saved her from a fate worse than death. He could take her to bed and she’d go willingly and ...
He saved her, Adam told himself, sharply. It had been Arnold, not him, who’d struck the first blow. He deserves to be admired for defending her.
Taffy didn’t let go of Arnold. Her voice was shaky. “How ...?”
“Jasper, perhaps,” Arnold said. “If he ratted you out ...”
Adam wasn’t so sure. Jasper was a magician. He might be newborn, but still ... why would he care about Taffy? How would he know about her early life? Hell, why would he bother to send a message to her hometown? Taffy wasn’t the one who’d broken his nose. Why would he lash out at her? And why would he arrange for her husband to do it?
“I don’t know,” he said, reluctantly. He wanted to believe it was Jasper’s work. But it just made no sense. “I just don’t know.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Arnold held Taffy tightly. “And then we’ll teach whoever did it a lesson.”
Adam nodded, recognising the unspoken hint. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. Arnold and Taffy wanted to be alone. “Good night.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I figured it out,” Arnold said, two days later. They sat in the common room, Arnold and Taffy sitting on a sofa while Adam drew out more spell diagrams. “I know how he found her.”
Adam looked up, surprised. Taffy’s unwanted husband and his toughs had been arrested, spent an unpleasant day in the stocks and then had been unceremoniously deported back to Zangaria. Adam doubted they’d have a very pleasant reception. Queen Alassa was a close, personal friend of Lady Emily and Heart’s Eye was Lady Emily’s pet project. Even if the queen herself didn’t get involved, the farmers would probably get in trouble for abandoning their farms. Adam was surprised - and relieved - they’d faced any kind of punishment at all. He’d half-expected to discover they’d been released and were currently lurking in Heart’s Ease, waiting for Taffy to show her face so they could snatch her off the streets ...
“How?” He still didn’t believe it was Jasper. It simply didn’t make sense. “We are thousands of miles from him ...”
“It was our fault,” Arnold said. “The story, the one that ran in Unexpected Enlightenment? Copies were sent everywhere, including Zangaria. The bastard found a copy and, when he read it, he found Taffy’s name.”
“And then he came here to get her,” Adam said. “How did he even afford it?”
“He didn’t have a choice,” Taffy said, flatly. “As long as he didn’t know where I was, he could claim - credibly - that I was dead, leaving him free to look for another bride. He might even have been right. Instead ... the moment he saw my name, he had to drag me back home or become a laughingstock. I dare say plenty of girls back home are quietly relieved they can’t be forced to marry him now.”
Adam snorted. “He can read?”
“He was one of the first to adopt the New Learning, when it swept through the countryside,” Taffy said. Her lips twisted, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. “Give him credit for that, if nothing else.”
“Hah.” Adam had known too many fishermen with the same attitude. Their wives were an extension of themselves and the gods help the poor women - they never did - if they weren’t at home, with a meal on the stove, when the husband returned. “What happens now?”
Taffy smirked and shifted against Arnold. “I’m not dead,” she said. “The engagement cannot be broken. He can’t get married to anyone.”
Arnold looked torn between amusement and bafflement. “How does that work? You’re not dead, but you’re not going to marry him ...”
“It isn’t just me,” Taffy said. “If it was just him and me getting married, it would be one thing. But it’s really a union of our properties ... rather, my father’s properties ... with the marriage as the linchpin that holds them together. He isn’t free to abandon the match, not without severe consequences. It would really complicate his life if my father died before the marriage was formalised or broken. A bunch of other claimants would come out of the woodwork.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Arnold said. “As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”
Adam looked away as they kissed, again. They’d been discreet - they hadn’t been making love in the dorms - but there was no hiding that their relationship had turned sexual. He hoped it didn’t mean they’d be wrapped up in each other for the next few weeks ... he shook his head, mentally kicking himself. That wasn’t what he was truly thinking. He wanted a relationship for himself. He wanted ...
I could ask Lilith if she wants to go out this evening, he thought. But would she want to go?
He cursed, inwardly, as the sound of kissing grew louder. It wasn’t easy to ask a girl if she wanted to walk out together. Some girls said yes, some girls let him down gently ... some girls laughed in his face, telling him they’d sooner start a relationship with the Old Man of the Sea than a boy like him. It was hard not to take it personally ... the girl had every right to say no, as his mother had told him, yet they didn’t have to be bitches about it. His fists clenched as he stared at the papers without seeing them. He could abandon all his self-respect and go to the brothel ...
And catch something nasty, his thoughts mocked. That would be unpleasant.
He forced himself to study the diagrams, silently working out newer and better runes for the proposed spell disruptor. Master Landis hadn’t said much of anything about the ruined table - Adam wasn’t sure if he accepted destroyed equipment as the price of having an apprentice or if he’d merely felt Adam had been punished enough for one day - but it was still a dangerous branch of magic. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t figure out how to avoid the magic surging uncontrollably - and unpredictably. The trick should work, but the risks were just too high.
“The windmill should be ready in a week or so,” Arnold said. His voice was so bland no one would have guessed he’d been kissing only a few moments ago. “And then we get to test your theory. If we can charge wands ...”
Adam glanced at him. Arnold looked ... normal. Beside him, Taffy’s lips were noticeably puffy. Adam tried not to roll his eyes. He couldn’t understand how a man could move from kissing and making out to discussing engineering in the blink of an eye. Taffy smiled at him, looking like the cat who’d eaten the canary. Adam shook his head. He’d seen his sisters with crushes. They’d made complete fools of themselves.
They’d say the same about you, his thoughts reminded him. Didn’t you used to write love poetry to Suzie?
He winced. He’d tried to forget the poetry. It had only been poetry by courtesy. He’d been young enough to think the girl would fall in love with him if he recited it, old enough to realise she’d probably die laughing if he tried. People talked of serenading one’s love under the balcony, but the real world mocked such concepts. He’d be very lucky if the lady didn’t come out and empty her chamberpot over his head.
Lilith wouldn’t do that, he thought. She’d just turn me into a frog instead.
“You’re thinking about her again,” Arnold said. “I can tell.”
Adam blushed. “How?”
“You have a dreamy expression on your face whenever you think of her,” Arnold teased, a deadpan look on his face. “You really do have it bad, don’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Adam admitted. There were times when Lilith was pleasant. He enjoyed working with her, particularly when her knowledge and experience complemented his. He even enjoyed her sardonic view of the world. And yet, there were times when she was just thoroughly unpleasant. “She can be good and she can be bad.”
“Her time of the month,” Arnold said. “Give her time ...”
Taffy elbowed him. Adam couldn’t keep himself from rolling his eyes this time. Taffy had it bad, too. His sisters would have smacked him senseless for even daring to mention such feminine mysteries, or marched him to their mother and demanded justice. Taffy’s response was surprisingly mild. And yet ... Arnold was probably wrong. Lilith was a girl who’d studied both potions and alchemy, a girl who’d attended a school used to catering to teenage girls. She’d been able to obtain - or brew - potions to help with her monthlies almost as soon as they’d begun.
“Take her out,” Taffy said. “Somewhere you’ll both enjoy.”
Adam frowned. “Where?”
“There’s a new steam engine coming onto the tracks next Saturday,” Arnold offered. “It’s supposed to be the latest and greatest design, at least until something even greater comes along. Take her to see it, then go to town for dinner. You’ll have her eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Taffy elbowed him, again. “Don’t rush things,” she said. “Let them proceed at their own pace.”
Arnold pulled her over down for a kiss. Adam sighed and turned away, granting them what privacy he could as they made out. It was the common room. They had every right to be there. And yet ... he wished they were doing it somewhere else. It was a grim reminder that he didn’t have a girl, that he didn’t know what - if anything - Lilith was thinking, let alone feeling ... he sighed. Lilith’s father would not approve of the match. He might not know about the kiss - somehow, he couldn’t see Lilith telling him - but if the relationship became a little more open ...
He sketched out the next design, finishing the last lines as the door opened and Morris stepped into the room. “Look what I found!”
Adam looked up, a sudden flicker of alarm running through him as he saw the crystalline structure in Morris’s hand. His face was blank, his eyes wrong ... Adam stared in horror, realising someone had cast a compulsion spell on Morris. And they’d made him carry the crystalline thing into the common room ... it was pulsing with a baleful light, the embedded spell flaring ...
There was a brilliant flash of light. Adam felt a tingle ... he closed his eyes, too late, then opened them again. He expected to find himself turned into something, or frozen in place, or made to dance a jig, or something - anything - other than nothing. Morris stood there, holding the enchanted device. His eyes were still blank, but his body was unmoving. He’d carried out his orders and ... and what? Nothing had happened.
“What?” Arnold sounded as stunned as Adam himself. “Did someone just mess up the spell?”
Adam was tempted to agree. The device had flashed ... and then, nothing. Enchanting items wasn’t easy. Perhaps whoever had cast the spell on Morris hadn't checked their work before giving him the device and telling him to take it into the common room. And yet ... he didn’t know much about enchantment, although he’d learnt a great deal as they’d designed the windmill, but he knew the crystals weren’t cheap. Anyone with access to them would have already mastered the basics ...
Taffy screamed. Adam turned and nearly screamed himself. Taffy’s face was ... he felt sick, nearly throwing up as he saw feathers sprouting from her face, her nose and mouth merging and warping into a beak. He stared, then felt a stab of pain running through him. His hand was shifting, changing ... he felt his bones twisting out of shape, the magic warping his body as if someone was trying to twist his hand in an impossible direction. He stumbled, his mouth opening to scream, before it suddenly became impossible. He’d been transfigured before, but this ... this was agony. It felt as if he was being twisted and warped and mercilessly crammed into an impossible form. His shirt twisted and fell loose, his belt dropping to his knees ... he saw feathers bursting out of his bare skin, the sight making his stomach heave ... his mouth was suddenly heavy, utterly unmoving. Taffy fell forward, landing on her hands ... she didn’t have hands any longer, just feathered shapes that were slowly becoming wings. Arnold seemed to be calmer, but he was being changed too. Adam didn’t have to look at Morris to know he’d been affected as well. The spell was pure torture ...
