A Spell Misplaced, page 26
part #4 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
Gags was ready to help Darlia, but she had already completed her task.
“You can tell me what you learned later. I’m going to check the kitchen. There should be a cook,” Darlia said.
Gags followed her, and the scene was worse in the kitchen. The cook was dead, and the soldiers who killed her were passed out with jugs in their hands. Gags let Darlia take care of them and returned to the girl, sobbing and leaning against a wall.
“They’ve been here since sundown. None of the other villagers came in. They killed Gabby, the bartender, first thing.” She shuddered and continued to sob.
Gags pulled the soldiers out of the pub and put the bartender on a table after removing the knife. Darlia pitched in until Gags asked her to bring in Miria.
The girl stood and helped straighten out the tables.
“I would have died tonight,” she said.
“And that wouldn’t have been the worst,” Gags said. “Can we help ourselves to some food, and then we’ll leave?”
“Who is going to stop you? I’ve never seen fighters like the both of you.”
“We both fought in the magicians war,” Gags said. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
In a moment, Darlia brought Miria inside. The unicorn stopped and surveyed the pub before snorting.
“I’d like you to see a unicorn. I hope you’ll never get the opportunity to see another.”
“There were rumors that Count Browning had a unicorn at his estate,” the girl said.
Gags led the girl to Miria.
“She was there for a short time and then was taken east. She left something at Browning’s estate, and we will retrieve it.”
“But they said their friends would burn down the estate.”
Gags didn’t want the girl to say that, but Miria took a few steps back.
“It’s too big to burn down all at once,” Gags said. “We need food, drink, and maybe kitchen utensils to take with us. Would that be all right?”
“For saving my life, you can have the pub,” the girl said.
Gags chuckled.
“Why don’t you stay here and keep the unicorn company while Darlia and I find what we need in the kitchen? We will be paying you,” Gags said.
“I can do that.”
The sobs were gone for now as the girl talked to Miria.
Gags looked for suitable vessels to mix the potion. He didn’t tell Darlia that they would have to wait a day for the elixir to age properly, but they didn’t have to be at the estate while they waited. “We have to be on our way,” Gags said to Darlia as she gathered the food. “The admiral’s men are at Browning’s manor, and if the conservatory is destroyed, you can imagine what a disaster that will be.”
“Oh, no! I’m just about done. We’ll need a few days’ worth of food,” Darlia said.
“A few days for magicians. We’ll be feeding Miria more that we’ll be eating ourselves once she’s been transformed,” Gags said, hoping he’d get the chance to see Miria in womanly form and able to eat human food.
“I’ve got enough,” Darlia said.
They found a few boxes and took their supplies to the wagon before retrieving Miria.
The girl didn’t want them to go, but Gags said they had people to fight. He suggested she lock up the pub and head east but not enter Baxterton. There were armies to avoid.
“It won’t be pleasant, but you should check the pockets of the soldiers for money. They owe it to you,” Darlia said.
The girl shuddered, but she patted Miria on the unicorn’s nose. “It was as if she could understand every word I said. I needed her comfort.” She looked around the pub and snuffed the first candle.
It was time to leave.
They rode out of town and into the darkness in a few minutes, heading northwest.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
~
T hey didn’t have far to go. Gags rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes, and they stopped an hour or two from Browning’s estate.
“Time to eat,” Gags said.
Miria came down from the wagon and ate a couple of apples and some grain. Gags filled a pot with water, and she slurped most of that as well.
“I’m sorry I had to put you through that,” Gags said to Miria. She jerked her head, signifying she had something to say.
“Thank you for letting me comfort the girl. At first, I thought you were being cruel to me, but for the first time since I was taken to Dixoia, I felt pity for someone in possibly worse shape than me. She was withdrawing when I came in, and we became almost friends. I could feel the coping working within her. Perhaps unicorns have a magic all their own.”
“Eno’s magic was all his own. Onward,” he said, helping Miria into the wagon.
They didn’t run into a soul, even after they turned onto the road that would take them to Browning’s estate. They didn’t stop until Gags saw a flickering orange light above the trees in the misty air.
“Ride with a shield or draw your sword. There could be soldiers anywhere.” Gags was going to say something unpleasant about Admiral West, but Miria and Darlia had never officially met Valerie’s father. He wondered if Lord Julius, the ex-prime minister, was having the same thoughts about Count Browning and perhaps about the admiral. He’d know more tomorrow.
Miria whinnied.
Gags stopped the wagon and went to Miria’s side.
“The poison,” she said. “I feel awful.”
“If you can sleep…” Gags didn’t feel connected with the knife as Miria had fallen asleep or had lapsed into a coma.
“Faster, Darlia. Miria is unconscious. She said it was poison. Do you know any healing? Gags asked.
“Only enough to close a small wound or heal a blister,” Darlia said. “There was always someone else who did the healing.”
Where was Lucian? Gags thought. He might have been able to do something, but Lucian was back in Baxterton. “We have to keep going. We will have to run instead of fight,” Gags said, snapping the reins and heading toward the firelight.
They turned into the long drive to the estate, seeing flames amidst the trees a few hundred paces ahead. Gags took a side lane and traveled toward the guest houses. They kept from the central drive to the manor itself, where Gags could hear shouting in the distance, but there weren’t many soldiers on the estate since Browning was elsewhere preparing for battle with one of the king’s armies.
They had to move closer. Some guest houses were burning, others weren’t, but the manor blaze lit everything. Gags reached the conservatory and almost gasped. Glass had been broken, but the exterior frame was intact. A few fires inside were dying. The stable with Browning’s oddities was an inferno.
Gags drove the wagon into the trees and jumped off the wagon. “Get the brake on. I’ve got to see if the flowers are still intact!”
He ran inside. Planters were shattered. A few little fires were fed by broken tables that once held specimen plants. There wasn’t a person in the place, and for that, Gags was thankful. He used his night vision to examine where he saw the Sea Tears flowers, but it was a wreck.
Gags frantic at his failure to locate the plant, was about to give up until he spotted an overturned table leaning against a pot too large to overturn. He flipped the table over, and on the ground lay the plants that he sought. He scraped away the mud to reveal a single intact plant. Four flowers were intact but beginning to wilt. Gags carefully put them into his pocket and stood.
Soldiers entered the conservatory. “You heard something in here?” a voice asked another.
“I was doing my duty when I heard someone rustling things around. It wasn’t more than a minute ago, I swear.”
A brighter light appeared. Gags used airwalking to move next to the wall. He crouched behind another big pot. The plant inside had been hacked into a stub.
There were six soldiers, and the person who held the torch was Vincent West.
“We aren’t allowed to let anyone leave the estate,” Vincent said.
Gags didn’t see bows of any kind and stood.
“Vincent, I didn’t think you had it in you. I always had you as a better person than your father.”
“Duke Vingus? What are you doing here?”
“Taking care of unfinished business. If you don’t want to get anyone hurt, I suggest you leave now. Remember the wild boar.”
Vincent’s face looked shocked in the flickering light of the torches.
“What makes him so confident?” one of the soldiers said.
“He is a magician,” Vincent said.
“For real? A noble? Didn’t you call him ‘Duke?”
“I did,” Vincent said as he backed up. “Kill him!” the young man said as he ran out of the conservatory. Gags spelled a bolt through the back of Vincent’s neck. The torch fell against the wooden frame of the greenhouse, and the framework began to burn.
“Who will be next?” Gags asked.
“We attack together!” one of the soldiers said, drawing his sword. Gags sighed. “I will give you another warning. You can leave, or you can die.”
“Who believes that magic rubbish,” one of the soldiers said. Gags shot another bolt, and the soldier fell to the ground.
Gags was down to his last bolt, and his staff and sword were in the wagon. The five remaining soldiers attacked. Gags spelled motes. Death came too easy using that, but Gags didn’t have the time to risk being injured fighting five sober soldiers in the dark. Wild swings could do as much damage as intentional ones.
The men stopped, and as they struggled to breathe, they coughed out a few motes, but it wouldn’t be enough. Gags left them to die. He had to throw a few pots through the glass since the door to the conservatory was aflame. Gags jumped out and ran to the wagon.
“How is she?” Gags asked.
“It’s like she’s asleep, but I can’t rouse her,” Darlia said.
“Let’s move away from here.
They took the wagon through the trees and then found a secluded spot surrounded by thick bushes that couldn’t be seen from the central part of the estate.
Gags put down the back gate and began to assemble the ingredients while Darlia laid out the packets.
“We need water,” she said.
Gags spelled water and began to mix the potion. He took the stem of flowers out of his pocket and gently rinsed them. “Sea Tears.”
Darlia lit a small magic light. “Aren’t they supposed to be blue?”
Gags stared at the flowers. They looked green. “I used my night sight,” Gags said. “It doesn’t pick up colors. There weren’t green flowers like this when I toured the conservatory. “Maybe they turn green when they are dying.”
“We don’t have any choice, do we?”
Gags shook his head. The conservatory was a rubble of glass and ashes by now. He took a deep breath and continued his work until the potion was finally done.
“We wait until tomorrow night,” Gags said. He looked at the inert unicorn. “I can only hope she can last.”
Darlia gave him a worried look. “If she shows signs of dying, you should splash some of it on her,” Darlia said.
Impatience often didn’t lead to the outcome Gags had wanted. He shrugged. “Let’s leave and hope for the best.”
Gags set the covered potion pot in the driver’s box and moved the wagon slowly through the trees. He used his night sight, and Darlia followed until Gags had to stop. A large squad of twenty guards now guarded the estate gate.
“Too many,” Gags said. “We can’t try to run them down. We’ve got the potion and Miria to worry about.”
Darlia grunted. “They will be searching for us at dawn,” she said.
“Then we will have to leave. We passed a side gate. It won’t fit the wagon, but it will the horses.”
“But what about Miria?” Darlia asked.
“We can lift her onto a horse. She can’t be heavier than me.”
Darlia nodded in the dark, and Gags maneuvered the wagon back into the little clearing, where they brewed the potion and unhitched the horses.
Darlia packed as much food as she could on one of the beasts, and Gags tied their bags onto another after attaching Miria’s saddle. The last horse was to carry the unicorn.
Gags lifted Miria and put her across the last horse. He didn’t want to move her, but he could tie her down that way. They rode along the wall and found the gate locked. Darlia was better with locks than Gags and opened the gate. Gags dismounted, stirred the dust and dirt for twenty paces from the door, and finished his work as soon as he heard soldiers patrolling the wall.
“Lock it from the back,” Gags said.
“I don’t know how to do that!” Darlia said. “I can’t do it from the back.”
Gags sealed the door with his magic, wood to wood, and in a few moments, the latch rattled.
“It’s not locked, but it doesn’t matter. The door is stuck. No one has been through here,” a voice said.
“Kick it in!” came the order.
Gags smiled. The door opened inward, and to be successful, they would have to kick it in from Gag’s side. It was a thick door, and the woods echoed with the kicks and the curses of a soldier with an injured foot. The group continued inside the compound, but Gags and Darlia waited a quarter-hour before proceeding. Gags didn’t know where they were or what road they were close to.
They moved north, in an oblique direction from the door and opposite from heading back toward Baxterton, until they came across a hunting shack. It hadn’t been used for a few seasons, but Gags tied the horses to a rickety hitching rack and unlocked the latch. The insides were dusty, but Gags used his volcano spell to remove most of the dust. He’d done it often enough.
There was a chest of blankets, and although they were a little moth-eaten, he laid them out and carried Miria to the makeshift bed on the stone floor before removing the bags from the horses.
They didn’t chance a fire, but the shack was small enough that it felt warmer than outside. Gags took the potion and stirred it before putting it on the single table in the single room.
“We can sleep for a few hours,” Darlia said.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Gags said.
He stepped outside, sat on the wooden steps, and used his night vision for sentry duty. In a few minutes. Gags began to nod until Darlia kicked him.
Gags opened his eyes. It was dawn, and he had let them down.
“I’m sorry. Is everything okay?” Gags asked.
“Other than three of the horses running off, everything is wonderful,” Darlia said.
Gags groaned. The hitching post didn’t last the night, and Gags could see why as the remaining post crumbled to his touch.
“I’ll go looking for them,” Gags said.
“No. Go inside and get some rest,” Darlia said. “See if you can arrange a breakfast out of our supplies.”
“I can do that,” Gags said.
He was still sleepy, but Gags found enough food to wait for Darlia to return. He ate his portion, laid down on the cot, and slept.
Darlia opened the door. “Rabbit,” she said, holding up a large version of the animal. “The horses hadn’t gone too far, so we are good to leave whenever we want to. I decided to do a little hunting.”
“Big game,” Gags said with a smile. “I suppose we can do a little roasting with magic fire.”
They used the fireplace, but there wasn’t much smoke. Gags gave most of the meat to Darlia, but they consumed the entire animal.
Gags walked out again and couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. Everything was peaceful, but Gags was more worried about Miria. She had made it through the night, but Gags felt she was failing.
Darlia and Gags spent more time exchanging war stories. He finally got around to talking about the Gags & Pepper Protection Agency.
“Can I join?” Darlia said. “I’ve been a bodyguard, and you know my fighting skills.”
“I feel awkward offering a job to you so far from our headquarters, but I’m willing to consider you hired right after Greystone. Pay will have to be a promise,” Gags said.
“It’s a deal. Tell me about the Crystal Brotherhood,” Darlia asked.
That led to an afternoon of more stories. Gags felt guilty about laughing at the anecdotes when Miria was dying in front of him, but he needed something to take his mind off the never-ending wait.
The sun was low, sinking into the trees, when a shudder went through Miria.
“We can’t wait!” Darlia said.
Gags had to agree. He stirred the potion and poured half onto Miria’s side. Nothing happened for a few moments, and then Miria whinnied and thrashed on the blankets.
“The potion is doing something! Get the sheet we brought.” Gags said. He watched Miria’s skin twitch and pulsate before her bones began to change. Miria’s eyes shot open as she stared at Gags for a few seconds before being lost in pain. Her shape began to change.
“I’ll go outside,” Gags said after Darlia covered Miria with the sheet from Baxterton.
Gags paced in front of the shack, like an expectant father waiting for the birth of his first child. The whinnying turned into a few screams before settling into grunts. He had experienced the same agony.
“She has transformed and wants to see you,” Darlia said, her face pale. “I hope that never happens to me.”
“I’ve been through it twice,” Gags said, leaving Darlia outside.
He stepped inside, almost reluctantly. It had been five years since he last saw Miria as a human. She was huddled inside the blanket, shaking. Her hair was a mess but was now longer and a much lighter silvery-blonde color, and she looked haggard. Gags imagined he was the same way after he recovered.
“The poison?” Gags asked.
“G-g-gone,” she whispered. “C-c-c-can’t t-t-talk.”
“You will,” Gags said. He wanted to hug Miria. His goal since he saw her in the forest in southern Gaolong had been completed, but he couldn’t ride off into the sunset with this woman. She looked frightened, emaciated, and worn out. The face was Miria, but Gags wondered if the woman in front of him was the person he remembered.
