Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
“Who is she?” Shana asked.
“The best mage of her generation,” I said. It was kind of hard to tell with all the dirt, but she was only twenty-eight, barely three years older than me.
“I thought Archmage Damaes was the best mage of the current generation.”
“So did he.”
Shana made a face.
I’d worked my way up to her elbow. The stink was epic.
“Does Damaes know her?”
“Yes. He’s the reason she’s like this.”
Shana dropped the soap. “Maggie!”
“Yes?”
“Tell me we didn’t just cross the Archmage? Tell me you didn’t drag my kids into it?”
“It will be fine,” I told her.
“Nothing about this is fine. That man is not in his right mind, and he can blast rocks from the sky with a flick of his fingers.”
That fire beam took way more than a flick but now seemed like the wrong time to quibble about the details.
“He cares about her,” I said. “Her mind is too fragmented for her to have realized she needed to panhandle. She is dirty, but she isn’t thin. He sends someone to feed her every day and she isn’t in bad health.”
“Does that mean he’s going to come looking for her? Did we just kidnap someone who belongs to him?”
“The word you’re looking for is rescued.”
“Aspects preserve us!”
“If he decides to get upset about it, I will take the blame and let him kill me.”
“Maggie!”
“I’ll come back to life, and it will be fine. Besides, if she wakes up, she will handle Damaes herself.”
“Is she going to murder all of us when she comes to?”
“I hope not.”
Shana swore. “Just tell me that my children aren’t going to be turned into torches.”
“Again, if anyone is going to be set on fire, it’s me.”
Shana resumed scrubbing.
“I wonder about you.”
“Which part?”
“All the parts!” She sighed. “You need her for something. I understand. But even so, here you are washing a filthy stray you picked up in the Tangle and plucking lice out of her hair knowing that she might murder you when she wakes up.”
“We can’t leave her in this state. Clover is dying my dress, and I wouldn’t expect you to do it for me. This is not a one-woman job.”
“What if she refuses to help you?”
We would be screwed. “Then we did a good deed and saved her.”
Shana pointed her soapy comb at me. “That’s exactly what I mean. Ours isn’t a time for kindness. Too much compassion will get you killed. Sooner or later, you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”
“Shana, look at her. Would you leave her on the street?”
“In an instant.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it.” Shana set the comb aside. “Pour the water for me.”
I scooped some water out of the bucket with a large ladle and gently poured it over the woman’s hair.
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t know the one she was born with. Her mage name is Isadau. It means Flame-bloom.”
Isadau jerked upright like a corpse popping out of a coffin in a cheesy horror flick. Shana shied back. I froze.
Isadau looked at me with eyes that were a deep, golden amber.
“Put down the ladle,” she said.
I dropped the ladle. It clattered as it fell to the floor.
“What date is it?”
It was after midnight. “Redberry 8 of the year 3044.”
“Two years,” she whispered. Her hands clenched the side of the tub, the freshly cleaned knuckles turning white. The water in the tub steamed.
“Easy,” I told her.
Her gaze fastened on me. “Do I know you?”
“No.”
“Do you belong to Damaes?”
“No.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Maggie.”
She blinked. “Never heard of you.”
“I’m not important.”
“Are you a mage?”
“No.”
“Then how did you break the spell?”
I shook the water off my fingers, reached into the pocket of my dress, pulled out my incantation, and showed the paper to her.
“In the name of Damaes, be whole. Let that which was shattered be healed. That fucking bastard.” Isadau held up the paper. “There are three misspellings in this. It should’ve killed you. How are you alive?”
“I’m Maggie the Undying.”
Isadau stared at me and shook the paper. “Where did you get this?”
“I wrote it down from memory.”
“How?”
“She knows things. That’s what she does,” Shana told her. “You’ll get used to it. Look, I understand you’ve been through a lot, but it’s past midnight and we have a full day tomorrow, so how about you shut up and let me finish washing the dead lice out of your hair? You have lovely hair. It’d be a shame if the powder ate through it and turned you bald.”
Isadau clamped her mouth shut. I got up, picked up a bucket, and emptied it over her head.
CHAPTER 38
REDBERRY 8
My dancing teacher was tall, with striking ash-blond hair cut to flatter his handsome face. He wore a tailored black doublet, black pants, and black boots, and as he entered our courtyard, he moved with easy, smooth elegance. A young woman in a yellow gown followed him, carrying a wens, a stringed instrument similar to a zither.