A Muddle of Magic. Alexandra Rushe

      Chapter 2

      Shifting Revelations

      Two months later

      Brefreton leaned against a heavy crate and took a sip of ale. “Do it again. The back legs are too long, and you still don’t have the tail right.”

      Raine wiped the sweat from her brow. They’d been at it over an hour, and she was tired and hungry. “Let me catch my breath. Magic isn’t easy.”

      She and the wizard were standing on the deck of the Storm, the swift Finlaran ship on which they’d booked passage. The wind off the Iron Sea was bitter, and Raine thought with longing of the woolen gloves she’d left in her cabin. Gertie had knitted them for her, no small feat, considering the troll’s sharp claws.

      “Of course, it’s not easy,” Brefreton said. “If it were, anyone could be a wizard. Once more, and this time form the image clearly in your mind, down to the smallest toenail. A skilled variegant pays attention to the niceties. You aren’t trying.”

      “Yes, I am,” she said, stung. “In case you’ve forgotten, not long ago, I didn’t even know magic existed, and now I’m trying to shapeshift.”

      “You’re welcome.” Brefreton sketched her a little bow. “You were three parts dead when I found you. If I hadn’t rescued you from that drab place, you’d be dead by now.”

      “Rescued me, my hind foot. You kidnapped me.”

      “Don’t start that again. You’re as much to blame as I am. You knocked the god stone out of my hand. Reba still isn’t speaking to me.”

      “You scared the crap out of me. Anyone would have reacted the way I did.”

      The loss of the god stone, a powerful artifact that belonged to the goddess Reba, remained a bone of contention between them. Brefreton insisted that Raine was to blame. Raine maintained it served him right for being a highhanded jerk.

      It had all started when Brefreton borrowed Reba’s god stone to travel from Tandara to Earth. Stepping out of a mirror in Raine’s house late one night, he’d informed her, in typical Brefreton fashion and without so much as a by-your-leave, that she was coming with him. Raine’s response had been to punch him in the nose. The god stone in his hand had gone flying, and poof. She was in Tandara, where magic and monsters were real, and an evil wizard named Glonoff wanted her blood.

      “And now, thanks to my intervention,” Brefreton said, interrupting her mental meanderings, “you are in the bloom of good health and no longer suffer the Earth sickness that plagued you for…” He paused to squint at her. “How old are you, again?”

      “Twenty-five.”

      “Twenty-five years.” Brefreton took another swallow of ale. “My cloak is older than that.”

      “Your cloak is older than dirt.”

      “There is no need to be insulting. Back to the lesson.”

      “Yes, Bree.” Raine got to her feet and shook the wrinkles from her woolen gown and mantle.

      “And don’t forget to use your wizard stone,” he cautioned. “Unchanneled magic is dangerous. You were in bed a week after that last surge. It’s a miracle you survived.”

      Raine winced. “That was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill that poor tracker.”

      The tracker, a loathsome toad-like creature Glonoff had sent after her, had been melted on the spot. It made Raine sick to think about it.

      “It happens with untrained wizards,” Brefreton said, noticing her reaction. “Try not to dwell on it, but no more surges. Knock a hole in the ship, and we’ll all be in the drink.”

      Raine sighed and reached for her wizard stone. Bree said a wizard without a stone was like a wagon without wheels. In other words, useless. Hers had been a gift from Brefreton, purchased in the Great Market a few weeks earlier. As wizard stones went, Raine’s was unremarkable, flat and brown as a river rock. There’d been much prettier stones in Mr. Turnipseed’s magic shop, but this one had come with its own chain…and it hadn’t shattered when Raine touched it, unlike some of the others, which was a big plus. Moreover, this stone seemed to like her. It fluttered happily against her palm at her touch and emitted a lovely opalescent glow when engaged.

      But stone or no stone, magic was hard. Not for Gertie and Bree; they’d been doing magic for thousands of years, and so had Glonoff. Raine was a mere babe compared to them.

      She let the stone slide from her fingers, her shoulders sagging. “Who am I kidding? I can’t defeat the Dark Wizard.”

      “Defeat the—” Brefreton regarded her in astonishment. “Sweet blessed Rebe, you can’t turn yourself into a decent mouse.”

      “He killed my parents and he killed Trudy and Kipp.” Raine’s throat tightened. People she cared about were dead because of Glonoff. “That’s why you kidnapped me, isn’t it? To defeat the Dark Wizard.”

      “For the last time, I did not—” Brefreton drew in a deep breath. “You can’t challenge Glonoff. He’d snuff you like a candle. You’ve a modicum of talent, I’ll grant you, but you’re untrained. Remember Dorfus the Doomed and Olfred the Ominous? They’re prime examples of what can happen to a green wizard.”

      “But you said the prophecy—”

      “Prophecy is inconstant. Only time will tell if you can wield the Eye.”

      “What does it look like, anyway?”

      “What?”

      “The Eye. Is it like an orb or an amulet?”

      “It’s an eye, Raine. Magog’s, to be precise. He maimed himself after he murdered his brother Xan.” He shrugged. “Whether from remorse or because he’s crazy as a toothless rat in a bakery, I couldn’t say.”

      “It’s an actual eye?”

      He frowned. “Yes, thus the name. Saw it once, many years ago with Gertie. We sneaked into the Hall of the Gods.” He tugged on a lock of his red hair in thought. “It was blue as a summer sky and it glowed like a star. Quite lovely, really.” He stirred from his abstraction. “At any rate, that’s how it seemed to me. Gertie gave a different account.” He shrugged. “Maybe that’s the way of it. Maybe folks see what they expect to see.”

      “An eye. Yuck. I’m glad it’s lost.”

      He straightened. “What do you mean, lost?”

      “Glonoff hired someone to steal the Eye, but the thief lost it. At least, that’s what Glonoff told me the day I went into the woods.”

      The day the Dark Wizard had set his demon Xai on her, and Raine had nearly died. She still had nightmares about it.

      “The Eye lost.” Brefreton gave a low whistle. “Glonoff must have been furious.”

      “Livid, at first,” Raine agreed, “but he—”

      Glory glided up, interrupting them. “Perhaps he consulted Zared on the matter,” she said, tossing her long dark hair. “The High Seer has been selling prophecies, or so Raven informs me.”

      “Has he, indeed?” Brefreton said. “Any notion what he’s been whispering in Glonoff’s ear?”

      “None whatsoever,” Glory said with a sniff of disdain. “I’m a seer, not a mind reader.”

      “The Eye . . . lying about where anyone can find it.” Brefreton’s mouth curved in a slow smile. “Glonoff must be frantic.”

      “No, he’s not,” Raine said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Glonoff doesn’t want the Eye, and he doesn’t want me.