Chapter 9 #2
Mina quickly withdrew her hand from her pocket. Yes, the Fae had provided her with a small, dark blue bottle. And attached to the bottle’s neck by a silver thread was a label. Popping on her ley-spectacles, Mina read the fine print.
Drink me.
Drink me? But what would happen if she did?
Mina blinked in surprise. Turning the label over, she discovered more print on the other side …
To don a glamour—an illusory disguise—that will deceive the eyes of others, simply sip the contents of this bottle (one sip per person) then utter, “Glamify.” Uttering “Unglamify” will reverse the spell. Please note: Disguises are assigned by chance and chance alone. Individual results may vary.
Cheavers was no doubt looking for a young woman in a dark blue Parasol Academy uniform with chestnut-brown hair, and a seven-year-old blond boy who carried a mauve velvet rabbit with him wherever he went. But what if drinking this Glamify potion could change how they looked?
While Mina had never heard of such a spell, she wasn’t going to quibble with the Fae. A Parasol Academy pocket was supposed to provide a governess or nanny with exactly the right thing to care for one’s charges. So she would trust this gift.
Besides, there was no time to dally as the train was pulling into the station with a great metallic screeching and clanking and belching of smoke.
Mina hastily put away her ley-spectacles then uncorked the bottle and sniffed the contents. The liquid inside smelled mouth-wateringly delicious—like sweet summer berries and vanilla and something spicy like cinnamon. The sort of thing that would taste delicious on pancakes.
“The train’s here, Miss Davenport,” said Christopher, tugging on her hand.
“I see,” said Mina. “But before we hop on, we need to take a sip of … of medicine from this bottle.”
The boy’s brow wrinkled. “Is it the seasickness medicine? Trains don’t usually make me feel sick.”
“No, it isn’t. But it will keep us safe on our trip to London,” Mina said. “It’s going to … to make us look a little different. Just for a little while. Think of it as a magical disguise. It will feel like we’re putting on a fancy-dress costume. I’ll drink first. Then you. All right?”
Christopher nodded. “All right.”
The train’s doors had opened and passengers were starting to disembark and collect their luggage. There was no time to lose.
Mina took a sip of the potion—it had the consistency of treacle and tasted like blueberries—then she offered the bottle to Christopher. “Just one small sip,” she instructed. As soon as the boy complied, Mina took his hand and murmured, “Glamify.”
Almost at once, a shimmering, deep purple mist seemed to engulf her and Christopher, swirling around them like a cloak.
It ruffled Mina’s hair and skirts and brushed across her face and neck, stroking like gentle feathers.
However, when the mist began to dissipate, Christopher looked exactly the same.
From what Mina could see of herself, her appearance had not changed either.
Christopher frowned. “Did it work, Miss Davenport? You don’t look any different to me.”
Panic flared inside Mina as the passengers on the platform had begun to hop on the train. Had the spell really not taken? Had she and Christopher not drunk enough of the magical potion? Was Christopher supposed to have uttered the incantation himself?
And then Mina caught a glimpse of herself and Christopher in one of the station house’s windows.
Her appearance had been transformed and so had the young viscount’s.
Staring back at her was a stooped, silver-haired woman in a black bonnet and widow’s weeds and the boy beside her was actually a tall and gangly red-haired youth with a scattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks.
Instead of holding a velvet rabbit, he was cradling a brown leather rugby ball in his arm.
Oh, thank goodness. The Glamify spell had worked. Just not in the way she’d expected.
“Let’s not miss the train,” said Mina as she tugged Christopher out from the shadows of the station house and rushed onto the platform toward the closest carriage. “Wait,” she called to the conductor who was about to blow his silver whistle to signal the train was going to leave. “We have tickets.”
“You’re cutting it fine, madam,” he said with a stern frown. But nevertheless, the man let her and Christopher hop onto the train. No sooner had they boarded than the conductor’s whistle blew, the doors slammed shut, and the train began to chug away from Ablington Station.
Her knees shaking like jelly, Mina placed Christopher’s valise in a luggage rack, then she sank onto the bench seat below it.
Christopher settled beside her. When she cast her gaze about the carriage, examining the other passengers, she couldn’t see any sign of Cheavers.
Hopefully he’d stay in the carriage he’d chosen and not move about.
“Why does everything look a bit funny, Miss Davenport?” Christopher asked. He was squinting as he looked about the carriage. “It’s like I’m looking through smoke or fog.”
“Yes, I see it too,” said Mina. “But I wouldn’t worry. I expect it’s the steam from the train. Or perhaps a mist has rolled in?”
Of course, that wasn’t true. It was clearly the glamour.
While the spell was actively working, it appeared it affected their perception slightly.
When Mina looked down at herself and across to Christopher, she could see their true forms. It was only when she caught her reflection in the carriage window that she saw a stranger staring back at her with a tall, thin, red-headed and freckle-faced youth beside her.
Hopefully Christopher wouldn’t notice his altered appearance.
She didn’t want the boy to be alarmed. All going well, they’d be in London and safely installed in Kinsale House within a handful of hours.
In the meantime, perhaps some form of distraction was in order. Reaching into her pocket, Mina found a pack of playing cards. “Why don’t I teach you how to play a card game I know,” she said brightly. “It’s called Old Maid. And afterwards, we could play snap or dominoes or spillikins.”
“Oh, that sounds like wizard fun,” said Christopher, putting down Mr. Hopwell on the seat beside him. Mina trusted that everyone else saw a football, not a toy rabbit.
After removing three of the queens from the pack, Mina began to shuffle the cards.
She was certain the Fae’s glamour spell would hold.
And clearly, her magical pocket had given her just what she needed to keep Christopher safe at just the right moment.
He hadn’t wanted to teleport to London, so perhaps that was why she’d been gifted a novel potion and incantation.
Most of all, Mina was relieved she was still able to practice magic in the name of the Fae, upholding the Parasol Academy’s key tenet, which was to protect children. Perhaps, in time, she’d seek Mrs. Temple’s counsel. Especially if Sir Bedivere persisted in searching for his ward.
Mina dealt out the playing cards. With any luck, the baronet would abandon the cause and soon head off on his expedition to navigate the Northwest Passage. He’d be gone for months and months, and by then, Mina would have worked out what to do next.
Unless he reveals his hand sooner … If it became apparent that the baronet had been ensorcelled, if Mina could procure evidence that would support Lady Grenfell’s assertion that Sir Bedivere was being controlled by supernatural forces that meant Christopher harm, perhaps she could go to Mrs. Temple sooner rather than later …
When Mina turned her cards over and fanned them out, the first card that appeared was the queen of hearts.
The image of the woman shrouded in red with her imperious glare immediately brought to mind another queen, the evil Fae queen, Mab.
If the ring that had once belonged to King Charles I, a rumored changeling, was indeed cursed, then it would follow that Queen Mab might be influencing Sir Bedivere’s behavior.
But in what way? Did Queen Mab want another human child of noble birth—a young viscount perhaps—in her Fae Court?
Lady Grenfell had feared that her godson would perish in a frozen wasteland, a place like the Arctic. But what did the Arctic have to do with Evil Queen Mab?
Mina hardly knew. The Parasol Academy’s graduates were trained to thwart attempted Fae abductions of young children by Mab or her minions.
According to Mrs. Temple, there hadn’t been any incidents of human children being kidnapped and then changelings left in their place for quite some time.
Although, truth to tell, Mina wasn’t sure why that would be the case.
Had something happened to Queen Mab? Had her influence in the Earthly Realm been curtailed in some way?
But what, if anything, did that have to do with Sir Bedivere being ensorcelled and his expedition to the Arctic Circle?
It was all quite mystifying and Mina had no clue what to make of anything. For the foreseeable future, all she could do was continue to protect the child in her care.
Surely no one—neither Fae nor human—could fault her for that.