Chapter III.20 #2
That was interesting, and potentially revealing.
Why would someone give Adaline a charm and not tell her what it was?
Sapphires were expensive, but to anyone who was not a witch, magic was worth far more.
And that meant Miria could only think of nefarious reasons for keeping the charm’s presence hidden.
Who had given it to Adaline with no explanation?
That question, she could ask momentarily.
“It’s well disguised, but this one here—” she touched the charm among the sapphires “—it’s not a jewel. It was crafted in a similar way to the charm I gave you, although I doubt it serves a similar purpose.”
Adaline stuck her foot on the table’s bench and flexed her ankle. “I wear yours, always. Only I had to put it around my ankle so no one would see it. My mother would have torn it off me if she had, but no one sees my bare feet except my maid.”
Miria smile and kissed Adaline’s cheek. “Clever. But my charms were not half so clever as whoever made this one. It’s exquisite work. You could have worn it and no one would know what it was.”
Adaline let her foot drop to the floor, her smile fading. “But what does it do? Why give it to me?”
“The first question is—who gave it to you?”
“Your family.” Adaline frowned. “The other night, an early wedding present, like I said. Rosmilda said it had belonged to her mother, and she hoped I would wear it for the wedding. I thought it was such a generous gift, and I was surprised, but …”
Rosmilda? Miria flipped the pendant around in her hand, and pressed the jewel to her palm. Warmth washed over her, but not the heat of anger or the familiarity of Adaline’s heart. Something resonated within her, though. Something was familiar about it.
Adaline bit her lip while Miria pricked a finger and drew a drop of blood over the charm. Listening. Feeling. It wasn’t old, this charm. Whether the pendant itself was as Rosmilda had claimed, Miria couldn’t say, but she was certain the charm was new.
There was an art to discerning an unfamiliar spell’s purpose, and it was one Miria didn’t have much practice with since she’d never had much cause to use it.
Witches worked together, or at least they did not work at cross-purposes.
It was far easier to simply ask a witch about an unfamiliar spell she might encounter than it was to try to learn its power on her own.
Nothing about this situation made sense, though. Rosmilda was not a witch.
Miria placed the pendant on the table, more disturbed than ever. “I believe, although I could be wrong, that the charm contains a love spell. One that would make you fall in love with my brother.”
Adaline shivered. “I knew I didn’t trust your stepmother.”
“How did my stepmother get such a thing?”
“I don’t know, but I’m glad you stole it so we can destroy it.” Adaline shoved it farther away, then wrapped her arms around herself. “They tried to put a spell on me!”
Miria tucked the pendant in a cloth and set it on a shelf.
Casting a spell on a person without their permission violated every lesson her nana had taught her.
Adaline had every right to be horrified, and Miria’s blood fumed along with her.
Selfishly in part. Someone had tried violating Adaline’s heart, and in doing so, steal Adaline away from her.
Miria grasped the red charm around her neck and poured her anger into it.
It felt hotter for a moment before resettling against her skin.
The act did nothing to ease Miria’s feelings.
Pouring her emotions into the charm (or the jar before it) did not take her anger away; it merely conserved some of the power in it.
But the act had taken on a ritual quality, merely doing it calmed her and allowed her to think more clearly.
And she had to think. She had so many questions.
“It’s gone now,” Miria said, “and we’ll find out who and how.
I promise. I don’t know where Rosmilda came from before she arrived here, but it cannot be beyond Waere’s borders.
I’ve heard her accent. I’ll send an inquiry to the other witches I know.
Maybe one of them can explain how she obtained it. ”
Adaline nodded, but she looked unsettled. “I’m glad I didn’t try it on. I almost did, but I was so focused on escaping that I did nothing but fret over our plan.”
“Your plan,” Miria said, playfully nudging her in the ribs and hoping to settle her nerves. “I had no idea there was to be a change in our plan.”
The tactic succeeded too well. Adaline let out a low whine and another apology, and Miria had to assure her that everything had worked out fine. Although, truthfully, she wasn’t certain of that in the slightest.
Eventually, though, Adaline returned to cleaning while Miria wrote a quick letter, which she sent off to all the local witches she knew.
It was around noon when she finished. She hadn’t heard a report from Tuli yet, and it was well past the time when Miria wanted to know what was going on.
She needed to strengthen the protections, summon Tuli back, and figure out her next steps.
Calling for Tuli came first because it was the simplest, and Miria began collecting sticks of hawthorn and oak for the protection spells while she waited for him to arrive. He appeared a few minutes later, approaching the cottage from the south.
Adaline, who was helping Miria gather wood, startled at his approach. Miria had noticed that Adaline often seemed a touch unnerved around the golem, though she tried to hide it. “He surprised me is all,” Adaline said, catching Miria watching her. “I thought he was coming from the other direction.”
Miria was about to ask why when the woods answered for her. From the northeast, a flock of birds suddenly took to the sky, screaming.
Miria dropped her sticks, and Tuli paused.
“That’s unusual, isn’t?” Adaline asked, sounding as if she wanted to be corrected.
It was extremely unusual, and Miria grabbed Adaline’s hand and pulled her back toward the cottage.
In the distance, trees began shaking. The ground rumbled, and Miria’s muscles tensed.
A hundred invisible, magical threads were snapping and shrieking, the vibrations as loud as thunder in Miria’s head and unlike anything she’d experienced before.
Something was coming through the forest from the direction of town. Something big. And given the way Miria’s protections and wards were reacting, it was extremely unfriendly.