The Smoke-Scented Girl (14 page)

“It’s not a popular one. Alvor’s dearest
friend Carall was killed fighting the legions of Murakot,
overwhelmed and overpowered, his body lost and his soul a prisoner
of the Underworld. Alvor couldn’t defeat Murakot without him, but
no one knew where the gates of the Underworld were except the
Dirn-Hound, which had never been captured. So Alvor went to the
King of Westorn to ask his permission to hunt the Dirn-Hound on his
lands, and the king of Westorn granted his request, but warned him
that his heart’s desire would keep him from finding what he looked
for. And Alvor found the Dirn-Hound, but every time he came near
it, it was suddenly half a mile distant. He chased it across the
lands of the Princess of Cambrian and the Lord Regent of Esternis,
and both rulers gave him permission to cross and both told him what
the king of Westorn had. Finally Alvor was tired and angry, and he
sat on the grass at the top of a hill and decided it was a waste of
his time. And then the Dirn-Hound stood next to him, and allowed
Alvor to harness him.”

“That sounds like metaphor to me.”

“Me too. It’s not popular because people
don’t like to think of Alvor as someone who had to ask permission
for anything. Some versions of the story have him ordering those
lords to let him pass, but I don’t think that makes much sense—if
he had to order them, it means they had the power to say no, which
still makes him their inferior. And my version fits better with the
rest of the historical evidence, that Alvor was just a man who
became great because the times demanded a hero.”

“You know a great deal about Alvorian myth.
Forgive me, but you don’t speak like a barmaid.”

Kerensa shrugged. “I went to school in
Taraspir for a few years, and I listened to every story of Alvor
every passing storyteller could give me. All those different
versions, from Alvor’s call to glory to his disappearance after
killing Murakot, and the truth was somewhere in the middle—it
fascinated me. I wanted to go to university in Matra to study more,
which is why I was working in the tavern, to earn enough money, but
that was before....” She ducked her head again, but she didn’t
sound quite as despondent as she had before.

Evon cast about for something to distract
her. “You come from Taraspir, then?” It was a city near Dalanine’s
northern border.

She shook her head. “From Elkenhound, east of
Taraspir. You won’t have heard of it. It’s not very big.”

“You’re far from home, then,” Evon said, then
cursed himself.
Of course she’s far from home, she’s been driven
across Dalanine by a murderous spell that burns her to death every
few weeks
. “I’ve never been out of Matra myself, not more than
half a day’s journey away, anyway,” he said. “This is the farthest
I’ve ever been away from home.”

She was silent for a moment, and Evon ran
through all of the possible ways his words might have sent her back
into despair, but she said, “Do you have family in Matra, then?”
and her voice sounded curious rather than despondent.

He laughed. “I sometimes think I have more
family than any man deserves to have. My parents. My mother’s
parents. My father’s married sister, her husband, and my odious
cousin Jessalie. My father’s unmarried sister, my dread maiden
aunt. My younger brother Goderon. And we all live together in the
family home except my older sister, who had the good sense to marry
and flee.”

“You still live at home?” Kerensa said, and
now the twinkle was back in her eye. Evon felt a weight lift from
his chest.

“I do, and you can forgo the rest of the
comments I see gathering in your mind. It’s a family tradition.
Everyone works to provide for the household and we all benefit from
the support of the family. And truthfully, except for my Aunt Etta
and the odious Jessalie, I like having my family around. I just
didn’t realize how stifling they can be, without meaning it, until
I made this journey. So I suppose I should thank you for opening my
eyes.”

“You’re welcome. Now I want to know more
about Miss Elltis.”

“There’s not much to know. She’s a talented
magician, but her real skill is in administration. Elltis and
Company is one of the most experienced and prestigious cooperatives
in Dalanine thanks to her efforts. But she’s brusque and severe and
demands a great deal from her ‘partners,’ including me.”

“Will she be angry that you didn’t find a
magician at the end of your quest?”

“She wants the spell. She’ll be annoyed at
the delay, but she can’t afford to fire me—I’m her top researcher
and I bring the cooperative substantial sums of money from my
creations. Let’s try this shop.”

The shop assistant who came to meet them
concealed her distaste for Kerensa’s dress imperfectly. Evon spun
out a tale of broken-down carriages and lost luggage so well that
even Kerensa behaved as if it were true. It had been a long time
since he’d needed that skill, and he was pleased to see he hadn’t
lost it since leaving school. While Kerensa tried on dresses, he
fell into a reverie involving Piercy and himself raiding the
headmaster’s liquor cabinet to bribe the gatekeeper to open the
gates for them after curfew. He was so distracted that he didn’t
notice Kerensa had returned until she waved a hand in front of his
face and said, “Gathering wool again, brother?”

He blinked and focused on her. She’d chosen a
full-skirted gown in deep blue, fitted closely in the waist and
bust to flatter her excellent figure. The color brought out the
gold in her hair and made her too-creamy complexion seem less
unnatural. She smoothed the bodice and shook out the skirts, and
said, “I think this is much nicer, don’t you?”

He nodded. He was having trouble speaking. He
caught the shop assistant watching him suspiciously, realized he
was not looking at Kerensa in the way a brother would, and said,
“It looks very nice. Miss, would you mind wrapping the old gown for
us to take away? We really should return it to the kind woman who
loaned it to my sister. Not her fault they’re very different
shapes, yes?”

He paid for the dress and a charcoal gray
bonnet, and with parcel in hand he escorted Kerensa back to the inn
and their suite. “Would you mind waiting in your room for a
moment?” he asked. “I have to update Miss Elltis on my progress.”
His instinct was to prevent Miss Elltis from seeing Kerensa, who
would look with suspicion on Evon’s motives if she knew the spell
was attached to the body of an attractive young woman. Evon didn’t
know why she held such a dislike for attractive young women; he
only knew that Miss Elltis employed no one of that description and
had rejected at least one applicant on those grounds alone.

Kerensa took the parcel from him. “I’ll see
if I can’t get this mud off,” she said, “and it can be my
alternative to running around naked.” Her hazel eyes twinkled at
him, and once again he found himself without a ready response. He
stared after her for a long moment after she’d closed the bathroom
door behind her, then cleared his throat and drew up a chair in
front of the small mirror over the shining parquet surface of the
dressing table. He huffed on the mirror and quickly drew a pair of
runes in the resulting fog. “Tifana Elltis
eloqua
,” he said,
and the surface of the mirror fogged over completely.
Eloqua
tasted pleasantly of mint, strong enough that he imagined he could
smell the illusory taste. He sat back in his chair and waited. He
was fairly certain that Miss Elltis always delayed responding to
his communication spell to remind him that she was in charge, at
least nominally. He leaned back further and tilted the chair so it
balanced on two legs. In school, he’d been able to keep that
position up indefinitely. He took out his pocket watch.

Seventeen minutes later, the fog cleared and
Miss Elltis’s face loomed out at him from the mirror. Her smooth,
round cheeks were rosy, as if she’d been running, and the creases
at the corners of her eyes and mouth were deeper than usual.
Something had occurred to upset her. “Mr. Lorantis,” she said. Her
voice, by contrast to her face, was expressionless.

Evon set his chair down on all four legs and
said, “Good morning, Miss Elltis.”

“I hope you have news for me.”

“I do. I’ve located the carrier of the
spell.”

“The ‘carrier’ of the spell? Are you being
deliberately opaque, Mr. Lorantis?”

“No, I’m being deliberately precise, Miss
Elltis.” Evon summarized the last twenty-four hours’ events,
emphasizing what he’d learned about the spell and omitting the part
where he’d spent her money on Kerensa’s clothing. When he was
finished, Miss Elltis’s eyebrow was twitching, a tic Evon
recognized as a sign that she was thinking furiously. He resisted
the urge to fill her silence with more words.

“If I understand you,” she said finally,
“this girl has no control over the spell.”

“Correct.”

“Which indicates that she is of no use to us
in using the spell to our advantage.”

“Not in the sense that she’s a magician who
can teach me the spell, true, but I can’t separate it from her, so
in a different sense, she’s crucial to my understanding of it.”

Miss Elltis pursed her lips again. “You’ve
made this report to Home Defense as well.”

“Mr. Faranter has, yes.”

The eyebrow twitched. “I’m inclined to tell
you to leave it to them and return home.”

Evon’s jaw dropped. “Miss Elltis, we are so
very close to understanding this spell—”

“Mr. Lorantis, by your own account you
haven’t even begun to investigate this spell.”

“Which is why it would be foolish to give up
before we’ve started.”

“Are you calling me a fool, Mr.
Lorantis?”

“Of course not, Miss Elltis, I’m saying that
Elltis and Company hasn’t prospered all these years by stepping
aside from a challenge before fully engaging with it. I’m prepared
to do whatever it takes to discover the workings of this spell. I
think you know what I’m capable of. I merely want your
support.”

Twitch, twitch
. “I don’t like the idea
of this cooperative’s resources being squandered, Mr. Lorantis. You
had better be able to produce results.”

“I assure you, Miss Elltis, I am quite
careful of our resources. I anticipate success very soon.”

“For your sake, Mr. Lorantis, I sincerely
hope you are correct.” She cut the connection without another
word.

Evon gently knocked his forehead against the
dressing table. Someday, he’d be in a position to give Miss Elltis
orders, and what a sweet day that would be. What could have upset
her so? Well, it wasn’t his concern, and frankly, he wasn’t all
that sorry to see Miss Elltis discomfited.

“I’ve caused you trouble,” Kerensa said from
behind him. He turned to see her standing in the bathroom doorway,
her hand on the knob.

“No, Miss Elltis delights in finding ways to
cause me trouble,” he said, “and she is using that spell as a
pretext. Were you listening?”

“Not on purpose. No, that’s a lie. I wanted
to hear what your dragon maiden aunt sounded like. She
is
nasty, isn’t she?”

Evon thought he should probably take her to
task for eavesdropping, but found he didn’t really mind. It wasn’t
as if he’d said anything he wouldn’t have told Kerensa later. “She
can be, yes. She was in a foul mood just now. Normally she’s more
polite.”

“I think it’s too bad you have to put up with
her. Why don’t you form your own, what did you call it,
cooperative?”

“It’s hard to make a name for yourself, and
I’d have to give up too much of my research to run such a thing. My
hope is to gain equity in Elltis and Company and thereby gain more
control. Miss Elltis has to retire someday, after all.”

“I didn’t think dragon maiden aunts ever
retired. Sit in a corner and make rude noises at people,
possibly.”

Evon raised his eyebrows at her.
“You’re...pardon my saying, but you’re in a remarkably cheerful
mood.”

She twirled in place, making the skirt flare
out. “I didn’t realize what a difference clothing that fits makes.
I haven’t had a comfortable dress for...is it seven months, or
eight? I feel light all over.”

“If I were really your brother, I would point
out that I was right and you should listen to my wisdom in
future.”

“If I were really your sister, I would roll
my eyes in your direction.”

“Do you suppose we could begin investigating
that spell? I know I sounded dismissive, but I don’t want to
disregard Miss Elltis’s instructions entirely.”

The smile left her face. “I forgot,” she
said. “For a moment I forgot about it entirely.”

She looked so lost that Evon’s heart went out
to her. “Let’s see if we can let you forget about it permanently,”
he said, and offered her the chair he’d been sitting in.

When Piercy returned half an hour later,
Kerensa was once again wreathed in blue spell-ribbons, still dark
and dormant and frozen in the grip of
desini cucurri
. Evon
was so caught up in his work that Piercy’s entrance startled him,
and he dropped his pencil.

“I beg your pardon,” Piercy said, retrieving
it and handing it over. “Miss—should I call you Miss Haylter when
we’re alone?”

“I’d like for you to call me Kerensa, Mr.
Faranter, since Evon is doing the same. It makes me feel less
awkward, like I’m really among friends.”

Piercy looked a little startled, but said,
“Then if we are friends you should call me Piercy. And now that we
are entirely friendly, dear fellow, I think I should tell you about
my day, if you’re in a position to be interrupted.”

“I lost my place when I dropped my pencil, so
you might as well.” The spell-ribbons jerked and resumed their
motion. “It seems the spell is ready for a rest too.”

Piercy sat on his bed and laced his fingers
together in front of him. “My superiors are sending someone to take
charge of Miss—Kerensa, that is.”