Citrine by Jenny Molyneux Linda Kutt

  ***

  Olivia hurried through the passages behind the walls of the castle. Eve and Azure both raced to keep up with her, until she came to a stop in front of doorway.

  “Okay,” Eve panted as she came to a stop behind her. “Where are we and what are you thinking?”

  “I have the floor plan of the castle memorized; we should be at the back part of the castle, near the old servants’ quarters,” Olivia explained, as she stepped up to push open the doorway into the castle proper.

  “Hold on, why are we here?” Eve asked.

  “We need help, and the one person that can help us is here,” Olivia explained, as she pushed open the doorway a crack, checking to see that the hallway was empty before she pushed it open enough to step through into the hall. Olivia hurried down the corridor, looking for the room she was seeking. Several times they had to push flat against the wall, hiding their faces from the people that hurried through the corridors, but they had gotten lucky, and soon they were standing in front of a door to one of the oldest of the servant quarters. The rooms were small and dark, but Olivia also knew that the likelihood of someone finding them there was remote. Few servants stayed in these old rooms; most preferred the newer rooms assigned.

  Eve leaned against the wall, waiting for Olivia to do something other than pace in front of the door.

  “Okay, whose room is this, and why would he help us?” she wanted to know.

  “Garrick Lark,” Olivia stated.

  “Sorry, name means nothing to me,” Eve stated.

  “Garrick Lark ...” Olivia started, and then they all gasped when the door swung open, and a man stumbled out of the room.

  Olivia grabbed him, and he looked into her face. “Olivia,” he slurred, and he fell flat on his face.

  “Oh my god. He’s drunk as a skunk,” Eve stared at him with dismay.

  “Garrick, dammit!” Olivia grunted, as she attempted to get him on his feet. “Get up!” She pulled at his arms. “We need your help,” she told him.

  “Can’t help,” he cried, his voice slurred with emotion, “let the King down.” The tears fell as he recalled his failure.

  Olivia looked to the other two ladies, her eyes pleading. “Help me, or else someone will find us, and I am not willing to be in Bart’s hands,” Olivia insisted.

  Eve watched her trying to drag the man that was more than twice her size to his feet. She reached over, grabbed his other arm, and between the three of them, they got him to his feet, and back into his room. He shrugged out of their arms, stumbled to the dresser, and grabbed the open bottle, chugging the spirits.

  Eve grabbed the bottle from his grasp. “No more for you,” she informed him.

  “Garrick,” Olivia pleaded with him. “Please listen to me. It’s about Tyrone and Grey. They need our help.”

  “Oh, my beloved King is beyond my help, murdered by Grey ...” Garrick stopped, shaking his head before saying, “No, that’s not right.”

  Eve watched him, and for a split second he seemed almost sober. Reaching out, she touched his arm, before pulling it away quickly, shaking her hand like she had been burned.

  “What just happened?” Olivia questioned.

  “I don’t know, I tried to read him and I got zapped,” Eve explained.

  “It was a spell,” Azure told them.

  “A spell?” they both asked.

  “Yes, it’s surrounds him, and when you tried to read him, it reacted.”

  “Are you talking about the same spell that Caleb believes the people of Elden are trapped in?”

  “No,” she told them.

  “How do you know that it’s a spell?” Eve asked her, suddenly very curious about the quiet woman standing beside them.

  “I can see it,” Azure told them.

  “See it, what do you mean?” Olivia asked, as she watched Garrick reach out, trying to grab the bottle from Eve’s hand, swaying on his feet.

  “It’s just like I said, I can see spells,” she told them, without explaining more.

  Eve moved out of the way of the grasping hands of Garrick. “If you think you can tell us that without explaining yourself, you are crazy.” Eve scrutinized Azure, looking past the grime. Eyes too old for the pretty face, hair so blonde it shone through the dirt, and she was very good at becoming background noise.

  “Fine, my mother was a witch, and one of the abilities that she passed onto to me is the ability to physically see spells that are put on people. Not many can do it, but she could, and so can I.”

  “Well, it certainly seems to be my year for meeting witches,” Eve laughed, and then she changed the subject. “Okay, Garrick has a spell on him.”

  “It’s not just on him, it’s on everything in the room, but it’s designed for him, and not transferable to anyone else.” They all stood silently taking in what Azure had just told them. Eve lifted the bottle in her hand to her mouth, took a swig, and then pulled it back.

  “So, do you think that you can break it?” Eve asked.

  “I don’t know, it might be easier for him to break it,” Azure told them. “But what does it matter? He’s drunk, and it will take hours from him to be sober enough to help us.”

  “He’s not drunk,” Eve told them. “Look closer at him.”

  Both Olivia and Azure looked to the still swaying Garrick, amazed that he was still on his feet.

  Eve tossed the bottle to Olivia. “It’s hard to be drunk when you’re not drinking alcohol.”

  “What? You’re crazy; he’s being drinking like this since we thought that Tyrone was killed.” Olivia held the bottle up, looking at it closely.

  “Taste it,” Eve insisted, as Olivia brought it to her mouth. “Its water!” she exclaimed with a look of confusion.

  Eve turned to Azure. “So, how does one convince a sober man that he is drunk as a skunk? I’ve seen hypnotism, but I know that is not always reliable.”

  “If the wielder is strong enough, they could manipulate thoughts, and never be in contact with the spelled soul. It’s a very simple spell, but magic is so messed up right now, it would have to be recast often, so whoever is doing it, has to be close.”

  “Say someone like a cairbare sorcerer, who is highly trained?” Eve asked Azure.

  “I don’t know how they are trained, but yes, likely.” Azure agreed.

  Eve ran some things through her mind. “Why would Dreyden do this? Why not just kill him?” she wondered aloud.

  “Maybe because it would look suspicious,” Olivia pointed out.

  “What do you mean?” Eve wanted to know.

  “Everyone knew that Garrick was out of the castle when Tyrone was supposedly killed, and he wasn’t the suicidal type, so you convince him Grey was the one behind Tyrone’s murder, and he will convince the people. Then you can’t have him just disappear; Garrick has been at the castle for as long as I can remember, and falling into a drunken stupor would make sense.”

  Eve thought for a moment. “He was obviously close to Tyrone and Grey, so wouldn’t he be the one that wouldn’t believe that Grey was behind the murder?”

  “You tell someone something long enough and they start to believe that it is true, even if it isn’t. It sure didn’t help that he is under a spell. As the head of the king’s guard, his belief that Grey was behind Tyrone’s murder would be a coup for Bart,” Olivia said with a shrug.

  “But maybe he never did believe,” Azure whispered.

  “That could be true. You saw what happened for just a moment when he struggled with the idea that Grey was guilty. Maybe having magic so unpredictable left a hole in the spell. We convince him that Tyrone is alive, do you think that could break the spell?” Eve wondered.

  “It’s a possibility,” Azure agreed. “So how do you plan to get him to believe us?”

  “That’s the thing that I’m not so sure about, it’s not like we have a lot of time to spare …”