It occurred to him as he finished the test that people people on the outside of the castle would be surprised to see it light up. Maybe he should have warned the soldiers on the outside so that they could control the panic. He hoped they weren’t panicking. The test was harmless, but now he knew for certain something he had been wondering for ages.
“Did you see that?” He asked her. Hailey nodded solemnly. “So why did the spell grow fifteen years ago when I cast it?”
“Because it was not attached to the princess like it should have been. It was attached no the air above the princess, like the leaf that you bound to the tree.”
She was clever, he would give her that. “Exactly.”
“But why? You bound the spell to the curse, right?”
He nodded.
“The curse was always attached to the princess or it would have started growing when she was a baby, right? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Barinon took a deep breath and told her about what they had tried in moving the spell from the princess. It hadn’t worked, but it had managed to move just slightly. When they bound the preservation spell to it, it began to grow.
“I still don’t understand why it didn’t just not work. It should have either moved or not,” she said, no longer sounding like the little girl who had brought her in this room. Her bright blue eyes were full of questions. From moment to moment she seemed either a girl or a woman. It was as if being stuck one age for so long had stopped her from being the age that truly belonged with her. Maybe there was no age that truly was hers. She should be older than she was. He found himself wondering at the sacrifice she had made without thought, without complaint. She just rolled up her sleeves and did what she thought had to be done.
“Barinon?” She tugged on his arm.
“Ah.” He had been staring off into the distance. “I’m not certain why it moved. I just know that it did. I think you might be the missing piece of the puzzle,” he said. “Where were you when the spell was cast?”
She looked embarrassed. “It wasn’t my fault. I was just trying to hide from Esmerelda. She was being mean that day and…”
He cut her off. “What is done is done, Hailey. I just need to know where you were. I’m not angry with you. I just need to know.”
A silence hung between them for a moment. His hand was slick with sweat and he reminded himself once again that he was putting his life in her hand.
“I was under the bed,” she finally said.
He patted her hand with his free one. “Thank you, Hailey. Now I have something I would like to show you.”
She looked up. “What?”
“The mage’s library.”
Hailey had almost forgotten about that. She didn’t know what her being under the bed had to do with the spell going wrong, but it probably had something to do with why she was the only one who could come and go without being put to sleep.
Barinon stood in front of a blank wall. Most of the walls were made of plaster, but this one showed the stone underneath. It was cracked in places, but Hailey could see no sign of a doorway.
“Hold my wrist,” he told her.
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She grabbed on tightly, relieved to be letting go of his sweaty hand. Men sweated too much, she decided. Aaron’s hand had been just as sweaty.
Barinon pushed the palms of his hands together then pushed one hand away from him, bringing his palms back together and then pushing the other hand the other direction. He ended with his palms back together in front of his chest. It was a simple motion and Hailey thought she could replicate it without difficulty. There was a shifting in the wall, a sliding of stone and the wall slid open.
Inside was a curved room. They stepped inside and Barinon let go of her hand.
----------------------------------------
Hailey gasped, expecting him to crumple to the ground.
“Sorry,” he said craning his neck to look at the books that stretched to the ceiling. “I forgot to tell you that this room has a spell on it that voids all magic.”
“How can a spell void magic?”
“Just for in the room we are in,” he said, but he wasn’t really paying attention. There was a gleam in his eyes as he looked at the books and Hailey realized he was probably trying to figure out how many of these they could carry out.
“Practice opening and closing the door a few times and then I need to teach you the bind spell.”
“But won’t it work in here?”
He sighed. “The room stops magic from the outside from affecting it. That way, all this knowledge is safe. Let’s just say that if the dragon were to breathe fire on the castle, this room would be fine. Closing the doors is the opposite of opening them. Practice,” he said, taking a set of steps down into the darkness.
Hailey did as he bid her. For now, she would have to stop asking so many questions. This place was important to him and he wanted to relish the time he had in it. She opened and closed the door and had to admit that this room was amazing. Light shone down from windows high above, but for the most part, it was dark in here. The windows were so high up that they only managed to cast a gloomy light. She had never seen so many books in her life. A massive ladder on a track ran up the side of a wall. The bookshelves almost reached the ceiling and hey were all full of books. No, she corrected herself, there were a few missing.
There were mage lanterns hung on either side of the room. Notches had to be cut out or the bookshelves to hold the lantern. Hailey cast her light spell, careful not to get it wrong this time. “Fulgaro,” she said, placing light in each lantern, then she followed him down the steps. The stone staircase opened up into a small room. Unlike the shelves above which had somehow managed to curve with the walls, these bookshelves boxed in the room, creating three walls. Many of the books were missing from here, and she opened her mouth to ask if there were some missing, but stopped herself. Instead, she found the single lantern and created magelight.
Barinon turned to her distractedly and dropped the magelight he was holding. “We are looking for a specific tome that details how the spell was created, then we will separate the spells and…well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First we have to find the book.”
“What is the name of it?” Hailey asked.
“Victor’s Practical Spells,” he said.
That sounded like a boring book to her, especially the practical part, but she looked for it. “Why are there some missing?” She asked, finally giving way to curiosity.
Barinon repsonded, his finger on the spine of a book. His eyes were still skimming the shelves when he said, “I had almost forgotten. Cedric would have had it. In the council room.” He looked at her and blinked like he didn’t recognize her.
“What?” She asked him.
“I just… I …” He seemed to be at a complete loss of what to say for a moment and then he continued. “I had totally forgotten that we had moved a bunch of books that day.”
Barinon grabbed a book off the shelves anyway and they hurried, holding hands once again. The council room was not one of the rooms that Hailey ever went in and so everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. Chairs sat unused, and even the table had a thick layer of dust on it. “It’s exactly as we left it,” Barinon said distractedly. He handed the book he had been holding to her, and then he grabbed the larger tome from off the table, closing it with a puff of dust. He coughed and then proceeded to scoop up five more of the books from off the table.
She would have to remember to put the other books back where they belonged once she returned to the castle. They returned to the mage library, and then he sent Hailey to gather a few things that they would need to enhance the spell.
“Certain herbs will make a spell more powerful. There are other things, like minerals that can work even better, depending on the spell. What we need is rosemary, lots of it and candles, marigolds and the chicken. Bring the chicken.”