Spindle (Two Monarchies Sequence Book 1) (36 page)

Melchior’s eyes met hers, and Poly saw resolve there. He kissed her, quick and hard, his hands cupping her face.

“I’ll miss you,” he said. “I can’t– I wish– but you have Luck, and I have to finish this.”

Then he was leaping over rows of seats for the door, and on the last leap Poly saw only a lithe black cat, springing lightly to the floor and darting through the door.

“Hey!” said Luck, swaying in the sudden silence. “Stop kissing Melchior!”

“Luck, we’ve got to stop them!”

“I don’t want to stop them,” said Luck, but Poly was already running for the door.

She could see cats at the end of the hall as she ran, flowing toward the front entrance: Melchior was with them, leaping high and fast to catch up with the leaders. She hoped to corner them when they reached the grand front door, but when it came in sight it was open, cats pouring over the threshold and into the street. Poly dashed after them, catching the doorframe to keep her balance before the stairs, and stopped short on the top step, her heart pounding.

On the golden steps of the Council Building were twenty precise men in twenty precise grey suits. They were prim and proper, and carried behind them a storm of magic that obscured the street.

Through their legs the cats streamed, yowling and spitting.

Luck stumbled into the daylight, blinking, and hung on the door-frame behind Poly. He said: “Took your time!”

“Where are the detainees?” asked the first precise man.

“That was them. The dog turned them into cats.”

The precise man blinked precisely once. “Cats. Hmm. We might need to keep an eye on that.”

“I wouldn’t bother,” said Poly wearily. It was too late to catch them, and too late to stop Melchior. “Melchior is with them. I’m sure he’ll be in contact when he’s able.”

The precise man seemed to consider this. Then he said: “Very well. We’ll tie all this up.”

“That’s their way of saying ‘thanks and run along now’,” said Luck, as two rows of precise men marched quietly through the doorway and into the Hall.

“Do we want to run along now?”

“Might as well. It’ll only be paperwork and statements for the news sheets. Maybe some cleaning. We splashed a bit of magic about in there.”

“Where did you put Onepiece?”

“What? Oh, second floor,” said Luck, just as Onepiece himself trotted into sight along the hall, hotly pursued by two of Black Velvet’s number.

Onepiece said crossly: “Muuuum! More naughty wizards!” and held out his arms to be lifted up.

Poly lifted him and glared at the two Black Velvet wizards. “Why are you chasing my son?”

“I’m sorry, your highness, but you can’t take him,” said one of the wizards.

Poly said coldly: “I beg your pardon?”

“Mr Pennicott says to detain him until we can determine what he is and if he’s a threat,” said the wizard.

“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Luck.

The wizard, persevering, added: “There’s also the matter of the Transformation magic he worked: we need to know what it was. Those cats were
cats.
They weren’t Transformed. Not really.”

“You’re not keeping Onepiece here.”

“But Mr Pennicott says–”

“If you so much as lay a finger on my son I will Bind you into the stairs of the Hall until every person in the Capital has walked over your face.”

“Now, Poly, don’t pick a fight with these wizards as well,” said Luck, in a reasonable tone of voice.

“They said they’re going to keep Onepiece!”

Luck said: “Well, they can’t. We’re going home,” and much to Poly’s appreciation, he Shifted the three of them directly back home.

There was a shriek as the parlour appeared around them. Isabella, her eyes wide with shock, gave vent to her relief in a long, quivering breath.

“I’m exceedingly glad you’re both safe!” she said. Poly thought that there might be a slight glimmer of moisture to the girl’s eyes. She hugged Poly and even Luck, who suffered it with the dim listlessness of one who has endured so much that one more indignity scarcely matters.

Isabella, eyeing him shrewdly, said: “Oh, very well! I’ll leave you both alone!”

Her eyes fell on Onepiece, and she went from understanding to wrathful indignation in a moment.

“
What
did I say about running away, you repellent little boy!”

“Smack me inna head and throw me inna stream,” said Onepiece obediently, wriggling to be let down.

“Exactly!” said Isabella. She boxed Onepiece’s ear while Poly watched, highly diverted, and demanded: “Come with me.”

“Inna stream!” said Onepiece happily.

“Yes, inna stream,” Isabella said severely, shoving him out the front door. She turned back to Poly with a glimmering smile and added: “We’ll be down at the stream. We’ll be gone for quite some time, I imagine.”

She gave them a pert nod and was gone.

Luck, blinking at the curls of his own blackened magic and then at Poly, said: “Where’s she gone?”

“Sit down, Luck. She’s taken Onepiece to the stream.”

“All right.” Luck sat down, hunching his abused magic around him. “Why?”

“To throw him in, apparently,” said Poly.

“Oh. Good. What are you doing?”

“Straightening this mess out, of course. Sit still.”

“All right.” Luck sat in silence for some minutes before he said moodily: “You were kissing Melchior again, Poly.”

“
You
were kissing Melissa!”

“Yes, but that was just work,” said Luck. “I needed to know what she and Mordion were up to, and Melissa is a lot more careless when she thinks she’s in control. I had to let her enchant me. And then all you wanted to talk about when you got back every day was Mordion.”

“So
that’s
why you kept cutting me off every time I tried to tell you about him! Luck, why didn’t you tell me what you were going to do?”

Luck flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “Melissa was too quick for me. Took me by surprise. And then once the enchantment was there I couldn’t tell you anything without her learning about it, too. Good thing I’d already sorted out the spellpaper by then.”

Poly smoothed out threads in silence, stripping black from gold.

Luck said: “My head hurts.”

That wasn’t surprising, Poly thought, caressing each strand of magic back into place. Luck’s magic was in a worse state than she’d ever seen it. Some of her own magic, repurposed by Mordion, was responsible for a lot of the damage: she could see the familiar yet alien shards of it amidst Luck’s magic.

“Poor darling,” she murmured.

Luck sat up, blinking, and said: “What did you call me?”

Poly froze, fingers caught in a web of magic that seemed to grip suddenly around her fingers, warm and tight.

“Poly. Poly, don’t you dare ignore me. Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to call me darling instead of the dog?”

“He’s not a dog,” she said automatically, hot and cold by turns because she’d slipped and
Oh, how embarrassing!
but Luck had said–
what
had he said?

“Well, I know that,” said Luck, in an entirely reasonable tone of voice. “But what else was I supposed to say when you were lavishing all those darlings on him instead of me?”

“How could I know that?” demanded Poly. “You were kissing Melissa and ignoring me all day!”

“I broke the curse long before that!” complained Luck. “You were supposed to understand that. I had to butcher the curse just to wake you up the first time but when I kissed you in the village the curse really broke.”

“Oh.
Oh!
” Poly gazed at him. “
Love’s Kiss!
It was in the curse!”

“That’s right,” said Luck, smiling sunnily.

“I see,” said Poly. She felt breathless and light, and as free as she had felt the moment she knew she was released from Mordion’s claim on her.

“I hope you don’t mind my not asking your parents for your hand in marriage,” said Luck. His magic was curling tighter around her fingers and coiling up her wrists. “I’m fairly certain they know, anyway.”

Poly gave a little spurt of laughter. “I’m sure they do.”

“I did want to ask you something, though,” said Luck. His hands, gilded with magic, seized her by the waist and pulled her closer. “If I kiss you, will you promise not to hit me again?”

Finis



Thank you for reading
Spindle
! I hope you enjoyed it– I certainly had fun writing it. (The editing and formatting wasn’t much of a laugh, but the writing, now: that was
fun
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