The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) (16 page)

Sevana quirked a brow at him. “I notice you didn’t say
easy
.”

“In my experience, removing a power element from an ancient
artifact is
never
easy,” Master grumbled.

Sevana perked up with interest. She’d been vaguely aware
that Master had dealt with ancient artifacts before, but this was the first
time he had mentioned them himself. “How many have you come across?”

“This will be the fifth, I think.” For some reason his eyes
crinkled up in a small smile. “The first one was early in my career. In fact, I
think I’d only been an Artifactor as long as you have been when I took the job
on. I quickly realized I had gotten in over my head and had to call my master
for help.”

She glared at him. “Is that supposed to make me feel
better?”

“Just a fact, sweetling.”

“Humph.”

Chuckling, Master reached for the bag sitting at his feet.
“Alright, let’s call Sarsen and tell him we’re adding an item to his scavenger
list, shall we?” 

~ ~ ~

The return trip to Chastain would have taken three days, but
Sevana insisted they stop the night before they were due and stay at an inn. If
it were just she and Master, they’d likely have pressed on, but a young boy and
a wolf couldn’t put up with a confined space for three days straight. Sevana
absolutely refused to share space with a stir-crazy eight year old and a whiny
wolf.

So they stopped at a decent inn, all of them taking great
delight in soaking in a hot tub and having a hot meal. Sevana felt secretly
glad that she’d had an excuse to clean up before they arrived at the village
again. She hardly wanted to arrive smelly and mussed from the long trip.

They arrived at Chastain midmorning to the relief of the
entire village. Sarsen ran to meet them, looking far more relieved than the whole
village combined, if that were possible. Sevana managed to get one foot out of
the carriage before he grabbed her around the waist and hugged her. “Sev,” he
said against her temple.

Sevana just sighed and put up with it. First Bel, then Hana,
then Master and now Sarsen. Clearly, a hugging disease of some sort was going
around and most of her inner circle had become infected. She’d go looking for
the cure later since saying
I’m not huggable!
clearly had no effect
whatsoever.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” he told her, finally setting her
gently to earth.

“You’re only glad I’m back because you feel overwhelmed by
everything,” she responded dryly, cocking a challenging brow at him.

“Do you realize how many stones make up this village?” he
whined. He looked wide-eyed and a little frenzied, as if he hadn’t been getting
enough sleep and became dry-drunk because of it.

“It’s alright, we’ll take over from here,” she soothed. She
made silent plans to get him drugged with a sleeping potion and in a quiet room
as soon as she could manage it. He
clearly
needed to sleep for a few
hours.

“Sarsen, this is Sky,” Master introduced, a hand on the
boy’s shoulder. “He’ll be in our care for a while until we can take him to his
new home.”

Sarsen managed a smile. “Hello, Sky.”

Sky gave a shy nod back, but he clearly felt wary of Sarsen.
(Sevana didn’t blame the kid. At the moment,
she
felt wary of Sarsen.)

“New home?” Sarsen asked him, making an attempt to put the
boy more at ease. “Where is that?”

“Um…Sevana said she’d take me to meet the Fae.”

Sarsen’s eyes flew wide and his mouth moved for several
seconds, visibly searching for a response. “W-well. I’m impressed. Sky, how did
you manage to talk her into that?”

She smacked him lightly on the back of the head. “I
volunteered, you dolt.”

Sarsen gave her a look askance. “Did you hit your head
somehow when you were transported?”

“Now, now, Sarsen,” Master scolded good-naturedly. “Don’t
spoil the moment. I
like
it when Sevana tries to help people.”

Since not one person had expected such behavior from her,
Sevana was beginning to wonder why she even bothered. Abruptly changing the
subject, she asked, “Sarsen, are all the stones found?”

“No, not yet. I think we’re close though.”

“And the spring?” Master prompted.

“Hube wasn’t sure where it came from, exactly. But he knows
two people with dowsing rods that will help us look for it.”

Good enough progress, to her mind. “In that case, go sleep.
We’ll take matters over from here.”

Chastain Village had two men that were widely known as the
“Dowsing Experts” and Hube called them in to help before Sevana had even
arrived. They stood in the courtyard waiting on instructions, which Sevana
would have loved to issue, but she had two problems that needed to be sorted
first:

1) Sky

2) Sarsen

Sarsen had been up far too long and stressed because of her
disappearance. Catching Master’s eye, she inclined her head toward the
dry-drunk Artifactor, silently asking what he intended to do about him. If he
didn’t take charge, she’d drug the man right here and cart him to a bed
somewhere.

Master shrugged, half-amused, and gave her a casual salute.
Then he grabbed Sarsen from behind, hands clamped on both elbows, and
frog-marched the man straight for the inn. “Sarsen, I think you need rest.”

“Eh?” Sarsen struggled a little on instinct, but he had no
choice but to move where Master directed. “No, I’m fine. Perhaps a little
tired, but I can still work.”

“No, no, we’re here now. We’ll handle things while you take
a nice nap.”

The conversation faded as they disappeared into the inn.
Sevana blew out a breath. Alright, one problem sorted. Now, what to do with the
other? She looked down at Sky, who stood as close as he dared to her without
actually wrapping his arms around her leg. He had formed a strange attachment
to her, like a duckling imprinting on the first thing it saw. Really, if the
kid had any sense, he’d choose
Master
to follow around. She could hardly
be described as the motherly sort with her sharp tongue. But he’d spent the
past seven days with her without showing any signs of wanting to distance
himself.

He felt her eyes on him and looked up hesitantly. “You have
to work now?”

“I do,” she admitted frankly.

He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before venturing tentatively,
“Can I come with you?”

Now that was the question. Could he? Sevana didn’t think
that any part of this new plan would have any danger to it. They were not going
to go anywhere
near
that fountain or the shields around the gadgick, so
the odds of them being in danger or getting transported again later were low.
“Well, why not?”

He lit up in a bright smile.

“It’s going to be boring, though,” she felt like warning
him. “We’re just going to be walking around in circles until we figure out
where the underground water spring is, and then we’ll be digging up a hole to
actually get to it.” How they would manage to dam it up was a problem she did
not yet have a solution for, as it would take seeing the area to come up with a
good plan. “Wouldn’t you rather do something else?”

“I’ll be good,” he promised faithfully.

Well, granted, this child didn’t have anything in common
with the typical brat. He’d been working for his living for years now, although
she found it hard to remember that sometimes. He had the maturity of a young
teen instead of a normal child. He knew exactly how to behave at work and
likely wouldn’t get in her way. Besides, Gid was standing right next to Decker.
If Sky did start to become an irritant, she could always send him off to play
with the wolf.

If he wanted to go along, she wouldn’t stop him. She
wouldn’t know where to put him anyway, in this village of strangers. So she
shrugged and waved him on. “Come along, then.”

Decker, seeing that she had more or less sorted things out,
took a step away from the waiting men, calling to her, “Ready to start?”

“Yes!”

He paused and gave the boy trailing along at her heels an
odd look. “Ah, and who’s the boy?”

“My love child,” she answered without batting an eye.

For a split second, he almost believed her. She could see it
in those wide eyes. Then he blinked, his common sense kicking in, and gave Sky
a dubious look. “Unless you had a child at ten years old, I highly doubt that.”

Sevana just laughed. “I almost had you going for a moment.”

“You almost did,” he admitted. Sinking to one knee, he
offered a hand toward Sky. “I’m Decker, a huntsman in this village.”

Sky accepted the hand in a warrior’s clasp, as well as he
could with his smaller build, and gave Decker a game smile. “I’m Sky. I’m not
really her child. She’s just helping me.”

“Oh?” Decker gave Sevana a quick glance upwards. “Well,
lucky you. Did you know that this is the woman that broke the curse on Prince
Bellomi?”

Sky froze before whirling, craning his neck so that he could
stare up at her. “Really?!”

“Really,” she assured him, both amused and flattered by his
reaction. “Have you heard this story?”

He nodded vigorously. “
Everybody
was talkin’ ‘bout it
for
months
. They said it’s how he got back his throne, too.”

“That was certainly the main reason,” she agreed. That and
her freezing a room full of people. “But I’ll regale you with the full tale
later, on our way back to Big. For now, we have work to do.”

“Ah,” Decker regained his feet and pointed down at Sky’s
head. “Shouldn’t we find him a place to stay while we work first?”

“It’s not necessary,” she assured him. “We’re not doing
anything dangerous today, and he wants to go along.”

From the look on Decker’s face, he didn’t quite agree with
her, but he shrugged it off and half-turned, gesturing to the other men. “This
is Denis and Bernard. Goodmen, this is Sevana Warran and Sky.”

“Artifactor Warran,” Denis greeted with a respectful nod of
the head. He looked like a liveryman—smelled like one too—with a stocky build
and a short mustache. His compatriot, Bernard, just gave a nod. She guessed his
profession to be farmer, based on the rough condition of his hands, the worn-out
knees, and dark tan.

“Gentlemen,” she greeted in turn. “I trust you have a plan?”

“Yes ma’am,” Bernard assured her. “We got different methods,
me and Denis. He does it all in straight lines, and I follow my instincts. So
we figure, we’ll divide up the area that Hube thinks the spring is in and just
go at it. This don’t usually take more than a few hours.”

“It’s going to have to be outside the village,” she warned
them. “Anything closer than that might set off the artifact.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Denis guaranteed her with a patient smile.
“We’ve been told so by Sarsen.”

Good enough. “Then I’ll just follow along behind you. Feel
free to start.”

They left the village at a walk, no one in a particular
hurry to get this over with, not with the immediate threat of being transported
removed. Sarsen had done his job well—with almost all of the incantation stones
now accounted for, the last person to have been transported was Sevana herself.

She found the irony of that painfully funny, in a twisted
sort of way.

Once out of the village proper, they led off to the north,
heading in the direction of the ruins although they stopped well shy of them.
This made sense to Sevana—of course they knew a spring of some sort was in this
area. It’s where the artifact had originally been, after all. The spring’s
source at the platform had disappeared, but it had likely only moved, not dried
up altogether.

Different people used different types of tools for dowsing.
The only one that Sevana had any personal experience with was a pendant, which
would swing from one hand freely. She had used it before as a student, still
training under Master, to find minerals although she had never used it since.
But these men used other tools. Denis pulled out a weathered stick from the
pack on his back, the end of it shaped in a “Y.” It looked like any other
branch taken from a tree that had been sanded down and shaped by human hands.

Bernard instead had two rods in his hands, both of them in
an “L” shape that he obviously intended to use. He lifted the rods to where
they were perpendicular to each other and the ground. Denis also lifted his so
that the stick stayed perpendicular to the ground. Then, with only a glance to
each other, they started off, both of them going opposite ways.

Seeing that she couldn’t follow both men at once, she
decided to follow Denis. Really, they were fortunate the weather had held so
fair so that they weren’t doing this in a pre-summer heat wave or a lingering
winter chill. If she had to tramp around in aimless circles in and around
trees, this was the perfect weather to do it in.

Sky had been quiet while they’d talked, but with none of the
adults saying anything, he dared to ask, “What are they doing?”

Decker cocked his head slightly. “Didn’t Sevana explain? No?
Alright, well, the fountain that you saw in the middle of the square? It’s got
a rather troublesome magic device in it that we’re trying to shut off. But the
only way to do that, or so I’m told, is to take the water out of the fountain.”

“Why?” Sky asked with intensity, as if truly trying to
understand.

“The water gives the magic…what did Sarsen call it? A
gadgick?” he asked Sevana. At her nod, he continued, “The gadgick, then.
Anyway, the water gives it power. So they think if they can find the source of
the water, and divert it so the gadgick doesn’t receive any, then the gadgick
will stop working. After that, they can remove it without any problem.”

“Oh.” Sky looked at the two grown men playing with sticks
and his face screwed up in a doubtful frown. “So how do you find water with
sticks?”

Sevana laughed outright, finding this question hilarious.
“It does look odd, doesn’t it?”

Decker shook his head in resignation. “I can see you’re not
going to explain. Sky, what you’re seeing is an ancient art called
dowsing
.
The sticks in those men’s hands will react to water, you see. So even though
they’re above ground like this, the sticks will dip forward, pointing toward
the water under the earth.”

“Well, actually, the two rods will swing,” she corrected.
“They’ll either cross each other, or swing away from each other. But he’s right
in that the y-stick will dip forward.”

“Oh.” He chewed on this information for a while before
asking, “Is this how you broke the prince’s curse?”

“No, not at all,” she denied easily, striding slowly behind
Denis as the man crossed through a shady grove of trees. “I borrowed the
strength of a water dragon to do it.”

“EHHHH?” All four males stopped dead and snapped their heads
around to stare at her incredulously. Even though Bernard walked a good twenty
feet away at this point, he could apparently still hear her.

“You’re, ah, exaggerating?” Decker asked.

“Not in the slightest.”

When she didn’t elaborate, he gave her a long look. “What
will it take for me to hear the story?”

“Dinner,” she responded sweetly. “With dessert, of course.”

“Of course.” Mouth quirked in a dry smile, he flipped a
hand, palm up, in acknowledgement. “Fine. Dinner’s on me. What happened?”

Mouth quirked up in a wry smile, she mentally shrugged and
prepared to tell the story. Really, there was no reason why she shouldn’t.  And
what did they have to do out here, anyway, while waiting for the rods to react?

So she started from the beginning, from when she kidnapped the
prince from his palace bedroom, and went all the way to the end when she walked
out while leaving a frozen room of people behind. During the course of her
career, she rarely told stories like this to anyone except Master or Sarsen, so
it came as a surprise to her that she found the retelling…enjoyable. Seeing
their reactions, their intense interest, felt flattering.

She had the full tale out and was fielding questions when
Bernard’s rods abruptly crossed. “Found it!” he called.

Everyone went directly to his side. “How far down, can you
tell?” Sevana asked, staring at the rods with interest. Did she imagine that
they vibrated slightly in his hands?

“I’d say maybe ten feet down?” Bernard’s brows furrowed as
he considered this. “Maybe less than that. It’s a good, strong reaction.”

“Alright, map it,” she ordered. “See if it traces back to
the village or not. If it does, we know we have the right source.”

“Sure thing.” He turned on his heels, reversing direction,
and started for the village, paying close attention to the rods in his hands.

Sevana held her breath as they walked. They all did. If this
didn’t turn out to be the right one, they’d have to map it regardless before
starting again, just so they didn’t mistake it for a new line. But she truly
hoped that this would be the correct one. She’d already been at this job longer
than she’d anticipated, and at the rate things were going, it’d take another
week at least to wrap it up.

Bernard went in a beeline—literally. He went in this
direction for a while, then twisted a little the opposite way, stopped over a
particularly large body of water (he assumed it to be a pond or something along
those lines), but he always moved forward. He came to the village outskirts an
hour after finding the source, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.