The Perils of Untying Love – Episode 5
The spellbook Cosferas had appeared from was still lying open on the table when Trewla and I entered the library. She strode over and picked up the book, her frown deepening as she leafed through the blank pages.
Her breath hissed between her clenched teeth. Dropping the book, she picked up a handful of the loose lengths of string scattered on the table, and bunched her fist around them.
“I know you think it’s my fault the spells have gone,” I said, waving my arms about. “But, it isn’t. I told you what happened.”
Trewla threw down the string and covered her face with both hands. After several deep breaths, she dropped her arms and subjected me to a hard stare. “You obviously could never have been bothered to study magic properly. If you had, the instant you’d seen the words moving about, you would have stopped reading, knowing that if you carried on they would all be whisked off the pages and end up inside a brownie.”
I pulled my shoulders back and folded my arms. “I’ll have you know, I applied myself diligently to my studies.”
“I don’t believe you. Like I said, if you had, you would have realised the book’s owner had cast an anti-theft spell over it, and stopped reading before you did any damage.”
She had me there. I hadn’t been the most diligent of students. I used to skip classes whenever boring topics arose. Any hint the next day’s lesson would be about health and safety, or taking precautions, or anything of that ilk, would see me slipping quietly across the viaduct at dawn to explore whatever world the castle was visiting at the time.
My tutor had cottoned on to this. Whenever he fancied a day off, he’d lay it on thick about how tedious the following day’s lesson would be. Those breaks became quite frequent, as I recall.
But, I wasn’t going to admit that to Trewla.
“My tutor is at fault here, not me.” I gave her a mournful look.
“Yeah, right.”
“Anyway, how can you be sure this is the book of spells Geoffrey stole?” I picked it up and cast my eye over the cover. “It doesn’t look like one to me.” I was thinking of the spellbook I’d inherited and kept in my study. It was a thing of beauty, what with dozens of magic symbols, skulls, and a dragon drawn in gold ink on the outside. Trewla didn’t need to know it was me who’d added the dragon.
“All the clues were there before I’d even clapped my eyes on this book,” she said, like she was talking to a small child. “When you found it, you said it was bound all about with string and bore a label warning anyone with an ounce of sense, that the book should not be read.”
“Yes, but–”
She took the book from me. “My suspicions were confirmed when I saw this.” She opened the volume and pointed at something scrawled inside the front cover.
I squinted and leaned closer.
Ye Book of Magick Spells
Propertie of ye Grayt Wizard Wenzel”
“You didn’t notice that before, did you?” she said.
“To be fair, the writing’s quite small,” I said, straightening up.
Trewla raised an eyebrow. “That’s the closest I’ve ever heard you come to saying you’ve made a mistake.”
“Not a mistake, as such…” Hoping to divert her away from an uncomfortable subject, I said. “How come the anti-theft spell didn’t work when Geoffrey read the spellbook?”
“That bothered me too, at first. But the most logical explanation is that Wenzel must have only cast the anti-theft spell when he discovered his spellbook was missing. He was too late. Geoffrey had already read the book, so the spell didn’t do anything. That is, until you came along.”
While we had been talking, my mind had been racing. The last thing I wanted was for Trewla to reverse engineer the magic that moves the castle from world to world. I’ll lose her forever if she does.
“Oh well.” I shrugged. “The book is useless now. Nothing we can do about it.” I patted Trewla’s shoulder. “Never mind. Perhaps you should forget about spells for while, eh?”
“Absolutely not! Now I’ve got Wenzel’s spellbook, I’m closer than ever to getting back home!”
My eyebrows lifted. “I don’t think so. The book’s blank. The spells have gone.”
“Correct. But you’re going to get them back.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to find the brownie – Cosferas, you said his name is – and you’re going to persuade him to return every last word.”
*** Continued in episode 6 ***
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