Claimed by Shadow Page 0,16
without causing a riot.”
"How did you know?" It was disconcerting to find out that I'd been wearing the equivalent of a sign on my back for years. Could everybody see it but me?
Pritkin gave a one-shouldered shrug. "I knew the first time I saw you together.”
I considered the situation and figured it was worth a shot. "I don't suppose you could do something about it? We are in this together, after all, and I could probably think more clearly if-”
"Only Mircea can remove it," Pritkin said, dashing what little hope I'd had. "Even the mage who cast it for him couldn't do it without his assent. The best you can do at present is to stay away from him.”
I frowned. It was pretty much the same thing Casanova had said, but I wasn't buying it. "I don't know much about magic, but even I know there's no such thing as a spell that can't be broken. There has to be a way!" Pritkin's expression didn't change, but a momentary flash in his eyes told me I was right. "You know something," I said accusingly.
He looked evasive but finally answered. I suppose he decided it would be faster to humor me. "All geasa are different, but most have one thing in common. Each has built into it a… a safety net, if you like. Mircea would not want to be hoisted by his own petard, so he would have designed the geis with a way out of the spell, should something go wrong.”
"And that would be?”
"Only Mircea and the mage who cast it know that.”
I stared at him, trying to figure out whether he was lying. His words rang true, so why did I get the feeling he wasn't telling me everything? Maybe because no one ever did. "If this is 1888, Mircea hasn't done anything yet. There is no geis. Or there shouldn't be," I added, since obviously something was happening.
"You have a habit of getting into unprecedented situations," Pritkin said with a scowl. "I've never heard of this particular scenario. I don't know what will occur if the two of you spend time together in this era, but I doubt you would like the consequences." He adjusted his long coat to minimize the ominous bulges underneath. "Stay here. I will look about and see if anything strikes me as unusual. I lived through this period and am more likely to notice anything out of place than you. I'll return shortly and we will discuss our options.”
He left before I could react, leaving me staring witlessly after him. Magic users live longer than norms, true, but not enough to look about thirty-five at a century more than that. I'd known since soon after meeting him that there was more to Pritkin man met the eye, but this was getting really weird.
I sat down on one of the steps and hugged my knees, staring at a patch of threadbare carpet. The minimal outfit was cold and the horns were adding to my headache. I took them off and stared at them instead. The gold glitter was starting to flake off in pieces, showing the hard white foam beneath. I felt a little bad about that. Assuming we ever got back to our time, the girl whose locker I'd burgled was going to have to pay for a new one. Of course, if I didn't get back at all, she'd need a whole new outfit.
I noticed that the stairway was getting colder but didn't worry about it until a woman suddenly appeared in front of me. She was dressed in a long blue gown and seemed as solid as any regular person, but I immediately knew she was a ghost. That was due less to my keen sense of the paranormal than to the fact that she had a severed head tucked under her arm. The head, which had a Vandyke beard that matched its dark brown hair, focused pale blue eyes on me.
"A dashed improvement over Faust!" it said, rolling its eyes up to its bearer.
The woman stared at me with no expression, but when she spoke her voice did not sound pleased. "Why do you disturb us?”
I sighed as deeply as I could manage with the damn corset cutting me in two. Exactly what I needed, a ticked-off ghost. I was just thankful I hadn't shifted as a spirit myself, or I'd have a lot more reason to be worried. I have time traveled before without my body, appearing in