Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,94

little relieved as he slumped on the bench. I was with him on that one. I definitely didn’t need a kid when hell was breaking loose all around us.

“I’ve got Trixie checking with the Hearth Women for some herbal remedies,” I continued, now that his mind was with me. “But I’m willing to bet they’ve tried most of that already. I’ve got a couple potions that I use to help keep people from getting pregnant, but I don’t know any fertility potions or even spells. I was wondering if you had some kind of charmed item that might have been owned or created by some long-dead fertility god. Or how about a colored egg created by the Eostre? She was the goddess of fertility, right?”

“Yes, but that is not what you need.” Chang frowned at me. “Creating children isn’t easy business.”

I arched a questioning brow that stopped him, causing him to think about what he just said.

“Bah!” He waved one hand at me in irritation. “Humans breed like rabbits because they are so fragile. I mean creating children isn’t easy when magic gets involved.”

“Why?”

He placed his scratched wooden cane in front of him and rested both hands on the curved end before looking at me. “Birth, babies . . . it’s all a matter of old magic. Not that stuff those Towers use. Real old magic.”

“You’re talking the big bang, start of the cosmos, fabric of time, and breath of life magic,” I said softly. Chang nodded and I heaved a heavy sigh. This was stuff that I didn’t mess around with. No one did.

“Is it just one person who is having trouble or all of the elves?” he asked.

“It’s one person that I’m trying to help, but it sounds like all the elves are having issues.”

Chang scratched the top of his head, leaving some of his hair standing on end. “One Eostre egg isn’t going to fix things. Not long term. Sounds like a spell. Bad spell.”

“But what kind of a spell could do this? It didn’t hit them all at once. It seems like they’ve gradually lost the ability to have children. Spells don’t work that way. When one attacks a group, it’s either all or nothing.” I pushed off the bench and paced away a few feet with my hands shoved in my pockets as I fought against the growing frustration and nervous energy. “Besides, if it’s a spell, I’m screwed. I’d have to find the person who created the spell if I hoped to unravel it. That takes time; time I don’t have.”

“Just because it’s inconvenient doesn’t stop it from being the truth,” Chang said, stopping my pacing.

He was right. I might not like the answer, but that didn’t keep it from being the truth. Unless Trixie found some strange change in the habits of her people, it made logical sense that the elves had been hit with some kind of infertility spell. Unfortunately, I wasn’t skilled enough to know how to fix it. I needed a stronger witch or warlock or a big stack of spell books written by someone other than me. Gideon was out because he was too busy to bother with me. That only left Sofie, but since she was stuck as a cat, I wasn’t sure how well she could instruct me in the construction of a fertility spell. And spell books were out. I didn’t see the council letting me stop by to raid their library so I could perform magic I’ve already been forbidden to perform.

“I’m screwed,” I grumbled, rubbing my hand roughly over my face as I tried to think of a way out of this hole.

“Maybe not,” Chang said thoughtfully.

I looked up at the old man, trying to shove down the hope that was swelling in my chest. Whatever he thought of wasn’t going to be cheap. Or easy for that matter. “You’ve got something? A little relic that knocks up women at fifty paces?”

“Not quite.” Chang frowned at me, as if debating whether to tell me. “She doesn’t like visitors. You must be respectful. If she says she can’t help, you leave. No arguing. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “Sure. Of course. Who are you sending me to?”

Using his cane, Chang slowly rose from the bench and then withdrew his old leather wallet from the back pocket of his stained and patched brown pants. I watched as he opened it with slightly trembling hands and flipped through a pile of cards and folded bits of paper before