Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,105
Nottingham. There’s a reason this village was built upon a hillock.”
“The mine is underneath the village!” Tala gasped.
“Avalon is rich in the folklore of their ancestors, the Tuath Dé Dannan: fairfolk who once lived underneath the ground. The glyphs we take were once their treasure hoards. Time passes differently there; it is the same kind of magic that stretched our year into a dozen of yours.”
“But we thought the Snow Queen was responsible for that,” Zoe said, looking surprised.
“No, this is Avalonian magic, a boon rather than misfortune. The Beiran queen brought the frost upon us, but it was another who gifted the kingdom with Tuath Dé Dannan mortality, among other spells. Much like the legend of Talia, the Briar Rose, isn’t it? A beauty whose finger is pricked on a spinning wheel by a malevolent queen. Her godmothers could not prevent her death, so instead, the Nine Maidens were used to prolong her life until someone could come and break the cycle. And so we, too, have waited patiently for a year and a day of our lives, to see the rest of the frost’s curse undone.”
Tala nodded slowly. Alex had mentioned an ancestor in those same circumstances, though he didn’t mention that Maidenkeep’s strange spelltech had been responsible.
“Are you saying the Nine Maidens are the key to all this?”
“Little is known about that magic, but I believe it is a segen bonded to the kings of Avalon, and also a vital part of Maidenkeep’s defense. It is a spell that requires a sacrifice most royals are unwilling to make. There were some exceptions—all ended badly. Queen Melusine, who gave up her voice, her legs, and then her life, to save her beloved. King Steadfast, who literally burned for the love of a young dancer. Queen Helga of the Marshes, turned to dust, with only a flower to mark her grave. Perhaps the prince knows more.”
“Alex was only five when Maidenkeep was overwhelmed, and there’s no one who knows its secrets.” Zoe paused, thinking hard. “There’s a reason you and the Dame are so invested in meeting with us. Are we gonna win this? Are you predicting that we can free Avalon?”
“I can say this much: If you had traveled here without the young Makiling in tow, you would have failed, and the whole of Avalon would have been condemned to a perpetual winter.”
A chill took hold of Tala. “I can’t—you can’t put all this on me. How can my being here change things so much?”
“Your curse does more than just negate magic; it clouds the destinies of those around you. I am sorry that you are the one who must bear this burden. For all her wisdom, I sometimes wonder if Maria Makiling made a mistake to allow her descendants to become children of chaos.”
“You say we’d lose if Tala weren’t here with us,” Zoe said shrewdly, “but you didn’t say that her being with us now means we’ll succeed either.”
“Yes,” the priestess agreed. “I did not.”
“Are you serious, Zoe?” Tala exclaimed. “You’re not put off by her saying you might have died if I hadn’t gone through the looking glass with you?”
“Of course I am. I’m damn frightened, is what I am. But if I let everything that scared me also get to me, then I’d still be hiding out at that gingerbread cottage. Heck, I’d still be in NYC, ignoring the Cheshire’s summons. My mother sure as hell tried to keep me from leaving. You might think it’s a curse, Tala, but to me you’re a good piece of luck, because you’re giving us a fighting chance. The Dame told us there was something we needed to find here.”
“Yes, you do. I am why she asked you all to come to this small, unassuming town.” The priestess glanced outside her window, where the sounds of merriment wafted through. “My granddaughter is not looking forward to the marriage as much as my daughter is.” She laughed. It was a rich, vibrant sound.
“But destiny, sometimes, is easier to change than desire. Would you like to know of your doom, young Makiling?” The words should have sounded horrifying to Tala, if not for the kindly, friendly way she said them.
The woman opened a large cupboard. Inside were bottles of different sizes and shapes. No two liquids, it looked, were even of the same color. Some of these she poured into smaller flasks, which were then placed into a pouch. “Some are doomed to prick their fingers on their sixteenth