Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,91
fire. “In our defense, we did finally stamp those things out.”
“Isn’t the Cheshire a shifter himself, like West?” Not much was known about the Cheshire after the Wonderland Wars. There’d been rumors he survived because he’d been transmogrified into a cat after a particularly potent spell had backfired, inadvertently saving his life. Wild magic was a Wonderland oddity; unlike Avalonian spells that had structure and restrictions and demanded equivalent exchange, Wonderland magic had no self-imposed limitations, no common framework, and the same spell cast twice can often end up with two completely different results. It was powerful magic, which was also bad because the powerful magic could blow up in their users’ faces without warning.
The savory smell of cooked food filled the air. Loki had volunteered and was surprisingly good at it.
Ken shook his head. “Not quite, since he doesn’t want to be a cat but can’t do much about it. But even stuck in that form, they still consider him dangerous. He’s the only person left capable of performing wild magic after Wonderland was destroyed, and every president and king have got bees up their bunghole searching for a way to use those sort of spells.”
“Still styles himself the Duke of Wonderland too,” Zoe added. “Like it’s gonna be there waiting for him once he decides to leave the United Kingdom. Wonderland’s been gone since the third World War, and I don’t think anything’s left of it but a giant crater, but he really loved that place.”
“Does he even age?”
“Enchanted people live for as long as the enchantment remains in effect, and I suppose that’s a pretty potent spell, to turn one of the most powerful people of Wonderland into a cat.”
“I hope I’m not asking too many questions.”
“Not at all. Once we liberate Avalon”—she laid particular stress on once—“I’d be happy to show you around, answer more. Maidenkeep was once an academy, you know. Scholarships for students the world over with an aptitude for magic. Had Avalon been free, I would have studied here. The Cerridwen School for Thaumaturgy was set up after Avalon’s freezing, which is where the rest of us met one another, but I’m told it’s not quite the same experience. Besides, you’re a quick study. I’ve tutored worse.” She looked back at Ken. The tall boy hovered around the cooking pot, ignoring Loki’s attempts to shoo him away. She shuddered. “A lot worse.”
They ate heartily despite the cold and the early false starts. The firebird finished two full bowls of mushroom soup on its own. The skies were dark now, clear enough to be dotted by a few sparse stars. It was a curious blackness that Tala, who was used to cities and the convenience of electricity, found worrying. In the near darkness, with only the small campfire for light, the dark outlines of the trees above seemed grim and foreboding; the hooting of distant owls seemed all the more ominous because she had yet to see any bird since arriving.
“So,” Ken said, with a faint shiver, “if the time spell’s still active, we’d be, what, a full month missing outside, right?”
“We’ve been here two days, Ken,” Loki corrected him. “That means we’d have been gone a week at this point.”
“Ah. Not really good at math. But at least that’s not too bad, right? We’ll just have to ride on quick to Maidenkeep, do whatever we need to do there, and our families and friends won’t have died out on us by the time we return, right?”
“Ken,” Zoe said wearily. “Shut up.”
Ken and Loki took first watch, West shedding clothes again to scout around. Surprisingly, Cole took the pots and utensils away to clean, earning him a reluctant thanks from Zoe. Alex had already disappeared inside one of the tents. Still too keyed up to sleep, Tala took out her arnis sticks and selected a nearby tree for her fighting partner. It wasn’t her father, but it would have to do.
Thinking about him sent a shot of pain through her chest; angry now, she delivered a particularly heavy blow that splintered part of the bark.
Tala paused. “I think I’m good, but I don’t think I’m that good yet.”
“Not true. You held your own pretty well against the ogre, from what I remember.” Zoe drew out her whip. “And I was thinking more of pitting your segen against mine instead of actually fighting.”