“Victoria,” I said quietly, deciding it was time to wake her. She didn’t even twitch, so I walked over and shook her shoulder. One eye opened and regarded me blearily, and I watched as realization struck and she leapt upright. “Cécile! My apologies!” She looked around wildly. “Has something happened?”
“Nothing,” I said calmly. The last thing I needed was for her to overreact like Ana?s had. “I cut my knee during the earthshake. It isn’t that bad,” I added quickly when her eyes widened. “Ana?s stitched it up, but I need some herbs to clean it properly.” I listed off several. What I really wanted was an opportunity to go to the library. There had to be more grimoires in that vast collection of books, and maybe there was one with a spell I could use to fix up myself.
Victoria nodded uncertainly. “The kitchen, perhaps? Ana?s stitched you up?”
“The kitchen is a good place to start,” I said, pulling on my cloak. “And yes, she did.” Opening the door, I walked out into the hallway. “It turns out she isn’t as awful as I once thought.”
Victoria was utterly useless at helping me find anything in the kitchen – not that I was overly surprised. “What about this?” she asked, holding a sprig of rosemary. “Smells nice.”
I shook my head and took the sprig from her. “Sit over there and wait,” I said, scanning the shelves filled with spices and herbs. The palace’s kitchen seemed to have everything but what I was looking for – most likely because what I was looking for didn’t go in a pot for flavor.
“élise, where are you when I need you?” I muttered as I moved deeper into the kitchen, which was devoid of life. Everyone was out helping fill the tree with power – including both my maids. I could hardly begrudge them their absence, but they would have been useful in my search. They both had minds like steel traps. If they’d ever seen comfrey or calendula or any of the other herbs that I could use, they’d remember.
Remember.
I glanced down at the sprig of rosemary in my hand, the smell of it triggering my recollection of a spell in Anushka’s grimoire. Making sure I was out of Victoria’s sight, I motioned for my light to come closer and flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for: a spell for retrieving lost objects. “The incantation can be performed to help retrieve the memory of where the object was last seen,” I read softly. “The memory is pulled into the mind of she who casts the incantation.”
Neither of my maids had precisely lost what I was looking for, but I thought the spell might do. That is, if earth magic worked on them at all. They were half-human, but would that be enough? Never hurts to try, I thought to myself.
Firstly, I tracked down paper, pen, and ink. After giving it a bit of thought, I wrote clove oil on the paper and then rolled it up. Next, I needed something belonging to one of the girls. I looked myself up and down. élise had lowered the neckline on the dress I was wearing – that meant the work was hers. I hoped that counted. Carefully, I pulled loose the piece of thread and wrapped it around the bit of paper, followed by a twist of rosemary. “Water,” I mumbled, finding a basin and filling it to the brim. From what Martin had told me about human magic, I understood that a witch drew power from the four elements, in this case water, but I didn’t understand why. Nor did I know why certain herbs were used in certain spells, but not others. Her grimoire was like a recipe book that told me how to perform certain spells, but I had no idea how or why they worked. And I didn’t have time to figure it out now.
Looking over my shoulder, I checked to make sure Victoria hadn’t moved from the spot where I left her. But my friend was slumped in a chair, chin resting on her chest. I could faintly hear the sound of her snores.
Speaking in a quiet but firm voice, I recited the strange incantation, substituting élise’s name and clove oil in the appropriate spots. Eleven times, I repeated the phrase. On the twelfth time, I threw the rosemary-wrapped package into the basin. On the thirteenth repetition, I touched my finger to the water. The sound of waves roared loudly in my ears, and the package began to rotate around the basin. Faster and faster it spun, and with each turn, I felt magic flood up into me. I pulled my hand from the water and the contents stilled. Nothing. I could see nothing. Either the spell hadn’t worked because élise wasn’t completely human, or she had no memory of what I’d asked for. Or maybe the thread I’d included didn’t count as hers. There were so many factors, and I had no way of knowing which one had interfered.
Sighing, I reached for the basin, but pulled back when an image appeared in the water. It wasn’t my reflection. I watched wide-eyed as a pair of hands folded linens and stacked them on shelves. The same hands then picked up a dark bottle and carefully tucked it in next to the folded sheets. This was a memory. This was élise’s memory.
Clapping my hands together, I crowed with delight.