Page 14 of The Witch & the Tiger

A part of him wanted to shrug off their offer and growl about why it had taken them so long, but another part recognized that he couldn’t do this alone. Plus, Willow wanted to help him, but not without extra assistance. Had she gone behind his back with this as well? But no – it was his sister who was in cahoots with the professors.

It all boiled down to his sister. He needed to talk with her later.

“What does… this glamour tell you exactly?” he asked, after reason won out over the other, less pleasant impulses. “And can you get rid of it?”

This being Professor Z’Hana’s specialty, she stepped forward to check out the pattern herself. She paced around Martin like a prowling tiger. “With these glamours, you can recognize certain signatures. However, you already need to be aware of the types of signatures that exist; for example, wind magics tend to have a similar signature even though there are different ways to express them. What we see here is an Unseelie Court signature. The court has different magics, but those trained in the court with glamours all tend to have this kind.” She gestured to the circles within the circle pattern as if weaving an enchantment herself. Then she rested a hand on Martin’s back. He watched through the mirror as she squinted intently at the pattern.

Finally, after the silence stretched out for much longer than Martin hoped it would, she said, “This one appears to be a compulsion.”

He gave a cold shiver. “I want to find the cave again,” he said, and the shiver seized his brain and spine, flooding him with that terrible knowledge that he must find it again. There was no choice in the matter.

“Yes. Whoever placed this there – they want you to return, although it may be a cruel joke if it’s a place that only appears in rare conditions. I don’t see it as a joke, though. The Unseelie have been quite purposeful in their actions as of late. If only I knew what that purpose was.”

Umber shook his head in disagreement with the statement. “I don’t see that much purpose, just fae being as capricious and uncaring as usual.”

“Perhaps,” Z’Hana said, but with clear doubt in her tone. “However, just because we can’t necessarily figure out their motives doesn’t mean they’re not up to something more.”

“You’re the dark magic expert,” Umber said, shrugging. He turned to Martin. “Anyway, Martin, I suggest we take some time now for you to describe exactly the conditions where you found this place, such as if it was an accident, etcetera.”

“To answer your last question,” Z’Hana added, “this is not really the type of enchantment we can get rid of unless you satisfy the initial compulsion, be shocked out of it with something distracting and powerful, or realize it for what it is. Now that you have that knowledge, you may be able to work on getting rid of it yourself.”

“There’s no kind of artifact or anything that can help with it?” Martin asked.

“There are two. Neither are on hand, nor are they easy to obtain permission for. But if things work out, you have a good chance to combat it yourself.”

Martin didn’t feel prepared to combat something he didn’t understand. At the back of his mind, that anxiety, that longing to find the cave and find his friend, still had a hold on him. That same urge had been with him for months, but he just assumed it was because of the tragedy and that he needed to work through it.

It never occurred to him that something magical might be driving that urge. A part of it didn’t even make sense. The professors encouraged him again to tell them about the events of that day. At least they asked in a more gentler manner than the local police. He settled in to tell them as much as possible, though he couldn’t remember everything, and a part of him still felt outraged and alarmed at the notion that an enchantment was pressing on him – one that he should be able to combat now… but how?

Several times, he licked his lips as his mouth became dry from talking, and the effort increased.

“So, your friend already knew about the place…” Z’Hana said, cutting into his description for a moment.

“Yeah, he wanted to show us the place. He wanted to prove that it existed.”

“That’s… auspicious.”

Martin glared. “Is it?”

Z’Hana smiled thinly. “If he knew how to get there and had already been there recently, then it suggests that the location may not be that far away or at least something that may appear every few days or weeks. Did he tell you when he last visited it?”

“Uh…” Martin tried to remember but only drew a blank. “No, he didn’t, or I don’t recall. He just said he’d found this really cool place, and he wanted to show it to us.”

“Yannick Margrave, you said?” Now Umber broke in, clearly curious on this point.

“Yes, he was the one who was showing us the place.”

“We’ll need to do a background check on him,” Z’Hana said thoughtfully. “What kind of magic did he have?”

“Uh, he worked with potions. I think he was very good at mixing them and coming up with new ones. He bragged about a night vision potion he’d made.”

“An enchanter,” Z’Hana said, and suddenly, Martin saw where they were going.

“Wait, you don’t think Yannick is responsible for my glamour. He’s dead like the others!” His voice was shrill. Surely, they didn’t think his friend ended up leading everyone to that place just to have them all die?

Except me. I didn’t die. And I still don’t know why. Or why Yannick’s body wasn’t there with the others. But he died. I’m sure of it. He was… he was drowning, too…

For a moment, the memory parted in his mind like a curtain, and he saw them all, pressed against the wall in a panic as the chamber filled with water, watching it rise, higher and higher...

---