Page 32 of Charmless
I gave an indignant gasp. “Shifty? I am sure that I have never in the entire course of my life acted?—”
“Shifty!” Withypole reiterated with a certain amount of relish. “I saw you lurking about when I was talking to Commander Crushington and I said to myself, ‘that Upton girl looks ripe for mischief.’ As soon as I was able to make my excuses to the commander, I went looking for you. I lost your trail for a while because I thought you couldn’t have been foolish enough to sneak into the aura chamber. But lo and behold, there you were.”
Withypole shook his head in disgust. “As if it wasn’t bad enough that you went poking about where you don’t belong, you turned on that cursed thing. What were you thinking, girl?”
My cheeks flamed beneath the fairy’s contempt. I don’t know why I felt obliged to excuse myself to him, but I said, “I was curious, and I only gave the crank one turn. Before I knew what was happening, there was all this shimmering and piercing light and, well, it was all sort of an accident.”
Withypole snorted. “Good thing I was there tosort of accidentallyput a stop to it. You should be thanking me.”
“Perhaps,” I said grudgingly. “But it was all so strange. What did you do to Mercato to make him fall back asleep? Why couldn’t I see my image in the mirrors when the device was turned off? Why could I still see yours?”
“Full of questions, aren’t you?”
“Yes, and I would like some answers. Why was your reflection in the mirrors so different?”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“Yes, you do.” I lowered my voice to a whisper even though there was no one about to hear. “The Mirror of Collection showed your real reflection.”
When Withypole regarded me blankly, I made a fluttering motion with my hands. “Your true self with the wings. ”
Something flickered in Withypole’s eyes. Whether it was fear or irritation, I could not tell. He growled, “Being in that aura chamber must have addled your brain. You were seeing things.”
“I was not! ” I stopped, realizing the futility of this argument. Once before, I had accused Withypole of being a fairy, but he had fiercely denied it. I could not blame him for that. If his identity was ever exposed, he would be arrested and flung into King's Royal Prison. I had heard dreadful rumors about what happened to fairies there. Their wings were crushed and removed. I am not sure if I believed it. Could even King August be that cruel?
My musings distracted me. Enough that Withypole was able to seize hold of my shoulders and jerk me to my feet. His grip was strong, and I cried out in protest.
“Ow!”
The fairy ignored me as he scolded, “You need to go home and stop being such a wicked disobedient daughter. Your father never wanted you anywhere near that the aura chamber."”
“Iknowthat but, how do you?”
Withypole avoided my gaze as he muttered, “I was acquainted with Julius Upton. I told you all about that the last time you visited my shop.”
“No, you told me next to nothing.”
“All you need to know is that your father did not want your aura collected.”
“But he never gave me any good reason for that. Just some nonsense about me being too clever to ever get lost.”
“Is that what you think that thing does? Records your aura to find silly little lost girls. Bah! They have those great ugly aura cats to hunt down missing people. The king doesn’t need some magical mirror for that. That is not the true purpose of the aura chamber.”
“Then what is?” I demanded, although I hardly expected him to answer me. Withypole Fugitate had a frustrating tendency todrop intriguing bits of information in my path and then refuse to elaborate.
After chewing on his bottom lip for a few moments, he said, “That aura chamber is the most diabolical device I have ever come across in all my days. It probes a person’s mind and heart, draining their very essence. Could you not feel that happening to you?”
“Yes. At least, I think so.” I was disturbed to realize that my recollection of what had occurred in the aura chamber was already growing vague.
“That device registers everything about you, all your secrets, your dreams and all your memories.”
“All of them?” I faltered.Even the moment when I had stolen that orb?
“Everything,” Withypole confirmed, much to my dismay. “Every thought, feeling, and memory you had from the moment you were born. Even things that you were too young to recall. It is the perfect way for the king to spy upon his subjects. All that information about you gets distilled into one of those crystal icicles to be deciphered by the king’s chief wizard. Sidney Greenleaf!” Withypole all but spat the name.
I rubbed my arms, chilled by the fairy’s words. “Is that why Papa didn’t want me to enter that chamber? I was only six years old. I had no dark secrets to conceal, except for when Mal and I raided Mrs. Biddlesworth’s strawberry patch. What could I have ever known that would make my father so afraid?”
“I don’t know,” the fairy said.
