Page 63 of MidKnight
I turned to the wizard and said, “Love. Love is the most potent magic.”
Donaloo gave a bright smile and nodded. “Correct.”
I waited for a rhyme. But none came. I didn’t know if that meant I’d passed some test. Were those all tests?
I leaned forward in my chair, “Can you help me find who did this? Can you help me find my sister and this dragon and everything else? Please. I desperately need your help. I could offer—”
Donaloo held up his hand, and gave me a small smile, “Offer only love. The only payment worth anything in the end, is the true heart of a friend.”
I nodded, completely uncertain whether he’d agreed to help me or not.
Thunder shook the house, tilting it slightly. Ryan’s tankard fell to the floor. The wizard jumped up from his chair and ran to his front door.
“Trouble’s brewing, the eight kingdoms are stewing!”
Shite. Eight kingdoms? Kenmare only had seven. The poor man’s addled mouth was back to spewing nonsense.
The wind blew open one of the windows and the house started to spin. Donaloo stood and gestured frantically at the door, “Hurry, hurry, time to go. The war is at hand, don’t you know!”
Ryan and I stood and made our way to the door. Blue flew up to perch on my finger, digging in hard as the wind ruffled his feathers.
As we walked out the door, Donaloo reached up and plucked Blue from my shoulder. “A kiss without love is merely a kiss, but love can pull us back from the abyss.” He kissed my bird.
Ew, I thought.
I felt sorry for Blue but was hesitant to grab him away from Donaloo. I didn’t want the crazy man to hurt anyone.
Mother always said to be overly polite to the crazy ones. I took her advice.
“Thank you so much for the tea,” I said.
“It’s never the tea, dear, always the company,” Donaloo winked.
Then he grabbed my hand, pushed Blue into me, and said, “Remember, failure is the toll we pay to cross the bridge to success. You must pay the toll or forego your goal.”
He pressed something small and round into my hand and then pushed me out the door.
I stumbled, falling onto the soft clouds at the base of his house. Ryan followed me out and pulled me to my feet.
Donaloo spoke as if he hadn’t just shoved me down the stairs. “I’ll pack my bags and be with you as soon as I can. For a bird’s eye view is nice for a while, but the ground is better for a man. Tell Cerena I’ll be there to set her castle square.”
Ryan and I watched, frozen, as the wizard’s house whipped around like a tornado had caught it. But the tornado didn’t touch us. It merely turned the house in circles. Faster. Faster. The little cottage spun and spun until it was a blur of color. And then, in a blink, it disappeared.
We were left standing on a cloud.
“Well, that was a waste,” Ryan grumbled.
I stared at the sky as Blue fluttered in front of me. “I’m not certain, it was, actually.”
I held up a coin that glinted in the light. It had the burning rose of Evaness on one side, but the profile of the unknown woman on the other.
“If one ridiculous noble and one ridiculous wizard both hand you the same coin, it must mean something.”
“Maybe carrying the coin makes you go crazy?” Ryan suggested, as he helped me mount the gargoyle.
“Could be. Or it could mean that Aiden and this dragon, and the crazy war the wizard is talking about are all tied together.”
“By what?”
