Free Spindle (Two Monarchies Sequence Book 1) by W.R. Gingell

that she could hear a small sniffle in her mind through Onepiece’s audible whine.
    -found me and chained me with burning cold. then forgot until I saw you. sparklyPoly and I remembered-
    -What did you remember?-
    He buried his nose in his paws. -me. remembered me-
    Poly, chilled and sick, cuddled him fiercely, eliciting a childish giggle in her mind and a profusion of face-licking.
    -Poor darling- she said. -How old are you?-
    Onepiece shook his ears and gave the equivalent of a mental shrug.
    -light comes and goes. is big cold- Poly heard faint, laborious counting -four times. snow on snout four times-
    -And how long have you had a snout?- Poly asked.
    -always- said Onepiece, but she heard the uncertainty in his voice.
    -snout and fur is warm -
    Poly sighed and patted him gently on the head. Luck looked as though he had finished the conversation with himself some minutes ago, and was now gazing enquiringly in her direction.
    Poly said hastily: “Oh, are you talking to me?”
    “Pay attention, Poly,” said Luck reproachfully.
    Poly raised her brows but politely refrained from pointing out the glaringly obvious hypocrisy of the command because Luck was looking vaguely injured.
    “What?”
    “Give me the animal.”
    “Why?” asked Poly, deeply suspicious. She had the feeling that Luck was about to begin experimenting with magic again, and although she was glad that the magic wasn’t directed at her, she didn’t particularly like the thought of it being directed at Onepiece, either.
    “Because I told you to,” said Luck, in a mildly puzzled tone of voice.
    Poly gazed at him thoughtfully for a long moment. Luck, his face decidedly pale, paid no attention, and at last she observed: “People always do what you tell them to, don’t they?”
    He didn’t seem to notice that question either. He really was very good at avoiding questions. If he didn’t change the subject, he ignored them completely.
    By way of trying a new tack, she said: “Your magic’s gone all funny.”
    That earned her a baffled look. Luck said: “Poly, you’re being deliberately difficult again.”
    She sighed, giving in to the inevitable, and proffered the silently protesting Onepiece, who insisted in her head that he didn’t want to, didn’t want to, didn’t want to!
    “It’s alright, darling, he won’t hurt you,” she said soothingly, and at Luck’s startled look, added: “I was talking to Onepiece. You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”
    -heard that!-
    “Probably not,” said Luck agreeably.
    -poly! poly, help!-
    -Shush, now- she admonished Onepiece.
    He ceased his mental cries of distress but commenced a long, miserable whine in place of it as Luck seized him cavalierly by the scruff, lifting him out of Poly’s hands.
    She said: “ Ooof! That’s strong!”
    “Huh. Gratifying,” remarked Luck, dangling the miserable Onepiece before his eyes.
    It was hard to see the puppy in the haze of magic that surrounded him, glittering and bright. Luck’s magic was golden and warm, but Onepiece’s was clear, colourless, and utterly impossible to look at for more than a few seconds.
    “Moderate your intake, Poly,” said Luck, busily drawing tiny glowing sigils in the air. He swayed on his feet as he scrawled but didn’t seem to notice.
    “Oh,” Poly said breathlessly, her hair wafting forward. Onepiece wriggled in Luck’s grasp, snapping playfully at the strands, and Poly heard his giggle again. “How?”
    “Relax. Stop staring.”
    Poly blinked rapidly, and found that Luck was right. Ever since the dirty town where she had had to search for the snarl of magic that was Onepiece, Poly had been concentrating too hard. She took off her glasses to turn the world into a blur and slowly let go of the tension, relaxing something beyond her eyes until the sparkle of Onepiece’s magic was a pretty glitter instead of an aching blaze.
    When she put on her glasses once more, Onepiece was floating aloft in a ring of sigils, looking