Free The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt Page A

she flung sparks at me and began her spell.
    “Talia shall indeed have all the things you have granted her,” she said. “Love, marriage, children, wealth, health and long years. However, she will never—”
    Swat!
    A broom smacked her out of the air and dashed her to the marble floor, senseless.
    “—be troubled by fairies again,” Mother concluded as she leaned on a broom.
    All of the fairies, including the stunned evil fairy, vanished from sight.
    Mother turned to me. “Gawd! I’ve wanted to do that for seventeen years.”

Chapter Nine
Purchasing Chastity
    Although the fairies promised me love and marriage, they must have been resentful of being banished from my presence, because they certainly didn’t make things easy on me. Had I been a princess, Willard would have undoubtedly appeared at my bedside, well-dressed, clean and with his voice raised in song as he wakened me with a kiss. When I finally saw him again he was travel-worn, smelling of mules and he arrived to an argument with his father.
    When I told Mother I was going to fetch Willard, she thought me insane.
    “You can have any man,” she said. “Love and marriage, the fairies promised. You could have a duke! And you still want him? ”
    “If it’s marriage to any other, it would be marriage without love,” I said. “As you said, they promised me love and marriage.”
    “Talia, listen. I know that, sometimes, the passage of time can make you nostalgic. You never loved Willard when he was here—why on earth do you think you’d love him now?”
    “You’re wrong, Mother. I’ve never forgotten Willard.”
    “What are you going to do? He’s a monk. He’s taken a vow of chastity!”
    “Well, I’ll have to purchase his chastity, I suppose.”
    ***
    The trip to the monastery took several weeks over unpleasant roads. Even my new coach got uncomfortable after a solid week. I traveled with a king’s warrant, which got me preferential treatment wherever I went. It made for comparatively pleasant travel, but that was not the use for which I intended it.
    That precious decree gained me access to the abbot, as I knew it would.
    “Lady Sixfold, I’m told you come from the king?”
    “Yes. This warrant entitles me to a boon from the king. I am here to collect.”
    He gaped at me. “You wish to collect a king’s warrant from me?”
    “Yes.”
    “What could you possibly want from me?”
    “Willard Farmer.”
    He looked at me blankly for a moment. “Brother Will?”
    “Yes. When we were young, he promised himself to me.”
    He frowned at me. “A while back, there was some old crone here asking for Brother Will. Some nonsense about waking up a sleeping woman.”
    “That crone was my mother.”
    “Am I to believe that you were this…this sleeping beauty?”
    “I’m not to blame for how the troubadours choose to tell the story.” I brandished the warrant. “Are you going to honor this or not?”
    “I’m not bound to obey any king. But in any event, Brother Will is not here.”
    I blinked at him. “Where is he?”
    “I dismissed him. Not two weeks ago.”
    “Dismissed him? How do you dismiss a monk?”
    The abbot leaned back in his chair and frowned at me disapprovingly. “That was the problem,” he said. “He declined to take his vows. He was a hard worker and I grieved to lose him, but at his age, it was truly his final chance.” He glared at me. “I always suspected that some young woman had ruined him for a life of chastity. And now I must presume it was you.”
    I ignored the jibe, as I usually did. “Upon what day was this?”
    He sighed and opened his journal. “Eight…no, nine days ago, now.” He snapped it shut and looked at me. “And now if you’ll excuse me…?”
    “Of course.” I stood. “One more thing—do you know where he went?”
    “To the village, I suspect. I believe he intended to buy a mule for the trip home.”
    ***
    I scoured the roads for him, talking to innkeepers, shopkeepers and farmers.