Free The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) by Honor Raconteur Page A

grimly. “That artifact
dates to the time right before the plague spread, so it was likely used only
once or twice before being stored away. For some strange reason, it had been
sealed inside of a stone as well. Perhaps to keep it out of the wrong hands?
The purpose of doing so died with the creator. At any rate, it’s lain dormant
until you people moved it and fulfilled the conditions it needed.” She could
tell from their blank expressions she would have to explain that too.
“Any magic used, no matter how ancient, has certain conditions that must be met
before the magic is activated. This artifact seems to need reflected light—sunlight,
in this case—running water, and direction.”
    “That,” Krause said emphatically. “That’s the part that I
don’t understand. What direction?! We haven’t given it any!”
    “You have,” she denied flatly. “This part is half-conjecture
on my end, but it makes sense from what I know of ancient artifacts. There are
two things you must understand. Magic is not stagnant, like a tool, but is a
living thing itself. It’s as alive as water or wind. It likes to move .
It likes to be used. This artifact was lying in the ground for six hundred
years and was dying to fulfill its purpose. It leaped at the chance as soon as
the conditions had been met. And I’d lay good money that to use the artifact,
one would simply picture within their mind’s eye the place that they wanted to
go in order to direct it.”
    Decker slumped so that his head hit the table’s surface.
Against the wood he complained, “Even in dreams ?”
    “As I said, magic likes to be used,” she responded tartly.
“It might be overreaching its designed bounds, but it’s also not unusual for
magical things to develop quirks over the years. I have a pair of mud-off boots
that now rejects not only mud, but any dirt whatsoever.” They were rather fun
to wear, too, as it felt like she walked on air. “And those boots are only
eight years old! Can you imagine what would happen to something that’s several
hundred years old?”
    “I don’t need to imagine,” Decker grumbled.
    “While all of this is fascinating, does it help in any way?”
Krause asked.
    “I won’t really know until I can consult Jacen, our
historian in the Artifactor community.” She looked up with a smile as the girl
came back with their food, efficiently plopping it down in front of them with a
clink of china. Mmmm, it smelled heavenly. Not bothered that she didn’t
recognize anything on her plate, she picked up a spoon and dug right in.
    “Did you find a way to stop it?” Krause pressed, ignoring
the plate set in front of him.
    She had to swallow the mouthful she had—pleasantly spicy—before
she could respond.
    “Yes and no. Apparently, the maker gave his toy a shield to
erect while it was in use to prevent someone from tampering with it
accidentally. Smart, in a way. I imagine that if someone did knock the thing
over or hit it with another spell while it was transporting, the result
wouldn’t be pretty. But that makes our job harder. We have to get around that
shield first. Once we do that, we can either work a spell directly against it
to counteract its elements and neutralize the artifact’s power—”
    “Or?” Decker prompted impatiently when she took a long pull
from her tankard.
    “Or we wear away the power that it’s using slowly and remove
one of its conditions so that it can no longer work,” she finished. Just how
they would manage that, she didn’t know offhand. She had a few notions to try
out, though, assuming Sarsen didn’t come up with something better once he got
here. “At that point, I’m going to take great delight and pleasure in digging
that artifact free and taking it apart. We hardly ever find a still functioning
artifact to examine.”
    “I thought you said the old magic didn’t make sense to you
anymore,” Krause objected, still ignoring his plate of food.
    “Well, not all of it,” she