Mutante

Chapter 10

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs

Crossposted on elizabethfrerichs.com and fanfiction.net

*****

Rosie nodded. Her grandmother, trapped inside that clear sack of eyes and organs, flitted through her mind. It wasn't a fate she would wish on her worst enemy. "I have to do this," she said, holding Robert's gaze. "I can't let Aunt Rina take over the reef, and without Grandma to keep her in check . . . ." She took a shuddering breath. "This is my—" She swallowed hard, the truth she had known for so long refusing to come out. "I'm the only one who can fix this in time. The path will take you home. You and Waterdancer should get out while it's still safe. If I succeed, well, I still don't know if the forest will be safe. But if I don't succeed, I would hate to think that you'd be stuck in here."

"A knight must not leave his fair lady in danger," he declared in ringing tones.

She raised one eyebrow.

He gave her a sheepish look. "Give up an adventure like this one? Not likely." He squeezed her hand and smiled. "You're stuck with me. I've been waiting for something like this my whole life."

"All right." She shifted her attention to the mirror. "How do we start?"

Thomas cleared his throat. "As the potion will be utilized shortly, the order of ingredient-collection does not matter. The basket contains Madam Essie's traveling potion kit, and I believe she included containers for storing the ingredients. She has black sand in one of her gardens, but the rest of the ingredients you will have to locate yourself."

Rosie nearly slapped herself in the face. She had carried the basket and still hadn't even stopped to wonder at the contents. Survival had been prioritized over curiosity. Now she opened it and studied the contents. A shrunk down cauldron—one that hopefully required only the counterword to enlarge it rather than magic—a set of long tweezers, several stirrers of various metals, a container of various-sized vials, and several small boxes. "Do you know how to make the potion, Thomas?"

He gave her an affronted look. "Of course I do. I have been watching over your grandmother since long before you were born."

"Oh, good. I was hoping you would, since I haven't the faintest clue how to go about it," she said conciliatingly. "I guess—I guess that only leaves the ingredients."

How in the world were they going to find all these ingredients, let alone collect them? Forest fireworms were the stuff of nightmares: between their enormous size and poison-tipped hairs, no one willingly got close. Her blood and the magical kelp would be easy enough to obtain, but the rest . . . . A blue siren-plant? Was there even such a thing? And if there was, how could they even get close to it? All it took was one breath of the wretched plant's spores! Not to mention finding cerulean kelp. And what was fairy's breath?

"At least we have the magenta kelp," Robert said, patting Waterdancer's bulging saddlebag. "That's one thing we don't have to worry about. What were the other ingredients again, Thomas?"

"The hair of a fireworm, a seed from a blue siren-plant, one vial of fairy's breath, one vial of black sand, one cup of chopped magenta kelp, one cup of chopped cerulean kelp, and one vial of Miss Rose's blood."

Robert frowned. "What's the fairy's breath?"

The mirror opened his mouth and then closed it. "I assume Miss Rose is familiar with it, or else Madam Essie would have given further directions."

Robert's eyebrows shot up. "You don't know what it is?"

"I—I do not accompany Madam Essie on her forays," he said repressively.