Phony Potions

Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

When I awoke the next morning to the sound of carriages clattering and people laughing, I was nestled against a wall. I had passed out in the street. Sometimes during the night I'd managed to crawl over here. My hands went down to my coin purse, still tucked in my boot. Although it hurt to, I opened my eyes.

Activity swam before me with people traveling, some sparing me concerned glances but most ignoring yet another casualty of the festival. My eyes darted between hooves and feet. The magic trail was gone. I tried squinting. Not only was it faded where the sunlight hit, which might be an issue of brightness rather than magic, but in the shadows cast by the building hovering in front of the sun, there was still no trail.

I held my head, swearing silently to myself.

Most of the pain wasn't even from the killer combination hangover that the potions plus the cider that frosty no-good woman had given me. Sure, there was steady throbbing pain in my skull, but more than that, my hip ached from laying against the hard stone all night. A weird pinching had manifested between my shoulder blade and my neck, I supposed because I had been leaning at an odd angle.

I stood up, feeling three hundred years older than I actually was. I stretched, but after pulling something the wrong way at the wrong time, I curled back into a small aching ball. Is this how Mallow felt every time she slept on the ground?

A fresh round of guilt washed over me. I massaged the spots I could reach thoughtfully as I contemplated my next move. That tracking potion had been my hope to find her and put the kibosh on whatever sort of sinister plans her abductors had. And here I had fallen asleep not once, but twice since she'd gone missing. Worst. Hero. Ever.

Thinking that if they'd ever let me into the Avalon Academy, I'd probably be kicked out in under five seconds, I had an idea that was slightly more helpful. The way I had come was now a sunlight choked street.

Although it seemed like a journey of miles in the drunken fog of the previous night, I had only walked half a block from the Avalonry. No one was milling around it since no charity was happening at the moment. I sauntered over and knocked on the door. The banging sound made me wince even though I was the one doing it.

I waited. Then I waited some more. The serene gurgling of the door side pond became irritating rather than soothing as I counted its bubbling cycles. Nobody answered. I angrily grabbed the door handle. Scalding pain shot across my palm. I yanked it back. I thought for a moment it was because the sun had heated the dark metal handle. Gazing at the glowing red handle between my now splayed, tender fingers, I realized it was enchanted.

Taking that as an indicator that nobody was home, I crouched down and shoved my hand into the small, sparkling pond on the side of the building, which was admittedly less annoying now. As the gentle water soothed the burn, I contemplated what to do next. The Avalons were probably scattered around town, so unless I spotted one of the shiny icicles, they wouldn't be able to help until nightfall. My strategy with the tracking potion didn't succeed either, though it would have if not for me passing out.

"No." I mused. "Unless the people that have Mallow could so easily be overtaken by one underweight, unarmed and inebriated fool." Something grazed my hand in the water. The pond was teeming with fish. About half a dozen white fish were flitting about the water near my hands. One nibbled at the fingertip, and I laughed. Then I blinked and pulled my hand back. The burning was gone. I wondered whether it was the enchantment wearing off or the fish healing it. I reached up and touched the shiner the guard had left on me from visiting Mallow the other day.

Yup, it still hurt. Winsor must have dropped the spell during the night.

All around people were staring at me. I decided I didn't mind so much though, and I inhaled and held my nose with my hand. I submerged my face up to my ears. At first all I felt were the waves as the fish fled. Then, a swipe of slimy scales and the caress of a silken fin from my chin, beside my nose, and along my eyes. I pulled my head out, shaking the water from it.