“Yeah. I get the feeling there will be more, so I want to stay back to greet them too. I’m running my own little Ellis Island, thanks to you. So, everybody, meet my witch, Helena.”
“Nice to meet you!” Helena said. “Sorry it isn’t under better circumstances. I had no idea that wizards could mistreat their familiars. That’s so wrong. We’re going to do everything we can to help.”
“They’re all going to stay in animal form so they don’t get in your way,” Bevan said. “But they’ll just keep sentry around the house and if you run into trouble, they all will fight.”
“We’re so grateful for the assistance,” Helena said, but she was looking at us like she wasn’t so sure we would be any use in a fight. She wasn’t stupid. I couldn’t imagine I would be very much use in a fight.
Especially if Bernard shows up. As soon as he sees me…I’ll have to go back.
I knew I could never say no to Bernard. He had a powerful hold over me, whether I liked it or not.
“I just hope we’re of some use,” said Grady, the skink. “I know we’re a pretty pathetic group of familiars.”
“Don’t doubt yourselves. Don’t ever listen to the people who tell you you’re pathetic!” One of the men working on the house with Helena stepped into the conversation and he seemed completely impassioned even though he didn’t know us at all. “They’re wrong. I truly believe that when we all pull together, we can make a difference. Nothing that has ever been accomplished in this world has been done without the efforts of the humblest of people, doing the smallest of actions.”
I was very impressed that all these strangers were defending our right to freedom. “Oh wow, is that really true?” I asked.
Behind the other man, Bevan nodded.
Is this what people outside of St. Augustine are like? I wondered. They seemed so optimistic and fired up about helping us. It was infectious. If I was already going to spend my life serving someone, it felt much better to serve such lovely people, I thought. I was always trying to be cheerful to keep Mrs. Franch’s spirits up, but now I had other people to be cheerful with.
“I will do anything you ask of me, sir, if I can help accomplish something!” I vowed.
I found a spot in the garden to sleep, and then I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t used to being stuck in toad form. It was getting to evening, and around this time I would be making chamomile tea with a dash of milk to see Mrs. Franch off to bed. But I didn’t even have hands, much less anyone to make tea for.
Of course, it made sense. If I took on my human form I would need human amounts of food. As it was I could eat a few gnats and call it a day.
All the other familiars seemed relieved just to relax. They settled in for the night, woke up and had breakfast, and then Shawnda and Tina, the birds, splashed around in the bird bath laughing, and Henrietta the chipmunk ran up and down the trees, and Grady the skink went to sleep in the sun. Missy and Bjorn, the rodents, hung out under the garden bench whispering about dark magic their wizards made them do. I didn’t try to join in their conversation because Bernard never made me do dark magic or any magic at all. I got the feeling that everyone else might have gone through even worse things, as they didn’t talk about their past at all.
I really wished I had something to do. I was used to being busy all the time. And I was just a toad, so I couldn’t fly or splash in the bird bath or scurry up the trees.
If I’m not with the Franches, I wonder where I belong? I wish I had someone else to take care of. Someone I actually liked. Someone…
I shook my head, trying not to think about Bevan’s handsome face and busy kitchen. I felt very at home there, but he really had barely noticed me at all.
But no matter what, I hoped I could find a new master to serve. Especially since Helena was so nice to us. She was renovating the house with the assistance of four men who all seemed to be her lovers. They were all handsome. I couldn’t imagine such a life. I liked just watching them work and listening to them banter with each other. Of them all, Graham paid the most attention to us; he was always checking in on us and talking to us.
“I thought I was human,” he told me one day. “Until just recently, I found out I was an incubus. I was a politician and I got into politics so I could listen to people and try to help them. Of course, half of politics ends up being a lot uglier than that, but I still want to figure out ways to make life better for people. Including you….Jenny, was it?”
“Yep, it’s…it’s Jenny.”
“You don’t like to be called Jenny?”
I hesitated but it seemed too strange to be called anything else by now. “It’s fine.”
A few days had passed by now and I was sure Mrs. Franch must be weeping and frantic. She hardly even knew how to take care of herself anymore. I felt a terrible pang of guilt. “I might just be making someone’s life worse. I was taking care of my warlock’s mother…”
“I’m new to this,” Graham said. “But I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work. You can’t really take care of someone else if you’re unable to take care of yourself.”
“Taking care of myself? I don’t really need care. Not like she does. She’s helpless without me.”
“Does she have a disability?” he asked.
“Uh…no. She’s just sad all the time.”
“Maybe she’s sad because she forgot how to take of herself,” Graham said.
She’s sad because she knows I’m not Jenny, I thought. But without me, she doesn’t have a Jenny at all.
“I hope that’s right,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“I have a feeling you know you’re not hurting anyone right now,” Graham said. “You’re helping yourself. I told Hel I’d help her carry stuff downstairs, but…trust your gut, Jenny. Even if it gets a little ugly.”
It was certainly about to get a little ugly.
Chapter Five
Lord Variel
“Who is this?” I said, in a tone of annoyance and exhaustion, as Uram had ushered some hag into my great hall several days after the parade of potential brides had ended. “Don’t tell me. She turns into a beautiful maiden if I pass a test or some nonsense. Did I ask you to bring me any more visitors? I’m rather busy right now.”
I was busy, indeed, building a model of a potential new design for the labyrinth, after scrapping the last concept. I had always had this grand idea of creating a maze outside that was full of various perils, like wolves and wasp’s nests and traps. Before I sent someone to the dungeon, they could go through the maze first and I could watch from the tower and my enemies would hear my cruel laughter floating on the wind high above their heads as they were mauled.
But I’d never gotten the design right. I didn’t care to think about how long I’d been working on this model.
Uram glanced at my work and I knew he was thinking the same, but…I had to get the details right first, that was all. The placement of every shrub and trap had to be considered so that every corner was perilous, but not so perilous that no one could make it into the dungeon…