Eccentric Circles

Chapter Eleven

Had the dream actually meant something? Something intended to help her? Or were the fairies just up to some mischief? Coming across a title in the bookstore that had been in her dream could be nothing other than coincidence. Perhaps she'd seen the title during her previous straightening and not noticed it consciously. The dream merely pulled it out of her subconscious to put a title on a book in the sea around her, something concrete she could get a hold on.

Piper looked around the book-stacked parlor. If that book was here though ...

She threw herself into her work with a vengeance, not so much to clean and straighten, but to see if Grandma had the books she remembered from her dream. She had to know if the dream meant anything. or if it was all coincidence. After the previous week she'd started having problems believing in coincidence.

None of the titles on the books covering the furniture had been in Piper's dream, but the books themselves were strange. She found several large, antique, leather-bound books purporting to be collections of magic spells. Three books were literary dissections of fairy tales, and a similar one discussed the ancient origins of European fairy tales. A particularly thick tome supporting a stack on one of the Queen Anne chairs was a collection of scholarly works, including graduate dissertations, on common themes of folk tales throughout the world.

The entire stack of books on the third, and last, Queen Anne chair were all devoted to New Age themes, particularly Wicca and spell casting. Piper leafed through a couple of the books, finding scrawled notes in the margin in a faint ballpoint script. She laughed to see some few dark scrawlings, most were "Rubbish!" or "Idiot!" But the lighter ones were usually references to another book.

Piper picked one of the references and tracked it as it expanded through several books. All the references contracted back to one of the spell books. Looking back over them it was obvious that Grandma had been tracking the variations and changes of a particular spell.

Clearly, from her selection of books and the notes she'd made in her books, Grandma had been researching Fairy and spell casting. For the novel she'd been writing, like Jim at the bookstore would suspect, or had she been up to something else?

Remembering the stains in the garage, Piper wondered if Aelvarim had guessed correctly the first time they'd seen it. Had Grandma been practicing magic in the garage and blown something up? Larkingtower might not suspect Grandma of that much initiative, considering his opinion of women. Or knowing his opinion, Grandma might have hidden what she was doing from him.

Looking up another reference brought Piper to a spell for hiding things. Grandma might have used it to hide her manuscript. Piper checked for a counterspell but discovered there was none. To cast the spell itself, the caster had to include a way for the object to be found. The book recommended that the caster put something such as the object becoming visible only under certain conditions, or only the owner with a concentrated effort being able to find it.

"Piper?" Aelvarim called from the kitchen.

"In the parlor." Piper quickly stacked the books she'd spread around her to look through. She stood as Aelvarim came into the room.

He carried the book she'd lent him yesterday. "I finished this and wondered if I might borrow another?"

"Look at this," she said as she pushed past him into the kitchen. "I think Grandma was studying spell casting, and Fairy."

"Oh?" Aelvarim followed her to the kitchen table.

She showed him what she'd found. Traced the hiding objects spell references for him. "I think she may have used this to hide her manuscript."

"Yes. Oh, yes." Aelvarim excitedly flipped through the books again. "Now we can break the spell and find it."

"I don't think so." Piper sat tiredly in her chair at the table. "Grandma didn't leave any notes on how to find it. I mean, do we look only at the time of the full moon? Do we need an unbloomed rosebud in our hands?" She sighed. "My real fear is that she made it so only the owner can find it. Now that she's dead it's lost."

Aelvarim sat in the other chair dejectedly. "I don't think she'd do that. Or" – hope lit his face – "perhaps, since you inherited her house and all that goes with it, you are now the owner and can find it."

"So why haven't I found it yet?"

He blew out his breath and slumped again in his seat, in a very unelflike way. As he chewed absently on his lip while thinking, Piper was caught up in admiring him again. The blue of today's tunic exactly matched his eyes. The tan-gold color of his cape and hat gave his skin a burnished hue.

"Have you tried a concentrated hunt for it?" he asked suddenly, derailing her train of thought.

"What?"

"When you were looking, before I interrupted you, were you looking only for the manuscript? Or were you looking for something else?"

"Actually, I was looking for a certain title." Piper squirmed inwardly, feeling somewhat abashed to have forgotten the point of her search in her admiration of him. "I'd seen it earlier at the bookstore, and remembered it from my dream. So I thought it might be important, and I was looking for that."

"What dream?" Aelvarim leaned toward her intently.

"When the fairies put me to sleep I had this strange dream." She went on to describe the sea of books in the parlor from her dream, but left out everything after she'd escaped the books.

"What was the title of the book you were looking for?"

Piper told him. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and began to strum his harp quietly. He stood up and slowly walked into the parlor, as if dreaming. Approaching one of the bookshelves, he ran his fingertips along the edge of one high shelf. Plucking a book, Aelvarim extended it to Piper, saying, "Here it is."

She looked at the book in her hands – Feminine Matrices: Their Strengths, Weaknesses, and Uses. In awe, she looked back to Aelvarim. She would never have recognized it. Unlike the book in her dream, it was an ordinary paperback, without any ribbon bookmark. Yet, with only the title to go on he'd found it. "Can you find the others, too?"

Aelvarim shook his head. "It's a very simple, very basic, spell. If the Grandmother Dickerson's manuscript is hidden by her own ensorcelment, I probably couldn't use a simple locate spell to find it."

"No. I mean the others that I saw." Piper shook the book in her hand as if that would cause the other titles to fall out of her memory. "The Power of Imagination, from Fairy Tales to Philosophy. That was the other title. Could you find it."

He closed his eyes and strummed his harp again. Moments later he turned to another bookcase, crouched, and again ran his fingertips over the edge of the shelf. He plucked another book, handing it up to Piper.

Looking from the book to Aelvarim, Piper asked, "Could you teach me that trick?"

Smiling, Aelvarim stood. "It's possible. Do you remember any other books from the dream? They might be important."

"Only the cover illustrations, not the titles."

Taking the books from her and setting them sideways on a shelf, he said, "Close your eyes and concentrate on remembering the illustrations." Aelvarim walked behind her while stroking his harp, so that her back was against his chest. The gentle music from the harp stopped, and his hands caught hers, right to right and left to left.

Her concentration on the images from her dream was broken for a moment. She struggled to bring her mind back to the proper task. When she did, she felt suddenly compelled to walk across the parlor. Opening her eyes, she walked, dragging Aelvarim behind her. She didn't run her fingertips across the shelf, instead she dropped Aelvarim's right hand and reached unerringly for the book she wanted.

Aelvarim released her left hand and stepped away from her. "Now you try by yourself."

Blinking, Piper stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Try what? How did you do that?"

"Concentrate. And use your strength of will to find the book," he instructed her calmly.

"What about the harp? And ... and humming." She waved the books in her hands. "How do you do that?"

His face grew flushed for a moment. "Music isn't needed for this spell. I merely use it to focus my thoughts. All you need is to concentrate on what you're looking for and will yourself to go to it."

Piper closed her eyes, bringing up the memory of the image of one of the other book covers from her dream. With a quick mental, "Here goes nothing," she decided to go to it. Nothing happened. She opened one eye; Aelvarim was watching her anxiously.

A quick smile flashed across his face. "Having trouble?"

She opened both eyes. "It's not working."

"How badly do you want to find the book?"

Closing both eyes, she tried again. This time she thought of how much she longed to read the book. An image of the book, up on a shelf out of her reach came to her.

Opening her eyes, she pointed to the highest shelf in front of her. "It's up there, where I can't reach it."

Tiptoeing on one of the Queen Anne chairs, Piper pulled the book from the shelf. "Voila!"

Aelvarim took the book from her. She was looking down on him from her vantage point. His hair was thick and glossy, with the two cute little pointed tips of his ears sticking out. He turned his face up to look at her. "Would you try to find Grandmother Dickerson's manuscript? Please. If it's just hidden so that only the owner can find it, you should be able to locate it. You are the owner."

Piper stepped down from the chair before closing her eyes. She didn't know what the title was, or what it looked like, other than handwritten on yellow paper, or any other details. With that nebulous description in mind she tried thinking of how much she wanted to find it. She didn't feel compelled to go anywhere, and the only images that came to mind were from the dream the fairies had inflicted on her. Wearing the wedding dress, finding Aelvarim, chasing after the veil, kissing Aelvarim. Nothing helpful.

She opened her eyes to find Aelvarim studying her raptly. He was leaning toward her, one eyebrow raised in question. Piper just barely stopped herself from grabbing and kissing him. "Nothing. I don't have a title or an image to work with, so nothing happens."

He nodded, obviously trying to cover his disappointment. "It's getting late. You've worked hard all day. You're tired. Perhaps another time."

Piper didn't feel tired, but she let him leave anyway, before she made a fool of herself. She read late into the night. The Power of Imagination was a fascinating book.

Apparently the denizens of Fairy weren't the only ones who believed their world was enmeshed with the world of humans. This book described the effect of make-believe and what-if ideas on actual historical governments. The author talked about, and showed, beliefs’ and folk tales’ quantifiable effects on the behavior of their originating societies. In the last chapters, the belief of the author in the reality of the worlds of human imagination came through very clearly.

At work the next day, Piper surreptitiously tried the location spell Aelvarim had taught her, pleased to discover that it worked. She secretly used it twice to locate obscure books for customers, forcing Mr. Gumble to give her a grudging compliment.

After lunch, Mavis handed Piper a printed listing of books. "Here, this is for Philosophy. Take these and match the list against the actual inventory. I want to get an order in before the summer college courses start."

The inventory was easy. Piper merely checked off if the computer printout was correct, or entered a new number if the printout was wrong. She found only one copy of The Power of Imagination. She recognized a few other titles from her interrupted sorting of Grandma's books and wondered if Grandma had purchased them there.

In the back office she tried to hand the paperwork to Mavis, but Mavis motioned her to sit in the other chair next to the desk. "You read the books off from your list, and I'll enter the changes in the computer."

This division of labor went well, usually. Occasionally, Mavis would stop and send Piper to check another section for a book, in cases where the book's subject would fit in more than one section. Afterward they would continue.

"The Power of Imagination," Piper said. "One copy."

"What?"

"The Power of Imagination, From Fairy Tales to Philosophy. One copy."

"That's not on my list." Mavis frowned at her computer.

Piper walked around to look over Mavis' shoulder at the glowing computer screen. That title wasn't on the computer's list. She checked her printout. There it was.

"Show me the book," Mavis said.

They trooped out to the shelves, but the book wasn't there. Piper moved the other books aside to see if it had wormed its way behind the others. "It was right here."

Mavis took the printout from Piper, and scanned it. "I don't see it here either."

Snatching the papers back, Piper looked for the title. It was no longer there.

"Are you feeling all right?" Mavis asked, sounding very concerned. "You don't look too good."

Taking a deep breath, Piper shook her head. "I didn't sleep well last night. But I could have sworn I saw that book, on the shelf and in the list."

"Come on," Mavis said, patting Piper's back and guiding her gently to the office. "We're both going cross-eyed looking at these stupid lists. Don't let it bother you."

There were two more discrepancies in the philosophy lists, but none in the History section they did next. For which Piper was eternally grateful. Mavis had begun to look at Piper worriedly. As Piper left, Mavis pulled her aside to whisper, "Get some rest and take your vitamins. You might be coming down with something."

Piper tried again to use the spell to locate Grandma's manuscript at the house, but failed. Discouraged, Piper sought out Fairy, to ask Malraux for help.

She passed Larkingtower's spire and the fairies’ bridge without incident. The sound of metal striking stone echoed through the forest near Malraux's cave, so she knew well ahead of her arrival that he was home.

Aelvarim sat with his back to the path, on a tree stump, picking at the peeling bark, at the edge of grove of trees around Malraux's cave. In the center of the glade Malraux carved into a chunk of brown-and-gray stone with chisel and hammer. No definite shape had yet been formed, leaving Piper guessing what he might be doing.

"Good evening," Piper said.

The two looked up startled to see her. Aelvarim jumped up from his stump to welcome her. Malraux put his tools aside.

"Don't stop on account of me," Piper protested. "Keep going. It looks interesting."

"Just a bit of carving," Malraux said.

Piper sat on one of the larger rocks by the cave entrance. "You do wonderful work."

Malraux stroked his long beard, grinning with pride. "Just a bit of fun, that's all."

Aelvarim reseated himself on his stump. "She's right, though. You do wonderful carvings."

The dwarf looked from one to the other. "What are you two up to?"

"Nothing," Aelvarim said, all wounded innocence.

"The compliments were real, and deserved. But I did come here tonight for a reason," Piper said. She tucked her feet up underneath her. "I was hoping you might be able to give me some pointers on using this location spell. Maybe then I could find Grandma's manuscript."

Examining his chisel, Malraux said, "Aelvarim told me of your attempt at finding it last night. A location spell is the wrong way to go about it, I'm afraid. If Grandmother Dickerson used a spell to hide it, then a location spell would be useless." He set the chisel back down and looked at Piper. "Your best bet would be to use the ordinary talents and knowledge you have. I'm sure Grandmother Dickerson expected you'd be cleaning and straightening the house. That's probably when you'll find it."

"Sounds like you've found an excuse to tell me to go back to work and leave you alone," Piper grumbled.

Aelvarim flashed a grin and nodded before Malraux turned to look at him, and said, "She's talking like you now."

"I didn't see Larkingtower or the fairies on the way over here," Piper said to change the subject.

"Larkingtower is still there," Aelvarim said, quickly accepting the new topic. "He's trying various spells to hold off the growing gaps, but they don't seem to be working. Be careful on the bridge near his spire. The ground underneath it is riddled with holes." He added morosely, "No one's seen the fairies for over a day. We don't know if they left to find a safer area, or if they were swallowed by the opening of a rift."

"Have you found anything new?" Malraux asked Piper. When she shook her head, he asked, "Have you found anything unusual?"

Piper told them about the books that had gone missing from the bookstore and the inventory lists. Malraux frowned and tugged at his beard as she talked. "That's an evil omen. Things are beginning to disappear from the human world. The rate of destruction will increase. Soon the gaps will show up in the human world. If something isn't done soon, nothing will be able to stop our worlds from ripping themselves apart, to oblivion."

Aelvarim stood up and motioned for Piper to follow him. "We should go now and search for Grandmother Dickerson's manuscript. We may not have much time."

"Wait." Malraux ran for his cave. "Let me get you something."

"Malraux, no!" Aelvarim shouted as he started after him. "Don't go in there."

Malraux waved a hand negligently as he disappeared into the cavern. Aelvarim stopped at the opening, looking in worriedly.

"What's the matter?" Piper asked.

"The cave is riddled with holes. It could collapse any moment. He promised he'd stay with me, and I assumed out of his mine, until this was over."

"Out of his mine, or out of his mind?" Piper whispered too softly for Aelvarim to hear her.

Malraux appeared moments later carrying a wicker basket, with a patterned dish towel wrapped around its contents.

"A snack?" Piper asked.

"A bit of the mead. And a few things Grandmother Dickerson lent me, such as the basket." Malraux handed it to Piper. "You might find them useful in your search. You never know."