Eccentric Circles

Chapter Thirteen

While Piper shelved the rest of the books, Aelvarim sorted through the spell books, shelving them as he finished them. He muttered to himself while he worked. Piper would catch snatches of words. "Why a pot holder?" "Couldn't be." "Something intimate." "Beyond his capabilities."

Aelvarim finished his search before Piper finished putting all the books away. He helped her finish. The shelves ended up holding double, and the outer row of books hung off the edge of the shelf, but the furniture and floor were cleared off.

"The location spell. Would you try it again?" Aelvarim asked, as Piper collapsed wearily into one of the Queen Anne chairs.

"But Malraux said a location spell wouldn't work against a hiding spell." She realized what she was saying only after she said it. "Very well."

Closing her eyes, Piper thought of her great-grandmother's nebulous manuscript, yellow paper, handwritten, subject unknown. This time she really, really longed to find it. However,she still felt no compulsion to get up and go anywhere. She remembered the dream the fairies sent her and could only think how nice it would be to fall asleep now. She remembered the wedding dress and Aelvarim, but nothing helpful. Sleep sounded so nice. Someone gently shook her shoulder.

"Piper?"

She looked up into Aelvarim's wide blue eyes. His hand was gently cupped her chin, and something cold and hard pressed against her lips.

"Drink. It'll help."

He held the miniature stone mead jug against her mouth, just beginning to tip it to pour some into her.

"You fell asleep on the chair." When she'd had a drink, he helped himself to a swallow. Gently,he chided her, "You have to concentrate for a location spell to work."

"Didn't Malraux give us that?" Piper asked sleepily. "Could it be poisoned?" Then she felt the effects of the mead spread from her stomach outward, like wildfire through her muscles. She sat up. "Maybe not."

"Most probably not." Aelvarim said, holding the jug out to her. "Firstly, he doesn't know we suspect him. Secondly, he doesn't make the mead. Thirdly" – he sighed – "I just can't see him harming anyone. Not us. Not Grandmother Dickerson."

Piper poured a large dollop of the sweet, thick mead into her mouth, and swallowed. "Then we're back to you, Larkingtower, or the fairies. You already ruled out the fairies. You'd know if you had. Though that may be why you haven't found yourself. That leaves Larkingtower."

"Or perhaps a wanderer. Someone we don't know, with methods and madness of their own."

"Know of anyone fitting that description? That was around these parts in the right time frame?" When Aelvarim shook his head, Piper added, "Well, Sheriff, arrest Malraux. He's our most likely suspect."

"There are many evils that wander and lurk. There is much to Fairy that you don't know or understand. Unlike the world of humans, just because something is unseen or unknown, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"Fine. Fine. Have it your way." The mead had done much to make Piper feel stronger and erase her tiredness, but her emotional weariness remained. The gloom and melancholy remained in spite of the electric strength flowing through her veins. Too bad, otherwise she might have been able to market it as a method of relieving depression. Piper looked around the parlor. "Did you find anything in Grandma's spell books?"

Aelvarim shook his head and lowered his frame into the chair next to Piper's. "No. The spells are not the sort that would cause an explosion. They're mostly building or helping or locating or hiding spells, which just require a bit of knowledge and an act of will. The few that require physical components aren't the sort to explode."

Her gaze traveled over the line of his long, muscular legs, and up his abdomen and chest, to the angles of his golden face trimmed by dark red hair. He was staring at the far bookcase with the spell books on it. His full lips trimmed into a hard line as he frowned.

He glanced over to her. "But then, that only confirms that she didn't cast the spell in the garage. Would you care to try again to locate Grandmother Dickerson's manuscript? Now that you're less likely to fall asleep."

Piper again closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing. She opened her eyes. "Perhaps if I try walking around the house."

She walked through the house while concentrating. Again nothing. To be honest, as she walked around the house it was hard to concentrate on the manuscript. She had no concrete idea of what it looked like, or was about, and found the mess and work waiting for her distracting.

Aelvarim followed faithfully behind her, like a well-trained pup, a wide-eyed, hopeful expression on his face. Piper hated to disappoint him, but she was beginning to wonder if there really had been a manuscript. Or if the murderer had destroyed it.

They returned dejected to the parlor, to slump in the chairs. Outside the open window curtains, a predawn lightness shadowed the sky.

Eyeing the growing dawn, Aelvarim said, "I'd better be going. I need to talk to Larkingtower and Malraux. See if either of them saw any strangers lurking about before Grandmother Dickerson died."

"Be careful around Malraux."

Nodding sadly, Aelvarim walked out the door.

Piper saw him out, slept for a few hours, and headed off to Independent Books for her regular workday.

Mavis had Piper helping inventory in preparation for an order again. There were few discrepancies in the listings to trip Piper up, but she noticed that many books she remembered being on the shelves were missing, both from the shelves and from the listings.

Wondering if these were just not on the inventory lists and shelves of Independent Books, or if they were, in fact, no longer in existence, Piper asked, "Mavis, would it be possible to order a book called The Power of Imagination, from Fairy Tales to Philosophy?"

"Let me look it up." Mavis pressed a few keys on the computer, then entered the title. A few moments later, Mavis shook her head. "I don't have a listing for that as a book in print. How old is it? Perhaps we could do a rare book search on it."

"Never mind." Piper returned to her inventorying.

After lunch, Mr. Gumble had Piper cleaning, straightening, and reshelving the books. Harm asked if she could switch with Piper, since she'd been on the register all day, but Mr. Gumble refused.

In the Nonfiction Science section Piper saw a black splotch in the corner of one bottom shelf. Significantly, there were no books there. Unwilling to touch it, or risk setting a book into it. Piper searched the pockets of her pants. Pulling a penny from her pocket, Piper flipped it toward the gaping darkness. The penny arched through the air, glinting as it spun over and over. She more than half expected it would hit the shelf with a ping, and the black splotch would turn out to be nothing other than a bit of spilled paint. But as soon as the penny touched the blackness it disappeared.

Piper's first thought was to warn the others in the store. She stopped at the thought of the discrepancies between the lists and books she'd seen and what had shown up in Mavis' hands. Piper walked, trying to appear calm, to the register.

She smiled at Harm. "I thought I smelled something over in the Science section. I think someone spilled something. But I'm not feeling so good today. Allergies, you know. Could you go check, please?"

Harm happily bounded off to check. There were no screams, and she strolled back after a minute or so. "I didn't smell anything, or see any spills. Probably nothing."

The black rift sat malevolently where Piper'd last seen it in the corner on the bottom shelf. She resolutely continued her straightening. She found two more small gaps in Science, a good sized one in Math, a smattering of small pin-sized dots in the History section.

Mr. Gumble was shelving magazines in the Periodicals section, from a box he'd just opened. Piper watched in horror as he placed a stack of magazines on a shelf just as a rift opened up. The magazines disappeared. Mr. Gumble didn't appear to notice. He moved on down the shelf with the next magazine.

The whole section was riddled with black gaps. Mr. Gumble not only didn't seem to notice them, he continued blithely on as books disappeared around him. She gasped when he touched one of the yawning rifts.

He turned to look at her. "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine." She looked at the misfiled magazine she'd brought over to put back. Piper couldn't put the poor innocent magazine on the shelf to disappear into a rift. "I .... I'm fine."

"You look awfully pale."

"Allergies." Piper wandered away. She stashed the magazine in the Philosophy section.

Why hadn't Mr. Gumble disappeared when he touched the gap like everything else did? Was it because he couldn't see them? Did that mean he'd be safe from them? Did they not exist for him because he couldn't see them? If that were so, then probably all the other employees in the bookstore were safe. Harm hadn't seen the black gaps, Mr. Gumble hadn't seen them, Mavis hadn't seen them.

That didn't bode well for her own safety. Would the human world continue apart from Fairy? Or would just those parts that didn't concern themselves with Fairy continue?

No, that was wrong. Aelvarim had said that the part of their worlds farthest apart would be affected first, and the points where they connected last.

Were they safe here for now because everyone in the store had some connection to Fairy? Piper didn't want to gamble with something like that, but she couldn't think of any excuse to evacuate the bookstore and keep it empty for the rest of the day.

"Are you feeling well?" Mavis had snuck up on Piper from behind. "You do look pale."

"I'm fine," Piper said automatically, then thought the better of it. "I think."

"She said it was allergies earlier," said Harm, walking up beside Mavis. "She said she thought she smelled something in the Science section. Someone might have spilled something, or something."

Mavis nodded crisply at Harm. "Wait here." She walked off toward the Science section.

"Grumble was worried about you," Harm explained. "He thought it might be, you know, female stuff."

Piper squelched an exclamation of frustration and settled for a quick examination of the ceiling.

When Mavis returned she, too, shook her head. "Nothing there. Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

At that moment Piper's cousin, Africa, breezed in and walked right up to them. "My goodness, Piper. You look like you've seen a ghost. Are you feeling all right?"

Over Piper's protestations, Mavis made arrangements to send Piper home. Africa called back to her office and took the rest of the day off. She insisted on seeing that Piper got home safe and sound.

Africa steered Piper out of the store. "Are you sure you're up to driving home?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I can drive home."

She opened Piper's door. "Okay, but I'm following you all the way. Don't try to lose me."

"I don't need a nanny," Piper complained as she sat in her driver's seat. "I promise I'll go right home and take care of myself."

Leaning down, Africa's blond curls fell danglingly over the window trim of the car. She whispered, "Yes, I'm sure. But I want to hear all about this Aelvarim. The elf."

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