The Night (2 page)

When it all went silent again, she finally breathed.

Opening one eye and following it with the other, she gave him a sorrowful look.

“I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Celene sighed at the sight of him and patted her shoulder.

The black and white cat leapt up onto it and walked over her shoulders to the other side. Gathering him to her, she listened to him purr, as though he was trying to tell her that everything was fine. She picked up his white shirt and black trousers where they now lay in a heap on the floor, and placed them over the back of the armchair and smoothed them out. She had put them there every night since he had first come to her, all three hundred and twenty two of them.

She smiled as he leapt down from her back and walked along her desk, weaving his way through the bottled ingredients, and stacks of parchments and books without disturbing any of them. He hopped down onto her chair and then the floor.

When he looked up at her, she smiled.

“We’ll find a cure to the curse…” she trailed off as he disappeared through the door, heading for the back of the house. “Don’t be out too long.”

Celene pushed her black hair out of her face, sat down at her desk, and pulled a parcel towards her. She untied the string, carefully placing it to one side and then did the same thing with the brown paper. Moving the top book so it lay next to the other one that had been in the parcel, she tried to decide which one to begin first.

Her eyes scanned over the stacks of books that filled the room. She had tried so many counter-curses, incantations, potions and ointments. Nothing had broken the curse so far, and she was beginning to believe that nothing ever would.

Opening one of the books, she stifled her sigh and began to read, telling herself that someday they would find a way to cure him.

Her eyes scanned the page. It seemed that the cats of Nubenfeld could transform into humans. It was unlikely that Zane’s curse was in any way connected to them, but it was worth reading the large tome in case she could glean any information on a way to cure him. If only he would tell her why he was cursed, maybe then she could find a way to lift it. She had asked him so many times, but each time he had avoided answering her. She knew that whatever he had done to get himself cursed, it must have been bad, so bad that he didn’t want to speak about it, or he couldn’t. Some curses forbade the victim of speaking about it to anyone. She wished this was one of those curses, but she got the impression that it wasn’t and he just didn’t want to tell her why he was cursed.

As she flicked page after page, her eyes began to tire and her head ached. She glanced at the window. It was still dark out, but she could feel that the night was drawing on and dawn would soon be approaching.

Unable to concentrate any longer, she wandered through the house to the front porch. The view was amazing, just as Zane kept telling her. The distant lights of the first kingdom of Syrinia shone like stars, brightly sparkling and enticing her into dreaming about what adventures a city like it held. She could almost make out the tall spires and towers, and the beautiful mosaic covered domes that sat atop pale stone buildings that were ornately designed and intricately carved. She had seen them all in pictures of the kingdom. Although she loved the woods and being alone, she sometimes longed for the day that would take her into civilisation.

She frowned when she raised her eyes to the heavens and saw a cloud marring the sky. It was small and dark, partially obscuring the large full moon.

Celene raised her hand, wiped it across the sky and smiled when the cloud disappeared, leaving the moon clear.

The sky was lightening. Soon Zane would return and she was no closer to finding a way to save him.

She headed back into the house to the study, picked up the book she had been reading and sat down in the armchair opposite the one that his clothes occupied.

She stared at them for the longest time and then lowered her eyes to the book, beginning to read again.

They would find a cure for him, a way of halting these nightly transformations and stopping him becoming forever changed.

They would.

Before it was too late.

CHAPTER 2

Z
ane slumped into the armchair and drew a blanket over himself. He closed his eyes and sighed out his fatigue. He had never felt as tired as he did this morning. Dawn was finally approaching and the night had lost her hold over him. There was light coming in through the cracks in the curtains, signalling the sunrise.

He wiped the back of his hand across his face and then frowned at himself for doing something so cat-like. Scratching his neck, he looked across at the empty armchair opposite him and the book deposited in it.

“You look terrible,” she said, her soft voice doing more to comfort and warm him than the blanket wrapped around him ever could.

He smiled briefly at the cup of tea that she held out to him and took it. She was always ready for him when he came back, waiting with a blanket and a hot cup of tea to soothe him.

He placed the cup down on the small wooden table beside the armchair and then stretched. His muscles protested and stiffened further, his whole body aching. Picking the tea back up, he sipped it and resisted his desire to purr. It was sweet and hot, just what he needed after going through the pain of the transformation.

“It is getting increasingly difficult to come back.” He looked at her and she turned her face away. “I know this is not what you want to hear. I fear that soon I will remain forever changed... but I will be neither man nor cat.”

She sat opposite him and he could see her agitation. His eyes glided over the books and potions, anywhere but her. He didn’t want to see the hurt as it surfaced in her eyes. It was too much. It pained him more than she could possibly know.

“You have done so much, Celene. Remember when I first came to you?” he said, looking into her eyes and hoping his words would bring happier memories to her, ridding her of any sadness his previous ones had brought.

She nodded. “How could I forget?”

“I thought you weren’t a witch.” He smiled.

So did she.

“And I thought you weren’t a cat.”

Zane leaned back into the chair and sipped his tea again. It warmed him, soothing his sore body.

“You were right. I was so wrong... wrong to come here and burden you like this,” he said and the solemnity returned to her eyes.

“The magic is too strong.” Her small smile spoke volumes of hurt to him.

“We are running out of time.” He went to move and hissed, breathing in sharply.

“You are hurt.” Within a split-second she was perched beside him on the arm of his chair, her eyes wide and flitting about him, searching for his injury.

Her concern touched him but he had hoped that she wouldn’t notice. He didn’t want her to hurt herself anymore, not for him.

“It is only a scratch. I got into a fight.” He smiled but her frown said that she could see straight through his words.

Her fingers ran lightly over the cut across his chest as she pulled the blanket down. Her frown intensified and she placed her hand over the wound. He knew what she was going to do.

“Do not waste your life on me, Celene, please?” he said.

He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t look at him or even acknowledge that he had spoken. As stubborn as ever. As stubborn as when they first met a year ago.

She pressed her hand against him. He didn’t want to watch her but he couldn’t help himself.

Was it only a year since they met? She had learnt so much, had seen so much, in such a short space of time but it didn’t astound him. She had settled into life with him around so quickly, as though he had always been with her. Even his nudity after the transformation didn’t seem to bother her anymore.

He didn’t know what he would do without her.

When she withdrew her hand, her nose was bleeding. He reached out to wipe the blood away but she moved out of reach and looked straight into his eyes, hers as clear as the moon had been last night.

“It is my life to give.” She paused and the tears were back in her eyes.

He sighed and knew why she was upset. Healing a small cut wouldn’t have taken enough of her life to cause her nose to bleed. She had tried to heal more than his wounds. She had tried to cure him.

Before he could say anything to her, she was moving away.

“I have to go,” she said, her back turned on him.

She stopped near the foot of the stairs and looked at the curtains. He saw his opportunity and took it.

“Where do you go each day?” he said.

She looked up the stairs and he wished he could see her face. If he could see her eyes when he asked her that, he might be able to read the answer in them.

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

Zane didn’t press her when she cast a sorrowful glance over her shoulder, the lower half of her face obscured by her long blue-black hair. He let her walk away, knowing that tomorrow would bring another opportunity to ask her. He had no right to force her to answer him. They both kept secrets from each other. He only hoped that those secrets wouldn’t be the undoing of them as he feared they would.

After drinking the remains of his tea, he dressed and went to the window. He drew the curtains aside and watched the sun as it broke the horizon, spreading golden light across the land. There was a familiar click as the door upstairs was locked.

Where did she go? He knew that she wasn’t in the room. He had chanced it one day and magically unlocked the door. There was no one in there. It was a bare room. Ever since he had met her all those months ago, she had always left him with the rising of the sun and had returned as it had begun to set. He was as curious about it as she was about the details behind his curse.

He wished that he had told her about it when he had first met her. To reveal the truth now would upset her too much and he didn’t want to risk driving her away. He had tried many times during those first few weeks, but he hadn’t been able to. When that part of the curse had been broken, it had been too late to tell her.

Going over to the desk, he idly shifted the books and glass bottles around as he thought about how he had met her. It had been months after the night he had been cursed. In all his time in Valunthier, the third kingdom, he had never thought he would fall prey to such base magic. As a seventh level wizard, he should have been above them, should have known how to protect himself, but he had been foolish. A moment of distraction had burdened him for eternity, unless he could find some way of breaking the spell on him.

He had tried.

Long months he had spent alone in Valunthier, searching for a cure. When he had found none there, he had travelled to Arcanus, the second kingdom. The beauty of the city that rose with the hill it was built on, and whose buildings with their copper-green roofs flowed with the waterfall that ran through it to the sea, soothed him a touch, but not enough for him to forget his burden.

It was in Arcanus that he had overheard the conversation that had changed his life and brought him to Celene. A group of witch hunters had been discussing a girl of great power, one that was prized above all others at the time. He had listened long enough and then masqueraded as a witch hunter himself to garner information on her.

When he had finally left the city, it had been with a heavy heart, but one that bore a thread of hope that this woman could help him. He had doubted her ability, told himself over and over again that she wouldn’t be able to help him, anything to get his hopes back down. This was his curse to break, not anyone else’s, but he had tried everything and he had been tired.

He had found her after searching across the Tri-Kingdom.

Zane smiled to himself. He had foolishly expected her to live in one of the cities and had been shocked when he had finally tracked her to the little house in the Waning Woods.

The night had fallen before he’d had a chance to introduce himself and he had approached her as a cat instead. She had fed him with the others and then when they had begun to leave, she had sat in front of him and announced that he wasn’t a cat.

She had let him enter her house and when he had transformed back in the morning, she had offered him help without question and given him a place to stay.

He wished now that he hadn’t taken her offer, but at the same time, he was glad that he had. They had made no progress in breaking the curse, but the months he had passed in her fleeting company had become precious to him.

And that was why he couldn’t tell her why he was cursed.

He couldn’t break her heart.

He sighed and rifled through the books, settling on the one she had left a marker in. It was new. Beside it sat another one. How much gold these two tomes had cost her? When they had first met, this room had been empty. Now it was overflowing with books, all stacked haphazardly and discarded.

They couldn’t break this curse. He had tried and failed, and he was a seventh level wizard. It should have been easy for him to break it, but magic was no use and no potion he had tried had stopped the transformation. There was only one way to lift it and that was to decipher the meaning behind the words that had been imprinted on his soul.

Zane drew the book about Nubenfeld towards him, took up a piece of parchment and began to make notes on what he read.

Celene brushed her hair from her face and smiled when she reached the bottom of the wooden staircase and saw Zane slumped over the cluttered desk fast asleep. She walked silently towards him and was about to wake him when something caught her eye.

Leaning forwards, she looked at what he had written on the paper, his quill still resting on it and leaving a blob of ink at the end of the sentence. He had clearly fallen asleep when writing it.

“The only peace you shall find is with the night,” she whispered the words and frowned as she felt something, a tingle and a buzz that ran through her, making her hairs stand on end.

It had something to do with his curse.

Celene carefully extracted the piece of parchment from underneath his hand, made sure that he was still soundly asleep and then stared at the words. She was certain that it related to his curse. This was the clue she had been waiting for all these months. Maybe now she would be able to break it.