Will twisted them sideways through the congruence, and the landscape changed, becoming the open grassland that surrounded Cath Bawlg’s cave in Faerie. Then he looked over to see Tiny’s reaction.
The big man remained utterly still, with only his eyes moving as they darted back and forth to study their surroundings. After thirty seconds or so, Tiny released Will’s hand and turned around to look behind them. He stood there for a while, then his tanned cheeks began to pale and Tiny started to sway on his feet.
Shit! Will grabbed his friend’s hand and shifted them back to the hidden spring. “Sit down,” he cautioned Tiny. “If you fall there’s no way I can catch you.”
Tiny sat, and after a moment his color improved. The big man quietly studied the forest around them, then stared at the tiny spring for a while. “Where were we?” he said at last.
“That was part of Faerie,” said Will. “It touches our world here beside this spring, and at other places. If I’m next to a spot where the two worlds come in contact, I can transport myself and others from one to the other.”
“Faerie,” said Tiny. “Does that mean faeries are real?”
Will nodded. “I’ve met several, but they’re different from what you’ve probably heard about in stories. In general, it’s probably best to avoid them.”
“Does anyone else know about this?”
“Anyone that can see magic probably knows about the congruencies,” he answered.
“Congruencies?”
“The places where different worlds touch.”
Tiny continued staring into the distance, thinking deeply. “Worlds—does that mean there are others? If so, how many?”
“From what my grandfather said, a lot, but no one knows how many,” answered Will. “There seem to be a lot more congruencies between our world and Faerie than other places. I think it’s closer to our world than most of the others.”
Tiny’s head turned, and he fixed Will with a steady gaze. “I think you need to start from the beginning. Explain everything so I can understand this.”
Feeling bad for the shock he had caused, Will asked, “Would you like to eat first? I’ll still buy you whatever you want.”
His friend’s massive hand clamped onto his arm. “I need to understand this. Explain it for me. Food comes later.”
And so Will did, beginning with his life with Arrogan. He abbreviated a lot of it, and he left out certain sensitive details, such as his bastard heritage, his grandfather’s name, or the fact that he was related to a couple of the fae. He did mention the goddamn cat, but he left out its name.
“So, you’re a wizard, but you can’t use magic,” said Tiny at the end, summarizing. “Your teacher is gone, and you know a few of the fae, but you don’t trust them. The lady doctor is a sorcerer, but her elementals are invisible, so I can’t see them.”
“And I’m not sure why she’s helping me,” added Will. “I think she wants to make me into her wizard servant or something.”
Tiny chuckled once, then twice, and after a moment he broke into semi-hysterical laughter while Will stared at him in confusion. When his friend finally stopped, he said, “None of that was funny.”
“Sorry,” said Tiny, wiping his eyes. “It just struck me that way. My entire world has been turned upside down and in the middle of it all you’re telling me that you think the doctor wants to enslave you. I may have been blind, but you’re dense, Will. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Will smirked. “Yes, all the time. My grandfather never let five minutes go without reminding me. And I never said ‘enslave,’ I said make me her servant. I don’t think she’s evil per se.”
Tiny put a hand on Will’s shoulder. “I won’t pretend to know why she’s helping you, but I can tell you this. She isn’t out to gain anything from you. I went back for bandage changes for a week after that first day. Some days she was there, and others she wasn’t, but on the days she was there I saw how she treated the other soldiers. If she really is a noblewoman, there’s no reason why she had to do that job. She was doing it because she wanted to help others. She definitely isn’t selfish, and if she does have a problem, it’s the same one you have.”
“What’s that?”
The big man patted his chest. “Too much in here.”
Will sighed. “I’d rather she didn’t pity me.” He shifted the subject. “So, now that you believe me, would you help me practice? I should be able to paralyze you with that spell.”
“Depends.”
“On what?” asked Will.
“Are you still paying for the food?”
Will laughed, and readily agreed. The two of them went back to town and sat down in a small eatery that was popular with the soldiers on their free days. The place was nearly empty since they arrived at an odd time of day.
Tiny made good on his previous boasts, eating enough to fill up at least three grown and very hungry men. Will finished while Tiny was still getting warmed up, so he spent his free time practicing as his friend ate.
Creating the spell was easy enough, and each time he felt that same strange sense of duality, as though he partly inhabited a second body. The trick was sorting out which was which, but eventually he figured it out. The main thing wasn’t so much picking out Tiny, but identifying himself, since in the future the spell would be used on different people.
Once he could separate who was who within his perceptions, he simply had to force changes on the one that wasn’t himself. Will remembered that sense of complete helplessness, when his grandfather had separated his conscious will from control of his body and turyn, and he used that as a guide.
Tiny had almost finished his last piece of ham when Will had his breakthrough. The big man’s body seized up, causing the knife in his right hand to lightly stab into the meat of his thumb before he stopped moving.
“Ow!” exclaimed Will, feeling a sharp pain as it happened.
Tiny, of course, was unable to reply, but his eyes rolled back and forth wildly, and Will could feel his friend’s panic building. Will released him quickly.
The big man gave him a hard look, then took a deep breath. “That was you?”
Will nodded. “Sorry.”
“You couldn’t wait to practice. Have you been trying the whole time we’ve been sitting here?”
Will glanced sheepishly down at his empty plate. “Only since I finished eating.”
Tiny looked at his thumb, where a small drop of blood was beading up. He wiped it on his trousers and then took up his knife once more, spearing another piece of ham and putting it in his mouth. He talked as he chewed. “Wait until I’m done. We can go back to that spring in a few minutes. You can work your black magic there.”
Will was surprised by Tiny’s nonchalance. “It isn’t black magic, but—thanks.” While he waited for his friend to finish, Will thought about the pain he had felt. Did that mean grandfather felt it when he killed those soldiers he had frozen? He shuddered at the thought. Either Arrogan had been able to overcome unbelievable pain while he was fighting, or the old man had had some method for blocking the sensations from the people he linked with.