(Untitled)

[kitchen_maid]

She'd been up in her room, with the chair under the doorknob again, warding spell or no warding spell, sitting in the window and staring out at the lake

Comments

[young_tmriddle]

Tom approaches Amy right away. "Evening, Amy. Are you all right?"

[kitchen_maid]

Amy shakes her head. "No, not really," she says. "But I'm not hurt, or anything like that. I'm worried. How are you?"

She looks . . . tired. But she's calm. She will not be babbling tonight.

[young_tmriddle]

"Not as bad as you might think. The difficulties in London Below are now finished, thanks to my son's wizarding prowess. I haven't seen Caspian yet, but I wanted to ask you what you thought was off about him. What specifically made you notice?"

[kitchen_maid]

Amy is quiet for a long moment.

"Little things, really," she says, finally. "The speed and ease with which he dismissed the warning about Mrs. Rowlands, for one. A vagueness to his eyes, just slight, but not as clear as usual, or something. A flatness to high laugh, again, small but . . . I've heard my brother laugh, Tom. I've made my brother laugh. It wasn't right. There was a Wrongness to it, but only a the smallest of ones. Something there was not him, or some part of him was not there or something."

[young_tmriddle]

"Well, one's instincts about these kinds of things are usually correct. He's not the only one so bewitched, I am afraid."

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman happens to be at the bar, studying the note he received from the bar with a slight frown on his face.

Folding the note, he tucks it into the pocket of his suit jacket, and turns round to scan the bar with watchful eyes. He catches sight of Tom talking with a young woman, and watches them, waiting for an appropriate moment to make eye contact and possibly interrupt their conversation.

[kitchen_maid]

"Yes," Amy says to Tom, "Bran told me as much last night. I--"

And them she breaks off, eyes widening slightly, catching sight of the man who is watching them, and suddenly wary.

"I think we're being watched," she says, very quietly.

[young_tmriddle]

Tom follows her gaze, alarmed, but when he sees who it is, he smiles widely.

"Merriman, do come join us. Professor Merriman Lyon, this is Amy of Phantasmorania. Amy, Merriman Lyon, who is Merlin, a powerful, legendary wizard of my world, or close enough to it."

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman inclines his head cordially to Amy, though the pleasantries are for the moment only surface-deep.

'Then I am speaking to the author of this note?' He takes out the folded note that Amy had left for him at the bar. 'What have you noticed that raises your suspicions?'

[kitchen_maid]

Amy inclines her head in return, regally, and then relaxes the tiniest bit. Merlin she has heard of. Merriman Lyon she has been told she can trust.

"Yes," she says. "And, as I told Tom, little things. He was too quick to dismiss it when I tried to warn him about Mrs. Rowlands. His eyes were too vague, his laugh was too flat, only slightly, but . . . I'm his sister. I know him. That was not his laugh. It's very small, sir, and I don't know that most people would notice, but . . . he is not quite himself."

[young_tmriddle]

"If this is so, and it would seem to be, I am doubly concerned. Caspian lives in the House of Arch; if he's bewitched... my protective wards are good, but not good enough, I think, to keep Blodwen out."

[merrimanlyon]

There is no reason to shield the bad news from Tom. 'If he lives in your house, and invites her in, protective wards likely will not make a difference.'

He turns back to Amy, and his tone is less abrupt than it was with Tom. 'The nature of the spell is very subtle. It is a trap-spell, woven over the victim's will. The longer it stays on him, the stronger the spell becomes. And the more he acquiesces to her wishes and whims, the stronger her hold over him will become.'

He lets out a quiet breath, not quite a sigh. 'It can be removed, but I would have to see him to remove it in person. And if he is caught in the trap-spell...my presence will cause him no small amount of disquiet.'

[kitchen_maid]

"But he'd be all right, afterwards? I mean, it has to be broken. He can't stay that way."

A pause, and then she nods towards the fair-haired young man on the other side of the bar.

"That is my brother, Caspian of Narnia, tenth of that name."

[young_tmriddle]

"He seems a strong fellow, Amy, and a good one. I know all of those in the House of Arch who were kings and queens of Narnia are fine, strong people. He'll be all right."

But Tom catches Merriman's eye.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian, in fact, is not paying attention at all.

Which is odd, considering that his sister is speaking with two men he does not know--although he has seen Tom about the House, and recognizes him.

This is most likely because he is deeply involved in working with the stable ledger.

Of course.

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman's eye contact with Tom is brief, before he follows Amy's gaze to Caspian, and his eyes narrow.

Even from here, he can sense the filaments of the trap-spell, like a cobweb spun of poisoned gossamer.

'Outside,' he says, quietly, to both of them. 'Outside, I will be able to work. I will meet you out there, lest he become suspicious.'