Red Hood's Revenge

round shadow in the ceiling that marked the bottom of what she assumed to be the raikh’s well. The magic of the reservoir swept the filth from her clothes, washing it in a single foul current toward one of the many openings in the walls. One of the sewer tunnels, no doubt.
    She wished she had more time to study the magic. Public wells meant anyone could poison the raikh’s water supply. The fairy magic not only cleansed the water, it probably purified any toxins. That would be a useful spell to learn, not to mention it would help her to understand how fairy magic worked in this land.
    She held her breath and ducked beneath the surface, rinsing her face and hair. By the time she surfaced, the others were joining her in the water, leaving the squealing goblins trapped in the ice. Talia dove deep, shooting up a moment later like a mermaid to catch the stones at the base of the well. Her feet kicked as she pulled herself higher. A short time later, Snow could hear the rattle of metal from the top of the well.
    “What’s wrong?” Danielle asked.
    Talia dropped out of the well, hitting the water with hardly a splash. She surfaced and shoved her hair back from her face. “They’ve latched it. Most people don’t bother, since the goblins aren’t strong enough to climb up. It’s probably a simple metal catch, but the lip of the well keeps me from reaching it.”
    Snow smiled and swam closer. This time, she didn’t say a word about using magic to do what brute force couldn’t. Judging from the annoyance in Talia’s eyes, she didn’t have to.
    With Talia’s help, she managed to pull herself up. Only the bottommost stones were damp. The rest were dry and easy to hold, save for where Talia had dripped against them when she climbed up. Even those were already beginning to dry. The Arathean air sucked the water from everything.
    Snow rested her back against one side of the well, bracing her legs against the other. Her hands pressed flat behind her back. Straightening one leg, she pushed herself upward.
    She soon had cramps in her feet and the backs of her legs as she made her way higher. She locked both legs and flexed her hands, trying to keep them from tightening as well. Talia made this sort of thing look easy.
    The well was almost two stories high. Enough to make her nervous when she looked down, though the narrow confines meant she was unlikely to slip, and the water would break her fall in any event.
    The cap atop the well was made of sculpted bronze in the shape of an overlapping sun and moon. Snow listened, but she heard nothing from the other side. Though if the cap was thick enough to muffle the sounds of sewer goblins, it would do the same for any noise within the mansion. She let her legs support her weight as she pushed against the cap, gently at first, then harder when it refused to budge.
    Eventually, with her legs braced and both arms pushing the edge, she raised the cap slightly. It rose about the width of her little finger before catching. Not enough space to sneak a mirror through and examine the latch.
    “Those other goblins won’t stay away forever,” Talia said.
    Snow rested her head against the stone. So long as she wasn’t trying to climb, this position was almost relaxing. She closed her eyes, then opened them again, willing her vision to focus. Given the choice between enchanting stone or metal, stone was slightly easier to work with. Neither would be pleasant, given how much she had already done today.
    She grabbed her knife, then hesitated. She could age the stone, crumbling it to sand until the catch holding the cap in place loosened and slid free, but surely there was an easier spell, one that wouldn’t add so much to her already throbbing skull.
    A year ago, she would have cast the spell without a thought. She hated having to ration her power, to plan out how much magic she could perform before the pain overwhelmed her. But she had pushed too hard already, and the hand holding the knife shook, not from anticipation of the cut, but because she knew what would come next was worse.
    “Damn it,” she whispered. Pressing the blade to her hand, she forced herself to cut a thin line across her palm. She slammed her hand against the stone and muttered the incantation.
    Nothing happened. Snow gritted her teeth and pressed harder until she felt the low warmth of fairy magic. The stones at the top were enchanted, just like the stones of the well and the reservoir below. She could punch