"No," Yara said immediately.

"Why not? It worked, didn't it?"

Yara scrubbed Pirra's face vigorously before replying, "Do you know what that rug tried to do when I was locking it up? And there was the spoon, before that. They're small enough that I can handle them, but I do not want an amorous sofa chasing me around the house, trying to lift my skirt or stroke my hair! No more love spells. None. Is that clear?"

"But it's really-"

"I said no, Apprentice!" She flung the facecloth at the empty bucket by the door.

"Mistress, I-"

" You, Apprentice, are a naive young virgin. I am a respectable married woman, and I am telling you that I do not want any more formerly inanimate objects enamored of me, because it's weird, in ways you probably don't understand. It makes my skin crawl. I've put up with a lot in twelve years of marriage to a wizard, but there arc limits. Nor do I want any portion of my husband's soul to fall in love with anyone else. You will not use any more love spells on the couch or any of the other furniture. You won't use them on anything except paying customers. Is that clear?"

Kilisha had never before seen Yara direct this sort of speech at anyone except her children, but she knew better than to argue further. "Yes, Mistress," she said, as meekly as she could.

"Good. Now, why don't you check on your master, and then start practicing the spell to restore him?"

"I need jewelweed, Mistress."

"I'll go get it. Find something useful to do until I get back."

"Yes, Mistress." Kilisha clasped her hands behind her back and stared at the floor.

A thought struck Yara. "Actually, you can watch the children. I'll be quicker without them."

"Yes, Mistress."

A few minutes later Yara had left, bound for the nearest herbalist-which would probably be old Urrel, in the little shop on the corner of Arena Street, Kilisha thought. Yara had partially relented on demanding Kilisha care for the children; she was taking Pirra with her, but Telleth and Lirrin were still upstairs.

Kilisha came back down the stairs after ensuring that her two charges were safe, then wandered into the workshop to check on things there.

Ithanalin had not moved, of course, and the sheet was still in place, but crooked; she straightened it.

The boxes holding the dish, spoon, and rug were still where they belonged, and still locked.

The goo in the brass bowl was still simmering, but looking far less gooey, as most of the moisture had cooked out of it; she checked the oil in the lamp and added another cup. The concoction was beginning to smell somewhat foul, like sour wine, but it didn't seem to be doing anything dangerous.

She looked into the parlor, where the chair and the table were having a shoving match. "Stop that!" she barked.

They ignored her. She marched in and pulled them apart, whereupon the table ran to the far end of its tether and stood by the back wall, turning back and forth, while the chair rocked side to side in what looked like a dance of triumph. The ropes that connected them all to the line in the chimney had gotten somewhat tangled, but Kilisha decided it was not worth trying to separate them; the furniture would undoubtedly just tangle them up again.

She hoped none of the furnishings managed to damage each other; that might complicate the restoration spell.

She glanced at the mirror over the mantel, then crossed the room, stepping carefully over the ropes, and asked, "Are you all right?"

I AM AS WELL AS MIGHT BE EXPECTED, it replied.

"Have you remembered what that is cooking in the workshop?"

NO.

"Do you have any idea where the couch might have gone? We have all the other pieces."

NO.

Kilisha wondered whether the mirror might have some link to the other objects that it was not even aware of. "Did you know part of Ithanalin wound up in the spriggan?" she asked.

NOT UNTIL YOU SAID SO YESTERDAY.

Well, that would seem to indicate that no link existed. She turned away and looked at the furniture-and a thought struck her.

"Where is the spriggan?"

She hardly spared a glance for the mirror's I DO NOT KNOW as she dashed for the door.

The front door was, to her relief, still locked-but that did not necessarily mean very much with the latch animated. The spriggan might well have escaped into the street, and the latch could have locked itself afterward.

Kilisha opened the door and leaned out, and saw only the normal morning traffic of Wizard Street; no spriggans were anywhere to be seen. She closed the door again, locked it, then hurried to the workshop.

The spriggan was nowhere in sight-but there were dozens of nooks and crannies among the shelves and drawers and clutter where it might have hidden. She peered into the most obvious openings without locating the creature.

Then she heard a thump overhead, and a faint sound that might have been a child's giggle-or a spriggan. She turned and ran for the kitchen stairs.

The dim drawing room at the top of the stair was empty, but she heard thumping and laughter from the front of the house; she hurried into the sunlit day nursery and found Telleth and Lirrin chasing a spriggan back and forth across the toy-crowded Sardironese carpet.

"Stop!" she shouted.

Telleth and Lirrin skidded to a stop and turned to look at her; the spriggan kept running and giggling, bounced off the far wall, then glanced over its shoulder and realized its pursuers were no longer pursuing. It stopped, too.

"Chase?" it said.

Kilisha glared at it.

It was the right spriggan, anyway-the face and voice were familiar. She had been worried for a moment.

"Is something wrong?" Telleth asked.

Kilisha started an angry reply, then stopped.

Really, was anything wrong? So the spriggan had come upstairs to play with the children; where was the harm in that? If anything, it would keep the little pest out of her way.

And Ithanalin had played with his children sometimes; he hadn't been as aloof as Kilisha's own father. The bit of his spirit trapped in the spriggan was probably enjoying this foolishness.

"No, I suppose there isn't anything wrong," she said. "I'm just worried about your father-it's got me nervous that we haven't found the couch yet, and that we still don't… well, I'm nervous." She looked at the children's faces-Lirrin was openly worried, while Telleth was clearly trying to hide his own concern and look grave and mature. "It'll be fine. You go ahead with your game. In fact, if you can keep an eye on this spriggan, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure!" Telleth said, managing a smile.

"Chase?" the spriggan said.

"I don't think I want to play anymore," Lirrin said; Kilisha saw the girl's face, and regretted mentioning Ithanalin's condition.

"We have fun!" the spriggan insisted. It ran up and tugged on the hem of Lirrin's tunic. She batted it away.

The spriggan danced around her hand and tugged at the tunic again.

"Stop that," Lirrin said angrily. Telleth quickly tried to grab the spriggan away from his sister, but it dodged. He ran after it.

The spriggan doubled back and ducked between Lirrin's legs.

"Hai!" the girl shouted; then she, too, grabbed for the creature. A moment later they were chasing the spriggan back and forth across the room again, just as they had been when Kilisha came in. The apprentice smiled, then slipped quietly back out of the room and down the stairs.

Once she was back in the workshop, though, she stopped. What was she supposed to do here? She had no jewelweed, so she couldn't practice the Restorative, and she couldn't think of any other useful magic to do, given that her potions were all prepared and Yara had forbidden any further love spells. Yara had also ordered her to stay in the house, so she couldn't levitate again to see whether the morning light might give a better view than had late afternoon.