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P. 44
They sat in her husband's study, a room reminded herself that he had always been
of strong sunlight and deep shadows that gentle and generous to her before his
reminded her of the wishwriter as he once sickness, and he had given her a good life.
had been. From a hook by the window hung Eventually the day came when the
a fairy in a brass cage, the last of those with wishwriter could not even rise from his bed,
which her husband had been paid when he and his wife knew that his time must be
was still well enough to work. near. Then she sat by her husband's side
The alchemist gestured to it. "A wish and waited for Death to come and claim
might save him." him. As the wishwriter breathed his last
The wife looked longingly at the fairy breaths, his face eased and his wife thought
and her eyes filled with tears. She shook she glimpsed something of the man he once
her head. had been. She grieved for that man, and
"Ah, of course. You have had your one grieved that he had been gone from her for
true wish already," he guessed. so long. And she grieved that he had bound
She whispered, "No." her to him, had not given her a free heart
A small frown creased the alchemist's when he wished her into being and set
brow. "A cure for your husband is not himself the task of earning her love.
among your heart's desires?" Quietly, without fuss, Death stole into
No, the wife answered, in the deepest the room, and the wishwriter breathed no
part of her heart. She drew an unsteady more.
breath and looked at the alchemist directly. His wife felt relief then, even as she
"A wish cannot make more wishes," she told wept, that at last his madness and her
him. misery were at an end.
He stared at her. A look of Her tears did not last long. A calm
comprehension crossed his features, and settled over her. She looked inside herself
with it a touch of compassion. He reached and found her heart free and unbound. She
out, his fingertips making fleeting contact breathed in, deeply. Then out. Motes of
with the back of her hand. sparkling dust rode on her breath, only a
"It will be done soon," the alchemist few at first, thickening to a cloud as the
said. "He will not last much longer." long sigh went on. As the cloud grew
She smiled at him through her tears, brighter and more dense, so she dimmed
and gave him the fairy for payment, though and faded.
it was worth far more than his fee. Even in When only the cloud remained, it
those days, they were becoming rare. swirled about the room until it found the
The wishwriter's health continued to open window. Out it went, riding the breeze.
decline. His wild moods diminished and he The motes scattering, unfettered at last,
became increasingly idle and withdrawn. and quickly to fade.
His wife continued to care for him as he lost
the ability to meet even his own most basic Taken from
needs. Still she loved him just as he was-- http://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/high-
she could do nothing else--and she fantasy/ian-mchugh/the-wishwriters-wife
40 | Extensive Listening & Reading
