"This is ridiculous," Perda thought as she dunked a dirty dinner plate into a basin of soapy water.
She shuffled over to the kitchen door. Her legs were still shackled together. Zira had released her hands after they'd zapped to her house an hour or two earlier.
Zira was in the courtyard garden. Just as Perda looked out, Zira snapped her fingers and created a tall, golden fence around the bushes with purple berries that Perda had noticed before.
Those bushes were almost the only thing about Zira's house that hadn't changed since Perda had first seen it. Thanks to Zira's magic abilities, the house was now the largest and grandest in the village.
"What do you want?" Zira asked, frowning when she noticed Perda in the doorway. "I told you to wash the dishes."
"Yes, you did. But as I keep telling you, it would be much faster and easier with magic," Perda said.
Zira shrugged. "Too bad. As I keep telling you, you're forbidden from using magic. If you ever want me to remove those shackles from your legs, you'll remember that. Now get back to your chores. I expect you to be finished with the dishes by the time I return from the village green." She rolled her eyes. "Vilkor wishes to bestow more magical favors on the townspeople this evening. I should be there to supervise."
Perda was interested to hear that Zira was leaving. "All right," she said, trying to sound humble. "I'll get back to work."
She shuffled back inside. Zira followed, pausing to watch as Perda picked up another dirty dish.
"I'll be back in an hour," Zira said. Then she snapped her fingers and zapped out of sight.
Perda set down the dish. With her hands free, it was easy to create friction. She quickly cleaned the rest of the dishes with magic.
"Zira will be gone for an hour," she thought, looking around. "That means I have an hour to look around this place. Maybe Zira left some clues about what she has planned for Terrica. Or maybe I can figure out where she sent my friends."
For a second Perda was tempted to zap away to try to find Zann and Mellis on her own. But she realized that her shackled legs would slow her down too much. Besides, someone might see her and tell Zira.
"First, I'll figure out what's going on," she murmured as she shuffled into the next room. "Then I'll figure out how to rescue my friends."
By the next day, Perda hadn't figured out either of those things. She'd searched as much as she could while Zira was away. But she hadn't found any clues. Then Zira had returned and forced her to sweep the whole house. By the time she finished, Perda was exhausted. Doing chores without magic was hard!
To make things worse, Zira had woken her up early to do more hard work. At the moment Perda was busy dusting all the fancy statues, furniture, and knickknacks Zira had created to decorate her enormous reception room.
There was a knock on the door. It was Vilkor.
"Oh, hello, young lady," he greeted Perda. He peered around, wringing his hands. "Is my niece here with you? I haven't seen her since she was dragged off by those large fellows yesterday."
Perda was surprised to see that he actually looked worried. "I haven't seen her, either," she said. "You'll have to ask Zira."
Zira entered the room. "Ask me what?"
Vilkor repeated his question about Mellis. "She's quite useful around the house," he added, glancing into the next room. "She could keep this place spotless for you."
"Your niece isn't here," Zira said. "She's making herself useful at a friend's plonk farm outside of town." As she spoke, she snapped her fingers. A large fireball appeared, hovering above her hand. She played with it as if it were a ball spinning on her finger. "Why do you ask? Do you have a problem with my assignment of duties?"
Vilkor gulped, his gaze trained on the fireball. "No, of course not. Mellis always was fond of animals . . ."
Perda rolled her eyes. She could tell that Vilkor was intimidated by Zira's display of magical power.
"That's how she's keeping him and everyone else in line," Perda thought. "But I'm not afraid of her. And now I know where Mellis is!"
"Say," Vilkor said, still watching the spinning fireball. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
Zira noticed that Perda had stopped dusting to listen. "Back to work, girl!" she said. "And put some effort into it. This room is still a mess!"
Perda stared at her defiantly. Then she rubbed her hands together and magically removed everything from the room. The dust and dirt were gone, along with the furniture and everything else.
"Clean enough for you now?" Perda asked with a smirk.
Zira gnashed her teeth. "How dare you! Shackle!"
Tight shackles appeared around Perda's wrists.
Vilkor bit his lip. "Oh, dear."
Zira pointed. "To your room, girl," she snarled. "I'll decide your punishment later."
Pretending to be scared, Perda slunk off toward her sleeping chamber. Unlike the rest of the house, it wasn't large or fancy at all. It was barely big enough for a rough mattress on the floor.
Once inside, Perda stood up straight and smiled. Her plan had worked. She wasn't sure how long it would be before Zira decided on her punishment, but she wasn't going to waste a moment.
It wasn't easy to create friction with her wrists so tightly shackled. Plus, it seemed that lots of energy was required to zap out of Zira’s house. So she rubbed her shoulder against the wall and her feet on the floor until she had built up enough energy. Then—zap!