Noah sniffles. We keep moving, hoping no one dangerous is on our trail. First Dar’s escape, now a boy who can render us powerless without a second thought? The world is quickly becoming a far more dangerous place than I ever imagined.
Chapter Nineteen
It’s discouraging that we’ve arrived at nearly every house too late, though our successful rescue of Noah is a bright spot. Both Lucas and Cary are ready to storm Zinnia without more help, but I can’t help feeling uneasy.
It’s too much like walking into a lion’s den.
Especially with Dar out there doing who knows what. For all I know, she’s already been to Zinnia, and my face may be marked as wanted. Though if she was the owl who distracted that boy for us, perhaps not. I don’t know what to make of that yet.
As we walk through the woods the next day, I work with Noah on his talent. He was still up practicing when I took over the watch from Lucas last night. I remember seeing something about talent takers in the history book Alsa gave us, and I look it up. Talent takers are dangerous. They can reverse spells, and with practice and concentration they can remove a talent entirely. While this came in handy in the past for obnoxious talents, like bug bringers or stench summoners, the prospect is terrifying for others.
“I’ll never figure this out,” he says, kicking a stray branch. “Maybe my talent just can’t be controlled.”
“Of course it can. Any talent can be controlled. But it will take more than a couple hours of practice to do it. Just keep trying.” I sigh. “This time why don’t you try visualizing pulling your magic inward, toward your body? That might help.”
“Is that what you do?” he asks.
“Well, no. I do the opposite when I use my magic. I think of my talent as a force that can reach out and pull the shadows toward me. So, if you do the opposite to keep your talent from working when you don’t want it to, that might help.”
Noah gives me a thoughtful, though exasperated look. “All right. I’ll try anything at this point.”
He closes his eyes to concentrate, but quickly opens them again as he stubs his toe. “Ow!”
“Well, maybe don’t close your eyes,” I say.
Noah cracks a smile. “I guess that would be a little safer. Should I test on you?”
“Not yet. Practice pulling it in for a while, then when we stop for lunch, we can test it out.”
While Noah may be frustrated by his lack of progress, he gives it a good try and takes it seriously. All the while, shadows cast by the trees dance over his furrowed brow.
Lucas, though willing to make small talk, has been keeping his distance from Noah. The light is too tempting for him. Even now, Lucas hums and bits of light spark behind his ears and crown his head. When we meet other talented folks, like Doyle, Lucas loves to show off and see how we can use our talents together. But he’s different with Noah.
When we stop to rest, Noah sits next to me, rubbing his arms. “Have you noticed the moon is still out?”
“What?” Cary frowns and peers between the foliage.
The moon, which was unusually bright last night, still hangs over our heads. It’s markedly bigger than before, as though it draws closer in order to rival the sun for control of the sky. The damage Lady Aisling did to the skies is spreading. We’re running out of time.
“The sky shaker,” Lucas whispers.
“It’s part of the fallout of the Cerelia Comet being moved into a new path, and one of the many reasons we need to stop Lady Aisling,” I say. “And soon, before anything gets worse.”
Noah shivers. “It’s creepy. I mean, it’s only the moon, but it just seems wrong for it to be competing with the sun.”
I sneak a glance at Lucas to gauge his reaction. Is he stronger because of this new source of light during the day? Or is it a distraction, the wrongness of it changing his usual lovely daylight? His expression does not betray his thoughts.
“Anyway,” Noah says, “I’ve been trying to hold back my talent, but I don’t know if it’s working.”
I swallow my bite of sandwich given to us by Cheyenne’s parents, then get to my feet. “Let’s find out.”
“Good luck,” Cary says as she and Lucas watch.
I craft a shadow butterfly that wings through the air toward Noah. It’s tangible enough that he should be able to touch it if he wants to. He takes a deep breath, then holds out his hand. The butterfly alights on his thumb. It remains there for a few seconds before disappearing into smoke. The smile that had just been forming on Noah’s lips vanishes.
“I’m sorry, Emmeline, I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Noah, that’s wonderful progress! Don’t be so hard on yourself. One step at a time.”
“Yeah,” Cary says. “Until yesterday, you didn’t even know that you had a talent.”
“It took me years to master my light singing,” Lucas adds, then frowns. “Though I suppose that’s not helpful, is it?”
“You didn’t have other talented people to help you. But Noah does. You’ve managed to hold back your talent for a few seconds. That’s a step in the right direction. Keep practicing. Maybe this time, try to focus on using your talent instead of not using it.”
Noah’s eyes widen. “You want me to try to remove your talent?”
Nerves tie my stomach up in knots, but he needs someone to help him practice. “Yes, but just for a little while. Don’t concentrate too hard, but be intentional with your talent this time.”
Noah nods as I gather the nearest shadows into a cloak. He puts a hand on my shoulder and closes his eyes. At first, I don’t feel anything much as my shadows dissipate, but after a moment, a tingling sensation begins to burn through my shoulder. Panic rises up my throat, and I shrug him off a bit harder than I mean to.
“All right, that’s enough,” I say.
“Did it work?” he asks.
I call my shadows to me—and they don’t respond. Dizziness overtakes me, and I can’t seem to get enough air into my lungs. I sit on a nearby rock, trying desperately not to show the fear roiling inside my chest.
“Yes. Yes, I believe it did,” I manage to choke out. I try to call my shadows a second time—still nothing. My skin turns cold. I remind myself that the effects are temporary. They have to be temporary.
After one excruciating minute, I call my shadows a third time, and to my relief, they respond.
“Oh thank goodness,” Noah says, visibly relieved. “I was afraid I might have done some permanent damage.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Did you feel anything when you were focused on using your talent?”
“I think so. It was almost like I could feel the heat of your magic. And I took away some of that warmth.”
“Just be sure you never take away all that warmth,” Lucas says. “Unless there’s a really good reason.”
“And maybe keep practicing on your own with that for now,” I say, and they laugh.
We spend a little while longer working on his talent before we decide we need to keep moving again. By the end of it, Noah managed to hold his talent back for a full thirty seconds. And we’ve discovered when he touches something made from magic—like my shadow butterfly or a spell—it does away with them completely. But talents themselves are harder to remove. It will take much greater control for him to remove a talent entirely as Alsa’s history book claims talent takers can do. Noah is still discouraged, but I’m hopeful. We’ve made progress. I need to think of a way to help him understand that it’s all right.
But for now, we pack up the remains of our lunch and hurry on our way. The last house on our list is not hard to find, though we soon discover the reason why. Our knock on the cottage in the midst of a large village on the outskirts of Parilla is greeted by a man and a woman. When asked about a child who lives with them, they become puzzled.
“Child?” the woman says, frowning
at her husband. “No, we do not have any children. I’m afraid you must have the wrong house.”
I peek into my bag to check the deed again. There is no mistake; this is the right house.
“Are you certain?” Lucas says. “We had heard that a talented girl or boy lived here.”
The man laughs. “Talented? Certainly not. That would be something though, wouldn’t it?” he says to his wife.
She laughs too. “I am sorry we can’t be of more help, but it’s very late. Why don’t you come in and share our supper? Do you have a place to stay the night?”
The four of us exchange a look. “Not yet,” I admit. Like the other houses, they do not question the fact we’re on our own without parents. That alone hints of Lady Aisling’s hand here.
“Then you must stay here. We may not have children of our own, but we do like having them around,” the woman says. “I’m Martha and this is Michael.”
“It is nice to meet you,” Lucas says. “Thank you for offering to let us stay.”
We follow them inside, but something about them, or maybe the house, troubles me. Martha and Michael lead us into a dining room and offer us seats. There are several chairs at the table, which seems odd if it is usually just the two of them.
“Please sit. We already ate, but we’ll bring you some leftovers and you can eat while we finish tidying up.”
“Thank you, that’s very kind,” I say, and Lucas, Noah, and Cary murmur their thanks as well.
“We’re happy to do it,” Michael says, as he follows his wife from the room.
“We’ll have to knock on other doors tomorrow morning, I guess,” Lucas whispers once they’re out of earshot.
I shake my head. “No, I’m positive this is the right house.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Cary says.
“Something is wrong here,” I say, twisting my hands in my skirts.
“Should we really stay the night?” Lucas asks.
“Definitely,” I say. “We’re too exhausted to find another place to stay this late, and leaving now would make them suspicious of us. Besides, I want the chance to look around after they’ve gone to bed and see if there’s any sign of a talented child.”
Noah shrugs. “They seem all right to me.”
“But why are there so many chairs, if only two people live here?” I ask.
Cary raises an eyebrow, but no one else responds, because Martha returns carrying a plate of roast chicken with vegetables and potatoes. The wonderful smell makes my mouth water.
She leaves the food behind, and we don’t wait to tuck in. It tastes as good as it smells, and soon our bellies are full again.
We gather up our dishes and bring them into the kitchen to find Martha and Michael standing there doing…nothing. Not even their shadows twitch. That is until they see us and suddenly brighten up.
“Oh, thank you for helping clean up, dears,” Martha says. “Michael, will you show them where they can sleep?”
He leads us down a hallway at the back of the kitchen toward the living room. “I was just remarking to my wife how nice it is to have children here. You are welcome to remain as long as you like.” He smiles at us, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes, almost like he’s a marionette and someone else is pulling the strings. My heart trips over itself.
When we reach the living room, Michael sets up several cots while Martha brings some blankets for us.
“Make yourselves at home. If you need anything, we’ll be just down the hall.”
We thank him and regroup on the cots.
“Does it seem odd to you that they set us up here in the living room?” Lucas asks, wrinkling his nose.
“It does,” I say. “This house is big enough that they must have at least two bedrooms.”
Noah shakes his head. “Maybe this really is the only place they have for guests. They didn’t have to invite us to stay, you know.”
“Or maybe they did it to keep an eye on us,” Cary says. Noah rolls his eyes. He is not yet as suspicious as the rest of us. He will be soon enough.
“There has to be a child’s room here. I’m sure of it.” I get to my feet, already calling my shadows. They swirl around me until they conceal me from head to toe. I peek out into the hall.
“Emmeline!” Lucas hisses. But it is too late. I’m already sneaking down the hall counting the doors. Martha and Michael are still awake, making it too risky to investigate the rooms, but the existence of a child’s bedroom would bolster my theory. Two doors lie at the end of the hall, directly across from one another. I am dying to open them, but Martha or Michael moves around in the one on the left. One creaky hinge would give me away. If something is going on here that has to do with Lady Aisling, revealing my talent is the last thing I should risk in this house.
I sigh, giving the doors a last long look, and creep back to the living room where my friends wait. Cary, Noah, and Lucas are wide-eyed when I return and release my shadows. Lucas breathes an audible sigh of relief.
“Emmeline, we need to be more careful,” he says.
“I was careful.” I settle on a cot again. “There are two bedrooms. But I couldn’t go in. Martha or Michael was moving around in one.”
“Why would they put us up in the living room if there’s a perfectly good bedroom available?” Noah asks.
“Now that is an excellent question,” Cary says.
Puzzled and more discouraged than ever, we each take one of the four cots. Lucas and Noah are snoring within minutes, but Cary and I both lay awake for a while.
“Something doesn’t feel right here,” Cary says after a few minutes.
“I know. I feel it too.”
Martha or Michael bustles around the kitchen for a little while longer, before retiring to their bedroom. Cary eventually falls asleep too, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. But for me, the odd sense of being watched that has followed me since the moment we set foot in this place intensifies, making sleep impossible.
A snapping sound sends me shooting bolt upright. I glance around, but all I see are shadows and the sleeping forms of my friends. Then something materializes in the corner of the room. Something I swear wasn’t there before.
It’s gone as quickly as it appeared.
I rub my eyes, wondering if perhaps I’m more tired than I realized, and this is all just a strange hallucination, when I hear that snap again. This time a figure appears directly beside me.
Before I can yelp, the figure puts its hand over my mouth and whispers in my ear, “Please, don’t scream. I didn’t mean to scare you. I have to be extra cautious.”
Wide-eyed, I examine the speaker as the hand slides from my mouth. It’s a girl about my age with long, straight pale hair in a dress that is either a drab gray or dirty white. Freckles splash over the bridge off her nose and onto her cheeks. Her eyes are just as wide and scared as mine.
“Who are you?” I whisper. “Where did you come from?”
She smiles sadly. “My name is Pearl. I live here. I think you might be looking for me, but you need to leave. Right now.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my pulse beginning to race. If this is a dream, I’m starting to think it’s a nightmare.
“Sorry, I overheard you talking about that Lady Aisling woman and seeking out talented folks. I have a talent, like you do. I’m a spot hopper. I can move between two points instantly regardless of the distance between them as long as I’ve seen the destination or I’m with someone who has seen it. This is my home, my parents, but they’ve turned against me. And now they’ve turned against you. Guards are on their way here. You must leave. I’ll meet you under the willow tree at the edge of the village. Hurry.”
Then she disappears with a snap.
I waste no time waking the others. We had planned to wait until morning to leave so that Michael and Martha wouldn�
�t suspect anything, but not anymore. I may not know Pearl yet, but she didn’t act at all like Lady Aisling’s shells, and her words had the ring of truth. We all agree leaving immediately is the safest course.
Under the cover of my shadows we creep to the window and quietly push it open. The house is one level, so the drop to the ground is short. Just as the last of our feet touch the ground a sharp knock raps on the front door, spurring us to flee like the wind. We don’t speak again about Pearl or talents until we’re outside the town and certain we have not been followed.
Chapter Twenty
We pause for a brief rest under the giant willow tree Pearl mentioned at the far edge of the village. Between my shadows and the tree’s long hanging branches, we are well hidden. We have only been there a few minutes when Pearl appears with a snap.
The tension releases from her expression when she sees us. “I’m so glad you got out of there in time. But we shouldn’t stay here long. The guards have already begun to search the village.”
“Thank you for warning us,” Lucas says. We fall into step, covered by my shadows as we enter the forest.
“What happened with your parents?” I ask. “This can’t be the first time those guards have been here.”
Pearl shudders. “No, it isn’t. I don’t quite understand how it all happened, but it began when we had a visitor. My parents have always been strict that I must hide when someone we’re not expecting arrives at our door. We have a designated spot a mile away. Then I can pop back to check that it’s safe when I feel like it.”
My breath catches in my throat. Spot hopping is another fearsome talent. No wonder Lady Aisling wanted it. She could collect her prey in minutes instead of months if she could cut out the need for travel.
“That is extraordinary,” I say. Pearl’s grin is fleeting.
“Your shadow weaving is pretty intriguing too,” she says. “When these visitors came, I did what I always have—fled to the designated spot. But it wasn’t long before I heard people approaching. I popped just outside the area and saw it was the same men who came to the door.” She clasps her hands together. “I didn’t know how they figured out where I was hiding, at least not until I hopped back home.”
Comet Rising Page 10
