“Your turn.” I held the bag out and let him take it, though now I thought perhaps I could see the outline of his arm if not the specifics of his hand and fingers.
The clattering slowed and ceased, and he took a deep breath. “I am better now. Let us continue.”
As I had at Logan, I sent my power outward from the outline — which included the bridge across the gap — thin spiderwebs spreading and cracking the void like ice breaking under weight. This time, rather than allowing my power to diffuse too much, I kept it sticky, drawing itself tighter even as it spread, pulling, tugging, puckering as if to create a scar in the ground.
But a scar would not do. The magic, I was certain, needed to be whole, hale, and healthy.
I drew on Sverth, pulling his magic through me this time, letting the rocks and boulders of power crush downward, and thinning them to form tissue to soften the edges and fill the spaces, to prevent scarification and instead heal as though the gap had never been there. We had to work in steps, one section at a time, filling in the lacunae as best we could, then moving on to the next patch, spiraling around and around and in, building on the work we had done, leaning on each other’s power to do all that was necessary.
More than once, we had to stop to catch our breath. Sverth’s fingers trembled on top of mine, but I didn’t mention it, any more than he mentioned the quaking of my arms as I struggled to keep myself from falling on my face.
There was no time there in the dark, only the repetition of the task, the certainty that it was worth doing, and the knowledge that with enough time, it would be done.
Finally, it was. The bridge I had spun to Vanessa’s anchor was a bright, sharp line of magic across the repair, and the only evidence that anything had existed here that needed repair.
I tugged Sverth’s power and awareness toward the harpoon line I’d originally used. “Is this going to be a problem?”
“I do not know. This has never been done before.” The scraping sound of him pushing himself to his feet came to me, and I realized I couldn’t even see the light smudge of blue any more. The drink’s power had worn off, and then some. “When you can stand, come. We will return.”
Much easier said than done. Every muscle in my body shook, and it took me three tries to get to my feet. I couldn’t sense either the gaping space that had been there before or walls around us. Shaking my head to try to get myself to focus, I asked, “Are we in the magic now? Or in the ground?”
“Yes. For us, they are the same, and when you travel with one of us, that is where you are.” His voice started moving, and I stumbled after him, barely keeping to my feet. “Try not to get yourself lost in the magic.”
“That would be easier to do if I could see where I’m going,” I muttered, but I followed him, one hand reaching out to catch one of the walls if I fell.
On the way back, I was exhausted beyond belief, more even than when I’d faced Clay or when the dark muse had sabotaged my ward and stolen my energy. Hard to believe that I’d begun this trip with magic overflowing, above and beyond my usual. Sverth stopped me twice to give me another sip from his bota bag, but I still stumbled into the walls several times.
I was going to be a complete wreck by the time we got back to Boston. I hoped I would have time to change before I had to be at work. Sure, I could invoke boss’s privilege and be late, but I didn’t want the trolls to interfere with my work every time they showed up. I might start resenting them. That wouldn’t end well, I was certain.
Stopping to catch my breath again, I leaned against the wall next to me and squinted at the dark. The flickers and flares of light weren’t as obvious now as they had been on in the way to Canada, presumably an artifact of my magic being tapped out. The troll’s drink couldn’t boost my magic if it had nothing to work with, but the flickers strengthened when I drank, for a short time.
“Tell me, are these tunnels here all the time, or do you create them as we go?”
He hummed for a minute, vibrating the stone beneath my feet. “Do you think we have so much power then, to open a tunnel stretching thousands of miles with an intake of breath? No, we may open and close the spaces between here and the upper world as we need, but our home is always here.”
“Do you have maps, then? If you can travel all the way to Calgary at a moment’s notice, I’m guessing there’s no limit to how far you can go.”
His chuckle vibrated in the air between us. “We do not cross beneath oceans. Everyone has limitations. You do, we do, your patrons do. It is the way of all things.”
He hadn’t answered my question about the maps. Deliberate avoidance? I wasn’t sure.
Being limited to the continent made sense, I supposed. Hsien had told me once that the trolls, and others, came over with immigrants from other countries. Or some perhaps as immigrants. I could well see Hsien on a boat with other Chinese. If the trolls could go anywhere, though, they would always have been here, always have been everywhere. But their magic was tied to rock, not water, so the oceans bounded their influence. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me — there was bedrock beneath the oceans — but I believed what Sverth said about their limitations.
Recovered, I pushed myself upright and took a deep breath. I wanted to get home. Another time, I could worry about a map, an opening, more of the drink so I might have a glimmer of direction. For today, I was done.
“Can you drop me off at the Chinatown T instead of the Symphony T? I still have to get to work today.”
“If that is your wish. Or I can take you to your work, as I did last time, or to your home.”
I would like to go home and change before going to work, but my gut rebelled at the thought of having the troll on the street where I lived, or in the alley behind the apartment. They might be expanding their role in my life — a role they hadn’t even had six months ago, when I didn’t know that trolls were real, much less living in Boston — but that was no reason they should envelop my life, take it over so completely.
“The Chinatown T will be fine. That’ll give me some time to think while I walk home.”
His rumble was half chuckle, half worry. “If something happens to you between the T stop and your home, Iárn will blame me.”
“No. He won’t, because if he thought I was not capable of taking care of myself, he wouldn’t have me wandering around in the dark.” I reached in the direction of Sverth’s voice to pat him on the arm. I hit his shoulder instead, and my knuckle cracked. I sucked in my breath, knowing I’d shown exactly how vulnerable I was down here, but still not willing to have Sverth take me home. “I’ll be fine.”
“You have an odd definition of fine, even for a human. Best to take what is left of the trollmiod.” But he let the matter drop. “You know there are other holes, other places we still must go.”
Exhaustion forced honesty. “If you want me to do something that size again, you’d better give me a couple weeks’ warning. I’ve got nothing right now.”
“It will not be that big. And you will have some time. I wanted you to know, though, that it is not over.”
“I know. It never is.”
I only worked six hours, but I didn’t take a break. I wanted to be able to go meet Carlos with a clear conscience. It wasn’t worth walking to the Chinatown T stop from work and catching the T to Downtown Crossing. Simpler just to walk to Downtown Crossing to begin with. I left earlier than I needed, knowing that both the sidewalks and the T would be jammed with commuters. Even with all of the people around me, though, the bite in the air was sharper than it had been. Snow by Monday for certain. I glanced up at the sky and caught a glimpse of reassuring winter blue. Yes, Monday, not tonight.
At the corner of Summer and Washington, I ducked through the glass doors and headed downstairs with the rest of the crowd, though I stepped out of the way to stand next to the system map rather than moving toward the trains. I felt the solidity of trolls nearby and glanced around for familiar shaggy heads. A couple ducked into a train tunnel, unworried
about traffic on the tracks, but I didn’t see — or feel — anyone I knew.
I leaned against the wall to wait for Carlos, wondering whether I could, like Iárn, lean into the wall, overlap with it as though it were not there. But no, regardless of how much time I had spent with the trolls, I did not have their magic. A hint of gold sparkled on the wall but vanished, perhaps my overeager imagination, wanting to believe that the trollmiod had stayed with me. Still, I wondered how much of what I saw around me was open to the magic bedrock, carved there by the trolls.
Maybe if Charlie had been real, the trolls could have rescued him. Although only if he could see them, which was doubtful.
“Pepper!” Carlos waved to me from near the turnstiles, and I pushed off the wall to meet him. “We’ll hit Primark first since it’s right upstairs. Then maybe Macy’s.” He looked down at my feet. “And you are getting some new footwear.”
I frowned. My work shoes were in good repair, polished, and resoled this summer. They didn’t need anything. “I thought we were looking for something for Lashonda.”
He grinned. “Sure, but we might as well have fun while we’re at it.”
As we walked up the stairs, he told me about setting up an aquarium fit for an octopus in his apartment, and how it was now stocked solely with anemone, coral, and plants. “I couldn’t bear to keep anything in there that would recognize the boundaries.”
I murmured in sympathy. I wasn’t convinced most fish would recognize the difference between a tank and a river or ocean, but the thought of things being caged and bound clearly bothered him. Was that related to the ghost taking over his body, and him being trapped inside it? I was afraid to ask, and instead returned my attention to our surroundings.
No question that Downtown Crossing was one of the prettier places to come out of the T. Between the redbrick street, the stone-clad columns, and the filigreed metal overhang, it was a welcoming place. That didn’t mean I wanted to stand outside in the cold any longer than I had to, though.
I held the door open for him at Primark, doing my best to ignore the broad glass windows that made the store into its own aquarium, or perhaps terrarium, with the lights inside leaving shoppers on display to passersby — not something I would point out to Carlos. We stopped just inside, looking over the store.
About the only time Primark might be empty was when they opened, first thing in the morning. Now? A mix of people heading home from work, tourists waiting on their dinner reservations, and late night shift workers for whom this was early morning — looking at everything from heavy scarves and winter jackets to dresses, pants, and tops to shoes and boots. Not crowded, but comfortable.
“Where do you want to start?”
“I saw a maroon cowl-neck sweater in the window the other day. I want to see if they have that in her size.”
Obediently, I followed him around the racks of clothing to a table laden with sweaters ranging from white to black and a rainbow of hues between. The maroon was striking, but my eye was drawn to a bright blue with cables around the rim of the cowl and the hem.
“She’d look amazing in this.”
“Damn! She would. But…”
When he didn’t go on, I nudged him. “Yes?”
“That blue? Electric blue — she won’t wear it any more. Reminds her of an ex who loved her in it. I told her she shouldn’t lose part of her just ‘cause she lost him, but she just shakes her head. You can see if you get a different answer.”
“No, it’s okay. Get the maroon. I’ll just browse while you pay for that.”
“All right, but don’t forget I’m dragging you over to the shoes next.”
One of the clerks must have passed through to straighten the racks recently; all the hangers were properly grouped by size, and where possible, by color as well. I idly flipped through the clothes, thinking it might be nice to have something new to wear for my trip to the Cape with Haris. Maybe a nice cashmere that would encourage Haris to cuddle me close?
The fluorescent lights overhead flared, and I looked up guiltily, then refocused on the rack in front of me. A glint of green caught my eye — the shade of the green sparkles, although my unknown friend didn’t appear to be present. I pushed the hangers apart to get a better look. The exposed sweater dress was cream colored with emerald green metallic threads in stripes running vertically from the yoke downward in varying lengths, anchored at each end with handmade beads. I grabbed it and headed to stand behind Carlos at the counter.
He took one look at what I was carrying and gave a low whistle. “You’re going to be her new best friend.”
“I doubt that. You two have been friends too long for that to be an issue.” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t even know it was her birthday if you hadn’t said something. Which means now you have to tell me when yours is.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you when it’s closer. We’ll see.” He turned to face the cashier, so I couldn’t tell if he was serious.
The light that had flared was still flickering, so I reached out to nudge it with my magic. As I did, I felt an echo of hollowness below the store, reminiscent of the hole Sverth and I had fixed together. I pulsed my magic toward it, my magic sonar looking for the extent of the problem. The gap was small, a crack no wider than a thought, maybe the very beginning of a hole. Evidently even pulling the ghost out of Carlos nearby had affected the troll’s bedrock. Or maybe just the ghost’s presence? In either case, it was my job to fix it. My magic poured in, filling it, sealing it more solid than the rock around it. No need this time for hooks and loops, merely glue in the gap. Good thing I’d had time and tea at work to recover from this morning’s outing, though.
“Pepper?” Carlos waved his hand in front of my face.
“Hmm?”
“You were a million miles away. Your turn.”
I laid the dress on the counter with an apologetic smile for the cashier. After I’d paid, I turned back to Carlos. “You said something about shoes.”
“Yes, I did, and while you’re trying them on you can tell me what you were thinking about so hard.”
“Nothing interesting. Work stuff, schedules, you know.” I didn’t want to lie to him — that was a lousy thing to do to a friend. He knew about magic; he’d probably take the presence of trolls in stride. But they wanted privacy, and theirs was not my secret to tell. I had the feeling, though, that I would tell him and Lashonda both all about the trolls, soon.
Chapter 15
I was enjoying my second cup of coffee and staring at my closet, trying to decide whether I should change into something less practical for the trip to the Cape, when there was a knock at the door. I frowned. I would have felt Haris coming, so who—? But I knew, could feel the magic tones of my aunts, not as strong as Haris’s presence would be, but familiar from decades of exposure. My aunts, who had never ever visited me, even when I first brought the twins home.
What were they doing here at all, let alone this hour of the morning? And interrupting my getting ready to spend the day with Haris? Only one way to find out.
They stood in front of the door, their faces an odd mix of belligerence and guilt, ready to browbeat me into doing what they wanted, but certain they were crossing a line. That was rather more self-awareness than they usually showed. Behind them stood a man, his skin a lighter brown than Aunt Ti’s but still darker than my olive tones, his dark brown hair shocked upright with too much product. The navy suit and oily smile told me he was some sort of business professional.
“Aunt Ti, Aunt Rena. How unexpected.” Not an unexpected pleasure. I wondered if they noticed that. I did not want to spend time dealing with family pressure when I just wanted to be ready when Haris showed up. “Who’s this?”
I could guess. No doubt someone they wanted to set me up with because they didn’t believe my mother when she told them I’d found someone suitable. Aunt Ti had been quite vocal about me “sneaking around” dating someone without letting the twins meet them first. Because of course she had. Aunt Rena had dog
-piled on because she wanted to be the one to solve my problems.
It ran in the family.
“Pepper, this is Alex Argyros, a real estate broker. Usually, he only deals with buying and selling, but he told me—” “Us.” “Right. He told us that he’s willing to show you some condos that are rental properties as well.”
I gave him a tight smile, doing my best to remain polite. “Sorry my aunts dragged you out under false pretenses. I’ve already found somewhere to move. We’re just working out details on timing and price.”
I had told Anil that I wanted it, after all, even if I’d also said that I wanted to be sure the twins would be happy there. I just hadn’t told them that yet.
Alex didn’t seem to be bothered by my already having somewhere to move. “Looking at other places will only make your offer stronger. If you see what else is out there, you can walk into your negotiations with a backup plan.”
“Why would I need a backup plan? I’ve found somewhere, he’s agreed to rent to me. As I said, we only have details to work out.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Aunt Ti interrupted before he could. “Can we discuss this inside, where we would be more comfortable?”
Tempting to say I didn’t want them to be comfortable. But not only would they bring it up at brunch next weekend, at great length, they would also complain to my parents that they had not raised me right. Since my parents had actually raised me to be both polite and hospitable, I sighed and stepped back, pulling the door open.
“You can come in, but you can’t stay long, and I can’t guarantee how comfortable you’ll be. I don’t have a lot of seating.”
Which they knew. My aunts had been told before this was why I didn’t host family get-togethers. They had probably also heard about the lack of extra seating when my parents had come over for dinner to meet Haris.
“I can recommend good places to fill out your living space, too,” Alex said.
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