Thirteen Orphans

by Jane Lindskold

  Nissa and Riprap asked a lot of questions, but other than gathering that practitioners of any functional magical tradition were pretty rare, Brenda didn’t dwell on too many of the details. It was enough to know that as long as they didn’t do anything too outrageous, they’d be left to go about their business.

  It also gave yet another reason why the Snake and the Dragon had been as subtle as they had been. Des figured they knew about the “Don’t get caught” rule.

  But none of this, fascinating as it was, intellectually, changed how Brenda felt, was starting to feel, no, felt about Foster. She loved him, and she thought he might be coming to care about her, too.

  And so she was very vulnerable when near the end of June the Snake made her move.

  Brenda and Foster had driven to a park that was nowhere in particular, one of those urban open spaces with paths enough for walking. They’d discovered this one completely by accident when running an errand for Des. The car’s front tire had gone flat, and they’d pulled into the park’s small lot to fix it.

  It had seemed a pleasant place, with oversized flowerpots spilling multicolored petunias down their sides, and winding paths that went nowhere in particular. There was a children’s play area, and a neatly mowed field just perfect for throwing something for a dog to chase. On weekends the park was pretty busy, but midday in the middle of the week, even in summer, it was usually fairly empty.

  Brenda and Foster were sitting on a couple of swings, resting after a fierce competition as to who could get higher—a competition that had been decided as a draw when the chains from which the seats were suspended had started bucking in protest at the demands being put on them.

  Brenda was about to suggest that they go across the street to a little strip mall where there was an ice cream shop that made—so she’d discovered on an earlier visit—really good milkshakes. She was trying to figure out whether she had enough pocket money to cover them both, or if she should hit an ATM first, when she saw the Snake sauntering across the mowed field in their direction.

  The Snake wasn’t dressed at all like the last time Brenda had seen her. Her long, midnight-black hair was loose, spilling in a silken cascade over her shoulders, down past the middle of her back. Gone were the ornate robes, gone the embroidery. Instead, the Snake wore a pair of very low-waisted, very short shorts, and a middie top that displayed the up-thrusting curves of her breasts and the indented curve of her waist to equal advantage. The only emblems of her identity were a snake tattooed around her belly button, and another one tattooed around her right ankle. Neither ornament was large, but the sinuous outline was so exquisitely worked that Brenda had no doubt what the lines depicted, even from a distance.

  Brenda had dressed with some care for her outing with Foster, figuring that even if he did sometimes glimpse her frumping around Pearl’s house in her bathrobe or in the less than elegant T-shirt and jeans she wore to spare her better clothes from ink stains when practicing calligraphy, it didn’t hurt to remind him she was a girl. The tank top she’d picked out was in a ribbed knit that showed off what breasts she had to good advantage. Her shorts were a practical khaki, but the tank top was a shade of lavender that made the golden-brown of her skin glow. Brenda had put on lavender jade teardrop earrings, and even a touch of perfume—in addition to, of course, a selection of amulet bracelets.

  Compared with the elegant sensuality coming across the lawn, Brenda felt gawky. It didn’t help that Foster’s attention immediately shifted to the newcomer, or that he kept staring. Brenda glanced over at him. Puzzlement had drawn a line between his brows, as if some memory had been touched. Somehow, the thought that memories of the Snake could penetrate where nothing else had managed to do so hurt Brenda even more.

  The only good thing Brenda could see was that the Snake’s outfit was so skimpy there was no way she could even hide a slip of paper in it. Then the Snake moved her right hand, and Brenda saw what looked like an envelope concealed in the curve of her palm.

  Quick as thought, Brenda slipped one of the amulet bracelets off her wrist and held it ready in her hand. It contained an expanded version of the Dragon’s Tail spell, worked so that it would shield both her and Foster—as long as he stayed within a few paces of her, something Brenda was not at all certain he was going to do.

  Foster had risen to his feet, and was studying the Snake with such intensity that he didn’t seem to notice the swing seat gently tapping the back of his legs. Brenda also rose, wondering if anyone at Pearl’s was alert to the changed situation. She hoped so—or did she? Might it be better to know what the Snake wanted before the cavalry arrived?

  The Snake practically caressed Foster with her gaze. “Hello, Fei Chao. Do you remember me?”

  Brenda’s ears heard the Chinese, but her magically augmented vocabulary provided an automatic translation: Flying Claw. Was that Foster’s real name?

  Foster looked confused. “I … I almost think I do. Are you a movie star? Did I perhaps see you on the television?”

  Brenda saw a mixture of pleasure and disappointment flicker across the Snake’s face. No wonder. Even if Foster hadn’t known her right off, he’d still thought she was a movie star.

  “Foster,” the Snake said softly. “That’s what they call you, right? Foster. I want to talk to Brenda for a moment. Girl talk. Can you step back?”

  Foster glanced at Brenda. Brenda shifted the bracelet in her hand. If Foster moved too far, she couldn’t protect him, but hearing what the Snake didn’t want him to hear might endanger them both.

  Brenda nodded. “Go ahead. We won’t be long.”

  Foster moved a few paces away, where he would be out of earshot, but not, Brenda noticed, so far that he had to abandon his intense scrutiny of the Snake.

  The Snake’s gaze took a moment to shift back to Brenda, then the Snake said, “You’re right. We won’t be long. I know you probably sent some sort of alarm to your allies when you realized who I was. Despite this, I have made certain that we should have time enough for me to tell you something—to make you an offer. An offer between you and me, me and you.”

  “An offer I can’t refuse?” Brenda said caustically. “Go on.”

  “The Chinese are great bargainers,” the Snake said, “as you would know, if you were something other than a mongrel. Here is my offer, very plain and simple. An offer from me, to you. I want Foster and I want the crystal that holds his memory. I could take his body here and now, but without his memory, he might be of some use …”

  Her smile was slow and lascivious. She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips while Brenda burned with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

  “But,” the Snake went on, meeting Brenda’s gaze and holding it so that nothing in the universe seemed to exist but the two of them, “Flying Claw would not be himself, and I want him all—mind and body. If you bring both Foster and his memory to me, then in return I will give you the crystal holding your father’s memory. I will also give you an amulet holding the spell that would permit you to free Gaheris’s memory and return it to him.”

  Brenda felt her jaw drop. She’d expected a fight. She’d expected threats. She’d never expected this. Her head felt light, and clear thought was difficult, but she managed to ask a coherent question.

  “Your father refused to trade the crystals to Pearl to gain your safety. Why should he let you do this now?”

  “This is not a bargain between your Tiger and my Dragon. You are not talking to my father. You are talking to the Snake.” There was bitterness in Honey Dream’s voice. “This is between me and you, you and me, remember? Perhaps I want Flying Claw more than my father wanted me.”

  Brenda remembered the Dragon’s cool voice saying, “There can be other Snakes,” and understood that bitterness. She also noticed something interesting. The Snake was assuming that Brenda would not talk to the others about this. Perhaps her anger at her father blinded her to Brenda’s different position. Considering this, Brenda pressed for details, wondering if her
allies would show up, despite the Snake’s precautions.

  “How do I know you wouldn’t trick me? Give me a false Rat crystal or an incomplete spell?”

  “How do I know you wouldn’t trick me?” the Snake countered. Her gaze had fixed on Brenda with such intensity that Brenda felt her head swim. “How do I know if you love your father enough to want him whole again? Perhaps you like him this way more. You and I would need to trust each other.”

  “I would need time,” Brenda said. “Pearl keeps Foster’s memory locked up in her keeping. I don’t even know where, except that it’s probably in either her bedroom or her office.”

  “Time.” The Snake shrugged one shoulder. “Perhaps you have plenty. Perhaps not. My father is not precisely confiding these days. However, he will not be dissuaded from his goal for long.”

  “And that is?”

  “He wants a set of twelve memories,” the Snake hissed. “And once he has them, I can use them to find where Flying Claw’s memory is hidden. This Pearl’s memory would be at my disposal. But I would prefer not to wait.”

  Because she’s not sure her father will let her rescue Foster, Brenda thought. Once Righteous Drum has what he wants, he may just drag her off home.

  “I’ll think about it,” Brenda said.

  “Don’t think too long,” the Snake said. “When you have the crystal, put something red in your hair when you next walk out with Foster. I will then make arrangements for when and where you should meet me. And don’t think you can trick me. This is between me and you, you and me. I’ll be able to tell if you have the crystal.”

  Brenda didn’t know if the other woman was bluffing, but she nodded, trying to look appropriately intimidated. That last wasn’t hard—she was intimidated.

  The Snake had been talking very fast, so the exchange had taken only a few minutes.

  “Think about it,” the Snake said, “but like I said, don’t think too long.”

  She turned and waved to Foster. “Bye-bye, Flying Claw. I’ll see you again, soon … .”

  Foster hurried over, but the Snake was already retreating, her undulating walk slow, but somehow covering a great deal of distance. Brenda suspected magic was involved.

  “Wait!” Foster called after the Snake. “Why do you call me that name? Who are you? Do I know you?”

  But the Snake neither turned nor looked back.

  Brenda saw the hope on Foster’s face fade, his expression changing to one of hurt and frustration.

  “Who was she?” he asked no one in particular, but Brenda decided to answer.

  “Just a snake in the grass … a real snake in the grass.”

  When they got back to Pearl’s house, Brenda asked a few questions, and managed to ascertain without giving anything away that no one knew anything about her encounter with the Snake.

  Pearl was at a committee meeting, so she’d been out of the loop, but Des, who had been at the house, seemed unaware that anything had happened. He was wearing the amulet bracelet that should have alerted him, so Brenda was forced to assume that the Snake had been successful in temporarily blocking the snooping spells. It shouldn’t have been too hard. It wasn’t like whoever was on watch sat and stared at a TV screen, watching whatever Brenda and Foster were doing. Their small group was stretched too thin to manage that kind of surveillance, especially when Brenda and Foster’s outings lasted for hours at a time.

  Spell jamming made sense in a weird way, but when Brenda found herself thinking how ugly things could have gotten if the Snake had wanted to do more than talk and no backup had shown, she got cold inside. Then again, maybe if the Snake had tried to do anything other than talk, that would have broken through whatever jamming device—might as well think of it that way—the Snake had set up. The lack of backup was worrisome, but not nearly as worrisome as the decisions Brenda needed to make.

  On the drive back to Pearl’s house, Brenda had convinced Foster not to mention the Snake to the others. It hadn’t been hard. Foster was smart, and he was all too aware that his freedom to leave Pearl’s house was based on his behaving in a trustworthy fashion.

  If the three adults who were at home noticed that both Foster and Brenda were distracted and a bit tense when they came in, and that the pair avoided each other afterward no one commented.

  Brenda wondered if they put it down to a lover’s spat. That thought annoyed Brenda almost as much as the Snake had. It was bad enough that her friends thought she and Foster were closer than they were without having to deal with their quiet sniggering.

  Damn it! she thought. Foster hasn’t even really held my hand, and he certainly hasn’t kissed me. I’m not sure he even likes me as much as I’d hoped. I mean, the way he looked at the Snake …

  Brenda shook herself. A man who wouldn’t look at the Snake was probably either dead or neuter, and neither interested her in the least. She’d just need to do her best to prove to Foster that she was worth looking at … .

  Looking, she thought. Looking isn’t what I want, but how do I know that this man I think I love is really the man I think he is? How do I know that he wouldn’t be happier if I just let him go? And even if I decide to let him go, will the others agree?

  When the knock came on her office door, Pearl wasn’t at all surprised. According to Des, Brenda had been tense and miserable since her return from the park earlier that afternoon. Now here was Brenda, looking like someone who had made a difficult decision.

  “Pearl, can I talk with you, privately?”

  “Sit,” Pearl said, coming from around her desk and motioning toward the more comfortable sitting area. “I just brewed tea. May I pour you some?”

  “No thanks. I got myself some lemonade before coming in.”

  Brenda set the glass on a table next to the chair Pearl had indicated. As they settled themselves, Amala and Bonaventure appeared, each cat claiming a lap.

  “They must know we’re going to have a long talk,” Pearl said, encouraging confidences with her tone.

  Brenda ran a hand down Amala’s spine. “Pearl, the Snake came to the park today.”

  Quickly, and with a conciseness that told Pearl the girl must have been rehearsing what she was going to say for hours, Brenda gave an account of the Snake’s visit.

  “Foster’s memory in exchange for Gaheris’s,” Pearl said. “Interesting. Are you willing to try it?”

  Brenda looked sad. “I don’t see that I have a choice. My dad is being used. He has been given a sort of lobotomy. And Foster … He was just starting to get used to this weird new life of his, but seeing the Snake tore him up.”

  “Did he recognize her?”

  “No. But she knew him—or acted like she did. Hell! I know she recognized him, and he knew she did, too. It made him miserable, knowing she knew all those things he wants to know but can’t remember.”

  Pearl saw the anguish in Brenda’s eyes and deliberately shifted the discussion to practicalities. “If she trades Gaheris’s memory to you, the Snake would be risking her father’s anger. Or do you think she was only pretending to be working behind his back—that she has her father’s approval after all?”

  “I think the Snake’s working on her own,” Brenda said, “just like she assumed I would be doing. She kept saying the deal was between just the two of us. I’m guessing that whatever spell she worked that kept Des from knowing what was going on would also have kept her father from snooping. I’ve tried to work out what the Snake is planning. My guess is that she has some idea that when she has Foster back, she can recapture both the crystal with my dad’s memory and the spell amulet. Then she would have gotten what she wanted without losing anything.”

  “Do you think she could pull it off?”

  Brenda nodded, showing a lack of conceit that Pearl found endearing.

  “Of course she could, Auntie Pearl. I’m a trainee. She’s the Snake. Foster is their Tiger. My guess is that the Snake expects me to act pretty much in the same way she is—to behave like some idiot out of a girls’ a
dventure novel, swipe the crystal containing Foster’s memory from you, come out in the middle of the night, whatever. We’d rendezvous by midnight or some time where the Snake would have the edge. Once she had broken the spell on Foster, they’d both go for me and I’d need to surrender Dad’s memory again—and maybe more.”

  “You sound very certain,” Pearl said mildly.

  Brenda tugged at the tip of one of Amala’s ears. The cat twitched her tail in annoyance, and Brenda gave a sheepish grin.

  “Maybe I’m so sure because I came pretty close to doing just that. I figured I could learn where you and Des have the crystal, and come up with some clever plan to get it. Then I realized how stupid I was being. If you have wards up against magic being used here without your permission, you must have the crystal protected. And how would I explain afterwards, when Dad’s memory was suddenly intact and Foster was gone?”

  “So you came to me instead—even though this was a deal between the two of you.”

  “The Snake said that, not me. Pearl, I don’t want to give Foster up, but how could I leave Dad the way he is? He’s like a caricature of himself—and he’s vulnerable to their manipulations as well. We know that. And besides …”

  Suddenly Brenda looked much older than her years.

  “How can I talk about giving Foster up when I don’t really have him? Nissa’s been trying to get me to face reality, but I haven’t wanted to listen. Today, though, today that Snake called him Flying Claw. She knows his name. She probably knows his mother’s name. His father’s name. If he has brothers and sisters. What his favorite food is. The more I thought about it, all that seemed a lot more intimate than if they’re lovers or engaged or anything. She knows his past. All I know is a really handsome, kind, in-over-his-head guy who might not even think of me any more affectionately than he does Nissa—or Lani!”

  Pearl was fairly certain that Foster felt differently about Brenda than he did about the other women in the household, but what good would come from her saying so? Brenda had made the decision to give up her lovely illusion. That was what she needed to do, what Pearl had been hoping she would do. Why then did Pearl feel so sad?