A Tangle of Secrets

by R. G. Thomas

  His father poured the eggs into a skillet before asking, “How was he doing after Leopold’s spirit left last night?”

  “He was upset,” Thaddeus replied. “I still couldn’t hear what Leopold was saying to him. And after I comforted him a little while, he thanked me and went inside the house.” He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I’m not really sure what’s going on, and I’d like to ask him more about it.”

  “I know he and Astrid have been going off now and then with Dulindir to look for clues about Fetter,” his mother said. “He might be upset about not having any leads about his brother on top of saying goodbye to Leopold. Teofil’s going through a lot right now.”

  “I know that,” Thaddeus said. “I just wish he’d open up and talk to me about this stuff.”

  “Have you asked him how he’s feeling?” his father asked.

  “Yeah, I have. And he won’t tell me anything.”

  “That doesn’t sound like him,” his father said as he used a wooden spoon to stir the eggs. “Thaddeus, get down the plates, will you?”

  Thaddeus started to get up but stopped as his father said, “Without moving from the table.”

  “Oh.” Thaddeus sat and focused his attention on the cupboard door. He’d touched it so many times since they’d moved in he could practically feel the tiny knob in his hand. The headache thumped the harder he concentrated, and he squinted as he tried to focus around the pain. After a moment the cupboard door swung open and banged against the wall, making them all jump.

  “Sorry,” Thaddeus said.

  “Careful with the plates,” his father said with a smirk. “Those are our best place settings from Target.”

  Concentrating on the plates, Thaddeus lifted three from the short stack and floated them to the table. He carefully lowered the plates to the spot right in front of him and let out his breath.

  “Good,” his mother said. “Now set the table.”

  Thaddeus picked up a plate and held it out to her.

  “Without using your hands,” she said.

  Thaddeus returned the plate to the top of the stack. He looked at the plates and moved the top one to the spot in front of his mother. He moved the second plate to his father’s place setting, and then let out a breath.

  His father carried the skillet over and dished out the scrambled eggs. After placing the skillet in the sink, he sat down and looked at Thaddeus across the table.

  “Silverware?” his father asked with a grin.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  It was easier now for Thaddeus to put the headache to the back of his mind. He used magic to ease the drawer open, and moments later three sets of utensils landed gently on the table, and Thaddeus pushed the drawer closed.

  His father smiled. “Well done. Let’s eat.”

  Afterward Thaddeus washed the dishes—by hand, no invitation for him to use magic for that chore—and then walked across the yard to the gate. Rudyard stood at the top of the slope that led into the pit. With crossed arms, he gave orders to several of his children as they carried stones down into the rooms.

  “Thaddeus, good morning,” Rudyard said. “Are you a groundling no longer?”

  “I’m free,” Thaddeus said. “And it’s grounded, not groundling.”

  “Ah, apologies.”

  Thaddeus stood beside Rudyard and looked down the ramp. What had once been a pit in the yard was now layered with stone. The three doors that opened off the small courtyard were painted different colors: one red, one blue, and one green. Each had been fitted with hinges and a knob made of brass.

  “Wow, everything looks great,” Thaddeus said. “Did you make the doors?”

  “That I did,” Rudyard replied. “Fashioned them from a tree that fell near our home in the woods. Nearly crushed the lot of us, but it managed to fall off to the side.”

  “You say that like you think it fell that way on purpose,” Thaddeus said. “Do you think it changed the way it was falling?”

  Rudyard smiled at him. “There are stranger things than can be seen or heard in the woods, Thaddeus my boy. You should know that by now, what with your trek through the Lost Forest.”

  “I guess I’ve been away from places like that long enough to forget,” Thaddeus said as a sad and lonely feeling came over him.

  “Pay attention to what’s around you,” Rudyard said. “Magic thrives in the smallest of places.”

  “Thanks, Rudyard, I’ll keep that in mind. Hey, is Teofil inside?”

  “No, he’s not. He, Astrid, and Dulindir have gone off on a short trip. They left at sunup and said they would probably be gone a day or two.” Rudyard frowned and called out an order to the children working below.

  Thaddeus didn’t want Rudyard to see how hurt he was by the thought of Teofil and the others going off without him, so he forced a smile he hoped looked more cheerful than it felt. “Oh, I didn’t know they were planning something.”

  “They’ve been whispering among themselves all week. But Miriam set down a firm day for them to be back, and if those youngsters know what’s good for ’em, they’ll show up by then. Excuse me, Thaddeus, I need to get down there and show this lot of gnomes how to properly lay a stone.”

  Thaddeus watched Rudyard grumble to himself as he stomped down the gentle slope. He looked up at the dark windows on the third floor of the house before he turned for the gate. His weekend lay ahead of him like an endless stretch of days with no one to talk to other than his father and mother. And the fact that he had seen Teofil just last night, had comforted him after Leopold’s spirit had departed, and Teofil had not once mentioned the trip doubled the hurt. It felt like every other weekend he’d lived through before they had moved to Superstition. This time, however, it felt much worse because he’d had a taste of love and friendship, and now the absence of those things ached like a wound.

  He’s over you, whispered that mean little voice inside his head. He doesn’t think he needs you anymore.

  “Teofil is busy?” his mother asked from her place at the kitchen table.

  “I guess,” Thaddeus said. “He, Astrid, and Dulindir are off on a trip.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. Guess they didn’t want me to go along. Teofil didn’t say anything about it last night.” He sat down across from her and sighed. “Where’s Dad?”

  “He ran into town for something.” She studied him a moment. “What do you say you and I go into town ourselves and look around? Do some shopping, get some lunch. Just the two of us.”

  “I don’t know,” Thaddeus mumbled. “I don’t really feel like going into town.”

  “All right, scratch that.” She looked over her shoulder before leaning in closer to him and lowering her voice. “How about we work on our magic together?”

  That sounded better to Thaddeus than going into town. He shrugged and then nodded. “Okay, yeah. That would be good.”

  She smiled and got to her feet. “I know the perfect place.”

  “Not the basement?” Thaddeus asked.

  “No. I think we both need to get out of the house, don’t you?”

  “That would be nice.”

  “Wonderful! You go get some hiking shoes on, and we’ll meet right back here in the kitchen.”

  Thaddeus raised his eyebrows. “Hiking shoes? We’re going that far?”

  “Not too far,” she said. “Far enough to get away.”

  “That’s not cryptic at all,” he said, then turned away to hurry up the steps.

  A short time later, his mother left a note for Thaddeus’s father on the table and then led him outside. She headed for the back corner of the privacy fence, and for a moment Thaddeus wondered if she meant to go sit in the new rooms Rudyard and his family had built out of the pit where she’d slept for so many years. But she didn’t round the corner of the fence to head to the gate. Instead she struck out along the narrow footpath at the back of their yard. Thaddeus hesitated at the edge of the woods, thinking back to the last time he’d walked along this pa
th when the Bearagon had pursued him. His mother strode ahead and was soon lost to sight behind trees and bushes, so Thaddeus plucked up his courage and hurried to catch up.

  “Where are we going?” Thaddeus asked.

  “A nice place I know of,” his mother replied. “You’ll like it there. While you’ve been in school and your father’s been looking for work, I’ve been going for walks.”

  “Walks?”

  “Yes, walks. And maybe doing a bit of searching for Lucian myself.”

  “Any luck?”

  “No. But I did find a nice place out here. I think it’s near where the Rhododendrons used to live. The Peony clan as well if I remember correctly.” She turned to look over her shoulder. “That would be Miriam’s family.”

  “She told me about her family when we were in the Lost Forest,” Thaddeus said. “I knew they lived near here, but I’ve never been to their house.” He remembered that Teofil’s family lived underground and corrected himself with, “Well, their home.”

  They fell silent, and Thaddeus looked around the woods as they hiked along the path. Sunlight winked between leaves that were starting to show a bit of color. Birds chirped and darted from branch to branch. Squirrels, chipmunks, and other small animals rustled about in the fallen leaves. Thaddeus felt his mood lighten as he hiked deeper into the woods, and the gloomy voice in his head was silent. Maybe all he’d needed was to get out of the house, get out of his own head for a short time.

  “Is it much farther?” he asked.

  “Not far.” She looked over her shoulder to smile at him. “You’re going to love this place. I promise.”

  Suspicion wriggled into his good mood. They were pretty far out in the woods away from everyone else. What if this wasn’t his mother at all? What if she was Lucian or Azzo Eberhard and they had used a spell to look like his mother? If Isadora could live as Fetter among his own family for all of those years, wouldn’t it be easy for one of them to impersonate his mother whom they didn’t know at all? Any small mistake or slipup could be explained by the fact that she had recently been freed from a dragon curse and wasn’t feeling herself.

  He stopped on the path and let her get a short distance ahead before calling out, “How do I know you’re my mother?”

  She stopped and turned to give him a puzzled look. “What?”

  “Isadora fooled Teofil and his family into believing she was Fetter for years. How do I know you’re really my mother? How can I be sure you’re actually Claire Cane?”

  Her expression became serious, and she took a step toward him, which prompted Thaddeus to retreat a step. She stopped and stood on the path with her hands clasped before her.

  “I have no way to prove to you that I am who I say I am. All I can do is tell you that on the day you were born, I knew my life had changed forever. Your squalling, squished-up red face filled all the cracks in my heart and shored me up. I was married to Lucian at that time but had fallen in love with his brother, your father. Whatever miracle happened between your father and I to conceive you was more than simple biology. It was magic. You were born not only out of love, but out of magic, as well, and I swore on that day I first held you in my arms that I would do anything to protect you.” She wiped away a tear and looked off into the woods, collecting her thoughts. After a short silence, she looked back at him.

  “I’m not proud of the way I handled things back then. I should have left Lucian and married your father outright. But Lucian was…. He wasn’t a man you simply left. And when I learned I was pregnant, I knew it was because of your father and not because of Lucian, but I didn’t want to risk losing another baby, to risk losing you. So I maintained my silence and stayed with Lucian. I deceived him into thinking you were his child, and that was wrong. It was a number of months after you were born when everything came apart.

  “Isadora must have seen your father and me together somewhere, and she couldn’t wait to tell Lucian. When he found out, he became enraged. Angrier than I’d ever seen him before. I feared he would harm you out of spite, so I took you and ran. I hid in the woods for a few days, which worried your father to no end. I saw Miriam, who was picking herbs for her mixtures, and I went to her. Your father and I had been friends with her and Rudyard for years, and she took us to their home. Your father came to us there, and it was so wonderful because we knew we were finally free. The secret was out, and we were able to be together.”

  She paused and shook her head as she wiped away another tear. “But I misjudged Lucian’s anger, and I overlooked how it had affected Isadora as well. It was only days later that they led their forces into the village. I had no idea what to do. I ran with you again, back out into the woods. I didn’t stand and fight at first because I was afraid they would kill you, and if they did that, I would have no reason to live. But when I heard the screams from the village, I knew I couldn’t leave others to face them alone. Not when the attack was my fault. When I came to that realization, I was in a small clearing in the woods where your father and I used to meet in secret. I knew if he were to search for me, that this would be the first place he would look. I placed you in the hollowed-out trunk of a fallen tree near the center of the clearing and returned to the battle.”

  She took a deep, shaky breath. “I met up with Isadora and….” She held up her hands, and flames popped into life around them. “The rest is history.”

  Thaddeus let out his breath as he watched his mother. Despite the history of lies and assumed identities, he felt sure the woman standing before him was truly his mother. A thread of guilt followed the realization, and he spoke as he approached her.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have doubted you. It’s been a weird summer. We’re way out here in the woods, and no one knows where we are. It all made me a little paranoid, I guess.”

  The flames around her hands went out, and she smiled at him. “You have nothing to apologize for, Thaddeus. I understand, and I’m glad you’re asking questions and making people prove themselves before you trust them. I only brought you this far into the woods because I found a special place and wanted to share it with you. It’s not much farther. Do you still want to see it?”

  “Yes, I’d like that.”

  Not much after that, the narrow path opened onto a small glade. A stack of stones stood knee-high in the center of the circular clearing, surrounded by a ring of brightly colored wildflowers. Across from where they stood, Thaddeus could see that the path continued deeper into the woods to the right of a massive dead tree stump at least ten feet tall.

  “Isn’t it nice here?” his mother said. “So quiet and peaceful.”

  “It’s a fairy ring, isn’t it?” Thaddeus asked.

  She smiled at him. “Yes, it is. Though I’ve yet to be here when the fairies arrive. I would love to see them flit about the stones there in the center.”

  “You didn’t stack those stones?”

  “No. Everything is as I found it.” She made a face and leaned in closer, lowering her voice. “Well, that dead tree over there may have a few dozen more scorch marks than it did before I found this place. The fairies don’t seem to mind that I’ve been using it for target practice.”

  Thaddeus looked at her with wide eyes. “Target practice?”

  “Would you like to see?”

  “Of course!”

  He followed her to the other side of the clearing, careful to stay out of the ring of wildflowers. Thaddeus stepped off to the side and watched his mother plant her feet in the tall yellow-green grass. She shook her hair back from her face and fixed her gaze on the remains of the tree. Now that he was closer, Thaddeus could see several spots in the stump where the silvered bark had been blackened by flame.

  “Okay, ready?” she asked.

  “I’m ready,” he said.

  She raised her left arm with her fingers held tight together, the tips pointing toward the tree. A slender flame shot from her fingers to the tree like a flamethrower, blasting off pieces of bark. Thaddeus felt the heat from th
e fire and took two more steps back as he stared from the place where the fire met the tree, back along the line of flame, to his mother’s hand. It seemed to go on forever, and when she finally cut it off by making a fist, Thaddeus found he’d been holding his breath and let out a gasp.

  His mother smiled, and he couldn’t help smiling back.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “That was freaking amazing!” Thaddeus said, and a crazy-sounding laugh bubbled up from his belly, completely out of his control.

  She laughed along with him, and then they both noticed the small patches of bark still burning on the tree.

  “It’s still burning,” Thaddeus said.

  “Oh, shoot. I was so excited I forgot to prepare.”

  She ran to the trees at the side of the clearing, grabbing a red bucket Thaddeus recognized as having once been in their basement, and then she disappeared into the trees. Thaddeus approached the tree and tried to pat out a few of the smaller patches of fire but only succeeded in burning himself.

  “I’m here, it’s okay. I’m back.”

  She rushed across the clearing from the spot she had vanished, holding the bucket with both hands as water sloshed out of the top with each step. He moved back, and she upended the bucket over the burning section of the tree, dousing the flames.

  “Where’d you get the water?” Thaddeus asked.

  “There’s a small stream back in the woods,” she said. “The path behind the tree crosses it a few yards in.”

  “Why don’t you keep the bucket here by the tree?” Thaddeus asked. “Wouldn’t the path be easier for you to run through?”

  “Well, it’s closer to the stream through the trees there. And I’m usually more prepared than I was today. I was so excited to show you what I could do I forgot to fill the bucket in advance.”

  He nodded, then smiled. “That was really awesome.”

  She smiled. “Wasn’t it?”

  “Does Dad know you can do that?”

  “He knows I’m able to control it better,” she said. “But not to that extent.” She set the bucket down and reached out to take him by the shoulders. “Okay, now it’s your turn.”