By the Morning Light_Smoke and Mirrors

by Melissa Giorgio

  “Of course.” Emile was my other half, but my parents also held a claim on my heart. I could never leave them forever. “We won’t be like the travelers, moving from one place to the next for the rest of our lives. We’ll have an adventure, and then we’ll come home. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

  His face took on a dreamy look, an expression he always wore when we were discussing dragons and magic and the world beyond. “It does sound nice. But not until we’re older.” He held out his hand and we shook on it like a pair of adults.

  As we resumed our walk to the carnival, I couldn’t help but wish time would speed up so we were adults, ready to embark on our first adventure.

  Chapter Eight

  As planned, Aeonia met us at the entrance to the carnival. She’d changed clothes, swapping her dark floor-length skirt for a lilac one that only reached her ankles. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, and she’d woven a thick scarf through her loose black hair. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she was one of the fortune tellers.

  “Do you like my outfit?” Aeonia spun in a circle for us, her skirt and scarf swirling around her body. Bangles on her arms caught the light from the torches, creating music as they clinked together.

  “You look amazing,” Emile said sincerely.

  “Thank you, Emile.” Aeonia hooked her arm around his. “Just for that, I’m going to tell your fortune first.” She glanced at me over her shoulder, laughing when she saw me scowl. “Don’t be jealous, Claudette. I’ll tell yours, too!”

  “I’m not jealous!” I protested as I followed them into the carnival. Like the previous night, Aeonia led the way with ease, skirting customers and tents until we arrived at our destination in front of a dark tent. Across from it a woman was leading a group of dogs through some sort of obstacle course, and the people watching cheered.

  “Oh.” Emile’s feet slowed until he came to a halt, his gaze on the dogs.

  “What are you doing?” Aeonia asked him. “We have to go this way.”

  “He loves dogs,” I said, watching as my brother’s face lit up with a smile. “We don’t have any because Papa is allergic. If he wasn’t, we’d probably have about fifty.”

  “We wouldn’t have fifty,” Emile said distractedly. “Five. Five’s a good number.” He clapped his hands in delight as one of the dogs did a complicated flip in the air, landing on its feet with its tail wagging so hard it was a white blur. “Oh, I want one.”

  Aeonia, a smile tugging at her lips, crossed over to the other tent. She whispered something into the dog trainer’s ear, who nodded and pointed to the dog who’d just performed the difficult jump. Aeonia scooped the dog up and deposited it into Emile’s arms. My brother looked like he didn’t know whether he should be alarmed or amazed.

  “You’re just borrowing him,” Aeonia said. “Now come on.” She led us into the darkened tent. Before she could light a candle I managed to crash into a chair, swearing loudly as I did.

  “Claudette!” Emile scolded.

  “Oh, go back to playing with your dog,” I said as I rubbed my shin.

  After lighting a few candles, Aeonia bade us to sit. In the middle of the tent was a round table draped in a gauzy midnight-blue sheet with little gold tassels. Emile and I sat down in the two chairs on one side while Aeonia sat across from us in a high back chair, the wood polished to a gleam. With the armrests it reminded me of a throne, Aeonia its queen.

  The dog was small enough to sit comfortably in Emile’s lap. It curled up, gave a big yawn, and promptly fell asleep. Emile continued petting it, a peaceful look on his face.

  I turned my attention to Aeonia. She placed a deck of cards on the table and began shuffling them. Her movements were hypnotizing, and I startled when she spoke. “These cards tell the future. Here, cut the deck, Emile.” He leaned forward in his chair to do so. Aeonia shuffled them a few more times before instructing Emile to pick a card. After he made his selection, Aeonia slid it from the deck and placed it on the table, face up.

  Even in the dim candlelight, I had no trouble seeing that the card depicted a skeleton. Emile sucked in a shocked breath. Jumping to my feet, I angrily shouted, “Is this a joke, Aeonia?”

  “Wait.” She held up a hand. “It doesn’t mean what you think.”

  “Are you sure? Because right now it looks like you’re telling Emile that he’s going to die—”

  “No,” she said firmly. “It’s upside down, you see? That means it’s not about him.”

  The skeleton was in fact upside down, but that meant nothing to me. All I saw was death and the way my brother’s face had gone pale the moment the card had been drawn.

  “It’s about the person he’s destined to be with,” Aeonia continued. “His… lover.”

  “So you’re saying my lover is already dead,” Emile said flatly. He’d stopped petting the dog to curl his hands into tight fists. “I’m going to spend my life alone?”

  “No. That’s not it…” Aeonia was peering at the card, a look of deep concentration on her face. “Pick another card.”

  “I don’t think he should,” I started, but it was too late. Emile reached out and selected another card, placing it on the table himself.

  A complete contrast to the first card, it was a picture of a peaceful green meadow. Aeonia relaxed visibly, although her face was still confused. “This means… Do you see the flowers? This card represents life—no, rebirth. The person you’re destined to meet has… died, but now they’re alive.”

  I snorted. I couldn’t help myself. This was worse than my fortune about my sister and the goldfish.

  Aeonia’s gray eyes flashed. “Don’t laugh, Claudette!”

  “I’m sorry, but how can that be? How can someone be both dead and alive?”

  “Not both dead and alive,” she said. “This person died, but they came back.”

  “They were brought back to life?” Emile said in a whisper. I glanced at him, surprised. He didn’t really believe this, did he?

  “By what, magic?” I asked skeptically, watching Aeonia closely. Would she slip up and talk about magic again like she’d done the previous night?

  Aeonia collected the cards and shuffled them with more force than was necessary. “Haven’t you ever heard about people seeming to die, only to be revived by their physicians? It’s possible, you know! So that’s what’s probably going to happen to Emile’s lover.”

  I remained unconvinced, but Emile was nodding. It wasn’t much in the way of a fortune, but Emile seemed content. He went back to petting the dog, his eyes narrowed in thought.

  “Your turn, Claudette.” Aeonia held up the deck.

  “I don’t want to hear anything about lovers,” I quickly told her.

  “Then, what do you want to know about?”

  Feeling a little guilty, I asked, “Will I ever go on a great adventure?” I could feel Emile’s eyes on me, but I ignored him, instead concentrating on the deck of cards as Aeonia slowly, slowly shuffled them. Just like with Emile, she had me cut the deck, and then I selected a card and placed it on the table.

  It was a picture of a landscape awash in a fiery red and orange sunset. A beautiful image, but it told me nothing. It looked like the sunsets we saw here in Ayres. My eyes slid from the card to Aeonia’s face, waiting for her to explain it to me.

  “Yes,” she said, her voice distant. “You will leave Ayres and travel west. You will see many cities as you search for something, but you won’t find your answer until you arrive at this one.” Her finger tapped the sunset card. “This is where everything comes to a head, Claudette. Where life and death awaits you, if you choose to go.”

  I slid the card toward me, picking it up to examine it better. It was just a sunset; could it really mean all of that? But if I believed in this, then I also had to believe in Emile’s fortune. That he was destined to fall in love someone who had died and yet still lived.

  I didn’t want to believe in any of it, but when Aeonia instructed me to select another card, I di
d.

  It was an image of an unremarkable brown bird with its wings spread in flight. Still holding onto the card, I waited for Aeonia to explain it to me.

  “This bird represents a turning point in your life,” she said. “There will be a time when you have to make a decision. Where you will have to choose between friends and foe. And the fate of another will rest on your decision.”

  “No pressure,” I murmured. Both of my cards had to do with choices. Did I stay or did I go? Did I align myself with friends or foes? I felt a stab of irritation. Why did I have to make such difficult decisions? Why couldn’t she have just told me something simpler, like if I would ever become a Knight or if I’d end up married?

  Because you don’t care about things like that, a small voice whispered. No, I did care about becoming a Knight. I wouldn’t be training with Emile in the dead of the night if I didn’t. But the marriage part made no difference to me. And besides, I’d been the one to ask Aeonia to tell me if I was going to embark on an adventure or not.

  If her cards were right—and that was a big if—then I was. One filled with difficult choices to make.

  Emile’s hand wrapped around mine, jostling me from my thoughts. “Remember our promise,” he said so softly I wondered if Aeonia heard him.

  His words filled me with strength. Emile was right. I may have to make an impossible choice—or choices—but throughout it all, I’d have him by my side.

  I squeezed his fingers between mine. “Thanks. And, hey, I bet your undead lover will be very handsome.”

  He gave me a withering look and I laughed. Across from us Aeonia heaved a sigh of relief as she collected the cards. “You’re not mad?”

  “At you?” I asked. “Do you mean about before? When I accused you of joking? I’m sorry. I was just startled when I saw the skeleton.”

  She bit her lip. “No, I mean, most people are unhappy with the fortunes I tell. That’s one of the reasons why they won’t let me have my own tent.”

  “I thought it was because you’re too young,” Emile said.

  “That’s part of it.” Aeonia shoved the cards into her pocket, her bracelets ringing together musically. “They said if I was older, more mature, I would understand that what we’re doing is a business. People are paying to have their fortunes told, but they want to hear what they want to hear.” She tugged at a lock of black hair, scowling. “They don’t want to hear about undead lovers or having to make different choices. They want to know they’re going to get married or become rich or…”

  “They want a happy ending,” I said.

  “Precisely.”

  I rolled my eyes. “But that’s dumb. And isn’t that like tricking them? You tell them they’re going to live a long life when meanwhile you see that they’re going to die tomorrow. They’ll be cursing you as they breathe their last breath.”

  “But how do you do it?” Emile said, his eyes on the table where the cards had been. “How do you tell our fortunes, Aeonia? Is it just looking at the cards and making up a story—”

  “I wasn’t making anything up!” she snapped. “Everything I said was the truth!”

  “How?” Emile asked again. “How do you know what’s going to happen to us?”

  Aeonia opened her mouth but changed her mind and snapped it shut. She stood suddenly, pushing her chair back so hard it fell to the ground with a loud crack.

  “Aeonia?” I asked, rising.

  “Let’s go. Don’t you want to see the rest of the carnival? And you have to return that dog, Emile.”

  “Aeonia,” I repeated.

  “I was lying.” She smiled at us, but her eyes were swimming with tears. “Everything I said tonight was a lie. I’m sorry.” Dashing out of the tent, she left me alone with my brother.

  I swallowed, an unsettled feeling draping over me heavily like a coat. “What just happened?”

  “She was about to tell us something,” Emile murmured. “About how she reads her fortunes.”

  “Was she going to talk about… magic?” My voice dipped low.

  “Maybe. I don’t know.” His hand reached up to pet the dog on its head.

  “She obviously can’t tell us,” I said. “They probably forbid her from saying anything.” My body was thrumming with excitement. “Emile, this carnival has secrets.”

  Instead of sharing my enthusiasm, his expression grew troubled. “I wonder if this is the adventure she mentioned. If you pursue this, what will happen, Claudette?”

  I grinned, not feeling the least bit frightened. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Emile nodded and stood. “Then let’s find out.”

  Chapter Nine

  Unfortunately, our attempts at discovering anything new were thwarted by Michel and Aurora’s sudden appearance. They, along with Aeonia, were waiting for Emile and me as we emerged from the tent. Aeonia took back the dog and returned him to his owner while Emile and I joined Michel and Aurora. A cloud of awkwardness hung heavily over the four of us.

  I studied the two of them. They were standing slightly apart, which told me nothing. Where had they been? What’d they been doing? A blush stole across my cheeks. Never mind, I didn’t want to know that. I kicked at a rock, my excitement already draining away. Emile gave me a sympathetic look, and I could almost hear him whispering, “Tomorrow.” I stood up straighter. He was right. The carnival would be here for weeks. We still had time to discover their secrets.

  We settled into a routine. School and helping on the farm, and then we raced to the carnival once the sun set. Each night Aeonia waited for us at the entrance like our own personal tour guide. She took us from tent to tent, stealing snacks and introducing us to her most eccentric family members. Despite my pestering, she refused to tell our fortunes again, which only made me more determined to find something out.

  “She’s so stubborn,” I grumbled to Emile as we snuck into the castle the night of the full moon.

  He chuckled quietly at that.

  I glared at him. “What?”

  “Who’s more stubborn than you?” Emile ducked when I tried to hit him. “Don’t get mad at me for telling the truth!”

  I brushed past him and stomped into the training room. “I’m just tired of all of this cloak-and-dagger nonsense. How can she allude to magic not being bad, and then tell us our fortunes and claim it’s real, and not expect us to grow suspicious? Maybe their other patrons will swallow their lies easily, but we’re smart!” I spun around to face Emile. “We’re squires! Learning the truth about things like this will be our job once we become Knights! We’re trying to keep everyone safe, aren’t we?”

  Before he could answer me, a low rustling noise came from the corner of the room. I froze, my surprise reflected on Emile’s face. He came to my side in a flash, calling out, “Who’s there?”

  “Show yourself—” My words were cut off with a startled cry when I felt an intense heat blooming from my chest.

  “Claudette!” Emile threw us to the ground, his hands on my shoulder. “What is it? Are you hurt?’

  “No, it’s the disc!” I pulled the cord, freeing the disc from under my coat, and gasped. The disc, normally a shining gold, was burning bright blue. The light stung my eyes and I quickly looked away.

  “What did you do?” Emile asked.

  “Nothing! It just started heating up!” Squinting, I dared another glance at the disc. If anything, it was glowing even brighter.

  Emile reached forward and touched the metal surface, his breath catching as he yanked his hand away. “It’s hot!”

  “Did you get burned?” I was still holding the cord, angling the disc away from me so it didn’t touch my body. “Emile, help me get it off!” Panic made my voice raise a few octaves.

  “All right, hold on…” But before Emile could touch it, the blue light started fading, growing dimmer and dimmer until we were in the dark once more. My night vision was completely destroyed, and even the moon wasn’t helping us tonight. The sk
y was too cloudy, masking the moon’s glow. Emile’s hold on me tightened and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: There was still someone in the corner of the room and now we had no way of seeing them.

  “Don’t move,” he breathed in my ear as he stood. I shook my head, reaching for his arm to stop him, but he slithered out of my grasp.

  Emile’s footsteps carried him over to the side of the room, where he slid one of the torches out of its ancient metal holder. There was the sound of a match being struck, and then a dancing red flame set the room aglow. After Emile lit the torch, we both looked at the corner of the room where the noise originated from.

  “There’s no one there,” I said slowly. But we’d heard someone; I know we did!

  “Wait.” Emile crossed the room and crouched down to pick something up.

  I joined him, ignoring the trembling in my legs. “What is it?”

  He held it up for me to see: A crown of flowers.

  “Aeonia,” I breathed. “She was here? But why didn’t she say anything?” I held onto the crown with one hand while the other one touched the disc. It was cool once more, and by the torchlight I could see it was back to its gold color. “Emile, what’s going on?”

  He drew in a sharp breath. “I have no idea. She must have snuck out when we were distracted by the disc.”

  “But why did it change color? What happened? What was different about tonight?” I knew he wouldn’t be able to answer any of my questions, but I couldn’t stop myself from voicing them.

  “Let’s go ask her.” My brother met my surprised glance and nodded, as if he knew what I was thinking. “She did something tonight, Claudette. It’s like you’ve been saying all along; she knows things. And we’re not going to get any answers by staying here.”

  “So, what, you want to go to the carnival now? And somehow find her? And then force her to answer our questions?” I asked. This didn’t sound like Emile at all. In fact, it sounded like something I would want to do.

  “Yes. You could have gotten hurt. Burned, or something. I don’t know.” He threw his hands in the air, and it was only then I realized they were shaking. Emile was scared. “Enough with her games. You were right when you said it’s up to us to find out the truth. If we don’t, who knows what will happen?”