Enchantment Emporium

by Tanya Huff

  “Well, you and Graham for starters?”

  “We’re… okay.” Given all the new baggage, in some ways, it had been more like a first time than their first time had been. “No choices until all this is over.”

  “Sure you don’t want to get him locked down before the aunties toss in their twenty-four cents’ worth? They’re going to want you all the way into second circle before Mommy dearest shows up.”

  “I want him to be sure this time. The aunties are going to have enough to worry about without interfering in my love life.”

  Charlie snorted, warm air blowing strands of hair along Allie’s neck. “Yeah, like that’s ever stopped them. And, also… well, David?”

  “I can’t get close to him until he gets some control back.”

  “You could call him.”

  Allie shrugged just enough for Charlie to feel the motion. “Not really the kind of thing you can do over the phone.” She knew Auntie Jane wouldn’t agree. Auntie Meredith, Auntie Gwen, and Auntie Carmen-Roland’s grandmother-had called Roland and Charlie’s mother and two of Charlie’s sisters had called her. Both phones were now buried inside bags of frozen peas in the freezer. Katie had sent a brief and profane text message. Someone had to have called David.

  A familiar shadow flickered along the street, a darker gray now the sky had begun to lighten. Charlie’s arms tightened.

  “There’s been a flyby about every forty minutes,” Allie told her. “I was lying there in the dark, and I could feel them passing-or maybe it’s just one of them, I don’t know. I got up to see if I was imagining things but I wasn’t. Obviously. Can you…?”

  “Feel them? No. Probably a second circle thing.”

  They turned together to look at Roland, the light spilling in from the street enough to see him lying on his back, one hand tucked up under his chin, a silvered line of drool rolling toward the pillow.

  “Maybe,” Allie allowed. She thought of the anger and the burning and the vast weight of personality she’d touched. “Maybe not.”

  “So, Graham’s ex-boss; you figure he’s going to get involved.”

  “He’s going to have to. He can’t run because the Dragon Lords will take him out. He can’t stay hidden because she’ll find him no matter where he is. The way I see it, he has two choices-get to Jack before she makes it through, or take her out during that moment of disorientation right after she arrives.”

  “You think she’ll have that moment?”

  “How would I know?”

  “You have to have more info than we do, sweetie. Or you’d never have called in the aunties.”

  “I keep forgetting you’re smarter than you look.”

  “I’d kind of have to be.”

  “She’s…” Allie took a deep breath and watched it fog the window as she exhaled. “Remember Auntie Gwen right after the change? Scarier than that.”

  “Wow. Okay, you think Adam and the dragon brothers up there are actually standing guard over Jack?”

  “I think…” Allie went over everything she knew about Adam and the Dragon Lords, which was less than she knew about their sister. “… I think they’re easily bored and angling for a front row seat.”

  “So, Graham’s ex-boss…” The words were the same, but the tone had become frankly speculative. “… I have to say, sex with a dragon, that’s impressive. Still, unless he gets his trousers made to measure, that must make him a grower not a shower.”

  Allie rolled her eyes. “He was in a very expensive suit; probably tailor made. Plus, he had burn scars.”

  “Ouch.”

  “No, Katie’ll be staying here, but I’ve booked six rooms at the Fairmont Palliser for the aunties.”

  “The big fancy hotel by the convention center?” Joe tried not to look relieved as he wiped down the glass countertop. It wasn’t a significantly successful attempt.

  “That’s the one. It has a spa; they’ll be thrilled. The aunties are big on getting what they feel they’re entitled to.” Allie took a deep breath as a minibus pulled up in front of the store. “Case in point; I had to talk them down from a fleet of airport limos.” She suspected they hadn’t actually wanted the limos, that it was just Auntie Meredith attempting to wrest some control of the situation from Auntie Jane, but that hadn’t shortened the phone call-proving that the cell service along the 401, all the way from Darsden East into Pearson International Airport in Toronto, was excellent.

  Joe nodded toward the rental. “Good thing Michael had a license for driving that rig, then.”

  “He didn’t. He had Charlie.”

  “And she’s the driver?”

  “No. She’s the Gale girl.” Right on cue, Charlie jumped out and beckoned from the sidewalk. “Okay, this is it. Hold the fort.” Throwing her messenger bag up over her shoulder, Allie took a deep breath. “Wish me luck.”

  “Aren’t they on your side?”

  “Remember Gran?” she threw over her shoulder as she headed for the door. “Multiply her by twelve.”

  “Breathe,” Michael suggested. “The plane’s on the ground. It’s too late to change your mind.”

  He had a point. Passing out from lack of oxygen wouldn’t help.

  Allie took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tried unsuccessfully to ignore the omens that said reality was about to shift in a big way. A man in a cheap suit with a sample case at his feet moved away from the crowds before starting to talk into his cell phone, keeping his voice low and unobtrusive. Three small children sat cross-legged on the floor at their mother’s feet and colored quietly. Two young men were having a quiet conversation with the young woman in the Information Booth who seemed to be actually giving them information. Outside, although construction had put a not inconsiderable ripple in the traffic flow, things seemed to be moving smoothly without horns or profanity.

  It was creepy.

  “Allie…”

  “I hear them.”

  Twelve women all talking at once made a lot of noise. Especially since at least two of them were going deaf and refusing to admit it. Allie braced herself and then, as the aunties appeared from the baggage pickup, closed her hand around Michael’s arm.

  “Ow.”

  “Sorry.”

  “They know it’s a real organization, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. They run the local group. Actually, they pretty much are the local group.”

  “So why…?”

  Allie sighed. “I’m pretty sure they consider it to be gang colors.”

  Each of the aunties wore purple. And a red hat. Many different shades of purple. Many different kinds of hats. Four of them were wearing straw cowboy hats bought at the Darsden East dollar store, spray painted red and individually decorated. The aunties quite enjoyed being crafty

  Auntie Gwen, at fifty-eight, the youngest by about six years, looked vaguely annoyed by the attention they were getting. The other eleven were reveling in it.

  “It’s a good thing you didn’t ask them to be stealthy,” Michael murmured, raising his other arm and waving it.

  “This is stealthy,” Allie snorted. “Nothing’s blowing up.”

  “Alysha Catherine!” The volume of the surrounding chatter lowered considerably as Auntie Jane stopped an arm’s length away. Heaven forbid the entire airport not get a chance to hear what she had to say. “Still teetering on the edge, are you?” Dark eyes narrowed. “Were you one of your cousins, I’d assume you were waiting for our approval. As you aren’t and as you are, in point of fact, becoming remarkably like your grandmother, I can only assume there’s something wrong with your young man.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with him, Auntie Jane. We had a misunderstanding, we’re in the middle of a situation, and we’re taking it slow.”

  “Gale girls don’t misunderstand, the situation can only be improved by you tying up loose ends, and you’re taking it slowly.” Auntie Jane had been the terror of the Lennox and Addington County school board, teaching grade seven and eight English at every school in the di
strict until she retired some years after the mandatory retirement age. The aunties considered government regulations to be more a set of guidelines. With Allie put in her place, she turned to Michael and sniffed, “Talked to your young man yet?”

  Allie felt the muscles in his forearm tense under her hand. “No, Auntie Jane.”

  “And why not?”

  “It’s not… We aren’t…”

  Nudging him into silence, Allie took half a step forward. The old woman had no right to dig at Michael. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, Auntie Jane.”

  The silence in the terminal was so complete Allie felt like she’d just tried to smuggle a lip gloss through security without placing it first into a clear, one-liter plastic bag. The sound of a red Styrofoam bird falling from the brim of Auntie Christie’s hat was impossibly loud.

  “You don’t think that’s any of my business?” Auntie Jane repeated slowly.

  “No, I don’t,” Allie told her. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s any of my business either. It’s between Michael and Brian.”

  Auntie Jane stared at her for a long moment-didn’t quite tip her head to the side so she could bring each eye to bear independently, but it was close. Then she glanced over at Michael. Then she smiled. “Well, all right, then. And you’re both too old now to give me a hug?”

  Michael moved first; Allie could feel the relief rolling off him like smoke. She held back just a little, just enough to come to his rescue if affection turned out to be a trap. It didn’t seem to, and once Auntie Jane had gotten her hugs, the other aunties moved in, and, from the shoulders down, Michael disappeared behind a swarming mass topped off in an embarrassment of scarlet feathers.

  Allie backed up to find Katie standing draped in canvas tote bags stuffed full of neck pillows filled with buckwheat and flaxseed.

  “I hate you so much right now,” she sighed.

  “You know I wouldn’t have called in a full circle if it hadn’t been the end of the world.”

  Katie snorted. “I’d have bet serious money on you preferring the end of the world.”

  “So how did you get roped into this?” Allie asked, taking a couple of the bags as the aunties, singly and collectively, offered advice to every single person who’d been with them on the plane as they ran the gauntlet of red and purple in an attempt to leave the airport.

  “Officially, because I’m self-employed and can take off at a moment’s notice. Unofficially,” she continued when Allie snorted because a first circle could have swept up as much of the family as they felt they required, “I suspect I’m competition for the young man you’ve found.”

  “Competition?”

  “You’re the only Gale girl he’s met…”

  “Charlie…”

  “Please.” Katie flashed a smile at the first of the baggage handlers. He blushed and ran the loaded cart into a pillar. “The aunties want to be sure he’s serious, they want to make sure the attraction isn’t part of the sorcerer’s plot, and they figure I’m enough like you to confuse him.”

  “It isn’t like that.”

  “Good.”

  “It’s…” She wanted to say terrifying but was afraid Katie would misunderstand. “… real.”

  “Well, duh.” Katie stopped, holding Allie back, keeping them from running up on the who gets to sit next to Michael in the bus argument. “It’s second-circle real, even I can feel that.You’re all connected to things.” She said connected like it was a dirty word. “I don’t get why you’d choose that, frankly.”

  Allie could feel herself blush and hoped none of the aunties would turn and see her. “You’ll understand when you meet him.”

  “He knew we were coming.” Auntie Jane patted at the arm of her purple jacket where the fabric was still smoldering. “You didn’t tell him you’d called us, did you, Alysha?”

  Something squished under Allie’s shoe. She didn’t look down. “No, of course not!”

  “No of course not about it,” Auntie Bea growled, picking the crimson brim of her hat up off the ruins of the desk. They hadn’t been able to keep the blast entirely contained within the workroom. She stepped away from the wreckage, closer to Allie. “You did keep him hidden from us. Don’t even try to deny it.”

  “I didn’t tell you where he was,” Allie admitted, standing her ground. “But I had my reasons.”

  “Your reasons…”

  “Leave it, Bea,” Auntie Jane cut her off. “No one thinks clearly while they’re changing.”

  “That wasn’t…” Auntie Jane’s expression clamped Allie’s teeth shut on the protest. Let the aunties believe what they wanted. They would anyway, and it wasn’t like she’d done David any good.

  “He’s definitely made a run for it.” Auntie Christie backed out of the destroyed closet, dusting ash off her hands. “But when the workshop imploded, it covered his tracks pretty thoroughly.”

  “It could be years before we find him again,” Auntie Kay muttered. “Years.”

  “Don’t be so defeatist,” Auntie Jane told her grimly. “As long as his son’s alive, anyone can find him.”

  “Blood magic.” Auntie Meredith spat the words on the pile of dust that had been a bookcase.

  “I didn’t say we’d use blood magic to find him,” Auntie Jane snapped. “But he won’t go far as long as anyone else can. He’ll remove the threat first.”

  “So Jack’s in danger?” Allie asked.

  Auntie Jane turned dark eyes on her. “How much of that blast did you absorb, Alysha? Of course the boy is in danger.” Muttering under her breath, she stalked out through the newsroom.

  “I was expecting someone… taller,” the very scary old woman with the dark eyes sniffed as the dozen aunties circled Graham like cats moving in on a mourning dove, shifting him away from the counter and out into the store without touching him.

  Graham sought out Allie, bringing up the rear of the pack, and didn’t feel particularly reassured by her reassuring nod or her mouthed: Auntie Jane. It had been her idea he meet the aunties downstairs and get it over with before they were distracted by the complications of a half-Human/half-Dragon Lord sorcerer. When Auntie Jane ignored his outstretched hand, he let it fall back to his side. “I get that a lot.”

  “We’ll have to see what we can do about having those hex marks removed while we’re here.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I’d appreciate that.” Allie’d suspected one of the glyphs had something to do with his blocked memories.

  “You and I being together, that’s likely what’s helping you to remember.” She stroked her fingertips down the center of his chest. “But if you want these off, we’re going to need a little help.”

  A slightly taller woman, steel-gray hair cropped short, eyes as dark, frowned at him over the top of her glasses. “So you used to work for a sorcerer?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And you knew he was a sorcerer? From the beginning?”

  “When I met him, I’d just saved him from being killed by a basilisk.”

  “How?” His confusion must’ve shown because she sighed and said, “How did you save him, boy?”

  All things considered, he decided to let her form of address stand. “I had my hunting rifle with me, and I blew its head off.”

  “Quite the shot,” the shortest of the aunties said thoughtfully. “Blowing the head off a moving basilisk.” Shortest, Graham realized, was a relative term since at least two of the old women were Allie’s height and none of them were less than five four.

  “He could have taken that memory right out of your head,” another auntie declared, dark eyes wide, her knitting unraveling slightly with the force of the gesture. “Left you with a big blank space you probably wouldn’t have even noticed, boys being boys and all. You were what, thirteen?” She stuffed a few meters of loose yarn back into the bulging bag hanging off her shoulder. “Can’t think why he didn’t.”

  “He didn’t because he saw young Graham would be useful to him
,” Auntie Jane snapped. “Grace is right. It was a phenomenal shot, and you know what sorts of things his kind attract. For pity’s sake, Muriel, use what’s left of your brains before they atrophy entirely.”

  One of the first lessons he’d learned was not to look the Fey in the eyes-most of them would take advantage; some of them took souls. As far as he knew, the Gales were Human. Although, as he stared as fearlessly as he was able into Jane Gale’s eyes, he had to admit he wasn’t one hundred percent convinced of that. Ninety percent, tops. He suspected that final ten percent would be chewing at him.

  After a long moment, she snorted and allowed him to look away. “I don’t actually care why you went to work for him,” she said. “You were a child, so I doubt it was your idea anyway. He very likely set himself up so that he was there when you needed him, so that he was the only one there, in all likelihood. What I’m more interested in is why, after serving a power-hungry bastard with delusions of grandeur so faithfully for so long, you decided to jump ship and throw in with a family determined to destroy him and everyone like him. It can’t possibly have been because of Alysha’s physical attractions.”

  “It could have been,” Allie muttered.

  “Because if that’s all it was,” a round, apple-cheeked auntie continued, cheerfully ignoring Allie’s protest. “We wouldn’t want you. First time there was a crisis, you’d be just as likely to run off with young Katie here. Her breasts are larger.”

  “Very subtle, Auntie Kay!”

  “Well, they are, dear.”

  Without the extremes of Charlie’s hair color, it was easier to see the family resemblance between Allie and her cousin Katie. Given that Katie was currently beating her head against Allie’s shoulder, it was a little hard to pick out specific details, but she didn’t seem to have Allie’s golden sprinkle of freckles.

  “Well, boy?”

  It took Graham a moment to figure out what they were waiting for.

  Right.

  Why had he walked away from thirteen years with Stanley Kalynchuk? He hadn’t known the emerging Dragon Lord was Kalynchuk’s son when he’d refused to pull the trigger, so he hadn’t exactly been struck by a sudden ethical objection. That had come later. He’d decided not to pull the trigger when Allie’d made it clear she didn’t want him to. She hadn’t asked him not to, hadn’t said anything more than his name, but he’d chosen…