“Well, being a woman, and since next you’ll say something about us asking too many questions, I might as well fit the bill. Why am I safer with you than with Sam and Quentin?”
“It’ll only be a matter of time before they lure Quentin back into their mix.”
“Quentin?”
“Yeah, he got sucked into that power hungry machismo Bergestein preaches. Ended up in the slammer in Central America. Good ole Sammy-boy snatched him out and brought him home. But I still don’t trust him.”
Hmmmm. Should I? But why should I believe Jim over Quentin. Or Sam? What made me want to believe any of them? Still…Sam wouldn’t be after me to get the gems. If that had been the case, he never would have given them to me in the first place, right?
I had to voice my opinion. “Why should I trust you, other than the obvious that there’s no one else here and you did save me?”
“Because I will keep you from Bergestein.”
“Then why aren’t you and Sam working together, if that’s your common goal?”
Silence. Deafening quiet. Ah…therein lies the secret. I smiled sweetly at Nanny as she fussed about my wardrobe and urged me to get up and prepare for bed. Maybe Ernest had someone doing the same to him.
“Not on your life, little sister.”
Ah…he was there. Just like I thought. “So why don’t you fill me in on your long term plans. Short term too.” I was bluffing my courage. “You need to tell me why I shouldn’t hop out of this body and touch my beads together and take my chances with the next person I might meet.” I could do it if forced to, but I was praying for a different option.
“You’ll be dead in an hour out there alone.”
“It’s that well populated then, with the magic men?”
“Bergestein has enough power to trace all the gems, track them.”
His matter-of-fact statement had me scratching my head. “Then why doesn’t he bust through the nice oak front door and kidnap Annabelle?”
“He’s just waiting for us to step out of the bodies. He won’t touch the host body. And I told you he won’t necessarily be thinking we moved back in time.”
So there was another dilemma. As soon as I was to exit, I’d be vulnerable. “And you intend to figure out where and how and we’ll move together and teleport back to…”
“I know exactly where we’re going. And when.”
I wasn’t sure if I was patient enough to wait for him. What about Sam, couldn’t he find me? He’d found Quentin in a Latin American prison and brought him home. But the time difference worried me.
I cleared my throat, which had Nanny scuttling over to check my face and feel my neck. “So I should just put up with this for what, another day, another week?”
“Tonight. I’ll wake you. But you must be quick.”
Like Speedy Freakin’ Gonzalez. I thought. Let me out of this body. Nanny jerked the brush through my hair, emphasizing my reasoning. Never again would I feel deprived because I didn’t have someone to wait on me hand and foot. No sirree. This yanking and tugging and ordering and dressing. Yuck.
A man stood beside the bed. In the dimness of the light of the moon, I could see the broad shoulders beneath the outline of a hat. “Cowboy?” I ventured, squinting through Annabelle’s sleepy eyes to see the figure better.
“I told you to be ready. It’s time to fly.”
I fumbled with the necklace, pulling it free from the lacy throat of the nightgown. My fingers might have wielded the gems a little easier had it not been for the grogginess of sleep. Finally, I was able to sit up and slide off the bed, leaving a peaceful girl behind. I wondered if she’d have nightmares about this.
“No. I doubt she’ll remember. You okay?”
I felt weak, but not uncommonly so for being awakened with my heart pounding through my chest at the thought of an intruder. “Yeah, I’ll be just fine.” I thrust out my hand. “I’m Ella Mansfield.”
“And I’m Superman.” He grabbed my hand and held me against his chest. The white lights of a thousand shooting stars blinded me. But I heard the crash of broken glass and the scream of a frightened child as we faded from the room.
I reminded myself I hadn’t the choice to go with him, and staying locked in the past wasn’t an option either. Fate brought me this far, and now it was up to me. Well, it sounded good. I still had this wanna-be cowboy who wouldn’t let me out of his sight.
“What are we doing? Circling the island?” I couldn’t tell how big this place was. Giant orangish walls rose up straight from the middle of the island, leaving us wandering the narrow beach area. Ahead of us was a wider area with tall grasses and a small area of dunes. No sign of any buildings—or any other people.
“Looking.”
“For what, or who, Amelia what’s-her-name, the pilot?” I tripped over a piece of driftwood in my effort to get up beside him. I could harass him better if I could look him in the face. “Maybe for Bigfoot? Tell me, Jim, are you just trying to wear me down so you can rip the necklace from me and leave me for the vultures?”
“Now that you mention it.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. I glanced upward. No long-beaked ugly birds floated above us. It wasn’t the desert. I could still see the crystal blue waters and the pale reefs beneath them. “Where are we, some Caribbean Island?”
“Nope.”
“Uh, is this a guessing game? How about Easter Island?” Bet he didn’t think I knew that one. I hadn’t seen those big head statues, so I knew I was wrong. Oh well, dazzling him with my wit wasn’t working.
“There’s something here. Look for a cave, well hidden and up about twenty feet into the cliff.”
I stared at the yellow-orange stone that seemed to be a fortress around the interior of the island. My weekend plans sure had changed. If I’d even imagined being plunked on a hot, sandy beach, I would have never, ever pictured myself trudging through the sand in jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt. And then to guess I’d follow some Bruce Willis look-alike in a trench coat and cowboy hat? Yeah… I’d have imagined that. And there’s a herd of pink horses around the corner.
I hung back and stared at the back of the man who’d supposedly saved me. Sighing, I fingered my gems and thought about jumping. I’d never done it alone, had no idea how to figure out how to choose where I would end up.
Jim growled and waved me up. More afraid of ending up in hell than I was of Jim, and curious on top of it, I clambered onto the rock beside him and shielded my eyes with my hand to follow his pointing finger.
There it was, a tiny pin hole in the side of the sheer cliff. And what were we going to do now that we’d found it?
Jim chuckled beside me. “Guess that means you haven’t flown yet.”
“Oh sure…just not without a captain flying and a flight attendant watering me like a flower. With vodka that is.”
“Well, I’ll be your captain, but I’m afraid the vodka isn’t an option right now.”
I screamed. He hadn’t finished talking and I glanced down to see why he’d taken my hand and…oh dear, we were up off the ground and floating toward the wall.
“Ella, Ella, Ella,” he chastised me. “This is a piece of cake. I’d expect a complaint had I rocket propelled us toward the hole like a bullet from a gun.”
I couldn’t see that being any less scary. “I feel like I’m going to drop from the sky.”
“We’re ten, maybe twelve feet up. It wouldn’t hurt you if you did fall.”
“Oh.” I glanced down again. I guess maybe he was right. It didn’t seem much higher than my second story windows.
The thought reminded me of what I had intended to do with Quentin that first night. It seemed like year ago, at least. Crap. I was freakin’ homesick.
“It’s normal. But don’t get too attached to Quentin. I told you. He’s on the fence.”
I’d rather be on a fence. In fact, just about anywhere other than floating at the phenomenal rate of one-half mile per hour up to the cavern opening. And me,
who’d approached the rickety bungee jump deck with the same nonchalance as one walks up to the ice cream counter. You know you’re gonna get something good, but you’re just not sure what yet.
Although, I wish to dispute the validity of good in that sentence. This cavern opening looked about the size of Annabelle and there were two of us coming at it.
“Uh, Jim. Are we going to fit?” I was quickly becoming more and more convinced he was using me for something. What, I couldn’t tell, but I wasn’t going to question him hovering two stories up.
“Yep.” He snapped his fingers and my perspective changed. I didn’t want to know if he shrunk us or if the opening magically increased. This was feeling more and more like I was still in Hollywood and somehow blasted into a warp of all the strange movies I had ever seen.
Then I looked through the narrow opening and saw it wasn’t a cave, it was a doorway. There was light on the other side.
Chapter Eight
When my feet were on the rock and I’d caught my balance, Jim announced, “It’s safe here. This is the land that exists in dreams and fantasies.” The laugh that followed was more evil than comforting.
“And we’re here, how?”
“I can’t actually enter.”
I looked toward the opening at the other end of this tunnel. “What do you mean?” I was so confused. My stomach was in knots that weren’t only from the unsupported flight up. There had to be a catch.
“You’ve never done bad with your magic. Only the pure can enter to learn from the masters.”
I envisioned my remote bouncing off the wall near Quentin’s head.
“No. That’s petty stuff. If that was bad, they’d kick the fairies out of fairyland.”
Fairyland? Pinch me.
“Go on.” Jim pushed me through the tunnel in the rock and into a world alive with color and laughter and song. I swear I heard him mutter something else before I stopped into the magical land, but I couldn’t understand.
I never felt the sensation of falling, yet as soon as I blinked, I was standing on the ground, this time inside the giant walls. This was Disneyland, I decided. And I bet it never rained and you didn’t have to pay to ride the rides.
A dainty thing the size of a feather reached over and tickled my ear. “Now what?” I asked her. She just giggled in response. Yep. That was going to teach me a lot.
“Lots of secrets.” The fairy danced along daisies and the tall grasses. “The magic was created by the folk to keep goodness and peace. Bad men distort it.”
“I know,” I sighed, “I’ve met them.”
“True magic lies in love and truth. Power is the by-product, not its goal.”
No kidding. I thought of the way people had become off-center in their quests in life. Here, in this place, it felt like I was breathing clean air for the first time. Literally and physically speaking. I could get used to this kind of living. Too bad it was a nearly extinct way of life.
In a shallow puddle I saw a face. By now nothing surprised me. An old man, gray beard. Nope, not Santa, but I figured it had to be a relative.
I earned a hearty laugh for my thoughts. The figure moved. “I’m the boss around here. My name’s too long and difficult for you to pronounce. So call me Lou.”
“Lou?” The father of magic was called Lou? Hello. Please pinch me. This was a cruel joke.
“Lou,” I had to ask this, “are you related to God?” I surely hoped so, because it looked like Lou had a sense of humor.
The water rippled as his chuckle echoed. The fairy slid behind the curtain of my hair. I imagined she was peering around it, waiting for his reaction.
“God’s a little farther up the ladder than I am. Like at the top. But I can see you thinking along those lines. You’re new to magic.”
“Very.”
“But not so new to the destruction it is causing.”
“No. Not at all.” Wasn’t that the understatement of the year? I wondered if I should mention Jim, who had brought me here but not told me exactly why. What benefit was there for him if he couldn’t get in?
“And what are your thoughts?”
“I’m not sure what to think anymore.” Should I mention I was homesick and lost and scared to death of this gigantic world saving mission Sam had supposedly recruited me for? I looked around, trying to think of the right answer to tell Lou. Near the waterfall the rock had been cut—carved into a throne. Gouging holes had been dug into the rock in a circular pattern around the throne. I had a vision of a good and kind leader sitting beneath the glowing aura of the ten stones.
“Yes, they’ve stripped them all.” His hand reached up from the flatness of the puddle. “Lean down here, Ella,” he asked.
“No!” I retorted, frowning. Did he think I was stupid? Everyone was after the gems, I wasn’t giving them up so easily.
“I don’t want them,” he said, his voice calm, soothing. “Let me feel their magic.”
Still skeptical, but going with my gut Lou really was on the good team, I knelt down and gave him access to the necklace. The water glowed like the sun and then faded.
“Yes. You carry the real gems. Cherish them, girl. Let them not be stripped the way the others have. Do not let power clog the vision you see of love and goodness. It is the only way.”
I still thought we should be able to zap the bad men and just go around and collect the gems the way one would collect Easter eggs.
“Sounds simple enough, but are you keeping in mind that to use magic against him makes you no better than he is.”
I looked up at the clouds. “Lord, help me.” Above me, an ominously dark cloud mixed in with the white bits of floating cotton. Its shadow cast a strip of darkness across the meadow. The fairy curled up behind my ear and held tight. Good old Lou muttered, “Oh dear.”
“How did you get in here?”
“Man named Jim,” I admitted, backing up from the darkness that approached. “I don’t know what he wanted, or why.”
“He got in by disguising himself in your goodness. It’s the only way. He was within you when you entered.”
Which explained why I remembered nothing but that final step and then standing on the floor of the hidden valley. Tears immediately sprang to my eyes. I felt used, manipulated. Why hadn’t I known better?
Behind the lead cloud came others. Beneath it, the six-foot shape of a man in western wear charged toward me.
It was absolute chaos. Tiny creatures darted around me like starving mosquitoes. Their high pitched cries of fear echoed those inside me. I shook, waiting for the flow to fall.
“You must go. It follows you.” Lou faded into the gray water.
“How?” Jim had said he couldn’t come in here, I was sure of it. The air was frigid against my skin. I shivered. “Lou, help me. What do I do? Where do I go?”
The surface of the puddle turned opaque. “Lou, come back. Tell me. Where do I go?”
All the magic beings zipped into their refuges, hollow logs, burrows, and crevices in the sheer, orange cliffs. I’d never felt too big in my life, until now. And it wasn’t a good feeling. Especially when something even bigger was hot on my heels.
“Look in the pool. Find your heart’s desire and dive in. Dive deep.” Lou’s baritone resonated in my ears. The wind whipped my hair around, dislodging the pixie that hid there.
“Hide, little Thumbelina!” I was never so scared in my life, so I could only imagine how she felt.
The fairy fought against the gale to hover in front of me with her tiny hands on her tiny hips. She shouted over the rush, “I’m Winzey.”
“I know it’s windy. You’d better find shelter.”
She slid back under my hair. “Winzey,” she screamed. Well, if that didn’t just blow my eardrums. “My name is my power. Use it.”
“Winzey?” I repeated, hunching over when the fierce raindrops started driving into my skin. They’d do serious damage to a tiny thing like her.
“Dive,” she commanded. “Before it’s
too late.”
I crawled over and looked into the tempest beneath the waterfall. The once blue water was angry and gray. Dive in there? “Your heart’s desire.” Lou’s voice ran through my head again. In this weather, that was a piece of cake to dream up.
I thought of a warm fire and a mug of hot cocoa. Blankets, too. Lots of blankets.
“Go.” Winzey tugged on my ear. The roar of the a thousand train engines thundered up behind me. He wasn’t far away now.
I held my nose and jumped.
The turbulent waters of the pool turned into the beating rain of a storm. It was night. Cold, dark night. “This isn’t my hearts desire,” I puffed out through foggy breath. My hair hung in stringy ropes and the clothes that had adhered to my body were already stiffening up. I was going to turn into a freaking ice cube if I didn’t find shelter.
There was a yellow glow visible, just faintly, through the thick fog. I assumed it was just a streetlight, but it was a goal, nonetheless. I trudged forward, concentrating. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot.
I was so busy looking down as I chanted to my feet, I plowed right into the dark figure holding an umbrella.
“I was expecting you.” The low whisper sent shivers that had nothing to do with the temperature down my back.
“Quentin!” I yelped and jumped back, nearly tripping over my own feet and squinting to get a good look. Once I was sure, I threw myself at him. I wasn’t going to let go this time. “God, am I glad to see you.”
I regretted my overexuberant welcome immediately. He pulled away and smiled, tightlipped, back at me. “Let’s get you inside where it’s warm.”
Back up, Ella. He’s not the same Quentin. I declined his offer of the umbrella. I wasn’t going to get any wetter. “Where’s Sam? Is he here? I can’t wait to tell him where I’ve been.”
“Sorry, but Sam had, uh, other business to attend to. He’ll catch up with us before too long.” He shrugged and started walking away.
I hung back a step. Sam wasn’t here? Had he trusted Quentin? I expected it was my fault. Getting sucked away into never-never-land with ex-partners and fairies.
Believe the Magic Page 9
