A House for Keeping

by Matteson Wynn

  Next, I’d follow Fuzzy as he showed me the easiest way to get to the next crossing point. Once I crossed over, the tree I was leaving would resume its original position.

  As I crossed from tree to tree, I grew more confident of my balance. Pretty soon, I was startled to find I was grinning from ear to ear. I still wasn’t sold on my having any innate talents—this could all be part of the house’s influence somehow. But the evidence indicated that I was communicating with trees. With trees! Not to mention that I was following a very unusual kitten.

  I giggled. I couldn’t help it. I felt like I should be carrying a glittery magic wand and wearing a gauzy fairy princess dress that billowed in the breeze along with the leaves. Despite my inner skeptic, I admitted that the experience truly was magical.

  By the time we’d circled around the side of the house, it was late afternoon. Fuzzy stopped as we reached a tree that sort of lined up with my bedroom window.

  I looked across to the tree that was next to the house, the one that used to block my window. It was really young. Too young to support my weight.

  Hm. The tree I was currently in was the closest forest tree to the house. So continuing to climb around the treetops wasn’t going to help me.

  Maybe it was safe to climb down?

  I looked below me. So far, the saguaros hadn’t spread past the front edge of the house. I could try making a dash for it.

  Fuzzy had other ideas. He walked out on a branch that grew in the direction of the house.

  “Fuzzy, the tree can’t bend that far. There’s no way the tree can stretch from here to the house. Come back here. We’ve got to climb down now.”

  Fuzzy looked at me and then continued another foot down the branch.

  “Meow,” he called.

  I looked from the branch to the house. Despite Fuzzy’s optimism, I didn’t see any way that the tree could reach the house, no matter how much it bent. And I didn’t want it to overextend and hurt itself, or worse, topple over completely.

  I stared at the house for a minute.

  The tree couldn’t reach the house, but…

  Hmm.

  I had an idea. I hesitated, but then I figured, why not try.

  “Uh, House? Hi? Can you hear me?” I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hey uh, House? Any chance you could extend me a, uh, I don’t know, something like a balcony…from under my window…you know, so we can hop off this branch onto it?”

  The house was silent. It didn’t creak. It didn’t groan. It didn’t even sigh in exasperation. It just sat there. Still. Like a normal house.

  I looked at Fuzzy. “Maybe I have to be inside the house for it to hear me?”

  A sudden cracking sound startled me so much that I nearly fell off the branch. I had a small heart attack until I realized the crack wasn’t the branch breaking. It came from the house.

  I flailed about for a few moments struggling to regain my balance. When I had myself under control, I looked at the house.

  I stood riveted.

  Parallel to the ground, the floor of a balcony flowed out of the house’s side. When the balcony approached our branch, the rate of growth slowed, and then stopped altogether when our branch dangled over it. Beautiful posts in the shape of small trees popped up along each side of the balcony floor. The branches at the tops of the tree-shaped posts wove together to form a railing that lined either side of the balcony.

  “Wow.” The way things were going, I was going to have to come up with some better words to express my awe, but really, “Wow” pretty much covered it.

  Fuzzy hurried down the tree branch and leapt gracefully onto the balcony. He ran across it and in through the window, which opened for him as he approached.

  I scrambled after him, albeit much less gracefully. I went as far as I could down the branch, then sort of jumped/fell onto the balcony below, landing with a thump that reverberated through the floor. Fortunately it held.

  I looked back to see the tree resuming its natural position. I waved a thanks, then hurried after Fuzzy into my room.

  When I climbed in the window, I was greeted by the sound of crunching. I popped my head into the bathroom to see Fuzzy chowing down on his kitty kibble.

  A wave of exhaustion washed over me. The room blurred, and I got really dizzy. I stumbled over to the bed and the last thing I remembered was pitching forward before I blacked out.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I dreamed that I was surrounded by sagauros, and they were taking turns pummeling me in the head with their thorny arms. Each time they hit me, I’d get a sharp spike of pain in my head, followed by a deep aching.

  I forced myself awake from the dream. When I opened my eyes, the saguaros were gone. The headache wasn’t. My head hurt so bad I thought I was gonna barf.

  “She’s awake.” I turned my head to see Wil and Nor. That small movement made my vision blur and my stomach lurch.

  I swallowed hard.

  “Is your head killing you?” Nor looked concerned.

  “Mmrf.”

  “Don’t try to move too much, Finn.” She moved closer to the bed. She was holding a cup with a straw sticking out of it. “Drink this. It’ll taste really sweet, but try to drink as much as you can.”

  I got my head about a half inch off the pillow, drank what I could, and lay back.

  “Give it a few minutes. The sugar will help with the energy drain. There’s pain killer in there, too, to help with the headache.”

  I knew that I had questions, but before I could concentrate enough to ask them, I fell asleep again.

  Something cold and wet on my lips woke me up again.

  I opened my eyes to find Fuzzy’s nose nudging my mouth.

  “Ugh. Blech. Thppt,” I said, spitting and sputtering as I turned my head. “Okay, okay. I’m awake.” I did a quick systems check. My headache had toned its assault down from murder to mere breaking and entering—it was still there, but it wasn’t trying to kill me anymore. When I’d turned my head, my vision didn’t blur. I wasn’t nauseous. I decided to try sitting up.

  Fuzzy and I were alone in my room. It was full dark outside. A look at my watch told me that it was 9 o’clock, so I’d been out at least three hours.

  My door opened, and Nor came in carrying Fuzzy’s bottle.

  She closed the door behind her and came right over to me, a look of relief on her face. “Oh hey, you’re up again. How are you feeling?”

  “Better.”

  She scooped up Fuzzy and sat with him in the chair. She said, “I’ll take care of him. You drink the rest of that shake.”

  I sat up, and leaned back against the headboard and sipped at the shake. “Where’s Wil?”

  “He’s keeping the rest of them at bay until you have a chance to recover.”

  “Recover? Nor, what happened? I remember getting back here to my room and then I just—”

  “Passed out?” Nor ran a hand through her hair. “The short version is that you used too much magic too quickly and suffered a severe backlash.”

  Wil came into the room, shut the door behind him, and stopped short. The same look of relief I’d seen on Nor’s face washed over his. “Oh thank God, it worked.”

  Nor said, “Wil came up with that concoction.”

  Wil said, “Do you even remember waking up and drinking it?”

  I nodded.

  He huffed out a breath. “Okay good. That’s really good.” He rubbed his nose under his glasses.

  “Why are you guys so worried?” I asked, finishing the shake and putting the cup on the table next to me.

  Nor’s lips compressed into a thin line. “What Sarah just pulled? It’s—”

  Wil said, “Irresponsible? Dangerous? How about we go with inexcusable.” He started pacing.

  “I was going to say unconscionable, but all of those are also true.”

  Wil wrung his hands as he paced. He said, “Finn, there’s so much you need to learn…magic, it comes with a lot of rules and procedures. You don’t kn
ow any of them. Hell, you didn’t even know magic existed till Sarah told you.”

  “I was trying to ease into telling you when Doug interrupted us earlier,” Nor said.

  Wil nodded. “So what the fuck Sarah thought she was doing, giving you a test that would require the level of magic it did…” He threw up his hands in the air.

  I looked at Nor. “The professor just said ‘fuck.’ This is really bad, isn’t it?”

  Nor nodded.

  “How bad?”

  Wil said, “Well, let’s see. If you use magic, and you don’t know what you’re doing, all sorts of delightful things can happen. There’s the minor stuff,” he started ticking them off on his fingers, “exhaustion, headaches, nose bleeds, passing out. Then there’s the really fun stuff like, say, nerve and brain damage. It goes downhill from there.” Wil stopped pacing and sat, pinching his nose again. “It’s going to be chaos when the council hears about this.”

  Nor raised an eyebrow, “Good thing you’ve positioned yourself to charge in and help them settle things down.”

  Wil smiled. It reminded me of Nor’s shark smile. “Hey, it’s not my fault I have firsthand knowledge of this weekend’s events. And that I’m a walking encyclopedia about the history of the house. And that I could be invaluable in helping them sort through this. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

  I couldn’t give a flying fig newton about the council or Wil’s political maneuvering right now. I was too busy being terrified.

  Nor noticed. She leaned forward and took my hand. “As your lawyer, I took the liberty of acting on your behalf while you were unconscious. I informed Sarah—in front of Meg and Doug—that her actions were dangerous enough to skirt the line of committing an assault. Sarah knows that I can’t prove intent, so an assault charge wouldn’t stick, but just bringing a case against her would seriously damage her standing with the council—it could even be a cause for having her removed. I informed all of them that they were to leave you alone until you gave me instructions to allow them access. So, for the moment, you’re safe here. There’s no need to worry.”

  Wil’s evil grin reappeared as he looked at Nor. “Speaking of positioning, you just stood up to the head of the council. I give it a week, tops, before that makes the rounds. If you weren’t already partner, I’d say you just earned yourself a ticket to the top. But I’m sure you have something in mind that you can parlay all this into.”

  Nor gave him a knowing smirk but didn’t say anything.

  I stifled a sigh. The more I learned about Foster politics, the more I wished my mom had taken my dad’s last name when they married. Okay, Nor and Wil were acting in their own interests. They’d been upfront about that, and I really couldn’t expect any less, given that we’d known each other for like five minutes. But, their personal strategizing aside, they’d still both helped save my bacon in their own ways.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Thank you both, for looking out for me.”

  Wil gave me a half-smile. “See I told you I’d come in handy. That concoction I gave you for your magic hangover? That’s only written down in one place that I know of.”

  “How’d you even remember it?” I asked.

  Wil tapped his temple and smiled. “Photographic memory.”

  Fuzzy hopped up next to me, and began kneading me and purring. He seemed happy, too, that Wil’s hangover cure had worked.

  I asked, “Speaking of hangovers, how’s the house? It must’ve taken a lot of magic for the house to do what it did. Are you okay house?”

  The house was silent.

  Nor said, “We think it’s sleeping.”

  Wil said, “According to the records, any time the house gets too low on energy, it needs to, well, basically to take a nap to recharge. It’s kind of like a milder version of what happened to you. Given the house hasn’t been at full strength for a while, and it doesn’t have a full housekeeper at the moment, my best guess is that it just overdid it a bit.” Wil scrubbed his hand across his face. “Another reason the council is going to have a fit—the house overtaxed itself because of what Sarah did. I don’t think there’ll be any permanent damage. Hopefully, it’ll wake up soon.”

  My eyes teared up. I didn’t mean to hurt the house when I asked for help. Wil didn’t know that the house was actually even more drained than he thought because it’d helped me last night and throughout the test.

  Nor saw my eyes welling and patted my leg, “Hey, it’s okay. The house is a creature of magic and, unlike you, knows what it’s doing. I’m sure it’s fine. It just needed a break.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure. We were watching that whole balcony thing at the end there. That trick with the gorgeous banisters weaving together like that? Yeah, the house could’ve put up plain posts. Or none at all. Instead, it did those intricate woven-branch posts. The house knew we were watching, so I’m fairly certain that, in addition to paying homage to what you had just accomplished, the house was also giving Sarah the finger. If the house was able to exude that much attitude, then I’m sure it’s fine. It’s just tired, is all.”

  “Ok.” I hoped when it woke up that it didn’t feel as crappy as I was feeling. Physically, the nausea had passed, but I was achy and disoriented. Emotionally…I was a jumble. Confused and terrified on one side, while on the other I was a wiggling puppy of delight because holy cow, magic!

  But mostly, listening to how silent the house was, I felt like I’d done something bad and had screwed everything up. I really, really wanted out before something even worse happened. “If the house is asleep, does that mean it’s not working?”

  Nor shook her head. “The house’s protection magic remains in place, whether it’s awake or not. It just can’t communicate while it’s sleeping. So, no, you can’t leave.”

  I blushed. That’s exactly what I’d been thinking. My urge to get the hell out of there was nearly overwhelming. Sarah had said I couldn’t opt out of tests until the final one. Since this latest one could’ve turned my brain to mush, I really didn’t want to do any more.

  I looked at Nor and Wil. They’d been super helpful and were doing the best they could. But bottom line was that they’d both acted in ways that would bring them the most benefit. I suddenly felt desperate for some outside perspective.

  I asked, “We can’t go out. But people can come in, right? I was able to come back to the property after Sarah put the ‘you shall not pass’ ban in place, right?”

  Wil looked confused. “Right. Why?”

  “I need another favor,” I said. My stomach rumbled. “But first I need to eat.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Wil volunteered to go to the kitchen. While he was gone, I told Nor what else I needed. She looked thoughtful but nodded and didn’t argue with me.

  I’d no sooner put my phone back in my purse than Wil returned with a tray set for two.

  “I didn’t want them to know you were awake yet, so I told them I was getting sustenance for me and Nor while we maintained our vigil.” He handed me the tray. “Try to eat as much as you can.”

  No problem there. I went from hungry to ravenous with my first bite of food. Halfway through my second sandwich, I looked up to find them smiling. “Ish thish normal?” I said around a mouthful of food.

  Nor said, “Being that hungry after such a big magic drain? Yup.”

  Wil added, “It’s a good sign, actually.”

  I ate everything in sight in under 10 minutes. I woofed it down so fast that even Fuzzy was looking impressed.

  Wiping my mouth, I asked, “Do we need to feed the house?”

  Wil said, “You can’t. Only the housekeeper knows the house’s precise needs, including what, if anything, it needs to eat. And only the housekeeper can attend to them.”

  Well that was a stupid system. I said, “Meg had better be doing that part of her job better than she’s been doing everything else.”

  I set the tray aside and tried standing up. I had t
he kind of pulling exhaustion you feel when you climb out of a pool. Not only are all your muscles tired from swimming, but you also go from the water buoying you to having to fight gravity all by yourself.

  “How do you feel?” asked Nor.

  “Tired, but I’m not dizzy.” I took a couple of experimental steps. “Yeah, I think I’m fine.” I looked at Wil. “Thanks again for the miracle shake.”

  “No problem. Just glad it worked.”

  I walked around the room, making sure I had my sea legs. I had a ghost of a headache, and I felt like I could sleep for a year, but I could function. “Wil, are they all in the kitchen?”

  “Meg and Sarah and her assistants were in the dining room, but they converged on the kitchen as soon as I set foot in there. I assume they went back to the dining room when I left. I don’t know where Doug is. Why?”

  “I need to go outside.”

  Wil asked, “Why?”

  I said, “The less you know the better. Look, you’re still playing both sides of the fence right now, which is fine since you’ve been up front about it, but it means things could get sticky for you. If Sarah asks you where I am, you’ll have to tell her. Then you’ll feel bad about ratting me out. It’s not fair to put you in that position. Don’t worry, I’m not going far.”

  I looked at Nor. “I’m thinking the back door is out. That leaves the front door, which actually works better for me, anyway. Do you think you guys can provide me enough cover to slip out?”

  Wil looked confused but he said, “The bodyguards, er, assistants are going to be the biggest problem.”

  “They go where Sarah goes. I bet if both you and I go to the kitchen, they’ll all cram in there with us,” said Nor. Her smile had an edge to it when she said, “I’ll tell them that it’s taking so long for you to wake up that I want to talk compensation and possible medical care options. I can’t wait to see what Sarah has to say, particularly now that she’s had time to stew since I dropped that assault threat.”