Shifting (The Prophecy, The Spy, and The Ghostly Guardian) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 2)

by Humphrey - D'aigle Rachel

  Was there a search party out looking for them? Would Sebastien even remember her in three years’ time? She set down her mug and cookie, unable to eat.

  Billie smiled compassionately. “It’s a real shame I’ll say again, you two being stuck here. Must have plenty of people worried about ya back home. If I knew of any way to even get a message to them, I’d sure help ya out.”

  “Thanks, Billie,” said Meghan. She reminded her of Kanda just a little. A rougher, brasher version. Still, regardless, it felt like Billie would be a good friend in this new world.

  Their host sat cross-legged on the floor, shuffling through some folders when a photograph of a woman slipped out. Billie’s rugged eyes saddened, and even though it was a black and white picture, it was easy to see that the woman’s natural features were pale, her smile addictive. A tattoo crawled over her left shoulder and up her neck.

  Jae sighed. “It’s been a long time, Billie? Hasn’t it?”

  “Yes. Such a long time.” Billie slipped the picture back into the folder. She cleared her throat. “No worries now. We all have loved ones we haven’t seen in a long time.”

  Meghan was about to ask what she meant when Jae interrupted.

  “I hate to run, Billie, but I should show these two around and get them settled in.”

  “Sure, sure, a ‘course. Thanks for coming and don’t be strangers. Stop in any time you like. If you weren’t staying with the Mochries, I’d have invited you both to stay with me. If it gets too crowded, well not to impose on your family’s generosity, Jae. But my door’s always open.”

  “Thanks, Billie,” returned Jae.

  She nodded and went back to searching through her folders. As the trio departed, the twins noticed her slide out the photo of the pale, tattooed woman. It looked as though it broke her heart to see it and she cast her gaze to the floor, clutching the photo to her heart. As pained as they already were over their uncle, this depressed them even more. There was a lot they didn’t understand about this place. Why hadn’t Billie seen this woman in so long? Who was she? Had she died? Somehow, the twins didn’t pick up the vibe that the woman was deceased.

  Jae led them out of Billie’s house and back into Bedgewood.

  “I like Billie,” blurted Colin, unexpectedly.

  Meghan raised her brow, impressed. Her brother had met someone and not shied away from her. She could sense the confidence he felt over Billie.

  This is good, she thought, blocking him from hearing. She liked the idea of Colin having another ally here, besides her or Jae.

  “She is great,” agreed Jae. “Couldn’t be more opposite from her brother.”

  “I can’t believe they’re even from the same family,” retorted Meghan.

  “I don’t remember, ‘cause this was years ago, but Billie insists that Garner wasn’t always mean. Says he’s changed since we started traveling again.”

  “So you haven’t always?” asked Meghan.

  “No. Like I said before, we actually come from the same world you live in.”

  “That’s right,” remembered Colin. “Off the Northern Maine coast.”

  “Yeah. But we haven’t been home in a long time.”

  “How long?” asked Meghan.

  “Almost thirteen years ago.”

  “So until thirteen years ago, you lived off the coast of Maine,” she clarified. “Who could’ve guessed we have been camping every summer just a few hours away from a magical island?”

  Jae chuckled. “It is odd. When you think about it like that, I guess.”

  As anxious as the twins were about the unknown fate of their uncle, and their new life with the gypsies, it was becoming obvious that the Svoda had some serious problems of their own. And they were now stuck in the middle of it.

  Meghan shook off her apprehensions. “In all the confusion today, Jae, we didn’t ask how your father is doing. Shouldn’t you be with him, rather than showing us around?”

  “Yeah, we can wait,” agreed Colin.

  “No, it’s fine. My dad is getting better. I saw him this morning. He might even come home tomorrow. It’ll still take a while for him to fully heal.”

  “What about that huge gash across his chest?” asked Colin.

  “We do things a little differently here when it comes to healing.”

  “Oh, right. Magic,” said Colin.

  “Not all injuries are so easily healed with magic. This time we were lucky!” insisted Jae. They arrived back in the village center and Jae pointed out where they had come in. It was an odd sight to behold, an ornate wooden door framed by two trees. Jae pointed out the shops; most were closed and not in business. They left the main village and trudged closer to the Mochrie home. Just out of town, he pointed out an old brick building, far off the road.

  “That’s our school.”

  “I hadn’t even thought about school,” mumbled Colin.

  “Will we have to go? We can’t exactly be in classes that teach magic,” said Meghan. She hoped perhaps this one thing could go right, and she would not have to attend school.

  “Guess we’ll see,” said Jae, not knowing the answer.

  On the twins’ next inhale the smell of the ocean overwhelmed their nostrils. They were close to the water here. Something they both enjoyed. The cobblestone road they strolled down merged into one made of packed down dirt. A cluster of shingled cottages, all colored in dark browns and yellows popped into view. Green stiff shrubs lined the streets, breaking only for small, gated entrances. They passed a side street to their right.

  “That’s our closest ocean access,” Jae noted. As he said it, another strong whiff of ocean wafted by, reminding them of their many trips to the Maine coast. They stopped in front of an iron gate, which Jae swung open.

  “This is our home while we’re here in Grimble, and now, I guess it’s your home away from home, too.”

  He opened the front door and showed them in. The inside of the cottage was not what the twins expected. It was normal sized, unlike the wagons. It was cozy and warm, and a haven from the fog and drizzle still falling outside.

  Sheila, and Jae’s sister Mireya, were in the kitchen cooking over an old-fashioned wood stove; it was about four feet long and made of iron, with copper pots hanging overhead. Across from the stove was a stone fireplace; a large pot simmered over the fire. Dried herbs and fruit hung from the ceiling. A wooden table and chairs filled the middle of the kitchen, with a small sofa covered with a plaid pattern shoved against the wall. The twins thought for a moment they had stepped back in time.

  “Good, you’re back,” began Sheila. “Dinner will be a bit yet. How did you two like our little village?”

  “It’s very nice,” answered Meghan sleepily.

  “Anything new on Dad?” asked Jae.

  “Nothing new,” Sheila replied. “Show our guests where they will sleep. Oh, and there are some packages upstairs for you two, things you’ll need while you’re here.”

  “People sent them,” added Mireya. “They assumed you would need clothes and stuff.” Her voice was young and giggly.

  “Clothes?” Meghan perked up.

  Jae and Mireya took them up a wooden spiral staircase. The rest of the cottage had the same old-fashioned feel as the kitchen. There was nothing remotely modern about the place. The twins imagined this is what the coastal cottages looked like before the invention of such things as electricity or indoor plumbing.

  At the top of the stairs was a short hallway, with two doors on the backside, and one to their immediate left.

  “The one directly across from us, that is where we sleep,” said Mireya, in her playful voice.

  Meghan glanced at the door, wondering if she had heard correctly. “Where we sleep?”

  “Yes, we all share a room here.”

  Meghan and Colin were used to sharing a room, but the thought of two extra people was a little daunting.

  Jae opened the door to the left. “This is the bath-room.” Inside was a large porcelain tub a few fee
t from the fireplace, with a bronze pump attached. There was a matching pump latched to a deep sink on the wall.

  Wow. Pumping water by hand. It’s like the campgrounds… Colin caught her thought and smirked in agreement.

  “How do I run hot water?” asked Meghan.

  “That’s what the fireplace is for,” twittered Mireya, twirling her way out of the room.

  “Don’t worry,” said Jae. “We have ways of heating up water, fast.”

  Another question popped into Colin’s mind.

  “If this is the bath-room, where is the toilet?”

  “Not inside. This is for bathing only.” Jae walked to the end of the hallway and nodded to a small window. The twins peered through the window to a rectangular shack in the backyard.

  “Outhouse,” Jae said, adding smugly, “Just beware.”

  “Beware of what?” asked Colin, not sure he could handle any more bad news.

  “Spiders, real big ugly ones. But they’re perfectly harmless,” he insisted. “They’re like statues. You’ll rarely ever catch one moving.”

  “In the outhouse?” verified Meghan.

  Jae nodded yes.

  Both twins secretly took bets on how long they could hold it, before facing the outhouse spiders. And what if they had to pee in the middle of the night? They’d really have to get dressed and go outside? They guessed it wasn’t any worse than when their uncle’s travel trailer toilet broke down, and they were all stuck using campground facilities. It still wasn’t fun. And the campgrounds didn’t have large spiders guarding the toilets…

  Next, Jae showed them into the shared bedroom. Once inside, the twins knew it would not be as bad as they had pictured. Lining the side and back walls were four small curtained rooms. They were surprisingly similar to the rooms the twins were used to: a bunk bed, with a chair and table underneath, a small dresser beside the bed, and about three feet of space between the bed and the curtain.

  “It’s small,” said Mireya, “but comfy.” She closed her curtain, hiding behind it. A number of packages covered in brown paper lined the twins’ beds.

  “Actually, it’s not bad at all, huh Sis,” said Colin, trying to think positively about yet another reminder of home, and their uncle.

  “Yeah,” she answered, hoping she could handle this many roommates. “Should I open these?” asked Meghan, looking at her packages.

  Mireya’s curtain flew open. “Oh, yes,” she exclaimed excitedly. “I can’t wait to see what people brought. Even Banon Blackwell had something delivered. That’s such an honor!”

  It was becoming clear to the twins that they would have even less privacy than they were used to back home.

  “How can we thank everyone for being so nice?” asked Meghan.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Mireya. “That’s what people do here. No one has real jobs or money anymore, we all share.”

  “No money?” questioned Meghan.

  “Not no money,” corrected Jae. “People still have it. It just doesn’t do us much good, living like we do.”

  “So people share everything?” Meghan tried to comprehend. She also didn’t understand why people would be nice enough to give them these things, especially when it was clear they weren’t welcome. Perhaps not everyone felt that way.

  “We share things, more or less,” explained Jae. “Take the café, for example. It’s always open and you don’t pay to eat. We’re not a large enough number to charge each other and make any money. We save our money for what we need from the outside world.”

  The twins nodded. It made sense, they guessed. Hard to make money off such a small group of people.

  “How many are you?” Colin asked.

  “A couple hundred,” answered Jae.

  Meghan sat down on her bed, ready to open the first package; she noticed a ladder leading to a small loft. “What’s up there?”

  “Not much. A place to sit and study.”

  Meghan wanted to check it out; perhaps it could be a place of solitude.

  Colin climbed a few rungs of the ladder, stopping before he got too high. He noticed a short door on the back of the loft wall. Jae answered his question before he could ask.

  “It’s a crawl space that connects the upstairs rooms. Don’t use it much.”

  “Wow, a secret hiding place in such a small cottage,” Meghan said, impressed. She opened a package, deciding to save Juliska Blackwell’s for last, secretly hoping it would be something that Juliska, herself, would wear. The woman looked perfectly groomed and stylish each time Meghan saw her. She wondered if the leader dressed herself or had help.

  After she’d opened nearly all of her packages, Meghan had a pile of dresses, skirts, tunics, shoes, scarves, hats, underthings, and a few of the long-jackets she’d seen some of the gypsy women wearing. It was everything someone away from home would need. A few of the items Meghan was positive she would not wear; they were far too bright or too multi-colored for her taste. Mireya showed interest though, so she offered them to her.

  Mireya grinned from ear to ear. “Thanks, but are you sure? These are really nice.”

  “Yes, definitely sure,” replied Meghan. Away from home or not, she’d keep to her darker colors. She wouldn’t lose herself completely.

  There was just one package left, the one delivered from Juliska Blackwell. Meghan opened it cautiously. She took out a black and gold full-length long-jacket, exactly like the ones she had seen Juliska wearing.

  “It’s magnificent. What is it?” asked Meghan.

  Mireya touched the delicate gold and black fabric. “It’s a long-jacket, very popular. They are thin, so you can wear them even if it’s warm, or over other clothes if it’s cooler. This is the prettiest one I’ve ever seen, besides the Banon’s of course.”

  Meghan wanted desperately to try it on, but she was too dirty and in need of a bath.

  “That’s a special occasion long-jacket,” said Mireya, still in awe of the piece.

  “It could possibly be the nicest piece of clothing I’ve ever owned.” But it wasn’t the only item in the box from Juliska. There was a long sleeved sweater, with a jumper looking item. It had one button in the front, up near her chest, to hold it together, and then the rest was open.

  “It’s kind of a stylish apron,” said Mireya. “Not many Svoda women like them. They prefer the front to be closed, then they don’t have to wear skirts or pants underneath. They prefer the jackets…”

  Meghan loved it. As she put her new things away, Colin dove into his own packages. He didn’t care nearly as much as his sister.

  Meghan wasn’t sure what else to talk about, so she thought up some small talk. “How old are you?” she asked Mireya.

  “Eleven and a half.” Meghan was not sure what to talk about with a giggly eleven-year-old. Meghan had never been one to enjoy giggling.

  Thankfully, Mireya continued explaining the clothes. “Those long shirts, with ties down the sides, and that apron-like piece, they help keep things clean and out of the way, which is good, because sometimes magic can be messy.”

  “Well, I won’t be practicing any magic in them.” Meghan shrugged. She was too tired to come up with more conversation. A bath sounded good. Perfect and needed actually. Mireya showed her how the bath worked; mainly, pumping in enough water, followed by Jae performing a water-heating spell.

  “We can heat water using the fireplace, if we have to,” he explained. “Magic is definitely easier and faster.”

  Before Mireya and Jae left Meghan to her bath, Colin slumped around the corner. Meghan held back a laugh, although the urge bubbled up easily in her stressed-out mind.

  Finally, she gave up and laughed, forcefully.

  Colin was dressed in a long coat-like thing; it was thin and maroon in color, with sleeves that fell to his fingertips. It was also so big on him that it hit the floor, and then some.

  “It’s not funny,” he sighed, looking downhearted.

  “Sorry,” replied Meghan, biting her lip. “
What exactly is that thing?”

  Mireya smiled kindly at him. “I think it looks wonderful, Colin. The color matches you really well.” She turned to her brother. “I do hope you will help him,” she chirped, leaving the room.

  Colin scowled. “I look stupid, don’t I?”

  “Don’t worry,” said Jae. “My mother can fix it. All the boys’ suits come extra long, so we can grow into them.”

  “Oh,” answered Colin, taking it off.

  “I’ll give it to my mother later,” said Jae, peeking out of the bath-room to see if they were alone. He closed the door, rolling his eyes. “I’ve been dying for a moment that we could talk privately. What happened at the Viancourt?”

  The twins described what had taken place.

  “They didn’t bring up you using magic, did they?” he asked Colin.

  “No, not at all. I don’t think they saw anything.”

  “That’s such a relief. I was afraid you’d be in there for hours.”

  “Or maybe not come out at all?” Meghan eyed him.

  “That too.”

  She sucked in and got up the courage to confirm her and Colin’s worst fear.

  “We really are stuck here, aren’t we, Jae?”

  “Yes. I’m afraid there’s no way, not until the next blue moon. This time it’s my fault though, and you’ll be stuck away from home much longer than I was. If there were any way of finding out anything, even if it broke a hundred rules, I’d tell you in an instant.”

  “We have no option then,” whispered Colin. He forced his mind to accept their plight. It wasn’t easy. It was hard to give in to the reality they faced. Not to fight for some way to get home.

  Jae shook his head, apologetically.

  The twins had to accept that he spoke the truth. There was no way home. They were stuck here. They needed to find a way to deal, and fit in. But how? How would they fit into a world where many did not welcome them? A world of magic, and secrets… a world they didn’t belong in, even if for some reason Colin could perform magic. And even if Meghan did somehow see a glimpse into the future, right before they’d been attacked by Scratchers in Cobbscott, with Jae.

  None of that mattered now. Only survival. Only making it through until they could go home. Meghan lifted her chin stubbornly.