A Wild Conversion

by Katherine Gilbert

  “How is that possible?” she asked at last.

  It was clear she wasn’t disbelieving, just confounded.

  “How can she be here . . .” She pointed down at the unmoving figure beside them. “. . . and there . . .” Her attention went to the eyes in the sky, which blinked. “. . . at the same time?”

  She shook a little, and he felt her gripping his hand, asking for strength.

  “How can we physically be inside her mind?”

  This part, at least, Frederick understood—but it was at such a deep level that it was difficult to explain. Not for the first time today, he wished that he had had the proper magical upbringing so he could speak the language he needed to.

  “I think Emma’s body has been taken somewhere.”

  He squeezed her hand, trying to support this woman his beloved one cherished.

  “I think this was her way of protecting you.”

  Poor Natalie’s jaw sagged, as she tried to form the next thought, her shock so obvious. “In-intentionally?” She blinked, her voice rising. “She knows how to do that?”

  Her reaction made it obvious that this wasn’t a normal magical ability, but apparently neither was time travel, and Hester had long since mastered that.

  Voicing his suspicions, he tried to keep his tones calm. “I’m not certain whether it was a conscious decision or one her magic made for her.”

  Giving Natalie’s hand one more squeeze, he let it go, as she seemed to be calming.

  “I don’t believe there’s much beyond death that would make her stop protecting you. And maybe not even that.”

  To his surprise, Natalie turned angry, pointing at him, standing up, although she was struggling with her skirts again. It was rather endearing, like a small child, although he hadn’t meant to bring forth her wrath.

  “You want to keep us apart, don’t you? You come in out of nowhere, some little boy with no knowledge of anything, and you just take her . . .”

  Natalie was shaking, but her tirade stopped, the rage departing as quickly as it had come. Looking ashamed, she turned away.

  “I’m sorry,” she said a moment later. Her eyes cast toward the sky again, before she started rubbing over her forehead. “It’s been a bad day, and you’re not responsible for that.”

  He held no rancor, stood to walk toward her softly. Although this conversation wasn’t particularly useful in getting them out of their current danger, it was necessary—and long overdue.

  “I’m sorry, as well. I know my coming was a shock.” He laughed softly. “It was to me, also.”

  She gazed toward him slightly, although her back was still turned, and he continued to advance cautiously, as one would with a frightened animal.

  “I would never try to destroy the bonds between you.” Even if she didn’t see, he shrugged. “I couldn’t, anyway. They’re much too strong. Besides . . .”

  He stood in front of her now.

  “This is not the era I left this morning. I see no reason why a woman can’t love a partner and a friend equally, without the two of them competing for her soul.”

  He knew his feelings—and probably his magic—showed in his eyes.

  When she looked up at him, past her hand, which was still on her forehead, a little of her old humor had returned.

  “Do you have to be so goddamned noble all the time, Frederick? It’s really annoying.”

  Despite the seriousness of the moment, he smiled.

  “I will try to remember to find some time to . . .” He consulted his mental phrasebook. “. . . pencil in some pettiness in the future.”

  Laughing, she had clearly relented, dropping her hand, but her eyes went back to the sky.

  While he knew they needed to discuss their situation, to find some way to protect them all, he had one more thing to say.

  “I’m sorry for disrupting your lives. I know all of this is sudden.”

  A little reluctantly, she looked back to him.

  “But, now that I’ve met Emma, I can’t leave her without abandoning everything I ever was or can be.”

  Nodding, she sighed. “She couldn’t let you go, either.” Rolling her eyes, she seemed both annoyed and accepting. “I knew that from the first moment she laid eyes on you.”

  Smiling in acknowledgment, he too understood that some link between himself and Emma went back much further, their meeting just a culmination of what was already there.

  “Nor you,” he acknowledged.

  While not voicing it, his eyes spoke for him. They were going to have to find a way to accept sharing the woman’s time.

  Laughing a little, Natalie looked into him. “So it’s ‘love me, love my dog,’ huh?”

  Thoroughly confused until he found the right definition, he didn’t get a chance to answer, Natalie shaking her head. “No, I get it. Some people only have enough love for one person, often just themselves.”

  Smiling, the pride shining there, her eyes scanned the sky.

  “Emma can love the entire world.”

  Returning the look and the acceptance, he saw now that she was ready to find a way through.

  Still, she spoke first. “Do you think Philbert and Hester have her?”

  “And everyone else we were protecting, yes.”

  Despite his conversion, and his burgeoning power, he was a little lost. He felt the shape of what Emma had done to bring Natalie here better than he could explain it.

  Still, the spell was hers, not his. How he was supposed to get Natalie back to the waking world, especially without damaging his beloved, was a mystery to him now.

  Natalie looked every bit as vexed as he felt, and he changed his mental path, hoping more information might help.

  “Did you learn anything from Philbert Spear?”

  While he was starting to get used to these new names, his feelings swamped him for a second, until he forced them away, his hand clenching.

  “Did he say anything about my sister?”

  This brought Natalie back to him somewhat, making it clear she had forgotten all about it, too distracted by their odd situation.

  “I think—or, actually Emma thinks, from what I could gather from her thoughts . . .” she amended, probably seeing his curiosity. “. . . that Philbert does have some sort of protective instincts for Jenny.”

  There were too many emotions for him there, none of them good. Clenching and unclenching his fist again, he attempted to let the feeling go, and she nodded.

  “He didn’t in any way seem ready to come look after her, but he did slip a little.” Shrugging and seeming confused, she looked off. “I think he may actually care.”

  This clearly went against everything she knew of the man, and Frederick had to take a deep breath to calm himself, to keep his feelings out of his rising magic. Even with the effort, his words were bitter.

  “He has a damnable way of showing it.”

  Laughing slightly humorlessly, Natalie seemed to agree, as she went on. “We had to leave because dark had fallen, and Randolph Spear’s partner . . .”

  Pausing for a moment, her amazement obvious, she amended the title.

  “. . . Emma’s mother arrived.”

  Shaking her head, she moved on.

  “The mother of the child you saved on the train is with them, but I don’t know exactly what Lily was there for, as we tried to leave then.”

  Natalie had taken a seat on a rock near where Emma lay—or rather where this projection of her was. Frederick knew her real body must be elsewhere, although he had tried to search for it diligently. Still, it made sense that he hadn’t been able to track her down, as it was her soul he was bonded to, not her physical form. He looked around them. And her soul was still definitely somewhere here.

  It lay with the two of them, really, to save everyone, so he tried to refocus on what they knew, sitting near Natalie.

  “Do you think Emma separated her mind from her body to protect herself, or was it something Philbert did to her?”

  Natalie s
hrugged lifelessly, and he nodded. There were quite a few factors he wasn’t aware of, either, but he tried to put them in order.

  “So Randolph has the luck witch’s mother.”

  “If she’s still alive,” Natalie interrupted, and he met it with his nod.

  “Philbert, Hester, and Randolph have definitely taken Benjamin, my sister, Aubry and his partner, and the two babies.”

  Shuddering a little, it was difficult to control his fury at the fiends who had taken them and at himself for not being able to do more, but he did try.

  “But what in God’s name is their plan?”

  He looked at Natalie, who shrugged.

  “They already have Olivia, who seems to be the most powerful of them all.”

  An instant later, Natalie joined his shudder. He didn’t blame her, but her ideas did move them on. “When Hester attacked earlier, just before Emma started her conversion, she wanted to take back Jenny. She said . . . what was it? ‘Her daughter frets without her’?”

  Clearly thinking into this as deeply as he was, her gaze went deep.

  “Do you think they need her to keep Olivia in line?”

  It made sense, his niece still an infant who would need her mother—which said nothing of what the child’s father’s place in all this was.

  “Is Philbert attempting to reclaim my sister for himself or for his daughter, then? From what you’ve said and I’ve seen, he doesn’t seem the family type, otherwise.”

  His companion nodded, both of them sighing, although it was Natalie who went on. “At least Emma gave the little luck witch her magic back. Even if they have her, they can’t use her for whatever they’re planning.”

  As this was exactly the point they needed to know, Frederick sighed.

  “But what is their plan, exactly? They ‘ve already gotten what they want.”

  After all, they had bred a young sorceress who was thoroughly under Hester’s control, her mother now back with them, as well. The little luck witch seemed to have been a part of their breeding program somehow, too—or at least the compulsion on the train suggested so. The only spare factor of their plan which hadn’t, apparently, worked for them was Emma herself. And now, sadly, they had at least her body under their control.

  This, however, said nothing of her mind.

  His look meeting Natalie’s deeply, their thoughts clearly turning in synch, he was ready to plan. In here, with some part of the woman’s consciousness, were two of the people who were most precious to her on earth.

  Standing up, he reached for Natalie’s hand.

  Maybe it was with this they would finally see their way through.

  Chapter 19

  Emma

  Expansion of consciousness. Consciousness is life. Life is good, and good is the universe.

  Expansion of consciousness. Consciousness is life. Life is good, and good is the universe.

  Expansion of consciousness. Consciousness is life. Life is good, and good is . . .

  The words played, wavy, in the background, a constant heartbeat of her magic humming through everything which was. There was a world inside and a world out—but, right now, they were not one and the same.

  Emma could see a purple existence which contained those she was most bonded to, the ones she still could save, but she wasn’t certain about the rest . . . wasn’t certain about herself. While she half-suspected her body was endangered, her physical life along with it, if there were one fact her bond with Frederick, and the view he had shown her into other universes, had given her, it was that life did not belong to the physical world alone.

  Of course, she had always known this. No true witch could ignore it. While magic was a physical attribute, like beauty or strength, it also flowed through the world, was part of everything which was real. It was in tapping into that force, melding it with the witch’s personal abilities, that magical acts were done. They were an expression of soul and a bond to the life of the universe itself. It was why every witch’s magic was so personal and so different.

  It was also why her experience now was so surreal and why the sorcerer’s conversion couldn’t be taught, could barely be explained, in its deeper sense. One witch’s experience wasn’t another’s, and the sorcerer you came out as was simply a far more stunning expression of the witch you had brought in.

  Emma felt her body sigh and saw it ripple out through this inner world. Hers must be an experience unlike anyone else’s before.

  The words of the mantra which was hers—and which she’d never entirely known on any conscious level before—seemed to permeate and echo off every corner of this inner land. What surprised her was that the pair which was currently hidden inside her mind couldn’t hear it. It seemed odd that they should be here and not know everything.

  It was her connection to Natalie, as well, which had made this attempt to protect her possible. Had she tried this little trick with anyone else—even her own grandfather, who had raised her tenderly since she had been a baby—it would have failed, possibly in the most terrible of ways.

  She couldn’t have even, of her own will, have brought Frederick along. She was just amazed and grateful that he had been able to find his own way.

  Life is will and love. Life is the will to love. Life is the sum of the world.

  Her inner mantra changed with her thoughts, and it saddened her a little to know, once they left this dream place, she would not remember it consciously. Yes, it would be in blood and bone but not in mind. She felt she could have learned far more about the world could she bring it to the light.

  Trying to focus past the ever-shifting mantra to what the two of them said, she heard Natalie’s voice.

  “Why has Hester—and all the rest of them—done this? What do they hope to breed into being?”

  Her beloved one answered. “I can think of two possible hopes. Either they wish to breed a powerful witch they can control completely in order to use her to help expand their dominance over all those around them, or they . . .” Breaking off, he shivered. “Do demons exist?”

  The suggestion visibly startled Natalie, and Emma couldn’t blame her, but part of her mind wondered at the simplicity of this truth.

  “You think they want a powerful pawn to sacrifice?”

  Frederick just stood there, staring his answer, and Nat’s strength seemed to desert her at last. Her hands warming her arms, fingers digging into the flesh, she crouched down and started to shiver.

  He left Natalie to ponder this, as Emma watched over them both. She supposed that either Natalie’s reaction or Frederick’s ongoing conversion as a seer had answered the demon question for him—although it might only have been a polite way to bring the subject up. Certainly, Nat knew, as did she, that real evil existed, occasionally in human form. True—unlike the human Salem’s beliefs those few centuries ago—the magical world had little to nothing to do with the realm of such creatures, but that didn’t mean the realm wasn’t there. Just ask any witch who turned toward the bad. There was always something waiting to make a deal.

  Somehow, she had always understood this. It was probably even what the experience of the temptation was truly warning about.

  Yes, Hester and her conspirators wanted power in this world, but they already had access to that. The stronger the magical family in Salem, the more total the force of their will on the community. Hester, Randolph, and Philbert could have focused solely on their domination of those with less magic, could have turned Salem into something much uglier than it already was without these current plots.

  It seemed clear, then, that their goals would reach beyond such petty control. After all, witches might be longer lived than mundane humans, but they still didn’t survive much beyond 250—and Hester would never be satisfied with giving up a lifetime’s worth of hoarded power by surrendering it to a single, normal existence.

  This plan, too, was still terribly on course.

  Watching Natalie look back up to Frederick miserably, the tears on her face, Emma wished she
could comfort her.

  “Do you think they’re planning to kill Olivia—or Jenny? Maybe the little luck witch?”

  While Frederick seemed calm, she could see beyond his skin now to the banking and glowing of his power. His body was just a dam holding back a force of magic and will which could one day protect the world—but would his access to all of it be complete soon enough?

  She watched him force out an answer. “I think it more likely that they’ll enslave Olivia first.”

  Poor Natalie was shivering again, as he summed up.

  “A shortened lifetime spent having her natural magic drained out of her, followed by the feeding to a demon of her immortal soul.”

  Natalie’s hands clasped her head, looked like she was going mad, and Emma could feel all the woman’s absolute horror, saw it in how unusually disheveled she was. Like her, she had never been able to watch the innocent suffer gladly.

  Frederick went on. “I think they planned to use Grace to boost the power of their appeal to whatever demon they’ve contacted. I think they had originally hoped to breed Lily for it but didn’t count on the force of Benjamin’s good magic undermining them.”

  Natalie looked so sad, as she gazed up at him. “You think that’s why they let Emma go? Why they turned her over to Benjamin?”

  He nodded once. “She’s a protection witch.” He gazed up, and she knew he could see her. “One of the protections she has is of herself.”

  This made sense of a great deal, really, including why they hadn’t killed her from the beginning. She even understood why her grandfather had been included in their plans in the first place.

  While they had no interest in him or his beneficence, Hester had made a mistake. Allowing her anger at her sister to poison her decision making, she had included the man simply to spite her twin—and they had therefore ended up with Emma herself, who didn’t help out any of their plans.

  Natalie obviously didn’t disagree, but her torment was clear. It seemed hard for her to even draw a deep breath through her shock. “What do we do?”

  Frederick was still looking up to the sky. “We work together.”

  He nodded at Emma, who loved him all the more.