by Diane Farr
“There’s a woman with him,” I murmured. “At least, I think that’s what it is. Holding his hand.” The two figures were hard to make out, reaching across a void filled with stars. Or were those supposed to be sparkling jewels?
Meg had found the image she was looking for. “Plate armor wasn’t used in battle once guns came into vogue. So we’re talking early eighteenth century at the latest. Fascinating.” She bounded back to me and snatched the blanket out of my grasp. “Where’s the woman?”
I pointed.
Meg shook her head. “Nah. That’s a man in a kilt. Women didn’t wear miniskirts in the seventeenth century.”
“With all that long hair? And, excuse me, boobs?”
Meg looked closer. “Huh. That’s strange. And what’s she got on her feet? Looks like Birkenstocks.” She started laughing.
But I wasn’t laughing. I felt a chill like a premonition going up my spine. Something was coming into focus. But it was so utterly fantastic—fantastic in the sense of impossible, a fantasy, an utter and complete fantasy—
“Zara, what’s wrong?” Meg dropped down beside me, her forehead puckering. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
My mouth was working, but no sound was coming out. I swallowed hard. “Lance…Lance told me … I’m sure he told me…” I took a shaky breath and tried again. “Lance told me last summer. Time travel is impossible.”
“Not according to Einstein,” said Meg promptly. “Why? What are you thinking?”
I stared at the blanket again. “Look,” I whispered. My finger traced the images. “A seventeenth century man. A warrior. And a hippie chick from the twentieth century. Reaching each other past the stars. Through the stars. Over the stars. Something.” My finger traveled lower, to the embroidery directly beneath the two arching, yearning figures.
It was my name.
“Zara. Look, Meggie. Together, they made Zara.” My arms were covered in gooseflesh.
“Holy Toledo,” Meg breathed. Her eyes were like saucers. “You’re right.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. I had to get a grip. “But it can’t be.”
Meg snorted. “As your best friend, Zara, I have to say—you’re in no position to call anything impossible. Most of the stuff you do is impossible.”
“But Lance specifically told me it’s impossible. He ought to know.” I wracked my brain, thinking back. Is that what he’d said? Or was I remembering it wrong? “Spellspinners can skatch through space, but not time. It’s like the way we can mess with objects—you know, alter physical properties—I used to turn broccoli into ice cream when I was little—but we can only mess with stuff that already exists. Here. With us. In the present. We can move things that are around us—“
“Telekinesis.”
“Okay. And we can change the properties of inanimate objects—“
“Alchemy.”
“Whatever. But we can’t conjure gold out of thin air. We can’t raise the dead. And we can’t time-travel.”
“But time travel isn’t like raising the dead. Anything that’s dead is gone, it’s not here anymore. So bringing it back would be like conjuring gold out of thin air—that makes sense to me. If the spirit has moved on, you can’t call it back. But time—” She shook her head slowly. “Zara, time is different. It’s here. The past, the present and the future surround us simultaneously. People always move through time in one direction—from the past, through the present, to the future. It’s like time is a river, and we’re stuck in a current. But if a person knew how to swim…” She looked at me and shivered, then shoved her glasses higher on her nose. “Zara, if anyone can manipulate time, you can.”
“Excuse me, but I’m about to seriously freak.”
“Me too.”
…
That night, I gave the blanket back to Nonny. I didn’t even take my power stone out. I figured I’d lived without it this long, I could live without it a little longer.
Chapter 10
Sometime before midnight, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number. I was amazed when it turned out to be Lance.
“You’re calling me? I didn’t even know you had a phone, let alone my number.”
“Can’t reach you any other way, babe. You’re too far away from me.”
“What’s up? And don’t call me ‘babe.’”
“Come to the well and I’ll tell you.”
I didn’t like this, but couldn’t put my finger on why. It was unnerving, somehow, to be talking to Lance and—for the first time—have no clue what he was thinking. It was like talking to just anybody! I sent my feelers out and received only the barest sense of him…not enough to pick up emotions. Although, had they been strong, I suppose I would have. Like if he’d been furious with me, for example—which he would be, if he knew I’d found my power stone and wasn’t planning to tell him anytime soon.
Now I was glad he couldn’t pick up my thoughts.
“Is it important?”
“It’s always important.”
“Can’t you just tell me?”
Silence fell. I didn’t have to read his mind to know how hard it would be for him to tell me stuff on the phone. Lance is the most secretive person I’ve ever met.
“It has to do with your protection. Come on, Zara. Meet me somewhere. You don’t have to come here if you don’t want to.”
“Can’t sk… go to the park on a Saturday night. Might be people around.”
“Right. And Foster’s Freeze is probably open late on the weekend, so that’s no good either.”
I thought for a couple of seconds. Then smiled. “Homeroom?”
His laugh was so subtle, I almost didn’t hear it. “Okay. I’ll be waiting.”
And he was gone.
I slipped on my shoes, counted to ten—since, if I got there first, he couldn’t skatch to me—and skatched.
This probably says something about us: I skatched to the front of the room, by the teacher’s desk. Lance was waiting for me in the darkness at the back of the room.
It was strange to be in a schoolroom on a Saturday night. The green emergency lights in the hall shone through the transom with a faint, eerie glow. A streetlight across the parking lot outside sent a bit of pale illumination through the wall of windows that lined one side of the room, but most of the room was completely in shadow. The empty desks looked haunted. Unnatural.
Lance strolled out from the darkness, looking completely at home—as always. “Hi,” he said.
I do wish the mere sight of him didn’t turn my bones to mush.
I leaned back against the teacher’s desk, trying to look as cool and collected as Lance. “Hi. So what’s the deal? I thought we took care of that protection thing this afternoon.”
“I just have to warn you, that shield we made works against all spellspinners.”
“That’s good.”
He had reached the front of the room. His nearness, in the strange, shadowed intimacy of the deserted classroom, sent my pulse into a gallop. I tried not to let on, but it’s hard to know what Lance picks up and what he doesn’t. The mocking smile he gave me matched his words, so it might have had nothing to do with my unruly emotions. Because what he said was, “Not if the spellspinner is you.”
I had to gather my wits for a moment. Huh?
He grinned. “Yeah. Sorry. That’s why I had to warn you. You won’t be able to cross that shield. You can leave your house—you just can’t return. Unless you skatch.”
“What?!” My voice cracked like a whip in the stillness. I clapped my hand over my mouth for a second and forced myself to calm down. “What do you mean? Are you positive?”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t ride my bicycle through it, if I were you.”
I clutched my head with both hands. “Ai yi yi. I won’t be able to go anywhere with Nonny!”
“Well, you can go with her. You just can’t return with her. In a car.”
“What would happen?”
He shook his head. “It would
n’t be pretty.”
“No, seriously. What would happen?”
His expression was grim. “I’m not sure. But I think Nonny and the car would sail through the barrier, no problem. You’d hit it like a bug hits a windshield.”
“Holy cow!”
“I’m guessing your body would stop when it hit the shield. So if the car kept going…”
“It would be like getting run over. By the back half of the car smashing through me.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
I pressed my palms together in front of me, trying to concentrate. “Okay. Okay. Help me think. How am I going to get to and from school? I have to leave the house on my bicycle or Nonny will know something’s up.”
“Ditch it somewhere safe before you reach the shield. Then skatch to the well and I’ll take you to school.”
I looked at him. He had leaned one hand on the desk, beside me, and was looming over me—very close. The air in the few inches that separated us seemed supercharged; every breath I took was filling me with his essence.
We were both picturing me, sharing his motorcycle. My body pressing against his back. My arms around him.
I had to close my eyes against the image. “Oh, Lance,” I whispered. It sounded like a moan. “I can’t.”
The attraction between us was like getting caught in a tractor beam. Was it him pulling me, or me pulling him? Both, I saw. It wasn’t just Lance, and it wasn’t just me. We belonged together. We were going to be together. And we both knew it.
I opened my eyes. “I can’t,” I whispered again. “Not yet.”
His eyes were like molten glass, hot and clear and brilliant green, even in the tricky light. “Why do you fight it?” he murmured. His voice was husky. “Why do you push me away?”
I’m afraid.
“Of what?” He was leaning closer. Slowly, slowly. “Zara,” he whispered. “Let it go. Let me touch you.”
“No.” I broke away, darting sideways. I couldn’t breathe with him so near. Then I whirled to face him and gave a shaky laugh. “You know I probably will someday. I just…I’m not ready.”
His mouth turned down wryly. “I’m not going to…”
“That’s not it.” I crossed my arms over my chest and shivered. “When you touch me, I…lose track of who I am.” I don’t know how else to explain it. “I’m not ready to give myself over to that. Whatever it is. Wholesoul.”
That made sense to him. I felt the shift in him as he acknowledged it. Lance not only knew what I meant—part of him felt the same way.
He straightened up and ran one hand through his hair, looking away from me. “Yeah,” he said softly. “You’re used to being one person. It knocks you for a loop to suddenly…double.”
I nodded. He wasn’t looking at me, but Lance doesn’t need to see my signals to pick them up.
“Maybe we’ll get used to it someday,” I said. “Take it for granted. It’ll be no big deal.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. Then his eyes met mine and something in his expression set my pulse racing again. “But I wouldn’t bet on it.”
We stared at each other, motionless. Outside, a car drove past the school. Its headlights swept through the room like a ghostly searchlight, then passed, leaving the room seeming darker than before.
“So. No motorcycle,” he said. “I’ll have to drive you to school in Rune’s car.”
I’d almost forgotten about Rune.
“Would he let you? I thought you said Rune was part of the anti-Zara brigade.”
“He is, but he doesn’t feel good about it. I figure the more he sees you, the better.”
I would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious. As it was, I rolled my eyes. “You want me to turn on the charm when I’m around him? Would that help?”
Lance’s grin flashed in the darkness. “Be yourself, cookie. He’ll still feel bad about squashing you like a spider.” He sensed my reaction and threw one hand up like a stop sign. “Kidding. That’s not the plan.”
I started breathing again. “Oh, super. What is the plan?”
“The good news is, there’s no consensus. So while they argue about it, they want to get you back to Spellhaven and bind you.” He gave a contemptuous little snort. “Like they can do that.”
“Bind me? Are we talking ropes and chains?” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but naturally Lance heard it.
“No. And it’s not going to happen anyway, so don’t worry about it.”
He sounded very certain. I sent him my doubts and he smiled. “Zara, they’re afraid of you. They aren’t going to move against you until they’re sure they have a plan that will work. And you and I are going to make sure they’re never sure.”
“Can we do that?”
“We have an ace up our sleeve.” Wholesoul.
I took a deep breath and let it out, slowly. “Okay. Lance, it’s time for you to tell me exactly what wholesoul is, exactly. What it does. How are you and I different from other spellspinners?”
I felt his surprise, and then his hesitation. “I keep forgetting that you don’t know much about us.” He was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to explain it. Evidently it was tricky to explain. I just waited.
He wandered over to the window and looked out into the darkness, thinking. “Okay,” he said. His voice was so low I could barely hear him. “Do you have any sense of Rune, or Amber? Can you tell where they are or what they’re thinking? Do you know how they feel?”
“No.”
“Me neither.” He turned to face me. “But Zara, if you got hit by a bus in Timbuktu and I was in Alaska, I’d feel it.”
“Ah.” I sat sideways in one of the front row desks and put my feet up on the next chair over. “And vice versa.”
He nodded. “When you were with Rune, could you read his mind?”
“Not quite.” I thought back. “I had a sense of what he was thinking. If he wanted me to read his thoughts, couldn’t he have sent them to me, the way we do?”
“Yes, as long as you were able to make eye contact. But he’s a fairly powerful spellspinner, and it still wouldn’t have been as clear as our communication is. Amber couldn’t do it at all. She’s almost as opaque as a stick.” He raked his hand through his hair again. “I’m not explaining this well.”
“When we first met, you sent me your thoughts.” I frowned, puzzled. “Was it a test? To see if I could hear them?”
“Sort of. I was already pretty sure you could.” He grinned. “I could hear yours.”
I felt a blush climbing up my neck, and looked away. “Great,” I muttered. I don’t remember what I was thinking that night, but whatever it was, I bet I didn’t want Lance hearing it. “So you already knew we had wholesoul?”
“No. Like I told you, it’s rare. I thought wholesoul was just an old legend.” His mouth quirked ironically. “We have a lot of old legends. That’s what happens when a race of people doesn’t write anything down. The stories survive, but they warp. They get crazier and crazier over the years.”
“Then what did you think, when you picked up my thoughts so easily?”
“I thought you were one powerful spellspinner.” His smile softened. “I still think that.”
“And so are you.” It wasn’t a question, but Lance nodded in reply.
He must have heard me thinking that total communication was what wholesoul was all about, because his next words were: “That’s not all.”
I looked up sharply. Lance’s eyes bored into mine. “We get stronger,” he said softly. “The more you and I are together, the stronger we will get. Or so the legends say. I already told you, that’s why we can’t let the others know. They’ll fear us. They already fear you, and they don’t even know what they’re up against.”
I shifted uneasily on the plastic seat. “Yeah,” I said. “I sure don’t like having all the spellspinners against me. I have a hard enough time as it is.”
“You’ve had a hard time because you’re t
rying to blend in with sticks.” Lance strolled back over and dropped into one of the desks across from me. “You gotta let go of that, babe.”
I frowned. “Maybe. Maybe not.” And stop calling me ‘babe.’
Lance shook his head. He looked regretful, but firm. “Zara, the die is cast. The Council is about to force the issue. No more stick life for you. Nobody wants to risk exposure, but something is going to happen.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. They’re hiding their plans from me. They don’t realize that you and I have wholesoul, but they know I’m on your side and that’s enough. I can tell they’re plotting, but they’re blocking me. I don’t have a clue what’s about to go down. I just know something will. I think they’re hoping I’ll talk you into coming in on your own.”
“Coming in to what?”
“Not what. Where. Spellhaven.”
“You’re joking.” I stared at him. “I can’t! I can’t skatch there. I’ve never been.”
“Haven’t you?” Lance leaned forward, studying my face. “Remember, that’s where all spellspinners are born.”
“Not this spellspinner.” I jammed my hands further into my pockets. “Nobody knows who my parents were. I could have been born anywhere. To anyone.” I tucked my newborn suspicions about my origin away quickly, before he could glimpse them. “They can’t send me there by force, can they? I mean, if I haven’t been there, I can’t skatch. And you can’t skatch another person—can you?”
Lance frowned at his fingernails, thinking. “It wouldn’t be easy. Not if you’ve really never been there. Plus it’s taboo—forcing another spellspinner like that.”
He looked uncomfortable. As well he should. We both knew he had forcibly skatched me once. It’s part of why I banished him.
“Uh-huh,” I said drily. “I can see that it would be. So no trip to Spellhaven for me.”
I felt something kind of funny in Lance’s emotions. It took me a second to realize he was embarrassed—and only partly because he didn’t like remembering that day when he tried to zombify me. “Actually, Zara, I was wrong about something I told you.” He gave me an apologetic half-smile. “I thought none of us knows where Spellhaven is. Geographically. Turns out the Council knows. And Rune.” Rune knows a lot of things most of us don’t know.
