Balaton came running to the front of the group with belts slung over their shoulders, ready for a battle if it came to it.
Meghan and Colin repeatedly thought they saw movement, but each time their eyes caught something, it disappeared just as quickly.
Jae popped in alongside Meghan, glaring menacingly across the edge of the clearing.
The crowd gasped in unison as shadows emerged from the trees, taking the form of people. And yet, they seemed to disappear and blend in with their background. Their numbers were great.
“We do not mean to cause alarm.” A firm, flat, authoritative voice. “We come only to speak to your leader, regarding an urgent matter.”
Meghan and Colin were surprised when Garner Sadorus stepped forward, rather than Juliska Blackwell.
“Show yourselves if you mean no ill will,” he demanded. Garner was dressed in all his usual glory. Boisterous overcoat. Tattoos sneaking out of the collar. Grit in his eyes. A shine on his shoes.
The leader of the new arrivals stepped out of the shadows and into the clearing.
The Svoda gasped in unison.
“Stripers!” someone nearby revealed. And somehow, that revelation made them no safer than they’d been just a second before.
At first glance, the Stripers appeared human, but upon closer inspection, the twins noticed strips of what appeared to be lizard-like skin running down their arms and necks. It seemed odd that in the chilly air, they wore only minimal clothing and did not appear cold.
“Are they human?” Colin had never seen anything like them.
Jae leaned in, whispering to the twins. “Do you remember in the retelling festival, that there was a boat lost at sea during the battle, and all were assumed dead?”
They nodded yes.
“Well, the story doesn’t add that many years later, it was discovered they had survived.”
“Survived? That’s good, isn’t it?” assumed Meghan.
“Yes, and kind of no,” said Jae. “Because the Stripers are who they became.”
Meghan and Colin had no knowledge of Stripers, but the spite in Jae’s voice warned them it was not good.
“Why don’t they look like you then?” asked Colin.
“Short version: a long time ago they befriended a group of animal magicians known as chameleons, and in return, they were given some of their magic. It changed them. Made them more than human.”
Meghan jumped when Ivan appeared at her side. After a fleeting glance downward his attention remained fixed on the Stripers.
The Striper leader approached Garner, but he spoke as if talking to everyone in the clearing.
“We have come because we are hunting something. Something evil. Something that must be destroyed.”
The Svoda remained paralyzed and could only stare at the Stripers in awe and fear.
“What is it you hunt?” inquired Garner.
The leader of the Stripers glanced around as if seeking out this new evil amongst the Svoda. As if they were hunting one of them.
“I see you have nearly cleaned up the devastation that was cast upon this place.”
At this moment, Juliska Blackwell appeared and took over for Garner. He took a few steps back, remaining close.
“What do you know about it?” demanded the Gypsy Queen.
“And you would be?” the leader asked.
Juliska did not reply immediately. Her face studied the Stripers closely. After a tense minute, she finally broke her silence.
“I am Juliska Nandalia Blackwell, Queen of the Svoda Gypsies. And you would be?”
A sinister smile spread across the Striper’s face.
“I am KarNavan. And most pleased to make the acquaintance of a Queen.” He bowed his head as if paying her respect, but something about his actions hinted that his respect was artificial.
“Again, I ask you. What do you know about the condition of this place?”
KarNavan’s face wrestled to keep its smile. “We came across this clearing in its current state, a full evening before you arrived.”
Jae pressed his foot into the ground. “They know we’ve been here, the entire time.”
“They’ve must have been spying,” Meghan stated the obvious.
It appeared as though many Svoda were under the same belief, their fearful stares now turned to angry glares.
“And you saw no one upon your arrival?” questioned Juliska.
“Not one single living person,” KarNavan replied. “Just belongings, and smoldering fires.” He paused. “If I have concluded correctly, there are people that are missing? And these people are your kin?”
“You are correct in that assumption,” Juliska replied.
The angry glares of the Svoda now dissolved into bitter disappointment as once again, the search for their loved ones seemed to be at another dead end.
“I am sorry that I cannot assist you with your missing kin. Perhaps I can bring you some good news…” He snapped his fingers and out of the woods trudged the missing hunting party.
Cries of relief spread, friends and family raced forward to welcome home their missing loved ones.
“We got lost,” said one of the hunters. “Our magic gave out and we just couldn’t find the way back to the clearing. We walked around lost for days until the Stripers found us.”
The leader of the party whispered to Garner as he passed by him.
“We told them nothing except who we are and that we were hunting.” He tossed him a narrowed gaze the Viancourt member caught onto. They may have saved us, but I do not trust them. Garner nodded that he understood.
“Thank you for returning our hunting party. We feared the worst,” Juliska told the Stripers. “With that appreciation in mind, shall we get to the point of your visit? You know better than I that your reputation is not built upon trust, kindness, or compassion.”
KarNavan’s menacing smile returned.
“We realize our reputation precedes us, our work is sometimes cutthroat in nature,” his eyes narrowed in shrewd pleasure. “But we ask for peace, because now we fight a common enemy. We were once brothers. Let us be brothers once again.”
“You wish us to make peace?” Juliska’s voice mocked. “You pursue treasure at the bequest of the highest bidder, and as you say, your cutthroat methods are well known.”
Ivan scowled. “They only kept the hunters alive to more easily enter our camp. An attempt to gain our trust.”
Meghan pushed down a hard swallow of nerves.
“So this is what you mean by ‘yes, and kinda no,’” said Colin to Jae. “Good that they survived, but bad, because they turned into maniacal treasure hunters?”
Jae’s reply was a low snarl.
Meghan, Colin, Ivan, and even invisible Catrina flicked their heads in his direction.
Did they just hear Jae snarl? Like an animal?
Talk about your non-human behavior.
Meghan sniffed in, wrinkling her nose, about to ask where the mothballs had suddenly come from when an old withered hand reached from behind them all, touching Jae’s shoulder. He spun around staring down Tanzea Chase. Who said nothing, ignored the rest of them, and gave Jae a look that he nodded in response to. Before walking away without explanation. Mothball lady followed him.
How much more bizarre was this day going to get?
And worse, as Colin and Catrina turned their attention back to the Stripers, Meghan’s gaze pinned on Ivan. Who was wearing a look that claimed the world had just gotten a death sentence with no chance of survival.
This was it. The horrible thing happening to Jae.
Some change had happened. Just now.
Meghan was not used to seeing horror in someone’s eyes, but least of all, Ivan’s. She almost grabbed him and tore him away to demand right this minute to tell her everything.
But when his gaze caught hers she almost broke into instant uncontrollable tears. Hell burned there. Fury. A man torn apart. And Meghan watched it all slip away. Go cool. Flat. Become the Iva
n she recognized. He said nothing, turning back to the Stripers.
The complexities of Ivan Crane. A mystery Meghan swore to figure out. She had no choice if she wanted to help Jae.
The conversation between KarNavan and Juliska was getting heated.
The Striper bounded onto a table top to better see everyone.
“The enemy we seek is one of you!” he charged.
The crowd gasped, aghast at the ridiculous accusation.
“What is the meaning of this?” Garner shouted.
Juliska raised her hand to calm him. She turned back to KarNavan.
“I ask the same question. What is the meaning of this charge?”
“The enemy we seek is not only an enemy to us, but to all that live in the magical and non-magical world. A child. A child that will one day become a Projector...”
The crowd had no response but to fall into deafening silence.
“This is not possible. Projectors died out long ago,” insisted Juliska.
“What I believe you mean to say is, were killed off long ago. Regardless of this point, I unfortunately, speak the truth. We have been tracking the magic of this child Projector for the last few months. We were finally able to track the location. It brought us here.”
Panic ensued.
The Svoda began looking around at each child, wondering which unlucky soul it could be. It seemed the Stripers had no idea.
“The child must have caused this devastation,” a voice shouted.
“Yes. It’s not one of ours! It must’ve been from the other group,” someone called back.
“Calm yourselves!” Juliska forcefully ordered her people before they could say more and get themselves in a panic she could not contain. Though the hints of it lingered thick. “While I believe that the existence of a Projector is not possible,” she continued, aiming her words at the Stripers, “I must ask, what are your plans, once you find this child?”
KarNavan cast his gaze over the people. He avoided the Banon’s question.
“We will leave you now, to think about what we have told you. We will return.”
The Stripers retreated from the clearing and melted into the woods.
“How do we know they actually left, since they can blend in?” asked Meghan.
“We don’t,” answered Ivan, darkly.
The group waited for their Banon to speak.
Once she felt it safe to do so, she made only a quick statement.
“I will take the information we’ve just heard under council of the Viancourt. Balaton, keep your perimeters under constant surveillance.”
The Balaton scurried to keep guard of their borders.
Which had almost instantly become small and crowded. An overall lack of free air or any solace.
“Garner, bring me the leader of the hunting party. I wish to speak with him. Darius, Tanzea, please wait for me in my tent.”
The mothball woman had made her way back, Jae was nowhere to be seen.
Garner dashed away to locate the leader of the hunting party while Darius and Tanzea worked their way to Juliska’s tent.
“As for everyone else,” she grabbed her people’s attention. “At this time, nothing has changed. Attend to your duties. Until we can either prove or deny this Projector claim, we must be vigilant. Keep your eyes and ears open!”
Juliska nodded toward Meghan, beckoning her.
“Gotta run,” said Meghan. Before she did though, she caught Ivan attempting to ignore her and sent him a glare that had only one meaning: you and I are not finished.
The crowd dispersed slowly, distrust mounting, now more than ever before. Neighbor suspect of neighbor. Especially the children. Some had looks of despair. Some, anger and bewilderment.
When Colin and the invisible Catrina arrived back at Billie’s tent, he was surprised to see her home, sitting in the front room. At least, technically speaking, she was sitting there. She looked a million miles away.
“What terrible times to be alive,” she whispered.
Colin sat down across from her. Catrina stayed close to listen.
“Billie, can I ask you, what exactly is a Projector?”
Her gaze burrowed into Colin’s.
“A poor, helpless creature with no choice but to accept its terrible fate.”
Colin had expected bad, but the way Billie spoke, it was as if there was simply no hope. “And that fate is?”
“Death. Only death.”
He sucked in. Having expected no less, but what a thing. To be condemned before you’d even had a chance to live.
“Projectors were thought to have died out long ago,” Billie continued. “To be more correct, as the Striper so bluntly put it, were killed off long ago.”
“Why?”
“Projectors, as children, are much like any other child. However, as they age, they change. They will become evil. They cannot stop it. Even if as a child they were a saint, their fate is sealed.”
Billie stood up now, invigorated by her story.
“Once a Projector reaches maturity, at age seventeen most believe, magic turns on them like an infectious disease.”
“What happens exactly? Do they turn seventeen and just start killing people?”
“I am afraid it is rather more complex than just killin’. A Projector’s magic has no boundaries. No limitations. It is more magic and power than any human can control. It can fulfill any whim in the blink of an eye. The hint of a thought. An entire village could be wiped out of existence. An entire landscape completely changed. A Projector will destroy everything they love, touch, or even think about, without the most careful control. Control that’s just not possible for a human mind. This… this is why they are searched out and killed without mercy. By no fault of their own, they are born, doomed.”
“Wow,” was the only response he could muster. It did not seem to do this revelation justice.
“Wow indeed, Mr. Jacoby. Wow indeed,” Billie agreed. “You see, it is thought that it’s a defect of sorts. Something the child is born with. Magic gone awry. And there is no cure. No chance of changing their fate.”
Colin glanced at Catrina. She, however, did not look as astonished at this information as he did. She must have already known this, like everyone else.
“It could literally be any child,” Billie told him. “Even a child that’s been deemed something else, like your sister being a Firemancer. Not that it’s her of course, just an example,” Billie explained. “The signs start coming on stronger in the teen years.”
Colin had a question on the tip of his tongue and almost refused to ask, but it came out anyway. “What kind of signs?”
“It can be different for each child, but in general, their nature will start to change. The nicest person will suddenly become mean, cunning, or vengeful. There will be an increase of magical accidents. Unexplainable happenings.”
“Like the devastation we found when we got here?”
“Perhaps, although, not likely. The devastation has a more physical cause behind it. Too humanized, if that makes sense. Not magical in nature.”
Colin let out a long sigh. His thoughts at first, landed on Jae. Was this the terrible thing Meghan kept seeing in her visions? And the way he was acting lately? And that snarl?
“Chances are this child doesn’t even know what they are. If what the Striper’s say is true though, and they did track a real Projector’s magic here…” Billie did not finish and her stare grazed over the trunk she had dragged into her tent.
“I can’t imagine,” Colin started, then stopped. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to find out you are that child. Finding out you have no future. No chance. Or that if you lived you would destroy everything or anyone you cared about.”
“It is a terrible fate,” fretted Catrina, sadly. She disappeared into the room they shared. Billie, of course, unnoticing of the invisible girl.
“A horrendous tragedy for any family,” Billie concluded. “There are tales of families going on the run, t
rying to protect their child, blind to the horrors to come. Only to fall prey to the uncontrollable magic, or to be killed alongside the child.”
They sat in silence for a while.
Colin tried to picture the faces of the children he had gone to school with in Grimble, or seen walking around the camp. Was it one of them? Had that child unknowingly caused the devastation? If so, what had happened to all those Svoda? Were they dead? Lost? Or had some other tragedy befallen them? Could the Stripers themselves have had something to do with their disappearance?
His brain was trying hard to avoid the conclusion it was coming to.
Glass Coffin. Left behind in a sleep she wasn’t meant to awaken from.
Left to dream away her life…
It couldn’t be. It simply could not be Catrina.
But if it was… had he saved her only to doom her to an unchangeable fate?
Death, at the hands of maniacs, crazy over what she would become.
No. It cannot be her.
It just can’t.
Meghan arrived alongside Juliska at her tent. The Viancourt, along with Pantin Hollee, were already seated at the table awaiting the Banon’s arrival.
“Please feel free to wait for me in my room. I will be along shortly,” Juliska told Meghan.
Meghan, having no desire to be in the same room as Garner Sadorus or mothball lady, obliged without question. Nona joined her moments later.
“I guess we can still hear what goes on outside this room,” she said.
“Hadn’t thought of that,” Meghan whispered. “Guess I don’t need to whisper, seeing as they cannot hear us. Still, it seems strange we can hear them just a few feet away, and yet if I were to shout, they would not hear it.”
“Let’s not test that theory right now,” suggested Nona, tuning into the conversation now beginning in the front room.
“Sounds heated,” Meghan added.
They heard the voice of Darius Hadrian.
“I fear the Striper speaks the truth. Nevertheless, history proves they cannot be trusted. There may well be a Projector, but I doubt they are telling us everything.”
“If there is indeed a Projector, we must find out what the Stripers’ plans are once they locate this child,” insisted Garner. “Ending the life of this Projector should at least be done mercifully. If they capture this child, it would no doubt suffer greatly.”
The Map, The Dagger, and The Vampyres (Fated Chronicles Book 2) Page 25
