by Brian Knight
“Well, he’s not sure,” Katie said. “Avery Price resigned as sheriff before the city council could organize a recall election, and no one here has seen him since, but Ernest is hanging on. He had to sell his business block, his insurance company wouldn’t cover him after it found out his business partner arranged the arson, and he’s had to sell off a lot of his other property to cover legal expenses.”
Ellen seemed thoroughly uninterested in Price’s legal and business problems, and this was all old news to Penny, who had heard it from Susan as it happened.
“No one around here wants to work with him anymore, his farm barely pays for itself, and he lost most of his income with downtown. Dad says if he was smart he would sell everything and relocate to some place where no one knows him... but he’s hanging on to his farm and sticking around.”
Penny had also heard this from Susan, who had leased Price a large chunk of the land Penny owned to farm. Susan had refused to release him from his lease following the devastation of his crop, also destroyed by his once silent partner in an attempt to burn down the house Penny and Susan lived in. Susan was essentially the only person in Dogwood still cheerfully doing business with Ernest Price, because it meant him paying for the use of land he could no longer use.
It’s his own fault, Susan told Penny after a brief but heated argument with the man. She had tried to maintain a serious expression, but had broken into the sort of grin that reminded Penny of comic book villains contemplating the demolition of orphanages.
“So,” Penny said, trying to streamline Mr. West’s suspicions. “Your father thinks he’s up to something because he didn’t run away?”
“Well, yeah,” Katie said. “He’s losing money, and no one here wants to do business with him anymore. It doesn’t make sense for him to stay.”
Penny agreed with Mr. West, but kept her suspicions to herself. Her distrust wasn’t based on anything logical, only the smug smirks James kept aiming her and Susan’s way. It was the expression of a person who knows it isn’t over yet. A person who has one more trick up his sleeve, and can’t wait to spring it.
Chapter 7
The Secret of Aurora Hollow
The honk of an air horn announced Zoe’s return just before noon, and the girls ran to meet the truck they’d watched take Zoe away a few months earlier as it pulled into the church parking lot.
Zoe’s father, tall and muscular with hair almost as long as Zoe’s, stepped down from the cab and stretched his spine. He surveyed the town around him, pausing for a moment to watch a couple of boys at the river fishing, then saw Penny, Katie, and Ellen running his way. Zoe’s mother appeared next, stepping down from the high cab more slowly and cautiously. She was a small, brown-haired woman, almost comically mismatched when she stood next to her husband. Zoe exited last, and though she had been meeting them in secret almost every night for the past month, Penny was still excited to have her back. Zoe spotted them and waved, then braced herself for impact as Penny, Katie, and Ellen charged.
They surrounded her in a laughing circle and threw their arms around her. They stumbled in a tangle of arms and hair until Zoe finally broke free.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friends?” A shadow fell over them, and Penny looked up to see Zoe’s father silhouetted in blue sky. Penny thought he might be the largest man she’d ever seen, and all muscle. Zoe’s mother approached, smiling but silent, to stand beside him.
She caught Zoe’s eye, raised her eyebrows, and nodded toward them, a gesture that seemed to say, yes, introduce us already.
Zoe returned her mother’s silent entreaty with a nod, and turned to face her friends.
“This is Penny, Katie, and Ellen.” She gestured to each of them in turn.
“It’s good to meet you all,” Zoe’s father said.
“Good to meet you,” Penny said, and Katie and Ellen echoed her sentiment.
Penny thought the only thing that saved him from being absolutely terrifying was his smile. It was a smile that involved his entire face, the narrow laugh lines on his cheeks, the deeper crow’s feet at the corners of his squinted eyes, and the eyes themselves, brown with a hint of green, and a direct gaze that seemed to radiate warmth.
Her mother remained silent, turning her smile on each in turn.
Penny had harbored a lot of anger at these people over the past year, first for abandoning Zoe to a grandmother who didn’t seem to like her much, and then for taking Zoe away after her grandmother had died. Zoe would never discuss the reason she’d ended up with her grandmother, what had driven her mother to hit the road and leave her behind. Actually, Zoe never talked about her parents, a fact that Penny had never really noticed until that moment.
Zoe looked around, distracted, and seemed to deflate a little. “Is Trey here?”
Katie and Ellen turned to her with raised eyebrows and smug grins. Penny felt a sinking in her stomach and didn’t dare to look at her friends.
“Was he supposed to be?” Katie sounded honestly curious. “You keeping secrets from us?”
“No,” Zoe said, trying to act casual. “I just thought he might be here. Didn’t you tell him I was coming back?”
Well, Penny thought, I guess she likes him after all.
A hand dropped on her shoulder and she turned to find Susan standing behind her.
“Hi kiddo.” Susan draped an arm over Penny’s shoulder. “Hi Reggie, Dana.”
Zoe’s mother, Dana, only smiled in response.
“Susan, it’s good to see you again. Thank you so much for taking care of Zoe.”
Susan turned to Zoe and scooped her in close with her arm not clutching Penny. “We love having her around. You guys still coming over for dinner tonight?”
Dana nodded and whispered something that might have been, yes, thank you.
“We would love to,” Reggie said.
“You’re all invited, if you want to come,” Susan said to Katie and Ellen, and then to Penny’s utter surprise, “Mr. Pi is coming too.”
* * *
The dinner party was too large for the kitchen that night, so they ate on the front porch as the sun fell, and talked as the moon began its long ride across the sky. Reggie and Dana Parker’s truck sat parked in the side yard; Susan had offered them the spare room on the second floor, but Dana said, in a voice almost too low to hear, that she was more comfortable in their truck’s sleeper. In the end they agreed to park by Susan and Penny’s house so they could be close to Zoe while she stayed in the house, and enjoy some of the comforts of home while they were in town.
Erasmus’s presence was something of a mystery, Penny was beginning to suspect he’d stolen her brain, as he liked to call it, and convinced her he was a family friend in order to keep closer tabs on Penny. Susan finally ended the suspense by announcing that she would be reopening her shop.
“She’s stubborn, but I finally convinced her,” Erasmus said with what sounded like great pride. “Old Cagney would be happy to know you’re sticking with it.”
“There are going to be some changes though,” Susan said, her growing grin belying the ominous words.
“What kind of changes?” Penny spoke to Susan, but couldn’t help a glance toward Erasmus.
Susan let the silence stretch out, and was opening her mouth to speak when Erasmus blurted out, “Taylor and Pi, books and stationery, Wi-Fi cafe, and espresso bar.”
A stunned silence greeted this outburst. Erasmus, taking the silence as an insufficient show of enthusiasm, stood and began his pitch.
“It’s the perfect store! Books, fine coffee, and easy access to the accumulated knowledge of human kind in a welcoming environment!”
Susan coughed into her hand and deliberately avoided meeting anyone’s eyes.
“Oh... and office supplies,” Erasmus said with a brief but dismissive wave of the hand. “I think they’re boring, but Susan insists.”
“Taylor and Pi?” Penny prompted Susan with raised eyebrows, but Erasmus was quicker again.
/>
“Yeah, we’re going to open it together. It’s a good deal for Susan because she won’t have to rent her space, and now I’ll have something to keep me busy.”
“So you’re staying in Dogwood permanently?” Penny had assumed he was only sticking around for the short term to train them before popping back to whatever world he called home.
“Well sure I am,” Erasmus responded with a disconcertingly wide grin, the kind of grin that made you wonder if he was about to take a bite out of you. “I have a lot invested in this town now, and I like it here.”
“I think it sounds cool,” Ellen said.
“I’m very excited,” Susan said. “It’s a little progressive for Dogwood, but it’ll catch on.”
Dana said something too low to understand, but she smiled and nodded her head.
“Sounds good,” Reggie said, “but you’ve got a lot of property to manage. You’re going to spread yourself thin.”
“I’m going to find someone to manage it for me,” Erasmus said. “I have a company that manages my property in Seattle but I think I want someone local here.”
“Well, wadaya think, kiddo?” Susan had slid to the edge of her seat and leaned toward Penny.
Despite her mixed feeling about Susan’s new working relationship with a man she considered odd at best, and quite possibly a dangerous lunatic, Penny found herself looking forward to seeing Taylor and Pi become a reality.
“I think it sounds awesome,” Penny said, and braced herself against her chair as Susan swooped in for the anticipated hug.
A long, low snore sounded from the chairs where the Parkers were clustered, and all heads turned to find Zoe slumped against her mother, mouth open and drooling on Dana’s shoulder.
“Look at that,” Erasmus said. “I think all the excitement has overwhelmed her.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later Zoe was snoring in the guest bed in Penny’s room, Dana, who insisted on helping around the house, was cleaning and putting away the evening’s dishes, and Penny and Susan watched as Reggie drove Erasmus, Ellen, and Katie away in Susan’s van.
“Are you sure about this?” Penny, excited as she was to see Susan reopening her business, couldn’t help but voice her lingering concerns. “You just met the guy.”
Susan took a long moment to consider the question.
“He’s a strange one all right, but he had the money on hand to buy up that whole block and begin rebuilding. Without him it would have been bulldozed and sold off lot by lot. He said he wanted to preserve the main street charm.” Susan sat on the porch swing, setting it gently rocking, and motioned for Penny to join her. “He has the money to rebuild and get all the old tenants back in at lower rates. It’s going to be a long time before it pays off for him, so either this whole project is an enormous tax write off for him, or he considers Dogwood a long term investment.”
“So, he’s rich?” Penny only understood about half of what Susan was saying, but it all seemed to come down to Erasmus spending a small fortune to reopen Dogwood’s business district.
“Filthy rich,” Susan said. “Mostly real estate, but Bowen said he has an uncanny nose for trends. He knows what’s going to be hot before anyone else. He invested in computers and software, then started a small chain of cyber-cafes in Seattle and along the coast in the 90s. He dabbles in a little of everything. Gets something new running, disappears for four or five years, then comes back to start up something else.”
Penny considered all of this in thoughtful silence for a while. She could hear Dana in the kitchen clinking dishes together and humming something in a surprisingly tuneful voice.
“He’s just so... weird,” Penny said, finally giving voice to her most basic concern about Erasmus.
Susan stopped rocking and turned a disapproving eye on Penny.
“I remember when you came here and thought everyone in town was weird.”
Penny blushed and settled back in her seat, silently conceding to Susan’s point.
“He’s not weird,” Susan said. “He’s just from Seattle.”
A few minutes later Reggie returned with Susan’s van, and Penny headed for bed. She wanted nothing more in the world than a full night’s sleep, but Erasmus was expecting them again at midnight. She had a few hours until then, and wanted to spend them unconscious.
* * *
Penny found Erasmus, Bowen, and, much to her surprise, Michael West waiting as she dragged a still groggy Zoe through the wardrobe door into Aurora Hollow. Erasmus was, as always, perched and spinning on his bar stool, while Michael sat in conversation with Bowen.
“I have to gather the right components, but I know how to make them,” Bowen said.
“I thought you couldn’t do... uh, magic.” It seemed a struggle for Michael to use the M word.
“I can’t,” Bowen confirmed. “I’ll just put the bits and pieces together. Erasmus is in charge of the hocus pocus.”
“Make what?” Penny asked seating herself on one of the fire pit boulders.
“Hi girls.” Bowen, as always, seemed happy to see them.
Michael gave a wave and struggled with what was no doubt supposed to be a friendly smile. It looked almost pained. No doubt he never imagined one of his new duties as sheriff would be the monitoring of magical activity and an influx of refugees from an alternate, parallel Earth.
Zoe returned Michael’s lackluster wave but didn’t bother with a smile. She was too tired even to remember to be awkward and shy around Michael, for whom she had nurtured a long-time crush.
“Hi guys,” Penny said. “Make what?”
Erasmus jabbed the tip of his cane into the dirt and stopped himself in mid-spin.
“Shield bag,” Erasmus said. “Superstitious twaddle.”
“Erasmus regards subtle magic as a waste of time,” Bowen said. “But a good shield bag can deflect minor spells and take the sting out of some not so minor ones, and they’re easy to put together.”
“If it makes you feel better, Bowen.”
Penny didn’t know about Bowen, but Penny felt pretty good about any protection she could get.
The door opened a moment later, and Ellen stepped through. When she closed it again without Katie, Penny took another closer look around the darkened hollow. Though it was the dead of night, and any potential moon and starlight was effectively blocked by the canopy of willow whips overhead, the hollow was never completely dark. The place seemed to generate its own low light at night.
Katie was not in evidence.
“Where’s your sister,” Penny asked Michael.
Behind her, Zoe gave out a loud snore and startled herself awake again.
“Working on something for all of you,” Michael said. “She’ll be here soon.”
Penny felt an unexpected burst of excitement, an emotion not her own, and recognized the sensation as the arrival of her pet homunculus, Rocky. A few seconds later he sprang from the stone cliff face on the other side of Clear Creek. The emotional and psychic bond she had with the creature was something that took a lot of getting used to, but it didn’t freak her out as bad as it used to.
All the regulars of Aurora Hollow were used to Rocky’s company now; even Katie, who had initially distrusted the creature, was at least learning to ignore him. He was the last survivor of a litter of magical monsters hatched from stone eggs, and where the others had been bonded with the terrifying snakeman, Turoc, and had tried very hard to kill the girls earlier that summer, Rocky had hatched separately from an egg given to Penny by Ronan, and had helped the girls defeat Turoc and his horde of little gray men.
Katie’s initial mistrust had been mediated somewhat by Rocky continuing to not try to kill them, but mostly because he had stopped stripping off the doll sized coveralls they’d given him to wear and running naked through the hollow whenever she was around.
“Why all the extras tonight?” Zoe asked Penny’s next question for her. It wasn’t unusual to have Bowen visit their late night training sessions, but
this was Michael’s first visit to Aurora Hollow.
Erasmus grinned his too-wide grin.
“I finally convinced Michael to start training with us.” Erasmus slid down from his stool and clapped Michael hard on the back. “I know raw talent when I see it, and I hate to see talent go to waste.”
“I said I’d think about it,” Michael said.
“You said you’d give it a try,” Bowen corrected, ignoring the death glare Michael sent his way. “Another magic user could come in handy the next time trouble shows up.”
“This is too weird,” Katie said, and they all turned to her. She stood by the open door, silhouetted by the light shining out from her bedroom. Several bundles of black cloth were draped over her shoulder. “At least I won’t be the only one in trouble if mom and dad ever find out.”
“What’s that?” Ellen pointed to the bundles draped over her shoulder.
“See for yourself,” Katie said, tossing Ellen a long black bolt of cloth from the top of the bundle. Ellen caught it on the fly and held it up: a long, hooded robe with a small fiery phoenix emblem sewn over the left breast. She tossed a second to Zoe, a third to Penny, and slipped into the fourth while her friends examined theirs.
New robes, all cut to the right heights.
“Did you make these?” Ellen beamed at Katie. “These are great.”
“Thanks,” Zoe said, not able to match Ellen’s enthusiasm, but clearly pleased.
Penny slipped into hers, and decided it was a huge improvement over the old red one she’d stolen from the Birdman’s wardrobe. Her old one, and the green one she’d taken for Zoe the night they’d rescued Katie and a bunch of the other town children from the Birdman, was too short now, too tight, and had seen a few too many rough days.
“We can’t have you wearing those old slave robes anymore,” Erasmus said.
He’d lost his temper the night Penny had shown up for practice in her old red robe, and after she’d removed it, told them about the avian tribes’ slavers, including the very Birdman they’d run afoul of, and the different colored robes given to different classes of slaves, green for agricultural workers, white for domestic, red for unskilled laborers.
