It took my breath away.
There was black earth from the explosion, still in ragged piles where it had landed. Around the edge of the crater were a few flowers, though not many. The devastation had been left as a memorial to the people who had lost their lives.
This wasn’t exactly a tourist spot. After the thick crowds we had been walking through all day, this place was deserted. The three of us were the only ones looking at the crater. A complicated jumble of emotions rushed through me. I felt some guilt, but mostly I just felt sadness.
“What exactly caused the blast?” I asked.
When Lowe and Lisa looked like they were going to stall again I said, “You might as well just tell me everything. It’s all going to come out eventually, so why not now? I’m here now. If you both know, then I need to know as well. This isn’t exactly something you can keep from me.”
“We know that. It’s just hard. It’s not exactly something we like to talk about,” Lowe explained.
“The blast was most definitely a magical one,” said Lisa. “It appears to have been something that was buried under the step of the framing shop, spelled to sense a specific witch arriving. Once she set foot on the step, everything blew up in a blast that devastated the whole area. The sheriff at the time said it was entirely unnecessary to destroy so much, just to kill one witch.”
It was impossible to disagree with that assessment; what on earth could have made someone so careless about the collateral damage?
My whole body felt numb. If it hadn’t been for my heart hammering away, I would have thought I was dead. It was quite clear from the expressions on Lisa and Lowe’s faces which witch the step had been spelled for.
This had been a targeted hit against my mother. She had spent time in jail, and then when she had gotten out she had been murdered. What had my mother been mixed up in that her fate had been so deadly?
“You mean the guy I saw wasn’t the sheriff at the time of the explosion?” I asked at last.
“No, definitely not. In fact, that’s how he got that limp he has. He was near enough to the blast to be hurt but not killed,” said Lowe.
Slowly I started to walk around the blast site, trying to take it all in. It was a bigger than I had expected, but it fit with my companions’ description of how enormous the explosion had been. Unnecessary didn’t begin to cover it.
Around the explosion site itself a rope had been strung, clearly meant to keep people away, and also probably to save anyone who inadvertently came near the crater when they weren’t paying attention to where they were going. Given that there was a deep hole in the earth, smack in the middle of a busy town, the rope was probably a good idea. In fact, I wondered why there wasn’t a better barrier.
I had walked halfway around the circle when I reached a small plaque, which appeared to be the only commemoration of what had happened. On each side of the plaque was carved an ornate pattern of leaves, with some text in the center:
On this spot there came the first attack ever to take place in Twinkleford that resulted in deaths. We lost seven lives that day. Twenty-three were injured. This crater is a memorial to all of the dead and injured. The magic from the blast has destroyed the ground under the blast site. Nothing can ever be built here. In memory of those who perished, nothing ever will.
I read the plaque three more times, searching for meaning. There was no mention of my mother. There was also no explanation of what had happened. I supposed that was just as well; the case still hadn’t been solved.
“Jade, we have to be going,” said Lowe. She suddenly sounded urgent.
I looked around to see what had upset her and saw her staring back the way we had come. Lisa was already making her way over to me.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We have company. Sheriffs patrol this area regularly. It’s necessary, because young hoodlums like to vandalize stuff. There are a lot of spells around here to keep this place safe, but just in case, the sheriffs like to check,” she said.
“The sheriffs are coming this way?” I gasped.
If they saw me, I’d be a goner for sure. I glanced back at the crater one more time. My mom had stood right there before she died. I promised myself to ask my grandmother where her grave was.
If I had been under the impression that I’d be comforted by coming here, I had been wrong. But there was no time to dwell on my sadness.
I raced away with my cousin and Lisa. As I looked over my shoulder I saw two sheriffs coming to the open space. They glanced in our direction, but they didn’t appear to be interested in us at all. Neither of them was Smoldering.
I found myself wishing I could see him again, too. I hardly understood why, except that he had loomed large in my dream and again when I was fetched away from my former life. There were no men back where I was from who looked like him. Positive point for sticking around in Twinkleford, I supposed, so long as he didn’t arrest me.
Out on the street again the atmosphere had changed, though at first I couldn’t figure out how, much less why. The sun was still shining, but it was as if it had been blotted out.
“Let’s just head back. We’ve had enough fun for one day,” said Lowe.
My stomach growled. Maybe my gut had heard what she said and agreed. I was starving.
“Yeah, I have to work tonight,” said Lisa.
“What do you do for work?” I asked her.
She quirked an eyebrow at me. “I’m a waitress.” She looked like she was about to say more, but she was interrupted by a commotion in front of us.
We were suddenly shoved out of the way by a gathering crowd. Coming down the street was a long line of huge, burly bodyguards, all dressed in black suits and crisp white shirts. They were all wearing sunglasses, and they somehow managed to look everywhere without actually ever looking at me. Lisa grabbed my arm and pulled me out of harm’s way. I gasped as more witches pressed around us. Several pixies chattered angrily at the guards, but they were ignored.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“The Carlisle matriarch is on the move,” said Lowe quietly.
“That requires all of this?” I demanded, waving my hand at the nonsense and mayhem.
“She doesn’t like to be interrupted while she’s shopping,” Lowe explained.
“Is that all?” I scoffed.
A short witch who appeared to be holding a notebook and pen turned to glare at me.
“Everyone wants to be like them. When someone gets that rich and that successful, what do you expect?” whispered Lisa.
The guards had formed a semicircle in front of one of the shops, and the gathering crowd was pushed back out of the way. People still pressed forward to get a better view; even I found myself craning my neck.
Suddenly, four very beautiful women emerged from a nearby beauty boutique.
“What are they doing in there?” I asked.
The woman with the notebook and pen, who was now standing in front of me, turned around again and gave me a dirty look.
“They’re getting ready for Witch Deportment. Hannah has to pass deportment this year. Several prominent families have to have a witch represented this year,” she sniffed at me.
I glanced at Lowe. “Several? Are we one of them? We weren’t one of the wealthy families, but we were important. Is it your turn to pass deportment?”
Lisa shot her a look, but said nothing.
Just then there was a commotion at the door. If Lowe bothered to reply, what she said was lost in the press of the crowd as everyone hurried forward to see.
Several more stunning women sashayed their way out of the boutique, all strawberry blonds with impossibly thin waists. They were all more put together even than Blossom. I would have said that was impossible, but here was proof that it definitely wasn’t.
Several witches in the crowd started to clap. A couple were crying.
The Carlisle witch family ignored the spectators and walked to a waiting Rolls Royce. One of the bodyguards
came forward to open the door.
The last Carlisle witch, who I assumed was Hannah, looked about my age. She appeared to smile at the adoration of the crowd. At least, her mouth sliced into a thin line and she batted her eyelashes. She raised her hand but didn’t move it. The witch standing in front of me nearly swooned.
As soon as all the women had slid into the vehicle, it shot away, while many spectators, including me, turned our heads to watch them drive down the street.
Something was working at the back of my mind as I watched them go, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it as I followed my cousin and Lisa away. There was now a throng of people headed for the trolleys, but luckily there were two trolleys waiting. We were slightly ahead of the crowd, so we were able to dart onto the first trolley and sit down.
The trolley filled quickly and lurched into motion. I now understood that in riding the trolley we were just going in one big circle around the boroughs; it wasn’t that there was a specific trolley for our borough. As Lisa put it, if that had been the system, the someone would surely try to burn the bridge to our borough.
I had only been in Twinkleford for a few days, and out and about in the town just this once, but I could already see how differently we were treated. Lisa was either ignored or stared at. We had even been kicked out of a shop. Not for the first time, I wondered what I had gotten into.
We were almost to our own borough, and most of the trolley had emptied out when it came to me at last.
“What exactly is deportment? Everyone was talking about it today like it was something important, but I didn’t understand,” I said.
“That’s definitely something that Bethel is going to have to explain,” said Lowe, who was doing a great job of staring out the window. She was still fidgety with concern, and I could see that she had been hoping I wouldn’t ask. Well, I had.
I scrutinized her profile but didn’t push her, because it had already been a long day. It was time for Bethel to answer to some more questions, though. Like how exactly my presence was going to help my sister.
“Were you going to tell me more about your work before we were interrupted?” I asked Lisa.
She beamed at me, delighted that I had noticed. “Sure was. My family clan isn’t part of the coven anymore. We are the least respected witches. At least the Rhinestone witches are still part of the coven. Those of us who aren’t usually have to work for a living. But I don’t mind, I like my job. I enjoy meeting customers every night. I don’t understand why the other clans judge me for it. That’s all I have to say about it.”
“Why aren’t you part of the coven anymore?” I asked.
Lisa rolled her eyes. “That’s a long story. It has to do with my grandmother and it involves drinking, plus other substances, and a judge. It’s not anything my generation did.”
“Why is being part of the coven important?” I asked.
“You’d better try to explain this one,” said Lisa to Lowe.
“Twinkleford was founded by the witch coven,” said Lowe. “The coven is made of up many families, and there are three queens that rule the Coven Council, which rules over the rest of the coven. There are other witch families that aren’t part of the coven. They’re considered less important. Without the witch coven, Twinkleford would cease to exist.”
With that we lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride. I had a lot to think over.
Finally we got off the trolley and walked up the lane. Lisa hurried home to change.
Lowe and I found my grandmother in the kitchen. This time she was canning. I was starting to marvel at her energy.
“How was town? What did you think?” Bethel asked.
“Almost everything that could have gone wrong did,” said Lowe. “We ran into the Carlisle witches, got kicked out of Tap Like Magic’ll Happen, and saw the crater.” She sat down heavily at the kitchen table and put her face in her hands, mumbling something about being sorry.
Spunk appeared on the table at that very moment as if on cue, but Bethel was having none of it.
“Hey you, get off there,” my grandmother snapped, waving her hand. For some mysterious reason, Spunk decided to listen. He jumped down and went over to nuzzle Lowe, who transferred her buried face to his fluffy body.
“So you saw all the things?” my grandmother asked, bracing her hands on her hips as she gazed at me.
I nodded and went over to make tea for Lowe and me. Once I had two steaming mugs I returned to the table and put hers in front of her. Spunk looked at it to see if it was milk or cream, then lost interest upon sniffing the air above the mugs and discovering it wasn’t.
“What’s deportment?” I asked. I decided to ask this question first, because I had a feeling that once I had the answer to that one, I wasn’t going to want to talk about anything else.
“Deportment is when the young witches of the coven families go through their debut. It’s a celebratory weekend that happens every year in August. It’s important that witch families have their young witches pass deportment. If we don’t have new witches growing up, we’ll lose our status in the coven, and we can’t let that happen. Young witches must pass three classes: using a cauldron to make potions, spellcasting, and of course reading a crystal ball,” explained Bethel.
“Has Lowe passed deportment?” I asked.
“No, not yet. She still has to wait a couple of years,” said my grandmother.
“So it’s a big deal that our family has no one but Lowe left to be pass deportment? Maybe by the time of the debutant debut in August, Ethel will be back,” I said.
“There is a three-year window in which you can pass deportment. The oldest you are allowed to be is twenty-five. If your sister doesn’t pass the tests next year she’ll never be able to,” said my grandmother heavily.
“What all goes into the process?” I asked.
My grandmother smiled thinly and Lowe unburied her face.
“There’s a ball, of course,” said Bethel. “There’s also a test of your magical abilities. Plus there’s a question and answer portion. It’s considerably harder to pass if you’ve committed a crime.”
That made it sound a lot less likely that my sister would ever be a member of the coven.
“What’s the benefit if you do pass?” I asked.
“There are a lot of benefits. You remain in the coven, which as I said is important in its own right. Only witches in the coven are allowed to make decisions for Twinkleford, and for witches in general. It’s a status symbol, and as you’ll have guessed already, in this family we couldn’t care less about status.
“In terms of social status we are definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I’ve never felt bad about that. Someone has to take care of the unicorns, and our family was born to do it. You should see your sister with them. I’ve never seen anything more incredible or natural in my life,” said my grandmother. Her voice caught a little bit as she mentioned Ethel.
“What about magic?” I asked.
“Oh, that too, of course. Once you’re a member of the coven you can speak to animals without actually having to say anything. It’s rather a lot of fun when we’re out and about. There are any number of other magical benefits as well. You get access to hard-to-find potion ingredients, including herbs as well as other things,” my grandmother explained.
“Like unicorn poop,” I supplied.
Something was niggling at me but I couldn’t place it, so I kept asking questions.
“Obviously,” said my grandmother.
“What else can you tell me?” I asked. “It sounds like a big deal. Those Carlisle witches were like rock stars. The shopping bags they were carrying barely fit in the back of their car. It was a big, fancy car, too.”
“I can tell you all kinds of things. I know all about the process. Why are you so curious?” my grandmother asked while not looking at me.
“I figure I’ll be around for it, right? We’re trying to find Ethel so that she can pass deportment before it’s too late
, aren’t we?” I said.
If I was going have to go to be around for deportment events, I figured I should at least know what it was all about. If all of these girls were buying shoes and hats and dresses, it was clearly useful to know something about how people prepared for it and why they cared so much about it.
Why my grandmother was being so reluctant to tell me anything, I couldn’t say.
“You should just tell her,” said Lowe miserably.
My grandmother shook her head, then began. “Your mother passed deportment. It wasn’t until the year afterward that she started breaking the law. Lowe’s mother passed deportment as well. All the children of mothers who pass are eligible to participate in the ceremony, and there’s no telling who will pass. Even if you don’t have a criminal record, it’s of the utmost importance that you do the magic well. And it’s not easy magic.”
“Okay, sure,” I said. Why she was telling me this I still had no idea.
My grandmother threw down her dish towel in exasperation. “We need you to pass deportment because the coven has decreed that if the Rhinestone witches don’t have a witch pass deportment this year, we will be kicked out of the coven. We will lose everything, including the farm and the house. We will also never be able to help your sister. You have one shot to save us all.”
My mouth dropped open. “You have got to be kidding,” I said.
Chapter Fourteen
“Of course we wish we were kidding. However, we are not kidding. This is serious business. Once your sister disappeared, you became our family’s only hope. She didn’t want to disappear. In fact, we had talked about her passing this year to keep the family name in good standing.
“She wasn’t happy about it, but she was ready to do it. She doesn’t agree with the systems in place in the coven and she has good reason not to. Many of the young witches are rebelling against the old ways. It’s just that they have no power until their place in the coven is secured. Something happened with your sister, and I don’t know what it was. I keep trying to get it out of the sheriff, but he won’t tell me either,” said my grandmother.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 8
