“No.” He ran his hands through his hair, a nervous gesture she hadn’t seen him use in years. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Then you’d better concentrate on getting us back to Kyla. Maybe she and her friends will know what to do.”
“When I try to picture them, all I see is Jerome. Hurting Dreama …” He broke off, choked with sobs.
“Then why aren’t we going there—wherever there is? Unless we are there. We have to explore further. They may be here somewhere.”
Ed’s shoulders slumped. “You said you didn’t sense them.”
“I don’t, but this is a big place, isn’t it? They may not be near enough to sense. Ed, pull yourself together. We can’t just mope around while Jerome does who knows what to Mayzie and Dreama.”
“I’m trying, Marta. Trying to find them. Nothing happens.”
“Well, draw on my strength if that will help. Take all you need.”
Ed closed his eyes, stood perfectly still, and squinched his face in concentration. Marta tried to send power to him but had no sense of any power flowing from her to him. She blinked back tears. She couldn’t break down. She had to be strong for Ed. But the tears wanted to come. She turned away from Ed, walked a couple of paces away, studying the ground.
“I think …” His voice trailed off.
She turned back to face him. He was gone.
Gone! Without her. Why had she left his side? Why hadn’t she kept her grip on his arm? Where was he?
She spun around in a circle, looking in every direction, peering off into the distance. Not a sign of him. She was alone and stranded. But no, he’d use his power to call her to him. Surely he would.
But minutes—too many minutes—passed, and she remained in the dry, barren wilderness to which they’d come. Now there was no holding back the tears.
Veronica sat on a bench in a spot shaded by a trio of large and leafy babwood trees. She leaned her head against the back of the bench and closed her eyes. A passerby might assume she’d fallen asleep, but her mind raced along many pathways.
She didn’t know how Ed had imagined a place into existence and had gone there, but he had, and she was certain that if he had, she could do it too. He’d said he’d visited it first only in his mind, using mental images of an ideal place to retreat to when his drunken father abused him. He’d been a young child when he’d created his “imaginary” place, but he had only traveled there and found it real after he’d met Kyla and Marta. Had it been real before that time, but he hadn’t known it until Marta and Kyla awakened his magic? She tried to recall all he’d told her about the part that he had not imagined, the part that had been a portal to the Dire Realms. He hadn’t known about that part until he accidentally took Jerome to his world and couldn’t get back to this world. It was when they were exploring beyond the area Ed considered “his” that Ed had discovered the portal inside what seemed to be a ruined building, a building that Jerome had refused to enter.
In discovering the portal, Ed had encountered a friendly Dire Lord, one known to Marta and to Kyla, and had acquired the ability not only to return home but also to transport himself to and from that world more easily. But while Jerome waited outside, he, too, had encountered a Dire Lord, an evil one who had awakened his power and turned it to wickedness.
So why had Ed thought that by returning Jerome to that land and stranding him there, he had disposed of the threat Jerome represented? It seemed obvious to Veronica that Jerome could find a way to reestablish contact with the evil Dire Lord and increase his power to the point of being able to escape and wreak havoc. If Jerome had reached out to the evil Dire Lord, he had most likely transported Mayzie and the baby to that other part of the world Veronica only wondered why it had taken Jerome so long to act. She did not intend to be as foolish as Ed had been.
She’d seen Mayzie and Dreama; she knew she had, whether or not Aunt Kyla believed her. And the person with them had scarcely looked human, though it had Jerome’s face. She shuddered. She could never forget that face.
Veronica had no desire to confront Jerome, no desire to visit that world. Her plan was to create a place of her own that she could transport herself to. She would have preferred to transport Mayzie and Dreama back to the house, but even if she had that ability, they wouldn’t be safe there. Jerome could easily snatch them again.
She thought about what kind of place she wanted. She didn’t intend to inhabit it for a long period of time. She only needed somewhere to use as a kind of way station, a hidden refuge to which she could shift Mayzie and Dreama and Ed and Marta so Jerome could not find them. And then she’d let Ed transport them all back to his and Marta’s house, where perhaps Jerome wouldn’t think to look.
But no, Jerome was clever enough to look there. So it might be better to create a haven where Mayzie and the baby could hide until Kyla and the others dealt with Jerome. She had to think this through.
Marta and Ed’s panic over the loss of Dreama was hampering their powers. They’d have to stay in the safe place, too. But once they had Dreama safe in their arms, they’d calm down enough to use their powers again, and they could help capture Jerome, so probably they wouldn’t need to remain in the refuge very long.
Veronica had confidence in Aunt Kyla’s and Aunt Marta’s abilities and in the abilities of the friends who worked with them. And Ed’s powers were awesome. All of them working together would succeed in locating and subduing Jerome in a short time. She didn’t know what they’d do with Jerome, but they’d find a way to prevent him from ever being a danger to them again. Her task, self-appointed, true, but one she believed she could accomplish better than anyone else, was to rescue Dreama and Mayzie.
She concentrated on the sort of place she wanted. Somewhere secure and comforting. A walled garden, the wall high enough to deter intruders. A garden with lots of brightly colored flowers, but nothing with thorns. Lots and lots of butterflies for Dreama to watch and laugh at. A blue sky with puffy white clouds that formed animal shapes. A fountain that sprayed colored bubbles instead of water. A cushioned rocking chair for Mayzie and a cradle for Dreama, set on flagstones near the fountain. Perfect weather—not hot but never cold, just pleasant with a cool, refreshing breeze that blew the fountain’s bubbles about.
She could picture it all clearly enough. She tried to put herself in the picture and could do so mentally, but when she opened her eyes she was still on the bench in the shaded arbor. Maybe her imagined place was too complicated for a first attempt.
She took away the bubbling fountain, the chair and cradle, the flagstones. Sadly she dismissed the butterflies. She made the garden smaller, the flowers less flamboyant. When she had the picture firmly in her mind, she tried again. This time before opening her eyes she imagined the feel of the ground, spongy and soft, beneath her feet. She imagined the feel of a light breeze against her arms, let her fingertips mentally caress the velvety petals of a trumpet flower.
Finally, she pictured Ed standing facing her, looking startled, heard his voice saying, “What … Where’s Marta? How did I get here?”
Veronica opened her eyes. Ed stood nearby, gazing around in puzzlement. Brightly colored flowers had indeed sprouted around her. But she was still seated on the bench in the park. She hadn’t gone anywhere.
Nor had she meant to bring Ed to her until she’d found and brought Mayzie and Dreama. She never intended to separate Ed and Marta. So when Ed rounded on her, demanding to know what had happened, she didn’t know what to say. Except, “Ed, I’m sorry. I was trying to build a place the way you did. A safe place I could transport Mayzie and Dreama to. But, I guess I made a mistake.”
“I guess you did. Get Marta. Right now!”
He stood directly in front of her, glaring so fiercely she could not concentrate. Even when she closed her eyes, the heat of his anger rolled against her like waves against the breakers just off the coast. She tried to picture Marta beside Ed, calming him, but it was no use. She sensed too strongly his wrath and beneath it the weight of hi
s despair.
“Ed, I can’t do it. If you walk away where I can’t see you, I’ll try again. Or better yet, you do it. You have the power.”
He just shook his head and didn’t move. She sensed that he couldn’t move, his grief and fear too great to permit movement or use of power. She rose to her feet. “All right. I’ll have to go somewhere else. I can’t concentrate with you standing right in front of me. You stay here.”
When she tried to circle around him, he grabbed her shoulders. “Find Dreama,” he said, his voice breaking. “Bring her here. Marta too.”
He released her then and let her slide past him and walk away. But his plea added to the pressure she felt, and she was too tense to do what he asked. Scared now, afraid to face Kyla and the others but knowing she needed their help to do anything, she walked slowly toward home, leaving Ed alone in the park.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DISASTERS
Kyla wanted her to leave. She’d made it fairly obvious. And exactly for that reason, Renni was determined to stay. Her gift might not be needed—probably wouldn’t be—but Renni hated doing what people wanted her to. She got enough of that at home. Just because she refused to marry the man they’d chosen for her, her parents insisted on treating her like a five-year-old instead of a twenty-five-year-old. Because that man had money, her parents considered him an acceptable choice. They kept reminding her she wasn’t getting any younger and few eligible young men remained. They really meant few wealthy young men. They weren’t concerned about her happiness; they only wanted to be certain she married well enough to support them in their old age.
She would never marry their choice. She could make her own way in the world. Kyla had. She admired the gifted leader, and intended to emulate her. But to do so, she had to hone her gifts, perhaps discover others besides the ones she knew she had. And how better to do that than to remain here in this time of crisis and, if she couldn’t be of any help, observe those who could. How else could she learn?
She joined the group clustered around Zauna and her crystal ball. Being tall, she could peer over the shoulder of others to view the crystal. She thought she saw shadowy figures in it, but she couldn’t distinguish them. It could have been no more than her imagination. She had no reason to believe she had the talent of crystal gazing.
At Zauna’s sudden cry Renni jumped back, colliding with Lore who’d come to stand directly behind her. “Whoa,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. She shrugged them off, annoyed by the familiarity in his touch, and stepped away from the group.
Call it intuition, call it presentiment, Renni had a strong feeling, almost a certainty that Veronica was behind Ed’s sudden disappearance from the scene Zauna described seeing in her crystal ball.
Renni liked Veronica. The kid had a lot of spunk. A lot of talent, too. When she’d said she’d seen Mayzie and the baby, Renni had believed her and fully understood her frustration when Kyla jumped all over her for interfering. The poor kid! She was really in for it if she’d done something that backfired and made matters worse.
Even as these thoughts raced through Renni’s mind, Veronica entered the room through the door from the kitchen. The expression she wore told Renni her intuition hadn’t been wrong. Nor had her guess as to what Kyla’s reaction would be.
Kyla rounded on the girl and demanded, “Where have you been? What have you been doing?”
“Trying to help,” Veronica said softly, as though it hurt to reply. She was blushing furiously, poor girl.
“And?” Kyla demanded, showing not the slightest bit of sympathy.
“And I guess I made things worse,” she confessed, her eyes lowered. Good thing Winter had left. Renni didn’t need to be an empath to feel the girl’s pain.
“I asked you to help me with the dishes, and instead you disappeared,” Abigail chimed in. “Where did you go off to?”
Ask her what she did, Renni urged mentally. No one picked up on the thought.
“I just went outside,” Veronica mumbled, speaking to the floor. “To a quiet place where I go sometimes.”
“So you just wandered off, despite what was happening here, and despite the fact that I’d asked for your help,” Abigail continued her accusations.
Leah whispered something to Abigail, probably asking her to ease up. Renni liked Leah. She was kind—and sensible. How she ever got hooked up with Abigail, Renni couldn’t understand.
Still no one asked Veronica what she did. Guess it’s up to me. Renni spoke. “What did you do? Did you find Ed and Marta? Did you do something with Ed?”
Everyone turned and glared at Renni as though she’d sprouted horns. Everyone, that is, except Veronica. Still addressing the floor, she said, “I didn’t mean to, but I brought him back here and left Marta stranded, I guess, back in the land that—”
“You did what?” Kyla demanded. “You left Marta where Jerome can get to her?”
“Now, Kyla,” Winnie Calder soothed, spreading her calming influence over the Community leader.
“Where is Ed then?” Abigail demanded, unaffected by Winnie’s gift of tranquility.
Veronica wiped at her face. She must be crying, though she had her head lowered, so Renni couldn’t be sure. “He’s back in the park. He’s mad at me, and he wouldn’t move, so I left him there.”
“You left him alone? In his state of mind? You little idiot!” Abigail shook off the hand Leah placed on her arm.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Veronica said, and Renni heard the catch in her voice. The poor girl was distraught.
Renni couldn’t stand it. “Look, let me take Veronica, and we’ll go find Ed and bring him back here, while the rest of you see what you can do about finding and fetching Marta.”
She didn’t expect them to accept her plan, but Kyla nodded. Perhaps under Winnie’s influence, she said, “Yes, go ahead. We do have to find Marta. She needs our protection.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lore said, stepping forward with a big smile. “You shouldn’t go out by yourselves.”
“No,” Renni said firmly. “You stay here. You’ll be needed here, and I won’t.” Without giving him the chance to argue, Renni grabbed hold of Veronica’s arm and pulled her forward. “Come on, Veronica. We’d better hurry.”
Veronica didn’t resist. She had to be relieved to get away. She didn’t say a word, though.
They left the house, got halfway across the backyard, and Renni asked, “Which way?”
Veronica pointed to the gate that let them out onto the street, and as they passed through it, she finally spoke. “I left him in the park just down the street. What if he’s not still there?”
“Let’s deal with that if it happens,” Renni said, walking faster. The girl’s fear was not unwarranted.
They reached the park, and Veronica led the way through it to a secluded arbor. There on a bench sat Ed, raking his hands through his hair. He looked up when Veronica called his name. Tears streaked his cheeks.
“I’ve tried and tried to go back to Marta, and I can’t. I don’t know why. And I can’t bring her here, either. Did you have any luck?” His gaze was focused on Veronica. Renni doubted that he even noticed her.
Veronica shook her head. “I went back to the house to try to get help, but all they did was yell at me.”
“I’d yell at you, too, but I guess it wouldn’t help,” he said. “What’s done is done. We just have to find a way to undo it.” He rose to his feet slowly, as though lifting a great weight. “We’d better get back to Kyla’s house. We can’t do anything here.”
He walked away, and Veronica fell into step beside him. “I’m sorry, Ed. I wanted to help. I didn’t mean to separate you and Marta. I’m not even sure how it happened.”
He shrugged. “Are they making any progress locating the baby?”
“I can’t see that they’re doing anything at all,” Veronica said bitterly. “That’s why I tried. I thought somebody had to do something.”
“They are trying. I’m
sure they are. You just can’t see what they’re doing.”
Ed had to believe that, Renni supposed, but Veronica was right. Nobody was doing anything because nobody could agree on what to do. Oh, Zauna had gazed into her crystal and had seen Marta and Ed, and then Marta alone. And now it was clear why. But nobody had located Dreama and Mayzie. Nobody really seemed to be planning a way to rescue them.
The despair Ed felt was evident with every step, evident in the slump of his shoulders, the droop of his head, his clenched hands. She scarcely knew him, but Renni felt sorry for him. He’d come all this way for a child he could call his own, and now that child had been whisked away, he’d been separated from his wife, and he was left with nothing. Even his gift, his strong talent, seemed to have vanished. The grief was causing that loss, but so long as that grief continued, the talent wasn’t likely to return.
But the power he had was still there, all of it, hidden under the miasma of grief. If he could … forget the grief. Forget its cause. Then he could think calmly. He could bring his wife home. He could help the others find the baby girl that was to be his and Marta’s daughter. And even if he didn’t remember Dreama, he’d fall in love with her all over again as soon as he saw her. Renni had no doubt about that.
She could use her talent to make him forget. She’d have to choose the moment carefully. Walking behind him and Veronica, she considered. He’d be disoriented if she took his recent memories from before Dreama disappeared. Seeing how hard he’d taken her disappearance and now his separation from Marta, she’d have to take the memories back more than from just before Dreama’s abduction. She’d have to take several days’ worth of memories. She felt sure that she could do it, although up until now she’d blanked no memories more than a day old. But she saw no reason why she could not remove memories several days or even weeks old. They’d almost reached the house. She’d wait until they entered and do it just as they approached Kyla. That way Kyla and the others could ease the confusion he’d certainly feel.
A Mix of Magics (Arucadi: The Beginning Book 3) Page 5
