“I can’t find Veronica anywhere,” Renni said. “I can’t find Lore, either. Where would they have gone?”
“I don’t know. Wait a minute.” Kyla hurried into the living room, Dreama held up against her shoulder. “Zauna,” she said, and the older woman jerked forward and looked up at her with alarm. She must have been dozing.
“We need to locate Lore and Veronica,” Kyla said. “Could you see whether you can find them in your crystal?”
Zauna rubbed her eyes. “They’re missing?”
“Why else would I ask you to find them?” Kyla regretted her words as soon as they came out of her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. Renni says they’re missing.” She turned to Renni. “Did you look all through the house? And the yard? Maybe they’re tending to the goat.”
“I looked in every room, and I searched the yard and went out and looked up and down the street.”
“Why were you looking for them?”
“Does it matter? I didn’t find them, that’s the important thing, isn’t it?”
The girl seemed determined to anger her, but Kyla resisted the temptation to respond in kind and asked, “Did you check that little park Veronica likes to go to? It isn’t far.”
“No. I’ll go look. But in case they aren’t there, maybe you should come up with some kind of plan for finding them.”
Kyla’s resolve to hold her temper weakened. She snapped, “You just heard me ask Zauna to look for them.”
Dreama started to cry. Kyla bounced her a bit and was rewarded by the baby’s spitting up all over her shoulder.
“I’m going.” Renni made a hasty exit.
Dreama’s wails could mean the baby couldn’t digest the goat’s milk, but since they had nothing else to feed her, Kyla had to hope the infant was only reacting to her sharp tone.
Marchion had gone to stand behind Zauna’s chair. “I’ll feed her as much power as I can,” he said.
Kyla nodded and did her best to comfort the crying child.
Winnie came into the room. “I heard the baby crying,” she said, taking Dreama from Kyla’s arms. “I thought I could help. There, there, little one,” she cooed to Dreama. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
As she cleaned the regurgitated milk off her shoulder, Kyla wondered whether anything would be all right ever again. She had to get hold of herself. She couldn’t let Jerome just pick them off, one by one, and she didn’t know how to protect them, how to stop him.
Alair, I need your help. Now. She sent the mental call. No answer came. Even the Power-Giver had deserted her.
“Can you see them?” she asked Zauna, who sat forward, hunched over the crystal globe, her hands cupped on either side of it. She shook her head and continued to stare into the globe.
Kyla shouldn’t break Zauna’s concentration. If she saw anything, Zauna would tell them right away. But she felt so helpless, so desperate.
Winnie, with Dreama cuddled in one arm, placed her free hand on Kyla’s shoulder. Kyla felt a warm, peaceful sensation flow through her for a moment. The moment ended when Zauna sighed and said, “All I see is cloudiness or … I don’t know, something like smoke or sand swirling around in the globe. No people, no objects, no place. Just a swirl of darkness.”
Like my mind right now, Kyla thought.
“I’ll go sit by Petros,” Marchion said. “I don’t feel right leaving him alone.”
“Just don’t let anything happen to either of you,” Kyla warned, feeling that none of them were safe anywhere.
The front door burst open. Mayzie’s husband, Isham, strode in and confronted Kyla with both fists clenched and raised. “Where is she? Where’s my wife?”
Leah followed him in and closed the door he’d left wide open. Kyla’s quick glance took in her friend’s pale face and teary eyes.
Winnie turned to Isham. “We’re all devastated by what happened. We have her laid out in the back room,” she said soothingly. “I’ll take you back.”
“She can’t be dead. She can’t be.” He broke down in sobs. “Our little boy … What will he do without his mother?”
“Come with me,” Winnie said again. She handed Dreama to Leah and led him from the room.
Kyla sank down into the nearest chair and rested her face in her hands.
Zauna rose from her chair and went to Leah. “Let me take Dreama,” she said. “I’ll put her in her crib and stay with her. I’m not doing any good here, and Kyla needs you.”
Although Kyla didn’t look up to see, Leah must have agreed, because moments later strong hands massaged Kyla’s shoulders. She recognized Leah’s touch.
“It’s hard, I know,” Leah said. “You have a terrible weight to bear.”
“I’m not bearing it at all well, Leah,” Kyla answered, her voice catching at the words. “I feel I’m making all the wrong moves. Poor Isham. I don’t know what to say to comfort him. I’ve hardly had time to grieve for Mayzie myself. Not with Marta and Ed missing. And now it seems that Lore and Veronica are missing. I don’t know what to do.” The sobs came then. She could hold them back no longer.
Leah massaged her shoulders and neck, saying nothing, letting her cry.
After a few minutes Kyla’s sobs ebbed. “I have to find Veronica. She’s like a daughter to me. And Lore. He’s young and he’s new to his powers, but he shows so much promise. I can’t lose them. Or Marta and Ed. Marta was my first real friend. We have to find them all. Jerome must have them. We have to stop him. But I don’t know how.”
“You’re tired and you’re hurting,” Leah said. “You need to rest. I don’t think you’ve even noticed how late it’s getting. It will be dark in another hour. I also think you need the support of the Community. All of them. I understand why you sent several away, but you should bring them back first thing tomorrow morning. You may not need their gifts, but you do need their support.”
“Too many of us get in each other’s way, Leah,” Kyla said with a sigh. “And I couldn’t bear to lose anyone else. I’m afraid they’ll be more vulnerable here. I can’t put anyone else in danger.”
“I think we’re all in danger no matter where we are. But if we’re together, we can lend each other strength. I don’t have any magical gift, but I can offer encouragement and I can do this.” Leah squeezed Kyla’s shoulders harder, massaged vigorously.
“It does help,” Kyla agreed. “But, Leah—”
Isham slammed into the room, his eyes red from weeping, his jaw set in a hard line. “I warned her,” he shouted. “‘Don’t have anything to do with those people,’ I said. ‘They’re an affront to the gods. They use powers no mortal was ever meant to have.’ But she wouldn’t listen. ‘It’s just a wee babe I’ll be helping,’ she said. She was so softhearted. ‘I won’t be around any of their magical goings-on. They’ve set aside a room for me to use for nursing the baby and caring for her. They know I don’t want anything to do with magic, and they’ve promised to respect that.’ So I gave in. I let her go, and now, now I’ve lost her.” He paused, wiped tears from his eyes, and glared at Kyla. “Now I’ve got a motherless boy to raise by myself, thanks to you people and your accursed doings.”
Kyla hunted desperately for words of comfort, but none came to mind. All she could say was, “Isham, I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. We loved Mayzie.”
“Loved her? You got her killed. Tortured and killed. That’s not love!”
Kyla tried again. “Isham, none of us anticipated anything like this happening. I never imagined Mayzie could be in any danger.”
“I don’t want your flimsy excuses and your false sympathy. You’re wicked, all of you. And now my poor Mayzie is dead because of your wickedness. She didn’t deserve her awful death. You do. You all deserve much worse.”
Leah, still behind her, leaned over and whispered, “It’s useless to try to reason with him. He’s out of his mind with grief.”
Winnie and Renni had followed Isham into the room. Winnie shrugged helplessly. She must have t
ried to calm him and failed.
“I’m not done with you people,” Isham went on, not shouting now, but his words burned with rage. “I’ve got to make arrangements for her burial. And figure out how to tell our little boy his mama won’t ever come home. But then I’ll go to the magistrates and bring charges and let everybody know how dangerous you people are. I won’t be satisfied until the whole evil bunch of you are in prison for the rest of your lives.”
He turned and headed for the door.
Renni hurried to Kyla and whispered in her ear, “I can erase his memories so he won’t remember her and won’t think to do anything.”
“Absolutely not,” Kyla snapped. “I take it you didn’t find Veronica. Now just stay out of this.”
Isham slammed the door behind him.
Renni’s gaze followed him. She shook her head. “He’s in so much pain. Why shouldn’t I relieve it? What good is my gift if you never want me to use it?”
Kyla frowned. She had no time for this. “You have to learn when it’s appropriate to use it and when it isn’t.”
Renni stood straight and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “When someone is that angry and he’s threatening to harm us, I’d think it would have been very appropriate.”
Before Kyla could issue the sharp rebuke that came to her mind, Leah squeezed her shoulder. “Let me explain,” she said and turned to Renni.
“He’s hurting too badly to think rationally right now, but he has to work through all that pain. You can’t take it from him because he’ll need all those memories you’d have to erase. Think about it. They include memories of the happy times he shared with Mayzie, memories of sharing the joy their son has brought them, memories of what a good mother she was, and what a good wife. Those are memories that will sustain him in his grief and help him heal. Furthermore, as his little boy grows older, he’ll want to hear about the mother he won’t otherwise remember. Isham will need memories to share with his son.”
Renni relaxed her stiff stance. “Oh. I guess you’re right,” she said. “I hadn’t thought about those things. But what if he carries out the threats he made?”
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Leah said. “I know Isham fairly well, and I think as he comes to terms with his loss, his anger will cool. He knows we cared about Mayzie. He just has to remember that. Right now his grief is blocking that recollection, but it will return. The memories you wanted to take might not ever have come back, and that would be a tragedy. You can’t erase the fact of Mayzie’s death. To ease his pain from that you’d have to erase all his memories of Mayzie. And if you have the power to erase memories that go that far back, you’d also erase his memories of his child. Where would that leave poor little Bennie?”
Renni was silent for several minutes, absorbing what Leah was saying. Finally she threw her arms around Leah and hugged her. “You’re right. I don’t know that I even have the power to take memories from that far back, but I can see now that it wouldn’t have helped and might have hurt him even more. Thanks.”
That crisis resolved, Kyla turned away from Renni and Leah and walked into the hallway. Winnie followed her.
“I tried to keep him from uncovering Mayzie’s body and seeing what that fiend did to her, but he insisted,” Winnie said, a catch in her voice. “The sight shocked him badly. It will take him a long time to recover from it, I fear.”
Sighing, Kyla nodded. “I can hardly blame him for being so angry,” she said. “It’s just one more thing I can’t cope with right now.”
Winnie was trying to calm her, but her feeling of desperation was too great. The counsel Leah was giving Renni should have come from her. She was the founder and leader of the Gifted Community, and Leah was not even technically a member, since she was not gifted. If only she could remain calm like Leah instead of letting every little thing grate on her nerves. Alair used to tell her she was as capricious as the wind.
“Alair, where are you? Why haven’t I heard your voice for so long?” She whispered the words instead of merely sending the plea mentally as she usually did. It was not merely a plea to the Power-Giver but to the man she had loved and lost when he had lost his humanity and had become the channeler of magic gifts, the near deity the gifted revered as the Power-Giver. When she and Marta had accepted the challenge of spreading gifts of magic throughout the land of Arucadi, her mental contact with Alair had been almost constant, but as time passed that contact had become less frequent. He and she had attributed it to many things: greater numbers of gifted needing the Power-Giver’s attention, interference of evil Dire Lords who were jealous of their power and opposed to giving power gifts to receptive humans, Kyla’s growing confidence in her gifts and therefore less need to rely on Alair’s help. What Kyla did not want to face was the other possibility: that in becoming less human, Alair was less able to love her in the way he had. The love he had professed for her was the love of a mortal man for a mortal woman. With their changed circumstances, Kyla, a mortal woman, could not be the focus of his attention. As Power-Giver, Alair’s loving attention must be spread to all those who received the gifts of power he channeled to them. Perhaps she no longer held more importance to him than any other devotee of the Power-Giver.
Not so, a voice in her mind protested. But was it Alair’s voice or her own inner longing?
Wearily she turned into her bedroom and headed for her bed. Marchion rose from the chair by the bed as she approached. She stepped back. She’d forgotten this was where they’d put Petros. “No change I guess,” she said, nodding toward the still form on the bed.
“No change at all,” Marchion confirmed. “His breathing and pulse are normal, but he’s not at home.”
“I wonder how long he can survive without his conscious mind,” Kyla said. “I don’t think he’s ever said.”
“He probably doesn’t know. I doubt he ever intended to stay out this long.”
“No, I suppose not. But why hasn’t he returned?”
Marchion rubbed his chin. “Maybe he can’t.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Apparently she needed to add Petros to those lost in the past hours. Jerome’s vendetta was going well. She had to find a way to stop it. “Try to get some sleep,” she advised Marchion. “If he comes back, he’ll wake you, I’m sure.”
She left the room. She needed sleep too. They all did. Leah was right. Night had come without her noticing. Everyone was exhausted. They couldn’t do anything until morning.
Leah was probably also right that in the morning she should call all the Community back together. She could not face this alone.
She stood in the hall, wondering where to go to rest. Veronica’s room? But if Veronica returned, she’d be angry to find her bed occupied. Standing there, swaying from weariness, she became aware of someone sobbing softly and steadily. She headed toward the sound and reached the room where Abigail sat in a rocking chair beside the bed on which Mayzie’s body was laid out. Abigail looked up when she entered. The older woman’s eyes were red from weeping, and tears still ran down her cheeks.
“Oh, Kyla, Isham is so angry,” she said. “He insisted on looking at her body, and when he saw it, saw the mutilation, he threatened terrible things. I don’t know what he’ll do, and I’m frightened, but I also feel so bad for him. We should have been able to heal her. He’s right to be angry.”
“He threatened me, too,” Kyla said. “Leah doesn’t think he’ll carry out the threats. He just needs to calm down.”
“I disagree,” Abigail said. “I think he’s dangerous. He’ll be back soon to get her body, and he’ll have friends with him. We’d better be prepared.”
Kyla hadn’t thought about that. It seemed that she was to have no rest after all. Nor was anyone else. “You’re right,” she told Abigail. “I’ll go and warn the others. You’d better come with me.”
“I don’t dare. Isham told me to stay right here until he gets back. He didn’t want her left alone. I promised I wouldn’t leave her. I don’t t
hink he’ll hurt me or Leah, but you’d better get everyone else out of the way. And mind Veronica keeps out of it. You know her temper.”
She didn’t know Veronica was missing. And this wasn’t the time to tell her. But something in her face must have alerted Abigail.
“What’s wrong?” Abigail demanded. “Where’s Veronica? What’s she done?”
Kyla was too dispirited to try to cushion the blow. “I don’t know. She’s missing. Along with Lore. We don’t know where they’ve gone or why. And Zauna hasn’t been able to locate either of them in her crystal. I can’t reach them with a mental sending, either.”
Abigail paled, but whatever she might have said was halted by the sound of men’s voices coming from the living room.
“Isham and his friends have already come for Mayzie’s body,” Abigail said, rising. “Quick, Kyla, go out back through the kitchen. Hurry!”
Kyla burst into a run before Abigail finished speaking. She dashed to the end of the hall and through the door into the kitchen. She paused there long enough to listen and verify that the voices registered anger and threatened harm. Zauna had come out of the room assigned to Marta and Ed, where Dreama’s crib had been placed, and was begging them to be quiet and not wake the baby. Too late. Dreama’s sudden wails rivaled the men’s shouts.
Kyla hurried on through the kitchen and out the back door into the yard. She took shelter behind the outhouse and the shrubbery that surrounded it.
She shouldn’t be running, shouldn’t be hiding. As the leader of the Gifted Community, she should be defending her flock, at least those members of it who were in her house because they’d remained to help her in this crisis. Suppose Abigail wasn’t able to calm Isham.
Winnie would help with that, as would Leah, whose calming presence even without magic was almost the equal of Winnie’s. But she couldn’t risk being arrested and hauled off to jail at this critical time. Marta and Ed and Veronica and Lore and Petros were all depending on her to rescue them and bring them home.
A Mix of Magics (Arucadi: The Beginning Book 3) Page 10
