The Veiled Diplomat

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  The smirks and sideways glances from the others said more of them agreed with Ms. Gardenia than not.

  "He's just doing what he needs to do to survive," said Zayn, putting a comforting hand on Buford's shoulder. "Just like we all are."

  "Exactly," said Ms. Gardenia. "Which is why we shouldn't trust you."

  He was beginning to regret helping them, though he didn't want to stay away just because of a lone opinion.

  "She wins when she divides us," said Buford defiantly.

  "He's right, you know," said Zayn.

  Ms. Gardenia flicked her half-a-cigarette into the dirt where they'd been tilling. "You're young enough to be naive, Buford, but you"—she pointed at Zayn—"you should know better with all your Hall learning.

  "Don't think us old-timers haven't seen a thing or two. She's divided us alright, and it's best to keep it that way. If we try mixing with them, it always ends bad. Always. Mark my word, he will betray us eventually. That's how it works. The Lady done fixed the game, and there's no use playing it, because we always lose. Always."

  Ms. Gardenia stormed off, leaving a wake of bad feelings behind. A few of the others moved back into the garden to prepare the soil.

  "You won't betray us, will you, Zayn?" asked Buford with wide, wounded eyes.

  The Lady's question weighed heavily on his mind as Zayn looked Buford straight in the eyes and said, "I won't. I wouldn't. I will never betray you."

  Buford seemed to accept this answer and returned to the garden. But for Zayn, he couldn't shake the idea that betrayal was inevitable. Not because he wanted to, but because he couldn't conceive of a way out. The Lady held all the advantages. She had the people, the power, perfect information, and a failsafe in her poison that prevented anyone from rising up against her. The only way he was going to beat her was to do something she never expected. Something impossible. Something that would risk everything, even them.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The house, April 2016

  Strings attached

  Zayn was sitting in the living room studying when Keelan and Vin came running downstairs as if the house were on fire. Zayn sat up fast, knocking Visions & Deception onto the floor.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Wrong?" Vin scrunched up his face. "What is right is the question. Keelan solved the rope problem!"

  Keelan breathed on his fingernails and then polished them against his chest.

  "Ain't nothing but a thing."

  Before Zayn could protest, Vin dragged him towards the stairs. "You have to come see."

  He hesitated because he wasn't just studying, he was keeping an eye out for Petri, who usually went out around midnight. He wanted to see if he could join her. She'd been going out later and later, and coming back after morning. He was worried about her and the effect she was having on the rest of them.

  But he couldn't ignore Vin and Keelan's excitement. They'd been trying different spells for weeks to find a way to simulate the marionette ropes without resorting to mechanical means.

  "I'm coming, I'm coming."

  Vin's room had been completely upended. The bed, dresser, and everything else had been moved into the hallway. The ceiling had been painted black and covered in runes. Lengths of rope lay around the floor.

  "And what am I supposed to be seeing?" asked Zayn.

  Talking too fast, Vin said, "Well, there's the rope and it's enchanted and the ceiling—Keelan, you explain."

  A much calmer Keelan picked up the nearest piece of rope. It was about eight feet long with a metal end. Using a spray bottle with a swirling blue liquid inside, Keelan coated the rope, spraying along its length until it was completely covered in a glistening slime that immediately soaked into the line.

  "It's a mixture of demon ichor and the pulp of sequoia bark. The ichor gives the rope bounce, to simulate the marionette rigging, and the bark the rigidity. There's also a touch of gargoyle blood which extends the effect, but I don't have it dialed in yet, so it only lasts for about thirty minutes, but I'm confident I can get the whole two hours."

  Zayn resisted the urge to tell his cousin to get to the point. It was clear that Keelan was proud of what he'd come up with, so he let him talk.

  "The spell is something I found that snake charmers use, and it seems to work for the rope as well," said Keelan.

  "And the ceiling?"

  "We enchanted it to have a slight magnetic force so the metal ends ride around without getting hung up. We tested with multiple ropes and they did great," said Keelan.

  "So let's see it," said Zayn, thinking he just heard the door downstairs slam shut.

  The spell only took a few gestures—a snake charmer wouldn't have much time to capture the snake's attention. Once done, Keelan shoved the frayed end into his shirt through the neck hole.

  "We can cut holes in our costumes," said Keelan, tapping his shoulder.

  As soon as he lifted the other half, the metal end rose up to the ceiling, connecting with a little click. Keelan demonstrated the versatility of the rope by walking around using the twitchy marionette motions. It almost looked like he was dancing to dub-step.

  "Great job," said Zayn, giving them both fist bumps. "It looks like we're all ready."

  Vin looked visibly relieved.

  "And you all aren't completely embarrassing on the stage anymore," he said with a wink.

  "Thanks for the vote of confidence," laughed Zayn, glancing outside to see Petri getting into a ghost taxi. "This is great, but I need to get going. I think I need to deal with Petri, or her aunt is going to kill me."

  They gave him a thumbs-up. Zayn went straight to Skylar's room.

  "What's up?" she asked, looking up from her laptop.

  "Petri went out again," he said.

  "She goes out every night," said Skylar with a sour expression.

  "I wanted to join her, but she left while I was upstairs with Vin and Keelan. I was going to see if I could find her, but you know her haunts better than I do," said Zayn.

  Skylar nodded and closed the laptop. "Give me five."

  A short time later, they were both on the Red Line to the seventh district. There were three separate areas with a heavy concentration of bars, but they couldn't find her in any of them.

  "There's no way we can search the whole city," said Zayn, standing on the corner of the canal district. Attendants in fancy uniforms poled small barges around the watery streets under the glow of magelights.

  "It's already one thirty," said Skylar, wearing navy billowing pants and a white tube top that showed off her pierced belly.

  "I'm tired, and you look like you're about to march down a Paris runway," said Zayn.

  "Thanks," said Skylar, holding back a grin.

  "You look like you've found your stride," he said, gesturing towards her overall look.

  Skylar ran her hands over her shortly cropped hair. "I was planning on growing it out after the year, but I think I like it short like this. It's beginning to feel more me."

  Zayn had a map open on his cell phone. "What do you think, second, tenth, or first ward?"

  "There's not enough time to check everywhere, even if we split up," said Skylar.

  "I'd rather stay together. The way she's been lately, I think it's best we both confront her."

  "This isn't about when you and her hooked up, is it?" asked Skylar, raising an eyebrow.

  "No. It was a—an amazing night, but she wasn't interested afterwards," he said with a shrug. "I'm not looking for a relationship anyway. Right now, I'm just worried about Petri as a friend."

  "Not because her aunt Amber scares you?" asked Skylar with a smirk as she idly thumbed through her phone.

  "Well, that certainly encourages an attention to detail, but no...Amber sent her to us for a reason. She's got powers that we don't understand, and they're growing. I don't want anyone to get hurt, Petri included. Not that it matters since we're never going to find her in a city this big," said Zayn.

  "I found her," said Skylar, poin
ting to her phone.

  "You have?"

  Skylar had the MageAPP open on her phone. "There's a place in the fifth ward called Lair of the Serpent that has reports of multiple fights."

  "That could be anything," said Zayn.

  "Also a girl in a silvery dress levitating in the middle of the dance floor with black smoke leaking from her hands," said Skylar.

  "That's our Petri," said Zayn, hugging Skylar and kissing her on the cheek. "You rock. She was wearing that dress when I saw her get into the ghost taxi. Let's go."

  The whole ride to the fifth ward, Zayn was worried that she would have moved on by the time they arrived, or that a squad of Invictus PD would be on the scene, but they only found a velvet-roped line with well-dressed mid-twenties waiting to get in. Zayn guessed it took more than one levitating girl to bring the authorities in the city of magic.

  Zayn went right to the front. As he approached the rune-armed bouncer, he cast a charm, only to receive a disdainful look from her.

  "Back of the line, pups. I don't let anyone in unless I want 'em to go," said the bouncer.

  Zayn glanced back to Skylar and said one word, "Veil."

  The bouncer's eyes went wide as they slipped into the Veil, out of sight from the human realm.

  As the hazy Veil rose up around him, looking like the world through thick out-of-focus glasses, Zayn regretted it right away. A powerful headache hit him, like a red-hot drill being jammed through his ear.

  Zayn stumbled forward past the bouncer and into the club, before slipping back out of the Veil. He appeared right next to a dark-haired girl with a bare midriff selling fancy cocktails for ridiculous prices.

  "How did you...?" she asked, then did a double take when Skylar appeared next to him.

  Zayn winked at her. "Do you really have to ask?"

  Away from the drink station, Skylar said, "What the hell was that in the Veil? That was awful."

  "I don't know. Maybe there's an interference nearby. Percival did warn us that it wasn't to be used long," said Zayn.

  "I wasn't there a millisec before that slammed into me," said Skylar.

  "A mystery for later," said Zayn, scanning the press of bodies in the late-night rave. "Let's find Petri."

  Zayn felt it as soon as he stepped onto the dance floor. Petri was no longer levitating, so he couldn't see her, but he felt a manic energy course through him.

  "Look at them all, it's practically a mosh pit," said Skylar, eyes wide with concern.

  Everyone was jostling and dancing as if it were their last night alive. The music wasn't even that intense, but visually he would have guessed that it was industrial metal.

  "Let's split up and look for her," said Zayn.

  Skylar turned on him with a lip-curling sneer. "I don't have to do everything you ask."

  Electricity rose to Zayn's fist. An overwhelming rage rose up until all he could imagine was punching Skylar in the face.

  Slowly, her expression turned into wide-eyed horror. "Oh no. I thought I was ready to resist that, but all of a sudden I was so angry."

  Her admission snapped the mood that had taken control.

  "Me too," said Zayn. "I still feel like I want to bite someone."

  "At least we know she hasn't left yet," said Skylar, scanning the crowd. "There she is."

  Skylar pointed to the upper floor, which appeared to be a VIP lounge. Zayn couldn't really tell what was going on except that Petri was the center of everyone's attention.

  The bouncer at the base of the steps laughed when he tried to charm him. The guy had muscles on his muscles and pulled an amulet from his shirt.

  "Nice try, scumbag, move along," said the bouncer, showing off the protective runes on his arms just like the bouncer outside. He wasn't a mage, but he'd invested in runic tattoos to keep him safe from minor magics.

  Since there was no way he was slipping into the Veil again, Zayn considered taking him down physically, but Skylar put her hand on his shoulder. "Let me take care of him."

  The bouncer sized her up with a scoff. "Little Miss Furiosa?"

  While the bouncer watched with sneering interest, Skylar reached to her shoulders as if she were pulling off a cloak, and when she did, a shadowy fabric appeared. The bouncer let a half-grin rise to his lips as if she were no threat to him.

  "Are we gonna have a picnic on that?" laughed the bouncer.

  With a flourish, Skylar snapped the shadowy cloak and it rose into the air as if it were a living creature.

  "What the...?"

  The bouncer swallowed his words as the cloak attacked, wrapping around him and pinning him to the wall. When the struggling stopped, it looked like a deep shadow hung in the corner. Muffled cries came from beneath it, but they sounded distant. If Zayn hadn't seen it, he wouldn't know anyone was there.

  "Is he going to be okay?" asked Zayn as they moved upstairs.

  "I don't know," she said with a shrug. "It's the first time I've used that."

  They found Petri at the center of a throng of what Zayn could only call worshipers. She sat on a chair being held up by two broad-shouldered women while the rest of the men and women looked to Petri with rapture.

  Zayn felt compelled to throw himself on the ground before her. He was stepping forward when Skylar stopped him.

  "Ward yourself," she said.

  He put up a countercharm and they approached Petri. A flicker of annoyance passed across her face.

  "Hey, Petri," said Zayn.

  Her nostrils flared while her lips remained flat. "Why are you here?"

  "We're worried about you," said Skylar.

  "I don't need your concerns," said Petri as one of her sycophants handed her a champagne glass. She took a sip and handed it back. "And clearly you don't need me."

  "I'm sorry we've been so busy," said Zayn.

  "No you're not," said Petri right away. "You're only worried about making Amber happy. I can make my own friends."

  Petri showed them her palm and swiped it in front of her, indicating her room full of worshipers.

  "These aren't friends. You've charmed them to like you," said Zayn.

  "They're better than friends. They do what I want," said Petri, lifting her chin. "That's what I've learned from you and your team. The only thing that matters is power."

  "That's not what we're learning at the Academy," said Skylar. "We're there to protect the people who don't have power from those who have it."

  "The realms are a dangerous place," said Zayn. "There are powerful beings out there that would take what they want without asking."

  "Beings like me," said Petri.

  Cracks formed in her angry mask, revealing a trapped look in her eyes. He could see the girl their age, trying to regain her composure.

  He looked to Skylar, who seemed as bewildered as he was.

  "I don't know what kind of being you are," said Zayn. "But I know you're my friend."

  "Our friend," said Skylar, nodding.

  Zayn wasn't sure how it was possible Petri could appear to be on the verge of tears and also ready to roast them in a pillar of fire.

  "What does friend even mean?" asked Petri, glancing away.

  Zayn opened his mouth to speak when he realized what was wrong. They'd been treating her like a houseguest, a burden that had to be dealt with. When they went out with her, it was only to watch her, not to truly hang out as he did with the rest of his team.

  "You're right, Petri, we've been terrible friends," said Zayn.

  Skylar gave him a "what are you doing" look, but he forged ahead, because Petri for the first time looked at him with what he could only call her human eyes.

  "We've been busy, and that's no excuse, and you're right. I've been more worried about making Amber happy than making you happy. Real friends don't do that to each other."

  A dreadful pause invaded the air. Zayn had gotten this far, just speaking from his heart, but he needed to reach out to her in a meaningful way. But as soon as he thought of an answer, he knew that Vin
was going to kill him.

  "What do you think about helping us with the play?" asked Zayn.

  A strangled cough emanated from his left, while Petri's face lit up as if a spotlight had been shone on it.

  "You'd let me join the company?" she asked, her voice as soft as a little girl's.

  "Absolutely," said Skylar, recovering from her surprise.

  Petri tilted her head. "This isn't just to appease me, is it? You're asking me because you want me to be a part of your team?"

  He and Skylar nodded enthusiastically at the same time.

  "Yep."

  "Great," said Petri, clapping her hands once, the earlier menace gone from her demeanor. She hopped off her throne. "Let me use the ladies' room and then I'm ready to go back. I can't wait to get started."

  As soon as she left, her worshipers snapped out of their stupors and glanced at each other in a daze.

  "Go home," said Zayn, hoping they were still suggestive. "You drank too much."

  Like a crowd of zombies they trudged down the stairs. Zayn looked out over the dance floor, which tamed in Petri's absence.

  "Good call," said Skylar, "but Vin's gonna kill you. The play is ready. How are we going to add Petri in without screwing it all up?"

  "We'll figure that out later," said Zayn. "What's more important is that she's part of the team now."

  "I agree, even though I don't understand why she's so important," said Skylar.

  "I don't completely know either," said Zayn. "I feel like I'm missing something. I wish I knew what she was, or why she has so much power."

  "Why don't you ask Amber?" asked Skylar.

  Zayn nodded. He'd ask Amber, but he needed to do it in a way that got him the answers he wanted.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Amber's Shop, April 2016

  Truth stranger than fiction

  Zayn didn't go to Howling Madwoman Fortunes and Spells until a week later. As expected, Vin was frustrated about the change in the play, but he agreed to write Petri into the story. This upended everything about the story, requiring everyone to relearn their new lines for the next showing, which was in a few days.