by Tess Adair
“Hey, new kid! You in there?”
Jude snapped to attention.
“Yeah! Sorry, I was just thinking.”
Sasha chuckled.
“Maybe Logan found herself a mini-me after all,” she said, smiling broadly.
Jude smiled back but shook her head.
“I wish,” she said. “But I think I’ve got a ways to go before I’m much of anything, really.”
“Everyone has to start somewhere,” said Sasha. She leaned in closer to Jude and lowered her voice before she spoke again. “Logan tells me you two performed a burden releasing together. Is that true?”
Jude blushed automatically, remembering that surreal and psychologically transparent ritual. Across from them, Logan and Knatt appeared to be deep enough in conversation that they hadn’t noticed the shift in Sasha’s voice.
“Uh, yeah. We did.”
Sasha’s eyes filled up with a mischievous light.
“I love the burden release. I do it at least twice a year, during every solstice.” She lowered her voice even further. “I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.”
“My…you mean, like, what I saw?”
“Yeah! We all see different stuff in there, and…well, I’m kind of a collector of experiences.” She glanced across the table for a moment, then gave Jude a meaningful look. “I could tell you about Logan’s, too.”
Jude felt a warm wellspring of curiosity opening in her chest, overriding her embarrassment.
“You’ve got a deal,” she said, making sure to keep her voice sure and steady.
As if to punctuate the moment, their waiter showed up right then to pass them all flutes of champagne. Jude took hers eagerly, immediately taking a large drink and nearly choking on all the bubbles.
“Whoa,” she said, clearing her throat and catching her breath. “Huh, that’s…interesting.”
“Never had champagne before?”
“No. It’s interesting.”
“It’s better if you go slow,” said Sasha, taking a demonstrative small sip. “Now, come on. Tell me your story.”
“Oh, yeah. My burden release. Uh, it was…weird. I started out in this, like, endless hallway, but it wasn’t a normal hallway. There were these stretches of just absolute darkness, like the light couldn’t even touch them at all. And when I had to go through them, I thought—well, it felt like…”
“Like there was something else out there?”
“Yeah, exactly!”
“Where did you end up, after that?”
“Uh, well, eventually I was in this field.” Jude paused for a moment, wondering how truthful she really wanted to be. She wanted to tell Sasha what she saw…but she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell her that she knew what it meant. “And…there was this girl there, a little girl, sitting on a chair, in the middle of a field. A…a shadowy figure came up to her and put a blindfold on her, and then they just left her there.”
Sasha nodded knowingly.
“And you had to rescue her, I suppose,” she said. “Only when you approached her, she suddenly became infinitely more difficult to reach?”
Jude felt an uncertain smile stretch over her face.
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Well, everyone experiences different things, but there are certainly themes.”
Jude nodded and took another drink of champagne, this time taking a smaller amount. Now that she was over her surprise, she found that she rather enjoyed it.
“So…what about, uh…”
Instead of finishing her sentence, Jude made a motion with her head to indicate the other side of the table. Sasha smiled.
“Oh, yes. Come closer.”
They both leaned closer to the other, and Sasha put her hand up to Jude’s ear and whispered a few quick, highly descriptive words in her ear. Jude felt her eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. Then Sasha sat back straight again.
“Jesus Christ,” muttered Jude, her words barely audible. A cavalcade of images now stampeded through her thoughts.
“What are you two talking about?” asked Logan suddenly, an unusual sharpness to her voice.
“Nothing important,” asked Sasha smoothly. “Oh look, it’s time for us to order food.”
She was right. Their waiter had returned and now positioned himself next to her, pen raised over paper to take down his order.
From a wealth of rich-sounding options, Jude picked out a stuffed chicken dish with a side of asparagus. Across from her, Logan ordered a double serving of seared cod and requested they go light on the marinade, substitute a small salad for the mashed potatoes, and keep the dressing on the side. The waiter took everything down without batting an eye. Once he moved off, Sasha pointed a finger at Logan accusingly.
“Tell me you didn’t order something complicated just to mess with that poor young man,” she demanded.
“Not at all,” said Logan. She leaned back a bit from the table and swept her gaze across the entire room. Jude realized with a start that Logan had somehow managed to position herself in the farthest corner of the room, even though Jude was sure that Sasha had picked the table. “Just keeping myself in fighting shape, that’s all.”
Sasha shook her head in disbelief, but then glanced around the room in a similar manner. Jude guessed she was checking to see how closely anyone else was seated. Though the room had to be holding over a hundred people, it was far from filled to capacity. They appeared to have a two-table buffer between them and the nearest group. Even so, Sasha lowered her voice slightly as she spoke.
“Do you honestly think that’s necessary here? The Summit has to be one of the most well-guarded events in the world. There are more trained letha casters inside this building right now than there usually are on any given continent, let alone in the tri-county area.”
“Precisely,” answered Knatt, his face nearly immobile and his voice low. “And what a lovely target we all make, sitting here in one place.”
For a moment, Sasha looked like she was about to protest. Instead she glanced around the room again, apparently letting Knatt’s suggestion sink in. Slowly her face began to fall.
Logan fixed her with a calculating stare.
“You came for the same reasons we did, didn’t you?” she asked, her voice low. “Did you hear the rumors, or did you encounter him yourself?”
Slowly, Sasha shook her head.
“I didn’t…I didn’t encounter him directly, no. But I had to chase down this idiot kid who summoned a demon not three blocks from Harvard Square. He said…well, he mentioned a name.”
“My story’s roughly the same,” said Logan. “He’s been popping up everywhere, it seems.”
An ominous silence rolled over them, like fog filling up a valley. They each exchanged surreptitious glances and worried looks, but none of them seemed ready to offer words of comfort, or even to say the Wolf’s name out loud. Jude could feel a spider web of anxiety spreading out from her lower abdomen. Finally, Sasha cleared her throat.
“Let’s talk about something else, shall we?” She glanced at the table as if looking for topics, and her eyes landed on their champagne flutes. She picked up her own and held it aloft. “Here’s to old friends!” With a glance at Jude, she added, “And to making new ones, of course!”
“Here, here,” said Knatt, picking up his own and joining her in the cheers. Jude followed suit, and Logan reluctantly joined last.
Despite her earlier words, Sasha downed nearly her entire flute in one drink.
“The Order do know how to treat their guests, don’t they?” She glanced over at Eliana’s empty chair. “Do we know if that one’s coming back?”
“Not until after the meal,” said Jude. She watched Logan lift her right eyebrow, her expression suspicious.
“Don’t suppose she’d miss her drink then, would she?” asked Sasha, a twinkle in her eye.
“Probably not,” said Jude. She took hold of the extra glass and held it out. “You want?”
Sasha accepted i
t without hesitation.
“You’re a doll, Jude Li,” she said with another charming smile. She finished off the remainder of her first glass and held the second one delicately in her hand. “Maybe you can convince this one to bring you up to Boston sometime. I’ve been trying to get her to visit me for years.”
“Hey,” Logan protested, cupping her own flute tightly. “I did come to visit you! I came to visit…well…two years ago.”
“You see?”
“Two is barely plural.”
“Of course. And the incense probably made you forget, hm?”
Logan merely mumbled in response. With a rueful smile, Sasha shook her head and sipped her drink. Her gaze surveyed the crowd again, and after a moment she ducked her head and spoke.
“Don’t look now, H.C., but I think you’ve got an admirer,” she muttered.
Her concern from only a moment ago appeared to have faded. Apart from her sophisticated dress and manner, she sounded almost like an excited teenager gossiping in a lunch room. Logan, meanwhile, looked as alert as ever.
“If you mean the Novice by the eastern door, I clocked him twenty minutes ago,” said Logan, her voice so quiet it was barely audible. Her tone made it clear that she did not think he was watching her in order to flirt.
With some uncertainty, Jude looked all around the room, trying to see what Logan saw. She could see a number of Novices throughout the room, but none of them looked, to her, like they were watching Logan.
Sasha, meanwhile, crossed her arms.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Do I?”
“You gotta learn to take some time off, H.C.,” said Sasha, shaking her head with a rueful smile on her face. “I meant the cute albino at two o’clock.”
Jude followed Logan’s gaze until they both saw what Sasha meant. A man, likely close in age to Logan and Sasha, sat a number of tables away, occasionally casting glances in Logan’s direction. He had white-blond hair and pale skin, and even from across the room, Jude could tell he bore a muscular build beneath his open black robes. His tightly fitted, collared shirt looked crisp and clean, like a government official.
As he finally caught Logan’s eye, he smiled broadly and raised his champagne flute in her direction. Jude’s eyes darted back in time to see Logan’s narrow. Nonetheless, she sent him a reluctant wave.
“Another spy,” she muttered, hovering her glass in front of her face as if she thought he might try reading her lips.
“He’s dressed like a civilian, H.C.,” said Sasha, a hint of exasperation in her voice. “I think he’s just looking for a good time.”
“Hm.” Logan brought the glass to her lips, but she didn’t drink. “Perhaps you’re right.”
Yet her posture did not relax, and her eyes remained narrow and focused.
Jude couldn’t help but wonder exactly how many spies she was keeping an eye on.
Chapter Nineteen
Teacher’s Pet
When their food finally came, Jude found herself overwhelmed by the luxury of it all. Her food was rich and delicious, and her champagne flute rarely remained empty for long.
After dinner came dessert, which consisted of a light tiramisu, espresso-flavored ice cream, and an option for a nightcap. Jude stuffed herself until she wasn’t sure she could move, and then she started in on the ice cream.
On the other side, Logan ate carefully, and she refused dessert altogether. Jude felt so relaxed from the decadent feast and the champagne, as well as Sasha’s intoxicating company, that she almost started to ask Logan why she abstained—until she remembered their conversation over the lemonade, and kept her mouth shut.
Once the desserts had been consumed and the waiters began to clear everything away, Knatt stood up and announced his intention to head back to their room. Logan joined suit, and Sasha decided she would walk them back.
“I’m just gonna stay here for a bit,” said Jude. “I, uh—well, I told Eliana I’d wait—”
“Just be careful,” said Logan, sounding equal parts aggravated and tired. “Keep your wits about you at all times, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.” Logan reached into her pocket and pulled out one of their old-fashioned keys, this one tied to a piece of black ribbon. She handed it over to Jude. “This should get you back into the suite.”
Jude nodded and took the key.
“It was nice meeting you, Jude,” said Sasha with another broad smile. “Have a good night.”
Jude watched them slip away through the doorway into the hall, her fingers playing nervously at the key and ribbon. As soon as they were out of sight, it occurred to her that if Eliana never showed up, she might not be able to find her way back to the room on her own.
That’s hardly anything to be afraid of, though, is it? she thought to herself as she slipped the key into one of her hidden pouches. Logan may not trust these people, but it’s not like they’re demons, is it?
One minute passed, and then another. Logan’s champagne flute still sat near her plate, the liquid inside untouched. Jude replaced it with her own empty glass and clutched at it, hoping that having it in her hand would make it look a little bit more like she still had something to do, sitting alone at the table in the corner. She took a small sip from it, hoping she could draw out drinking it for as long as it took for Eliana to show.
If she shows up at all, she thought, unwillingly.
A few more minutes passed. She drank the remaining champagne as slowly as she could, while all around her, waiters flitted two and from tables, slowly clearing away all evidence of the meal and their guests. A few other stragglers remained behind at another table, but eventually they, too, departed. Finally, Jude finished off her drink. She put it down with a sigh, stood up, and turned toward the door.
“You didn’t think I’d blown you off, did you?”
Eliana stood a few feet away, no longer wearing the intricate red-sleeved robe from before. Instead, she was wearing jeans, a white sweater, and a puffy down vest with red faux fur on the collar.
“I wasn’t sure,” answered Jude with a shrug. She took one step closer, then stopped again. “You took your time.”
“Sorry,” said Eliana sheepishly, her gaze downcast. “Uh, my friends—well, they just kept saying they wanted to do one more toast, and before I knew it, it had been, like, twenty more toasts, you know? I finally just slipped out in the middle of one. Pretty sure the rest of them are still there.”
“And then you went and changed?” asked Jude, thinking irresistibly of Logan’s paranoia. Maybe Eliana had never gone to meet up with her friends at all.
“And then I went and changed,” said Eliana easily. “The robes are pretty, but they aren’t exactly warm, you know?”
Jude nodded slowly. Her answer made sense, even though Jude knew she had no way to verify it. Of course, she had no way to disprove it, either.
You’re being a little crazy, she told herself. You wanted to go with her before. All that’s changed is that she was a little late.
Finally, she found it within herself to speak.
“Okay,” she said. “Well, you’re the one who knows your way around this place. So lead the way.”
Eliana’s smile, which had been slowly fading as Jude took her time, popped right back into place.
“Perfect! I promise you won’t be sorry.”
And Jude followed her, only the barest hint of a question still tugging at the back of her mind.
Logan woke up to a coil pressing up through the cloth of her mattress, poking her gently but insistently in the side. A small, battery-powered alarm clock beeped just above her head, on its perch on the small dresser beneath the window. Her left arm shot out to silence it, and when she pulled it back, she made sure to grab the small slip of paper sitting just beside it.
She’d found the paper in her own pocket shortly after the feast. It read: we hail Our power, at break. She could count on one hand the number of people who might have left her
such a note—unless it was a trick, of course. Even so, it was a trick that few could pull off.
Regardless, she believed she knew who had left her the note.
So, with a sigh, she pushed herself out of bed. Outside the slim window of her closet-sized bedroom, the sky was still dark as night. She strapped the usual knives around her ankles and pulled her pants on over them before slipping into her boots and lacing them up. Finally, she checked her jacket pockets for the rest of her hidden supplies, then slipped on a ribbed tank top before pulling the jacket on and heading out the door.
Her body yearned for coffee to get herself going, but a quick glance at the kitchens told her they weren’t open for business yet, and she found no free-standing coffeemakers on her way out of the castle and onto the grounds. With a small sigh, she slipped a pack of cigarettes out of a hidden pocket, pulled one out, and lit it. Not wanting the smell to give her up on approach, she stood where she was, in a small alcove on the southern perimeter of the building, until she’d smoked it all the way down and put it out, then continued on her way.
If she’d interpreted the code correctly, she had to meet the mysterious note-writer at the center of the western boundary on the grounds, right at the break of dawn. Following her best instincts, she struck out for the very center of the lawn, then started walking in a westward direction. She’d go until she hit the boundary of the place-cast that sheltered the grounds, or until she met the writer—whichever came first.
The sky above the horizon turned slowly from a solid black to dark, deep blue in anticipation of the sunrise to the east. Logan picked up her pace, pushing ever nearer to the boundary. Eventually the ground began to slope upward, and she could feel that she was getting close. At long last, the ground turned up sharply, and her feet froze in place, a tremor running through her body.
Ancient casting; I can feel its timelessness. The boundary lay just ahead, not six feet from her.
She stood where she was and waited. Though she could feel the boundary’s presence, it remained invisible to the eye. She peered out at a vast, rolling hillside, dotted periodically with trees. Even in the pre-dawn twilight, it looked as picturesque as a fairy tale.