Riot Girls: Seven Books With Girls Who Don't Need A Hero
Page 21
~*~
Eamon phased into the fae's shadow world, pushed through the closed train door, and jumped off the train. The insubstantial nature of objects in the human world when you experienced them from the fae side was actually helpful to him once in a while. It was somewhat less of a convenience for those who could never leave the fae realm. Most of the fae stayed far from human centers so that human-side objects didn't trap them like insects in amber. You could get through with a quick push, but if you stopped moving while going through, that would be the end of you.
Eamon ran back to the station, following Lizbet and James as they made their way to the hotel, and then climbed up to the hotel roof to spend the night in the shadow realm. He discovered a real gargoyle perched next to the cement gargoyles on the building rim and attempted to start a conversation, but gargoyles aren't known for the gift of gab, and he gave up after being the recipient of a few grunts and nods.
When his mistress suddenly appeared in front of him on the hotel rooftop, Eamon jumped up briskly and knelt on one knee, bowing his head.
He didn't like the way she dropped into existence from nowhere, something she only discovered after becoming pure fae. Although she was his mistress and he would always be loyal, he questioned her need for so much stealth. A bit of a warning wouldn't go amiss.
"Rise, Eamon," she said. She sent a poisonous look at the gargoyle, and it winged away as Eamon sat back again against a chimney.
Eamon grinned. "The other two are cement, so I wouldn't bother trying to scare them off, although I find they're no worse conversationalists than the real thing."
"You'll not charm me this time, Eamon. Why are you here instead of with the girl?"
"Empowerment. That's what they call it nowadays. She needs to be 'empowered' if she's to complete her task. Remember, she's not you…she's not even the human side of you. She's just a young lass with a head full of ancient memories."
"She is me…or she will be me. But for now, I accept she needs to be strengthened for her quest."
~*~
As she dropped her backpack on the dresser in the hotel room, Lizbet let herself feel a little piece of the fear that had been sneaking up on her since the train station. It's not fair! I'm just a kid. Here she was, hiding in a foreign country from a band of dangerous monks. And if that wasn't enough, she was about to spend the night in a hotel room with the cute neighbor boy she wasn't even old enough to date. They had considered separate rooms but decided it would be safer to stay together. She could tell by the way James was staying as far away from her as possible in the small room that he felt as uncomfortable about sharing it as she did.
Fortunately, the hotel room had twin beds, so there wouldn't be any weird conversations at bedtime about who was going to sleep on the floor and who was going to sleep on the bed…blah, blah, blah. She had no interest in playing out some bad sitcom with James no matter how weird the situation was.
Lizbet checked her email on the hotel wifi. Bobby had sent her pictures from camp. They made her smile. She emailed him back, telling him all of the made up things she and Dad had been doing, and then she dropped a quick note to Tanji through Facebook. She wanted to tell her about the trip and James, but decided that wasn’t a good idea, so she just made a quick comment about how boring it was with Tanji gone, and "I've got lots to tell you when you get back from your trip". It was actually lucky for her that Tanji had gone off to Jamaica. It would be much easier to keep anyone from reporting her among the missing. While she did have other friends, she didn't keep in constant contact with them like she did with Tanj.
Fortunately, her mom wasn't in the habit of calling her when she stayed at her dad's, so that worked out pretty well. She hoped her mom really did take the opportunity to have fun. Mom never complained, but Lizbet knew that she and Bobby could really be a handful sometimes. Yeah, like when I run away to Scotland with a gruagach and the cute college boy who lives over the neighbor's garage. When mom finds out, I'm never going to be allowed to leave the house again.
Lizbet figured that if they had bikes and were on their way out of town by 10 AM or so the next day, they could be in Edinburgh by mid-afternoon. With only about 30 miles to go, they could ride at a leisurely pace and still be there in three to four hours, assuming that there were no surprises like the map for the bike route actually took them onto a major highway—sometimes internet-suggested bike routes could be pretty inaccurate. But with only thirty miles, even if they had to take a longer alternate route or walk their bikes part of the way, they would still get there in a reasonable amount of time.
She hoped it didn't occur to Thomas they might be taking the green option out of town.
~*~
For the second day in a row, Tanji's father had come to breakfast unshaven and declined everything except a cup of coffee. Lunch and dinner were close to the same. He didn't even show an interest in the morning paper. She'd never seen him at breakfast without the financial section held up between them as he ate, and yet, here it was dinner time, and the paper still sat folded up at the side of the table. He hadn't touched it.
Although Tanji had inherited her dark good looks primarily from her Jamaican mother, she knew she had more in common with her fair-haired, blue-eyed father. Her mother was the emotional one—her father was always on an even keel, ready to joke and laugh. He was always confident, even when he was making it up as he went along.
This was the worst possible way for her trip to Gran's to be cancelled. But not only was it no longer needed, it was an unnecessary expense. The day of her scheduled trip, her father had come home in the middle of the day to tell her he wasn't there to take her to the airport because he'd been laid off due to “restructuring”. It had been several days, but she still didn't want to leave him alone. Instead of being the strong, decisive, ready-for-anything father she knew, he looked defeated. It was scary. His work had taken up so much of his life that he seemed lost now.
"Dad? If you don't want hamburgers, I've gotten really good at making French toast. We've got blueberry syrup or strawberry jelly…"
Her father gave her a weak smile. "Sweetheart, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I'll be fine. It's just a shock. I had no idea this was coming. I wasn't prepared. You know me, I'm prepared for everything, but this one threw me for a loop."
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Do you know how long it's been since I could sleep in? Or walk around with stubble? I'll find the positive in this. If anybody can take life's lemons and make lemonade, I will…right?"
Tanji got up and gave him a hug. "Or take life's clichés and make…"
Her father gave her a fake-stern look and then smiled.
"Yes, you will, dad. I know that. I'll stop mothering you. But really, if you ever want that French toast…"
Her father drew her toward him for a hug. When he released her, he said, "Look, I’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, will turn into a pumpkin if you don't get a daily dose of social life. Take the car tonight and go see Lizbet or one of your other friends. I've got some phone calls to get started on, and I'm not going to get much productive networking in with you continuing to hover around me like a mother bear. Your mother will do plenty of that when she gets back."
Tanji took the keys he offered and decided he really had gone off the deep end. Car keys without any begging at all? Still, she was sure Lizbet wouldn't mind a surprise ride around town to see what kind of mischief they could get into.
~*~
"Hi, Mrs. M., Is Lizbet here?"
"No, dear, she went to her father's a few days ago. I'm surprised she didn't tell you."
"I was supposed to go to Jamaica, so she thinks I'm not in town. I wanted to surprise her, but I guess I have to surprise her at her father's instead."
Mrs. Moore smiled. "You know where it is, don't you?"
"Sure. It's on my side of town. I've been there. Thanks."
Tanji made the short drive back across town. Like Mrs. Mo
ore, she was surprised that Lizbet hadn't mentioned she was staying at her father's. Then again, they hadn't really communicated much in the past few days except for a quick message or two through Facebook. Lizbet wasn't texting because she thought Tanji was in Jamaica, and Tanji wasn't texting because, while she wanted to talk about her father, she didn't want to do it by text or by Facebook. It was one of those face-to-face conversations you have with your best friend because you need the hug with the conversation.
Tanji knocked firmly on the door of Ted Moore's apartment. When he opened the door she asked, "Hi, Mr. Moore, is Lizbet here?"
"No, she's not. I assume she's at her mother's."
Tanji covered herself fast. "Oh…I must have gotten my signals crossed. I was sure she told me that she was going to be staying with you for a few days. Maybe she told me that she was going to ask you if she could stay and then didn't do it. Okay, well…thanks." Tanji turned and zoomed quickly down the stairs to the parking lot.
Once Tanji got to the car, she fired off a text.
"whr r u? mom says dads. dad says moms ????”
CHAPTER NINE
Long Distance Call
LIZBET WOKE TO the sound of James taking a shower. She wished she'd managed to wake up first so that he didn't potentially get a whiff of her morning breath. She was so going to stay across the room from him until she'd showered, brushed her teeth, and gotten herself into some clean clothes.
Lizbet stretched, yawned, and picked up her phone from the bedside table. There was a text from Tanji that had come in during the night. Her brain seized up completely for a moment after reading it. This could be so much trouble.
Lizbet texted back immediately.
"pls dnt tell. in scotland. james 2. i m ok. home soon"
No response for several minutes and then, just a one word question showed up on her screen.
"scotland?"
It must be four in the morning there. She hoped she'd woken Tanji up and that she wasn't awake because she was at the police station giving a statement about a missing girl.
"long story. i m safe. promise not 2 tell?"
"yes but i nd info"
"today. l8r. with pics. ok?"
"ok. 5 hrs"
"ok"
~*~
Lizbet liked sitting across from James over coffee first thing at the cafe, but she didn't have a clue how she was going to tell him about the texts. She kept looking up at him, meaning to tell him, but then she couldn't.
It wasn't like Tanji was going to tell Lizbet's parents. Tanji was the queen of misdirection. She'd used the "I'm sleeping over at fill-in-the-blank's house" ploy more times than any other teenager in the county. She'd even gotten to Chicago for a concert once when she was fourteen without her parents knowing about it. Lizbet had worried about that one, big time. Scotland, though…even Tanji might think that was a sleep-over too far.
James had managed to contact Eamon while Lizbet took a shower that morning, and Eamon was pleased by their plan to cycle to Edinburgh. Eamon would show up at the meeting point by the castle later that day and advised they should stay put there until he came for them.
They both ate a big breakfast, and they bought sandwiches, a couple of apples, and some bottled water for the trip before they left town. James stowed them in his backpack, and they took off toward Edinburgh.
As they passed near the harbor, Lizbet realized that she loved, absolutely loved, the salty smell, the sound of the waves, and the play of the light on the water. Things here felt different than they did at home. She felt different here. It wasn't just the whispers in her head that gave her the historical tour of some of the coastline as it passed. It was also a sense of being closer to the source of things, and she supposed she was—certainly nearer to where Morgan began. Edinburgh had been a small settlement called Din Eidyn in Morgan's time, but Morgan had stopped there many times when traveling with Arthur or Myrddin.
In Maude's time, the castle above Edinburgh had already been home to Scottish kings and queens for generations. Maude had never been inside the castle but had lived all of her thirty-six years in its shadow. She left Edinburgh only once, to travel with Eamon to collect Faolan's amulet. Lizbet supposed that Maude might still have family there—grandchildren with too many greats in front of them to count.
Lizbet still had time to tell James about Tanji finding out she was gone before Tanji's deadline. But what could she say to Tanji to explain it all? Tanji might be her BFF, but she was also completely grounded and sane. However, until she absolutely had to figure it out, Lizbet wanted to enjoy this unexpected cycling trip with an unexpected partner. It might be her last opportunity to enjoy the calm before the storm.
~*~
"I wished you'd told me this earlier," James said.
"I know. I should have. I didn't…sorry. I just wanted to enjoy the ride. I didn't want us both worrying."
"You do know that's dumb, right? Because we're being chased by evil monks, for one thing. For another, I've crossed well over state lines with a minor, and we're traveling on to meet with a guy who can turn himself into a tree. Or a suitcase." James waved his left arm vaguely toward another section of the park where they had stopped to have lunch. "Or that birdbath over there, for all we know. So, really, I already have nothing but worries. And you should have told me."
"Again, sorry…but this is the perfect spot for a video to show Tanji that everything is okay. Just take my phone and point it at me, and let me talk for a minute. Then I'll text it to Tanji, and I think there won't be a problem then. As long as she knows I'm safe, she'll keep the secret. She will."
James held the camera as steady as he could as Lizbet leaned against the back of a bench with one hand on her bike. She chose the spot so that Tanji could see that there were pedestrians walking by on the path behind her, proving she was there of her own free will. When Lizbet stopped talking, she huddled over the screen of the phone with James to see how it turned out.
It was windy; the audio wasn't great, but it was okay, and you could make out everything that Lizbet said.
"So, Tanji, here I am in Scotland. It's really important that you don't tell anyone. Just let my mom think I'm at my dad's until I get home. They'll find out where I've been soon enough. Because…and this is the part that you're going to think is crazy, but that picture of the garden gnome I sent you wasn't a statue. He's a real thing, a gruagach, a kind of fairy. I didn't know that when I sent it to you, but I found out later." Lizbet sat quietly for a moment in the video. She knew she had been trying to think of what to say next. Something that didn't sound completely insane. Except there wasn't anything that didn’t sound nutso, so she started talking again anyway.
"And the thing is…fairies are real. It's that human beings haven't been in the same realm with them for a long time. So, now we believe they never really existed. But they do, I've seen them, and they're in danger. And I have to help them. That's the 'long story' part I don't have time for. But I'm safe, really. James is here—he's the one holding the camera. I've got a bike…" James panned to the bike, so Tanji could see that it wasn't chained to anything and Lizbet could get on it at any time. "And you know that if I hop on that bike, nobody is going to catch up with me. So, nobody is holding me here against my will. Please don’t tell my parents. And don't think I'm crazy."
Lizbet shrugged. "It'll have to do." She opened a new text to Tanji, attached the video, and clicked send. "Okay, so let's have lunch and then get going. I guess we’ll know in a little while what’s going to happen,"
As Lizbet mounted her bike twenty minutes later, her phone buzzed with an incoming text alert.
"u r a freak but u r my freak. i wont tell."
~*~
Eamon phased into the fae realm not a moment too soon. He'd heard James when he suggested that Eamon might be disguised as a birdbath, which was idiotic. No one would tolerate having birds mucking about on his head for very long, not even a gruagach. Unfortunately, he hadn't heard the conversation about t
he video for Tanji because a group of noisy children had run by. He realized that James had brought the phone up for filming just in time.
Glamours don't work on film. Glamours require a human mind that can be fooled. Cameras simply record things as they are.
Eamon hoped James's eyes had stayed on Lizbet while he filmed. Perhaps he wouldn't notice that the oddly placed fire hydrant off to the side of the shot was something else when viewed through the camera lens. He also hoped that the film's intended recipient didn't note the presence, and then the sudden disappearance, of a small figure behind the bench. It would not do to have mistrusting James know he'd been near them all along.
~*~
It took two more hours before the cyclists arrived on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Lizbet knew she could have made it there in half the time on her own, but she didn’t mind holding back for James, who looked uncomfortable even if he didn’t say it. He was a geek, not an athlete. She was pretty sure if they were doing a quiz show instead of a bike ride, he’d completely leave her in the dust.
They stopped to get their bearings on the sidewalk of a busy city street.
Lizbet scanned the horizon in all directions. "There it is! Do you see the castle on the hill?"
James looked in the direction she was pointing. "That's what, a few more miles? Not too far, but it looks like it will be city streets from here on in."
"That'll definitely slow us down," said Lizbet. As she spoke, her phone rang, and she grabbed it to look at the caller ID. It was her mother. So completely not a good sign. Her mother never called her when she was with her father. She let the call go to voicemail. Within a few minutes, her phone rang again. This time, it was her father. She let that one go to voicemail, too. No way. Tanji wouldn't have narced me out.