Jericho: A Novel
Page 31
“How do you like your present, Mistress?” Peter stepped out of range of the camera long enough to grin at Lauren.
“Back when I was a girl, if you wanted someone to write you a letter, you gave them a box of stationery, which is pretty much what this thing is, only it’s easier to erase your mistakes, and that’s all I’m going to say about that, Peter Augustin.” Virginia tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “At least with paper and pen, it doesn’t matter what your hair looks like.” Her blue gaze settled on Lauren. “Morning.”
“Mistress.” Lauren bobbed her head.
“You look . . .” Virginia stopped, then chewed her lower lip for a few moments. “I read Peter’s report. So, the Carmody family was guided by some ancient witch. Peter thinks other rich families have sponsors, too. Teaching them magic we don’t know. Shepherding them through life.” She arched a brow. “All that stuff I’ve been reading in the newspaper makes sense now.”
Lauren laughed. “It does explain a lot, doesn’t it?” She straightened her left leg, which still ached from the beating she took from Fernanda. “There’s so much going on that we never knew.”
“Well.” Virginia sat stiffly, clasped hands resting atop her desk, like a schoolgirl at attention. “You can tell me all about it when you get back.” She looked to the side. “Is she coming back, Peter?”
Peter stepped back within range of the camera. “I’ve seen her in action.”
Virginia nodded. “As have I.”
“So I won’t waste time with any preamble. We all know that events of the last seven months have caught us flat-footed. We’re looking at situations we never realized existed, and we’re woefully unprepared. We need to expand our operations, and intensify our search for talented individuals who we can bring into the fold.” Peter paced back and forth. His hand motions made it appear as though he were trying to thread a needle, which probably wasn’t far from the truth. “I believe that while Gideon is important, it is currently in good hands.” He bowed toward Virginia. “Although, if a dire situation ever again presents itself, I hope we will not have to learn about it on the evening news.”
Virginia’s jaw worked before she finally answered. “Understood.”
“The Council is going to take a more active role in overseeing our outposts. I’ve learned the hard way that simply sending out forms and hoping for the best is a waste of time and paper.”
Virginia sat back and folded her arms, her eyes narrowing.
“But we’re also going to follow some of Lauren’s recommendations with respect to your host. Support, financial and educational. Not much to start with, but we have plans to expand. We cannot let the town die.”
“That sounds promising.” Virginia caught Lauren’s eyes, and winked.
Peter stopped in front of the screen. “I want Lauren to stay in Portland for the foreseeable future. She’s shown that she can handle difficult situations and thinks well on her feet. One of our plans is to assemble a quick-response team to address situations like those that came up in Jericho and Gideon. I would like her to lead that team.” He turned to Lauren. “Are you good with that?”
Lauren had to replay Peter’s words in her head a few times before they finally sank in. “I have a job?”
“You have a big job.” Peter’s smile wavered. He cocked his head. “Do you want it?”
“Yes.” Lauren nodded. “Yes, of course.” She caught the relief in Peter’s eyes, but also the disappointment in Virginia’s. Damn videoconferencing, anyway.
“Well, glad that’s settled.” Someone knocked on the outer office door, and Peter gave Lauren one last look before leaving to answer it.
Virginia leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Are you all right?”
Lauren started to nod, even as nightmare images passed before her mind’s eye unbidden, as they had since she fled the mountain. “Can I call you later?”
“Of course you can.” Virginia picked up her instruction sheet, then folded it and shoved it under her keyboard. “But not on this thing. A real phone.” She tilted her head in the direction that Peter had gone. “Is this what you want?”
“For now. Are you okay with it?”
“My life is here. What else am I going to do?”
“We’re so enthusiastic.”
“It’s a terrible honor. Sometimes it hurts. Other times, it’s the only thing that makes you feel like your life is worth a damn.” Virginia made as if to say more, then checked the small clock on her desk. “I have to go. Zeke’s bringing in a load of hay.”
“Give him my best.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I know.”
“Rocky won’t be happy, though. He’s been saving his nickels.”
“Tell him to hang on to them. I’ll visit as soon as I can.”
“I have to go now.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Lauren waited for Virginia’s screen to darken. Then she disconnected, turned to leave, and found Peter standing in the doorway.
“Should I have told you first? I don’t want you to feel sandbagged. You can still refuse if you want to.”
“No. I want the job.” Lauren rubbed her hands together, tried to find the right words. “I’m sorry about Stef. I never said.”
“You don’t have to.” Peter slumped against the jamb. “She thought she was doing the right thing. And she loved Andrew. What hurts is that she realized at the end how he used her. I will never forgive him for that.” He looked to the ceiling, his roughened breathing a sign of his struggle to keep it together. “I figured it out. Nyssa’s problems began around the time Stef received her diagnosis. That was when the wards started crumbling. It was all downhill after that.”
Lauren tried to shut out the image of Stef’s face vanishing in the flames, but knew that she would carry it with her for the rest of her days. “She was so brave, and I never got the chance to tell her.”
“I think the time would have come when you would have.” Peter put his arm around her shoulders, gave her a shake. “We few, we battling, argumentative few.” He quieted, then pulled away. “I have another surprise for you. There’s someone here who wants to see you.”
CHAPTER 31
Lauren rounded the corner, followed by Peter. Through one set of double doors, then another, each hung with elder and hawthorn and spattered with something dark and pungent.
The room they entered looked as though artistically talented five-year-olds had been turned loose with a packet of crayons, every flat surface covered from baseboard to ceiling with arrows, curves, words in languages Lauren didn’t recognize. Even the observation window had been papered over and inscribed. “Hebrew?” She pointed to one string of letters she thought appeared familiar.
“Aramaic.” Peter pointed to other words in turn. “Also Sanskrit. Latin. Anglo-Saxon.” He sighed. “Every obscuring ward and barrier we could think of, and a few we made up as we went.” He shook his head. “He’s afraid. I’ve never seen him like this. You have no idea how unsettling it is.” He walked across the room to a whiteboard, ever the instructor, and plucked a marker from a tray. “He said they all chose names associated with fallen angels. His is Kasdeya. ‘The Chaldean.’” He brushed an elder leaf over the surface of the board, then drew a series of Hebrew letters.
אידיסכ
“The fascinating thing is that this is the variation of his name that he used for some time, Kasyade, a derivation that supposedly means ‘covered hand’ or ‘hidden power,’ which is obviously wrong. I told him that whoever suggested it did not understand consonant shift between Hebrew and Aramaic, and he said he understood consonant shifts quite well, thank you.” He capped the marker, then stood back and folded his arms. “He admitted that he actually worked an incorrect derivation of his name into the research because he preferred it. ‘Hidden power.’ Damned appropriate, don’t you think?” He turned to Lauren, eyes bright as a kid’s at Christmas.
“You are such a word nerd.” Lauren drew alongside him, and pointe
d to the “כ.”
Peter nodded. “The Etruscan figures from the garden. He witnessed their making, and inscribed them with his own hands.” He looked toward the observation window. “I’m boggled every time I look at him. He’s so incredibly old.” He sighed, shook his head, unlocked the door, and opened it. Then he stood aside, and beckoned for Lauren to go in.
Lauren hesitated. “I asked you before if you knew. You said we’d talk later. Is this later enough?”
“I don’t have much to add. Stef and I had always wondered about him. We tried researching him, but of course all our leads fizzled. And now you say there’s a whole passel of them out there.” Peter shrugged. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
LAUREN FELT THE wards as she passed through them, like walking against a strong current, or a stiff wind.
The witch she had known as Gene Kaster sat at a bare wooden table garlanded with elder boughs. His chair was wooden also, straight-backed and just as heavily laden. His clothing lacked the elegance that had marked him to that point. Baggy khakis. A white T-shirt. Sneakers.
He looked up when Lauren entered, and it was obvious that the warding interfered with his ability to control his appearance. She walked in front of him, back and forth, and watched as he altered, like one of those holographic photos that changed depending on the angle of view. Old man. Middle-aged. Young. A boy. A girl. A woman. A crone. So many aspects, like the facets of a cut gemstone. “You look tired. Are you all right?”
Kaster’s neck muscles bulged as he tried to shrug. “All this protection does weigh me down. But Peter says it’s for my own good. The magical equivalent of soaping the windows so no one can see in.”
Lauren dragged a chair over to the other side of the table, shedding leaves along the way. She sat down. “I feel like I’m visiting you in jail.”
“You are. For all it’s a jail of my own choosing.”
“How long will you stay?”
“Until I feel it’s safe to leave.” Kaster’s brow knit. “It may be a while this time.”
“You’ve interfered before.” Lauren smiled. “Why am I not surprised?”
Kaster hung his head in mock shame. Then he looked at Lauren through his lashes. “Congratulations on the new job.”
“Pete told you?”
“We traded intel. I made him tell me all about your job. In exchange, I showed him how to set up the videoconferencing system.”
They both laughed, perhaps for too long. Because it felt good, for a change. And because it saved them having to talk about other things for a little while.
But that while passed quickly. Lauren picked up a loose elder leaf from the table and tore it into pieces. “Given your powers, none of this had to happen.”
Kaster nodded. “It didn’t have to, no. Steven could have decided not to build on the mountain. I advised him not to. He could have never formed his partnership with Elliott Rickard. I advised against that, too. Andrew could have torn the place down after his father died. He and I discussed it, but he always had an excuse to leave it be. Every step of the way, someone could have said ‘no more.’” He sighed. “But you don’t. Of all the people I’ve counseled through the millennia, I can count on one hand the ones who knew when to quit. It’s what you are. Greedy children terrified of missing out on cake. But we love you, so we give you what you ask for. We counsel you like adults instead of leading you by the nose like caged animals. Treating you like pets. Then we hope that eventually the lessons will sink in. But they never do.”
“That’s a definition of insanity, you know. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.”
“This insanity has its advantages.”
They sat in silence for a time. Then Lauren shifted in her seat. “I still don’t know if I did the right thing.”
Kaster arched his brow. “Welcome to my world.”
“There’s a difference between a fifteen-year-old girl and a forty-year-old man.”
“Not as much as you think.” Kaster rocked his hand back and forth. “At least, not from my perspective.”
Lauren nodded. She checked her watch, and stood. “I have to go. I have an appointment.”
Kaster struck the table with his fist in mock anger. “Break it.”
“I can’t. I’m looking at apartments downtown. They go fast. If I see one I like, I need to apply for it immediately.”
“You’re staying in Portland?” Kaster’s smile faded. “Be careful of Andrew. He played you every step of the way, and in the end, you still ensured the one thing he feared most. He doesn’t like to lose.” His voice grew hushed. “I see her, when I close my eyes.”
Lauren nodded, eventually. “So do I.”
More silence. Then Kaster drummed his fingers along the table’s edge. “Will I see you again? I fear I’ll have to leave sooner rather than later. I’m causing poor Peter no end of trouble as it is.” He glanced at the papered-over window and whispered. “Besides, there’s nothing to do except answer his questions. His never-ending questions.”
“No blond twins to relieve the monotony.”
“Oh, Mistress Mullin. I would much rather debate the nature of good and evil with you for days on end.” His eyes glittered. “May I see you again?”
“It might be risky.” Lauren thought back to the cars she had seen parked near hers outside her friend Nance’s house, the people she had passed on the street that morning. “I think your friends are watching me.”
Kaster wrinkled his nose. “They’ll take me back eventually. I’m the one who keeps them from getting bored.”
Lauren smiled, even as she recalled the icy blonde who looked as though she would have preferred a little boredom. “I really have to go.” She walked to the door, and raised her hand to knock for Peter to open it.
“I could read your thoughts.”
She looked back at the lonely looking man seated at the leaf-strewn table.
“That day I plucked you and Nyssa from Jericho. I heard your voice as though you spoke in my ear. ‘Home . . . home.’ The stronger it grew, the easier it became for me to reach you. You prayed for home and that brought you to me. What do you think that could mean?”
Lauren met that sad blue gaze. Minutes passed. Then she knocked on the door and left without replying. Perhaps because she didn’t know the answer.
Or perhaps because she did.
SHE TOOK HER time walking back to her car, pausing every so often to gaze into store windows. Every so often, something claimed her attention, a flicker of brightness that seemed to come from inside the glass. It could have been someone, a stranger, watching her from the depths of the shop. Or it could have been an image of a young woman no longer a stranger. Once of this world, but now a traveler in other, unfamiliar places, passing through for a moment to say hello . . . I’m all right . . . I’m better now.
You did the right thing.
Lauren stopped in front of one window, and waited. This time she picked out a flash of pale hair. But by the time she pressed her face to the pane to get a closer look, the figure had vanished, leaving her staring at herself.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Alis Rasmussen and Dr. Robert Littman, Professor and Chair of Classics at the University of Hawai’i at Mánoa, for their assistance with Hebrew and details from the Book of Enoch. Big thanks to best beta reader David Godwin. Thanks to my agent, Jennifer Jackson of DMLA, and my editor, Kelly O’Connor. Thanks also to Pamela Spengler-Jaffe, Caroline Perny, and the rest of the great team at Harper Voyager.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALEX GORDON resides in the Midwest. When she isn’t working, she enjoys watching sports and old movies, running, and playing with her dogs. She dreams of someday adding the Pacific Northwest to the list of regions where she has lived. She is the author of Gideon.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
ALSO BY ALEX GORDON
Gideon
CREDITS
Cover desi
gn by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photograph © agsandrew / Shutterstock
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
JERICHO. Copyright © 2016 by Alex Gordon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Harper Voyager is a federally registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
EPub Edition March 2016 ISBN 9780062102331
ISBN 978-0-06-168738-9
16 17 18 19 20 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive