The Wayward Star

by Jenn Stark

  “Girl, you’ve got to learn to use the resources the good Lord gave you. Or in this case, that Simon gave you.” She slipped a hand into her fur-covered bikini top and pulled out one of Simon’s temperature-resetting bands. “You get one of these snug up under each girl, and let me tell you, you will be a changed woman.”

  I opened my mouth, shut it. Nodded. I suspected she was right.

  “Sara,” Brody said from my other side, the urgency in his voice making me glance up sharply. I followed the line of his focus toward our salmon-pink tents. There was an outdoor shower set up, but that wasn’t what he was pointing at. My focus sharpened. “Rhonda?”

  The woman turned at the sound of my voice, her eyes going wide.

  “Sariah?” she asked, voice breaking a little bit. “Sariah, oh my God, it is you. They said you would be here, they promised me over and over again, they said so many things, I didn’t know what to believe. But I so wanted you to be here. I wanted to meet you…to thank you… To—”

  The woman burst into tears, and I gaped at her for a long moment. Then Nikki shoved me forward, and I dutifully recovered, moving quickly to wrap my arms awkwardly around the woman. She was my age, but there was something different about her, an air of a woman who had already lived far beyond her years. Her face was pale, streaked now with both the dust of the desert and the tracks of her tears. But even beneath that veneer, Rhonda looked too pale, her hair flying, her body too thin. She trembled in my arms like a baby bird, and my heart cracked a little. I didn’t even know this girl, this woman, though she’d been in my class. To my knowledge, we’d never actually spoken.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” I said, patting her back awkwardly. “You found me.”

  To my surprise, Rhonda jerked back a little, her eyes going wide as she considered me again.

  “I did find you,” she said. “Just like you found Janet! Like a bright star in the night sky. I never really thought about that through all this, I was so fixated on tracking you down. But this must’ve been like what you felt when you were searching for Janet, hunting and hoping and knowing that you couldn’t give up.”

  I grimaced. My search for Rhonda’s cousin had been decidedly bleaker than whatever Rhonda had endured trying to locate me, or at least I hoped so. “Well, now you found me,” I said again, my voice gentler now. Because I suddenly understood that it wasn’t hero worship that had prompted Rhonda to seek me out, not entirely. Her aura was still too traumatized, her worry too pronounced. “And you’ve come all this way. How can I help you?”

  “It’s Janet,” she said in a rush. “She agreed to be part of this study down in Galveston—that’s where she’s working, there’s a commune there. Anyway, there was a terrible storm, it rained for days, the levees broke, and they wanted to reassure the people that this stuff they had to take would make them safe.”

  I frowned at her. “Novadrine?”

  She nodded rapidly. “Yes! Yes, do you know what it is?”

  “I know it’s some kind of vaccination, but that’s it.”

  She made a face. “Well, yes, that’s what they told Janet. Anyway, she was down there, she’s a nurse and volunteered to help, and she took the drug and drank some of the water they purified, to show everyone that everything was okay. They would be safe drinking it.”

  I grimaced. “And it wasn’t okay?”

  Rhonda pursed her lips, then shook her head. “Not for her. She got a really bad headache, but she didn’t think that much about that. Everything else was fine. But then, the next day, she woke up, and something felt different. She couldn’t see the light that she’d always seen around people, you know, like an aura? She used to see that, and sometimes hear voices too, whispering to her about what happened in their lives or how they’d gotten sick, like that. But she just woke up one day and she didn’t have it anymore. And I think, I mean she thought, maybe it had something to do with that stuff she drank. But of course, how do you even ask such a thing? Especially when no one else seemed affected?”

  “Not easily,” I agreed. “When was this? How long ago?”

  “Maybe six months now, honestly,” she said. “She stopped talking about it—stopped talking as much to me as she used to, really, and I worried and worried…but what could I do? I researched the drug online. Novadrine is still experimental, but the medical people administered it, so it has to be FDA approved or something like that, right? So it couldn’t have been that, she knows that, but it’s just too weird. I told her I’d try to find something out but I haven’t been successful. And then this trip came up, and I realized you were out here, and—and, well, you’d saved her before, you know? I wondered if you could again. I thought…” She shook her head. “I don’t know what I thought.”

  “What made you try to find me here, though? Who brought you?”

  She brightened. “Well, that was just weird. Like serendipity, you know? I was at that casino, and there was a woman there, and she looked like you but she wasn’t you, and she could see that I knew the truth. I think she kind of took pity on me, told me that she was your sister or something like that. But Janet never said you had a sister, and I never knew that either, and you and I went to school together.”

  “It’s a long story,” I said.

  “I got mad at that point, confused. So I headed back to my hotel, but along the way, I found these people—or they found me, I guess. They said they heard I was trying to find you, that the woman I wanted was Sara Wilde now, not Sariah Pelter. And since I’d met this Sariah person who wasn’t you, I believed them. And they brought me here.”

  “All this way?” Nikki asked warily. “How?”

  Rhonda frowned. “Well—they had a plane. They said it wasn’t far, and I…I sort of went along without thinking all that much about it. I slept some too, I think.”

  I winced. Great. So it was an abduction. Sort of.

  “Did you get any sort of name who these people were?” Brody put in.

  Rhonda turned to him as if noticing him for the first time. Then she flushed. Brody had that effect on people, it appeared, at least female people from Farraday High.

  “They kept telling me that they were friends, allies of yours. That seems like an odd word to me. They asked why I wanted to find you so badly and, I don’t know, I felt like I could tell them. So I did. That’s when they suggested I come out here.” She glanced around, her eyes widening. “I’ve never seen any place like this, certainly never been to one. It’s…nice. I like it.”

  Nikki gently took her arm. “Why don’t we get you cleaned up, sweetheart?” she said. “We’ve got one of the nicest fancy camps in the whole place, I promise you that. Sara will find out what happened to Janet, and we’ll get you taken care of. I promise.”

  I kept my face neutral until they turned and headed off, but the truth was, I didn’t know if I could help Janet or not. Simon had done the research on Novadrine. It was FDA approved, and had been for years. It couldn’t have been what caused Janet’s psychic skills to dwindle. It didn’t make any sense. I would’ve heard more about it.

  “There was a storm,” I muttered. “A storm…”

  But no matter how many times I rolled it around in my head, it didn’t make sense. Nikki gently interrogated Rhonda before we got her bundled off on the Council’s plane back to Vegas, and she had absolutely zero recollection of Janet mentioning a Dr. Rindon—or any doctor, in particular. The drug had simply been delivered to the volunteer clinic, and they’d used it as directed.

  In the end, I made myself a comfy fort in the tent, intending to rest my eyes for only a few minutes…

  “Yo, Sara. Rise and shine!”

  Simon’s familiar voice shook me out of my reverie, and by reverie I meant full-on dead faint. I rolled over to see him opening a flap in the largest tent. To my surprise, it was dark outside. “Okay, first you have to clean up. You look like hell. What happened to you?”

  “People need to stop asking me that,” I muttered as he disappeared again. I peere
d across the tent to see a second set of pillows, and a bleary-eyed Brody coming to. “How long have I been out?”

  “An hour or two, maybe. I was too. I…” Brody shook his head, rubbing his hand on his jaw. “Something about that fight took more out of me than it should have. Maybe it was the heat?”

  “Maybe.” I pulled my shirt away from my body and grimaced. “I feel like I’m about six layers of dirt thicker, though.”

  Brody laughed. “I could use a shower myself. Please tell me they have more than one.”

  They did, of course, and in just a few minutes, we both were back at the primary tent of the Hotel Arcana Council. I had to admit, it was pretty nice. Beneath the canopy of the tent, no fewer than three fans blew, cooling the space dramatically. The desert floor was still covered by layers of heavy rugs, but now there was even a freaking water fountain shaped like a dragon in the center of the space. I made a beeline for it, Brody right on my heels.

  “There are times I really have to appreciate the Council’s style,” he said.

  I took a long draft of ice-cold water. It was quite possibly the best thing I’d ever had in my life. “I have to agree with you there.”

  Nikki stepped in a moment later, followed once again by Simon, who was already talking excitedly.

  “Best I can tell, we’re going to have five families here. Five! And those are only the fringe players who are too nervous to join up with the summit next week. That’s why they wanted to talk to Sara, first, why they went to so much trouble to get us out here. It’s going to be totally amazing.”

  “Who wants to talk to me?” I asked. “And did Rhonda make it out back to Vegas okay?”

  “Miss Madsen is safely returned to her upgraded hotel room, courtesy of Arcana Travel, Unlimited,” Nikki assured me. “I downloaded all her information, and believe me, she’s on the up-and-up. She even texted me when she landed with stuff she thought she’d forgotten to tell me. She truly believes that Janet got poisoned by this Novadrine stuff, and that she’s lost her woo. I convinced her to go back to Vegas and meet up with her friends, and also get in touch with her cousin, Linda. I told her you’d be back for the party this weekend and everyone could catch up then.”

  I made a face. “Maybe I don’t want to be back for the party this weekend.”

  “Sure you do, dollface. It’s going to be amazing.”

  “You guys keep using that word…” I muttered, but Nikki kept going.

  “Anyway, while you got in your nap, Burning Man has returned more or less to normal. Within the first hour, the Rambling Rovers RV club pulled up stakes and motored right on out of Black Rock City. Simon here miked the bejesus out of their RVs while we were throwing punches, but it’ll take some time before that produces any information.”

  “What was their point here?” I asked. “Just to screw with me?”

  “Almost definitely,” Nikki agreed. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s their favorite pastime. But that will eventually turn in our favor.”

  I snorted. “Holding my breath. Starting now.”

  “Yeah well, I don’t care if the Shadow Court has operatives every ten feet of this place, they’re not going to be getting into the Winged Warriors pavilion tonight,” Simon said. “Security at that event is going to be way over the top. These ancient Connected families do not mess around. And Sara, you missed this part, but they totally expect you there. You’re going to see some seriously old guard Connecteds, and it’s going to be—”

  “Let me guess,” I said drily. “Amazing.”

  “Yes!” both he and Nikki agreed.

  Darkness transformed the daytime Mad Max vibe of Burning Man to straight-up Halloween. As the temperatures dropped and the alcohol took stronger hold, enterprising entrepreneurs broke out glow stick necklaces and bracelets, free of charge but emblazoned with their companies’ branding. Those were souvenirs that were going to be remembered, I suspected. In addition to the necklaces, lanterns were everywhere, from legitimate fiery torches to LED lanterns to Coleman camping flashlights. Some revelers incorporated illumination into their costumes, with glinting fairy lights woven into headdresses, draping capes, and wrapped around full-body armor.

  Most everybody within a three-square-mile radius was drunk as well. It gave a whole new meaning to getting lit.

  We made our way to the Winged Warriors pavilion as discreetly as possible, which was easier than it should’ve been given what we were wearing, but I wasn’t complaining. My long silvery robes generated their own illumination, so I was a fan. Both Simon and Nikki had opted for silvery wings instead of the robes, while Brody had, of course, steadfastly avoided either.

  “The only reason you’re getting out of wearing a costume is because you’re not technically on the Council,” I informed him.

  “For which I am more grateful every single day,” he assured me.

  “Speaking of, where’s the Magician?” Nikki asked, peering around. She tilted her head, causing her pile of tawny curls to catch the breeze. “He would look fabulous in wings.”

  “Already there,” Simon said. “He slipped into Burning Man a few hours ago, wanted to get the lay of the land himself. He was tracked down almost immediately by a couple of the legacy Connecteds. I’m telling you, these people are good.”

  “Have they tipped their hands at all?” I asked.

  “Not yet, but they will. Armaeus isn’t running the show any longer, but you can bet the Council hasn’t put out a memo on that. So far as anyone knows here, he still leads the Council.”

  “Well, he should keep leading the Council, as far as I’m concerned,” Nikki said. “Much as I love the Devil, putting him in charge of anything but a rave is probably not the best idea. And don’t even get me started on the Emperor.”

  I tightened my jaw. I didn’t agree with the path of the Council either, but I didn’t have a better solution. And I couldn’t deny being glad that the Magician was in the field, even if it was a Magician I didn’t truly know anymore. He had reinstated pieces of his personality that he’d long ago cut away, and those pieces weren’t always the most polite. They gave Armaeus an edge I didn’t fully understand. One I wanted to understand more.

  “Well, he’s here now, and not a second too soon,” Simon said. “They’ll talk to him—and then they’ll want to talk to you, Sara. Be ready for it.”

  We reached the pavilion within twenty minutes, Simon already a mini celebrity because of his temperature-adjusting bands. They certainly had been doing their jobs too. Even as we chatted amongst ourselves, the data on every attendee wearing the bands, now north of twenty thousand, was being entered into the Arcana Council’s database and cross-referenced against any other known activity—criminal, business, Connected or otherwise. We didn’t expect to land any big fish, but sometimes even the small fry paid off.

  The Winged Warriors pavilion had been impressive by day, but by night, it was an absolute spectacle. Like many of the larger installations, it was lit up with floodlights of various and shifting colors, making it seem like the tented space was a living thing. There was a heavy contingent of security at the doors, but only along one side. Apparently, the rank and file were welcome to join in the fun, as long as they observed from a distance.

  “So not truly private,” Nikki observed. “That’s interesting. You really think you guys will have a credible meeting with the old families if it’s in public like this?”

  “Honestly?” Simon asked, staring up. “No. But why bring us here otherwise? There has to be a reason. Maybe a show of good faith?”

  “Maybe,” I muttered. “Or maybe there’s someone else in the crowd watching, too. I don’t like it.”

  Without much choice, though, we entered the tent—and I blinked in surprise. Lights danced and gyrated off every surface, both projected and seemingly generated internally, creating a kaleidoscope of color. Sound pulsed from enormous speakers set into every corner of the tent as well as above us, and a large space in the top of the tent had been cut a
way to reveal a huge lit-up scaffolding. There were already a dozen flyers sweeping and twirling from the ropes, both professionals in the center of the ring and amateur adventurers who got their guts up enough to try the lower tiers. Servers circulated through the space, offering every manner of alcohol, all of it free. There was no doubt in my mind that some of it was spiked with technoceuticals. It was only a question of which ones.

  “This place is unbelievable,” Brody said beside me, his cop voice hard and disapproving. “The violations in this one structure alone would take your breath away if you knew them.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s why you’ll only see this here. This is the quintessential party-at-your-own-risk festival.”

  “Not a festival,” Nikki corrected me with a grin. She gripped one enormous beer stein with her glitter-tipped hand, silver bangles clanking. “We get our own servers, dollface, so the liquor will be safe at least. But I’d hold off until after your meetup. And I do mean up.”

  At her words, I cast my own gaze skyward. What I saw nearly took my breath away.

  The Magician had taken flight.

  16

  “Sweet Winged Victory on a cracker,” Nikki crowed. “Those wings seriously work?”

  Simon laughed. “Not exactly. The Magician is cheating. Those aren’t really what’s keeping him aloft.”

  “They sure seem like they are,” Brody said, also squinting up.

  I could only stare. While the other gymnasts twirled and whirled with the help of their trapezes and ropes, the Magician’s leads were all for show. He soared through the sky with a speed and dexterity that made my head spin, delighting the watchers below who either didn’t know or didn’t care that he was performing these acrobatic feats without the benefit of a high wire. He wasn’t alone either. A silver-garbed woman who also sported wings leapt and twirled beside him, letting him catch her and fling her to the next rope, though he remained untethered. A third figure danced with them in the air, this one clad in black, rendering her figure little more than a stain against the sky.