Jackson, up in the front truck, honked as the rest of them arranged the trucks and trailers on the lawn. A tall, lean woman with graying black hair that went most of the way down her back came out of the house and leaned against the doorframe, watching as the Makkai parked and unloaded. She had a handsome face and bore a striking resemblance to her daughter.
“Where?” Bella asked as she hopped down out of the cab of the truck. The woman jerked her head toward the barn, then walked forward to hug Jackson.
“Welcome,” the elder Bella said, stepping forward with her arm around Jackson’s shoulders. “My home is yours.”
Becca watched as Bella walked across the clearing and disappeared into the barn, feeling wretched. That Jackson hadn’t even gone with her said everything that Becca needed to hear, but she felt bad, that Bella was going to be alone right now. Jackson caught her eye and gave her a little nod, and Becca shook her head. It might have been the right thing to do, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Help me get set up,” Billy said. “Whatever it is you’ve got going on, it’ll wait until we get set for the night.”
Becca shook her head, clearing her thoughts and agreed, going back to the truck and helping Billy get the trailer unhooked and anchored.
They were crowded in, so they set up the trailers themselves as seating, covering the frames with blankets and laying planks of wood between them where it worked, so that Colin could start getting set up. Several of the trucks pulled back out onto the road to leave more space. The elder Bella came to walk among them as they worked, just watching, and Becca sensed that everyone was working just a fraction harder because the woman was watching. Maybe twenty minutes later, Becca saw Jackson slip away toward the barn. Sheep in a pen nearby complained to each other as they tried to get closer to the working Makkai, and a horse whickered somewhere out of sight. Speckled hens ran about underfoot, looking for corn.
It was a wonderful place to be, but Becca didn’t hear any dogs barking, and somehow knowing that the sound was missing made it feel empty.
“Robbie’s going into town to get supplies for the night,” Grant said. “Do you want to come?”
“No, I’m going to stay,” Becca said. She had no idea how far away town might be, and she didn’t want to miss Bella, if there was something she could be doing.
“Go,” Dawn said. Becca wasn’t sure where she’d come from.
“Why?” Becca asked, widening her eyes at Dawn. “I want to be here.”
“Nothing is going to happen tonight,” Dawn said. “There’s time.”
“What if…?” Becca asked, but she didn’t know what she was going to say next, and Grant was waiting. She felt bad. She didn’t like secrets.
“Just go,” Dawn said. “There’s time.”
Becca shook her head, feeling confused, then sighed.
“Okay. Yeah. I’ll come.”
“You don’t have to,” Grant said. “I mean, another set of arms to carry things would be nice, but I wasn’t going to try to make you.”
“No,” Becca said, feeling guilty and torn. “No. That’s not it. I’m sorry. I’m thinking about something else, and Dawn is right. If I don’t go, I’m just going to sit here and obsess. I should go.”
“Okay,” Grant said. “Then… let’s go.”
They jogged to catch up with Robbie as he started down the long, narrow drive toward his truck.
“Good,” Robbie said. “We’ve got a lot to get. Jackson gave me a bunch of money. Apparently we’re making camp for a while, here.”
“Is that normal?” Grant asked. Robbie looked over his shoulder.
“Nothing right now is normal. Don’t know what to make of any of it. Not that I won’t appreciate a chance to go home and see Scarlett.”
“Who is that?” Grant asked.
“My wife,” Robbie told him as Becca hopped up to get into the back seat of the truck. Grant dropped the seat back onto its anchors and got in in front of her.
“You’re married?” Grant asked as Robbie started the rumbly diesel engine.
“Yeah,” Robbie said. “Been married for almost three years, now.”
Grant shook his head and Robbie cocked an eyebrow at him, dropping the truck into gear and rolling away.
“That’s a hard life,” Grant said. “I didn’t know many people did it.”
“Most of us,” Robbie said. “Being alone isn’t any fun, either.”
“But you are alone,” Grant said. “And so is she.”
Robbie nodded.
“She’s with Makkai. It’s not completely alone.”
“Still,” Grant said. Robbie nodded.
“It’s our life, and we’re happy.”
“Billy’s wife is Sophie,” Becca said. “Quinn has a husband who isn’t ever the same place twice.”
“Why do they put up with it?” Grant asked. “Never knowing when you’re coming home again?”
“Because it’s what we do,” Robbie said, his tone more harsh than Becca might have expected. “Why are you here, if you don’t understand that?”
Grant looked about as stunned as Becca might have been, and he looked out the window for the rest of a long drive down to the little intersection that called itself a town. One gas station, one general store, a courthouse and a post office in the same building, and a church. They got all of the fresh produce Colin would want to cook for a number of days, plus a lot of the fundamentals for breads and stews. It was a lot to carry, and it took them several minutes just to get it loaded into the back of the truck. Grant hadn’t spoken to Robbie the entire time, and Becca and Robbie had only exchanged as many words as was necessary to fill the list.
Getting back in, Grant got in the back with Becca. Robbie didn’t seem bothered.
“Why are you here?” Becca asked. She didn’t want to antagonize him, but it felt like the right question. He rubbed his shoulder and looked out the window.
“I’ve wanted to do this my whole life,” he said. “I worshiped my dad. Thought he had the best job in the world. It’s just…” He turned to face her, pale eyes piercing. “I don’t think I ever knew him. And I’ve been thinking about how hard it must have been for my mom, taking care of all of us. We had to go to school, you know. She home-schooled us until high school, but she wanted us to know more math and stuff than she did, so we went to a public high school. Worked a job and everything.”
“What does she do?” Becca asked.
“She works in a shop,” Grant said. Robbie scoffed.
“She owns the most successful mystic shop in Minneapolis,” the older man said. Grant glared at him, then looked at Becca, a mix of apology and defiance. Becca shrugged.
“It’s impressive,” she said. “It’s hard work, doing that and trying to keep up with kids.”
He nodded.
“Teaching us and feeding us and all of that,” he said. “I don’t know how she managed to do all of it.”
“Look, I know you don’t want to hear it from me, but what your dad was doing wasn’t any easier,” Robbie said. “Your family made big sacrifices for this tribe, no question, but if you don’t know why he did it, you need to figure it out. Fast.”
Grant shot Robbie a look, then gave Becca a small smile.
“Sorry. It’s just… real. You know?”
She nodded, thinking of the finfolk baby, leaving her at a building where a woman with a clip board wrote down a few things and then took her out of Becca’s arms and just… walked away. She thought of that child often, wondering what she thought of her past, what she believed had happened to her family.
“It isn’t everything you imagined.”
“Nope,” Robbie said, glancing over his shoulder again.
“I know it isn’t supposed to be,” Grant said defensively. “I know that. I just… I was hoping for something to happen that was what I imagined.”
“It will,” Becca said. “You’re going to look down at some point and realize that you’re standing over a grave where yo
u just banished a ghost back to the other side, and you’re going to feel like you’re Makkai… like you never have before. It’s just…” she shrugged. “Not this week.”
Robbie twisted in his seat, and she shot him a glance. No, she wasn’t going to tell him what she knew.
“We’re probably here for at least a little while,” Robbie said. “Bella doesn’t go home as a pit stop. You need to figure out what you want to do.”
“Who, me?” Grant asked. Robbie nodded.
“Billy will sort out Becca.”
Becca shrugged.
“I’ll stay. Don’t know where my mom is, anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Grant asked Robbie.
“If you’re staying, if you’re hitching a ride home, or if you want to come with me.”
“Why would I go with you?” Grant asked.
“Because, while I know your dad prepped you as much as he could while you were at home, you were at home. You’ve got a lot of stuff I need to know you can do before we get serious about any of the risky stuff, and that’s going to take time. May as well use our down time to do it.”
“My dad never brought anyone home with him,” Grant said.
“Your dad was the protector,” Robbie said. “He never would have had a novice.”
“Is that what I am?” Grant asked. “A novice?”
“Technically,” Robbie said. “It’s not like we have a category and graduation ceremonies. You just haven’t got a flying clue what you’re doing, and I’ve got to beat that out of you.”
Grant looked at Becca for some kind of bail out, and she smiled.
“I ride around with Dawn,” she said. “If you want to talk about a hit to your ego, there it is. You know she’s only sixteen?”
“I’m only sixteen,” Grant said, insulted.
“But Dawn has been with us since she was thirteen,” Robbie said. “Longer than Becca has been here.”
Grant frowned.
“No one’s allowed to join a tribe before their majoration ceremony.”
“Dawn did,” Robbie said.
“She’s that good,” Becca said.
“That important,” Robbie corrected. “She’s important.”
Becca nodded.
“So what kind of stuff do you think I need to learn?” Grant asked. “Let’s start.”
“Which families of crystals can you name?” Robbie asked. Grant sighed.
“My mom knows her crystals,” he said. “And she taught me a lot about how to use them…”
“Not good enough,” Robbie said. “None of you ever think that knowing the families is important, but that’s how you start learning how to really use them.”
“I can charge a red copal,” Grant said. Becca frowned. That was impressive. Billy had a store of them in the trailer, and she knew where they were, but he wouldn’t let her touch them.
“Good for you,” Robbie said. “Can you tell the difference between a faded copal and a dark aragonite?”
“When am I ever going to come across an aragonite when I don’t know for sure what it is?” Grant asked. Again, Becca was impressed. She hadn’t known those terms until very recently.
“Here,” Robbie said, digging in a pocket and swinging his arm over the seat. Grant put out cupped hands and Robbie dropped a pair of stones into them. “Now, you know if you try to charge an aragonite, it’s going to blow up in your hands. Right? You know that? Because a copal is an earth crystal and aragonite is an air crystal. It won’t hold power like earth will.”
Grant sighed, looking a bit caught, and looked at each of them. Becca knew which one was which, but she wasn’t getting in the middle of this.
Not for anything.
“All right,” Grant said. “I don’t know.”
“Becca?” Robbie asked. “And if you sandbag to make him feel better, I’m going to tell Billy you got it wrong.”
Becca winced.
“Robbie…” she complained. He grunted and Grant shrugged, handing over the pair of stones. She held them up to her eye, one and then the other.
“Have you ever handled aragonite?” she asked. Grant shook his head.
“Copal is tree sap,” she said. “It’s warm and it’s light. Aragonite has a more rigid crystal structure, and it’s colder to the touch. And you won’t ever get bugs in it.”
She handed him the copal and he looked at it against the light.
“Bug,” he said. She nodded.
“Sorry,” she said. He shrugged.
“It’s okay. I did ask.”
She nodded. Twisted her mouth to the side.
“So… if we do stay here. What do you want to do? Do you want to go home?”
“No point,” he said. “I just left. I’ll either stay with the tribe or…” he shrugged. “Your wife wouldn’t mind?”
“Not so long as you pull your weight during the day,” Robbie said.
“Can I decide later?” Grant asked.
“Up to you, right until the truck leaves,” Robbie said. Grant nodded, leaning his head against the head rest.
“What will you do, while you’re here?” he asked Becca. Help Jackson and Bella figure out who murdered her dog? She couldn’t say that. She wasn’t even sure they were going to let her help. It felt almost like a coincidence that she’d been allowed to go into see Argo the day before, even dreamlike as she remembered it. It couldn’t have actually happened like that, had it?
“Go through crystals and make sure I know what I have and what I need, the next time we go through a city with a Makkai store.”
“You’ve been to my mom’s store, haven’t you?” Grant asked.
“I don’t think so,” Becca said.
“Haven’t been that far north since she joined up,” Robbie said. Becca handed the crystals back forward.
“You can get crystals anywhere, but the Makkai ones are so much better,” she said.
Grant nodded.
“Mom worked hard to sort out the ones with the right characteristics so she could sell them to the tribes.”
“And how many of those characteristics can you identify?” Robbie asked. Grant didn’t rise to the bait.
“You’re just being cranky on purpose,” Becca said. Robbie laughed.
“It’s what I do best.”
She grinned and tipped her head against the seat to look back at Grant.
“After that, I’ll do drills, eat, sleep, listen to people tell stories.”
“What’s Bella’s mom like?” Grant asked.
“Just like the woman,” Robbie said. “Bella’s line hasn’t changed much in living memory.”
“Is Bella really like they say?” Grant asked.
“You’ll have to find that out for yourself,” Robbie said. Becca shrugged. It was hard sorting the stories from the truth, because they were so close, but so different in real ways.
“It’s like what you expect about being in the tribe compared to what it actually is,” Becca said. “There’s just a lot of time in the middle, I guess.”
Grant laughed.
“And grocery shopping.”
“And grocery shopping,” Becca agreed.
“I’m glad…” Grant started, then he shook his head and looked away.
“What?” Becca asked. He shook his head again.
“Never mind,” he said. “Nothing.”
She could tell she wasn’t going to pry any more out of him. He looked away, and Becca caught Robbie watching them in the rearview before she looked out the other window, herself.
“Three weeks,” Jackson said, standing at the fireside that night. “Guaranteed. If anything comes up, we’ll find someone else to handle it. Go home, see your families. Spend some good time. We’ll see you back here Saturday morning, ready to travel. Got it?”
There was a murmur of excitement crossed with confusion. They’d been moving so fast the last two days, just to stop over at Argo’s estate and then land here and announce a vacation? Becca had to admit, it looked and felt wr
ong, even knowing what she knew. She caught Billy watching her, and she shrugged. Nothing else she could tell him.
“You’re staying?” he asked, more a shape of his mouth than an audible sound. She nodded and he nodded back, affirming it. She could have gotten someone to take her to her mother, basically wherever Nora was, but it would have taken time away from someone else’s family, and she would have just been an extra piece of logistics work for Nora. She would have stayed, either way.
“You are welcome to leave now or wait for light,” Jackson said. “We would have let you go earlier, but Bella had a few things she needed to get done, first. While you’re gone, we need everyone to wear one of these.”
He held up leather bags on thongs. There was an understanding that they wouldn’t go through them, partially because it was a trust exercise and partially because some of the magic that Bella might have put together in there would be disrupted if the bag it went into opened.
“Come and get it, if you’re going,” Jackson said. There was another wash of murmuring, and then all of the drivers and a few of the others came up to get their amulets. Becca watched as Grant struggled for a minute, then went and took one, as well. She nodded to herself. Better that way.
She wondered what was in the bags.
“All right,” Jackson said. “That’s it for me. I’m going to bed, and I’d appreciate it if you lot would keep it down.”
They laughed as he left, and Becca wondered what he was up to.
“You, too,” Dawn murmured in her ear. Becca turned to look at her and Dawn nodded as she followed after Jackson. Bella was nowhere to be found.
Becca stood up and, not sure what she was in for, started toward the trailer. The doors normally faced toward the fire, but with the space they had here, they were all hitch-in, and the door was in shadow.
“You’re a part of it, aren’t you?” Grant asked. She turned her head. He was leaning against the side of the trailer, there in the dim.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I was there for a conversation. Other than that, I don’t know what I am.”
“Is it always like this?” he asked. “Hiding things from each other and not knowing what’s going on?”
Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 166