"It's gone dry, I think."
"Maybe why they left?"
"Maybe."
It sounded better than something driving them away, which Emma felt in her bones. The ground might not have been rancid, but the air carried a scent of something disturbing. Emma looked into another house, checking the floor and even the walls for the chance something could be growing there. No purple. Blue. Green. Red. Yellow. No purple. She clenched her fists and said,
"I hope Matilda was right."
"I do as well," Cedric said. Together they approached a third house, Emma's eyes sweeping back and forth along the ground. Cedric stepped up on the stairs and poked his head inside.
"We're looking for purple flowers, yes?"
"You see some?"
"Straight through there." He pointed. He lead the way through the back corner of the house where a support had fallen in. In the field behind the house, there were a profusion of purple flowers. Emma dropped to her knees beside them and began to pick them by their long stems doing the best she could to not bruise the flowers. Cedric stayed close by.
The sound of scraping on wood brought her attention back to their surroundings.
"What was that?"
"I don't know." Cedric looked around and drew closer. "Hurry."
"I am." She stuffed the flowers into a pouch made from the edges of Father William's shirt. "We should go."
They headed back the way they came only to have to dash into a hiding spot in the shadows. Riders were in the village.
"We need to get out of here," Cedric whispered.
"How?"
"Maybe this way." He slid to one side and uncovered a pocked mirror. "I can send us through."
Emma remembered all too well going through the mirror from her bedroom to this new world. To go through another mirror meant ending up somewhere else and she wasn't certain she was prepared for that. However, she swallowed those words and nodded. As Cedric worked on the mirror, Emma slid back to the doorway and peeked out.
The riders had dismounted and were moving in pairs from one house to the next. They would get to the house where they were hidden in a few minutes.
"How long?" Emma hissed.
"Soon. Get closer," Cedric said. She moved back out of sight, one hand gripping the edges of the shirt. The mirror lit with a phosphorous light. The blemishes in the surface stood out like bronze roses against the light. The sound of footsteps set Emma's heart racing.
Getting too close.
"Come on," Cedric said.
A shadow appeared in the doorway. Cedric wiggled his way through the mirror and Emma went to follow. Just as she reached the mirror, the shadow entered the house.
"They're here! They're here!" the guard yelled. He charged forward as Emma dropped through the glass into Cedric's arms.
The sword came through aimed at Emma's back, but as she dropped it slid over her shoulder leaving a shallow cut as it snapped off when the mirror closed. It hit the floor with a clatter. The two of them stood in a dressing room. Emma didn't know where, but recognized it immediately.
"We need to go."
She led the way out of the dressing room and onto the boutique floor.
"Where are we?" Cedric asked.
"I'm not sure, but we need to leave."
The cashier looked at them both with their queer clothing and let her mouth drop. Emma didn't say anything to her and swept past. Cedric was in step as they reached the door.
"Have a nice day."
"Thank you," Emma said. Then they were on the street. Cars whizzed by on the thoroughfare. Emma did a quick turn to look at as much as she could and said,
"I know where we are. This way." She started down the street. Cedric however stopped to stare at the cars.
"How without horses?"
"There are things called motors," Emma said. "Let's go." Her free hand looped through his and dragged him along. They moved through the town at a hurried walk, Emma's bare feet eliciting more than a few odd looks. Of course, it didn't help that she carried a bunch of flowers around in her shirt. No one stopped them, however, so she kept going.
Cedric's head swiveled in one direction then another trying to take everything in. Thankfully, Emma knew where they were going. On a nearly empty side street, they came to an abrupt stop. Several yards away, a person tottered on the sidewalk. They moved with a slow stiffness that made Emma cringe. She pulled Cedric away.
"What's happening?"
"We don't want to go this way," she said.
"Emmaline?"
"Cedric, let's just go."
It lurched toward them in the light of day. Emma always thought creatures like that needed the cover of night. Except she kept seeing them in day. It's hands came up, grabbing, searching. Emma tried to drag Cedric's unmoving bulk, but he stood his ground.
"Why are we running?"
"Let's just go."
She ducked down a side street, fully expecting him to follow, but he didn't.
"Cedric!"
She ducked her head out of the alleyway and called him again. He shook himself out of a stupor and came after her.
"Why do you have a soulless here?" he asked.
"A what?"
"A soulless. Creatures who are caught under the power of the well who only seek to make more of their own."
"Maybe because the well's closed on this side too." Emma ran. He kept up.
Mr. Amon's shop appeared to be open. The store hours said it should be, but when they entered, no one came to see about them. Emma walked slow over the carpet. Horus squeaked as if in recognition. Cedric looked around at the bottles with awe on his face.
"I've never seen anything like this."
"It's an alchemist's shop. My master should be here somewhere." She dropped the flowers on the mixing table and went behind the curtain. No one home.
"He must have gone out," she said. His files were close at hand. She riffled through the recipes looking for something that would tell her she was on the right track. Cedric poked one of the drawers, trying to draw it out, but Zamara was having nothing to do with him. He pulled on the handle. It refused to move.
"Leave the cabinet alone," Emma said as she flicked her way through a pile of cards. "It won't open for you if it doesn't know you."
"Know me?"
"No, Mr. Amon hasn't introduced you. Zamara doesn't know you and won't open for you."
"It has a name?"
"Of course, it does." Emma found a card that looked right and tried to read it. Amon's crabby handwriting made deciphering anything he wrote a challenge. And of course he couldn't just put a list of ingredients on it, too proprietary. However, she knew Charmot on sight. The symbols for Lamia's hair also stood out to her.
"I think I have it."
"Have what?"
"The recipe we need."
The door chimed. Emma stuck her head out the curtain and said,
"Hello, welcome to the shop."
The face which greeted her sent her pale. He pulled a gun on both of them.
"Get away from there," he commanded.
"Who are you?" Cedric asked.
"That's none of your business, boy. Both of you, come closer."
Emma almost ducked back behind the curtain, but fear said he would shoot her if she did that. Slowly, she came out from behind the curtain and stepped into the floor. When she drew close to Cedric, she offered him her hand. He took it and laced his fingers through hers.
"The well must not be reopened," the man said.
"How do you know about that?" Cedric asked.
"It doesn't matter, just know it must remain closed."
"The well must be reopened," Cedric said. With his free hand, he grabbed a bottle from the nearest shelf and flung it at the man. The bottle shattered on the man's forearm, but it spoiled his aim just long enough for Cedric and Emma to split up. Emma threw herself to the floor and crawled. Cedric hid behind one of the high shelves.
Emma could see the man's feet from where she
lay. He came toward her and then moved away again and she tried her best to stay still. If he didn't see her, he couldn't shoot her. She crawled toward the mixing table. It would give her a clear line toward the door.
Cedric was out of her vision and it made her a little antsy. Then she heard commotion. The man rushed forward and tried to shoot Cedric, who took him on hand to hand. There wasn't much difference in their size and Emma hoped Cedric would be enough to stop him. At the mixing table, she got up to a crouch.
The pair struggled in the center of the floor. The gun went off once. Suddenly the entire shop erupted in motion. Zamara clacked and slammed her drawers. The shelves rattled their bottles and jars. Everything shuddered and cried. Emma grabbed a handful of what was in the mixing bowl, thinking for a moment that it should have been empty, and ran up to throw it in the intruder's face.
Cedric caught some to the side of his face, but most of it went into the intruder's eyes. He bawled and clawed with his free hand. Cedric slipped around him. Emma took the card she had and grabbed a few of the flowers before she ran for the door as well.
"Come on!" Emma took the lead. Cedric limped a moment or two before settling into a run.
By the time they reached the front door of Maman's house, Emma was shivering so hard she shook. Her entire body was overcome by it. However, she never lost her grip on the card or the flowers. Having taken most of the way at a dead run, her lungs burned. Cedric had to catch her when she stumbled up on the stairs. Panting, she closed her eyes.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"No, I hurt." Her shoulder snapped at her where she had been cut. Her lungs burned. Her legs were like lead. "But maybe we have enough."
Maman's door wasn't locked and Emma let them both in. The bustle coming from the kitchen told her exactly where her grandmother was. Emma moved into the kitchen, put the card and flowers down, and hugged her grandmother who still had not realized she was there.
"Emmaline?" she said. "Oh heaven. Thank god. You're home. Where have you been? Mr. Amon has been by looking for you. And I hadn't any idea." Maman turned and embraced Emma fully. She kissed Emma's forehead and hugged her again. "Oh god."
"Maman, this is Cedric."
"He comes a bit strangely dressed, and so are you. What's happening?"
"It's a long story and I promise I will tell you, but I need to put on some warmer clothes and finish figuring out what this card says and hopefully get us all back to where we're supposed to be without too much trouble." Emma's lack of explanation got an unhappy look from her grandmother, but the woman didn't argue. Instead, she turned back to the stove and picked up a pot.
"There's hot chocolate, I was just making some. You two can have it."
"Thank you."
Cedric looked into the pot with confusion.
"Hot chocolate."
"Just drink it, you'll like it," Emma said. Then she went up the stairs to her bedroom to change clothes.
When she came back down, Cedric sat at the kitchen table with a steaming mug in front of him. He lazily flipped one of the flowers through his fingers.
"You were right, it is quite good."
"See, I told you." Emma sat down at the table across from him and looked pointedly at the card. A few more secrets. The symbols were all there. She just had to decipher them so that she could make it.
"How goes it?" Cedric asked.
"I don't know. One of these is Charmot. The other is Lamia's hair. But there are two more that I can't figure out just yet."
"Don't you have your old textbook up the stairs?" Maman asked. "Wouldn't it have the right symbols?"
"Some of them yes, but this recipe is from Mr. Amon's private collection. His symbology is different." Taking her mug of cocoa from Maman, she put the card down again. After a bit of a blistering sip, she coughed.
"There has to be something else I can do," Emma said.
"You are doing a great deal, Emmaline." Cedric assured her. Then he reached out to pat her hands. "You can figure this out."
"I know I can, but I need to do this faster. That way we can finish what you need to do."
"The King awaits. This I know. But we cannot force you to finish something. Only time will give us the answers we seek."
"What's all this about?" Maman asked.
"Cedric's from a kingdom where the king controls the well of souls. It's the same well we see in the sky at night during the fall and winter. From this side, if the well isn't open, then people don't die correctly." Emma's explanation left her Maman looking at her with wide eyes, but Emma didn't attempt to explain further. Instead, she went back to staring at the card looking for some kind of answer to what those other two ingredients were.
Absently, she listened as Maman moved around the kitchen, an understated hum on her lips. For the moment, she might as well have forgotten about the stranger in their midst. Fine with Emma. Let Maman handle things however she saw fit. Emma would continue with her own problems.
Dinner appeared on the table a few hours later while Emma still studied and wondered and guessed. A green bean casserole with chicken that steamed and smelled wonderful. Cedric didn't have to be told what it was, he tucked in as if someone had been making this for him all his life. Maman sat with her own plate relatively untouched. She pushed one bean from one end of the plate to another. Emma shoveled food in her mouth without seeing it.
A knock on the door interrupted their domestic scene. Maman wiped her hands on a towel and went to get it. Cedric followed her with his eyes until she left the kitchen. He jumped to his feet when he heard Maman shout. The mystery man hustled Maman back into the kitchen with one twisted arm. Then he thrust her away as if she were repugnant to him. He turned his gun on Emma and Cedric.
"Found you," he said.
No one answered. Emma moved to slid the card off the table, but he made a tisking noise.
"Leave it there. You get up and join the old lady."
With the table between him and Cedric, he jerked the gun at the two women.
"Stay over there." He reached for the card.
Cedric snatched it off the table. The man brought his gun around as if to shoot the younger man. "Give it to me."
Emma's hand sought her grandmother's which trembled. Standing there together, they watched the standoff between Cedric and their assailant. In those moments, Emma had a chance to really look at him. He appeared to be lightly striped. Maybe as an effect of the powder she threw at him. The stripes reminded her of a tiger and when he bared his fangs, she was almost certain he had been hit with a transformative of some sort. Odd. Her hand hadn't gone striped. Maybe it was a reaction to the addition of the liquid they had thrown at him as well. Either way, he resembled a tiger and attempted to take away something which was hers.
Cedric refused to give up the card without saying a word.
Disrupted, the man shot a hole in the wall above Cedric's shoulder. Maman made a break for it toward the backyard door. Seeing her move, the man swung around and shot Maman. Emma, caught by the suddenness of everything, stood dumb for a long moment before throwing herself in the direction of her grandmother.
"MAMAN!"
The old woman lay on the floor, face down but struggling to get up. Emma knelt beside her.
"Oh god, Maman." Blood already began to pool underneath her. "Please be alright."
With a groan, Maman flipped over and put her hands to her abdomen. Red stained her skin.
The man pressed the gun to Emma's head.
"Stand up."
He turned both of them toward Cedric.
"If you don't want to see her brains all over the walls, give me the card, right now."
Cedric slid the card onto the table, but not close enough for the man to reach it.
At Emma's feet, Maman bled out. Her groaning became fainter and fainter. Emma searched for some sign she would be fine but all she could see was blood. Then Maman closed her eyes. A tear fell from Emma's eye and she clenched her fists. A moment later, she tu
rned on the man with those fists beating at him with all her might. He tried to shield himself from her blows, but couldn't keep the gun trained on her while he did so. She had almost beaten him back when a hand gripped her ankle. Her eyes dropped to find Maman holding her. The old woman's face had gone slack and ashen.
Emma's heart thundered. She snatched herself out of Maman's grip and hopped back to the kitchen table. The man took a shot at her as Maman's other hand wrapped around his ankle with a vise grip. The shot missed by inches. Then he turned the gun on the creature grabbing him, unloading it three times. When that did not effect his escape, he beat at the woman with the butt of the gun trying to get free. She grabbed his arm while he beat at her and dragged their faces so close they could kiss. He screamed.
Cedric came across the kitchen table and snatched Emma's arm. The scene transfixed her.
"Come on," he said.
Grabbing the card, she headed for the stairs, eyes full of unshed tears. Stumbling, she made it to her room and Cedric shut the door.
"We have to leave," he said. Emma shook her head. Pressing his hand against the mirror, he chanted. The words sounded familiar though Emma couldn't place them. Then the mirror lit with an inner fire.
The bedroom door jumped then creaked in protest. The second hit thudded louder than the first. Cedric looked at the door and then at Emma. He unlooped the medallion from around his neck. "If we go, I fear he may follow. I'll stop him here."
"What?"
"Go now. Cure the king." He thrust her toward the mirror and stepped away. "Go."
Emma went.
The mirror returned her to a room she had seen once before. Night had fallen. The light thrown by the mirror faded and left her in dimness. She put her hand against the glass and slid to the floor, tears thick and heavy in her eyes. The medallion bored a hole in her palm. Looking up, she hoped to see some sign of Cedric following her. Nothing came. Emma sobbed. The card slipped to the floor by her knees.
October Sky Page 4