by Jim Johnson
Malcolm glanced down both directions of the tree-lined road, and nodded. He was clearly distracted but looked curious enough. “So we’d have some power to draw on when the threads around us are too ‘thin’ of ley energies to be of much use to us?”
I smiled. “You’re learning. Yes, just that. I don’t know about you, but I hated not having reliable power to draw upon. Made me feel naked.”
He shrugged into his hoodie and shoved his hands into the large front pocket. “I don’t know about naked, but I sure felt…exposed. Having a reliable backup source of power would help fix that.”
He shot a glance toward my satchel. “Does Charity think you two can teach me how to put one together?”
I punched him on the arm this time. “Yes, you goober! And if you’d been listening, you’d have heard that.” I tapped my temple a couple times with a finger. “Gotta keep your internal headphones on, man.”
He rolled his eyes at me but my grin got him smiling again. As always. I just had a way with him, you know?
“All right, all right.” He focused then, and I sensed a tiny shift in the connection the three of us shared. In my mind’s ears, I heard his voice clear as if he’d spoken out loud right next to me.
“Charity, I’d be grateful if you and Rachel can give me the quick and dirty on making myself a ley battery. If I had more power on hand, as needed, I could bring the fire more effectively than having to pull it out of a ley thread and then re-channel it.”
Of course, Malcolm. I’ll talk you through the process of creating one much as I did with Rachel. Once you have it in place, however, you might want to talk to Miss Chin about it. She might have some Warden-specific modifications to make to it.
Malcolm shot me a look. “Miss Chin again, huh? Damn. Rachel, if we can’t figure out what she was up to during that trip to Branchwood, I think we should let our suspicions go and just go all-in with working with her.”
I sighed. “Alleged trip to Branchwood.” I gestured to him to follow and started walking toward the National Cathedral, which towered over the townhouses and green spaces across the street from us.
“We still don’t have any proof that Miss Chin was there. My grandpa only remembers so much, and your grandma even less. If their minds and memories were tampered with, someone did a fine job.” I paused to rest my hand on his arm. “It could have been Miss Chin, but it could have just as easily been the Spinner, or Detective Bello, or someone else with abilities like ours, someone we haven’t met yet.”
He stared down into my eyes and snorted. “Or maybe we did meet them and they fried our memories too. Did you think of that?”
Actually, I had. “Well, yeah. But I’m trying to be positive here. We need to try to question Miss Chin about it some more, but not make it look like we’re questioning her.”
I started toward the Cathedral again and Malcolm fell into step with me.
“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”
I shrugged in my own hoodie and hooked a thumb under my satchel strap. “I don’t know. I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
Malcolm glanced down the road again as we neared the cathedral entrance. I could tell he was tense, but didn’t sense anything through the ley that made me think something was amiss. “Malcolm, you’re making me nervous, here. Something you want to tell me?” A sudden premonition popped into my mind. “We’re not about to get hit by Buster Jay’s goons, are we?”
He stopped walking and glanced at me. “What? No. I ain’t seen any of Buster Jay’s boys since that night outside the Lincoln Memorial. That Detective Bello dropped the brain bomb on them and they all scattered, remember?”
I crossed my arms and nodded. “Hard to forget that night. But, they haven’t been around your place since then?”
He shrugged. “Not that I’ve seen, anyway. I don’t keep constant surveillance on my house, though, so I don’t know.” He chuckled. “Besides, I’ve had a lot of work lately in the District. You know that.”
I nodded. Malcolm had offered to give me a part-time job helping him with his furniture moving business, and I’d started the job in earnest a couple weeks ago. He had thought the first couple weeks would be slow, and would be ideal to give me a chance to get familiar with the ins and outs of the job, but his company had been slammed with requests and I’d gotten a lot more work than expected.
“It’s been good work, too. I didn’t think I’d make so much money right off the bat.” And that was no lie. He was paying me ten dollars an hour, the same rate he paid his experienced day workers, and I’d worked ten to twelve hour days most days over the last two weeks. I had made more in two weeks working with Malcolm than I got from my stupid brother and bitch of a mother in a month.
We continued walking toward the cathedral. I said, “And I appreciate the money, too. Abbie and I went to the bank the other day and I actually opened a savings account and put some money in it.”
He grinned at me. “And how did that make you feel?”
I shrugged. “Like a boring, responsible adult, actually. I’ve never had much money on my own, not enough to seriously save for, anyway.”
And that much was the truth, though I hid a much larger truth behind it that I wasn’t about to tell Malcolm. Charity and I had delved into the Holding a month or so ago, to retrieve a few things she had hidden in a safe place before her body failed her and her soul was placed into the journal.
Among her things had been a box of period gold coins, a small fortune in this day and age. I hadn’t figured out what to do with them yet, so had hidden them in the bedroom I shared with Abbie. Probably not the safest place for them, but I didn’t have a better one, and didn’t feel safe leaving them in the Holding, not with the Spinner rolling around.
He sighed. “Yeah, well, you’re making out pretty well. Business has been good. I think it’ll ease off a bit. Summer’s a good time for moving, but a lot of people take vacations too, and sometimes it’s just too damn hot to move.”
I grinned at him. “All that makes sense. But, you’ve successfully sidestepped my question. What’s got you on edge?”
He stared at me and then looked away. “Is it so obvious?”
I snorted and nudged his arm with mine. “We’ve been through a lot, Malcolm. I think I have a pretty good read on you. I can tell when you’re tensing up or nervous about something. I can also tell when you’re distracted. And now seems like one of those times.”
I glanced around as well, but still nothing leaped out at me as abnormal. I could feel the ley threads all around me, the massive ley grid far below our feet, and even some vague sensations from the Veil itself, that existed all around us.
“I thought I felt something come through the Veil nearby, but I lost it after we got out of the car. Might be nothing, but…”
“But it could be something.” Miss Chin’s small but powerful voice sounded from nearby. I turned toward the cathedral and saw her walking toward us. She was dressed in dark silk pants and a light-colored blouse that shifted slightly in the breeze and from her efficient movements. Black slippers on her feet with red embroidered dragons on the toes made no sound on the pavement.
Malcolm turned to face her. “Master Warden.” He nodded deferentially toward her, and I was struck by how far he had come in so short a time. “I thought I had sensed something through the ley threads, but an effort to focus didn’t turn up anything out of the ordinary.”
Miss Chin glanced at me and then focused on Malcolm. “Your Warden senses are improving. I’m pleased to see this. There was a time I wasn’t confident that you were paying much attention to my lessons.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hand and smiled. “No, Malcolm, that’s not a criticism, though I’m sure Rachel here will commiserate with you that my encouragements sometime come across as criticisms.”
He glanced at me. We’d already had plenty of talks like that. He focused on her again. “Well, I… No, Miss Chin. It’s fine.” He frowned. “Wa
s there something out there I missed?”
Miss Chin narrowed her eyes, which took on a distant focus. I knew she was pulling threads together for use in her scan. After a few moments of silence punctuated by birdsong and a soft breeze fluttering the trees and bushes nearby, her focus returned.
“No, I sense nothing nearby. There are rifts within the Veil here that need to be repaired, but nothing beyond that.” She focused on him again. “I do feel a disturbance, but not enough to be alarmed just yet.”
Malcolm met her eyes and nodded, then broke off the look and glanced at me. “So, now what?”
I focused on Miss Chin. “I guess we help out. How many rifts in the Veil did you say there were around here?”
Chapter Six
AS IT TURNED OUT, THERE WERE a lot of rifts in the Veil near the National Cathedral. When Malcolm and I had battled the Spinner months ago at my grandpa’s nursing home, I had made a desperate gambit to destroy the Spinner. I managed to wreck his etheric form and put him on the ropes for a few weeks, but I also managed to shred the Veil in hundreds of spots all around the D.C. metro area.
And we’d been picking up the pieces and mending the gaps ever since.
Miss Chin gathered us on one of the park benches outside the cathedral and gave us a refresher on using the ley threads to scan for the rifts in the Veil, and then the three of us split up and worked our way around the cathedral grounds to start repairing the damage.
While it kinda felt like drudge work, I knew the repairs were necessary to bring the Veil back to some semblance of order. Every break in the Veil could be an exit point for a lost soul who wandered back into the real world, or an avenue for one of the Spinner’s minions to break out into the real world and cause problems.
The larger rifts were also a problem, because a normal, everyday person could conceivably stumble into one and disappear from the world, and that’s something we definitely wanted to avoid. We Weavers were responsible for keeping the stranger world of our abilities and the Holding out of common knowledge, partly for everyone’s safety but also because it’d just create more problems if word got out that supernatural phenomena and ghosts were, in fact, real.
Charity and I worked together to close as many little rifts that we could. Charity could work independently of me, as long as her journal was propped open. I used a spare binder clip from Bonita’s shop to keep the journal open while it was stored in my satchel, and that gave Charity the freedom to move her soul and consciousness about to work the ley threads and help out where she could.
The four of us working together got most of the smaller rifts repaired, though there were still a number of larger ones that would require more focus. After several hours of hard, mental work, I sagged down onto a bench in the bishop’s garden next to the cathedral along with Malcolm and Miss Chin, who looked unruffled despite our afternoon’s efforts. Malcolm looked as dog-tired as I felt.
I nodded toward Miss Chin. “How come you look like you just got plenty of rest?”
She shrugged. “I’ve been working the ley for years, Rachel. I don’t tire easily.” She studied the two of us. “You’ll find that the more you work with your abilities, the more you’ll learn to pace yourselves. You’ll figure out how to conserve your energy for use when you most need it.”
Malcolm swiped a hand over his short hair and sat back on the bench. “I ain’t been this tired since that four-story move last week. Hundred pieces of heavy wood furniture down four flights of stairs at the old place and up two flights at the new one. I thought that was hard work, but man…closing these rifts is brutal.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “You kinda need a shower.”
He snorted and reached over to give my shoulder a slug. “Look who’s talking. You’re no bouquet of flowers neither.”
I dropped my chin to my chest and took a whiff. No kidding. I could use a week of showers or one long, glorious deep soak right about now.
I pushed what fatigue I could away and then focused on Miss Chin. “What do we do about the larger rifts in and around the cathedral?”
Miss Chin folded her hands in her lap, glancing at the massive stone building behind us. “It’ll take some work. The cathedral started construction in 1907, and I hope you noticed that it is, in fact, a nexus connected to the ley grid. Much like the other major monuments in the city.”
I nodded. “Like the Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington monuments.”
Malcolm leaned forward and rested his head in his hands. “Oh, man. Not another Lincoln Memorial.”
We’d recently had a battle of sorts with some of the Spinner’s ‘geists at the Lincoln Memorial. While we sort of won that fight, the experience had been challenging to work through. During the course of that fight, I had discovered the Lincoln Memorial was plugged into the ley grid in a more significant manner than I had imagined.
I turned my butt on the bench to sit more squarely toward the cathedral and adjusted the power flow within me to hone my internal Sight and refocused on the cathedral.
Slowly but surely, the cathedral moved into fresh focus in my mind, almost as if I had placed a blue-tinted lens in front of my mind’s eye. I gasped in surprise.
The cathedral was lit up in the dusk with spotlights and regular lighting of course, but supplementing the mundane lights were countless arcs and streamers of pure electric blue ley threads, reaching up through the earth from the ley grid far below and latching into all sections of the cathedral.
I craned my neck up and up, tracing the currents of ley power up the cathedral’s walls, arches, and towers, marveling at how the building looked completely different to someone with Sight to use as compared to someone as yet Unawakened.
I spared a glance away from the wonder toward Malcolm. “Tell me you can see this.”
Malcolm twisted around on his seat to glance at me, and then continued to turn as he followed my gaze toward the cathedral. Through the ley currents all around us, I felt him pull energy into himself and then channel it. His soft gasp was all the answer I needed.
“It’s beautiful, truly beautiful.” He lifted his head up to look toward the highest tower, shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun. “They built this thing into the grid from the beginning, didn’t they?”
Miss Chin nodded. “Yes. Just like most of the other major buildings in the city. Every government building, every monument, every significant statue is tied somehow into the ley grid.”
I pulled my eyes away from the cathedral again. “But why? What purpose does it serve to have the cathedral or one of the other buildings or monuments tied into the ley grid?”
Miss Chin stared at me, her face a blank slate of possibilities. I don’t know if I had said something to offend her or make her mad, but she was definitely sizing me up, evaluating me or my question, no doubt.
Finally, she said, “I don’t know, Rachel. I’ve spent some time meditating on questions very similar to yours, and as yet, I’ve failed to find an answer. Quiet inquiries to other Weavers in the United States have also proven to be ineffective.”
She added her gaze toward the cathedral. “I’ve been unable to track down any of the key builders of the cathedral, and none of the Weavers or other practitioners of the ley that I know of have been able to provide satisfactory answers.”
I frowned at that. “Well, I guess the city really is full of mysteries.”
Miss Chin’s face fell into a similar frown. “Indeed. I’m not fond of mysteries, Rachel. I’d like for this one to be a little more cut and dried. We know that our Founding Fathers and Mothers built the city on the ley grid intentionally, but the reasons for doing so and for tying in so many of the buildings to that grid have so far eluded us.”
My mind spun on that one for a while, but I was so tired I couldn’t make sense of my inchoate thoughts. “So what does that mean?”
Malcolm slapped his thigh with one hand and let out a ‘whoof’ of expelled air. “I dunno about you, but it means I better get my ass in my ca
r and get home before I crash and pass out on this bench.”
He stood up and stretched his back, then popped it and glanced at me and Miss Chin. “I’m gonna go call it a night. Can I offer either of you a ride home?”
Miss Chin glanced up at him. “Not necessary, but thank you. I’ll close down a few more of the rifts here and then drive myself home. I’m parked a couple blocks away.” She gestured vaguely toward the west.
I sighed and then stood up and brushed my hands off on my jeans. “I’d love to stay and help more, Miss Chin, but I’m just about done in. A lot of hard work today.”
Miss Chin focused on me, and after coming to some internal conclusion she wasn’t sharing, offered a slight smile and nod. “A lot of hard work, certainly. More to come, however.” She nodded toward me. “Enjoy your evenings, you two. When you feel up for it, contact me and together we’ll tackle some of the larger rifts here in the cathedral. While I could close them myself, with great effort and no small risk of personal endangerment, I admit the work will be easier to accomplish with three rather than one.”
I moved to stand next to Malcolm. “Four you mean. Me, Malcolm, you, and Charity.”
Miss Chin pursed her lips. “Ah yes, the strange Charity. I have yet to meet her, you know. Are you certain she’s trustworthy?”
I sighed, exasperated at hearing her same question for what had to be the thirtieth time. “I’m confident Charity is trustworthy. Don’t you trust the person who gave you Charity’s journal in the first place?”
Miss Chin seemed to have a convenient memory for such things. Why was she so suspicious now?
Miss Chin nodded. “I do trust that individual, and, you’re right.” She waved a hand across her face. I picked up the subtle shift in the ley threads around us. She perked up noticeably, which meant she had used one of her little tricks to push away some of her fatigue. It was a trick she had taught me and Malcolm as well, though I knew it was more a delaying tactic than an actual remedy. So she was more tired than she looked.