Surviving The Tempest: Tempest Tales

by Elsa, Sandra

  “Good to know.” I turned to Jordan and gave it back to him. “You betcha. And it was one helluva ride. Only steed more exciting is your son.”

  He laughed. “I suppose I deserved that. But didn’t you say you were a virgin when you met him? How would you know?”

  Wally and Rollick glanced at each other, surprise shining in their eyes. Wally looked at me in the rearview mirror.

  I ignored them and said, “Trust me, I know what excites me. I made a living photographing cheating spouses. Besides, try as I might, I haven’t been able to fuck him ‘til he couldn’t walk so I guess we’ll have to keep working on that.”

  Jordan threw his hands up in mock surrender. “I give. I really don’t need to listen to you boast about my son’s sexual prowess.”

  “Then you shouldn’t start something you can’t finish.”

  “It’s not that I ‘can’t finish. It’s that I won’t.”

  “Why? Did you turn on the cameras after you made your statement?” I searched the car for magic, even as my glib tongue turned my words into a joke. I wouldn’t put it past him to make me look crude and rude to the world. As I looked at the many swirls of colorful energy I noticed a subtle blush of pine green. There was a familiarity to it. And yet it looked all wrong and out of place.

  “You’re awfully quiet all of a sudden,” Jordan said. I got the feeling he didn’t like calm and quiet.

  I nodded out the window where the pine green shade of magic paced the car on a bicycle from the sidewalk. Not a feat as miraculous as it may sound, considering the number of cars blocking the roadway. Once I was sure he saw who I nodded at, I asked, “Is that one of y…”

  Jordan frowned. “One of my what?”

  “Never mind. Damn it. Wally, eyes left. Tell me that’s not Johnny Girlo.”

  Wally didn’t turn his head. In the mirror I saw his eyes slide that way before he picked up the radio. Even as he started speaking, the bicycle turned onto a side street. Wally went ahead and put out the call.

  “Ask for Sergeant Kallas,” I told him. “Tell her we’re on Loden, approaching Hunton. And inform her, his talent is a washed out pine green.”

  Wally repeated my words without question. When he hung the radio back up he said, “Good catch, Frankie.”

  “They haven’t caught him yet.”

  “But it’s one district with one gate and nowhere to run to. We’ll have him by the time we leave.”

  President Drover said, “If you need assistance, I’ll put every person I’ve brought from District Seven, at your disposal, Sergeant.”

  “Make Jerry the head of that roster,” I suggested. “He’s afraid you mean him harm. If he thinks you have a use for him he might not be so distant.”

  “His talent was pretty much stolen by the siphon. I don’t know how well you see energy, but my men informed me, he barely registered at all.”

  A gentle breath of laughter left my lips in a surprised huff. “I take it you don’t see talent.”

  He flashed an annoyed look at me. “Not everybody does. Harrison doesn’t either.”

  “Jerry’s talent has returned.”

  “Even his foresight?”

  “He’s been useful a couple of times. Would have been nice if he’d flashed on the bimbo he was seeing the night we were attacked. But then, we weren’t hanging out with him, actually kinda avoided him. So I guess it’s unfair to pass blame. I should have seen it. Probably would have if somebody hadn’t distracted me with hedge-witchery.”

  Jordan laughed. “Sure. The one with foresight you find faultless. The one in a district five hundred miles away is to blame.”

  “Blaming you is becoming something of a hobby. But you’ll notice I take some of the blame. I don’t care what’s happening around me; three months ago, I’d never have been distracted enough to miss a buildup of thugs like that.”

  Harrison was back to kissing my neck. “Not sure if I should be glad I can distract you, or worried that distracting you will get us killed.”

  I didn‘t have an answer to that. I very much liked his distractions, but they did seem to be hazardous to our health. I turned the conversation. “I’d like to know what Girlo’s doing here.”

  “That makes three of us, Frankie,” Wally said. “Don’t worry; he’s as good as ours. If we can get someone on the gate who can see magic, he won’t be able to slide through.”

  “Captain Jarvis would be the man to talk to about that,” Frankie told him.

  “Captain’s going to be at the reception,” Wally said. “It’s doubtful Girlo noticed you spot him. We should have that long. It’s not every day you get married, now just relax, Frankie. What the hell made you notice him anyway?”

  “I got married months ago. And I was looking for Daddy’s handpicked spies.” I stuck out my tongue at Jordan.

  “And how many mages did you see?” Jordan asked.

  “Me? See magic?” I gave him an affronted look. “I’m sorry, did I give you the impression I see magic? All you have to do is have me checked out to know that’s not possible.”

  He shook his head with a grin. “All right then. How many spies did you see?”

  “More than I cared to count. What’d you do, bring your whole district’s watch with you?”

  “My son was nearly killed. Contrary to popular opinion I do care what happens to him. Yes, I brought more than a few of District Seven’s watch, and a half dozen of my personal security team.”

  “They’re out of their jurisdiction,” I said.

  “District seven personnel were duly deputized by Chief Hortimus from Watch HQ and assigned to District Two-Three-Seven until the drug trade is stopped here. After our little dinner party in District Seventeen, I looked into what would be required to give my men authority when and where I need it.”

  “Well, bravo for you. At least you’re not so cocksure you think you can ignore the rules anymore.”

  “You mean like you do?”

  “What’s one little law between friends?”

  Chapter 16

  Jordan’s bark of laughter filled the car. “Is that what we are?”

  “All right,” I said, “if you couldn’t hear the sarcasm there, make it; relatives.”

  “It’s hardly a little law.”

  “It is. And it’s one you could change any time you wanted--except then you wouldn’t have control over your fellow mages. Maybe I ‘should’ move in there. Stir up a bit of rebellion. Your enemies creeping around, trying to strike at your family apparently doesn’t get their message across. Nobody’s even sure who they are or what they want…Unless you’ve made progress on that?”

  He shook his head.

  “Well trust me, if I’m forced in there, there will be a rebellion in District Seven, and everybody will know the wife of the president’s son wants to change a few rules and I’ll make them realize how they’re being caged. I’m sure Jerry isn’t the only one who didn’t want to live there.”

  “I take it you’re telling me to give up the dream of placing you as Watch Captain for District Seven?”

  “That would be your dream, not mine. And I told you what I thought the last time you brought it up.”

  “All right…Before I get you to your reception all agitated and your father and Nan hold me responsible, maybe we should change the subject. So how about District Four-Six-Two’s jai alai team?”

  “Four-Six-Two sucks, Sir.” I laughed as Wally responded passionately. “Eight-Nine-Four is going to take the championship this year.”

  Rollick shook his head. “Only because they discriminate in the championships. If the Were players were allowed, Four-Six-Two would kick tail.”

  “At least they don’t import generators to all their games to squash your natural advantage,” Harrison said. “I can’t even go watch without feeling at a disadvantage.”

  Having started the ball rolling—or flinging through the air—Jordan Drover sat back and watched the others in the car argue animatedly and good naturedly. I ch
ose to watch Jordan Drover. Trying to fathom what was going on in that head. What his next move would be.

  We finally arrived in front of the Jonah Hotel. Halfway across town I was kinda wishing I’d knocked Johnny Girlo off his bike and ridden it here. Few Districts were set up to host large events. And no matter what Two-Three-Seven had been in it’s heyday before domes, it was now a sleepy little district with poorly planned traffic patterns.

  A ballroom on the lower floor of the hotel was done up in white crepe streamers and dozens of bouquets of flowers. Tables lined the room. In front of each seat stood a place setting. A name tag done in gold ink calligraphy topped every pearl plate. Only a few people had found their seats. Others milled about the room being kept carefully distant, by the many members of the watch, as the president and his family made their way across the room. Nan and Jallahan fell in beside me and Harrison. My father wrapped his arm around mine, shunting the President ahead of the group. I smiled at Jallahan gratefully.

  At the table on the far wall, next to the cake, I found my seat and cheerfully noted Jordan Drover’s name was not at the table. He was however seated at the next table over among a plethora of other mages, each of them looking distinguished in thousand dollar three piece suits and five-hundred dollar shoes. Each and every one of them swiveled their heads towards Harrison and myself. I pulled the null field in close so that I wasn’t obliterating Harrison’s magic.

  A couple of the mages turned back to Jordan and shook their heads, a doleful look in their eyes. Did they mourn Harrison’s loss to an untalented floozy or were they sad because they couldn’t give Jordan the answers he wanted. At least the death of the mage on the beach hadn‘t been wasted. Whether I looked talentless or not, they’d all heard the story. If they thought they might end up looking like the test vegetable for a kitchen implement infomercial, they were less likely to try any sort of magic against me.

  Which reminded me, I needed some alone time with Dad. He was seated beside me. “You’re not planning on leaving tomorrow are you?”

  “Thought we’d take a couple days to vacation right here. Without your father-in-law nearby.”

  “Don’t you have a job to get back to?”

  “Trying to get rid of me?” He grinned to make sure I realized it was a facetious comment.

  “No, I was just thinking we had some things we needed to discuss. But how can you take so much time away?”

  “I’ve been at the university for thirty years. Head of R&D for fifteen and I’ve never taken a vacation. They usually like a little warning, but I showed them your picture and informed them I had a family emergency. Not even you could deny you were my daughter. And I believe you wanted to very badly.”

  “And now they’ll see you getting married--”

  “Already handled. After my daughter and Jordan Drover’s son were both shot in a poorly executed kidnapping plot, they permitted us to coerce them into a double ceremony for his mother’s happiness. Something to put the nastiness of nearly losing her son in the past. And now, we’re on our honeymoon.”

  “So that’s where I got that talent from.”

  His brows knit together. “Which talent would that be? Rest assured you inherited a lot from me, but I didn’t see any of that in my statement.”

  “The ability to spin a yarn on just enough truth to make it fly. Knew I didn‘t get that from Mom.”

  He grinned again. “I suspect you’ll be wanting to talk to me about the rest of the things you might have inherited.”

  “Yeah, it’d be nice to know what I did, before I do it again unintentionally.”

  At the next table, the mages looked frustrated as they attempted to listen to our conversation.

  Jallahan followed my glance to one particularly frustrated man. “That’s Roy Jamison, Your father-in-law’s head of security. He has the natural ability to listen to a room and hear anything being said, no matter how far away, or how quietly spoken, or even how many other conversations are being carried on.”

  “So if he can’t hear our conversation it will tell him I’m a null. Then why does he look so frustrated?”

  “Because he can’t hear our conversation and I’m preventing it. So he has no way to know if it’s because you’re a null or because I have the talent to turn his off.”

  “You can turn off something like that?”

  “You can too. Now if he was listening to the room in general I couldn’t affect it. A wide blanket limits my ability but since he’s specifically trying to hear us, shutting him off is easy.

  On my other side, Harrison ran a finger down my arm. I smiled at him. His eyes glinted with merriness as he introduced me to the elderly woman standing on the opposite side of the table. “Frankie, I’d like you to meet my grandmother, Martha Drover.”

  Her eyes were a severe blue, her aristocratic nose and high forehead gave the entire face a look of strength. Every lock of hair, gleamed silver, locked in a formidable upswept style by triple-hold hairspray. “I’m delighted to meet you, my dear. In spite of nearly being killed, Harrison looks happier than I’ve seen him in quite some time.”

  “We aim to please, Ma’am.”

  “At least you’re not one of the milksops Jordan thought he should marry.”

  She spun on my father. “And you, Harold. Who even knew you had a daughter?”

  “I did. I knew she was out there, somewhere. I thank Harrison for tracking her down for me, and making her realize, not all mages are a bane to the world.”

  She glanced back at me. “Why would you ever think that, my dear?” The way she said, my dear, grated on my nerves. She was distinctly talking down to me.

  I twisted my head to look at my father and then stared at Jordan Drover. “I had my reasons.”

  Mrs. Drover smiled. “Jordan did say you were a little prickly. I suppose it doesn’t seem fair if you’re born without magic into a world that offers it to some.” She twisted back to watch Jallahan’s expression. “Especially when your father was… Did you know he was a mage?”

  “Didn’t know which mage, but yeah, I knew he had talent.”

  “And why did you hide her away, Harold. We would have accepted her into the fold even without talent. The genetics are certainly there.”

  Anger started to cloud my mind, this afternoon and evening, had been one long forced smile and my face was about to crack. “I’m not a breeder. My mother hid me from Dad because she didn’t want me to have to grow up around that mentality.”

  She looked like I might as well have slapped her across the face. Over at the mages’ table, Jordan watched covertly. I glanced at him again just in time to catch a glimmer of a smile on his face.

  Martha’s nose elevated a bit. “To hear his father tell it, you breed like rabbits. How long do you plan to make me wait for great-grandchildren?”

  “We’re preoccupied at the moment. I suspect it will be some while before children become part of the plan and we don’t breed, we f--” Harrison squeezed my leg; hard. All right, maybe I should think twice before saying that to his grandmother, but she started it.

  She glowered at Harrison. “If you had to marry someone without talent, you could have at least chosen someone civilized.”

  “Grandmother, Frankie is the person I chose to marry. She’s perfect in every way that counts, and the next time you choose to goad her, I won’t stop her from speaking to you however she wishes to. She’s brought a breath of fresh air into my stuffy life. I love her, and it’s our wedding reception, we have other guests to visit with.”

  The nose elevated even further and she huffed as she stormed away.

  Harrison leaned over and kissed me. “Even Father bends to her wishes. It’s probably been forty years since she even heard the words you were about to say to her.” Far from chastising, laughter lit his eyes. Across the way, Jordan and a couple of his cronies laughed quietly. I couldn’t be sure at what, but more than one pair of eyes strayed our way.

  The room continued to fill. Dee approached a
long with Carol and Hettie. They didn’t think twice about walking around the table and group hugging. When they released me, they turned on Harrison and he surprised me by returning their enthusiasm. We talked awhile but others began to file through, offering congratulations.

  I greeted the watch members with enthusiasm, mages with cool distance—barely touching their fingers as they proffered a hand—and everybody else with a handshake. Most of the congratulations were heartfelt. Many of the people here were Harrison’s friends. Most seemed as surprised that he’d married anybody as my friends felt about me.

  There were even a few friends he introduced and said, “When we get settled I think Greg may be willing to help with our little project.” Greg’s name was the only one that stuck but there were at least three others. I shook hands, smiled, and nodded. We wouldn’t argue about involving more mages tonight.

  The night was interminable. When the room was finally filled and guests seated, the hotel staff served food, Nan and my father had selected a seafood meal to be served to everybody, with an option of a vegetable only meal. After food, everybody danced. Harrison and I danced the first dance, then Dee claimed him.

  Midway through the dance, Harrison tossed his head back and laughed. It pleased me to see him accept my friends for who they were. Then I thought guiltily about how I’d received his friends. Hadn’t been impolite but gracious wasn’t on the books.

  One of his friends tapped my shoulder as I watched Harrison and Dee. I fell back on old habits. I’d mentally named him Teach. I assume Harrison mentioned that as his profession. Dark hair fell to his collarbone. Broad shoulders spoke of hours in a gym. His green eyes sparkled. I accepted his hand on my waist as he pulled me onto the dance floor.

  He opened with, “You have some interesting friends,” as we swayed to a slow dance.

  “I lead an interesting life. Interesting friends are a fringe benefit.”