Burnt Snow

by Van Badham

  The first act was a plump woman who performed poetry in a ball gown, removing part of her held-together-with-velcro costume every time she said a rude word. For all the artsy glasses and cocktail dresses in the audience, there didn’t seem to be much difference between their hooting and catcalls and what I’d expect from the guys in my Art class.

  But I wasn’t really watching the stripping lady, or the crowd. My mind was like a radio, sifting through the noise, trying to tune into the presence I knew was here. Amongst the yelling throng, the almost-naked woman walked off stage. He’s closer, my mind’s voice said. I gripped my pendant. He wants you to know he is here.

  I hardly noticed the tall black girl in a silver bodysuit now on the stage, who was procuring snakes from an empty top hat and then draping them about her body while the sound system played the hypnotic beats of African drums. The crowd oohed and ahhed and the drumming grew faster but my eyes were closing, as if I could see him better if I did not look. My hand went to the centre of my forehead, as if stroking an invisible eye.

  ‘Don’t you like this?’ asked Lauren in my ear. For a second I didn’t realise it was her – in my attuned state, I was thrown by a difference in the frequency of her voice.

  ‘Tension headache,’ I lied. Lauren stood closer to me. The drums grew louder and louder and louder, vibrating through my pendant, until—

  My eyes flew open.

  The drums were silent.

  Smoke poured across the stage, and the black girl, covered in snakes, put the top hat on her head and disappeared amongst the haze. The crowd clapped wildly and I saw, in the smoke, a dark shape moving towards the front of the stage.

  Now he approaches, my mind announced.

  I froze. Out of the smoke walked the guy I’d last seen at Shellharbour Square. Black hair, black beard, black shirt and black suit. Eyes piercingly black – even more so in a blinding spotlight.

  He was looking at me.

  15

  The turquoise stone around my neck was clenched so tightly in my hand I thought it would leave a permanent blue stain in my palm. I wasn’t sure that I was breathing and I was so frightened that I didn’t care.

  The man stood there, eyeing the audience with his black stare until everyone – everyone in that crowded room – fell silent. In the hush he had created, he stared at me again.

  ‘My name is Izek Hugo Vasquez Mendoza,’ he said, and before anyone had to guess his accent he explained, ‘That is Spanish … which is the language we speak in Mexico.’

  There were a couple of nervous giggles in the audience.

  ‘In my country, they call me El Cuervo.’ He paused dramatically, and added, ‘After the tequila.’

  More nervous giggles.

  ‘I was born a peasant, am a messenger … lover,’ there were giggles again, ‘and poet. But tonight … Tonight …’ His voice boomed as he threw his hands in the air: ‘A great magician!’

  A couple of people in the audience clapped – he silenced them with a wave of his hand.

  ‘Alas,’ he said as I gripped my pendant all the tighter, ‘I have only one trick. But it’s pretty good.’

  His eyes met mine and fear rippled through my spinal cord to the pulsating sides of my head.

  He clapped his hands three times in the air—

  —and vanished.

  No puff of smoke, no sparks, just empty space.

  Even Lauren gasped as her eyes adjusted to what everyone now beheld in genuine amazement.

  Where the magician had stood, a giant crow hovered, flapping it wings and crying Caaaaah! before circling above the heads in the room three times, and flying off.

  16

  ‘I think your friend’s impressed,’ came the voice of Seamus from somewhere behind me. ‘She can’t even move.’

  ‘Dude, I don’t think she’s well,’ said Lauren, taking my hand in hers. ‘You’re freezing,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know how that’s possible in here.’

  ‘Crow,’ I said numbly.

  ‘Does she need a drink?’ asked Seamus.

  I sensed Lauren nodding.

  ‘I’ll get her something medicinal,’ he said, walking away.

  ‘I don’t want any alcohol,’ I told her.

  ‘Alcohol’s the least of your problems right now,’ she said, tossing her hair in a way she never normally did. ‘He’s just a magician. They’ve got a trapdoor or something.’

  ‘He’s not,’ I said in a tiny voice. ‘He’s been following me for days. He’s come here because I’m here …’

  ‘You’re talking like a crazy person.’

  ‘I want to go home.’

  ‘Don’t be like that … The show’s barely even started. If you’re emotional about your nan or Yarrindi or whatever, you should take this opportunity to relax.’

  ‘You don’t understand – he’s from the mall the other day—’

  ‘As a hot Mexican guy or a carrion bird?’ she asked, her hand on her hip. ‘What kind of stalker does magic acts in clubs? It’s not the same guy. Come on, we’ve been looking forward to this for days. Have a drink and you’ll calm down.’

  ‘I don’t want drinks from that Seamus guy,’ I said, alarmed by the happy daze I saw in Lauren’s smile. ‘He’s totally sleazy!’

  ‘He’s fine,’ she said. ‘His girlfriend’s a model.’

  ‘Then why’s he buying drinks for you?’

  ‘Because he earns lots of money and we don’t. Come on, this is nice.’ She pulled at my arm. ‘Just one night of being princesses, to know what it feels like.’

  We were in two different realities. Lauren was in a nightclub where people were buying her drinks. I was on the edge of a dark world, where I was so scared and confused I did almost believe that a man had turned into a crow. The crow. The one that flew to Ashley Ventwood’s arm.

  The more I thought about it, the more panicked I became. I was about to scream, ‘We have to get out of here!’ when Seamus reappeared.

  He had a champagne glass full of orange juice extended for Lauren, and a full shot glass which he held out to me.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked. Even from a metre away I could smell something I did not like.

  ‘Something medicinal, as instructed,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I said.

  ‘Soph, he’s gone to the trouble of getting it for you,’ coaxed Lauren.

  ‘What’s wrong with her anyway?’ asked Seamus. Although he was smiling, there was nothing friendly about his question. ‘You frightened of crows?’

  ‘She was in that crow attack in that town the other day,’ said Lauren.

  ‘Then let’s drink to animal behaviour,’ said Seamus, bouncing the shot glass towards me.

  ‘Yeah, the Mexican guy’s act is vicious timing,’ said Lauren, adding to me, ‘You gonna drink that or not?’

  ‘What’s in it?’ I asked Seamus.

  ‘Whisky and lemon juice,’ he said. ‘Cures almost anything.’

  ‘Apart from alcohol intolerance,’ I said. I was careful to moderate my tone – his shoulders were stiffening. ‘I’m really embarrassed to admit it,’ I said, ‘but it makes me sick.’

  ‘Build up your immunity through exposure,’ he said with a patronising grin.

  ‘If she doesn’t, I will,’ said Lauren, snatching the drink from his hand and belting it down.

  My mouth was agape as Lauren dropped the empty glass into Seamus’s hand. ‘Well, I feel better,’ she said.

  ‘This isn’t you,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I think we should—’

  ‘There he is!’ came a voice. Lucy was hobbling across the room. On her arm was a tall girl with glasses.

  ‘I’ve been looking for you for an hour,’ the glasses girl said to Seamus in a flat voice. She was very pretty, in a dull way. She looked younger than me and Lauren.

  ‘The club hasn’t been open for an hour,’ he replied with a false smile.

  ‘Veronica, this is my sister Lauren and her friend Sophie,’ Lucy said, not look
ing Veronica’s way. As Seamus and Veronica kissed each other, Lucy marched Lauren and I away from them. ‘How amazing was that floor show?’ she said, taking us to a spot near the windows. ‘You know that Mexican guy just randomly turned up?’

  I grabbed Lauren by the arm and tried to make her look at me. Her head swayed.

  ‘For a magazine launch, there don’t seem to be a lot of magazines around,’ Lauren said dozily.

  ‘We give them out in goody bags as people are leaving. I’ll make sure you both get one. There are makeup samples and stuff in there, and these hot T-shirts from a label my friend runs. Are you right for drinks? Brad! Brad, come over here!’

  In seconds, Lucy had hooked her arm around the shoulders of a thirty-something guy with big hair and a wart above his lip. ‘Girls, this is Brad – Brad, this is my little sister, who wants to be an actress.’ Leaning in to Lauren, she said firmly, ‘Brad’s from a modelling agency.’

  ‘Hi, Brad!’ said Lauren in a voice significantly higher than the one she usually spoke in, reaching for his hand.

  I grabbed Lucy’s elbow. ‘I know you’re busy, but can I talk to you?’ I said into her ear.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she said into mine.

  ‘Lauren’s acting weird.’

  ‘She’s away from Mum for five minutes and letting her hair down,’ Lucy said, smiling. ‘Aren’t you having a good time?’

  Behind us, Lauren was giggling. ‘It’s awesome,’ I said to Lucy, forcing a smile, ‘but I think that that Seamus guy is feeding Lauren drinks.’

  Lucy looked cross. ‘Now that’s not on,’ she said. ‘It might be a private party but if the cops turn up and Lauren’s drunk this place could lose their licence. I’ll have a word to him. I’ll tell him she’s got an allergy or something.’

  ‘I’ve tried that,’ I said. ‘He’s very persuasive.’

  ‘Not when Veronica’s around, he isn’t,’ Lucy said. ‘You keep an eye on her and I’ll sort it out.’ She patted me on the shoulder and walked across the room to where Seamus and Veronica stood with some other people.

  Brad was leaning very close to Lauren, now herself leaning against a metal pylon with her hands behind her back. ‘Seriously,’ I heard him say to her, ‘you should come into the office and we’ll talk. The British in particular have a real demand for redheads, and since Kate Moss your height shouldn’t be too much of a problem.’

  I was trying to think of a way to thrust myself into the conversation, when a shadow fell across my shoulder. I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

  ‘Sophie,’ said the magician, ‘I think it’s time we spoke together.’

  17

  ‘Stop following me,’ I said to him. ‘I know you’re that guy from Shellharbour – leave me alone or I’ll get security.’

  ‘It’s not following,’ he said. ‘It’s supervising.’

  ‘Lucy!’ I yelled across the bar.

  He grabbed my arm – I turned back to him in shock. ‘Sophie, Ashley is very concerned—’

  ‘Ashley Ventwood!’ I almost screamed it. ‘Is this a stupid Goth ritual – stalk the new girl and send her totally crazy? Lucy!’ I barked again. ‘Lucy!’ I tried to march away, but he didn’t let go of my arm. ‘Let go!’ I said. ‘Let me go!’

  ‘Don’t make a scene,’ he said in a thick voice. His eyes glowed black and the words echoed in my head. As he stared, the rest of the room seemed further away than it had a second ago.

  ‘No,’ I said, shaking his voice out of my mind. ‘Whatever you’re doing, it won’t work.’

  ‘That’s because you’re getting stronger,’ he said. ‘Don’t you want to know why?’

  ‘I want you to take my hands off me before I show you just how strong I am,’ I said.

  His grip tightened and he pressed his thumb into my armpit. I gasped in pain.

  ‘You’ve got a lot of ability,’ he said, tightening further, ‘but no knowledge. Do you want to resort to arm wrestling, or do you want to talk?’ His hand bit into my arm like a tourniquet. ‘If it’s wrestling,’ he said, letting go, ‘I will win.’

  My arm flopped to my side, paralysed. With my left hand I reached frantically for my pendant.

  The man who called himself Izek lifted his hand in front of my face; he swung my pendant in the space between us like a pendulum. ‘We can play games all night,’ he said.

  My eyes swayed with the necklace. Behind me, I heard Lauren laughing and walking away. I wanted to follow her, but I realised the entire right half of my body couldn’t move.

  ‘Please,’ I said, forcing the words out of half of my mouth, ‘my friend’s … vulnerable. I have to … watch her.’

  ‘Then you understand our duty of care to you.’ He made a show of dropping my pendant into his inside coat pocket.

  The numb half of my mouth started to tingle and spasm. My numb arm and leg quivered back to vague feeling, but beneath the knee my leg was still asleep and I couldn’t move away.

  ‘Sophie, Finders will be gathering for you. They will have seen the fire and the birds on the news and Finders know what the signs mean. Warring tribes unite against the greater enemy – Ashley warned you on Thursday when her vision was just mist, and you should have listened to her, but last night you went and raised a Circle and you didn’t close it. Her vision gets more solid every day that passes.’

  Circle? I realised he was talking about the Tell-All. ‘It was just a sleepover at a girl’s house,’ I mumbled.

  ‘Children lighting firecrackers and letting them explode so high they can be seen from everywhere.’

  ‘If we did something dangerous, why didn’t you stop us?’

  ‘Because, unlike you, I don’t want to be seen.’

  Even frightened, I was incredulous. ‘You just appeared on the stage in a nightclub full of people!’

  ‘An entertainer amongst entertainment is a good camouflage,’ he said in a low voice. ‘A transformation in your school, your home, at the shopping centre? Would we be talking now?’

  ‘Transformation?’

  Izek smiled. Suddenly I felt something soft, like the wing of a moth, flutter against my cheek. On instinct, my left hand flew at the object, snatching it from my face. I uncurled the fingers of my clenched palm and saw it contained a crushed black feather.

  I shrieked, and threw the feather at the floor.

  ‘Ashley’s had her only “warning”, ’ Izek said as I frantically rubbed the touch of the feather off my hand onto my jeans. ‘If the Finders come for her again, they will put her to death, and if they think you are half the threat she ever was, they will do the same to you. You may have the instinct to ground, but your friends do not. They’re like fraying wires today, spilling energy wherever they go. When the Finders come to the town they will smell them out, and the girls will lead them to the one causing fires and storms of crows. For your own sake, you have to start believing what you see,’ he said, adding, ‘For the boy’s sake too – if you care what happens to him.’

  My cheeks burned fiercely at the mention of the boy. ‘You’re just a pair of stupid Goths with judo moves and magic tricks.’

  ‘You know they’re not tricks,’ said Izek. ‘Does your stone talk to you?’ He took my pendant from his pocket and held it against his ear. ‘Yes, I know what she sees,’ he said, as if my pendant were talking to him. ‘I think she knows what she is. She just can’t say the words.’

  ‘Isn’t this rather a lot of trouble to go to just to make me stay away from Brody?’ I hissed.

  Izek sneered. ‘It’s not even about the boy any more. It is about you putting Ashley, and yourself, and your family in danger. Mother bear will walk into a trap to rescue her cubs,’ he explained. ‘The big bear is, of course, the big prize.’

  ‘You haven’t answered my question,’ I said.

  ‘You half-answered it yourself,’ said Izek. ‘Staying away from the boy is the first way of avoiding attention. The second is to close the Circle you opened last night.’

  Belo
w my knee was still completely immobile and I thought I could see Lauren drinking at the bar. ‘I’m not into hocus-pocus,’ I said, distracted.

  Izek laughed – a sound like gargling treacle. ‘Maybe not,’ he said, ‘but I think hocus-pocus may be into you. Reconvene the four, in the same space,’ he said. ‘Wind back the knife. An open Circle’s like an open wound and the Finders can sniff it out. You don’t have much time. Maybe a week, if the other girls are strong. It may not be that long if the Finders are close.’

  ‘If I’m the one attracting a bunch of mysterious weirdos,’ I said, ‘why don’t you and Ashley just get out of town? Why come all the way to Sydney to harass me at a party?’

  ‘Because Ashley is bound to the boy,’ he answered. ‘And I am bound to her. For whatever reason, the threads of our lives have all crossed. I hope it is not for all three to be cut at the same time. If you trust us – and take our instruction – it may not be so.’

  18

  ‘I don’t even know what Finders are!’ I barked, grabbing at my paralysed leg in frustration. Lauren, I’d realised, had disappeared from the room.

  ‘They’re old orders of self-important men, hateful priests and the servants of vicious kings,’ said Izek. ‘Do you want me to show you?’

  But he didn’t wait for an answer.

  Suddenly I couldn’t hear anyone else in the building. Light dimmed – moving bodies lost all features, replaced by walking shadows in a dark light.

  Izek’s face glowed, his eyes burning into mine. Something like a frozen wind swept through his voice, and the room. They’re hunters, killers. Torturers and mutilators, he said, though his lips did not move. Men afraid of knowledge, yet obsessed with secrets. Around us, the shadow forms of the partygoers transformed into silhouettes of men with long hair, beards, boots and collars, storming about the room. I trembled.

  For centuries our guilds had kept the secrets of the stones and plants, seen into the minds of the animals and into the mysteries of human blood. The shadows kicked over the shadows of stools, reached through shadow doors, and amongst their roaring there was the screaming of women.