by Jamie Davis
“Why did you pull me in here like that? Are you insane?”
“You were being followed. I waited until you turned that last corner to pull you off the street. Look.” Danny pointed past the shadows. Garraldi hurried past, his head swiveling around, looking for Winnie, missing her in the alley’s open mouth.
“Come on. Follow me. We’ll lose him first, then we can talk.”
She fell in behind Danny and eyed him from behind. His clothes hung loose on his much lighter frame, the same ones he’d been wearing that night. They were filthy, as if he’d not changed since.
He led her down the alley until it crossed through the city block to emerge on another main thoroughfare. He turned right and headed back up the street until he reached a sketchy-looking hotel. He checked his pockets, counting out a few bills, then led her up the steps, into the lobby.
Danny approached the clerk, standing behind a panel of bullet-proof glass. Winnie tried not to lean against the walls. The place was grimy. The clerk leered at her before turning his attention to Danny.
“Twenty for an hour, thirty for two. You want the room for a whole day, it’s eighty. In advance.”
Danny looked back at Winnie with a half-smile. She thought he was trying to reassure her. “I’ll take two hours, please.”
He counted out two tens and two fives then handed them to the clerk. The man was eating a greasy sandwich. He set it down, wiping his hands on his formerly white tank-top before reaching into the window slot and taking the cash. Turning on his stool, he reached back, pulled down a key tied to a plastic tag, and slid it through the slot to Danny.
“Room 314. Up the stairs over there. Elevator’s broke. Don’t make me come up and fetch you two when time’s up or I’ll charge you double to leave without a beating.”
Danny took the key, then grabbed Winnie’s hand, leading her up the stairs and into their two-hour room. Winnie found herself following along on autopilot. Danny unlocked the door and let her inside.
The room was about as disgusting as one would expect from a two-hour rental. The naked mattress was riddled with stains that Winnie would never want to identify. The space was barren except for a single wooden chair and an old dresser with most of its knobs missing. A peeling door led into a tiny bathroom with a badly-stained toilet and a sink that was more rust than anything. The floor had a cluster of small holes that looked like they may have been put there on purpose, perhaps by a prisoner of circumstance paying to tweak by the hour.
She tried not to cry as Danny locked the door behind them. He slid the key into his pocket, and Winnie wondered what exactly he thought they were going to do in this place. He pulled her into another embrace.
“I’ve been so worried about you,” he said. “I didn’t know if you were dead or alive and they refused to tell me. All I could remember was you strapped to that machine before they dragged me away, unable to help you. When I finally escaped, I only wanted to find you, and make sure you were safe. Now that I have, I never want to let you go.”
“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you, too.”
“Director Kane had me in some sort of private prison. He kept questioning me about you, wanting to know what you were up to. I didn’t tell him anything he could use against you. Promise.”
“I believe you.”
So he’d been a prisoner of the Red Legs. That made sense. Winnie figured his parents couldn’t get him out of this one, despite their connections.
“How did you find me, Danny? What are you doing here?”
“I followed you. I had to tell you that I was alive and let you know how much I’ve missed you.”
Danny reached out for Winnie again, but this time, she pushed him away. She didn’t want to get physical, especially in this dump. Besides, he looked like he might break. His eyes were sunken and his face was pained. Sure, she cared for him, but she wasn’t ready to make love. Not so soon after losing the baby.
Danny fell a step back and winced, putting a hand to his head, sitting on the bed with a loud creak of rusty springs.
“Danny, what’s wrong?”
“It’s these headaches. They keep getting worse. I’ve had them since Kane started his experiments.”
“Experiments?”
“He tortured me for information. But I didn’t tell him anything.” He gasped in a sudden spasm, obvious agony pulsing through.
“I wish I could do something for you.”
Danny gritted his teeth. “You might be able to. Once, when the pain was too much, Kane worked some sort of magic on me that made it disappear for a while. Think you could do something like that?”
“I’m not a mender like Artos, Danny. Sorry.”
Danny groaned and rolled on his side, curling into a ball on the mattress, head touching his knees.
She put a hand on his hip as he writhed on the bed. “Maybe we can get on the road and head to Baltimore. We can go straight to Artos. He’s been looking for you. I know he’ll help if he can.”
“I … don’t think … I’ll … make it … that long.”
Winnie had only just found him, and now this.
If it was a magical attack of some sort, it wasn’t something she understood. She had no idea what was wrong, or how Kane had hurt him. She didn’t even know if there was a magical solution. But as Winnie watched Danny deal with his pain, she knew she had to try something, anything to make it right.
She cast a viewing spell and observed Danny’s head in the magical spectrum. She could see a flicker of something, but couldn’t identify it. Winnie probed toward the flickering pinpoint with a gossamer thread of energy. She touched the thread to the point and Danny sighed, visibly relaxing.
She pulled back and broke contact. Again, he groaned in pain.
God, what was she doing? She doubted her ability to do any good. Winnie didn’t know the first thing about healing, but she’d obviously had a positive effect.
Again, she reached forward, thickened the thread. And again, Danny seemed to relax. She pushed forward, trying to tie the thread around the flickering pinpoint of magical light.
A surge of euphoria cascaded through her body; the spell embedded in Danny’s mind was Sable for sure.
She inhaled the addictive rush. Her skin bristled with the weave of magic she reflexively sent into Danny. He visibly relaxed as her pleasure centers exploded. She hadn’t crafted any Sable magic for so long … Winnie had forgotten how much she missed it, how much she needed it. It was easy to continue; she was feeding her need. She tied one thread into another, until she’d woven a complex net of orange-yellow strands around the flickering speck in Danny’s brain.
He was smiling, staring up at Winnie with pure affection. She’d done it — healed his pain and probably whatever Kane had done. She released the threads, feeling the sorrow come as energy and pleasure faded. Sagging back until she sat at the foot of the filthy bed, Winnie looked at Danny reclining at the other end. Beads of sweat still showed on his forehead but his expression promised that the pain was gone.
“How do you feel?”
“That’s the first time I’ve been without pain since Kane started working on me. Thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Danny took Winnie’s hand and pulled her towards him. She leaned over him and kissed him, but when his hands roamed up her torso and made their way under her shirt, she pulled back and gripped him by the wrists.
“No. I’m not ready for that. It’s too soon after … ”
Danny looked at her, puzzled. Then he said, “After the baby.”
Winnie nodded, then stood and crossed the room to look out the grimy window. She turned back to Danny. “Did you bring me here to get me into bed?”
“We had to get off the street, and I figured we could use some rest. That’s all. I swear.”
Winnie looked at Danny, trying to judge his intentions. She wanted to believe him, but this was a strange place to hide. “How’s your headache?”
Danny put a hand to his head an
d smiled. “Like it was never hurting at all. I didn’t know you could do that, but I’m glad that you tried.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing. There’s the edge of a spell I can barely see in your head. Kane did something, but I don’t know what. I couldn’t even tell what it does. Still, I was able to contain it with a sort of magical bandage. I bound the threads like I do with charms to make them last. I think it will last awhile, at least as long as it takes to get you some professional help.”
“No.” Danny’s face grew stern. “You’re the only one I want messing around in my mind. Promise me that if it comes back, you’ll fix it again.”
“I didn’t fix anything. It’s still there. I only managed to cover it up. You need someone to take whatever it is out of there.”
“I don’t care. After I had Kane in there, I can’t have anyone I don’t trust poking around inside my head. I only trust you. Promise that you’ll help me if it happens again.”
Winnie considered the strange surge and her connection to Sable magic. She already wanted to reach out and touch it again. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
Danny’s smile returned. But Winnie didn’t go back and sit by him on the bed, not wanting him to get the wrong message.
“So, we wait here for a while, then we’ll head back to the city and catch a train to Baltimore. Is that the plan? I don’t have much money. The men who grabbed me took my purse.”
Danny nodded. “I have some cash. Definitely enough to get us both to Baltimore safely. I want to make sure we leave here and go straight to the train station without anyone following you.”
“Great. I wasn’t even sure I had enough for the train ride.”
“So, what did those guys want you for, anyway?”
“To poach me for their charm running operations in New Amsterdam. They’re taking over Artos’s Baltimore operations and wanted to cherry-pick his best people. I need to tell Artos what’s going on, and figure out why they think I can stop the storms and other disasters.”
“You heard about Boston?”
“A little. What did you hear?”
Danny filled her in. He’d watched a news report while looking for her and knew about the massive sinkholes that had opened to swallow entire neighborhoods of the city. Winnie listened as he described what the rescue crews had discovered when they responded from nearby cities, and she wondered why Cleaver thought she could stop anything on that scale.
Winnie didn’t know of any chanter strong enough to channel that much magic at one time, no matter who they were.
It surely wouldn’t be her.
CHAPTER 15
After two tense hours in the rented room, Danny went outside to make sure that none of Cleaver’s goons were hanging around. She wondered why Cleaver had let her go and then had Garraldi follow her anyway. Danny thought it might have been to make sure she made it safely back to the train station. She asked why he thought that as they started downtown.
“Makes sense if what you said about his foresight is true,” he said. “You pissed him off when you refused his offer, but his vision is his proof that you’re supposed to work together. He wants to make sure you survive long enough to see it happen.”
“’Prophecy’s daughter’ should get a ride to the station.”
“Sounds like he wants to teach you a lesson. Besides, you wouldn’t have run into me. I was on foot. If you’d driven back to the train station, I wouldn’t have found you.”
Their fingers almost brushed each other. She wished that they had. A part of her craved him, like all of her craved the way she felt when tapping into Sable. She wanted them to connect, in every way. But she needed space.
Danny’s route took them by a park. A family played with a baby, who was laughing in her swing. Could that have been them, if not for their loss? She hadn’t even had the chance to tell him. He’d only found out when she was connected to the Harvester and it was ripping the life force from her. That was no proper way to find out that your girlfriend was pregnant. Or that she no longer was, in their case.
They walked forever with little conversation. She thought plenty. They were together and yet they weren’t, standing with a ten-thousand-pound weight between them. It ached to be near him. It was agony not to be closer.
She thought about Cleaver and what he had said, how similar it was to what Artos had hinted at. Something had happened when she took on the Harvester. Artos knew it. So did Yorke. Winnie wasn’t sure.
Mostly, she felt the same. There were slight changes in how she saw the flows when casting. Her control of fine detail had clearly improved. Danny’s missing headache was proof. It was like she had once woven burlap and now crafted lace.
That ability didn’t give her the power to affect the weather, though, no matter what Cleaver Yorke had imagined. The problem was proving that to him, and Artos, who also had ulterior motives. The men were vying for her obvious skills, and powers that she didn’t have. Soon, they would realize that they’d overestimated her value. Then Winnie would be just another charm runner again.
They reached the station’s east entrance. The building was giant and felt larger inside, sprawling as they descended into the transportation hub’s bowels. Danny told her to wait away from the ticketing area, in case Garraldi or another of Cleaver’s men was around. He took her spare cash, added to his, and bought a pair of tickets on the last train to Baltimore. It left in a half hour — enough time to trade their few remaining bills for something to eat.
They sat on a bench in the corner, eating hot dogs and sharing a bag of chips. The food settled her stomach, despite the grease. She grew queasy when Danny left to buy the tickets, but the feeling faded once he was back by her side. Hopefully, her nausea was just hunger, because damned if it was the flu, or something worse.
The train arrived in the station. Danny searched the platform for signs of Cleaver’s guys before he signaled Winnie to follow him onto one of the passenger cars. He boarded first. The second he was out of her sight, Winnie felt queasy again. She was one wrong move from vomiting.
But then it passed and she boarded the train. Danny was waiting.
He held a seat and they sat by the window.
Winnie smiled at him, then turned to the view. They were talked out. Nothing left to say. Winnie was afraid that their next conversation might not be as friendly as their earlier ones. Tension between them was fine porcelain about to be dropped.
———
They arrived in Baltimore’s Central Station a few hours later. It was almost midnight. They stood on the sidewalk outside the station in silence.
Winnie didn’t know what to say. She was thankful for Danny’s help getting her back to Baltimore, but now that she was home, she wanted to check on her mother. She was still recuperating and Winnie hated leaving her unattended so long.
Then she had to tell Artos what had happened with Cleaver, explain how she’d been unable to finish her run. Those errands left little room for Danny. She had to let him know that.
“I need to check on Mom. What about you?”
“Guess I’ll find some place to hole up for a while until the Red Legs stop looking for me. I can’t go home.”
“I’m sure they’d look for you at my place.”
“True.” Danny shifted his weight, kicked a pebble on the sidewalk. It skittered across the lot into the darkness. He muttered something else that she couldn’t hear, then reached for her hand. “Look, I’ll be fine. I’ve got a few friends who will put me up for a while. Dad has a work apartment downtown for when he has to work late. I know where he hides the key. I’ll get a place to hide out for now and let you know when I’m around to catch up.”
“Sounds good,” Winnie lied.
She needed him closer.
He nodded. Her hand slipped from his. She wanted to ask him to come back, but she wouldn’t cave in. She drew a deep breath and smiled. Then she let him walk away, turn the corner, and disappear.
The dizzying, curious joy she’d felt
since healing him circled the drain; in its place, the bubbling nausea stained her insides.
The nausea refused to leave.
So, with something dying inside her, Winnie walked to the nearest bus stop and waited for her ride home.
CHAPTER 16
Tris checked her watch, hurrying to reach the intersection so she could cross with the light. The dust storm threw orange grit everywhere, making her way to work difficult if not impossible. It was worrying how bad it was getting.
The dust storms seemed to coincide with failures in the city’s infrastructure. Tris had a nagging feeling that she was missing something. She’d barely managed to get her job back, even though it was painfully obvious that she was desperately needed, and had shifted her schedule to work in several different downtown buildings, monitoring the powerful magic that worked with the building’s tech and electrical systems to keep everything running.
In the past, it had often been a matter of observing energy in the magical spectrum to make sure the flows were unbroken and headed where they were supposed to go. She’d been spending a lot of time in the past few weeks working in the same building on a major repair project when the internal systems started going haywire.
Garbage disposals were backing up and elevators were moving too fast, or too slow, or not at all. At first, Tris figured it was isolated to her building. Things sometimes required adjustment and magical realignment. But with the storms, Tris considered the other buildings in the city’s center, and the other downtown structures, all reliant on magic to make them work.
That was why she’d changed her schedule, giving herself the chance to see about three different structures each day. But her discoveries weren’t good. The issues she noticed in each location were an indication that the magical energies feeding the city’s infrastructure were failing at an ever-increasing rate.
The building ahead was the control center for the primary pumps that sent drinking water throughout the city. This was her second stop today. She’d already visited the sewage treatment station. Trouble there had led Tris here. Her concerns were validated at every new location. She dreaded what might happen if the city’s water supply became affected by changes in the magic.