by Cat Adams
He shrugged noncommitally. “I’ve no idea. But I’ll keep it mum if you wish. Though I think you’re a bit crackers to not take advantage of it. You could have your heart’s desire, just for the askin.”
“The only desire I have right now is waking up tomorrow, safe in my bed. Is Baba okay? Has she been healed?” She realized she was twisting her fingers nervously, and shook them to make herself stop. Part of it might have been that Alexy’s other comment had finally sunk home. They’d taken Tal’s focus away because he couldn’t control his new power. It was a side effect that had never occurred to her. He’d spent most of the day working with both focus gloves and was damned glad she hadn’t gotten the extra option of the smoke detector with the security system. As it was, he’d been concentrating so hard he hadn’t noticed the several small fires he’d started in various places, and she had to take to keeping a bucket of dirt from the backyard handy. No way was she going to spray a fire extinguisher around the house or drown the expensive antiques until she had a deed in her hot little hand.
Alexy nodded but his face didn’t light up with relief which dragged her attention back to him. His expression went blankly serious, and Tal reached around her to pull her close. Mila let him—drew on his strength to hear the news. “She’s not out of the woods, not by any means. She’s stable, because the physical damage was quite easy to repair. But some of the curses they laid on her were bloody complicated. The healers fear that even a simple counterspell will set off something else, like triggering a bomb in a crowded market. It might be that Vegre wanted you to find her. We just don’t know yet.”
That made her think. “It’s possible. I didn’t get that impression from Sela just now, but I suppose she might not know the entire plan, either. Once a betrayer, always one, so Vegre might be keeping her out of the whole plan.”
That made Alexy look around with an angry expression. “You’ve seen Sela, then? Where is that traitorous witch?”
Mila pointed up to the balcony. “You just missed her. And she knows you’re here. Spotting you is what made her bolt.”
Alexy snorted and clenched his fists. “She should run. She knows I’d bury her alive and leave her there.”
Tal was tapping her on the shoulder with the hand around her. She looked up at him, but he was staring off into space, which didn’t surprise her. She’d noticed that habit today while they were making plans—deciding who would do what. She nudged him with her hip. “What are you thinking?”
He jumped slightly and blinked. “Hmm? Oh, um … I just tried to flash Kris and couldn’t reach her from this end, either. I tried you, too, Alexy. You didn’t get any tingle?”
Now Alexy’s brow was furrowing. “No, and that is odd. Even if the connection is fuzzy, I should get something. He turned his arm palm side up and stared at it. Then he shook his head.”And now I can’t reach Kris, either. But the signal was just fine outside.”
It actually made Tal smile. No, more … grin. “Only one thing I know that blocks mark flashing.”
Alexy clapped Tal on the shoulder, also grinning. “Squelk. He’s got squelk around here somewhere. That must be how he’s planning to divert the magma.”
She must have looked as confused as she felt, because Tal turned to her, his face animated. “Sometimes when you alter nature with magic, odd things happen. One of those things is squelk. They’re big and tame, like cattle, except during rut. Then they chatter to attract each other, so high pitched our ears can’t hear it. But the magic we use to contact others through our marks is affected.”
Alexy nodded, tapping his hand on his leg. “And they chatter constantly, like echolocation.”
“Okay,” she said with a shrug. “So how does that help us? He couldn’t have them hidden in the hotel, cattle or not. They’re just too big. So how will knowing change anything?”
Alexy winked. “Alchemy, luv. What magic created, magic can turn. See, I worked a digging crew in my … misspent youth.”
“Community service, you’d call it here,” Tal whispered, while Alexy coughed and looked away.
“I prefer service to the crown. Anyway, I got familiar with how the squelk work and why dirtdogs had to be assigned to the crews.”
Tal removed his arm from around her shoulder and moved to sit down on the slatted wooden bench, still keeping his voice down because of the people walking by. “Squelk can dig through anything, but won’t go near some things. One of those things is coal. Whether it’s the taste, or the smell, or the feeling under their claws—nobody really knows. Dirtdogs have to either swing the squelk around the coal bands or use alchemy to turn the coal into something else.”
Now she had the idea! “And Denver used to be a swamp in prehistoric days. I’ll bet there’s coal around here somewhere.”
Alexy lifted his foot onto the bench and rested a hand on it. “I’ll be making the coal, luv. No need to find it.”
Then a thought occurred to her and her shoulders dropped a bit. “But coal burns. It might stop the squelk, but it wouldn’t stop the magma. It’d eat right through it.”
Alexy’s head nodded slowly, but he didn’t seem bothered by the idea. “Eventually, yes. But I can make the coal hard enough that it’ll be slow. It might take days, maybe even weeks to get here. Now, there’ll be some damage up here, some pavement cracking as the ground shifts, but nothing drastic. If geologists find the coal at all, it’ll only make them scratch their heads that they didn’t notice it before. But there’s plenty around here already, so it won’t be really noteworthy.” She could almost see the gears turning in his head. “I’ll need to do some probing in the basement—see if I can get to all the exterior walls to try to sense which direction they’re coming from. They could still be miles away, or right underneath. But I can’t craft the coal without some idea or I’ll wind up making the whole area settle a foot or more.”
Tal let out a slow breath and then slapped the back of his hand against Alexy’s calf. “And don’t forget that this is Vegre’s homestead. You’ll be fighting to get through that.”
“Hotnestead?” The word had a particular meaning in real estate law. but she didn’t know what it had to do with magic.
“Magic’s always more powerful in your own home.” Tal rose back to his feet, apparently getting ready to end this session. “Just like Jason could make Sybil leave his house. This hotel is Vegre’s house, which makes him most powerful here.”
She was trying to remember that particular moment. Mostly, she’d been concentrating on making sure Sybil didn’t attack any of them. “So Jason invoked some sort of special magic to make himself more powerful? Can Vegre do that. too?”
“He won’t need to invoke it, luv.” Alexy had likewise gotten ready to move and was smoothing his slacks. tugging them back into place. “So long as others acknowledge his right of ownership, there’s no need.”
Tal nodded. “Jason had to invoke it because he wasn’t the owner of the property … just a resident. You told me Vegre wormed his way in as heir so he could own this place legitimately. Once the state acknowledged his ownership, his homestead magic was secure.”
That brought back the question in her mind. “But why this hotel?” Again, it was rhetorical, but there had to be an answer. She looked up and around the room. There was no denying the beauty, from the waterfall to the stone walls and the stunning stained-glass windows. She stared at the small round window in the wall that matched the massive dome over the lobby. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and she left Tal and Alexy to walk across the entry. She moved aside a couch a few inches so she could squeeze herself right next to the wall. The men followed, but she wasn’t even sure yet what she was seeing. It was a pretty mix of typical stained-glass colors, sort of in an abstract design. It wasn’t until she actually looked at the pieces of glass, rather than the entire window that her heart started pounding and a gasp escaped her. In that moment, a thousand tiny pieces fit together in her head, shards of information that also formed a picture. “I’ve got it
! I know why he’s here, instead of England. I know what he’s planning!”
Tal opened his mouth and she was certain he’d have a dozen questions. But she didn’t want to lose her train of thought so she held up her hands and waved them quickly. “Shh, shh, shh. Let me talk or I’ll lose this.”
They both looked at each other for a moment, and shrugged. They sat down on the couch and simultaneously waved her to a chair. But she couldn’t sit. This was too exciting, and she began to pace. “He followed the windows here.” They both stared up at the little round opening of colored glass, trying to see whatever it was she was seeing. “The concierge said the stained-glass dome was made by the finest English craftsmen. I wondered at the time if it was really made by crafters, because the colors are so very similar to the farbas for pysanky. But that didn’t make any sense until I started thinking in terms of the glass, rather than the picture. Look at each individual shard. Stained-glass windows are always made from odd-shaped glass. That’s part of the charm. But these bits are in particular shapes. Look at this one.” She reached up to point, but she was too short. She looked around and pulled one of the long bird of paradise blooms from the table in front of her to use as a pointer. “Why put this bit here? It’s shaped like a butterfly wing. It doesn’t match the diamonds and triangles around it. Sure, it could be abstract, but it also could be a completely different picture, just mixed up like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Tal was struggling to understand. His frown wasn’t from anger, but from confusion. “But he couldn’t manipulate it back to the original picture with magic. I already told you we can’t do that with magic.”
“See, but with pysanky the order doesn’t matter that much. Eggshells get broken. They’re useless for healing after they break, but the pieces are still valuable. My mom always used to bury the broken shells around the house foundation as protection from evil. Like you said, it’s intent. Once the picture is made, it’s made. Forever. And what happens when you dedicate roadways, sidewalks, and easements on a triangular lot?”
Alexy just shrugged and leaned back against the cushions. “I’m afraid you’ve lost me, luv.” Even Tal was shaking his head, unable to make the logic leap.
Instead of explaining it, she licked her finger and smeared spit on the smoked-glass coffee table. Once the triangle that the hotel sat on was drawn, she narrowed the lot by where the walkways and roads were. “Dedications in real estate mean you’re deeding bits of the land to the city for the public good. Alleys to get delivery trucks in, sidewalks for patrons, roads for drivers. So the owner doesn’t own them anymore. No more homestead on those bits. What does the lot look like now?”
It was Tal who said it first, in a voice filled with both awe and fear. “It’s an egg. Blessed Tree, this entire property is egg-shaped!”
She slapped her palm against the tabletop, startling them both. “That’s why he’s doing it here. The rune designs became part of this egg when they were installed, and they circle the building. The skylight is just part of it, and I haven’t ever looked at all the smaller windows as a whole, to see if there’s a larger picture made by them.” Every single bit of evidence was flowing into her head, attaching like they were suddenly magnetized. “Remember what Dareen said? He wants to harness the sun to blackmail the world. That would require a massive amount of power, and a pysanky this size, filled by a hundred smaller pysanky, would dwarf the power of the Tree. And controlled by him through homestead magic, he could do it.”
The two men were trying to wrap their heads around it, blinking repeatedly and staring at her with slack jaws. It was when Tal finally spoke that her balloon hissed and dropped a little. “But then why the squelk and the magma? Why destroy the hotel he worked so hard to get?”
She kicked her toe against the leg of the table aimlessly and crossed her arms. “Well, I haven’t worked out everything yet. I also haven’t figured out why now? If Vegre really has been coming and going for years, why did he pick tonight? There’s so many people out and about celebrating tonight. I’d think that would make it much harder to plan everything so it goes smoothly. Or is he anticipating the chaos? Maybe that’s the thing he needs—lots of confusion so nobody notices anything until it’s too late. Then he can start the New Year with a bang.”
Something about what she said made both Tal and Alexy sit up straighter. Alexy raised one finger in the air, but then lowered it and shook his head in tiny movements, as though whatever he was thinking was such a preposterous idea that it was too much to actually say. But Tal was willing to say it. “The Time of Cessation.”
Unfortunately, Mila had no clue what that meant. She rolled her hand, hoping one of them would provide an explanation. Alexy shook his head and tried to smile, but it faltered more than once before he gave up. “Just a myth. Claptrap to scare the poppets—a way for the kings to enforce the New Year’s curfew.”
“I’ve thought that about a lot of things lately, Alexy. But it’s mentioned too often not to at least consider it.” He looked at Mila. “Remember what I just said about homestead magic? It’s old magic—based on generally accepted belief of a thing.” She nodded and he continued. “Well, the Time of Cessation is older still … goes back to pagan times, and claims that there’s some sort of mystical clock in time and space that resets itself each year. It used to be during the celebration of Samhain in the old Celtic calendar, what’s currently celebrated as Halloween. But when most of the world adopted the Gregorian calendar, the last day of the year moved to December thirty-first.”
Alexy nodded. “The old myth claims that on the stoke of midnight on the last day of the year, reality ceases … just for a split second. Anything that happens during that moment becomes the new reality when the next year begins. If enough people believe that the old is gone, and the new begins, it does and they’ll never know the difference—won’t even remember the old world.”
She’d say it was ridiculous, but nothing else made sense. “But wouldn’t the entire world have to believe it about that particular thing? Wouldn’t the world have to acknowledge Vegre’s plan knowingly?”
Tal’s face went through a dozen emotions. “I just don’t know. But I can imagine that Vegre would try to use any advantage he could. If it worked, it would be just that much less work to take over. But it still doesn’t explain why he’d make a volcano in downtown Denver.”
“Maybe there’s some other way to fill a pysanka? I didn’t read all the scrolls at Viktor’s and Vegre was there. Maybe there’s something else going on—some sort of backup plan?”
Alexy nodded, his eyes still on the smeary drawing on the table. “It’s a pretty theory, luv, and I’ll give you marks for thinking of it.” He raised his head to look at her. “But the squelks are something that’s easily proved, where this … it’ll be something I’ll have to believe when I see.” He used the cuff of his jacket to clean off the spit art. “That’s not saying I won’t watch for signs. If I see an egg, I’ll destroy it. Every one that’s destroyed is one less to be used. But for now, I’m going to cloak myself and head for the basement, or a lower point if there is one. If I sense any squelk, I’ll Hash—” He paused and sighed. “I’ll find a way to get word to you. For now, though, I think you should find a way to contact Kris to let her know what’s going on. And Mila needs to keep tabs on Vegre and his motley crew and see if she can find any reason why it has to be tonight. I don’t suppose he’s fool enough to leave a written plan around, but maybe there’s something to be found.”
She nodded, and so did Tal. It wasn’t the best plan, as plans go, but at least it was movement forward. They just needed to find some way to score before the offense got back on the field.
“Mila!” She turned sharply to her name and saw Mike Callendar waving near the staircase. As he moved closer, he continued to talk. “They sent me to come find you. We’re about to go into the main room.”
“Mike? I thought you were headed to Canada on your goose chase … hunt.”
He gave a rueful
laugh. “Missed my flight. I’m heading up day after tomorrow to join them late. So, tonight, I’m here at the pleasure of the firm, and we need to get going.”
She looked at her wrist only to remember she hadn’t worn a watch. “Is it eight o’clock already?”
Tal nodded, his eyes on the watch under his sleeve. “Very nearly.” He stood smoothly and stepped around the coffee table before offering his arm. “Shall we?”
Alexy leaned back as Mike stepped close to her, just a passing acquaintance chatting with two strangers. “Nice meeting you both. Have a happy New Year.”
Tal nodded and turned his head as they started to walk away. “Good luck with your project.”
“Never a need to worry about me. You just take care and keep that pretty girl safe.”
Tal closed his eyes and set his jaw before nodding and tightening his grip on her arm. “I’ll take care of her. You can wager on it.”
Mike looked at the interaction curiously, but didn’t comment beyond raising his brows her way. She just rolled her eyes at him and shook her head as if to say, Men.
That made Mike chuckle and he offered his arm so that she was sandwiched between them. He leaned closer. “Came to get you because I wanted to be the first to tell you the good news. The judge denied the motion and the clerk says there’s a good chance the judge will sign the order finalizing the probate before the end of the day. He starts a three-week vacation on Monday, so he’s burning the midnight oil tonight, clearing off his desk.” He looked at her with a note of caution. “But it’s just rumor at this point, so keep your fingers crossed.”
It shouldn’t make her so ridiculously happy, but it did. Suddenly she knew everything was going to be okay. Baba would get better, Vegre would be stopped, and Tal—he could come live in her house with her. Don’t get the cart ahead of the horse, girl, said her Candy voice, but she shooed it away. I get to have my moment, even if it gets stomped on later.
“Thanks for telling me, Mike. I’d love to start the new year with the house in my name. Lots of things to do that I’ve been putting off.”