The Gray Tower Trilogy: Books 1-3
Page 60
His eyes narrowed. “You’re a little fair-skinned for a gypsy.” He stepped in closer and removed my fedora. My hair fell about my shoulders, and when he saw the length and color, he looked disappointed. He was still searching for a woman with long, dark hair. “Will you give me a tarot reading, witch? In private?”
No way, buddy. Besides being one of the last people on earth I should be alone with, he seemed like the type of guy who’d have rope, duct tape, and knives tucked away in his car. “I don’t think my sweetheart would like that. He’s waiting for me.”
As if my words called to him like an alarm, Dani Kasza opened the door to the pub and stepped into the cool night air. He dressed as if he really were courting me, with his expensive blue shirt and black pants, and his wavy black hair neatly brushed into a side part. Klaus said nothing, but raised an eyebrow, as if telling me there was more to what I had told him.
Dani saw me and extended his hand toward me. “There you are, my angel. Come inside.”
I took his hand with a grateful sigh. I stepped into the pub, clutching his arm. “Thanks, Dani.”
“Was that man harassing you?” he asked in a dark tone. Klaus remained outside, thank goodness.
I whispered in Dani’s ear. “Don’t confront him. He’s a warlock.”
Dani’s forehead creased. “I know. He’s been standing out there for the last hour, waiting around for Jakab and his brother. Brande and I have been observing him. ”
The pub looked moderately busy with the bar stools all occupied and half the tables taken. Cigar smoke filled the cozy eating area and the lights were dimmed. The barkeep had the radio turned on, but seemed to be listening to news reports about the war rather than any music. The patrons didn’t seem to care, as they were lost in drink, conversation, or canoodling with their dates.
Dani and I were supposed to be one of these couples, and, in keeping with his role, he escorted me to a booth where he had a martini waiting for me. It would’ve raised eyebrows and questions if a prominent businessman like Dani had been meeting us at our humble apartment building on the other side of town. Dressing up as anything other than the “Black Witch” and meeting him for a date at The Coven barely afforded us a glance. Before I slid into my side of the booth, he smiled and pressed his lips against my cheek.
“I said no kissing.” Brande’s voice carried over from the booth next to ours. His back was turned to us, and to others it looked as if Dani and I were enjoying an intimate dinner and Brande was just another patron who happened to be sitting nearby.
I sat on the right side of our booth, the side closest to Brande’s, so that he and I were back-to-back. Dani took the other side of the table and faced me. “Sorry, old friend. I have to put on a convincing show, don’t I?”
I smiled and signaled to Dani to keep an eye on the entrance--just in case Klaus decided to walk through. “How long have you known Brande?”
He stroked his goatee. “Almost our entire lives, believe it or not. I helped Brande pack when he went off to the Gray Tower.”
“As I recall it,” Brande’s deep voice rumbled behind me, “you took me out to celebrate, and I ended up missing my ride and suffering a hangover.”
Dani shrugged and smiled. “For some reason, I remember it differently. But tell me--” he grabbed my hands and held them between his. “Where did you find this woman, and does she have a sister?”
“Let’s get to work,” Brande said.
Dani grabbed his beer and took a swig. He glanced toward the entrance again. “Everything’s arranged and paid off. You’ll be leaving two nights from now, and will arrive at an inn called Mala Kuca, in Zagreb. The manager there will take care of all your needs.”
“And what about security at the border?” I asked.
“Follow the map I slipped Brande. As long as you cross the border into Croatia at the point I designated, then you’ll have no trouble.”
“Thank you, Dani.” Brande said.
“You’re welcome, brother.” Dani’s gaze swept the room and settled on the pub entrance again.
Brande cleared his throat. “How are things with you, Isabella? And what happened to your hair?”
I suddenly became self-conscious again. “What? You don’t like it?”
“I like it...and I like your dress,” he said in a tone that stirred me. “Why the change in appearance?”
I let out a sigh. “The boys and I got into a scuffle earlier, with that warlock standing outside.”
I didn’t see his reaction, but I could feel the concern mixed with anger in the vibrato of his voice. “Is he still out there?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him.
“What happened earlier?”
I sipped my martini. “Well, you know the old woman who owns the shop where the tarot parlor is? She came crying to Mehara and me, claiming Gestapo agents had hauled the librarian, Izsak away. One of those agents is that warlock standing outside. I don’t know where his partner is.”
Brande’s voice rumbled. “Is Izsak a wizard? Otherwise, it was dangerous for you to get involved.”
I nodded, pretending to stare affectionately into Dani’s eyes. “Yeah, but the one thing this guy had going for him was that he could read and interpret ancient Turkish texts--and he had a copy of the missing Mehmed VI page, just like the one I had lost at the Gray Tower.”
“There’s another copy of the text? Where is it?”
“Jakab stole it, but we decided to spring Izsak from jail before the warlocks killed him. Sadik performed a deflection spell, and he and Cliff were supposed to walk in disguised as Klaus and Dierk. I was supposed to be just another agent. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, and we had to split up. Mehara went to find Cliff and Sadik, but I feel like such a heel for getting separated from them.”
“If it puts you at ease,” Brande said, “they’ve proven themselves several times when they went out with me, rescuing those captive wizards from Jakab’s ship. They even instructed the wizards to head to Switzerland and join with other Gray Tower wizards. I’m proud of them.”
My lips curved into a smile. That didn’t completely erase my worry, but it did make me feel better. “I could kiss you right now, Brande.”
A clatter and crash nearby grabbed my attention. The waitress, a willowy young blonde, had dropped some plates and bowls from her tray and yelped. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”
Brande rose from his seat and knelt to assist her in picking up the broken pieces. “I’m very sorry about that,” she repeated.
“Don’t worry about it,” Brande said in a friendly tone.
She pulled a long napkin from her apron. “Oh...look, I got fõzelék on you.”
I turned and glanced at them. I didn’t like the way she was rubbing his arm with that napkin. I turned my gaze to Dani and mouthed the words, “What the hell is fõzelék?”
Dani snorted a laugh and wore an amused expression. “It’s a vegetable stew. It’s delicious, I think you’d like it.”
“I can bring you a drink, on the house,” the girl told Brande. I glanced at her again, just in time to see her stare at him the way most women did. Brande had a chiseled face, piercing gray eyes, and a tall muscular build.
“Thank you...Julianna.”
He knew her name? Okay, never mind the fact that she was wearing a nametag, but still! I turned back toward Dani with widened eyes. He just laughed even more. When Brande returned to his seat, I said in a harsh whisper, “You need to watch out for people dropping stuff on you. It’s just plain bad service if you ask me. Now, let’s get back to work.”
“Uh...of course,” he said in a bewildered tone.
I held Dani’s hands and gazed at him, all the while addressing Brande. “A police officer at the station told me that there are more refugees from the Gray Tower, on the other side of the river. The police captain thinks he can garner the Nazis’ favor by grabbing the wizards and handing them over.”
“Then we need to warn those wizards,” Brande said.
The officer had also believed I was “Agent Vahr” when I walked in with Cliff and Sadik, who wore the illusory appearance of Klaus and Dierk. It took all of my strength not to punch the officer in the face for the way he talked about the wizards. I may have had my own issues with some people from the Gray Tower, but the institution had been training wizards since the Middle Ages. When Hitler made an alliance with Octavian and his warlocks, the world called on the Gray Tower, the Order of Wizards, to help fight back.
Dani frowned. “That warlock from outside just came into the pub.”
My jaw tightened when Klaus approached and stood right in front of my booth. “Excuse me,” he said, fondling my fedora. “You left your hat outside.”
I took it from him and set it on the table. “Goodbye.”
He ignored my obvious attempt to send him away. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, for a tarot reading.” Again, his voice rang clearly through the black half-mask. I wondered how much of his face I had destroyed.
Brande turned toward Klaus and sized him up. “She’ll not see you tomorrow or any other day.”
I quickly turned to Dani with a silent plea, begging him to say or do something before Brande overreacted.
“Excuse me,” Dani said to Klaus, “we’d like to enjoy our dinner alone now.”
“You ought to leave now,” Brande said, his gaze meeting Klaus’s in a silent challenge.
Klaus glared at him. “Who are you? Do you know her?” His gaze went from Brande to Dani and me. “It seems you’re acting more like her sweetheart than that man is.”
I eyed Dani again and said through clenched teeth, “Get him out of here.”
Though I couldn’t see Klaus’s deformed mouth, I was pretty sure he was smiling. He had found the right bait. He reached out sliding his fingers through my hair, and I pulled away. He turned to Brande. “I have unfinished business with her, and from the way she’s dressed...I assure you, I look forward to closing the deal.”
Brande flew out of his seat, and the next crash I heard sure as heck wasn’t a bowl of fõzelék. Patrons scrambled to the far corners of the pub to get out of their way. Brande smashed his fist into Klaus’s face and they both knocked over tables. I buried my face in my hands and groaned. My cover as the “Black Witch” was no longer any good. Not only would Klaus return to harass me, but he had also caught me in a lie, which meant that now he’d try and find out why. The only thing missing was for me to throw on a black wig and ask Klaus if I looked familiar.
Dani placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “I’ll...try to calm him down.”
I raised my head and saw Klaus blast Brande through the front doorway with a gust of wind. “Hurry, Dani.”
I watched him take off through the doorway, and, despite all eyes being on me, I calmly put my fedora back on. I slipped out of my booth and went toward the exit. I opened the front door just in time to see Brande and Klaus parrying each other’s blows. Klaus landed a strike on Brande’s shoulder and he stumbled backward. He shielded himself from a Putrefaction spell that Klaus sent toward his face. Brande reciprocated with a blast of wind that sent the warlock flying head first into a parked car, knocking him unconscious. Dani rushed toward Brande just as blares from police sirens screeched from down the street.
“We need to leave. Remember, we need to help the wizards.” He grabbed Brande’s arm, and I followed them to Dani’s car.
We jumped in and sped off, just before the first police car arrived. Considering that the police captain wanted to capture wizards, we left the area quickly.
47
“What the hell was that? What did you think you were doing?” I finally broke my silence in the backseat of Dani’s car and shot Brande an accusatory glance. He had made a serious misstep.
Brande heaved a sigh and reached for me, but I scooted away and crossed my arms. He looked a little hurt at the slight, but this wasn’t about feelings, this was about the task we had to accomplish. “I’m sorry, Isabella. It’s just that...”
“What? You let your emotions get in the way? You played right into that guy’s hands, and now look what happened.”
He frowned. “It was a mistake...but, I did it for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “How romantic. Now both Mehara and my covers are useless, and we have two days left to get that missing page from Jakab. You need to be calm and collected--like how you usually are. What happened to the Brande I know?”
Dani drove, peering at us every few seconds from the rearview mirror. “Don’t be too hard on him, Isabella.”
I kicked the back of the driver seat. “Stay out of this!”
Brande spoke up. “When the Tower was destroyed...I had to pass over the dead bodies of some of my closest friends and mentors. I promised myself that I would never let that happen to you.”
“And I adore you for that. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you either, but when you’re on a mission...the mission is the first priority. I do this for a living, I know how this goes.”
“So this...” he gestured toward me and then himself, “is not a priority?”
Dani cleared his throat. “Technically, she said...”
“Shut up, Dani,” Brande said.
“And while we’re getting our grievances out in the open,” I continued, “can you please stop being so overbearing?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m overbearing?”
Dani held out his right hand and fluttered his fingers. “Just a little.”
“Shut up, Dani!” Brande and I said in unison.
Brande gazed at me. “It might seem that way to you, but...you belong to me, and--”
“Hey, last time I checked, we only kissed.” I held out my left hand. “And there isn’t a ring on this finger. So who, exactly, do I belong to?”
My arm dropped to my side and I inhaled a sharp breath. Brande lowered his gaze. He knew about the engagement ring Ken Aspen had given me and seemed to understand why I held onto the ring for so long. Ken wanted to protect me too, but he ended up dead. Sometimes we held on to things from our past, not because we couldn’t escape them, but because we needed a firm reminder of what we’ve been through. Although Brande expressed sympathy at this, I was certain part of him had doubts, or wondered if I compared him to Ken. The two of them couldn’t be any more different.
“You’re right,” Brande said. “We need to focus on work.” He stared straight ahead.
Dani slowed the car and then came to a full stop. “Before you both tell me to shut up, I just wanted to inform you that there’s a group of people with weapons blocking our path.”
With our magical shields erected and spells ready in our minds, Brande and I stepped out of the car as soon as Dani parked it. We had thought they were robbers at first, but it became clear that each and every person standing around us was a wizard--and they could sense the same from Brande and me. These were the refugees the police captain had planned to capture. Although they had discarded any article of clothing that would reveal they were from the Gray Tower, I could sense traces of magic emanating from them. They didn’t have connections in this area like Brande did, but they were at least smart enough to blend in with poor immigrants and Czechoslovakian refugees--people who had just as much reason as they did to stay away from local law enforcement. A snub-nosed man with yellow hair and dingy gray clothes stepped forward. He gazed at us with recognition in his eyes.
“Come this way.” He spoke in a flat voice.
If we refused, there’d be a fight, but we weren’t here to harm them--we wanted to save them. Brande gave me a nod, perhaps thinking the same thing, and we followed the snub-nosed wizard in silence. The others crowded around us to ensure we didn’t fall back or flee. We walked in the dark, through the grassy area, noting a group of non-wizards gathered around a small fire. We saw a few makeshift shelters dotting the landscape.
We made our
way over to the secluded area known as Bem Jozef Square. It was nestled between a protective cushion of trees. Although the generous summer weather left the evening air cool and comfortable, I couldn’t help but shiver. Brande stayed at my right, and had at least put aside our argument enough to hold my hand in his. Dani walked to my left and wore a nervous expression, though his body language indicated that he was ready to fight if he needed to.
When we arrived at the center of the Square, I eyed each of the wizards forming a loose circle around us and tried to identify a friendly face among them. The snub-nosed man with yellow hair gestured for us to stand near the statue of Jozef Bem. The image of the national hero stood in silence on a tall granite slab, his right hand folded over his chest and his left hand pointing upward in a dramatic fashion.
The snub-nosed wizard pulled out a shimmering pistol, one likely loaded with iron-tipped bullets made especially to kill wizards. He spoke in a firm voice. “I’m Blake Richmond, and I’m...” he drew in a deep breath, “I was an Elite with the Gray Tower before it was destroyed.”
Brande stepped forward, and some of the other wizards carrying weapons poised themselves. He held up his hands to show them he had no weapons and intended no harm. “Blake...I think I’ve seen you at the Gray Tower. I’m Brande Drahomir.”
He gazed at Brande. “I know who you are.” He gestured toward me with the gun. “And I know who she is. And that, Elite Drahomir, is the problem.”
I tried to soothe my voice as much as I could. “Blake, I am not responsible for the fall of the Gray Tower, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I turned and glanced around at the other wizards. “If any of you saw me there when Octavian broke our protective spells, I fought him. And I’ll continue fighting him. I am not the enemy.”
A few of the wizards behind us spoke in low voices to one another. Blake’s flat nose seemed to be exaggerated when he looked directly at me with his round face. “Even if what you say is true, you are the Drifter. Our law still stands.” He cocked the gun’s hammer.