by Diana Nixon
I thought for a moment and then said, “At dawn.”
“Exactly! But considering the fact that it’s fall now, I think we should wait a little bit,” Evan pointed, looking at the sky.
“So what shall we do when he comes?” I asked, coming closer to him.
“Oh, I’ve spent all night, thinking about that, Eileen.”
“Evan, I’m serious. Personally I have no idea how to behave in his presence.”
“You know what? Spirits are very unpredictable creatures. But not dangerous, of course. At least not for us. Unlike them we still have our life, powers and magic. We can handle them.”
“Don’t think that I’m scared. I just don’t know how to react when the boy shows up here.”
“I’m more than sure that you shouldn’t turn tail and run away from him. Who knows, maybe he’s a coward too and you will scare him to death. No matter how ironic it sounds.” Evan laughed. “So let’s just wait and see if he comes and tells us something about his new life.”
I took a deep breath, ignoring Evan’s mockery and sat on the grass next to him. I didn’t want to come to France, but I felt the answers were somewhere close. The meeting with Jaclyn and Ethan spirited me up and the whole idea of staying with them didn’t seem so bad. There was only one thing bothering me all the time – the absence of my bond with Christian. Every time I thought about him I hoped the wind would sing to me again and I would feel his presence. The orchid flower on my neck was filled with his energy, but the longer I wore it, the less power it had.
I needed Christian so much! I didn’t want him to become just a part of my memory. I wanted him back. Safe and alive.
I missed his smile, making my blood run faster through my veins. I missed his voice, making me forget about everything. I missed his embrace and his soft lips, taking my breath away with sweet and passionate kisses. I missed every single moment with him. I didn’t want to live a lonely and pointless life. And it was exactly the way it felt without him.
Being deep in my thoughts, I didn’t notice time passing and Evan’s whisper made me almost jump out of my skin. “Look,” he said.
“I don’t see anything,” I replied absently.
“Of course, you don’t. Stop thinking about making love with Christian and look closer,” he said again. I blushed from top to toe and turned away from Evan, hiding my embarrassment.
“How did you know I was thinking about him?” I asked, trying to calm down my heartbeat.
“As far as I know, he is the only person able to do those pink and bright-red things to your aura,” he said with I grin that I could hear in his voice even without seeing his shameless face. “If only you were not thinking about me, of course,” he added in a whisper.
I turned around abruptly and saw his smiling eyes, with those dancing devils in them. He was just kidding, but Evan always knew how to get on my nerves. No, scratch that, he knew how to get on everyone’s nerves. And I was more than sure that his charm was the only thing saving his pretty face from being smashed by all those people he was making angry.
I did a double take of the place Evan was talking about and saw the object of his attention. The blankness. I would have never paid any attention to it, but then and there, in the presence of so many spirits’ auras flowing around it was simply impossible not to notice such a phenomenon. It looked like someone had cleared a small part of the space, leaving just a portion of colorless air behind.
“Evan, what does it mean?”
“It means, Eileen, that the boy was trapped between the two worlds. He’s neither human, nor spirit. He doesn’t have any aura.”
“How can we see him then?”
“It’s a good question. I think he’s watching us now, trying to feel if we are dangerous. Wait,” Evan said, getting to his feet.
“What are you going to do?”
“Just watch me quietly,” he whispered. Then he raised his hands palms up and made a few invisible circles around us. I immediately felt the warmth of his magic, covering us from top to toe. I saw a thin air globe wrapping a part of the glade we were standing in. It looked like a soap bubble. Evan was creating some barrier, protecting us from all the surroundings. He let the boy know that being out of reach we wouldn’t be able to do him any harm.
“Oh, my God, it works!” I said in a barely audible voice.
We saw an image, materializing in front of us. Evan and I were both mesmerized, watching the shape getting more and more color. Even from a distance we could see a boy. He seemed to appear from thin air. He had dark-brown hair and incredible golden eyes, reminding me of bright summer sunshine.
“Amazing!” Evan whispered. “Give me a pinch, Eileen, ‘cause I don’t believe my own eyes. Ouch! Not that hard!” he cried, rubbing his hand.
“Sorry,” I said, without taking my eyes away from the boy. “Do you see the same thing I do? Is he really coming closer?”
“Yes, but he isn’t coming to us. Why is he sitting on the ground?”
“I don’t know. Look! He’s drawing something there.”
“There’s grass everywhere, I can’t see anything. We need to come closer.”
“No, wait!” I said, stopping him. “You will scare him away. Let’s see what he’ll do next.”
Evan stopped and we both saw the boy getting to his feet again and heading for the ruins of the church. He was moving slowly, as if flowing in the air, his feet touching the grass fleetingly. Coming to the place where years ago the fire took his family’s life away, he dropped to his knees, took a pink carnation from his pocket and put it near one of the former walls of the church. Then he turned around and smiled genuinely, looking straight at us. He waved goodbye and disappeared the same way Christian did.
As soon as the boy was gone, Evan and I rushed to the place where he was drawing on the ground before. But we didn’t see anything there.
“Wait. The grass is stamped flat here,” Evan said. “He didn’t draw anything, he wrote something on the grass. Do you have a camera?”
“Let me see,” I said, looking into my backpack. There were a lot of necessary things inside, including a couple of flashlights we could use if we were lost in the woods and some sandwiches. “Count yourself fortunate.” I smiled, taking a small camera out of my numerous belongings. “So what are you going to do with this?”
“If my assumptions are correct and the boy has done exactly what I think he has, we will be able to see his message,” Evan said, taking a few photos. “Okay, let’s see,” he added, looking through the pictures. “Aha! Got it!” he exclaimed, showing me the result of his work. “There is an imprint on the grass. I just can’t read it.”
“Turn the picture. See? He wrote the word, so we would read it standing at the place we were before. Сlé,” I read aloud. “What does it mean?”
“The key.”
“The key?” I repeated, confused. “What key?”
“I don’t know,” Evan said, frowning. He looked around. “There is nothing to open with the key here.”
“Maybe he wanted to say that there is a key hidden somewhere here and that we need to find it,” I assumed.
“Maybe. Let’s check it out,” he said, raising his right palm up. Feeling a light vibration in the air, I realized that Evan was trying to find the key with the help of magic. “Nothing,” he said, disappointed. “We won’t find anything here. Even if the mysterious key really existed, it could be found many centuries ago. The question is where it is now?”
“Maybe we should ask Jaclyn and Ethan about this place? They could have heard about the key.”
“Maybe we should. But we can’t ask them directly about the church and the boy, otherwise they will guess about our morning walk.”
“Okay. So if there’s nothing else to do here, we’d better go back home now,” I said, taking my backpack.
“Yeah, we have already found out everything we needed. Or to be exact, we didn’t find anything new,” Evan summed up.
“No, I think this k
ey will definitely help us. I can feel it.”
“Of course, it’s your famous Fairey’s intuition!” Evan rolled his eyes. “Hope it won’t trick you.”
“It has never tricked me before.”
“Amen.”
Coming back home we found it empty. Jaclyn and Ethan were gone.
“I hope they are not looking for us,” Evan said.
“No, they are not,” I replied, showing him a note left on the table.
“Dear Eileen and Evan make yourself at home. The breakfast is waiting for you in the kitchen. We went to the waters, see you later. J.”
“Oh, so they haven’t noticed our absence. Great! Why don’t we have breakfast finally?”
"I'm starving, so I’m game.” I nodded, heading for the kitchen.
Chapter 7. Family Ties
Evan
After a brunch, Eileen and I went to Jaclyn’s garden and spent a few hours there, speculating about the mysterious key.
“Evan, I have an idea,” Eileen said. “Is it possible that the key is not just for the lock, but a password or a prompt?”
“Hmm, I haven’t thought about it. Everything is possible. But it doesn’t help matters, as we still don’t know where to find whatever the boy was trying to tell us about.”
“Evan! Eileen!” Jaclyn called. “There you are.” She smiled, coming toward us. “It’s such a wonderful day, isn’t it? Our walk was a pleasure. How was your morning walk, by the way?”
The question was quite innocent, but Eileen and I stopped breathing at once.
“Um… it was good,” I said. “Thanks. A lot of fresh air, birds and flowers, well, you know?”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, as the next few days will be very busy for both of you.”
Eileen and I exchanged puzzled glances.
“Ethan and I visited Marion this morning and she agreed to meet you tonight.”
“Tonight?” Eileen exclaimed in surprise.
“Slow help is no help. Remember?” Ethan smiled. “The sooner you see her, the sooner you will know how to find Christian.”
“Of course. It’s just so unexpected,” I said, sharing Eileen’s surprise.
“Marion doesn’t have visitors very often, so she wanted to see you as soon as possible.”
“I’m nervous,” Eileen confessed. “What does she know about me and Evan?”
“Not much. We told her about your problem. But she didn’t ask anything else.”
“And you thought she wouldn’t help us if she knew how creepy we really were?” I laughed.
“Actually, I thought she would change her mind about helping us,” Eileen said, still nervous.
“She has already said yes, so there’s no way back.” Jaclyn shrugged. “Marion is a keeper. She’s nice, and I’m sure you will like her. Don’t pay much attention to her iciness. She treats all strangers equally. But when you get to know each other better, you will see what a wonderful person she really is.”
“Where does she live?”
“Not far away from here. It’s just about ten minutes walk,” Ethan said. “Don’t worry, we will go with you.”
“Do we need to take anything with us?" I asked.
“No, dear. Marion will find out everything she needs to know without any help.”
All the remaining time before the meeting Eileen and I were all nerves. No matter how many good words Jaclyn and Ethan told us about Marion, we still were afraid of her. As much as we’d like to deny it, she was the most powerful Blanche, and no one could predict her reaction to our meeting. I looked through some of my records to find a few disarming spells. Just to keep on the safe side.
“Evan, don’t be ridiculous,” Eileen said. “You don’t think she will try to kill us, do you? “
“Actually, I don’t think so, but I want to be ready for whatever comes.” There was no one else in the room besides me and Eileen, so no one would witness my fear. And I could read my records without attracting too much unnecessary attention.
As every other Wizardy student, I couldn’t remember all the spells, so I had to write down the descriptions of the most difficult ones. Of course, someone like Marion didn’t need any records to defend herself, but I was just a student and I had to keep an eye out. I had a good visual memory, so I tried to remember as much as possible.
“Why don’t you teach me some of your favorite spells?” Eileen asked.
“You are not ready for any of them,” I said without looking at her. “How on earth could your father let you stay here! I wish Patrick and Amelia were here with us. It would simplify my life a lot!” I snapped, turning the page of my notebook. Not that I didn’t like spending time with Eileen.
“Of course, you wouldn’t have to mess around with such a helpless child as I am, right?”
“It’s not what I mean. I’m sorry, Eileen.” I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “But I’m worried about you and sometimes I’m not sure if I would be able to protect you. That’s it,” I said apologetically.
“I don’t even want to remind you how many times I tried to convince you otherwise. So stop it, Evan, you are getting on my nerves!”
“Okay, I’ll go somewhere else. Don’t forget to call me when it’s time to go,” I said, heading for the door.
“Be sure, I won’t,” Eileen snapped behind me.
I knew she was worried about the upcoming meeting. Actually, we both were, so it was much safer to stay away from each other so as not to say things we would have to apologize for later. Besides, I needed to call Patrick. As far as I knew, Darcy and Frederick were still trying to decipher the meaning of the tattoo that was on the dead man’s back. The only thing they knew for sure was a picture of the roseroot intertwined with those strange wings of the tattoo. Patrick said it already meant a lot, but he refused to explain the details. I thought the dead man could be connected somehow to those people that Amelia couldn’t tell me about.
“Hello, Evan,” Patrick’s voice came in through the handset. “How are you? Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. Actually, I wanted to ask you the same question. How are things going in Dever? Are Tara and Kevin back from Gloster?”
“Yes, they arrived about an hour ago. Unfortunately, they didn’t find anything new there. But Darcy found a few more diaries that belonged to Camilla. They describe dozens of different mythological creatures. So now she and Tara are trying to find some similarities with the tattoo picture. It will take many hours of hard work. So as you can see, there’s nothing new here. How is Eileen?”
“Nervous.” It was the only word I could use to describe my friend's behavior.
“You didn’t tell her about our talk, did you?”
“No, of course not. She has enough to worry about without me giving her more reasons to freak out.”
“Oh, by the way, Amanda says she misses both of you.”
“Tell her we miss her too. And there’s one more thing… tonight we are having a meeting with Marion Blanche.”
“Yes, I know. Ethan told me about the meeting."
“I take it that you knew about the Blanche family’s talents, right?”
“Yes, it wasn’t a secret. Of course, it’s not the kind of information you could read in one of your Wizardy’s manuals, but every member of the League of Keepers has to know about such things.”
“Right. Okay, Patrick, I’ll call you later, when there is more news.”
“Okay. Tell Eileen that we love her,” he said.
“I will.”
I hung up the phone, looked at my watch and realized there was no time to remember new spells. It was already half past five and we had to go to Marion’s.
I heard Eileen calling my name. “Evan, it’s time to go!” she shouted from the hall.
“I’m coming!” I replied, closing my notebook.
Marion’s house wasn’t much different from other houses of Fontainebleau, but it was much smaller than the one Ethan and Jaclyn lived in. It was
built of red bricks with the same red roof. The window frames were white, different intricate patterns surrounded them. There were a lot of flowers around the house and just as at Jaclyn’s garden, they all were blooming.
As I crossed the threshold of the house, I felt the presence of a magical power. A very strong one. Despite the fact that its owner stopped using her gift a long time ago, it was impossible to hide all those specific vibrations and colors flowing in the air.
“Where is Marion?” Eileen asked quietly, looking around.
“I’m here,” responded a melodic voice behind us. The four of us turned to the door. A woman in her mid-forties was standing there. She had long chestnut hair and incredibly bright eyes. But the most surprising thing was their color – pure silver. I had never seen such an eye color before. At least I didn’t know anyone with the same color in our supernatural world.
“My, my! What a surprise to see you both here,” she said, watching Eileen and me with an amused smile playing on her lips. “Ethan, why didn’t you tell me who my guests would be?” she asked, coming closer.
“But I told you they….”
“A son of the Dragons’ fallen leader in a company of a Fairey bird!” Marion said, crossing her arms. “I would have never imagined having such a miraculous meeting!“
“Excuse me, what did you say?” I asked, puzzled. Judging by everyone's reaction, Madam Blanche's words had surprised them all. Ethan and Jaclyn were now watching me curiously while Eileen stared at Marion, wide-eyed.
“Why did you call me a Fairey bird?” she asked, frowning. She was also scared. I could feel it.
“Because this is how your father calls you,” Marion replied without hesitation. “Your name, Eileen, means a bird and you are Fairey.”
“Someone has already called me a bird,” Eileen noted, turning pale. She was talking about Normandia Wizardy.
“I don’t understand anything,” Ethan said. “What does Evan have to do with the Dragons?”
“Oh, he has a lot to do with them,” Marion said with her eyes never leaving mine. “You are Dominic’s son, right?”