Devan nodded. The medallion on my chest went suddenly cold, and her skin glowed with a soft white light, enough for me to see. I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, not able to help myself. She looked damn cute when she was all magical like that. She smiled, and we walked around the front of the sign, looking for patterns, or something, that would give an indication that my father had been here. I didn’t see anything. We went around to the back and stopped. I didn’t see anything there, either.
Devan started laughing. “Damn.”
“What is it?”
She pointed to the sign. I didn’t see what she saw so easily, since her nighttime vision was so much better than mine.
“I’ve got to admit that the Elder is pretty clever,” she said.
She tapped on a few of the bricks, and as she did, I realized just what it was that she saw. There, outlined in the bricks, was a pattern. It was subtle enough that I wouldn’t have found it had Devan not pointed it out. It wasn’t that the bricks were different colors. They might have been shaded a little differently than the others, but not so that you’d notice. It was more about the way they were set. Only the pattern bricks were on end, forming a triangle, with one of the tips anchoring into the ground. I traced my finger around it and shook my head.
“One of these days, I’m going to learn even a half of what he knows.”
“Then you’ll end up making creepy statues in parks and hiding doorways across the Threshold. I’m not sure I’d like that guy.”
I tried remembering what I could of the other sign, thinking they had to connect somehow. Conlin’s main thoroughfares were perfectly laid out in a compass pattern, heading either north and south, or east and west. A few angled off, but the main roads followed the compass pretty exactly. “I’m going to have to go back and see what he put on that sign,” I said to Devan. “For now, I want to get back to town and stop at the Rooster. Tom knows more than he’s shared.”
“That seems to be the trend we’ve seen here, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much.”
We got back into Big Red and reached the Rooster without saying much more. I suspected Devan sat thinking over what her father had said to us while I was mostly focused on trying to decide how badly I wanted to know what had happened to my father. If I found this box for the Trelking, he claimed he’d tell me how to find my father. I didn’t have any reason to doubt him. The Trelking was powerful enough that he knew things no one else did. For him to come to me with this task meant that either my father was really and truly gone and the Trelking saw me as his last hope to get the box back, or he figured I might have already found it. Either way, he’d made an offer mixed with a threat.
As we pulled into the parking lot, there was a soft surge from the protections built into it that let me know we were back on safe ground. The Rooster was a sort of safe magical meeting place, made that way by my father. Only Nik had managed to violate that safety, the magic he’d learned from the Druist Mage giving him enough power to overcome most of the protections built into the land around the Rooster.
There was another car in the lot—a newer blue Chevy van—but I didn’t see any sign of Tom’s car. That didn’t mean he wasn’t here. He often walked or even rode his bike over to the diner. I hadn’t been back in Conlin long enough to know what he’d do when the weather changed. Probably keep walking, knowing what I did of Tom. Lights shone from the windows. The large Rooster sign over the diner wasn’t lit, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t open. I don’t think Tom had ever invested in lighting for it.
We pulled open the door, and the scent of burgers and grease and the hint of Tom’s famous meatloaf wafted toward us. A soft bell jingled overhead as we did. The jukebox thumped with some new dance song. It hadn’t worked at all until Devan had spent time fine-tuning it. I think she was also responsible for the song selection. I didn’t know many of the songs on it. Spending the last ten years on the other side of the Threshold sort of keeps you out of the current music scene, but Devan blasted the radio constantly working in the shop, so she’d developed a very distinct taste that was different from mine.
A middle-aged woman sat at one of the booths by herself. She glanced over as we entered and then quickly looked down at the table. A partially eaten burger and fries sat on the plate in front of her. She picked at it, but didn’t make much of an attempt at eating it. I hadn’t seen her before, but then again, I hadn’t been back in Conlin long enough to recognize many people.
Devan and I took seats at the counter, sliding onto stools that had probably been there since the diner first opened. Usually, there was someone working the counter, but we didn’t see anyone tonight.
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Devan asked, pitching her words low enough that they didn’t carry over the sound coming from the jukebox. She twisted on the stool so that she could look at me.
She hadn’t questioned me about the Trelking’s demand during the entire ride to the diner. Not that she didn’t want to know, but I think she wanted to give me time to figure out what I wanted to do. The Trelking had asked me to find the box. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more that I had missed.
“He knows where my father is,” I said.
“And if he’s dead, will it help you to know?”
There was the million-dollar question. Would it change anything if I knew he was dead? Probably not. It might give me a sense of closure. After everything that I’d been through, a large part of me wanted that closure. But if he still lived, why wouldn’t I want to know that? What if he were stuck somewhere, in need of help? There might not be much that I could do, but wouldn’t I try?
“And if he’s dead, he’s left you with enough around here,” she swept her arm around her, motioning to the town around us, “to remember him. To learn from him. Wasn’t that what you really wanted?”
“Yeah, that’s what I wanted. Once. Now what I want is different.”
Devan touched my hand. She felt warm and my skin tingled where she touched. “You don’t have to keep worrying about me. It’s not like so much has changed.”
I met her eyes. “Everything has changed, Devan. I never wanted anything to hurt you before, but now? It would destroy me if anything happened to you.”
“You’re an idiot sometimes, you know that, Ollie?”
“Why? Because I care about you?”
“Because you think that you have to protect me. That you think I’m some sort of helpless little girl.”
“I’ve never said—”
“No. You haven’t said it. Since you’ve realized you were being an idiot,” she smiled and squeezed my hand, “You always think I’m the one who needs protecting. How many times have I saved your ass?”
I smiled and gave her a wink. “Are we keeping track?”
She shrugged. “If we have to. I can tell that you’re afraid. It’s in your hesitation when trying to use the orb. That’s not like you. That’s not the Ollie I know and love.”
I smiled. “Love? So we’re there already?”
She punched me on the shoulder. “Ten years and you’re still as dumb as when I first met you.”
A small, cute brunette came from the kitchen and smiled widely when she saw us. “You’ve returned. Tom wasn’t sure what to expect,” Kacey said. She approached where we sat at the counter and leaned over, lowering her voice. “Sam was pretty upset that he showed up like that, just so you know.”
I hadn’t seen Kacey since the night Nik had attacked. There was a part of me that knew she could have been one of the shifters that nearly died, but I didn’t know which one she was. Jakes was easy when he shifted. He was enormous in either form. Kacey was petite enough in human form that it made me wonder if she might not be just as petite in her wolf shape. She didn’t seem to show any sign of injury, and for that I was thankful. I’d begun to get the sense that there was something between her and Jakes, and I didn’t want to be the reason she ended up dead. There was enough of that on my plate th
e way it was.
“Dad never really adhered much to custom,” Devan said.
A smile stretched across Kacey’s face. “I didn’t know he was so powerful. There aren’t many who can keep the doorway open for that long. Supposedly, the Elder has some trick to hold it open, but then again, he’s the Elder.”
I didn’t know about his trick. And it was another part of my father that I wouldn’t get the chance to understand, especially if he was already gone.
“Well, he’s gone now,” I said, referring to the Trelking, mostly for Devan’s benefit.
“What did he want?” Kacey asked. Her breath was hot as she spoke and smelled a little like stale meat.
I had a sudden image of her in wolf form, standing over some dead creature, ripping at raw flesh, and tried to shake it off. “The usual. He wanted Devan to return and had an assignment for me.”
She tipped her head. “Why would the Trelking have an assignment for you?”
I twisted so that I could carefully look over my shoulder at the woman sitting alone in the booth. She didn’t look up as Kacey spoke, so hopefully she hadn’t heard. In most places, there wouldn’t be too many who would know anything about the Trelking, but the Rooster wasn’t like most places. I couldn’t know for certain whether the woman was some local simply here for dinner, or if she was one of the magical variety here for the protection of the Rooster.
“I was sort of his muscle,” I said carefully. I figured Jakes would have shared that with her. I wasn’t really certain why he hadn’t.
Kacey frowned. “But you’re a painter.”
“He’s the son of the Elder,” Devan said softly. “He’s more than simply a painter. My father has a habit of collecting people with certain abilities that serve his needs. I think he recognized Ollie’s gifts when he first crossed the Threshold. And with his other Painter not really panning out as he’d hoped, I think he was quick to latch onto our Ollie.”
Kacey nodded slowly as if that explained everything just fine. “What does he want you to do?”
“Only return something of his that I have no idea how to find. Supposedly my father was storing it here.”
Kacey glanced around the diner. “Here?”
It was a reasonable consideration and one I hadn’t really considered before. My father could have left the shardstone box in the Rooster. The diner was as much a place of his as the house or the shed, but somehow, I didn’t think it was likely that he would have left it here. There were too many people coming through for the Elder to have stored something of such importance to the Trelking here.
“Probably not here,” I said. “And I’m not really sure where. I don’t think Jakes knows, either.”
“Why does he want you to find it?”
I shook my head. “Who knows with him? But if I find it, he’ll tell me what he knows of my father.” It had been over ten years since I’d had any sort of useful information. The Trelking had never been willing to share his prescience, especially not when it came to my father. I wondered if it was a way of controlling me, or it could have been that he feared me knowing would distract me from whatever he wanted from me.
Kacey let out a slow breath. “Shit. Sort of makes it so you have to help him, doesn’t it?”
“Pretty much.”
She pushed back from the counter and slapped it with her open palms. “Well, let’s get you something to eat. What do you feel like? Burger? Fish? Steak?”
I snorted. “Come on, Kacey, do I really have to beg for the meatloaf?”
“Hey, it’s not on the menu every night.”
“Right. And Tom can’t whip it up for me.”
“He’s not back yet. He stopped by after dropping you off, but then he took off again and didn’t say where he was going. That’s not all that uncommon with Tom,” she went on, as if anticipating the question, “so you’re stuck with whatever I can make.”
I’d had Kacey’s cooking before. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the same. “Burger for me, then.”
Devan nodded.
“Two burgers.”
She disappeared behind the door to the kitchen. The bell over the front door tinkled, and I turned, somewhat surprised to see Taylor standing in the doorway. The fluorescent lighting made her hair look even bluer tinted than usual. Her normally olive complexion looked pale and a slight sheen of sweat covered her face.
When she saw me, she sighed and hurried over. “Oliver. I’m glad to finally find you. I’ve been looking for you for the last hour.”
I glanced at Devan before turning back to Taylor. “We’ve had a bit of a busy night, Taylor.”
“There’s something you need to see. I think it has to do with—”
“Can’t it wait?” I asked.
She shook her head. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. When I left you, I spent some time wandering around Conlin. There’s something you need to see.”
“It will still be there in the morning.”
“That’s just it. That’s what I want to show you.”
“You’re not making any sense,” I said.
“What you need to see is missing.”
I twisted in my chair to face her, not certain whether this was something I should even care about. Knowing what I did of Taylor, what she found could be any number of different things, but I had a nagging suspicion that whatever she’d found hadn’t been just any old thing. If she’d gone out wandering in Conlin and found something, that made it likely to be something of my father’s.
Devan must have come to the same conclusion. “Ah damn,” she groaned.
“Yeah. Guess I’m not even getting that burger.”
6
After apologizing to Kacey—she offered to wrap the burgers so we wouldn’t go hungry—we made our way out of the Rooster and back into the truck. The woman sitting alone in the booth cast a quick glance our way before looking back down to the table. It was strange, but no stranger than any of the other people we’d come across at the Rooster. Catching my reflection off the glass door, I realized that I looked pretty rough. I didn’t blame her for giving me a second look. She was probably glad we were leaving.
I looked around the parking lot of the Rooster, suddenly wondering how Taylor had gotten there. We only had the one truck and there weren’t any bikes. I didn’t see any other cars in the lot. “Did you walk here?” I asked her.
“I needed to find you,” she said.
I glanced over at Devan. “It’s like five miles from the house.”
Taylor shrugged.
“You and your damn mods,” I grumbled.
She’d probably managed to get from my house to the diner in under twenty minutes. The mods she’d done—the tinting of her hair and whatever else she’d done that I still didn’t quite know—gave her additional abilities, things that were almost like what Devan possessed. Nik had helped Taylor do the mods, but there had to be a cost. With magic, there was always some sort of cost, but I didn’t quite know what the mods had cost her. Normal painting required energy that took time to restore. Pretty simple: you work too many patterns and with too much magic, you’re going to have to rest and get some sleep. But her mods didn’t seem to work the same way.
“Get in,” I said, waving toward the truck.
She pulled open the passenger-side door—it wasn’t locked, this was Conlin after all and no one was going to steal Big Red—and climbed in. I pulled Devan with me around to the driver’s side.
“Don’t you find it a little strange that something went missing about the same time as your father crossed over?” I asked her under my breath.
“Jakes said nothing came through.”
I thought of the delay the Trelking had made in putting up his barrier to keep out the shifters. In the time that he’d simply stood there with the doorway open, what else could have come through but somehow managed to avoid detection from the shifters? That would take some sort of serious magic to hide from the shifters, but there was magic like that on the other s
ide of the Threshold. Devan knew that as well as I did. The only problem was that we had no idea why the Trelking would have gone to such trouble.
At least we’d found another possible reason for him to have made the crossing himself. The fact that he had risked it had troubled me the most. Had he only wanted the box, he could have sent any of his little minions on his behalf. Hell, he could have simply sent a message. That would have been as effective as anything else. But he’d come himself, holding the doorway open the entire time.
“Something else came through,” I said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Devan looked up at me, her mouth opening and then closing again. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry about him.”
I leaned toward her and gave her a lingering kiss. “Don’t be sorry. Without him, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of spending the last ten years needing you to help me stay alive.”
“There is that.”
When we got into the truck, Taylor studied us. “Something happened tonight, didn’t it?”
I wondered how much she’d heard. Had her mods helped with her hearing? I suspected they augmented her eyesight and her strength, probably even helped her overall stamina somehow, but had the modding enhanced all of her senses?
“Yeah, you said something of my father’s disappeared.”
“I never said it was the Elder’s,” Taylor said.
“If it was interesting enough for you to go after it, then it was probably his. So tell me, where are we going?”
Taylor looked out the window toward the west. “The hill near the center of town.”
“That’s the old—”
She didn’t let me finish. “That’s where we’re going.”
I frowned at Devan, but she didn’t have anything to say, so I backed out of the Rooster’s lot and headed west.
* * *
Conlin at night was probably like every other small town. There were the usual streetlights giving a warm yellow glow, but they were staggered, the planners not bothering to design them too close together. In Conlin, it was mostly a comfort thing to have the streetlights. The city itself was pretty safe, and we didn’t really need one for every house. By this time of night—I figured it had to be heading on ten o’clock—most of the houses were dark. A few had lights on in the front window or the porch, and fewer still blazed brightly. We passed a couple of kids walking in the street and then near Thistle, passed an older guy on his bike. I made sure it wasn’t Tom as we veered around him.
Stolen Compass (The Painter Mage Book 4) Page 6