by Brian Knight
Strangely, that seemed to mollify Nancy, though only a little.
“You really do like her,” Nancy said. “You’re risking more than my anger by sneaking around with her.”
For once, Torin felt that he could be completely honest with these odd young women.
“I love her,” he said. “And the time is coming when I may be able to do so openly.”
The three Phoenix Girls stared at him in silence for a long moment. Tracy and Janet seemed to be awaiting Nancy’s judgment.
At last, Nancy lowered her wand, and nodded for her friends to do the same.
“Okay, I know you’re keeping secrets from us, but I believe that you love her.” She scowled unconsciously, leaving Torin in no doubt as to how she felt about that. “If you betray her I’ll hunt you down.”
Torin believed her, and fervently hoped it would never come to that.
“Give him his wand,” Nancy said, and Tracy moved to comply, though with clear reluctance.
Now that the immediate threat of violence had passed, Torin felt it was time to assert himself a little. They’d fooled him and taken him easily, but he didn’t want them to walk away from this encounter believing he was helpless.
Both hands still raised, Torin gave his left a small shake. The wand concealed down his left sleeve shot upward into his grasping fist, and before they could react, he pointed it at his wand in Tracy’s hand. It flew from her grasp and into his right hand. By the time Nancy had raised her own wand again, both of his were stowed out of sight, and he stood with his arms crossed, waiting to be escorted back to town.
Tracy looked ready for a fight, but Nancy actually smiled, and Janet burst into laughter, still perched in the ash tree above them.
“I should return,” Torin said. “My brother will be wondering where I am, and he is already in a grumpy mood today.”
* * *
“How did you first meet her?” The more he told, the more she itched with curiosity. She wanted to know everything, and for the first time in her life, all of her questions were being answered.
“My first trip to Dogwood,” Torin said, and a smile spread across his face. “I knew who she was, I knew who all of them were, but we were told never to engage them. We were to keep our distance, investigate their grove only when we knew it would be safe, and watch for two things above all else.”
“What?”
“We needed to know if the people of Dogwood had discovered their secrets,” Torin said. “If their secrets were revealed it would mean a dangerous level of exposure, not just for them, but for us. We may have been a world away, but the wall between the worlds is thin in Aurora Hollow, as our furry friend may have already told you.”
Ronan nodded. “I believe I may have mentioned that to young Penny.”
“And even more importantly, we needed to know if any of them recognized us for who and what we were.”
“Why?”
“Have you had any lessons with Bowen?” Ronan asked unexpectedly.
The question caught Penny off guard, and she had to think back for a moment.
“Yes,” she said. “The Death of the Phoenix...”
Ronan and Torin both cringed away from her at the mention of the taboo legend. Ronan peered up at the iron grate to make sure no one was spying on them, and Torin shook his head and hissed shhhh.
“And,” Penny continued, unabashed, “the history of the Gallic Wars. “
Torin nodded, relaxing a little.
“So you know how we came to this world. If the Phoenix Girls had recognized us for who we were, that could mean they had discovered the way to our world,” he said. “And even three millennia after being driven there by the barbarians of your world, we hold a grudge.”
There was a clang from above as the cell door crashed open.
“But we never had a clue,” Tracy said, descending on her hovering disk again. “All of your worries over the centuries, all of the subterfuge, and the Phoenix Girls did not even know your world existed, let alone discovered the hidden road to it. At least until you came.”
Her disk clanged down on the stone floor and she stepped from it, her wand at the ready.
“Two visits in as many days,” Torin said. “We are popular now aren’t we?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Tracy said. “You gave up the secrets of your family, your world, to your enemies. If it wasn’t for the old taboo, they would have put you to death years ago.”
“I was trying to end centuries of hostility,” Torin said, the old playful banter gone from his voice. “A pact between the House of Fuilrix and the Phoenix Girls would have benefited everyone.”
“You betrayed us for love,” came another voice, a voice that froze Torin in place and raised the hackles on Ronan’s neck. “You gave up our secrets for the affection of a woman.”
Penny watched as another metal disk lowered itself through the cell’s open iron grate. The man standing on it was her father without the long hair or beard, Torin as he had appeared in the picture she used to carry around. Except for the scar that ran down the right side of his face from temple to jaw.
The scar jogged something in Penny’s memory, something just out of reach of her conscious mind, a puzzle piece in search of a proper place to fit itself. She grasped for it and felt it slip away. Then the man turned in her direction, and any ability Penny had to think clearly fled.
She took a step backward and felt an unexpected hand land on her shoulder. She locked her lips against a scream, and let her father pull her back against his side, feeling, and loving, the protective embrace of her father for the first time in her life.
The new man drifted down in a tense silence, his eyes shifting from Penny, to Ronan, and settling on Torin as he set down next to Tracy. He was an intimidating figure, a voluminous back robe and heavy crimson cloak, a symbol embroidered in crimson on the chest of his robe that Penny had no trouble recognizing. It was the crimson brand on Turoc’s forehead, the tattoo on Diana Sinclair’s wrist when Penny had watched the photograph of her mother come to life in the Conjuring Glass.
“Hello, brother,” the man said. “It has been a long time.”
“Yes, Tynan” Torin said, his voice carefully neutral. “The last time we spoke face to face, we were in another world.”
Tynan smiled, but it was a superficial thing, an expression without emotion. There was no trace of humor or good will on his face, and his eyes were like green chips of ice.
“The House of Fuilrix will return to Old Earth soon... our first visit since your troubles there.” He stepped off his disk, and Torin took a step back, dragging Penny with him.
Ronan moved forward, stepping between them, and Penny heard a low, vulpine grumble filling the silence between them.
“Call off your familiar, Torin, or I’ll have to hurt it.” Tynan shrugged his cloak loose of his left shoulder and drew a wand from a slim leather sheath on his belt. A pendant hidden by the cloak fell loose and dangled from a heavy gold chain. “I know how much you enjoy its company, and I would hate to deprive you.”
“Stop, Ronan,” Torin said, and when Ronan made no move to obey, he spoke again in his strange language.
Ronan’s growl quieted, then ceased, and he backed away to Torin’s other side.
“Turoc,” Tynan shouted, and a moment later the snakeman slipped through the open grate and landed behind Tynan and Tracy. Tynan spoke again in their native language, and when Torin didn’t reply, Turoc slithered around Tracy to face Penny, his mouth opening in a fang-filled parody of a smile.
Torin replied in that incomprehensible language, and Tynan seemed satisfied. He nodded to Turoc, who slipped back behind them, his smile fading.
“Princess Penny,” Tynan said, turning to her with that cold smile. “It was a happy surprise to learn you were alive, but perhaps not so much when I learned you had resurrected an order we hoped had been permanently disbanded.”
Beside Tynan, Tracy shifted and looked down at her feet, a motion
not lost on Tynan. He turned to her, frowning.
“I was under the impression that she had died.”
“She was dead,” Tracy said, still looking at her boots. “You saw the body.”
“Yes,” Tynan said. “When I took Flanna I did check, but it seems death was only a temporary condition for our young heretic.”
Penny recalled Susan’s words of a year before, I thought you were dead, and shivered.
“But however she effected the transformation from one state to the other, I am surprised you did not know.”
Tracy remained silent, staring at the floor.
“Surely, you would have told me if you knew there was a Fuilrix heir living on Old Earth.”
Tracy seemed to visibly gather her courage, then looked up, her eyes meeting Tynan’s.
“Yes, I would have told you. They must have suspected me, they hid her from me, then spirited her from Dogwood after I joined you here.”
“Why?” Penny found the question had left her lips before she even knew it was there. “Why did you...?”
“Switch sides?” Tracy finished for her. “What reason would you accept? What reason would you believe?”
Penny didn’t respond. There was no reason Tracy could give for betraying her mother that she could accept.
“Torin brought down the anger of the Reds on us,” she said. “There was no way we could win against them, so I proposed a compromise, and King Tynan accepted it.”
“You stole their memories and kept your powers,” Penny said.
“I stayed with Flanna,” Tracy said, her voice lashing out like a whip. “I took their memories and saved their lives.”
“He was not yet the king,” Torin said.
“I was in all but name, brother.” Tynan spoke a phrase that was incomprehensible to Penny.
“English,” Penny shouted. “If you’re going to talk around me do it in English!”
“That,” said Tynan, “was between my brother and I.”
Tynan pointed his wand at Penny, and her mask’s mouth hole sealed itself shut. Penny tried to shout a protest, but her mouth would not open.
Turoc chuckled laughter.
“He’s only gloating, Penny,” Torin said. “Nothing worth hearing.”
Her father’s face was hard to read behind his beard, but Ronan had no beard, and apparently no interest in hiding his emotions. He looked wild with anger, ready to lash out.
“I have good news for you, brother,” Tynan said, and his cold, expressionless face broke into a smile that chilled Penny’s blood. “The House of Fuilrix is on the cusp of fulfilling its destiny.”
“Destiny?” Torin sounded barely interested, but Penny wasn’t buying his show of indifference. “What grandiose scheme do you have in mind this time?”
“The old one. The only one that ever mattered.” Tynan’s feigned goodwill vanished along with his cold smile. “The plan that our old teacher disrupted after your betrayal, when he left our service.”
Torin’s forced calm broke and he charged his brother.
Tynan never moved, didn’t even flinch as Torin bore down on him, arms outstretched, shouting.
Torin never came close to his target.
Turoc moved almost too quickly for Penny’s eyes to follow, a scary, slippery speed she remembered from previous encounters. He slipped between Tynan and Tracy, then sprang. He hit Torin hard, knocking him to the floor, pinning his arms over his head, his long, thick tail wrapping around Torin’s body. Turoc opened his mouth, and Penny was sure he was about to strike.
Ronan sprang at Turoc, but flew backward and landed stunned on the stone. He twitched, tried to rise, but the force of Tracy’s spell kept him from continuing his defiance.
“Release him,” Tynan said, and Turoc withdrew. “Don’t do that again. Your blood protects you from him, but it doesn’t protect your familiar. You withdrew that protection when you released him from his bond.”
“I would welcome the chance to kill him,” Turoc said, slipping back from Torin, but staying between the brothers.
“I must confess, I would enjoy the contest,” Tynan said.
“Why would you tell me this, brother?” Torin spit the last word out like something nasty.
“Because I want you to know how far lost your cause is,” Tynan said. “Because I am mean.”
Tynan offered them his cold smile once again and stepped back onto his hovering plate. It began to rise, but paused when Torin spoke again.
“You’ve been raiding the sepulcher.” Torin pointed at the pendant hanging from his brother’s neck. It was a red stone, irregularity shaped, rough textured, about three inches in diameter. “That’s an artifact, not jewelry.”
Tynan said nothing, but tucked the stone back inside his robe, and continued his ascent. Turoc coiled his tail beneath himself and sprang through the hole behind Tynan, leaving Tracy.
Tracy looked up at the ceiling, then at Penny.
“When I came here, I left a part of myself behind in Dogwood. It was the part that loved your aunt, your mother, and our friends... all of the memories we shared.” Her gaze had become so intense that Penny had to struggle to hold it. “I can see them as clear as crystal, all of my old sisters gathered around that old ash tree in Aurora Hollow. We were young then, when your grandmother first introduced the secrets of that place. She had no idea of the real secrets hidden there.”
Penny didn’t respond to Tracy, had no idea why Katie’s long lost aunt had chosen to reminisce on her lost friends and squandered innocence in that dark and squalid place, but the woman’s words called up the memory of another tree she had once given Susan as a gift, a silver tree with crystal fruit, the crystal spheres laser etched with the images of herself and her friends, the Phoenix Girls.
Susan had called it a memory tree.
Penny wondered if that silver tree was meant to be the old ash from the hollow, and decided it probably was.
“I wish I could have gotten to know you as well as I did your sister,” Tracy said, stepping backward onto her own metal disk. “If you happen to see her again in your dreams, tell her I said to remember me, and that I’ll see her soon.”
She waved her wand a spoke a word, and Penny felt the mouth-hole in her mask open up again. She also felt her throat unlock and the return of her power of speech.
“Can’t leave you like that. I imagine you and your father have some catching up to do.” She began her ascent out of the cell. “Also, the king would be upset if you weren’t able to eat and starved to death while he was gone.”
Torin and Ronan watching her in astonishment, and when she was gone and their cell door had banged back into place, they looked at each other.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that woman so loquacious before,” Torin said. “Any idea what prompted that stroll down memory lane?”
Ronan only shrugged his wide hairy shoulders.
Penny had a thought, but since her father had not asked her, and because her idea made little or no sense, she kept it to herself.
* * *
Flanna stepped into Aurora Hollow ahead of Zoe, through the wardrobe door in the attic bedroom, and found the strange little man Erasmus waiting, perched cross-legged on the seat of a spinning stool and turning in slow circles.
“Good evening, ladies.” Erasmus stopped spinning and faced them, and for a moment only stared in their direction. “Are you okay, Penny?”
Flanna felt a prickle of fear, not even here for a full day and she was found out, and forced herself to calm down.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You seem... different.” Erasmus reached up to his glasses, and Flanna thought he was going to take them off.
She’d heard much about the South Island Monk’s ability to read and control minds, and didn’t want to be caught by his mind-probing stare.
He only adjusted them back on his bulbous nose, then tapped his temple with a finger.
“Up here, you seem different, troubled.”
> “She’s been in a bad mood ever since we came home from Grumpy’s,” Zoe said.
“I am not in a bad mood,” Flanna growled, and Zoe rolled her eyes.
Erasmus only had a moment to consider that before the door opened again and Ellen stepped through to join them.
“Am I late? Have you started yet?”
Erasmus’s probing gaze finally left Flanna, and she breathed a bit easier.
“We’re still waiting for Miss West. I think tonight’s lesson will be right up her lane.”
“Up her alley,” Zoe said. “Right up her alley.”
Erasmus shrugged as if to say, whatever, and started spinning on his stool again.
Katie arrived a minute later, and Flanna couldn’t help but stare. She remembered Katie from her shared memories with Penny, but seeing her was still a shock. This was her godmother’s niece, and as much a sister to Penny as Flanna was. It was almost like looking back in time at a much younger version of Tracy West. The major differences were her hair, a few shades lighter than Tracy’s, and a certain litheness that was absent from her aunt, maybe from her mother’s side.
“What are you gawking at, Little Red?” Katie asked, taken aback by Flanna’s scrutiny. “There a booger hanging outa my nose?”
* * *
Erasmus was right, the lesson certainly seemed to be right up Katie’s alley.
“Our sciencey people here will know the five states of matter... yes?” Erasmus waited, bemused, for Ellen to lower her hand and speak.
“There are only four states of matter,” Ellen said, then counted them off on her fingers. “Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.”
Flanna looked at Zoe, who looked as bewildered as she felt.
Katie grinned from ear to ear, turning from Ellen back to Erasmus.
“There is a fifth,” Erasmus corrected. “Who here can tell us what the fifth state of matter is?”