Ed checked the wound on his arm. It was completely closed; only a scar, barely visible in the moonlight, marked where it had been. He no longer felt weak; in fact, he was certain his power had returned. To test it he rose to his feet and kindled a mage light cupping it carefully in his palms.
The light burned brightly. He was able to see plainly not only the faces of his companions but also those of Hardwick and his men. The stunned look on Hardwick’s face and the awe and fear on the faces of the men regrouping around him gave Ed confidence. First giving Marta a reassuring smile, he stepped forward and stood in front of Hardwick.
“Councilor Hardwick,” he said, “you tried too many times to have Marta and Kyla killed, for no good reason. You can see that what they want is to help people, not to hurt them. You need to let them go.”
Hardwick did not meet Ed’s eyes. Instead, his gaze fastened on the globe of light in Ed’s palms. “My daughter is dead because of their magic.”
“Not their magic,” Ed corrected. “It was Veronica, and she’s only a little girl. She didn’t know what she was doing.”
“They brought the magic,” Hardwick said sullenly. He reminded Ed of a dog who refuses to let go of an old bone. “They have to take it away again.”
At that Marta stepped up beside Ed. “We’ll gladly leave town,” she said. “The only way we can take the magic with us is to take with us those who have found power.” She looked at Ed in a way that made his heart sing. “I hope you’ll go with me.”
“I will.”
“What are you doing, Hardwick?” Homer Farley pushed his way to the front of the growing group of men gathered around the councilor. “He’s meant to hang for what he did to my girls.”
“I never did anything to your girls, Master Farley,” Ed said. “They made up stories about me to keep themselves out of trouble.”
“Liar!” Farley shouted, pulling a pistol from his waistband and waving it about.
“Calm down, Farley,” Hardwick said.
But Farley steadied his weapon and aimed it at Ed. Ed tossed the globe of light into Farley’s face. It burst harmlessly when it struck him, but it frightened and distracted him. Marta darted in and grabbed the pistol from his hand. “There’ll be no more shooting,” she said.
Ed kindled another mage light, and Farley backed away from him, though he had no intention of throwing the second globe but only of using it for illumination.
Marta held the weapon she’d taken in a way that left little doubt that she knew how to use it. “Well, Hardwick, are you going to let us go?”
“Do you promise to get out of town?” he asked.
“Ed and I do,” Marta said. Looking back over her shoulder, she said, “Kyla?”
“I’m ready to go,” Kyla said. “But only if I can take Veronica with me. She has to be taught to control her power and use it wisely.”
“I’ll have to talk it over with her mother,” Master Crowell said, “but I don’t think …” His voice trailed off, and Ed read in his eyes the fear of his daughter’s strange powers.
“Well, I’m certainly not going anywhere,” Abigail said, joining the others. “I mean to reopen my school. Leah and I are needed here.”
“And a healer is a good thing to have,” Kyla pointed out. “You’d be very unwise to run Abigail off.”
“I don’t know as I ever want to heal like this again,” Abigail said, frowning. “It hurts terribly.”
“Abbie, you can start a school somewhere else,” Leah said. “If she goes with Kyla and Marta, Veronica will need a teacher. Along with the power she has, she must also have a good education. If her parents allow her to go, I intend to go with her. Will you?”
A look of fright settled over Abigail’s face. “Leah, Carey is my home. My roots are here; this has been my family’s home for generations.”
“Do you really think you could be happy here in Carey after all that’s happened?” Leah asked, taking her hand. “I think you should come with us. With me.”
“I’m too old to start over in a new place.”
Ed saw plainly now the fear that had always lain behind Abigail’s stern exterior.
“Nonsense,” Kyla said. “With your teaching skill and your power to heal, you’d be welcomed in most places. Here …” She didn’t need to finish her statement, only to glance at Homer Farley and Councilor Hardwick.
Crowell cleared his throat. “If Miss Leah is going with you, I'll feel much more confident about entrusting Veronica to your care.”
“But if I’m to open the school, I’ll need you, Leah,” Abigail said plaintively. “Must you go?”
“Abbie, can’t you see that things will never be the same for us here in Carey? Yes, I’m going. I have no future here.”
“I do. I have the school.”
“You could give the school over to Dorey and Corinne and Urcelle.”
“That school was my aunt and uncle’s house,” Abigail said indignantly. Turning to Ed, she added, “Your grandparents, Edwin.”
He felt a shock. All the time he’d worked in the school, and he’d never known. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She flushed and could not meet his gaze. “I always planned to,” she said. “When the time was right.”
“And when would that have been?” he asked quietly, not expecting an answer.
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’ve been so foolish,” she said.
Leah put her arms around her, and she sobbed into Leah’s shoulder.
“I’m not angry with you, Miss Abigail,” Ed said. “But I think you should go with Miss Leah.”
Abigail lifted her head from Leah’s shoulder. “Well, I suppose I could,” she said. “I do have a lot of unhappy memories to leave behind.”
“There you go.” Leah slipped her arm around Abigail’s waist. “That’s the Abbie I love.”
Kyla said to Hardwick, “There, you see? For good or ill, you’ll soon be rid of all of us.”
“So you’re just going to let ’em all off?” Farley demanded.
“They haven’t been easy to get rid of, have they?” Hardwick said. “If they agree to get out of town, I think we’ll have to be satisfied with that.”
Mother Esterville came up then and shook her finger under Hardwick’s nose. “Who’s going to pay for the damage to my house, I’d like to know?” I’ve just had a look around back, and the back wall is all burned out. My whole house could have burned down, but, the gods be praised, when the fire reached my shrine the holy ones put it out.”
“The gods are good to you, Mother Esterville,” Hardwick said. “I’m sure they will find a way for your house to be repaired.”
“I’m sure they will, too,” Mother Esterville said. “The gods are pleased to use human instruments to accomplish their work. I’m certain that you and your men will wish to be instruments of the gods, Councilor Hardwick. I’ll expect all of you to donate your time and materials to rebuild the back of the house.”
Giving him no time to respond, she turned to Abigail and said, “I must get back to Jerome. We’ve left him alone too long.”
“Oh, gods,” Marta murmured. “We forgot about Jerome.”
Weary and sore, they all traipsed back to Abigail’s, Marta thinking only of the promised bath that waited at the end of that trek. Along the way, Leah, carrying Veronica, parted company with the rest to go to the Crowell’s home where, at Leo Crowell’s invitation, she would stay the night—or what little was left of it. Crowell was afraid both of and for his daughter; Marta was certain that was why he’d extended the invitation. Though Leah had no power, she was someone Veronica loved and trusted. She’d be more likely to keep her lethal temper under control with Leah beside her.
Marta, too, felt better about that arrangement. Veronica had too much power for a young child. And the thought haunted Marta that in some way she and Kyla were responsible for her having it.
They reached Abigail’s house at last. In the sitting room they found Jerome sleeping on the sof
a where they’d left him. If he had stirred at all in their absence, they saw no evidence of it. Abigail installed Mother Esterville in Leah’s room and assigned the guest room to Kyla and Marta. Ed insisted on going to his shack to sleep.
The others wasted no time getting to bed, but Marta went to the kitchen, lit the wood stove, heated water, filled the big metal tub, and got at last the bath she’d dreamed of.
Finally scrubbed clean, the guardhouse stink scoured away, her hair washed clean of all the filth that had accumulated in it, she put on a dressing gown of Leah’s that was large for her, but was clean and sweet smelling.
By this time all the others were fast asleep. Smiling, she took a lantern and let herself out the back door. A well-worn path led her to Ed’s shack. She expected to have to pound hard on the door to rouse him, but at her first knock the door opened.
“I hoped you’d come,” he said and enfolded her in his arms.
But after that initial embrace he drew back shyly and said, “This isn’t much of a place. It’s not good enough for you.”
She put a finger against his lips. “Hush, Ed. It’s fine. But if you’d rather, we can go for a walk by the brook. I want to talk to you.”
“A walk. Yes,” he said, “I’d like that.”
She took his hand, and they walked together to the stream. She did want to talk to Ed, but for a time she was content just being with him, her hand in his, watching the moonlight play on the water.
He was the one who broke the silence, asking, “What did you want to talk about?”
"About Kyla. About our mission to return magic to all of Arucadi. I no longer believe in it as I once did. I can’t go on with it,” she said. "Do you have your heart set on going?”
“The only thing I have my heart set on is to go wherever you go. What do you want to do?”
“I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “Go to some place where no one knows me as a ‘wonder worker.’ Settle down and lead a normal life with a man who loves me.”
He released her hand and slipped his arms around her. “I love you, Marta. I always will. I want you to be my wife.” Those words tumbled out fast as though he’d had to get them said before he lost his courage.
She smiled up at him. “If you’re asking me to marry you, the answer is yes.”
He kissed her and it was another long time before either of them spoke. But Marta had to be sure he knew what she intended.
“You do understand, don’t you, that I mean not to use my power, not to let people know I have it? Could you be satisfied with that?”
“I guess so, if it satisfies you. But—” he paused, looking pensive. “I wonder—can you just set aside your power? Not use it?”
“I could try.”
“So could I, but it wouldn’t be easy. I think once you have the power, you’re bound to use it. And people will know or at least be curious. And then, I’m not sure but that the power in you won’t flow out to others even when you don’t mean for it to. I think that’s what happened with Veronica and with Abigail. You and Kyla didn’t intentionally share your gift with them. Somehow your power woke power in them. I can’t help thinking it will always be like that.”
She stared into his eyes. “Ed, how or why did people ever think you were simple?”
He laughed and tousled her hair. “I didn’t know how to act around people,” he said. “That’s the main reason, I guess. My father made me fear everything and everyone. Until you came along and taught me I didn’t need to be afraid.”
She kissed him again. “I’d better get back to the house,” she said. “I’ll need some sleep before I can face Kyla and tell her my decision.”
“She won’t like it,” Ed observed.
“I know. But my mind’s made up. She’ll have Leah and Abigail with her, and Veronica, too, of course. So maybe I’ll just suggest that we can reach more people with the power by going our separate ways. We can take the magic to entirely different parts of Arucadi like that.”
“But I thought you didn’t mean to keep on with your mission,” he said as he walked beside her to Abigail’s house.
“I don't. I’ll only let Kyla think that. But you may be right about not being able to help sharing the power. If it happens, it happens. I’m not going to do it intentionally. I want to settle down with you somewhere and raise a family. If I have to share the gift of magic, let it be with our children.”
He slipped his arm around her waist and hugged her to him. “I like the sound of that,” he said.
Although it was late morning, Jerome pretended to be asleep. He heard them all, clomping around the house, exchanging loud whispers, gathering around the sofa where he lay. Talking about him as though he couldn’t hear.
“What’s wrong with him?” a woman’s voice asked.
“I can’t imagine,” his mother replied. “Abigail healed all his injuries, I’m sure she did. He doesn’t have a fever. His temperature seems normal, his color is good, and his pulse is steady. He ate all his breakfast this morning, but only because I fed it to him bite by bite. I think if I didn’t do that, he’d starve rather than bother to feed himself. It’s as though he has no interest in anything at all.”
She had the right of it. He didn’t understand it himself, and couldn’t be bothered trying. Nothing, not even life itself, held any interest for him. He wanted only to be left alone.
Kyla stepped next to him and took his wrist. He thought she was checking his pulse until she said, “The binding I put on his power is gone. Yet whatever his power is, I don’t think he’s used it.”
“Which is a good thing, I’m sure,” Marta said from somewhere behind Kyla.
“He didn’t act like he had any kind of power all the time we were in my special place.” Simple Eddie! What did he know?
But of course Eddie was right. He hadn’t been able to use his power then. Maybe he could now, but he lacked the desire to try. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.
“Here’s Leah, back with Veronica,” he heard Abigail Dormer announce.
More people to stare at him as though he were some kind of circus freak. Why couldn’t they leave him alone?
“What’s the matter with him?” a childish voice asked. “Is he sick?”
“We don’t know, dear,” someone said.
“Maybe I could heal him like I did the others,” the child’s voice offered.
“I don’t know …” That was Kyla. Maybe she would persuade them all to get out and let him be.
But no. His mother was saying, “That’s a wonderful idea, Veronica. Yes, please try.”
A small hand clasped his wrist, and he felt—
He felt anger. Ravening, unreasoning rage that drove him to his feet.
The child screamed and fell to the floor. Stepping over her, he faced his tormentors. Kyla bent and reached for the girl. That put Marta opposite him. Good. He didn’t care whom he started with. He would punish them all.
Kyla realized almost immediately that Veronica didn't need her help. The girl was conscious and looking around with a dazed smile.
Jerome, though, was shouting like a madman. “You kept me from getting power, all of you. And, you, Ed, took me to that desolate place of yours and left me in a rat-filled courtyard, and when I tried to get out, the stones fell. A voice offered to free me if I'd do its bidding, and I turned it down, but I’m sorry now that I did. I’ll take the offer.” He lifted his face toward the ceiling and yelled louder, “Hear me? I’ll do what you said. I’ll kill them all.”
He pointed his finger at Marta.
Ed jumped in front of Marta and grabbed Jerome’s wrist, but not before a flame spurted from his pointing finger.
In the next instant, Ed, Jerome, and the stream of fire all disappeared, leaving behind a thin trail of smoke, acrid fumes, and a transient heat.
“No!” Marta shouted. “Ed, come back!” She began to weep.
Kyla stood and put her arms around her friend. “Ed’s strong, Marta. He’s taken Jerome back to
his ‘special place,’ wherever that is. He can deal with him there.”
Veronica struggled to her feet and tugged on Kyla’s arm. “Miss Kyla, what happened?”
“Yes, whatever made Jerome behave that way?” Mother Esterville asked in a shaky voice.
“I think …” Kyla spoke slowly, marshaling her thoughts. “I think that somehow Veronica’s touch awakened his anger. You did heal him, I think, Veronica. He'd lost the capacity to feel and you restored it. Unfortunately, what he felt was anger.”
“Maybe,” Marta suggested, “Veronica passed her anger to him.”
Kyla considered. “I suspect that the anger she’s been feeling somehow came from him, and she merely returned it to him.”
“Then perhaps Veronica has been using his power and really has none of her own,” Abigail said. “If that’s the case, she can stay here, and so can Leah and I.”
Kyla caught hold of Veronica’s hand and felt for the familiar vibration of power. It was there and strong. “No,” she said. “She gave Jerome back his anger, but the power is hers.”
“What does any of this matter?” Marta cried. “We have to find Ed.”
Beside the brook in his special land Ed tore off his smoldering shirt and scooped up water to cool his chest. He had deflected Jerome’s murderous flame in time to avoid being badly burned; his chest hair was singed, that was all.
“Not back here again,” Jerome said with a groan. Then, more brightly, he added, “But I have power now, too.”
“Yes, and you use it wrongly,” Ed turned to face his foe. “You had no cause to be angry with any of us. We saved your life, yet you were ready to kill us. Why?”
“You abandoned me the last time we were here,” Jerome said. “I hung upside down in a rock pile in that courtyard until the rocks fell and buried me.”
“I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t cause it—and I didn't abandon you. I came back and pulled you out of that rock pile and got you to Abigail, who healed you. Considering that I brought you here in the first place to keep you from murdering me, I don’t think you have reason to complain.”
Bringers of Magic (Arucadi Book 2) Page 30