She Who Rises

by Rachael Arsenault

  “Is everything alright?”

  I hastily swiped at my cheek but, judging by Farida’s concerned expression, she had already seen my tears. I let out a shaky sigh. “What are we doing?”

  She frowned, brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean what’s our plan? What’s our goal? When is this going to end?”

  “So all of this is bothering you…”

  “No — yes —I—” With a frustrated growl, I jumped to my feet and started pacing my little corner of the room. I didn’t miss the curious and disapproving look Masika shot my way. “I don’t blame you for this and I’m not mad at you or anything — I meant what I said earlier. But… I have my own life and my own goals and I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to get back to that. I know it hasn’t even been two full days yet, but we just keep hopping from squat to squat and it doesn’t seem like we have any real destination or plan.” I stopped pacing as I let out another sigh. “I just want to know what’s going on.”

  Farida glanced at Masika with a thoughtful frown. “Well, like I said earlier, usually our focus would be on tracking down stones through our network of contacts.” Masika’s scowl deepened at that, but Farida ignored her and pressed on, “This most recent drop is taking a lot longer than usual, though, so we’re just focused on staying away from Imani.”

  “Don’t you have to find a secure location to hide the stones in once you find magic ones? Should we be setting that up?”

  Farida shook her head. “It’s too risky. We keep them with us, and we’ll do so until we’ve found all of them. Then we’ll look at finding a way to ensure they’re sealed away — for good this time.”

  “You have multiple stones?”

  She nodded. “Masika carries them in that backpack she always wears.”

  The old woman shot her a withering look that could have stripped paint off walls. Farida, however, seemed unfazed.

  “Then why are we only using one each?”

  “The power of the stones can be corruptive as well as destructive,” Masika said, now turning that withering gaze on me. I did not have anywhere near the fortitude of Farida and cringed away, unable to meet her eyes. “I don’t want to send anyone to an early grave from the strain of wielding multiple stones, nor do I want to breed more greed and war mongering. Or was telling you about Arman not warning enough?”

  “So,” I said hesitantly, still not looking at her, “you just have them for safekeeping?”

  “Yes. We need to be sure this power doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Not that anyone else should be able to use them, but — well, we’ve been proven wrong on that account several times already.”

  Slowly, I lowered myself to sit on my sleeping bag. “Isn’t there a way you can keep networking to find more stones? Instead of just waiting on this one drop right here?”

  “In theory,” Masika said in a brittle voice, clearly not happy to be letting me in on a trade secret. “Normally we would try to arrange multiple pickups between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but lately the risk has been too high. I was going to cancel our most recent drop off before you showed up. Honestly, I still think we should cancel the drop off and stop collecting stones entirely until we’re sure it’s safe. If Imani is following us, I don’t want to lead her right to the nearest supply of possible magic stones.”

  “But doesn’t she know who your contacts are, anyway? She could be arranging her own pickups right now.”

  “That’s what I thought!” Farida said, looking to Masika with an eager expression. “We can’t let Imani get her hands on more power. And with the news of her being seen at the museum, she may already have. We need to—”

  “Take down Imani before we return to collecting the stones.” Masika gave her a stern look. “But you are not ready. We have warned our contacts. They know not to give her anything.”

  “But she knows who all our contacts are and where to find them. She could take things by force!”

  “And she could take us by force as well.” Masika’s voice was ice, her gaze daggers. “You are not ready.”

  Farida shrank back, bowing her head. I couldn’t help wondering what she wasn’t “ready” for — was it her prowess in a fight, or was it about being able to face off against her own family?

  And, more selfishly, I couldn’t help wondering where this left me. Would I just have to sit around and wait until Farida was ready? How long would it take to recollect the stones? And would accomplishing any of this bring me to a point where I could go back to my old life? That was a lot to deal with even before I worried about finding a way to clear my name with the police.

  “That’s more than enough talk for now,” Masika said. “We all need to rest.”

  I couldn’t argue with that; I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

  We settled down for sleep, Masika and I curled in the sleeping bags while Farida sat up on the couch. I lay on my side, peeking over at her through my eyelashes. The sun had fully risen by then, its light cutting through the grime on the windows to spread across Farida’s dark cheeks and tight braids. The house shifted and groaned in protest of the wind like a restless giant. If I hadn’t been so completely drained, I probably would have been wide awake from all the noise. As it was, I could barely cling to consciousness as I peered up at Farida, watching her bury her head in her hands and release a long, low, trembling sigh. I wanted to reach out and touch her hand, rub her back, offer her comfort in some way.

  But I was exhausted and it wasn’t my place.

  Chapter Eleven

  At about two in the afternoon, I jolted awake with the same suddenness of realizing I had slept in. My heart hammered as I stared up at the ceiling, trying to make my spinning mind focus on what it was I had missed, what I was going to be late for.

  But I was in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. There was nowhere for me to be. No schedule for me to adhere to.

  Still, it felt wrong to have slept so long.

  Farida greeted me with a smile when I crawled out from the sleeping bag. We had traded watch a few times throughout the day, and she looked refreshed despite seeming restless throughout our midday sleep. Handing me a granola bar from the food stash, she said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

  “Oh?” I glanced at Masika, who was already up and struggling to roll up her sleeping bag. At Farida’s words, however, she fumbled worse than ever and dropped the bag entirely, expression startled and less than impressed.

  Farida nodded, wringing her hands now that they were empty of food. “Fighting Imani is going to be hard enough without giving her time to gather more power. So we either need to beat her to the other stones — which we might already be too late for — or we need to track her down and… put a stop to this.” Though her expression remained firm and her voice was calm, Farida’s face had turned ashen.

  “I’ll train harder so I can help,” I heard myself blurt. What was I saying? I couldn’t fight!

  Farida looked taken aback. “That’s — you don’t—”

  “It’s part of her agreement, isn’t it?” Masika said. She was rolling her sleeping bag so aggressively that I wasn’t sure if she was trying to put it away or tenderize it like a steak.

  “Masika’s right,” I said in spite of myself. “I agreed to help you guys in your mission, and part of that clearly means helping you against Imani.”

  “Thank you,” Farida said, beaming at me now. It felt a little like looking at the glow of her firebird.

  Masika had finally given up on her sleeping bag and moved to Farida’s side. “And what about our new enemies? How do you plan to fight Imani and protect yourself from that woman’s scrying at the same time?”

  “It will take them time to get to where we are. I’m hoping it will be long enough for me to deal with Imani and then leave before they find us.”

  “A big gamble.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help noting her careful use of the phrase �
��deal with”. It made me worry she hadn’t fully come to terms with what she needed to do.

  “You’re sure about this?” Masika asked, softer now. Her expression was caught between a wild mix of emotions — something grim and sad, maybe defeat, but also a touch of pride.

  Farida nodded, visibly forcing her hands to stop fidgeting. “We can’t keep running. It will only end with us being cornered, unprepared and overpowered.”

  Masika sighed. She looked and sounded like her true ancient age. “Then I guess it’s time we reunite with your cousin.”

  ~

  It was a case of easier-said-than-done to actually determine where, exactly, Imani might be.

  After a meagre breakfast (er, supper? It was hard to label meals with our weird sleep schedule), the three of us gathered on the living room floor to lay out what we knew and how we could track down or lure out Imani. We knew she had been at the museum just after midnight the previous day, but she could have gone anywhere else since then. Farida said it was odd for her to be in the city at all. Imani had hated trips into Fredericton when they were kids. For her to be there now, she had to have a very specific purpose — and she would likely leave as soon as she got what she wanted.

  The only thing I could think to do was look through news sites. The police and, consequently, journalists seemed to think Imani and Farida were the same person, so if I found an article that reported seeing the “young African-American suspect” somewhere without me, then it was probably referring to Imani.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t having any luck finding anything. Worse, I was almost at my data limit. I felt bad enough leaving my parents a huge credit card bill without wracking up my phone bill on top of it. I needed wi-fi. We also needed food and water (Masika and Farida had been right — my grocery shopping had been deeply inadequate). I remembered the gas station we had visited earlier advertising free wi-fi.

  “Not worth the risk,” Masika said curtly when I brought up these concerns. She pulled her blue backpack onto her lap and was fumbling with one of the front pockets.

  “Masika, be reasonable,” Farida said. “We have to take some measured risks.”

  “So we take measured risks, not careless ones.” She had retrieved something from the backpack and held it out to me, her expression somehow simultaneously smug and sour. “Try this. I have data with it just in case, though I almost never use it.”

  I stared in disbelief. She was holding out a phone. A smartphone. “You had a cell phone this whole time and you never told me?”

  “I only use it for emergencies,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Farida, meanwhile, was leaning closer, a look of intrigue and surprise on her face. “I didn’t know you could get data with a burner phone. I thought it was just for calling.”

  “That’s all I really use it for, yes, but I knew a small amount of data might come in handy one day. So I bought some.”

  I took the phone from her, still in awe as the screen lit up and I swiped down the top menu so I could switch on the data. Well, it was too good to question further — we needed to find Imani and now I had exactly what I needed to do that. Theoretically, at least.

  As I continued Googling, Farida said, “It still might not be a bad idea to stop at a gas station again sometime, though. Otherwise we’ll starve and run out of gas.”

  “That might not be a bad thing.”

  I shot Masika a look. “You want to starve?”

  “I meant running out of gas. Continuing to drive the car is a big risk. It’s too recognizable. And even if someone doesn’t readily recognize it from the motel security footage, all the police have to do is run our license plate number and they know we’re the ones they’re looking for.”

  Scenes from all the crime dramas and reality TV cop shows my dad loved to watch flashed through my mind rapid fire. At the same time, I was trying to figure out how far we actually were from the city. “You think we should walk?”

  “No,” Farida said immediately, “way too slow. We’d be sitting ducks if anyone — police, Imani, or Tara and Patrick — came after us. The advantage of speed is worth the risk.”

  “I really think—” Masika began.

  “Nope. You’re outvoted on this one. The car stays.”

  Masika’s lips pressed into a thin frown, but she didn’t push the issue. I was equal parts relieved and uneasy. What if she was right? Were we driving into a disaster by holding onto the car?

  That was a problem for the future. Right now, I needed to focus on the task at hand.

  I went back to one of my old Google searches — “Friedman museum attack” — with the intent of skimming through one of the old articles for inspiration. However, a newer article popped up in the search results mentioning a third attack.

  “What kind of creature is in Imani’s stone?”

  “Apep,” Farida said immediately. “A giant snake that can burrow underground and create earthquakes.” Then she paused, her next words sounding anxious. “Why? What did you find?”

  “There was another attack this afternoon involving a huge serpent and—”

  “In broad daylight?” Masika said, aghast.

  “Yeah, apparently. But it’s weird. The article says a bunch of rough and cut gems were stolen in the attack that happened at midnight, but it didn’t appear that anything had been taken during this other break in.”

  “She must not have detected magic in the stones that remained there.”

  “So she’s probably moved on,” I said. How the hell were we supposed to figure out where she would go next?

  “Not necessarily,” Farida said slowly. “She probably went after whoever stole those other gems on the off chance that any of them are magical.”

  “Actually,” I said, with a growing sense of dread, “I think it’s more than that. When we were in that awful bedbug house, I looked up news about the attack this morning. They said some sort of… lion-bird creature was involved.”

  Masika cut a sharp look at me. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?”

  “I was a little distracted by running for our lives. Why? What is it?”

  She raised her eyebrows as though she had been asked a shockingly stupid question. “A magic creature from a magic stone.”

  “I got that. I mean what creature is it. Farida has Bennu. Imani has Apep. You called Tara’s monster a she-drake. So this thing is called…?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never encountered this creature before. And she-drake is not a name anymore than calling Bennu a firebird is naming him.”

  “Imani would definitely go after them,” Farida said, cutting off our digression. “She would be banking on the thief’s inexperience using magic. It means she can easily overpower them to take the stones they stole. Plus, she would be more concerned with keeping magic out of the hands of strangers than with maintaining secrecy. Making a spectacle is a worthy risk to her.”

  “So, if we find out who broke into the museum the first time, we might be able to find Imani?”

  “Exactly.”

  I chewed my lip. The idea made sense on the surface, but it didn’t have a solid foundation. “What about the police? It’s not exactly safe for us to waltz back into Fredericton and ask them about who robbed the museum. Especially not while you guys are also trying to block scrying.”

  “And, as I’ve mentioned before,” Masika added, “you, Farida, will have to stop focusing on blocking scrying if you get into a fight with Imani. If those other two catch up to us while you are busy with your cousin, there’s nothing to stop them from killing me.”

  “Okay, I get it,” Farida snapped, slumping back into her seat. “Bad plan. What else do you suggest?”

  “There’s nothing we can do about the police,” I said. “Not unless we miraculously find a way to clear my name of any association to the museum disaster.”

  “We don’t work that kind of magic,” Masika said.

  “Yeah, I gathered that.”

  “So we go after our scr
ying friends,” Farida said.

  I frowned at her. “Wouldn’t it be dangerous to seek them out? We don’t want to find ourselves facing off against Arman.”

  “Agreed,” Masika said. “Arman is far more powerful than you understand. The two of you would be no match for the kind of power he wields.”

  “We’re focusing on Tara and Patrick, not Arman.’ A dangerous smirk was playing at Farida’s lips. “And we don’t have to seek them out.”

  Chapter Twelve

  When we reached the gas station, we pulled the car over to a relatively empty corner of the lot. It was a lot fuller than it had been in the early morning hours, and that made me nervous. After some debate, we decided that I should run in for a quick resupply. Even though my face was better known on the news, Masika was the one at risk in the event of an attack from Tara and Patrick. She needed Farida with her for protection. Sure, we were trying to lure Tara and Patrick out by letting them scry on us on the road, but I still didn’t want to be attacked when we were out in the open. It was better if we had a chance to prepare ourselves and hide Masika.

  There was a gas can in the trunk we could fill up, I would buy a case of bottled water, and I was instructed to get canned and dried foods. I did so quickly, sweaty-palmed and nervous of looking anyone in the eye, and I was sure I was the most suspicious person on the planet. But no one looked twice at me.

  “All set?” Farida asked when I opened the back door of the car to put in all the goods I had bought.

  “Got the food, gas, and water. We’re good to head out.”

  Masika wasn’t impressed with our plan. And as much as I had to admit that it was a bit haphazard and based largely in speculation, it was also the safest way for us to draw out Tara and Patrick. We let them scry on us under the guise that we were just resupplying, then hope that they would follow us right to the Solar Panel House. We would be prepared this time. We’d fight them off and make sure they wouldn’t be a problem anymore, and then we could go after Imani without fearing they would show up and kill Masika while we were busy with her other, much scarier great granddaughter.