Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light (33 page)

After carefully checking a few more corners before walking around them, Jennifer finally found her mother in an examination room, fully dressed. She was thanking a colleague and picking up her jacket and pocketbook.

“Hey, honey!” Elizabeth’s face shone through the new wrinkles she had inherited from Evangelina. “Clean bill of health. You ready to go?”

“Am I.”

“How did it go with the mayor?”

“My chat with Mayor Seabright,” said Jennifer pointedly, “was the least disturbing of those I’ve had since you dropped me off.”

That night, lying in bed, Jennifer thought of Bob Jarkmand and the forgone burgers and movie date. Maybe I can hook him up with Susan, she thought with a wicked smile on her face.

The waxing crescent moon shone just outside her window. She stared at it for a long time, delving deep into its shape. As she scanned the craters and mountains on its surface, she felt a small snap inside. Though she couldn’t see it, she knew the crescent phase was over, and another change had come. In this world at least, she thought to herself.

Without knowing why, she rolled over and began to cry for the sister she had barely gotten to know.

Even though it was a Saturday, Jennifer woke up and got dressed early so that she would be ready for Catherine. Today the two of them would just drive around Winoka, she decided over breakfast. Maybe visit Eddie in the hospital, if his father wasn’t around and his mother didn’t mind. Or was that too fast? The memory of Ms. Blacktooth in her hospital bed, solemnly nodding, intrigued her.

“Mom?”

Her mother was at the new kitchen table, serenely chewing oatmeal while sitting in the midst of buckets of plaster, cans of paint, and rolls of plastic. Right there, Jennifer thought briefly. That’s where she drove her sword into the floor. She took a quick step forward as she realized she was standing on the spot where she had found her mother’s unconscious body.

“Yes, honey?”

“Do you ever think things might be right again, between you and Mrs. Blacktooth?”

Elizabeth chomped her oatmeal thoughtfully—her mother’s cooked oats were frightfully chewy—before answering, “If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t keep living next door.”

“Huh. Do you think maybe she feels the same way?”

Her mother could only shrug.

Maybe we can start there, Jennifer told herself. It seemed strange to begin with the woman who had nearly sliced her apart last spring. But such was life in Winoka, it seemed.

Lost in ambassadorial thought, she jumped at the sound of the doorbell, five minutes before Catherine was due to arrive.

It wasn’t Catherine. It was Susan. The nose bandages were gone, the black eye was brownish yellow, and the perky smile was back in those flushed cheeks.

“Good, you’re up. Let’s go do something!” The brunette curls bounced as her friend leapt through the doorway. Jennifer could barely keep up with her as she glided past the construction work in the hallway and picked an orange out of the bowl on the kitchen counter. “Only problem is, my dad’s back, and of course the car’s wrecked, so I’m in trouble. Though I think the bandages and black eye were good for a little sympathy.”

“So suffering severe injury is your new way of avoiding trouble? Brilliant.”

Susan gave her a sour look and stuck out her tongue. “Anyway, he says I can’t use any car for a month now; and I have to clean the basement, which is the spookiest pocket of cement you’ve ever seen. I’m certain zombies live there. Ugh, it’ll be so cool when I just have a real license! Hey, the little dragon guy!” She pointed at the spot on the windowsill where Jennifer’s birthday present kept silent vigil. “It looks good there! So anyway, what do you want to do? We could—”

The doorbell rang again.

They opened the door to what appeared at first glance to be a young Egyptian queen. Definitely older than Jennifer or Susan, the young woman had a mahogany complexion, jet-black hair pulled back in a bun, and the highest cheekbones either of them had ever seen.

It wasn’t until Jennifer spotted the blue Mustang convertible in the driveway that she gasped in recognition. Of course, she had never seen this girl or her family as anything but a trampler dragon before.

“Funny,” she chuckled while tossing her own platinum hair. “I had you pegged for a blonde.”

Catherine stepped up and gave Jennifer a hug. “I’m glad I made it! I was so freaked out when I reached the city limits. Grammie Winona told me not to stop, not even for the police, until I had you with me in the car.”

“Winoka’s not that bad!” Jennifer protested. “You’ve just got to get to know it.”

“Which we can all do together,” Susan interrupted quite seriously without breaking eye contact with the driveway, “in this wonderful, wonderful girl’s beautiful, beautiful car. Whoever the heck she is.”

Jennifer introduced Catherine to Susan, and then to her mother.

“So,” Catherine asked as they sat down together at the kitchen table, “what do you want to do today? I think—”

The doorbell rang a third time.

“Eddie!” Jennifer took an astonished step back. “You’re out of the hospital!”

“Got clearance this morning.” The left side of his face was one big bruise, and he was favoring his right leg, but his sparrowlike frame stood tall in the doorway. “I, er, huh.” He shook his head and gave a rueful glance across the yard to his own house. “I’m kinda here to see your mom. And you, of course. Can I come in?”

“Sure.” She followed him down the hallway, smelling the faint odor of unshowered boy. Once they were in the kitchen, she answered her mother’s shocked expression with a confused shrug of her own.

“Hey, Dr. Georges-Scales.” Jennifer couldn’t help noticing her mother’s warm smile at the proper address. Eddie was one of the few people who had always gotten it right. He looked nervously at Susan, who gave him a halfhearted smile. “Hey, Susan. Um, hi…”

“Catherine.” They shook hands.

“Nice to meet you, Catherine. Um, Dr. Georges-Scales, there’s no easy way to ask this.”

Elizabeth stood, face lined with concern. “What do you need, Eddie?”

He took a deep breath. “I need a place to stay. For a while.”

“My goodness, Eddie. Sit down. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Catherine and Susan diplomatically gave up their seats and retreated to the living room as Eddie and the Scales women sat down. Within a few moments, Jennifer heard the stereo playing brass quintet music, which she knew Susan hated but no doubt afforded some sort of privacy to their kitchen conversation.

“It’s Dad,” Eddie explained tersely. “He’s thrown me out. Or maybe I left. It doesn’t really matter which.”

Jennifer reached out and gently took his hand. “Was it because I stopped by your room yesterday? Or because of the sword I broke? Or because of Evangelina? Because I could try to—” She stopped. What? Apologize? Unlikely.

He smiled grimly. “All of that and more, but this has been a long time coming. Ever since…” He choked on the words. “Ever since I betrayed you last spring, we’ve had problems. It was just a matter of time before things got out of hand. Last night at the hospital, he and I finally engaged in open hostilities, right in front of my mom. I can’t believe I let that happen,” he added quietly, as if to himself. “She’s still pretty fragile, and it hurts her to move. She actually had to sit up and scream in pain to get me to stop. And even then, Dad wouldn’t quit. He went on and on about how I was a failure, and how I’d lost his precious sword, and how I had shamed the Blacktooth name. He told me if I had been worth anything, I would have helped my mother and she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“But you saved her!” Jennifer felt the bile rise into her throat. “And he just stood there on the—”

Her mother’s hand on her elbow was signal enough.
Everyone here knows this already, honey. Let him talk
.

“He finally left, after my mother yelled at him to get out. But not before he forbade me from coming home. I told him I wouldn’t live under the same roof with him again if dragons burned down every other house in town—no offense, Jennifer.”

She waved the comment away. “So you stayed at the hospital last night?”

“Yeah, in a sleeper chair. I didn’t feel right leaving Mom after all that, anyway. This morning, she told me I should report here.” He looked up at Elizabeth. “She told me to stay at a friend’s house, and she said that’s what this was. She made sure to have me tell you that.

“So,” he finished nervously, scratching the back of his long neck with dirty fingernails. “What do you say?”

Elizabeth bit her lip and communicated silently with Jennifer:
He can stay, right
?
For my friend
?

Of course he can, Mom
.

“We’re so glad you came here, Eddie.” Elizabeth stood up and gave Eddie a hug. “You stay as long as you like. I’ll make up the guest room, and you can call your mom and tell her not to worry.” She spared a glance at the kitchen clock. “Heck, I’ll tell her myself when I go on shift in an hour.”

“Thanks, Dr. Georges-Scales.”

Susan appeared in the kitchen, bouncing up and down on her toes. “I see people hugging! Can I play?”

Eddie chuckled, wiping his face. “Sure. I’m sorry we argued at school, Susan. And I’m sorry for what I said.”

“Forgiven. I’m sorry I hocked a loogie in your face.” She laughed, holding him tight.

Looking at Eddie, Susan, and now Catherine in the kitchen together, Jennifer suddenly realized what she wanted to do today.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get in that car.”

They opened the door just in time to catch Skip ready to ring the doorbell.

There was a tense moment as he and Eddie stared at each other, but then Skip shook himself and offered Eddie his hand. Jennifer sighed in relief as Eddie took it, thinking of her mother’s words:
There is always hope
.

“Okay,” she declared. “Let’s make sure we all know each other. I’m Jennifer Scales and I’m half-dragon, half-beaststalker. This is Skip Wilson. He’s my ex-boyfriend, he’s super smart, and he can turn into the ugliest freaking scorpions and spiders you’ve ever seen. This is Catherine Brandfire. She’s a trampler dragon, and she can’t hunt or fly to save her own life—”

“Hey!”

“—but she has a Ford Mustang convertible and a driver’s license, so she is a goddess unto us. This is Eddie Blacktooth. He’s a beaststalker and his father would like to see all of us dead, but Eddie’s the best kid you could ever hope to grow up with. And this is Susan Elmsmith.” She turned and placed her hand on Susan’s arm. “She’s incredibly loyal, and the most special friend I have. I owe her so much.”

Susan blushed furiously through a wicked grin. “You’re right. We’ll start with dibs on the front passenger seat.”

“We’re all going to hang,” Jennifer announced, looking at each of them in turn. “We’re going to get along. And we’re not going to keep secrets from each other anymore. Right?”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

A pause. “Right.”

Jennifer didn’t catch the hesitation: She had turned to call back to her mother down the hallway.

“We’re going out now.”

“Where?” Her mother’s voice sounded serene over the sound of rinsing dishes.

Her gray eyes twinkled. “We’re all going to Crescent Valley.”

The crash of a glass shattering on the kitchen floor made Jennifer smile. Her mother’s head appeared in the hallway, laced with an expression of awe and admiration.

“Are you serious, honey?”

Jennifer flexed the finger that wore the Ring of Seraphina. There was a new moon in the sky, but the gateway would always be open to her now. “Yep. We’re definitely going. I’ll get Dad’s approval once I’m there.”

Elizabeth bit her lip anxiously, longing filling her emerald eyes. Jennifer knew exactly what she was thinking.

“We’ll be back soon,” she promised. “You should go to the hospital. You have your own friend to catch up with. In a day or two, maybe you and I can go back to Crescent Valley to see Dad together.”

Her mother rewarded her with a brilliant smile—and to Jennifer’s delight, all of the years Evangelina had stolen came tumbling back in a youthful instant. “Thanks, honey. See you later. Love you!”

“Love you, too.” She turned back to her friends. “I hope you all can swim!”

The five of them held hands as they walked down the sidewalk and plunged together into a waiting world.

EPILOGUE
Rebirth

«
^

The eternal crescent moon was dark and silent. Only the reflection of an unseen sun off the lunar surface gave Evangelina any sense of bearing or direction.

Even without this light, the path was clear. The venerables moved in only one direction, and their numbers stretched as far as she could sense, both before and behind.

Brothers. Sisters. Fathers. Mothers. Cousins. They were all there, a family of nearly infinite size, dating back thousands of generations. Evangelina still had bittersweet memories of her own brothers, but those were not the only ones she had any more. It would take Evangelina an eternity to absorb the new and sundry recollections that surrounded her—lives full of happiness and grief, fear and passion, and above all…hope for those still below.

She thought of Father’s new wife again and felt some of her own sorrow and guilt slowly strip away.

The shape closest to her reached out, with his thoughts and memories. Evangelina took it all in, but lingered over the joy. She felt her first genuine smile as she recognized the memories of a child, and a child’s bride, and a child’s child. There was so much within that future to look forward to.

Suddenly, the host caught fire, their sign to new arrivals in the valley below. A sheet of flame swept through them all, each spirit adding their own breath to the conflagration.

Family
!
Friends
!

She exulted in the thought.

Easing closer to her grandfather’s shape as they flew together, she let him feel her own joy.

She would never be alone again.