Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy) (32 page)

T
he smell of cleaner touched my nose and I was startled into wakefulness. I was convinced I had been kidnapped again until my hands grabbed a quilt and I became entangled in my sheets.

“Relax.”

Moira came over and sat next to me, picking up the pillow I had thrown to the floor. She placed it behind my back.

“Everyone’s fine.” She smiled hesitantly.

I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out. I tried again. Only a croak emerged.

“I’ll get you some water,” Moira said and left our small bedroom.

I sat up, trying not to panic. Her cleaning supplies sat on the dresser and snow still obscured my view out the window. The sun hid behind low, grey clouds. Within a minute, Moira came back with a glass of water and Seth and Garrison on her heels.

They crowded my bed, asking me how I felt and what had happened. I raised a hand to quiet both of them and then raised my eyebrows at each in turn, the universal sign of demanding an explanation.

Garrison sighed. “They ran off,” he said. “I fought the steely-looking one. His magic was stronger, but he was mostly spent. The weird one ran off first. I thought you were going to tear that bald one apart.” He grinned at me. When I continued to look confused, he explained.

“That storm you brewed up was deadly. We were fine, but I thought you were going to shred them to pieces. Spent all your energy, though.” He ruffled my hair. I raised my hand to brush him off and winced at the sight. Small cuts marred my arm like freckles.

“Mirror,” I croaked.

Seth hesitated but brought me a small mirror from the dresser.

A gasp escaped my lips, even if I had prepared myself. I was covered in little cuts that had begun to heal, but I could only hope the majority wouldn’t scar. My face looked similar to when I had had chicken pox as a child.

Moira gently took the mirror from me.

“You saved us,” Garrison said. I shook my head and motioned to all of us. It hurt to speak. Everyone saved us.

“No.” Garrison lowered my hand back onto the bed. “You did. You had a plan. You stepped up to the challenge. We beat them this time. You knew how to …” he gestured, looking for the right words, “… get to that place. The magical place. We thought we lost you.” He squeezed my hand.

“After the strange one ran and the grey-haired one lost his grip on the earthquakes and was beaten back by Garrison, it was easy to get into their heads.” Seth shook his own head as if to clear it. “It was … confusing … but I encouraged them to leave. To forget about us. I don’t know how well it worked or how long it lasted. I was barely able to get to the bald one, though. You had him surrounded.”

The magic had felt as if I held it in my fingers. I had moulded it and wrapped it around the man I hated. I could barely even feel the magician behind the power I sent at him. I didn’t know if I had a goal — I knew not to kill him, but what was I trying to do? I shook my own head. The night already felt like another life. I didn’t like the feeling of having so much power in my grip. I didn’t like the hate I had sent into the storm and at the magician. After everything that had happened, it was feeling the hate and wishing to hurt that caused me to feel least like myself.

“We’re safe for now, I think,” Garrison explained. “Kian said —”

Suddenly, my heart sped up in a panic. I tried to get out of bed. Seth forced me back down. I could tell he understood.

“Kian?” I asked, hoarse.

Seth looked to Garrison, and Garrison looked to Moira. The way they all avoided me made my stomach sink and my panic increase. Tears sprang to my eyes. Seth saw them and rushed to explain.

“Don’t worry — you lessened the magicians’ reach and Moira was able to get to him. He’s fine,” he said.

I sighed in relief. If I had the voice to scold him for making me worry, I would have.

“But,” Seth began, “he left.”

My eyes widened and I didn’t have to speak for my question to be understood.

“He said he would only hold us back,” Garrison continued. “He … explained everything. He told us what happened to you, and what he did.”

My hand was at my throat, trying to soothe the lump that was growing. My heart felt like a cold stone in my chest. A silence grew between us.

I waited for them to reveal their verdict on his betrayal. I reached out towards Seth, taking his hands in mine. His eyes widened.

“Yeah,” he ducked his head, “he told me that part too … it’s weird … him being the older brother now.…”

Another silence stretched.

“We’re not mad,” Garrison said finally. “I think he did help us. He made us ready. And, if you forgave him, then the rest of us had no reason not to. But he still wanted to leave.”

I ached with the knowledge that I could not see him or touch him. A hollow appeared in my chest. It echoed with sorrow and loss. I felt the tears well up again.

Moira rushed into action. “We’ll give you a few minutes to rest,” she said, already nudging the other two up and out the door. She gave me a smile, and for the first time I felt true kindness from her.

Though I was ashamed of it, as soon as the door closed, I allowed myself a few quiet sobs as tears spilled over. The lack of Kian’s guidance and friendship, coupled with the new magic resonating inside my body, scared me. I needed someone to lean against.

The magic I had used from the earth now beat inside me in a different rhythm than my heartbeat. Though more powerful than ever before, I felt like I was about to melt into the earth and disappear. I needed someone to tell me I was real.

Eventually, I pulled myself together and decided I would have plenty of time for self-pity later. I left the bedroom and was able to pass Garrison and Moira question-free. I grabbed a piece of bread, and putting on Moira’s coat came out to the front yard, where a rough wooden fence jutted out from the house and into the landscape. Seth sat on it.

“How long was I out?” I asked.

“Just the night. You used up all of your energy. When we found you looking like a horror movie, I just thought the worst.” Seth rubbed his arms against the cold, even though he wore a jacket. “It felt like I lost you all over again. In my past life, when I waited for you the day we died, I thought we were going to have a life together. When you didn’t show up, I thought you tricked me.”

I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he went on.

“I thought you had got me away from the village so that you could sacrifice yourself and keep me safe,” Seth said. “I should have had faith in you. Imagine how things would have been different if I would have just had faith in the person I loved.” He buried his face in his hands. “Then when I got to the village and saw you weren’t there … I don’t know what I thought. I didn’t think anything. You appeared, and it was like I wanted to live again. Then I died.”

I didn’t know what to say. Seth raised his face and eyed me with an intensity I had rarely seen in him. I had been so focussed on my own past I hadn’t considered his side of it. The look reminded me of Kian and I marvelled at how I hadn’t seen it earlier.

“Just don’t die again,” he told me. “Okay? It was hard enough to find you again the first time.”

I nodded, smiling.

“Why did he leave without saying goodbye?” I asked, taking a seat next to Seth. My gaze followed his onto the grey horizon.

“I don’t think he could have said goodbye to you,” Seth replied.

“Not even a note?”

“Nope.”

Disappointment invaded. “Did he say where he would meet us?” I asked.

“Home,” came the reply.

I chewed my lip. “I don’t know what that means,” I admitted. “I don’t know where that is.”

We sat quietly for long moments, staring out into the white expanse. I would find him, but our task was not over. The magicians had revealed a lot in their attempt to take my power and enslave my soul. I didn’t want any of my friends to go through that. As if sensing where my mind was, Seth spoke.

“We’re too strong for them,” he said. “They need to collect more magic, but we might not be worth the trouble anymore.”

“Well then it looks like we have a mission,” I said. A small smile found its way to my lips, even though my heart was in despair. I felt vulnerable without Kian, but a sense of purpose helped to fill the void. At least for now.

“And what’s that?” Seth turned to me, his curious eyes holding a glint of excitement.

“We find the others before the magicians do,” I replied.

We had stormed the castle together, side by side. I remembered it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. I had seen the faces of my kind. Seven in total.

I want to thank everyone whose support and encouragement allowed me to turn this idea into a reality. My friends and family who shared my excitement and enthusiasm about magic — no matter how ridiculous, and never told me I was crazy. In particular, a big and overdue thank you to Ann Dooley and Anne Connon at the Celtic Studies department at the University of Toronto. You were the first to show me the reality in the stuff of legends — and continued to patiently entertain my wild and unfounded hypotheses about the past, encouraging me to keep at it. Thank you to Allister Thompson, my editor, who was the first person in the world to read this story and the last one to see it before it got packaged into the book you are holding.

Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council’s Writers Reserve Program for assistance in bringing this project to fruition.

I also want to thank every reader, since without you there would be no point in putting the stories in my head and heart down on paper.

There’s a wink in this book for every one of you.

Copyright © Lucy Leiderman, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Editor: Allister Thompson

Design: Courtney Horner

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Leiderman, Lucy, author

Lives of magic / by Lucy Leiderman.

(Seven wanderers trilogy)

Issued also in print formats.

ISBN 978-1-4597-0848-8

I. Title.

PS8623.I37L59 2014 jC813'.6 C2013-902951-6

C2013-902952-4

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