Neophyte / Adept (26 page)

“My marker is worthless now,” said Julius Pendderwenn, and
held it up. I could see a golden thirteen etched upon it. “Worthless!” he
shouted. With Vittoria gone, there would not be a thirteenth pick. He stormed
out of the place.

A part of me was, like,
You
thought I was going to be picked last, Julius Pendderwenn?
But Veruschka
Ravenseal was waiting for me. I stepped across the sandpit and reluctantly took
her outstretched hand. She pulled me close to her, and began looking critically
at me.

“You’re better than I thought,” she said.

But what did that mean for Vittoria? Was she really just
going to
leave
the Gathering? She
would be outcast. An eclectic. Unschooled.

* * *

I spent the rest of the day with Veruschka Ravenseal and her
people––what looked to be various servants with a lot of measuring
devices. They wanted to get a look at my Wiccan Mark. “I want to see what I’m
dealing with,” said Veruschka Ravenseal.

I was still not used to it. To her.

“Absolutely not,” I said. I yanked my arm out of her reach.
The move felt petulant. Like I was being stubborn or something. I was.

“Suit yourself,” she said. “But I hope you’ll begin to think
of me as you should: as a friend, and as a mentor, and as your mistress, Halsey
Rookmaaker. Or should I say Halsey Ravenseal? Isn’t that odd, now?”

“What is?” I said.

“Your name. They’re both HRs. Like in House Ravenseal.
Halsey Rookmaaker.”

She dismissed her servants.

We were in a well-lit chamber off the Star Room. What I
realized must be her private offices.

“Well, don’t be shy,” she said, and beckoned me over to a
seating area––two chairs and a table. “Tea?” she asked, offering me
some. She lifted the pot from the service and poured two cups.

I sipped my tea and said, “Why did you pick me? I thought
you were supposed to pick Vittoria.”

“Yes, we saw that in her.”

“We?” I said. “What did you see?”

“Me. I saw what I saw. When you rule your own House, Halsey,
you––that is to say, I––am obliged to take my own
council into judgement. I prefer to talk to lots of
mes
.”

“What about Lux?”

“He’s a Styles Master, the quartermaster, a glorified
servant, but you, I have big plans for you, Miss Ravenseal,” she said. She took
a sip of her tea and winked at me.

“But what if I don’t
want
to be a part of your big plans?” I said.

Her smile hardened over her teacup. “See here. You owe me
your allegiance. Is that understood? Don’t want it?
Of course you do.
You’re a twelfth. In Wicca, that is the luckiest
number.”

That may have been, but Veruschka was number one. Maybe this
was what Vittoria had been talking about, when she said she wouldn’t trade
places with me if she could.

“Did you recruit Vittoria, and then pass her over for me?” I
said.

“See here. I don’t think you know what’s going on. You are a
Ravenseal now. And that, Halsey,
means
something. I looked at Vittoria. Sure I did. But I didn’t like what I saw, if
you take my meaning. Now enough fun and games. I leave for Prague tomorrow. You
shall follow after me, unless you wish to become homeless
and
Houseless. It’s a hard life. The Ravenseal name carries with it
certain expectations––as well as responsibilities. We can’t just
take any old crafter we choose. That would be anarchy.”

“I heard you were supposed to go to the Master House,” I
said.

She looked uneasily at me.

“If it’s so great being Ravenseal,” I said, “why do you want
to change? If you’re my Mistress, who’s going to replace you when you leave?
Because I should be talking to her, don’t you think?”

She put her tea down––and slapped my face. Hard.
The smack reverberated around the room.

“Now you listen to me,” she said. Sparks flew from her eyes.
My face still stung where she had hit it with her Wiccan Mark. “If I tell you
to get down onto your hands and knees and scrub the floor, you will do it.
Including anything else I may want you to do. Is that understood? You’re a
nasty, ungrateful little monster, who needs to learn her place. I leave for
Prague tomorrow. You will be allowed some time to set your affairs in order,
and then someone will be sent to collect you. If you defy me, I will destroy
you. Is that understood? I won’t be made a fool, Halsey
Rookmaaker
.”

* * *

Dear Diary,

I don’t know what to
do; I could use a three-dimensional friend to talk to right now. Ballard is
MIA. Lia is spending the night with Gaven. You should’ve seen his face when he
picked her. Like he could breathe again.

Pendderwenn erupted;
which, for him, was saying something. He accused the Gathering of treachery; of
depriving House Pendderwenn of its rightful heir. I think I would rather go
with him than Mistress Ravenseal. Veruschka silenced him with a look; the rest
of the Houses booed Julius Pendderwenn. Vittoria, meanwhile, was absolutely
venomous.

But I was as stunned
as she was. I think Veruschka traded down. She must’ve thought I would still be
there at six. I wonder what she got in return?

The Houses have all
been negotiating all this time. September. October. November. December. This
whole One business is really important to them.

Some part of me
resisted, when Veruschka called me.

I think she saw it
because she got this impatient look on her face. Lux was as shell-shocked as
the rest of them. It was clear he had steeled himself for receiving Vittoria
No-Name into his Wiccan House. A House that is in Prague.

I looked at the twins.
I never noticed how
unnatural
-looking
they were. It made the hairs on my neck stand up.

When I looked at them,
I saw their minds; it wasn’t so much a House as a fortress. We looked at each
other keenly, when my new Mistress, whom I loathe, called me over.

“Who were those two?”
I said.

She made a sound like
a ship rattling. “Better you not know,” she said. It was clear she wanted to
depart with me.

“Is that it, then? Are
we going to Prague?” I asked.

The words coming out
of my mouth terrified me. I had never said goodbye to my landlady. It felt too
soon.

“No, but you are
finished with Lux, for now. He’ll want to get you back and train you properly.
Who knows? You may be the One, after all.”

“You mean you don’t
know,” I said.

“Of course not,” said
Veruschka Ravenseal. She was matter-of-fact, all business. “I chose you because
I thought you would be best for us. If you ask me, there isn’t a messiah
here––just some Wiccans and
other things
...” she said the last word dismissively.

“But what’s the plan
now?” I asked. The remaining judges had just dismissed everyone because of the
outbursts which had ground the selection process to a halt.

“Dinner and rest. And
then we finish up tomorrow. You’ll have time to arrange your affairs, of
course, and then someone will be sent to collect you.” She smiled and pinched
my cheek. “You are so young. You remind me of me when I was your age.”

I assumed she meant
her pre-blue hair days.

“Just tell me one
thing,” I said. “Do you think I can really fit in?”

“I think you have the
wrong idea of what a House is,” said Veruschka Ravenseal. “We don’t all sit
around and watch TV all day.”

She left me standing
there, staring after her.

I wondered if it were
really true that the Master House had been showing interest in her, and then,
if I could trust Veruschka Ravenseal? If she was a shoo-in, as it sounded like,
she would know more of the twins’ mission than she was saying. They had to be
here for a reason, didn’t they? Perhaps they were the two voices I had been
hearing. In which case, I would need to watch my step.

The twins had had a
strange symbol tattooed upon their faces. It ran from the bottom of their eyes.
Shaped like a tremendous twisted thorn, it went down their faces and seemed to
jump off at their chins. But it was their eyes––vacuous sucking
pinwheels I could not escape.

“Well, come on, then,”
said Veruschka Ravenseal.

* * *

I put the diary away. Why did it feel like everybody at the
Gathering had manica langas, long sleeves? I couldn’t trust any of them.
Selwyn, the twins, Pendderwenn. He would be more dangerous than ever. Perhaps
Pendderwenn would try to
start something
;
his marker had been stolen, after all, rendered obsolete. My friend and ally,
Asher, was nowhere to be found. I remembered he said he was coming back.
Okay. Something to look forward to. But
when?
I told myself. Lennox was agonizing. But Ballard... Ballard was the
one it hurt me to think about... He must’ve seen that Lia and I had been
chosen, but where was he now, and what was he up to? And did he even care that
I was no longer going to be in Rome? Perhaps he could breathe a sigh of relief.
I imagined it had to be hard for him, being my friend. I was always running
around trying to find things out.
My
parents. What was I doing––not only here but existentially so? And
blah blah blah.

No wonder Ballard wanted to get away from all that. He had
his own problems. I was so far outside of the Pack that I didn’t even know what
was going on anymore. Perhaps they were glad to be rid of me.

I could hear Ballard’s voice in my head. “You’re such a
drama queen, Halsey.”

I missed his friendship; I missed seeing him with a grease
rag in his hand. Our days
pre
- All of
This were something I missed terribly. I also missed being called Halls. Yet,
if I went with Veruschka to Ravenseal House I would be giving all that up,
wouldn’t I?

Somewhere Lux’s voice said to me, “You always have a
choice––even if it’s not a particularly good one, you have it.”

I had some soul-searching to do, and I couldn’t think of a
better way to do it, than on my Gambalunga, the bike Ballard had built for me.

* * *

I went to go start it up. The only problem was
somebody
else waylaid me. What was it
with me, walking down the halls at night?
First
one thing, then another
, I told myself. When I stopped.

A pair of ravenous dark eyes were staring at me, out of
slits in the pupils of cat’s eyes. “Asher?” I said.

But it wasn’t Asher. It was a tremendous black cat; its
glossy black coat rippling with muscles.

It stared out at me like the thing I had seen in my dreams
for the last four months, and then licked its tremendous snout with its heavy
cat tongue. I saw its fangs gleam.

Certain that I had seen it, it turned and looked back, like
I should follow it. I held my breath, undecided.

Was this what I had been seeing in my dreams? The black cat?
It looked like a panther. Which was a mythical creature. Supposedly not real.
Panthers did not exist. Much like a unicorn in that sense. Asher was a
wereleopard. And from what he had said, it sounded like he couldn’t shift. This
was something else.
Somebody else.
Because, when it looked at me, the cat registered an awareness that transcended
its species. It was some shapeshifter? It had to be. It wanted to show me
something. I decided to follow it.

We walked, the cat and I, through the corridors, to a place
I had never seen before. The vampire side of things. The cat’s heavy paws hit
the floor so lightly that I could swear it was not there. Maybe, in an
existential sense, I wasn’t either. I had to do my best to remain as silent as
it
was. Some things were absolutely
forbidden, and a living, breathing human Wiccan girl entering into the domain
of Maria and the Lenoir was certainly one of them. But then we veered off
again.

I could barely see anything. “Stop,” I said. The cat did as
instructed, licking its nose.

I freed my arm from the robe––the one with the
Wiccan Mark on it.

It was so faint, but the almost absolute darkness made my
Wiccan Mark
shine
in a way I had
never seen before. I could see it filling in. And, what was this? It was making
some interesting shape. But it was too soon to tell. I didn’t know what it was.
My Virtue was Ignorance, so far.

Concentrating as I had never done in my life, I tried to
cull forth the magic. It was hard, because I didn’t know how exactly. Lux had
never taught us. I guess he thought we would be too dangerous. Maybe that was
why they had a Gathering, to prevent us––and by that I meant the
other Wiccan Initiates and myself––from forming our own House.

Interesting idea
,
I thought.

It erupted in a dazzling flash the bright ball of light,
shivering in my open palm. “See? Now we can look where we’re going,” I said.

The cat blinked. It didn’t need the light.

But I
did
. “Okay.
I’m ready,” I said. “Let’s go.”

It seemed to nod, before leading the way.

Holding the ball of energy was an interesting experience. I
had seemed to
think
it into
existence, but only because I had seen Veruschka and some of the other fledged
Wiccans do it before. Maybe you had to see it, before you could do it.
Later.
There would be time later. All
the time in the world.

It shivered and hummed, the ball of energy. It was very
bright. Within its core was a darker ball of energy. What I assumed must be the
dark aether.

The cat continued to pad lightly through the
corridors––when my brain clicked on. “Selwyn?” I said.

It stopped.

“It
is
you, isn’t
it?” I said.

The cat turned and put its moon eyes upon me. But whether by
a trick of the light, which I held––or some other
magic––the yellow eyes, so fierce-looking, flashed suddenly
astonishingly mind-numbingly blue. A stunning flash of azure I had only ever
seen once before in Selwyn.
And I would
remember.
He had penetrated my mind before with those sapphire beauties.