Neophyte / Adept (49 page)

“Think about it. Ravenseal is tottering. The Master House
wants
them. And when they say they come
for you, Ravenseal comes on behalf of
them
.
Surely you know this?” said Laurinaitis. “If we do not come for them, the
Grigori will come for us––that is their plan. We grow our
numbers––but so do they. And there are other
parties
involved, such as the Master House. Our story’s getting out
of hand. The Magister Equitum will wish us to speak coherently, you two.
Everything depends upon it.”

Asher and Manon were back. Manon looked tousle-haired. “I
was sleeping,” she said. “Hello, Halsey.”

“Hi.” I nodded. “But why me?” I said. “Who am
I
?”

“The two shall be explained,” said Laurinaitis. “But right
now, as an answer to your question, I will say this––it was your
parents, Kinsey and Max R, who set things in motion. A greater Gathering may
indeed be in order down the road, where others will be included, but for now
let us rattle this out together. Ballard knows everything of which I’m about to
tell you.

“How
does he know?
It’s simple. As Head Wolf, Ballard is privy to certain
inside
information. As was Lorenzo before him. But unlike Ballard
and Gaven, Lorenzo got in the face of the Quirinal,” said Laurinaitis.

“The Quirinal had forgotten the Last War, you see, or wished
to. When the covenant was signed, that was the end of it.
But
for the Grigori....

“The aftermath resulted in a xenophobic desire of
sorts––
you to your corner, we
to ours
. Even those few of the Lenoir––who had taken on the
name of the great wizard––as a hunter will display his
horns––were excommunicated, banished from the city. Rome fell to
ruin and the werewolves to their bane––that of willful ignorance.
Rome used to be very cosmopolitan. But the Quirinal wished to forget everything.
The war, the other sides... Even,” said Laurinaitis, “their own magic.
Yes.
The werewolves have some.
Occasionally, one or two of them will discover it. Meanwhile, the rest of them
feel content to put it in its box, until today they do not know they possess
it. Don’t you know that the Sons and Daughters of Romulus happen also to be
Wiccans? We all do. But Wiccans of a certain type. Magic is in
many
voices, Miss Rookmaaker.”

“It’s true,” said Manon. “Magic split, but we all got a
piece. Even the werewolves.”

“What about the Grigori? Do they have Magic?” I asked,
thinking about Rayven, and wondering if his mark could be explained some other
way. If perhaps Lenoir had
given
it
to him, specifically, and the others were merely nasty?

“The Grigori have a brand of magic; so do the Sons and
Daughters of Romulus; so do we. Eclectics is a term traditional Wicca-craft
uses to shun. The Three wish to remain elite, and so are limited. And that is
good,” said Manon.

“The real purpose in Hiving,” said Laurinaitis, “was as a
check against The Second War. The Wiccan purges, they called it. Wizards and
witches were wiped out during the war––killed mainly by each other.
The otherkins being in it, we acquitted ourselves well, but blood was
everywhere, and on everyone’s hands, including the vampires. It made it
convenient
that so few wizards and
witches were left. Their numbers fit with the number thirteen.
Thirteen-or-greater became a rallying cry of sorts––covens had to
split, hive. Peace was the order of the day––like the reduction of
nuclear arms––but a false peace. Everyone knew the Dark Order still
existed. But who cared, if in the short-term wounds could be healed, and the
days of darkness finally be forgotten?

“I have often thought of those three words:
The
Last War. Is it the last war because
there is another one coming? Or is it the last war because we all die and so
magic will be wiped from the universe? In any event, the Last War never really
ended. It simply stopped.”

“At the beginning of this, I asked you about rebirth, which
is the symbol on this necklace,” I said, “and
you
said it was like a compass, that there were four cardinal
points...”

I turned it up and saw the symbol for fire
,
which also meant north (or Prague) to me.

This was like that
.
Only inverted in a way. The vampire symbol became the symbol for otherkin: The
Grigori, the benandanti, and the Sons and Daughters of Romulus: or in my mind
werewolves and ailuranthropes.
.

The north symbol was also a delta or change. My fourth
Protector would have a connection to fire. Fire pointed north. All the way to
Selwyn. Could that be it or was I reading these tea leaves wrong? If this was
Lennox and that was Ballard, was I in a love triangle with them both? Did I want
to be? I remembered Infester’s words. He was really the symbol
master––the one who taught me they came before us––that
the symbols were the key to my own destiny and the destiny of others.

Rebirth...
 
This swirl doodad, here, factored in,
somehow.

Laurinaitis held up the necklace. And here I thought I was
done with the symbols.

“The four points, North, South, East, West, are for the
Watchtowers,” he said, “the protettori as they were called, those who defended
Magic.” He seemed determined to make me “get it.” Some Chosen One. Everyone at
the table looked at me like I was clueless; I felt like I was. Excuse me if I
had never been indoctrinated before.

“Before he died, Pendderwenn told me my
parents
were Watchtowers. Powerful Wiccans, he called them. But who
are
the Watchtowers?” I said.

“
It
’
s
who they
were
,
”
said Laurinaitis pointing the triangle back down.

Grabbing some carrot sticks off his plate, Laurinaitis
chomped them, until he made this symbol:

“This is the Wiccan symbol for EARTH,” he said.

He dipped his finger into the salad dressing. “
Earth.
Air.
Fire.
Water.”
He drew them all out, joining them together.