The Collected Christopher Connery (29 page)

“Xavier had a good time with you too. He told me so.” And
she wasn’t just saying that either. Sure, Xavier had been a little uncertain
about how to approach the whole Academy magician thing, but apparently Arthur
had been charming enough to override that. He’d actually asked her if Arthur
might be interested in keeping in touch after he went back to the Academy,
which forced to Gail to awkwardly explain that she didn’t think it’d be
possible. She was pretty sure Xavier hadn’t understood and she might have hurt
his feelings a bit, but he’d gotten the idea that asking Arthur for his Academy
address probably wasn’t a great idea.

But now Arthur was the one reaching out, so she supposed
that changed things. And since he was still watching her expectantly, she
carefully opened the envelope and read through the few lines written in
Arthur’s technically neat but painfully cramped handwriting. He hadn’t written
much. The note just thanked Xavier for spending time with him, told him what a
nice time Arthur’d had, and apologized for not being able to keep in touch. The
curt explanation,
It’s an Academy thing,
sounded bitter to Gail, but
that was probably because she knew the details. Xavier would probably take it
at face value and figure Arthur was just too busy with magician things to worry
about dating.

When she folded the letter and put it back in the
envelope, Arthur said, “Well?”

“It’s nice. He’ll be glad to get it.” Reaching behind her,
she tucked the letter into the pocket of her coat which was hanging off the
back of the chair. “I’ll pass it on.” She hesitated a moment, then figured it
was worth a shot. “If he wants to write back, can he –”

Arthur looked away.

“Got it. No problem. He’ll appreciate the thought.”
Seeing that she hadn’t exactly put Arthur back in the party mood, Gail poured
him a brimming drink from the cart and set the glass in front of him.

Picking up the glass, Arthur took a deep swallow then set
it down with a thud. “Thanks. And don’t worry about it. It wasn’t like I didn’t
know what I was getting into.”

Yeah, but sometimes that didn’t help. But Gail knew
bugging him about his troubles wouldn’t make them go away, so she settled for
topping off his drink and forcing him to look at the mayoral mansion article.
She managed to get a few laughs out him. By the time Nia woke up, he seemed to
have forgotten about his romantic troubles. Even better, Gail had almost
forgotten about the storm.

Almost.

She could still feel it at her back through the curtains,
but the room was warm and bright and that helped push the rain to the margins
of her thoughts. It didn’t hurt that Nia’s nap had revived her sunny cheer and
she soon had Arthur and Gail laughing as she tried to sing along with songs she
had never heard before on the radio.

As the afternoon slipped toward evening, Arthur got up,
stretching his arms over his head. “That might be all I have in me tonight.
I’ve got a novel to finish reading.”

“What about dinner?” Nia asked him, blinking at him. “You
can’t go hungry.”

After a moment of consideration, Arthur filled a plate
with lukewarm food from the cart and tucked a bottle of wine under his arm. “I
think I’ll be fine.”

“A book and a bottle, that man knows how to live,” Gail said
to Nia as Arthur walked to the door.

He saluted her with the bottle over his shoulder. It was
too bad Xavier had already gone back to Gracetown. Gail guessed Arthur would
probably have rather spent the night dancing with him than reading in his hotel
room. She wondered if he resented whatever was going on with her and Nia. She
hoped not.

After getting the door open – which involved some
skillful maneuvering of plate and bottle – he looked back and smiled. “Have a
pleasant evening, ladies. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“What wouldn’t you do, doc?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” He winked playfully and
left.

Nah, no resentment there. The doc was a good guy. Gail
hoped he ended up meeting someone nice at the Academy. Maybe even an
Illuminator, just to fuck with the higher-ups.

Nia kept watching the door for a moment after Arthur had
gone. Gail wondered if she was thinking something similar, but before she could
think of a way to ask, Nia hopped off of the bed, walked to Gail’s chair, and
told her to move over.

“This is a one person piece of furniture, you know,” Gail
said even as she shifted over to let Nia slide in between her and the arm.
“You’re not gonna be comfortable.”

“I’m just fine, thank you.” Nia rested her head on Gail’s
shoulder. When the thunder rumbled again, she curled closer.

Gail laughed, though she had to admit she was moved by
the protective gesture. “I’m all right, princess.”

“I never said you weren’t,” Nia murmured, forehead
resting lightly against Gail’s neck. “I just happen to be extremely fond of
this chair. If you will not relinquish it to me, you will have to share.”

Gail toyed with a lock of Nia’s hair. “I guess I can
tolerate that.”

As it turned out, Nia was not quite as fond of the chair
as she claimed, given how quickly she decided that they should both abandon it
in favor of the bed. That definitely helped Gail put the storm out of her mind,
at least for a little while. Later, curled warm under the blankets, drunk on
food and drink and Nia, the memories came back but fuzzier and more easily
felt. When Nia asked her what was on her mind, Gail found herself telling Nia
about Dad. Not everything, of course, but a little.

“That’s why you don’t like the rain,” Nia said softly.

“Well, that and the whole poisonous thing, but yeah,
that’s a big part of it.” She reached out and poked Nia in the forehead. “Don’t
look so glum, princess. It’s not your fault.” She turned her gaze toward the
ceiling. “It sounds like the storm’s let up a little anyway.” It was true. The
thunder was little more than a sullen growl and the rain’s steady pitter-patter
was hardly audible over the other sounds in the hotel.

Nia, clearly unconvinced, moved closer until her cheek
was pressed against Gail’s shoulder.

As she combed her fingers through Nia’s hair, Gail
wondered what Dad would make of this whole situation. Not only was Gail a PI,
she was a PI currently working to reassemble a criminal magician. Oh, and she
was a PI who took time out of said criminal-magician-reassembling to fool
around with an Illuminator.

She didn’t have to wonder very hard. Dad would have been
beyond proud of what she’d managed to accomplish in her career.
See,
Gail-baby,
he’d say.
I told you that you could do anything you put your
mind to. You were always that way, even before you were walking.
The rest
of it wouldn’t concern him all that much, he’d just tell her to be careful or
at least as careful as she could be.

And Nia? He’d like her.
She’s a sweet girl,
he’d
probably say,
and clever. You don’t always get those things together. Just
make sure she doesn’t work too hard. Some people don’t look after themselves
properly. Your mom was the same way.

She probably spent a bit too much time imagining her
dad’s voice.

Nia shifted closer to kiss her cheek and Gail turned her head
to return the kiss properly, letting the memories run away like water down a
drain.

The next morning, the storm had faded to a light drizzle
and Gail was carrying a disembodied head in a hat box under her arm. She’d
gotten off easy. Arthur was carrying the largest suitcase they had and in that
suitcase were Connery’s arms and legs.

“Why are we bringing him with us?” Gail asked, waiting
for Arthur to wedge his suitcase into the trunk before setting the abnormally
heavy hat box on top.

“Nia said she’s not sure where the next part is,” Arthur
answered, slamming the trunk closed. “She says we may not make it back to the
hotel tonight, so we should take everything with us just in case.”

Gail didn’t much like the sound of that. It reminded her
too much of Nia’s earlier plan of camping out in the subway tunnels. Hopefully
Nia had learned her lesson after that particular disaster, especially since the
complimentary food and lodging had been the best part of this whole assignment.

An unfamiliar giggle turned her head. Nia had set her
bags down on the ground to talk to a little girl walking with her mother. Gail
immediately recognized them as members of the hotel cleaning staff, heading
home after a long night of work. The little girl had been dozing against her
mother’s shoulder, but now she was awake and gazing wide-eyed at Nia, who by
drawing a circle on the pavement had made a crystal flower grow out of the
concrete. Another chalk line and the flower became a glittering bird that
flapped up to perch on the girl’s head before vanishing in a poof of sparkling
dust that decorated her hair and dress like diamonds.

The girl looked in wonder at her plain gray dress made
lovely by the magic. “Thank you, it’s beautiful,” she whispered to Nia, who
smiled and said, “So are you.” Then she reached into her handbag and gave
something to the girl’s mother that made her say thank you almost as heartily.

When Nia finally joined them at the car, Gail gave her a
questioning look. Nia shrugged awkwardly in reply.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I know very little
about what life is like for those outside of the Academy,” she confessed. “I am
– trying to rectify that.”

All right, so the complimentary food and lodging is
the second best part,
Gail corrected in her head. She leaned over and
kissed Nia’s cheek, which made the other woman smile before saying, “Shut up,
Arthur.”

“I didn’t say anything,” he replied through a nearly
face-breaking grin, taking Nia’s bags and putting them in the backseat.

“You didn’t have to.” Arms crossed over her chest, Nia
frowned at the car. “Do you think we brought enough?”

“Ni, we each brought one suitcase, which for Gail was
everything she brought with her. Unless you want to repack the entire car,
which took me about a day of strategizing the first time, you’ll have to leave
some things behind for now.”

“Arthur, don’t even pretend that you didn’t bring as much
or more than I did.”

“I’ll take that bet. I bet the hotel would let us borrow
a luggage scale.”

A flash of doubt crossed Nia’s face, but backing down
clearly wasn’t part of her genetic makeup because she drew her shoulders back
and said, “I think you will –”

“All right, children.” Gail put a hand on each of their
shoulders and steered them toward the front of the car. “Let’s get this show on
the road.” Once the magicians were safely stowed inside the automobile, Gail
slid into the backseat and opened that day’s newspaper, using Nia’s bulging
suitcase as an armrest.

Nia sat in the passenger seat beside Arthur, holding the
much creased plastic bag of Connery’s hair. Over breakfast, she had argued that
using the most recently found item would be more effective, but Arthur had told
her in no uncertain terms that she would not ride around in his car with a
severed leg across her lap, so she had been forced to find another way.

“One more thing, Ni,” Arthur said before pulling out of
the parking lot. “Obviously, you’ll have to give me a general idea of where to
go, but I know the streets better than you, so don’t start shouting at me if I
take a detour or a short cut. I probably know what I’m doing.”

“I had no intention of shouting at you,” Nia responded
peevishly.

“You shout at me a lot.”

“I do not!”

Arthur glanced over his shoulder. “Doesn’t she, Gail?”

Meanwhile, Nia didn’t so much glance as stare menacingly.
“Yes, do I,
detective?”

“Uh.” Gail looked back and forth between the siblings
then hid her growing grin behind the paper. “How are we defining ‘shouting?’
exactly”

“As
shouting,
you coward,” Arthur replied with a
smile.

“Look, doc, I have to think about myself here. I don’t
want her shouting at
me.
”

Arthur grinned smugly at his sister. “Hah.”

Nia turned back around, pouting. “You are both terrible.”

Arthur reached over to pat her hand then immediately
recoiled when he realized that meant also touching the bag of Connery’s hair.

“Hah,” said Nia.

Things were not going well. They had been driving around
New Crossbridge for – by Nia’s count – four hours, twenty-seven minutes, and
fifty-seven seconds.

Fifty-eight.  

Fifty-nine.

Arthur paused at another intersection. “Any opinion on
which way I should turn here, Ni?”

Nia just waved a hand.

“Left then.”

Left, right, it hardly mattered. Nia couldn’t feel
Connery anywhere. After redoing the magic that morning, she had found him still
at that mysterious point in the distance. At least that meant he wasn’t moving,
but the slight pulse of magic wasn’t strong enough to give her any more
guidance than “vaguely southwest.”

So they had driven vaguely southwest and for a while the
magic seemed to be getting stronger and then – nothing. It was like it had
vanished off of the edge of the map, or worse, was snuffed out of existence. No
matter how many turns Arthur took, she couldn’t locate it. Sometimes she
thought she could almost feel it, ringing on the very edge of her senses, but
when she focused on it, it would slip from her mind like a conversation held in
a dream.

After a while, the buildings around them grew more
careworn until they were passing entire blocks of boarded up windows and gaping
doorways. Once, a rat the size of a cat scampered across the street with a
piece of garbage trailing behind it. Arthur had to stop short to keep from
crushing it.

At another corner, a group of very ragged children
gathered to stare at them as they rolled by.

“They’ve probably never seen a car as nice as this one
before,” Gail explained from the back seat.

Nia turned in her seat and watched the children with
almost as much curiosity until they turned on to another street and left them
behind. “So this is Gracetown?” she murmured when she turned back to front.

“Yep,” answered Gail. “Part of it at least. The start of
it, really.”

“Oh. I’ve never been.”

There was a strange edge to Gail’s laugh that Nia
couldn’t quite decipher. “I know, princess.”

Before Nia could think of a response, she was struck by
Connery’s magic. It was suddenly so close at hand that it might as well have
been screaming in her ear.

“Arthur, stop!”

“What, here?”

“Yes, here!”

Arthur did as he was told, pulling them to the side of
the narrow street. Almost before the car had stopped, Nia opened the door and
leapt out. It was nearby. She feel it vibrating in her bones. There. To the
left. She took off in pursuit.

“Nia, wait! Nia, I can’t leave the car here!”

Nia heard two car doors slamming behind her, but didn’t
slow down. She wouldn’t engage with the magic until she fully understood the
situation, but she couldn’t let it get away from her again. She had to see what
–

She stopped short with a startled gasp when she rounded a
corner and saw a wild-haired naked man attempting to beat Xavier Rivers over
the head with a broken milk bottle.