The Night of the Solstice (2 page)

“I want you to come back here,” the vixen had said, “sometime after sunset. Say, as near to seven o'clock as you can manage. And I want you to bring your brother and sisters. Can you do it?”

And Claudia had said she could do it. She had given her word. And now she was faced with the problem of
how
to do it, how to explain to the others, who were old enough to be skeptical about magic, so they would understand.

Alys was the oldest. She was tall and fair-haired and graceful. This year she had started high school and she was captain of a girls' soccer team called the
Blue Demons, and vice-president of her class. Alys was kind to Claudia, but she was the sort of girl adults called “practical” and “responsible.” Alys, thought Claudia, did not believe in magic.

You could tell at a glance that Charles was Alys's younger brother. Charles could do almost everything, but he usually didn't. He called this being “laid-back.” Charles rather thought he might be a famous artist someday, and in the meantime he drew a comic strip, Hugo the Hippopotamus, for the junior-high-school newspaper. He liked science fiction. Science fiction, thought Claudia hopefully, was a little bit like magic.

Claudia herself wasn't talented, or a great athlete, or even tall. But her chunky little body was just right for rough-and-tumble sports and she never gave up. Sometimes Claudia's mother would ruffle her hair and say that Claudia was solid. Claudia wasn't exactly sure what she meant by this, but she liked the sound of it.

And then there was Janie. Nothing in the world seemed less likely, but Janie and Charles were twins.
Janie was small and thin and dark and quiet, with tangled black hair which hung down her back. Her purple eyes looked at you as if they knew you and didn't like you much. When Janie had been Claudia's age some people at school had given her a test, and then they had called Janie's parents and told them that Janie was a genius, which everyone already knew anyway. Janie scorned magic.

Charles, Claudia decided, was the one most likely to believe her. She decided to tell him just as soon as her parents went out to dinner, and afterward they could tell the others together. But at six o'clock, just as Claudia was trying to get Charles away from Janie and the TV, Alys walked into the family room carrying an overnight bag.

“Where are you going?” gasped Claudia.

“To spend the night with my friend Geri Crowle,” said Alys absently, rummaging about in the bag.

Claudia's throat constricted and her heart began to pound. Alys couldn't spend the night with her friend Geri Crowle.

“You can't go!” she said to Alys. “I mean—you can't
go yet. I mean … Alys, I have something to tell you.”

Alys blinked at her and the others looked up curiously. This wasn't how she'd wanted to do it, not facing all of them at once. But she had no choice.

“Something happened to me today,” she said at last.

“Yes?” said Alys. She took a brush out of the bag and began to brush her hair.

Claudia decided to try another tack. “What do you think,” she said carefully, “is the most wonderfulest, specialest, excitingest thing in the world?”

“A horse,” said Alys.

“The Hope Diamond,” said Janie.

“Kryptonite?”
said Charles.

They laughed. Claudia stood very still, unsmiling.

“It's magic,” she said flatly. “And I've found it.”

“Oh!” said Alys. She smiled suddenly, a nice smile. “What kind of magic?”

A great rushing warmth filled Claudia's chest. She had been just about dead certain that Alys wouldn't believe her. “It's a talking vixen,” she said eagerly, leaning forward. “I was getting the mail this morning, and she
took a letter from me. She talked to me. And she wants to meet
you
.”

Alys's face changed. “Uh … sure, Claude, but you know I was just leaving. Maybe I could meet her tomorrow.”

“But, Alys. She's in terrible trouble of some kind. She has to talk to all of us right away, tonight.”

“Well, I'm kind of in a rush but … hey, isn't that her over there by the couch?”

Claudia looked. There was nothing by the couch.

“Uh, sure it is,” said Charles, who was looking at Alys. “Look, Claude, here's your friend. How's it going, Foxy Lady?” He smiled politely at empty air, and shook hands.

Suddenly Claudia understood. She felt hideously ashamed and hot tears flooded her eyes. “I'm not a liar!”

“Oh, bunny,” said Alys. “It isn't lies. It's like when Charles makes up stories about Hugo. It shows you're creative.”

Claudia began to cry. She didn't mean to. The lump in her throat rose up and swelled and blurred her vision. They didn't believe her, and they wouldn't
come, and she'd promised the vixen. The vixen was waiting. She threw back her head and howled.

“Claudia!”

She went on crying. She ran into the corner and hid in the window seat. Between sobs she could hear Alys and Charles and Janie talking.

“Claudia … crying! Claudia never cries.”

“Maybe she's having some sort of a mental breakdown.”

“Janie, shut up! There's something wrong. Uh … Claude?” Alys's voice cut through Claudia's howling. “Who else was around when you met this magic vixen?”

“No-nobody,” Claudia choked out. “I was alone with her in the old house on the hill.”

Alys was shocked. “You know you're not supposed to go near there! What about the strange woman who lives in that house?”

“She wasn't home. I didn't see her.”

“But you went inside?”

“The vixen t-t-took me!”

“Alys,” said Charles, “somebody in that house is up to something.”

“Fed her hallucinogenic drugs, maybe.”

“You have such charming ideas, Janie,” said Alys. Then she added, “Charles, this sounds a lot like some of your friends playing pranks to me.”

“My friends? What about your friends? Who hung the Blue Demons banner from the top of the Villa Park clock tower? Who—”

“Whoever it is,” Alys interrupted hastily, “they shouldn't be messing around with little kids. I mean, Claudia's only seven. It isn't right.”

Charles's eyes gleamed with fun. “Maybe you ought to go over there and tell them that.”

“Go
over
there? When I'm already late—”

“It's probably all in her head, anyway,” said Janie.

Alys, who had been leaning over to pick up her bag, suddenly stopped. She looked at Janie in annoyance. Then she looked sharply at Claudia, who looked back at her hopelessly, with her heart in her eyes.

There was a pause.

With a tremendous sigh, Alys let the bag thump to the floor.

“Okay, Claude,” she said. “You can stop crying.
You win. We're all going with you to see this magic vixen.”

Charles and Janie put up an argument. Claudia hung on the fringe of the group, tears drying on her cheeks. She didn't care what they thought as long as they came.

At last Janie and Charles gave in.

“It might be dangerous,” said Charles, hopefully.

Alys said seriously, “I'm going to take my baseball bat.”

No one was happy with Claudia. By the time Alys had called Geri and they'd gotten the baseball bat and the flashlight, they had almost stopped believing anything was wrong.

“You sure this isn't a joke of
yours
, Claudia?”

Claudia shook her head dumbly.

They set out for the house on the hill.

With Claudia in the lead they walked around the side of the house to the heavy wooden back door.

Alys was holding the baseball bat in one hand and the flashlight in the other. “Knock,” she said to Claudia.

“But she can't—”

“Just do it.”

Claudia knocked. The door was hard and solid, and her knuckles made only a faint tapping sound.

No one answered.

“Ring the doorbell.”

“There isn't one,” said Charles.

“All right,” said Alys, and she banged with the bat on the door. Claudia jumped at the sudden noise.

“That ought to wake 'em up,” said Janie, and she chuckled.

“She's awake, but she can't open the door,” said Claudia. “She's got
paws
!”

Alys looked at her, then at the door. “Here, hold this,” she said at last. She gave Claudia the flashlight and gently tried the door handle. “It isn't locked, anyway.” Slowly she pushed the door open a few inches. Just like the door in any horror movie, it creaked. “I'll go in first. You hang on to the flashlight, Claudia.”

Claudia was on Alys's heels as she pushed the door open and stepped inside. The flashlight threw a wavering ellipse of white on the floor and walls of the huge dark room. Charles crowded behind Claudia, breathing in her ear, and Janie shuffled in after him.

“We're here,” Claudia called, but it was hard to call loudly into that silent darkness. “We're all inside,” she piped again. The flashlight caught the gleam of a great chandelier overhead, and a mirror on the wall to the left, but the vixen was nowhere to be seen.

“Let's go,” whispered Charles. “Nobody's home.”

Just then, with a wrenching creak, the door slammed
shut behind them. Charles yelled and grabbed the flashlight from Claudia, swinging it around toward the door. The pool of light fell squarely on Janie, one hand still on the doorknob. Janie giggled madly.

“You idiot!” said Alys, lowering the baseball bat. “I nearly brained you.”

“Shhhh!” said Claudia. “I heard something. Over there.”

Charles aimed the flashlight straight ahead. Yellow eyes leapt at them out of the dark, and then with a wriggle of motion the vixen was sitting on an overturned chair.

“All four of you,” she said. “Good. I had feared—”

What she feared will never be known, for Alys, with a gasp, stumbled backward, running heavily into Charles. Charles yelled in pain and dropped the flashlight, which went dead on the floor. Janie began groping her way toward a light switch and accidentally poked Charles in the eye, and Charles yelled again.

“It's on the other side,” came a voice from the darkness, a dry little voice which could only belong
to the vixen. Janie fumbled across the door, making sweeping motions. Her hand caught on something and there was light.

The children turned as one to stare at the animal. They were all breathing hard.

“Enough nonsense,” she said. “You are young enough to know better. Now, I have a very important matter to discuss with you, and I don't want any hitting”—to Alys—“or any shouting”—with a look at Charles—“or any pointless arguing”—with a significant glance in Janie's direction. “Is that understood? Then sit down and attend.”

But only Claudia sat down, and no one else seemed to be paying much attention. Janie stood frozen. Charles wobbled back and forth drunkenly between the animal on the chair and the back door, while Alys made little charges at the vixen with the baseball bat.

“Stop that,” said the vixen.

“You … yow … wow,” said Alys. At least that was what it sounded like. She waved the baseball bat in rubbery circles around the vixen's head.

“Yes, I can talk, say it if you must and get it over
with. I am even a—a witch's familiar, if you will. But I am not evil and I do not wish to see you hurt. On the contrary, I desperately need your help.”

“Help … help …” said Charles. Later he always insisted he'd only been repeating the vixen's words.

Meanwhile, Alys's frenzied gaze fell on Claudia, who was sitting only inches away from the vixen. With a gurgle, she flung herself between her small sister and the animal. Then she grabbed Claudia by the back of the collar, and brandishing the bat with the other hand began to drag her away.

“No,” said Claudia. “Alys, no!” She fell flat on her stomach, clasping Alys around the ankles. “Alys, please!”

Alys merely tightened her grip. There was a look of fixed, mad determination in her eyes. With Claudia still attached she began to shuffle awkwardly backward toward the door, shaking the bat in the vixen's direction every few moments. There were books and knickknacks scattered on the floor; Claudia went sliding over each with a bump and a yelp. The vixen looked on in astonished scorn.

“Alys,” whimpered Claudia, “Alys, stop.” Alys collided with the door and fumbled for the knob, and Claudia reached the height of desperation.

“Alys,” she said, and there was a new note in her voice, a note which made Alys look down into her small, commanding face. “Alys,
get a hold of yourself
.”

Something cleared in Alys's eyes, and she blinked; then her panting breath slowed and she stared down at Claudia. Claudia let go of Alys's ankles and sat up, rubbing her stomach. She looked at the vixen, then up at her sister.

“She doesn't want to hurt us, Alys,” she said quietly. “She needs us.”

Alys followed Claudia's gaze to the vixen, who soberly inclined her red-gold head.

A dazed and defeated expression came into Alys's eyes. Slowly she lowered the baseball bat until it dropped from her nerveless fingers to the ground. Then, casting one last glance about the room as if bidding good-bye to all hope of sanity, she knelt on the floor.

Charles rocked on his heels for a moment, and
then, abruptly, he too sat down. But Janie was now walking round and round the vixen, looking at her from all angles.

“Holographic projection?” she mused.

“Sit down and shut up,” replied the vixen coldly. “Oh, very well, touch me if you insist, but
quickly
. I have a long story to tell and a short time in which to tell it.”

When Janie found the vixen solid she looked at her fingers for a moment as if they had betrayed her; then a slow, strange smile came to her face, the smile of someone who can't figure out how a magician does a trick, but who isn't going to be fooled anyway.