Chapter 27 #2
The mage started to say something, catching his words when he figured it out. “Seriously?” he said, voice hushed as if to say it louder might break their tenuous bond. “Marty. I can’t believe it. Yes. Aasta comes first.”
The woman blinked furiously, her desperation easing a notch. “Thank you. I didn’t think you’d help.”
Herm could hardly contain himself, shifting from foot to foot and not knowing who to congratulate first. “Petra, I’m so happy for you,” he said, giving me a sideways hug. “Marty, congratulations.”
“For what!” the woman exclaimed. “Everything is wrong. I can’t go home. I can’t stay here. I am scared to death of that shadow, but I know who she is now and I can’t walk away!”
I nodded, totally getting it. “It sucks at first, but it will get better. I promise.”
But Marty only shook her head, continuing to back up until she found the edge of the stage. “I want to get Aasta free. That’s it. Once she’s free, I’m gone. I’m not a weaver. This is not what I want.”
“Fine,” I said, knowing she’d have to come to it herself. “Do what you want. But we don’t really have a choice. They pick us. They’re kind of in charge.”
We are not, fizzed distantly through me, even as I heard steps on the stairs. We need you more than you need us.
“But it’s worth it,” I said, aching to give her a hug, but she looked too angry.
Marty shook her head. “You tricked me.”
“No, Aasta tamed you.” I jumped when the fire door slammed open and Lev came in, trailing a haze of dross as usual.
“At least you weren’t the first.” Benedict shifted to make room for Lev. “Petra and Pluck made a mess of their, ah, tuning?” he added, using the familiar word in a new way.
I nodded to tell him that he’d used it right, but as I looked around the dusty grotto, I couldn’t help but wonder. Somehow we had brought Marty to a place where she could accept her full potential—leaving Aasta in danger of being burned alive. That sounded like a mess to me.
“Cameron is keeping watch.” Lev flipped one of the chairs down to sit. “What’s up?”
Herm put a hand protectively on Marty’s shoulder.
And whereas the woman had shirked from me, she accepted his touch.
He was everyone’s grumpy uncle. “Marty snuck past you. Twice. Got the stick. Aasta was with her and got herself caught protecting Marty. We’re planning a rescue before we tackle Thoth and thought you and Cameron might like some input into it. ”
Lev looked up from the dusty chair. “You got past me? Twice?” Admiration pushed out his initial disbelief. “Damn, girl.” He glanced at me and away. “And Aasta is your shadow?”
“She’s not militia,” I warned him, but Lev’s eyes were glinting in avarice.
“She made me promise to leave her there,” Marty blurted. “She made me promise to get the stick to you. She said that she didn’t deserve a weaver. That someone else would merit me.” Her jaw clenched. “I appreciate the help, but I’m leaving right now.”
Benedict grinned, wisely quashing it when I glared at him. Marty’s desperation wasn’t funny. It was real; even if it had evolved in the blink of an eye, it was real.
“Lev, stick, please,” I said, and the man followed my gaze to where I’d left it propped against the stage.
That dross he’d brought in with him was bothering me and I wanted to put more dark matter into Marty’s amulet.
I could return it to her now. Aasta would protect her against Thoth.
“Marty, tell us what you know. We are rescuing her. All of us.”
Marty exhaled in relief, watching with a new interest as I used the butt of the stick to pull the dross from Lev’s ankle.
I shook the stick to get the dross to break, finally having to slam it against the floor.
Fire cramped my hand and I pulled the energy into me before it could give anyone bad luck, funneling it into the moldavite.
The glass’s latticework shifted to a higher state as the light it gave off dissipated. Done.
Pluck sat by the podium, a doggy grin on his face. Told you, he fizzed smugly, and I sighed as I gave Marty the pitch-black stone.
“You might need some dark matter to play with until we get Aasta,” I said, and the woman nodded, looking decidedly tumbled and lost as she put the stone around her neck and tucked it behind her shirt.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I have to get her out of that bottle.” Her gaze went to Pluck. “If I had known, I never would have run away when Dana put you in one.”
Tell her thank you for me, Pluck fizzed.
“Pluck says thanks.” Marty knew who she was. She was clearly not happy about it, but she was free to become whatever she would be. Aasta too. “I would move a mountain with a teaspoon for Pluck. We will rescue her.”
“That we will.” Herm twisted as he brought his phone from a back pocket. “Let’s see where things sit at Dana’s.” He chuckled. “Slipped right past her bodyguards, eh?”
“Until I ran into Aasta.” It was a regretful whisper, and I shot a sidelong glance at Pluck when a hint of his remorse twined through me. “She scared the crap out of me.”
And then made it worse trying to get into her head, probably, I thought, and Pluck’s ears flattened to an embarrassed slant. Sometimes shadows were their own worst enemies.
Lev inched closer, brow furrowed as he stared at the phone. It was a burner, but it could still be tracked with magic.
“Relax,” Herm said as he scrolled. “It will bounce off the tower across town. As far as Dana will know, we are in Tucson.”
“Someday you are going to tell me how you do that, old man,” Lev grumbled.
Marty touched Herm’s arm. “I’ll give her anything if she lets Aasta go.”
“It won’t come to that.” Herm hesitated, one thick, arthritic finger poised over an icon. “Does Dana know it was you who stole the stick?”
Marty shook her head. “No. She never saw me.”
“Good.” Herm jabbed at the icon. “She probably thinks it was Pluck and Petra. We can use that.”
For what? Pluck fizzed as Dana’s voice came faintly through the speaker.
“Dana!” Herm beamed though the woman couldn’t see him. “How’s your day going?”
“Ivaros,” Dana said as Herm put her on speaker. “Why am I not surprised? You want Pluck? I want Petra. Either Grady turns herself in or I drop the shadow into a vat of dross.”
Marty gasped and I took her arm, whispering, “It’s okay. She thinks she has Pluck. She won’t hurt him. Aasta, she might. Don’t say anything to change her mind.”
Angry and tearful, Marty nodded, and I took my hand away.
Herm exhaled to puff his cheeks out. “As pleasant and direct as always, Dana. Is Pluck hurt?” he added, looking at the shadow by the podium, and Pluck stood, stretched, and trotted closer.
“No,” Dana said. “Do the right thing and it will stay that way.”
“The right thing?” Agitated, Herm shifted his weight. “A desert full of shadows might have a problem with you damaging a weaver/shadow pair.”
“Don’t threaten me, Ivaros,” she said, but I could hear a soft commotion behind her and figured someone was trying to trace the call. “If the desert shadows were a real danger, they would have shown it by now.”
“So…you admit the vault destructions aren’t caused by St. Unoc’s resident shadows?” he said, and she laughed.
“Not at all.”
But she seems to know it, regardless, I thought sourly, and Pluck fizzed his agreement.
“Not going to let that go, huh?” Herm said. “Either way, I think we can both agree that the situation is becoming dangerously close to breaking the silence. Despite your interference, we have what we need to catch Thoth now. Let that shadow go so we can do it.”
“Out, out…” I heard her whisper, and then the shutting of a door. “I will release Pluck if Petra admits she riled up the memorial shadows into breaking the vaults.”
“Like hell!” I said, and Lev nodded, his brow furrowed in thought.
“But that’s not what happened,” Benedict protested. “Thoth cracked the vaults.”
Herm held the phone to his chest to muffle Benedict’s words. Too bad the mic was actually on the rim of the phone. “Will you two shut up?”
“Dr. Strom,” Dana said, her confidence returned. “I’m glad you’re there. I’d like you to surrender yourself as well.”
“To make a false confession?” Benedict said hotly. “Not likely.”
“Dana, be reasonable.” The Spinner glared at Benedict to be quiet. “I won’t throw Petra under the bus so you can look good. It was Thoth. Both Cameron and Marty say so. Why don’t you cut the crap and help us catch him? We could use your help. The truth will out.”
“The truth is what I say it is,” she said, and Marty went pale. “I’m not going to waste my time trying to catch a shadow while Petra and Pluck destroy the last few vaults we have.”
“That’s not what this is about,” I protested. “Why do you think we stole that last stick? We have all five. We can catch him now.”
“Five…” Dana said, tone distant in thought.
“You risked everything on a children’s rhyme?
I thought Ryan was kidding. No, you will turn yourselves in,” she continued.
“Admit to helping the desert shadows to destroy the vaults. I want a written apology for breaking into my apartment. The university has already agreed to limit Dr. Strom’s punishment for his involvement to probation provided there are no more disturbances. ”
But with Thoth free, future “disturbances” were a guarantee.
“And Petra and Pluck?” Herm said, one hand motioning for Lev to hold his thought. The man had become decidedly antsy.
“Pluck will remain in custody,” Dana said.
My breath caught. “You said you’d release him.”
“I’ll release him to a bottle, where he will remain alive,” Dana said.
Not bloody likely, Pluck fizzed, ears hazing.
“Ms. Grady will serve a minimal sentence for her part,” Dana was saying, but I wasn’t sure if anyone was listening. Marty, too, was watching Lev whisper to Benedict, the man pantomiming some sort of military maneuver. It was all finger and arm gestures, none of which made any sense to me.