Chapter 42 #9
Warning? Threat? Both? Or an acknowledgment that Palmer’s possible fates were already known to the Arcana, and it was merely a question of which path the man would choose.
“Mr. Frost.” Charles took a step back. Nothing else for him to say.
“Captain.”
Charles retreated to the boat and settled in the middle seat, the box between his feet. One Arcana pushed the boat off the sand and jumped in. The other Arcana started the motor.
They crossed the river, with the putt-putt of the motor being the only sound to break the silence.
Then a large game fish leaped out of the water next to the boat. Leaped. Looked. Twisted away from the boat as it fell back into the water.
Charles shivered. He was tired, unnerved. But for a moment, he had the fanciful notion that the fish would have leaped into the boat if it hadn’t spotted the Arcana.
14
Already showered and dressed for the day, Rachel paced around the room and watched the early morning news on an Eastwood County TV station while she waited for room service to deliver her breakfast. She wanted to open the drapes and look at whatever part of the park was within view, but sunrise wasn’t the same as full daylight, and she didn’t want to get into trouble because she’d seen something she wasn’t supposed to see.
She didn’t know what was supposed to happen next; she just knew that for the first time in a long time she felt safe when she fell asleep.
When she answered the knock on the door, Jack stood there holding a breakfast tray.
“I’ll escort you to the pavilion in an hour,” he said, handing her the tray. “Will you be ready by then?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She didn’t step back. “Am I dressed appropriately?” The business-casual pantsuit and silky T-shirt were the nicest things she’d brought with her, but that didn’t mean they were appropriate or sufficiently classy. She could almost hear Alistair’s sneering disapproval.
Had to shut him out. Had to erase him from her thoughts while she was here.
“Are you comfortable in those clothes?” Jack asked.
“Yes.”
“Then they are appropriate for meeting the Ladies Three.” He smiled. “Try to eat.” His smile widened. “It’s safe to open the drapes if you want to look outside—or sit on the balcony.”
Rachel stepped back to allow the door to close. Was it common for people to be uncertain about when it was safe to look outside? Or did he understand the reason for her hesitation, that never-ending fear of being punished for doing the wrong thing?
Jack seemed friendly enough, but there was something…feral…about his smile. Like a lion walking past a herd of zebras when he wasn’t hungry enough to hunt.
Shaking her head to dislodge the thought of being prey, Rachel carried the tray to the little table near the windows. Then she opened the drapes and opened the sliding balcony door halfway to bring in fresh air.
Birds singing. Women singing what sounded like a ritual chant or ancient song that came from another place, another language.
She used to like to sing, before she moved in with Alistair. She used to like a lot of things before she met Alistair.
“Focus on now,” she muttered. “You need to take the next steps before Alistair sends someone to find you, because you won’t escape a second time.”
Which made her wonder—again—what had happened to the previous women Alistair had lured into becoming expendable property.
As she ate the vegetable omelet and buttered toast, she tried to clear her mind of thoughts about Alistair and think about herself.
Her future mattered now. She didn’t know if it was possible to buy a kind of witness protection from the people who controlled Wyrd.
She had enough money in her bank accounts to hide for quite a while—if she could gain access to the money.
How long could she hide and not contact an old friend or someone in her family or her agent and her editor?
But if they could find her, Alistair could find her.
She ate some of the food, then worried that her stomach would rebel. Then she worried that Lucas Frost would think her ungrateful because she had wasted the food.
If she put a small portion of food on her plate and ate all of it, Alistair criticized her for pigging out. If she didn’t eat everything on her plate, he criticized her for wasting food.
Stop it. Just stop thinking about him. Think about the life you want without him.
An hour after he delivered her meal, Jack knocked on the door.
“The ferry is making its first run to Penwych,” he said as he led the way toward a door at the end of the corridor.
“Usually, the only passengers arriving on the first run are people who work at the hotel or the food stands, but as a precaution, we’ll go around the outside of this wing to reach the pavilion. ”
“If someone who is looking for me came on the ferry, the pavilion is the first place he’ll look,” Rachel protested.
Jack smiled. “Looking isn’t the same as finding.
Besides, the pavilion doesn’t officially open until later in the morning.
Seekers who come earlier don’t tend to be looking for the entertainment side of what is offered there.
” He opened a door and stepped onto a wooden landing.
Wooden stairs that looked like a series of waterfalls led down to a path that wound through a lush garden.
Rachel followed him, but a detail niggled at her. “You didn’t lock that door. You aren’t concerned about someone sneaking into the hotel?”
“No one except the Arcana can come into the hotel through that door without an invitation,” he said quietly.
When the path ended at a moon gate, he looked back at her.
“It’s quiet from this side, but you shouldn’t try to walk through the moon gate to enter this area of the park unless you’re prepared. ”
For what? She didn’t ask because the moment they walked through the moon gate, she felt the difference. A park within a park? The plants and trees looked the same, but the feel was so different. Around the pavilion and the ornamental lake, the place felt…tamer.
Jack entered the pavilion and walked to the other end, where a table was set up to receive payments and allow patrons to turn the wheel and take the numbered discs.
“Did you exchange some money for the coins used here?” Jack asked.
“Yes.” Rachel pulled several coins from her jacket pocket. “How much…?”
“One gold coin in that box.” Jack pointed. “Then take a bone disc.”
“But…” She eyed the wheel.
“Bone disc. You’re here to see the Ladies Three.”
She put her coin in the box and took a bone disc.
Jack led her back to the other end of the pavilion.
When they had walked past a couple of minutes ago, all the archways on one side were dark.
Not just an absence of light, but she’d had the sense of a solid barrier.
Now one of the archways was open, and the room was lit by overhead lights as well as the brightening sun.
She glanced at Lucas Frost and the woman standing beside him—a woman with short-cropped hair who was wearing a pantsuit similar to her own.
But those two people couldn’t compete with the three women who sat at the tables.
One woman spread two decks of cards in a double arch on her table.
One woman began sketching, although it was hard to guess what her clouded eyes might be able to see.
The third woman, who sat between the other two, had a brass scale and weights made from a variety of substances.
Jack pointed to the first table. “Put the disc in the bowl and follow the instructions.” He stepped away from her to stand next to Lucas Frost and the woman.
Rachel put the bone disc in the bowl. The woman handed her a wand made of wood and leather.
“Choose four cards from the top deck,” the woman said. “Touch the cards with the wand. Choose with intention.”
Intention. She wanted to hide. She wanted to escape. She wanted to be free. She wanted to reclaim the life she’d had before she met Alistair.
She hadn’t realized she had tapped a card with each of those thoughts until the woman set the cards to one side.
“Choose three cards from the bottom deck,” the woman said. “Choose with intention.”
She wanted to regain the joy she used to feel when she was writing. She wanted to sing again. She wanted peace.
The wand tapped three cards.
The woman turned over the cards one by one. She offered no explanation of what the cards revealed, and Rachel couldn’t see anything that would give someone else a clue about the meaning. The cards clearly meant something because the woman turned to the woman with the scales and nodded.
“Place something of personal value to you on one side of the scale,” the second woman said.
Rachel automatically reached for the ring finger on her left hand, but she hadn’t put the engagement ring on after arriving in Wyrd.
Besides, the ring was valuable in monetary terms but had no value to her.
She removed the ring she wore on her right hand—a gift from her grandmother.
Its value came from sentiment and memories of time spent with the older woman.
She placed it on one side of the scale. The ring didn’t feel heavy on her finger, so it surprised her to see that side of the scale sink almost to the tabletop.
The woman picked up a bone disc and set it on the other side of the scale. “You came here hoping to change your fate. Tell us what you desire, and be careful. Words have power here.”
“I need to disappear, to hide in a way that Alistair Hampton can’t find me. But I also want to reclaim the life I had before I met him—my writing, my friends, my family. I want the freedom to sing and be myself. I want to stop being afraid.”
As she talked, Rachel watched the woman add various substances to one side of the scale, removing some and adding others until both sides were balanced.
The woman turned to the third woman, who stopped sketching and nodded.