Chapter 42 #18
A small tent had been set up close to the nearest moon gate in Destiny Park—the tent a concession to Rachel’s modesty.
She undressed, wrapped the knee-length cape around herself, then sat in the chair the Arcana had provided.
“Covered?” Kia Dance asked, standing outside the tent flap.
“Yes.”
Kia entered the tent and carefully removed the bandages on Rachel’s legs. “Your legs are healing well, but you’ll need to stay quiet to let them finish healing. Lucas will want you to stay quiet for a few days anyway while you adjust to the transformation.”
“How long…?” Transformation. Being changed into something else in order to hide from Alistair.
“Moments. That’s why it’s so important to be clear in your heart and mind about what you want from this transformation, what you need.”
I want to be free again. I want to sing again. I want to spread my wings and fly.
Perhaps a whimsical way of expressing what she wanted, but she couldn’t think of a better way to describe what she wanted to gain from this year in hiding.
“Ready?” Kia asked.
Rachel stood and took a moment to make sure she had her balance. Then she nodded. “Ready.”
She wished there was time to ask about this…
ceremony, but she had a feeling any queries would be ignored.
This was the business, and one of the mysteries, of the Arcana.
Still, she clutched at the cape to avoid flashing Lucas and Jack Frost. Not that they might notice—or care.
With them were the Ladies Three and Ashley Laxton.
Was it usual to have so many witnesses?
“Clear intentions,” Kia whispered. “Heart and mind.”
They had closed the park early just for this. Just for her.
Lucas stood next to the moon gate. He raised a hand and touched one of the stones. Metal gates with a large butterfly in the center opened—a pathway to a future.
Jack moved around to the other side of the gate, as if prepared to catch her when she passed through.
Lucas looked at her. “When you’re ready.”
She was terrified. She was excited. She was…hopeful.
I want to be free again. I want to sing again. I want to spread my wings and fly.
Rachel walked through the moon gate.
A moment of smothering darkness. Hands quickly wrapped cloth around her, securing her arms and legs.
“Easy, easy, easy,” Jack said. “You’re fine, just a little confused right now. That’s to be expected.”
“Let’s get her home and settled,” Lucas said as Jack set her inside…something.
Her body was firmly wrapped, but someone nudged the cloth away from her head just before a lid came down on a woven basket.
“The Nightingale became a lark.” Ashley’s voice. Pleased? Amused?
A lark? A bird? She was a bird?
I want to be free again. I want to sing again. I want to spread my wings and fly.
Words have power. Intentions matter.
Stunned by the truth that she had somehow made this happen, she remained quiet and didn’t struggle while she was carried…somewhere.
The basket was set down. The lid opened. Before she could think to struggle, hands closed around her, lifted her. Held her against a chest so that she could hear a heartbeat.
“Who you are has not changed,” Lucas said. “What you are? That has changed. You are a lark now, and you must learn to live in this body over the next year. This cage is not a prison. It is for your protection while you adjust and learn. It is a safe place for you to return to at night.”
Jack opened the cage door. Lucas swiftly unwrapped the cloth that had secured her and set her on the bottom of the cage.
Jack closed and latched the door.
“Move slowly,” Lucas said. “If you accept what you are now, you’ll adjust to your new shape more quickly. Then you will sing again, and fly again—and be free again.” He studied her. “Your new name is Rahele.”
Lucas and Jack pulled up a large cloth that covered the back half of the cage.
“For some privacy,” Lucas said, smiling.
A fluttering. Lucas held up his arm for the crow that flew over to them.
Rachel didn’t know what to do. The crow looked so big.
“This is Faulkner,” Lucas said. “He is like you—at least for now.” He stared at the crow. “Do not open the door of Rahele’s home. She needs time to adjust to her new body and could hurt herself if she comes out too soon.”
The crow tipped his head this way and that. Then he flew out of sight.
Lucas sighed, but he didn’t look angry or upset. “Faulkner means you no harm, but he is a bold and curious fellow. Don’t let him persuade you to do something before you feel ready. On the other hand, he can show you a great deal about living in your new body if you’re comfortable being around him.”
Rachel wasn’t sure what to say. Wasn’t sure what she could say. She opened her…beak…and the sound…
She tried again, rather pleased with the sound.
“Singing already?” One of the Ladies, the one who balanced the scales, linked her arm with Lucas’s. She smiled at Rachel. “You are safe here.”
“We’ll let you rest,” Lucas said.
Rest. Yes. She would rest for a while before exploring her new home.
36
When Sheina Kali opened the door to her apartment and smelled food cooking, she knew it was going to be a difficult evening.
Yaron talked a good game about being an equal partner when it came to household chores, but he always expected her to do the cooking and kitchen chores while he “unwound from a hard day”—unless he wanted something from her that she might not agree to. Then he was the solicitous spouse.
Hearing the TV in the background tuned to the news, she knew exactly what he wanted—and why.
“Hey,” he said as he walked out of the kitchen and gave her a hug and a kiss. “I picked up that chicken dinner you like. From what I’ve been hearing on the news, I figured you could use a break from cooking tonight.”
“I could, yes.”
“The food will be ready in a few minutes. Come and keep me company while I finish up.”
Sheina hung up her coat in the front closet and took her purse into the bedroom. After stowing her gun in the lockbox on the closet shelf in the bedroom, she returned to the kitchen.
Yaron smiled at her, but his eyes had that sharp interest that meant he would keep pushing for information about a case and for details he had no business knowing.
If she didn’t give in, he would sulk for the rest of the evening and give her the cold shoulder in bed.
If she told him what would be public knowledge the next day, he’d still accuse her of holding out on him.
Before they moved to Jackson, he hadn’t been interested in her cases or the grisly details of investigations. But before they moved to Jackson, Yaron hadn’t been able to go down to this side of the Fate River and stare at the Isle of Wyrd.
They’d had good jobs where they lived before.
Yaron was on track for receiving tenure at his old university, and they had talked about buying a house, maybe starting a family before they—meaning she—got too much older.
She hadn’t realized he’d been looking for another position until she came home one evening and he excitedly told her he’d been offered a teaching position in Jackson—and had accepted.
He’d be teaching English—yawn—and the mythology and folklore classes that were his main focus and interest.
It wasn’t until she looked up Jackson and realized it was across the river from Wyrd that she understood the reason for his excitement—and the reason he’d decided to relocate without discussing it with her. Fait accompli. It was his chance to study the strange and uncanny up close.
It hadn’t occurred to him that the people who controlled Wyrd might not welcome him with open arms and grant him access to whatever he wanted to see.
But saying no to Yaron just meant he had to push harder to wear you down—or it meant he did what he wanted and then gave you the choice of going along with him or shattering the life you thought you’d been building.
Well, tonight she did have something she could give him. She just hoped he would pay attention.
“I heard on the news about the bodies found at the marina this morning,” Yaron said as he plated the chicken and lentils, put bread and butter on the table, filled the salad bowls. “Is that your case?”
Sheina poured water for both of them, ignoring the wineglasses on the table. “Yes.”
“Anything interesting about the case?” he asked as he took his seat. “Anything…unusual?”
And there it was. What had begun as a keen interest in the uncanny was becoming an obsession, an addiction.
Sheina stared at her dinner as she remembered what she’d seen that day. “No, nothing unusual, unless you count my investigation connecting with a missing person case that involved the police in King’s Hill and Penwych.”
“Penwych? The thirteenth precinct?”
It figured he would know the significance of that precinct.
“Nothing unusual if you don’t count seeing a body appear out of thin air and sink into Susurration Sound; if you don’t count severed hands bound to a piece of driftwood; if you don’t count women who were caught on security cameras this morning, walking around and doing God knows what else, being the same women the Jackson police pulled out of the water at the same time. ”
Yaron shoveled in some food before asking, “Are the police sending someone to Wyrd?”
“Someone from the thirteenth’s special team is going over in the morning.”
He buttered a piece of bread. “How hard would it be for you to transfer to the Penwych police and get on that special team?”
Sheina shoved away from the table. “I’m not hungry.”
Yaron blinked at her, perhaps realizing he had pushed her too far.
She reached into her jacket pocket and fingered the note. Would it help or hurt? “Before you go traipsing off to Wyrd and trespass in places you have no business being, you should check out this place and talk to the people there.” She put the note on the table.
He opened the paper and studied the name and address. “What is it?”