Chapter Sixteen #2
Dagan watched from the other side of the room. He would have to congratulate her later. Her performance was certainly better than some from the traveling theaters he’d seen over the years. It was as if she were trained by the gypsies themselves.
The barkeep was immediately drawn into the story that Sidonie wove. Dagan couldn’t blame him. She was incredibly convincing. Soon, she was surrounded by men and women who were trying to console her. They offered to help her find her father, though no one present seemed to know a man named Zaine.
An old woman in a tattered green dress caught Dagan’s attention.
She was sitting alone at a table across the room with no food or drink in front of her, but she was staring straight at Sidonie and had been for a while.
Suddenly, the woman snapped her head over at Dagan.
There was something creepy about the look she gave him, as if she’d known he was watching her.
Even across the room he could feel her eyes burning through him.
The woman stood and slowly moved to the door.
She paused but didn’t turn back, then she walked outside.
Dagan’s intuition was screaming at him to follow the woman.
But how could he alert Sidonie? She was surrounded by people.
He needed a distraction. Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out a bag and put several coins on the table.
The barkeep would need the money to replace the other table he was about to destroy.
He summoned fire in his palm and started walking toward the door. As he reached a table in the center of the room, he brushed the flame against it and continued walking. The tabletop was set ablaze immediately, probably because ale had soaked into the wood over the years.
There were a few shouts from nearby and several people came forward to throw spare clothing over the fire in an attempt to smother it. With everyone’s attention on the table, Dagan grabbed Sidonie’s arm and pulled her out of the tavern.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Shhhh!” He looked around and spotted the woman on the far side of the town. “That woman was watching you. Something tells me we should follow her.”
“The old woman with the long braid?” she asked.
Edmund was standing near a stall in the marketplace, pretending to browse. He walked over to Dagan and Sidonie when they stepped out.
“It looks like she’s leaving town,” Dagan said. “Let’s go.”
They followed the woman, trying to stay far enough behind her so that she wouldn’t notice. She turned off the main road onto a small path that led into the forest. It seemed to go on and on. Finally, they lost sight of the woman.
“Where did she go?” Edmund asked, looking around.
“She was there a moment ago!” Sidonie said, pointing ahead of her.
Suddenly the woman stepped out of the brush just a few feet away, startling all three of them.
She looked even older close up. Her skin was wrinkly and weathered.
She was almost as short as Sarita and her bony arms were thin and brittle.
She didn’t speak but instead grabbed a tree branch behind her and pulled it back.
Then she gestured for them to come closer.
Dagan approached first and the other two followed.
On the other side of the branch was a clearing.
A small hut with a straw roof stood in the middle.
The woman led them to the house and held the door open.
They followed her inside and sat at the wooden table in the middle of the hut while the woman began to rummage around in what looked to be the kitchen area.
“We’re looking for someone,” Dagan said, finally. “A man by the name of Zaine. Do you know anyone by that name?”
The woman ignored him.
“Do you think that maybe she can’t hear you?” Sidonie whispered to Dagan. “Maybe she’s deaf?”
“I’m not sure.”
The woman turned and sat four small cups down on the table.
Then she poured water from a metal jug into the cups.
When she saw them hesitate, she picked up her cup and drank it.
Setting it back down, she gestured for them to drink and smiled, revealing several missing teeth.
They didn’t want to appear rude, so they drank the water.
The woman took the jug and returned to the kitchen area.
“Dagan,” Edmund said. “I think we should go.” When Dagan looked confused, Edmund nodded toward the other room inside the hut.
The walls were lined with herbs, dried and hanging. But what really caught his attention were the jars on the shelves. They appeared to contain organs. Whether the parts were from people or animals, he wasn’t sure. Either way, it was a strange sight and gave Dagan an eerie feeling.
“We should go,” he agreed.
“Dagan,” Sid said, yawning. “Do you feel tired? I feel… so sleepy.” She was barely able to hold her head up. Across the table, Edmund’s head slumped forward as he drifted off to sleep.
“Sid, we need to get out of here.” Dagan said, but it was too late. Her eyes were closed.
Dagan fought the urge to sleep as hard as he could. He pulled Sid out of the chair and onto the floor. Then he tried to drag her to the door. It was no use. Asleep, her body was heavy and he didn’t have the strength to move anymore. He lowered his head to the floor, and everything went dark.
~*~
Sidonie woke on the ground. She felt dizzy and queasy as she sat up and looked around. She was in the middle of the forest, all alone. The sun was setting on the other side of the trees. How long had she been sleeping? And how did she get there?
She tried to think back to before she fell asleep but everything was still blurry.
It started to come back to her in pieces.
There was an old woman and Dagan and Edmund were there.
Then she remembered sitting at a table and drinking water.
Had she been poisoned? But how could that be?
The woman had drunk water from the same jug…
Sidonie heard footsteps on the ground behind her. She jumped up and turned around. A man dressed in black was standing there. From his expression, she could tell that he wasn’t happy to see her. His dark brown hair was thick and long, like hers. Only, his had a silver streak on one side.
“Are you Zaine?” she asked.
“When you leave here, forget that name.” His voice was deep and harsh.
“Umm...” Sid wasn’t sure how to reply.
“What do you want?” he asked. “Money?”
“No, I don’t want money.”
“Then, what?”
“I…” She was stunned by his rudeness. It was making her angry.
“Your sob story in the tavern is a lie,” he said. “So why are you really here?”
“Yes, that story was a lie. I couldn’t say why I really needed to find you.”
“Which is?”
“Because I need your help. You are my father.”
“You have the wrong person.”
“Are you a wizard by the name of Zaine?”
“You have the wrong person,” he repeated. He turned and started to walk away.
Sidonie was definitely angry now. She summoned air magic and placed an invisible wall in front of him. He smacked into it, grunted, and turned back around.
“Good try,” he said. “Better than most. But just because you have a little magic doesn’t mean you’re my daughter.”
“I have more than a little magic.”
“Prove it.”
Sidonie had been practicing a lot in the past few months.
There was one in particular that she enjoyed the most. She stood back and stretched her arms out to her sides.
Then she opened a terra circle right in front of him, lifting to hover over the ground.
He didn’t look surprised, but he continued to watch.
She left it open for a moment then closed it, floating back down.
“You’re Anassa’s daughter.” He wasn’t asking because he already knew the answer. “What exactly do you want from me?”
“I need you to release my magic,” she replied.
“You already have magic. I just saw you use it.”
“Yes, but for some reason I can’t access all of it. And what I can access, I can barely control.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why.”
He considered it for a moment, looking her over, then finally said, “Under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Forget my name and never look for me again.”
“That should be easy considering you haven’t been very pleasant company anyway.”
He actually smiled at that, just slightly.
Sidonie heard shouting in the distance. She looked to her right.
She couldn’t see anyone, but the sound was getting louder and closer.
Dagan. Her father heard it too and the scowl returned to his face.
He stepped forward and before she could ask him what he was about to do, he placed his hand on her chest, near her heart.
Immediately, she felt it. As if a blanket had been pulled off her magic, uncovering and releasing it. The sudden shock of heat rushing through her body was jarring. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she felt like the world was spinning around her.
Her father leaned in and spoke into her ear. “Remember our deal.”
And in an instant, he was gone.
Sidonie dropped to the ground. Every one of her senses were going crazy.
The smells of the forest were overpowering her nose, causing it to burn.
The bird chirping from several feet away was practically screaming in her ear.
Everything hurt and nothing made sense. She rocked back and forth trying to soothe herself and started crying.
Unlike in the tavern, these tears were real.
Dagan found her on the ground with her hands over her ears.
She was shaking and her eyes were squeezed shut.
He sat down and pulled her into his arms. From the moment he touched her, he knew that her magic had been released.
Their fusion was stronger than ever, but he didn’t ask questions. He just held her and let her weep.