Masters of the Veil (26 page)

“Why not?” Sam felt the anger in his chest slide away at the sight of her. “I seem to be very good at breaking things lately.”

“That’s some serious magic.” She sauntered up and gently placed a finger on his chest. Her eyes were so stunningly bright that he almost had to look away. “It can keep out very powerful people.”

“Yeah, so I’m told.”

“I was on my way to Rona’s lesson and I saw you running.” She smiled and locked her hands behind her lower back. She bit her bottom lip, which sent a lustful shiver through Sam’s body. “I couldn’t keep up, but I used the Veil to follow your steps. I hope you don’t mind.”

Sam was about to say that in fact he did mind, but the way she was looking at him…

“No,” Sam shrugged, “it’s fine.”

“Good.” She bent to the side and looked behind him. “What are you doing out here?”

“I just… needed to get away.”

She flashed a smile at him. It made Sam go weak in the knees.

“Mind if I get away with you?” Her voice was almost suggestive.

He felt a certain stirring. “I guess not. Want to sit on that log over there?”

She giggled. “That’s not a log.”

“What are you talking about?” He picked up a small stone and tossed it underhanded at the log. As soon as it made contact, a reptilian head popped out of the hollow. Four legs—complete with nasty claws—emerged from the rotted holes on the sides. The creature’s beady eyes glared at Sam before it skittered off.

Sam almost felt like laughing… almost. “Note to self: don’t sit on turtle-logs.”

“Actually, they don’t mind so much. When I was a kid we used to ride them around, but they don’t like being woken up.”

Sam sighed and shook his head. “This place makes no sense.”

Cassiella flicked her hair. “You just need to give it more time.”

“I think I gave it plenty.”

“How about we take a walk?” Instead of being meek, her question was full of confidence, and Sam was powerless against it.

He gave an agreeable shrug. “Okay.”

“I know you’ve been having a tough time.” She ran a hand through her hair.

“No, I’m fine.”

“…Sam.”

Again, he felt powerless. “I just want to go and play football. This place is great and everything, but I think it’s time I got back.”

“But you haven’t even seen anything yet.”

Sam thought about the look in the mother’s eyes. “I’ve seen enough.”

“You can’t just run away when things get tough.”

“You can when you’re as fast as me.”

Cassiella stopped and looked him square in the eyes. The change in her was unnerving. “Football is a game, right?”

“Yes, but it’s more than—”

She cut him off with wave. “And from what I heard, it’s very physical?”

“Mental, too.”

“Even better,” she smiled. “And you love doing it?”

Sam nodded.

“More than anything?” She asked in a playful tone.

“Anything.”

“Then I have a question for you.” She gave him a steady look. “What happens if you get hurt?”

Sam didn’t like to think about that circumstance. “I won’t.”

“Very optimistic. But seriously, what happens if you do?”

Sam shrugged. “Then I heal and keep playing.”

She wagged a finger at him. “But it would take time to heal out there, yes?”

“Well, yeah.”

She twirled and then opened her arms wide, gesturing to everything around them. “It doesn’t take long to heal in here. In fact, the Allu can do it pretty much instantly.”

The mother’s eyes flashed in the back of his mind. He pushed the image away and swallowed hard. “Yeah…”

“All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t hurt to have a few sorcerers on your side.”

“I could just do it myself.”

Cassiella suppressed a laugh. “No, you can’t. Only others can heal you.”

Sam looked her up and down. She was gorgeous. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t seen it before.
Maybe I didn’t give her a fair shot.

“So it would be beneficial not to leave right away and to make a few friends.” She winked. “Am I right?”

Maybe he was being too rash trying to leave right away. It would be good not to burn any bridges, though he might have sunk a few of them already. “You’re right.”

“Good.” She gave a satisfied nod. “Now let’s go to Rona’s lesson.”

Sam scratched the stubble on his chin. “I might need you to make me a practice plant.”

“Sounds good to me.” She twirled again, the hem of her dress spinning out hypnotically. “This way.”

“Let’s walk a little more.” Sam felt the last of the anger drain away. If the Allu really could heal instantly, then the little girl was probably fine. “They won’t care if we’re a little late, right?”

She bit her bottom lip again. “So you’re saying you want to spend more time alone with me?”

Sam did his best nonchalant shrug. “Maybe a little.”

Cassiella smiled, curtsied, then led him along the perimeter.

“So, how did the reenactment end?”

“I was defeated,” she said, walking in front of him.

“How?”

“The Veil got everyone in the whole community to sing at once, and when I was distracted trying to steal everyone’s voices, She unblocked the Sun and used the light to banish me.”

Sam paused. “Sorry that I made you freak out like that.”

She flicked her hair back, which billowed easily through the air now that no mushroom held it together. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Sam decided to drop the subject. “You were pretty good.”

She turned around and started to walk backwards. She tilted her head down and gave a slight bow, flourishing her hands outward.

Sam gave a few soft claps. “Glissandro knows how to write a good story.”

She stood up straight but continued stepping backwards. “He was always a believer that words are a type of music. A good story can make a good song.”

“So.” Sam felt the buzz from the protective borders creeping back into his ears. “Where are you taking me?”

“I don’t know.” She placed a finger on her lips. “I just feel like walking this way. That’s the best part about this place. Sometimes there’s no reason for it other than ‘just because.’”

She moved with a grace that Sam had never seen before. A faint glow gleamed from behind her, making her stand out. She somehow made Daphne seem ordinary.

Why didn’t I see this before?

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Is there something different about you?”

“I have no idea what you mean.” She tossed her hair. “Maybe you’re opening your eyes for the first—”

Her words were cut off as she disappeared.

It looked to Sam like she had fallen down a hole or something.

He rushed over to see what had happened. The air around him was being pulled into the hole, like the opening was a giant vacuum. Light did nothing to penetrate the darkness, like it was being swallowed along with the wind.

Sam’s stomach tightened.

“Cassiella!” He called down. “Are you all right?”

No response.

He got on his knees and leaned forward, bracing so the air wouldn’t suck him in.

“CASSIELLA!”

Still nothing.

Without thinking, he dove in after her.

A second later, however, a giant blast of air forced him back out. He tumbled backward as he landed. As soon as he stopped rolling, he reoriented himself and then ran back to the hole.

Now, instead of sucking in air, it was blowing it out.

“Cassiella!”

He again tried to jump in, but the air coming out threw him backwards with tremendous force.

“HELP!” he shouted, but he realized no one was around.

He took a second to gather his bearings and try to pick out a landmark that he could remember. The only noteworthy thing he saw was a pile of rocks that looked like someone had stacked them. Deciding that was the best he would do, he ran as fast as he could toward the three-pronged pillar.

CHAPTER 20

J
intin jumped out of the way. “That was quick.”

Vigtor flared his nostrils and took a deep breath. Even after years of traveling through the Veil, it still managed to leave his breath thin. “Are you implying that I would take my time with this?”

Jintin turned defensive. “No, it was just…”

“That I didn’t have to come?”

Jintin sneered. “I could have done it myself.”

“Really?” Vigtor smiled, his tone lighthearted. “When did you figure out how to correctly harness people’s minds? Because I’m sure I would have noticed your development of that particular skill. Did you have a run-in with Delphi while out here? Did you have a sudden epiphany after three hundred years of static wit?”

Jintin lowered his voice. “At least my harness wasn’t broken by May.”

Vigtor moved close to Jintin’s face. “I didn’t catch that.”

Jintin’s eyes lit up. “Thanks for coming, boss?”

“Better.” He stepped back. “Did you perform the cloaking drape?”

Jintin looked uneasy. “Yes.”

“Why the uncertainty?”

“Will it really keep the Mystics blind? You know what they’ll do to us. I don’t want to end up thinking I’m a—”

“It will be fine.” Vigtor waved his second-skin, and the air around it grew dark. “You know our magic always prevails. Why do you think they haven’t found us yet?”

Jintin nodded. “Do you really think this is going to get him to come out?”

“Erimos thinks so, so yes, I believe it will work.”

Jintin looked unsure. “But they’re just words.”

“To you, any words are just words. But if Samuel is anything like the rest of us, which I believe he is, a feeling of isolation will have already taken hold. I think this will be just the thing to push him over the edge.” Vigtor locked his hands together. “Now stand aside and let me see her.”

Jintin did as instructed and revealed his captive. The girl was small and young. She was very attractive, however… almost too attractive. It triggered Vigtor’s suspicion. Robes bound her hands and feet and cloth spilled out of her mouth.

Vigtor grabbed a tuft of her hair and took a quick whiff. “Amorberry.”

Jintin nodded. “Thought she seemed a little too appealing. I had trouble tying her up. Had to close my eyes.”

Vigtor scoffed. “Tying her up. You really need to learn some subtle drapes. This is just so cha wo-wakan.”

Jintin sighed. “You know I never learned Lakota.”

Vigtor shook his head in disappointment. “Just so flat.”

Jintin’s nose twitched. “I didn’t want her to end up in a million pieces. Who knows when the next person would have come through?”

The girl’s eyes widened.

“Finally, something intelligent escapes your lips.” Vigtor looked deep into the girl’s eyes. “Trying to impress someone, are we?”

She gave him a poisonous glare.

Vigtor ripped the cloth from her mouth. “I asked you a question.”

She spat at his face.

With a simple flick of his finger, the saliva stopped in the air. “Not very nice.”

“I know who you are, you demon!”

Vigtor didn’t like how her voice penetrated him. He decided to take away her allure. An upward thrust of the wrist did the trick. All particles of the amorberry dispelled into the air.

There we go
. The girl now looked weak and feeble.
Much better
.

“You’ll never do it!” Her eyes were murderous. “You never have and you never will. You’re weak!”

Even without the amorberry, he was starting to like the girl. She had pluck. “No?”

“You think you are any match for the Veil? You weren’t even a match for Bariv when he cast you out!”

Vigtor saw her hand twitch behind her back. The girl pinched her lips together and gave Vigtor a look so intensely vile that it could have held off a stampede of trample-feet. A rumbling sound came from somewhere behind him, and Vigtor turned just in time to stop the boulder from crushing his face.

It took almost no effort to stop the giant rock, but if he hadn’t turned, his head would have been split open.

He shoved the girl onto her stomach and ripped off her second-skin. After he burned the purple material with a simple grip, he turned to Jintin with a menacing gaze. “You left her second-skin on?”

Jintin held his hands up defensively. “No, I took it! She must have had another one!”

Vigtor pointed a shaking finger at Jintin. “I’ll deal with you later.”

“It’s not his fault you’re a coward!” The girl screamed. “You’re a delusional, scared little boy. No matter what you do, you’re always going to fail! You’re pathetic!”

Vigtor grabbed the girl by the shoulder and sat her up straight. He brought his face close to hers and gave a predatory grin. “We have a secret way. Or rather… we will.”

She clenched her teeth and her lips trembled. “The Veil knows all. You can’t hide any secrets from Her.”

Vigtor caressed her hair. “You’re mistaken, little one.”

She turned her head to the side, the vein in her neck thick with anger. “Just get it over with.”

“What?”

“Whatever you want with me.”

It would be effortless for him. People were so simple. He had even gotten so good at harnessing that he could do it over the flathands’ phone devices, though he despised using them. “What makes you assume it’s you I want?”

“She will protect me.”

“She won’t be in charge for much longer.” Vigtor closed his eyes and curled his fingers.

It took only seconds.

When he opened his eyes, the girl stared at him absently. She looked good with red eyes.

“Now.” Vigtor handed her the envelope. “What do you know about Sam Lock?”

***

“Rona!” Sam pushed through the fire in his legs. “RONA!”

The group hovered around Rona, who was showing them something on a small white dove.

“Rona!” When Sam finally reached them, the group separated and stared at him.

“Master Rona,” Rona corrected. “What’s wrong, Sam, and why are you late?”

“Sam thinks he can do whatever he wants.” Petir crossed his arms and put on his favorite sneer. “Isn’t that—?”

“Shut up or I’ll knock your head off.”

“I’d like to see you—”

“ENOUGH!” Rona’s thick accent came through even more when he yelled. “What happened, Sam?”

Sam took a deep breath. “Cassiella, she’s gone.”

“Oh.” Petir threw a hand over his chest in fake shock. “Just like you at the reenactment. I can’t begin to stress how rude that was, by the way.”

That was all Sam could take. He put all his weight on his front leg and struck at Petir as hard as he could, intending to bury his knuckles as deep as possible in the little punk’s face.

Petir held up his second-skin and stopped Sam’s fist inches away from his infuriating smirk.

“So angry,” Petir tsked. “We don’t like that here.”

Sam wanted nothing more than to pound the little freak’s guts into the ground. He reached into his pocket to grab his second-skin and—

“I said ENOUGH!” Rona thrust his palm out, separating Sam and Petir. “What do you mean, ‘gone?’”

“She fell.” Sam still scowled at Petir. “Through this hole in the woods.”

“And you couldn’t get her out?”

“I tried to go after her, but this hole was weird. It was like a vacuum that was sucking up air, and then when I dove in, the air reversed and threw me out.”

A look of panic crossed Rona’s face.

Petir whipped a skeptical look to Rona. “
That
sounds real.”

“For once, would you just be quiet!” Daphne snapped.

That finally shut Petir up.

Rona released the dove. “Where did this happen?”

“By the border. I can get us back.” In his panic, Sam hadn’t realized until that moment that Glissandro wasn’t there. “Where’s Glissandro?”

“He’s off with the Mystics today,” Rona said quickly. “Now hurry, lead us there.”

***

It was harder then he thought it would be to find the pile of rocks. After what felt like miles of running, they finally came across the stack.

“Over here!” Sam ran up to the hole, which was sucking in air again.

Rona pulled him away from the vacuum. “She fell in there?”

“Yeah.” Sam pulled against Rona’s grip. “She didn’t see it; she was walking backwards.”

“You must have tried
really hard
to go after her,” Petir said. “That air is
really
pushing out hard.”

Rona stepped around Sam and knelt down right next to the hole, running his finger along the rim. “It wasn’t like this when you left?”

“No, I swear.”

“Step back,” Rona warned. “I don’t want any more of you falling in.”

Petir snorted. “Falling in? Sam probably pushed her.”

Sam ignored him. “What do we do, Master Rona?”

He placed his second-skin over the hole. It trembled a little before he pulled it back. “She is not in there. I am not familiar with this magic, but because of the airflow, I assume there is an exit. Let’s hope it is not too far away.”

Sam inched toward the hole. “Let’s go in after her.”

Rona thrust a hand up in refusal. “Only as a last resort.”

“But—”

Rona brought himself to his full height. “That is final!”

Sam paused. Deciding not to press the issue, he took a step back. “So should we split up and look?”

Rona gave a solemn nod, his expression grave.

Zawadi bowed as she walked backward. “I’ll go find May.”

Rona nodded. “Go.”

“Can you do some sort of grip to find her?” Sam’s eyes refused to leave the hole. “There’s got to be something.”

“Unfortunately not; there are too many people in Atlas Crown to feel her, and too many places for her to have gone. But I
can
do this.” Rona got into a stance and thrust his palm toward the sky. Above them, clouds swirled, forming giant letters in the air. He thrust his hand even higher, and lightning struck the clouds, making the puffy letters crackle, furiously bright.

FIND CASSIELLA OF THE PYX CLAN

“When someone sees her,” Rona said, “they will send a message up. The good news is that this natural phenomenon must have come from the Veil, and it is rare for something to come from Her that is truly harmful. The Mystics can do what I cannot, so they should find Cassiella soon. Delphi is very good at that sort of thing.”

They waited for what felt like an eternity.

Rona kept staring into the sky, the sweat beading around his crown as time passed.

“Shouldn’t they have found her by now?” Daphne shifted from foot to foot.

Rona gave a stoic nod.

At this point, Sam itched to just go ahead and dive in the hole. “What do we do?”

“If the Mystics can’t find her, then there is something unnatural taking place. Something dark.”

Sam nervously cracked his knuckles. “Meaning?”

“We search by foot.”

“The whole town?” Petir’s jaw dropped. “That’ll take days.”

A sound like a wire being whipped through the air whizzed above them. After a sudden crack, three symbols appeared over Rona’s clouds. Sam thought they looked like Chinese characters, but more fluid.

Rona looked up at the symbols and sighed. “The town
and
the outskirts.”

“Everywhere?” Petir grabbed at his greasy hair. “But that could take—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Sam interrupted. “We have to find her.”

***

Back inside the pillars, all of Atlas Crown was on alert. Everywhere, people called out her name, scoured buildings, and organized search parties for the Atlas Crown outskirts. Sam noticed surprisingly few sorcerers using the Veil to find Cassiella. One lady with a maroon robe draped Cassiella’s name onto pieces of smooth bark and lay them on a small pool of water, trying to create some sort of directional compass. She tried with a few different types of bark, but they all ended up the same, spinning out of control and splashing water everywhere.

After a few hours, the hunt inside the town started to dwindle as the search parties focused on the outskirts, checking the woods and other surrounding land. At sunset, some of the older sorcerers created balls of light for everyone—not unlike Sam’s lamp—allowing the search to continue. Sam ended up in a group with Daphne and Rona. The three of them scoured the woods for hours on end, creeping through the dark, calling out to Cassiella. Rona had warned them to be careful where they stepped, because the vortex Sam had found might not be the only one of its kind. Every minute felt like an hour and every hour felt like a day, and as it got later, Rona seemed less confident and more concerned.

“Can’t Bariv feel her through the Veil?” Sam’s fingernails had dug deeper into the skin of his palm over the last hour. “I mean, he can feel new sorcerers all over the world. Can’t he find one girl?”

Rona’s voice was tired and full of grief. “No. Bariv is able to detect new users of the Veil. He tracks fluctuations in the Veil. There is too much magic here. Always.”

A brilliant idea popped into Sam’s head. He wondered why no one had thought of it yet. “What if everyone stopped using magic? Couldn’t he find her then?”

Rona looked at Sam with kind eyes. “A fine idea, but it is not just people who use the Veil here. Everything that springs from Her is in constant harmony with Her for survival.”

Daphne directed her light into a small hollow in the earth made from an uprooted tree. Save for a few scuttling insects, it was empty. “What if we can’t find Cassiella tonight?”

Rona did not hesitate. “Then we search until we do.”

Daphne lowered her eyes toward the ground. “But what if…”

Rona halted. “What?”

The words burst forth from Daphne. “What if the hole ended up outside of the protective borders?”

Rona sighed, sending his light skyward, which caused a few creatures to scurry off and make a mumbling sound, their furry bodies retracting into the canopy. “Don’t think I haven’t thought of that. If she does not show up by sunrise, I will go into the vortex after her.”

“I’ll do it.” Sam tried to sound braver than he felt. “Right now.”

Rona placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Very noble of you, Sam, but while it’s dark out, it would be very dangerous to take that chance. We will wait until first light and, if you like, we can go together.”