Summer's Cauldron (7 page)

“Well, I should get back to my work,” Nathan said, a dazzling smile shining for Victoria. “I hope we can spend some time together, while I’m here.”

“Ah,” Victoria said. “Time together. Yes, well, I’ll be at my father’s booth, so I’ll be very busy.”

“I’ll stop by,” Nathan said as he turned and headed back on his way, glancing several times over his shoulder at Victoria.

“Who in the name of Cupid’s cupcakes is that?” Daphne said, still staring after Nathan.

“Mmm, he’s just a centaur,” Clark said.

“That is my ex-boyfriend,” Victoria said with a grimace.

“The one from England?” Nina asked, her head snapping around to Victoria. “The one you haven’t seen since you left, the one you had been writing to, the one you were supposed to be engaged to when you turned sixteen, and the one…Oh. Sorry. I got carried away.”

“Yes,” Victoria said, frowning deeply. “That one.”

“Strong,” Ben said, smiling at Alex. “He certainly is strong.”

“And handsome,” Raphael said with a wink to Ben.

Alex scowled at Ben and Rafael. He tried to catch Victoria’s eye, but she seemed incapable of looking in his direction. A fluttering piece of paper across the grounds caught his attention. He had seen a paper like it earlier. A flier of some sort. He whispered the rune-word for wind and the flier flittered through the air toward him.

“Oh, look,” Alex said, snatching the flier from the air as the wind that blew it suddenly disappeared. It was printed on paper aged to look like old parchment, with letters formed to resemble an old style handbill from the 1800s. He read it aloud, hoping to distract Victoria from thoughts of her ex-boyfriend, Nathan, the impossibly handsome centaur.

“
The Eternal Story
— Told Eternally. Love, Jealously, Murder, Justice, Revenge, Joy, Sorrow, Birth, Death, and all of Life. Never the Same Show Twice.”

“Sounds long,” Rafael said, looking over Alex’s shoulder.

“It’s wonderful,” Victoria said, her mood becoming lighter with the change of subject. “It’s what the carnival is famous for.”

“What is it?” Alex asked, hoping to continue the distraction.

“It’s a play,” Victoria said. “Or it’s like a play. It’s the main show in the big tent. There are parts that are written and there are parts that are made up by the actors on the spot. There are parts that are performed every night and parts that are hardly ever performed. The actors decide how the story will go and how it will end based on the audience. It’s really quite wonderful. Esmeralda plays the lead. A good quarter of the carnival makes an appearance.”

“Sounds confusing,” Nina said.

“Theatre,” Ben said. “Sounds boring.”

“It’s not,” Victoria said, her voice adamant. “There’s something for everyone. Kings. Queens. Battles. Love. Romance.” With these last words, Victoria fell silent.

It was a silence that fell over the rest of them as well, cloaking them in discomfort. Alex stared, first at Victoria, and then his friends, not knowing what to say or do and hoping for some diversion to arrive that might ease the tension. A disturbance did arrive, but it did not ease the tension, only changed and amplified it.

“Well, mmm,” Clark said.

“Mercury’s monkey bars,” Daphne said

“Them,” Ben said. “How did they get in?”

“There was an opening for an act of evil carnies and they came to apply?” Rafael said.

“They probably snuck in,” Nina said.

“More likely the mayor arranged it for them,” Alex said.

“I’d like to arrange something for them,” Victoria said.

Alex and the Guild watched as the Mad Mages walked across the carnival grounds. Anna, Dillon, Koji, Earl, and Mai sauntered across the worn-down grass, heading straight for Alex and the Guild. Although it was not the distraction he would have hoped for, Alex realized he would much rather face a confrontation with the Mad Mages than spend another moment thinking about the look on Victoria’s face when she had seen Nathan. What was that look? Was she happy to see him? Was she mad? What did Nathan mean when he had referred to Victoria’s last letter? What had been in the letter? And did he have to be so good-looking? No, Anna and the Mad Mages were much easier to deal with than the emotions causing his stomach to churn.

“I told you we’d find them here,” Dillon said, flipping his hair back from his long, pale face. “They’ve probably already joined the circus.”

“It’s a carnival,” Alex said, drawing his attention back from his romantic concerns as he glared up at Dillon.

“It’s a show for freaks,” Anna said in her usual sweetly sarcastic tone. “It doesn’t matter what it’s called.”

“You must feel right at home,” Earl said, a sneering grin on his thin, dark face. “They even have cages for you.”

“We saw you with that centaur boy,” Koji said, spitting into the grass between the two groups of young mages. “Is he part of your freak family?”

“Maybe he’s her boyfriend,” Mai said with a giggle. “Maybe they’re going to get married.”

“Yea,” Earl said with a throaty laugh. “And have little horse babies.”

“They’re called foals, Earl,” Anna said, smiling as Victoria’s cheeks reddened and her face darkened. “At least if they’re horses. In her case they’d have to be called monsters.”

“You are the only monsters here,” Victoria said, glaring at Anna.

“We should put you creatures in a cage,” Dillon said. “To keep the town safe.” After his embarrassment at the cave, when the Guild had saved the town, Anna had been able to push Dillon aside and assume command of the Mad Mages Club. It was easy to see how much Dillon resented Anna’s new position, and his own, but for the time being, there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it.

“You could try,” Alex said, stepping forward to stand between Victoria and the Mad Mages. Dillon thrust his chest out and took a step closer to Alex.

“Oh, I have a much better plan for them than cages,” Anna said, stepping in front of Dillon and staring at Alex. “The famous boy loves his fame a little too much.”

“And the jealous girl loves herself a little too much,” Alex said. Anna’s eyes flickered with fire and Alex knew he had struck a nerve. He wanted to strike something else, but he held back. He and the Guild could not be the first ones to start a fight. Not with the Mad Mages. Not with Dillon being the Mayor’s son.

“Oi!” a voice shouted from beside them. Alex and Anna continued to stare at each other, unwilling to look aside. “What are you lot doing here?”

The owner of the Scottish accented voice stepped between Anna and Alex and looked at them both. The voice belonged to a tall girl about fifteen years old. Not a human girl, Alex realized. An elf. A mountain elf, he guessed, by the stone gray color of her eyes and the midnight black hair pulled back in a long ponytail that hung to the middle of her back. She carried a long wooden bow in one hand and had a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. Another girl stood beside her. This one had the same dark African features as Clark and Earl, and stood as tall as Alex.

“Who let you in?” the elven girl repeated, this time turning and facing Anna and the Mad Mages.

“Who are you?” Anna said, straightening herself slightly.

“I’m the one what’s asking you who you are,” the elven girl said, her eyes squinting as she stared down at Anna.

“We have permission to be here,” Dillon said, stepping forward to stand beside Anna.

“Not from me, you don’t,” the elven girl said. “So move it along.”

“We don’t have to listen to you,” Anna said. “You’re not in charge here.”

“That’s where you wrong, little miss muffin face,” the elven girl said. “I give the orders around here. Want to see one? Kenda, show them why they should leave.”

The girl next to her, who Alex assumed must be Kenda, smiled and shook herself. There was a short burst of green light and suddenly Kendra was no more. In her place stood an eight-foot tall hairy beast with large yellow tusk-like teeth and a shaggy coat of black fur. Her clothes, simple pants and a t-shirt, stretched to fit her new impossibly large form. Alex guessed Kendra’s clothes must have been enchanted in order to remain whole and untorn. Although Alex had no idea how she had done so, when he looked to the elven girl, he realized she had knocked an arrow and held the bow drawn, aimed at Anna’s head.

“You won’t shoot me,” Anna said, glaring up at the elven girl.

“Victoria,” the elven girl said, with a nod of her head in Victoria’s direction, “would I shoot her?”

“She is well known for her impetuousness,” Victoria said, blinking in surprise at the sudden turn of events.

“She means I tend to do things without thinking about the consequences,” the elven girl said.

“I know what it means,” Anna said between gritted teeth.

“My father’s the mayor,” Dillon said, his fists balled in fury.

“And I’m the Queen of England,” the elven girl said, still staring at Anna, tilting her head to look down the shaft of the arrow at the smaller girl.

“Let’s go,” Anna said, sniffing slightly. “There are too many freaks here anyway. They smell bad.” Anna turned and started to walk away.

“My father will hear about this,” Dillon said as he scowled and followed Anna.

“Just so there’s no confusion,” the elven girl said, “when you whine like a baby to your daddy, tell him it was Elaeda that spanked you and sent you packing.”

Alex watched Anna and Dillon and the rest of the Mad Mages retreat into the growing shadows of the carnival. A burst of green light revealed Kendra standing next to the elven girl Elaeda again, her clothes back to normal size.

“Wow,” Ben said, stepping forward and offering Elaeda his hand. “I’m Ben.” Alex blinked in surprise. Ben shook Elaeda’s hand and grinned up at her.

“I’ve heard of you,” Eleada said. “Heard of all of you. But her we know well.” She turned and embraced Victoria. “How have you been, Vic?”

“Better now that I have seen you again,” Victoria said, hugging Eleada tightly. “You really didn’t need to do that. They’re more bark than bite.”

“I’m more bite than bark.” Elaeda grinned.

“You certainly are,” Victoria said with a genuine smile.

“Thank you,” Alex said, stepping beside Victoria.

“Not a problem,” Elaeda said. “I can’t stand kids like that. Thinking they’re special because they’re born human. Or because they’re born the mayor’s son. I’d ban them from the carnival completely if it was up to me, but rousting them out tonight will have to do. They don’t seem to like you lot much.”

“We have a long history together,” Alex said. “None of it pleasant.”

“That was an impressive transformation,” Rafael said as he stepped over to Kendra. “How did you manage to become so large?”

“It’s a changeling thing,” Kenda said. “It’s complicated.”

Raphael briefly glowed red, but retained his human form. “I think I can follow the conversation.”

“Oh, you’re a changeling, too,” Kendra said, excited. “It’s been so long since I’ve met another changeling.”

“So, what’s the secret?” Rafael asked.

“Mass,” Kendra said. “It’s all about distribution of mass.”

As he turned away from Rafael and Kendra, something flickered at the edge of Alex’s vision. He could have sworn he saw the shadowed figure again. There was someone following them, he was certain of it.

He looked back at his friends. Rafael was quizzing Kendra on the finer points of shape changing while Ben was admiring Elaeda’s bow almost as much as he was admiring Eleada. Clark and Daphne were engaged in some kind of conversation together. They seemed to do that a lot lately. Stick their heads together and laugh about things. Alex could only guess at what. Nina was excitedly explaining the relationship between the Guild and the Mad Mages to Elaeda, who laughed. Alex heard Eleada mention Nathan to Victoria as he caught another glimpse of the shadowed figure behind a wagon.

It took Alex only a second to decide he would rather be chasing after some shadow-shrouded pursuer than listen to more about Nathan. He would only chase the person in black for a little bit. Just to prove someone was there. The others wouldn’t miss him. He stepped backward around the edge of a wagon in the direction he’d last seen the shadowed figure. He’d only be gone a moment.

Chapter 6: Chasing Shadows

The shadowed figure was elusive, always slipping around a corner, always at the edge of sight, fading into the darkness between tents and wagons and carnival booths. Alex, however, had plenty of experience tracking the elusive. That experience led him to an inescapable conclusion. Whomever he was chasing wasn’t trying to lose him. The path through the carnival grounds might have seemed random to someone else, but Alex could tell he was being led somewhere. But where? And for what purpose?

He considered briefly going back and getting the others, but he knew that wasn’t really an option. The shadowed figure was interested in
him
. It was leading
him
somewhere. It might not reveal itself at all if the others were with him. Alex weighed the risks, the danger inherent in following a shadowed figure alone through the ever-darkening carnival grounds, and decided curiosity might be his greatest weakness.

Alex stepped around the corner of a wagon and into a row of small tents, each set up to display a particular sideshow act. As he did so, a warm wash of light suddenly illuminated the row of tents. Alex looked around to see magic glow-globes hanging from the edges of the tents, each one casting a pleasant yellow radiance. Alex stopped and stood in the middle of the lane between the tents. The light from the glow-globes eliminated most of the shadows, but also seemed to deepen the darkness in those places where no glow-globes were present.

As Alex looked around, searching for the familiar flash of black cloth signaling the cloaked figure’s presence, he noticed the whole of the carnival grounds were now lit up. The setting of the sun must have triggered the magic glow-globes to activate all over the carnival. He sighed. The addition of the lights diminished his chances of following his mysterious prey.