The Stargazers (7 page)

A second later, Aster felt a
hand on her sh
oulder and a sudden wave of calm soothed her nerves
like a salve. “It’ll smooth out in a bit, hon. I promise,” said Ivy. Her words rolled out low and slow on a
voice as sweet as warm caramel, and it carried away all of the worries and anxiety of not only the last day, but the last month or more. Aster understood that this was Ivy’s true gift, and right then she had never felt so grateful for it.

“Thank you for that.” Aster settled back into her seat. Her muscles felt lo
oser and a euphoric grin was spreading
across her face.

“Don’t mention it. You’ll find my girls are very laidback and friendly most of the time. Some of them come from real bad homes and are as timid
as
little babies. They have nightmares. Don’t wanna leave the house. But when Miss Ivy uses the touch, they settle right down. If you ever get a nervous feeling, you come
and
see me.”

Aster had a feeling she’d need to see Ivy a lot over the coming weeks. A few m
inutes later, Ivy guided the vehicle
out onto a much smoother surface
, which was illuminated by more of those fantastically bright lights. T
hese
were
at
tached to poles that
stretched
high into the air
. Other
machine carriages passed them
going in the opposite direction, and she wondered what it might be like to drive one.

Gigantic, brightly lit
signs
were
posted along the side of the road featuring all sorts of smiling people and giant words she recognized in most cases but not all.
“Abortion stops a beating heart? What does that mean?”

“I have three words that will make your time here a lot easier,
Starflower
. Ignorance is bliss.”

Aster grinned at the nickname. She’d never heard it before.
“
How long have you been here?”

“I’m comin’ up on my thirtieth year. Came over when I was a few years older than you.”

“Will you return to Ellemire one day?”

Ivy sighed. “No, I don’t think so, hon. It’s very hard to go back once you spend awhile over here.”

“How come?”

“It’s somethin’ bout how this world grabs hold of you. I don’t think it would let me go, even if I wanted it to.
But more important, I’m not sure Ellemire would have me back. I might have been born there, but this has been my home so long now, that other place feels more like a dream.
In a few years, my niece will be taking my pl
ace here, and I’ll likely retire somewhere nice and warm in the south, where the only magic I need will be mixed into the mojitos.” She laughed.

Aster tried to imagine what it would be like to become a permanent alien in this loud and smelly place with its bright lights and roaring motor carriages. The idea terrified her now, but people had a way of getting used to the things that frighten them. How else to explain how she’d tolerated Oleander all those years?

Ivy settled back into her seat but left one hand on the
wheel. This made Aster a little nervous, but she didn’t say anything.
“I’ve been very excited to get you
over here. Aside from messages passed back and forth with a few folks back home, I don’t much get to ta
lk with someone who gets it.”

Aster frowned. “Gets what?”

“What it’s like to be one of
us
, silly girl. Magic, the craft. Forced to live the lives our families carved out for us. Not having a choice in any of it, unless we’re dumb enough to just drop everything and run away. Though I guess for you it’s even worse. Falling in love and having a baby is
hard enough on any woman. If the fate of the
world rested on whether I
’d be able to kill my own child, I’m not sure I could do it. I’d probably have to shoot myself or run away.
”

The blunt truth hit Aster like a length of wood to the back of her head. Her e
yes watered with tears and she sniffed them away before they could fall
.

Ivy glanced over again. “Aw, hell. I’m sorry, hon.
My damn mouth gets the best of me at the worst of times
.”

“It’s okay. It’s crossed my mind more than once. Not shooting myself, but at least running away.”

“Aren’t you worried what might happen if you did?”

“Why do you think I’m still here?”

“Good point.”

“I have no idea what I
’m doing. I can already tell I am
not going to fit in here.”

“Don’t judge too soon, now. You been cooped up your whole life. Naturally, you
’re
gonna feel like a fish outta water
, especially in a world that moves as fast as this one does
. Now, I know I’m supposed to help keep you on the straight and narrow and make sure you do what you was sent over here to do, but I’m gonna make sure you ain’t sittin’ here miserable either. Girl your age, pretty as you, should be out with friends, goin’ on dates, livin’ life.”

This all sounded great, of course
, but it also made her feel even more depressed and afraid
of the duty that lay beyond it. None of the good could possibly last. Any friendships she made would be temporary. Say nothing of any boy she
would meet.

As she ruminated on this, they rounded a curve in the road and towers and strings of light appeared in the distance. Aster sat forward, her unpleasant thoughts pushed aside, temporarily at least.
“What in the world is
that?”

Miss Ivy giggled. “I sometimes forget how surprising it can be to people from the other side to see the city. That, my dear, is the unpolished gem of the American Midwest. On the scale of cities, it ain’t much, but I guess that don’t mean
much to someone who’s n
ever seen a real city before.”

Aster didn’t think there was anything unpolished about it. Buildings taller than any she had ever seen jabbed up into the sky for what must have been hundreds of feet. Their lights were so bright they washed out the stars above. She couldn’t fathom the magic it must ha
ve taken to raise such structures
or creat
e such illumination. “The wizards and witches
here must be very powerful.”

“Yes and no. They wouldn’t take kindly to be called that, but they
have their own special brand
of magic called technology. Folks don’t
appreciate it much, and they mis
use a lot of it
.”

“That doesn’t sound much different from Ellemire, really.”

“True, but Ellemire hasn’t seen much by way of war in many centuries. Here, it’s about as common as a garden weed.”

“War? Here?” She looked around.

“Not here specifically, but in this world, yep. Lots of it.” 

“Is that where we’re going?” She gestured toward the towering buildings ahead.

“Oh no, I don’t do the urban thing. Too crazy. It’s all move move move and it stinks to high heaven. Especially to someone whose nose is new to this place. You also can’t see the stars, and you’re crammed in like sardines. A lot of the girls at the shelter come from trouble
d homes in that very
city. Miller’s Glenn is
n’t exactly paradise, but it’s
quiet and homey and a good distance away from that nonsense.”

Twe
nty minutes later, they turned onto a quiet tree-lined avenue
.
So many houses squished close together. Aster didn’t know how the people could stand not having a wide expanse of land separating them from their neighbors. Ivy parked in front of what looked like the biggest house on the street and
turned off the mot
or. “Welcome to Oasis Shelter, h
ome to eleven troubled teen girls. You’re the twelfth.” Ivy got out and Aster followed, after a few moments spent
wrestling with the seatbelt and
figuring out how the door handle worked.

She gazed at the sprawling structure that looked to be about five times the size of her family’s house back home, only far grander in its craftsmanship with spires and peaks on its roof and beautiful scrolled detail around its windows.
In Ellemire, this would be considered the house of royalty, or at least nobility of some sort.
It sat behind a tall iron fence decorated with twists of ivy and purple wisteria. Bright yellow lights illuminated the windows, making it look inviting and warm. “It’s the biggest, most beautiful house I’ve ever seen,” said Aster.

“
It wasn’t always so nice. The place was
an abandoned dump when I bought it, but it clean
ed
up real well.
You can thank my girls for that. They do all the landscaping and make sure the paint stays nice. We all take turns cooking the meals, and we keep a big garden out back. It’s all part and parcel of living here. I keep them safe and make sure they have a place to stay, but they still have to do for themselves. They’ll sure like having another hand or two around.” They gathered Aster’s bags and Larkspur hopped out and followed them through the gate and up the flagstone walk toward the front door.

“Will Larkspur be okay here?”

“Oh sure.
I don’t normally allow pets
, but I’ll of course make an exception for your familiar. They’ll li
ke having an animal around,
I bet. I know all about having one myself long ago when I came here. They’re like a little bit of home, which is real nice in the beginning when you’re feelin’ like this place is gonna swallow you up whole.”

“What happened to it?”

“Buckeye died a very long time ago. He was a beautiful blue parrot, but he had the foulest tongue you ever heard. He choked on a peanut shell and that was that.”

“That’s really sad,” Aster murmured. She couldn’t imagine losing Larkspur in such a way.

“Yeah, it was damn sad. And it still hurts. The bonds with these animals are deep and you feel it forever when they’re cut.” She unlocked the door and stepped inside. “Girls! Front and center!”

Aster found herself shrinking back
as an army of footsteps thundered
down the stairs and on the wood floors from all around the house. The girls filed into the room, first looking at Miss
Ivy. Then all eyes went to Aster
. She suddenly wished a hole
would open up
in the air
behind her so she could run
home.

-6-

The girls of Oasis Shelter observed her with a combination of smiles, ambivalence, and rai
sed eyebrows—the latter directed
mostly at Aster’s pink hair. Aster tried to convince her mother to let her change the color to something more natural, but she had refused. “It’s a waste of good magic to cover u
p your most unique feature
.
People will like it. You’ll see.
”

Aster guessed
this
was the moment of truth.

Ivy stepped forward to make introductions. “Girls, this is Aster. She’ll be stayin’ with us for awhile. Treat her as one of us, because that’s exactly what she is.”

Most of the girls waved and murmured hellos, except one. “She doesn’t
look
like one of us.” The others parted and turned to look at the one who spoke. She was pale-faced waif with a bony, lanky body and short, spiky black hair. Her arms, which were crossed in front of her and comple
tely uncovered by the
sleeveless shirt she wore, were covered in pink and white scars. One or two were still in the scab stage. Eyeliner rimmed her eyes in thick, black smudges, making her look as if someone had beaten her up. The girl seemed to study every inch of Aster, starting with her shoes and ending at her hair. “Looks like one of the Amish girls got off the reservation and met up with a jar of Manic Panic.”

A pink bubble escaped from her grin and popped. She then sucked it back in and kept chewing in slow chomps. Aster was familiar with gum, but none that made bubbles quite like that. It was just another interesting bit of magic she hadn’t expected.

A few of the other girls snickered, but Ivy hushed them up. “Ruby, you don’t look much like any of us either. Seems you two have somethin’ in common. In fact, you can share rooms.”

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Great.”

Aster felt her stomach drop. This girl seemed about as friendly as Aunt Oleander.

“I like your hair,” said another girl, who barely spoke above a whisper. This one had stringy blonde locks and a very timid posture, with shoulders that practically touched her ears.
There was a faded b
ut
still very visible bruise beneath one eye.
Aster was immediately reminded of Aunt Holly.

Aster smiled and searched for something on the
poor
girl she could compliment as well. “Thanks. I like your shirt.” It was plain black and nothing special, but it was the best she could think of on the spot.