T*Witches: Building a Mystery (14 page)

Madison cringed. "Oooo, I'm, like, deathly allergic to cats," she reported, jumping back. A chill wind followed in her wake.

"Is anyone cold in here besides me?" Amanda stroked the cat's ruffled orange fur. "For goodness' sake, what is that yucky smell?" She waved her hand, fanning the air between herself and Madison. "Ugh," she burst out. "You stink."

"Tactful much?" Bree was shocked at Amanda.

"Is that what they teach you in goddess school?" Kristen asked.

"Oh, wow. I can't help it if this bunny suit is older than Mick Jagger. Not everyone can afford a brand new costume." Madison was indignant. And then she was crying.

Giving Amanda a how-could-you glare, Sukari rushed to the blubbering girl. "Gosh, it does feel cold here now," she said, wrapping a comforting arm around Madison. "There's, like, this bad draft... and..." Her nostrils twitching distastefully, Sukari slowly backed away.

"I need a tissue," Madison whined, staring tearfully at Alex—who was actually Cam.

"Sure. I'll get you one." On her way to the den, Cam whispered to the cat-carrying witch, "That was rancid, 'Manda. What was up with that?"

"Gosh, Cami. I'm sorry," the redhead said.

Alex took Cam's arm. "I'll go with you," she quickly offered. "I smelled it, too," she said, closing the den door behind them and flipping the lock.

"Smelled what?"

"This totally nauseating odor. It's like, seeping out of Madison."

"Oh, Als. She explained what it was. It's that tacky rabbit suit."

"Not unless she bought it at Really Old Navy and they dragged it out of some swamp."

An icy breeze swept under the door. In her cashmere Cam costume, Alex shuddered. "And those goose bumps on your arms?" she asked her twin. "Where do you think they're coming from?"

It dawned on Cam slowly. She'd pulled three tissues out of the box for Madison before she turned to face Alex. "You're saying Madison is the messenger?"

"Still want to visit Mom?" Alex asked sarcastically. All of a sudden, her teeth were rattling with cold.

Cam sat down on the leather sofa, hugging herself. "I can't believe it. It's too bizarre."

"I second that emotion. So..." Alex waited. "Did you mean what you said before? That you'd go with Thantos if you had the chance?"

The whish-swish of Madison's perky shuffle could be heard through the closed den door. Alex put a finger to her lips, warning Cam to be quiet—as the small girl's tiny feet, encased in the smelly rabbit suit, moved toward them.

Then, with a stench of ripe cheese, she was in the den.

Cam checked the door, which was still locked.

Alex couldn't take her eyes from Madison. She looked so strange. A pink bunny with two long teeth sticking out, looking longer, she thought, than they had a few minutes ago. But was that possible?

Yes,
Cam said silently.
Definitely. Those teeth are bigger and shinier and sharper—

"Cam. Alex. How ultra-cool!" Madison squealed enthusiastically. "I totally wanted to talk to you alone."

Alex flopped down beside her twin and took Cam's hand. It was very cold. "About what?" she asked, her throat growing thick at the overpowering odor.

"About... your uncle!" Madison grinned. "The mighty Lord Thantos. I'm going to take you to him."

"Oh, really?" the girl, the messenger, whatever she was, was short, thin, and frail, Cam was thinking. Even if her teeth were looking dangerously sharp and had begun to separate. There was a definite space between them.

She couldn't take us anywhere,
Alex agreed.
Unless we wanted to go. Do we?

"And he," Madison continued gleefully, "the powerful, great, and revered..." Her two fake bunny teeth were now nearly an inch apart. "Lord Than-thos," she lisped, "can thake you to your mother."

I want to see her, Alex. Don't you?

Someday
. The smell was too much. And the cold.
But not now,
Alex decided.
Not like this.

Cam stood up, wanting desperately to hold her nose. "I'm sorry, Madison, but we're taking a pass."

Madison tilted her head quizzically. "You're what?"

Alex pushed off the sofa. "Not interested," she said, just barely keeping herself from gagging. "Not going. Thanks for the offer."

Were they imagining it, or was Madison's face actually looking more ratlike? And those funny teeth, which had become sharper and moved apart—they looked like fangs now.

Cam took a step back. "Well, it's our party," she said weakly. "Guess we ought to get back to it."

The rat face turned scaly suddenly. And it was developing a massive case of zits. Red bulges burst through the rough skin. "Wow," Cam said, "that's a serious allergy. If I'd known about it, I'd have definitely asked Amanda not to bring her cat—"

"Amandath cad? What nonthenth is thith?"

There was nothing comical about Madison's lisp. Her voice had gotten deeper and angrier. The crusty bumps on her face were rapidly turning to boils. As they grew bigger so did she.

With a loud rip, Madison's feet exploded through the bottom of her pink costume. They were also covered with boils, oozing a gooey white liquid that trickled between her toes, which were now—Alex noticed, clapping her hand to her mouth—armored with yellow nails, hooked, thick, and dangerously sharp.

Automatically, Cam took hold of her sun charm.

"Really, Mad," she said in a quivering voice, "they'll be bringing out the birthday cake soon—"

"It's all chocolate," Alex added idiotically.

A great crash followed. One that stunned the twins and left them numb.

Cam shook her head, trying to regain her senses. When she could see again, Madison was gone. A gigantic beast stood in her stead. A monster with fangs and talons and bubbling lizard skin scaling every inch of its flesh.

Seeing Cam's fright, the creature laughed. The putrid odor of its breath brought Alex to her knees. And stung Cam's eyes until she was almost blind. She could scarcely make out the foul beast ripping off the last pieces of pink cloth that clung to it.

"Cam, get down. Kneel next to me," Alex commanded, grasping her half-moon necklace. The moment her sister hit her knees, Alex pushed her charm against the one Cam was still holding. The halves joined with a jolt that set the room vibrating.

"O, wondrous night of full moonlight,"
Alex began, trying to adjust to the discomfort of being fastened, necklace to necklace, to her twin again.

"Um... that gave us life—"
Painfully, Cam opened her eyes but could see only light and shadows.
"That gave us life and took it, too—"

"Took the parents we never knew,"
Alex whispered, trying to stretch her gold chain just a little.
"From what was once lost and tragic—"

"Give us now their strength and magick!"
Cam blurted, surprised and pleased with herself. "Now what?"

"We need a line that rhymes with moonlight," Alex decided.

"Bright, night, fight, kite, right... That's it.
That we may use their might for right."

"Tremendous. You are so the rhymester," Alex congratulated Cam.

"I thought
you
made that up," Cam replied, squinting.

"Oh, get over yourselves," a whispery voice demanded.

"Amanda?" Cam tried to place it.

"Ileana," Alex guessed.

"Clever little T'Witches." Their guardian witch grinned.

"You?" the monster bellowed. "What are you doing here?"

Cam and Alex shuddered and ducked again.

"I might ask you the same thing, Fredo," they heard Ileana say, in Amanda's soft tones. "Except that I already know the answer."

"Smart aleck," the thing she'd called Fredo boomed.

"Whew. You are disgustingly ripe. And far too large."

"Don't get in my way, Ileana," he warned.

Cam saw an orange blur leap from Amanda's black-robed shoulder onto the monster's back. Fredo let loose an earsplitting shriek as the cat landed. "Boris! No!" His deep voice broke pitifully. "That's not fair, Ileana," he simpered. "You know how allergic I am!"

"Pity," Ileana replied, without a shred of it. "Return to your master, dog. And give him this message. Get up!" she ordered Cam and Alex. "Hold the necklaces and recite your spell."

The twins did as they were told.

O, wondrous night of full moonlight
That gave us life and took it, too—
Took the parents we never knew...

As they pronounced the spell, Fredo began to shrink. And to change form. The beast was turning back into human form—but it was not Madison emerging from the loose lizard skin. "Tell Thantos," Ileana growled at the shape-shifting thing, "that his prey have the strength and magic[[MAGICK?]] of their parents. And will use their power only for good. Not to enrich their greedy uncle. Not to serve their father's assassin. But to do what we were all born to do, except for your accursed family, to protect and help the innocent creatures of our world."

The creature had become a man. "You have the nerve to lecture me about these pushy brats who I've known since their unlucky birth!" he thundered. The man was beady-eyed and had a helmet of greasy black hair plastered back from his wide forehead. Wispy goat's whiskers straggled from his pointy chin. He was shorter than Ileana, and seemed exhausted from the effort of so many quick changes.

Cam and Alex were staring at him, slack-jawed.

"Don't stop," Ileana growled at them, "finish the incantation!"

Waking, as if from a spell themselves, they quickly went on:

From what was once lost and tragic,
Give us now their strength and magick
That we may use their might for right.

At the last line of the incantation, Cam's and Alex's necklaces unlocked.

They were gratefully rubbing their necks when there was a knock at the door. "Girls? Are you all right?" Emily's gentle voice asked. "I think everyone's here now. And the cake's arrived."

"We'll be out in a minute," Alex called.

"Thanks... um, Mom," Cam added.

They looked at Ileana in her black witch costume. She was holding Fredo—at arm's length—by the scruff of his skinny neck. The worn-out goat man glared at Cam and Alex. "Oooo, you'll be sorry," he simpered, sounding as whiny as Madison. "It's not over yet."

"If I had a ribbon—" Ileana laughed. "I'd present this sorry present to you all wrapped up. Unfortunately, I can't stay for the cake. I've got to return this smelly prize to the island. Go on, mischievous T'Witches, celebrate your birthday. Next year, you'll be sixteen. And we'll celebrate together—on Coventry Island."

"Can you see again?" Alex asked, taking Cam's hand and pushing open the door.

"Sort of," Cam said as they walked out into the hallway, which was strangely dark.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" voices sang from every shadowy corner.

And then there was candlelight. Lots of it.

Thirty one candles on a gigantic chocolate cake—fifteen for Cam, fifteen for Alex, and one to grow on—illuminated Dave's proud face, and Emily's, and Dylan and his posse, and Cam's best friends, and Cade Richman and his sister, Karen, and little Nguyen in his mother's arms, and Jason from PITS, and –could it be true?—Eddie Robins, his shaved head reflecting the dancing candlelight, his single earring twinkling, his moon face wearing a smile no one had ever seen before.

An old man dressed all in black climbed the hill in Mariner's Park. Halfway to the tree, Cam's tree, he stopped to mop his pale forehead and catch his breath.

"And you call me stubborn," a voice above him mocked. "I could have gotten you up this bump of grass in no time."

"It is my custom to walk," Karsh said, between gulps of air.

"Times change. People change, and therefore, old trickster, customs change." Ileana was sitting cross-legged under the tree, filing her nails while she waited for him.

"Some people," Karsh said, trying to laugh but merely wheezing, "don't change. They just become more so. Take you, for instance—"

"Must we?"

"You were an outspoken child," the ancient tracker observed, "a rude adolescent, and you've become a most disrespectful adul—"

"All true. Too true." Ileana grinned insolently. "But I'm also a remarkable... goddess. Even Rhianna was impressed when I dropped Fredo on the Council's doorstop. They'd been trying to get him for years—as an accessory or accomplice to something or other—Her Majesty, the Potato, told me."

"Did Lady Rhianna explain his crime?"

"Better to ask, did I care? I was so eager to rid myself of that putrid package, I just left him with her. Do all Thantos's underlings stink?"

"In a manner of speaking," Karsh grinned. "But I suspect that Fredo was being punished. For not capturing the girls at the hospital. I imagine he was quite surprised to see you there—though he thought that you were me."

"I told you my impersonation was brilliant! So what are you saying, that Thantos rolled Fredo in a dung heap because the big oaf had failed to snatch Cam and Alex?"

"So I suspect. It's been done before," Karsh said. "Let us hope the next one he sends will smell sweeter."

"The next?" Ileana questioned.

"And the next... until he traps them or we trap him. Now put away that nail file, Ileana. You're on sacred ground."

"What, this old hill?" Ileana scrambled to her feet, tucked the file back into her herb pouch, and reached out to help Karsh up the last few steps.

"Thank you, dear girl," he said, leaning against the tall elm.

"Well, I wouldn't want you to perfume me with rotten eggs," she laughed. "Sit down. You're all out of breath. Surely an esteemed elder is allowed to rest even in a sacred place."

Karsh was stroking the tree as tenderly as if it were human. "Someday, I hope to rest here," he said, "with the spirits of my ancestors."

Ileana came toward the tree. Awestruck, she reached out, but stopped short of touching it. "Is this the one? I thought it was in Salem."

"Near enough," Karsh said sadly. "Many witches were hanged here in that time of fear and ignorance. My own great-grandmother was among them. She was a great healer. Today, she might have been a doctor. There were no women doctors then. There were only the gifted who opposed bloodletting and leeches and noxious tonics—"

"Do you remember her?" Ileana asked.

"I am not that old," Karsh protested. "But she comes to me in dreams now and then."

"I wish I knew my ancestors," Ileana pouted. "I don't even know my own parents. How old was I when you found me?"

She knew, of course, but Karsh told her again. "Three months or so. Just a bit older than the twins were when we took charge of them. Guess what your first word was?"

"You've told me. Over and over. My first word was
No.
You reached over to lift me from the meadow where I was hidden and I said, 'No.' Perhaps I meant it," Ileana mused sadly. "Perhaps it would have been better for me to stay there until whoever hid me returned."

It pained the old tracker to see Ileana so sad. He wished he could tell her everything. Who her parents were. And why it had been decided by the Unity Council that she should not know them.

Someday he'd tell her, Karsh vowed. And with that promise, he felt the tree grow warm beneath his hand.

He had felt its heat before. That time, the first time, he'd thought it was the morning sun warming the tree's crusty bark.

On this very hill, he'd waited, with an infant in his arms. He'd wondered whether he should remove her necklace, as Ileana—then a headstrong adolescent—had demanded. He'd wondered whether he'd chosen the right parents for the child. The right protector.

Karsh had met David Barnes at a conference for those curious about the ancient ways. The lawyer was interested and enthusiastic—but not a born warlock.

He had certain sensitivities. He could tell when evil was on its way—though not what it would look like. With enormous concentration, Dave could will a spoon to tremble, direct the movement of a Ouija board, and make a liar uncomfortable enough to want to tell the truth.

He was, as Dave himself put it, a sucker for innocence. He'd become a lawyer to do good in the world.

Still, Karsh had not been certain that David and his kind and patient wife, Emily, were the proper parents for such an exceptional child.

These thoughts had occupied Karsh's mind fifteen years ago, as he'd leaned against the tree waiting for Dave Barnes to appear.

And it was then that his great-grandmother had spoken to him for the first time outside a dream. The tree had become warm against his back. And her voice, strong and young—for she was only twenty-three when she'd been hanged—murmured words of reassurance to him.
Ye hath chosen well, son of my daughter's son. Safe shall thy fledgling be.

Ah, but had he chosen well, when they'd determined to keep Ileana's roots secret?

"Tell me!" the beautiful witch ordered suddenly. "I heard you, Karsh. I heard your thoughts. You know, don't you? You know who my parent are and will not tell me! You must. You must! It's not fair. Even the twins know the names of their parents—"

"Soon, Ileana," he said.

"Soon," the voice of his great-grandmother echoed. "Very soon."

Ileana heard the tree speak.

"Promise me, Karsh. Promise on this hallowed tree. On this, your great-grandmother's grave. On this sacred place where Camryn was given to her protector—"

"I promise," Karsh said. "Before I die, I will reveal to them their mother's fate—and to you, your father's name."

"Soon, you said," Ileana pressed him.

"Yes, child. Soon."