T*Witches: Building a Mystery (3 page)

She was about to see or know something that she couldn't possibly see or know.

Cam's stomach knotted. Then…

There was a blur of red metal. Headlights speeding toward her. A car hurtling along a narrow road. High-pitched voices, screaming... laughing.

A hand grabbed hers. Cam gasped, but forced her eyes open. "Did you see it?" she whispered to Alex, who was holding on to her.

"No," her sister answered softly, truthfully. "I tried, but I couldn't see anything."

"You guys," Brianna called impatiently, "we're going to the lunchroom. Are you coming?"

"In a minute," Alex said. The hallway was becoming more crowded. "You look terrible," she whispered to Cam.

"It's not my fault we're identical," Cam answered with a weak grin. "We'll meet you downstairs," she told her waiting friends.

"Whatever." Beth sounded annoyed.

A couple of Dylan's friends passed. "Later," he said, taking off after them as the rest of the Six Pack joined the flow of students heading for the cafeteria.

"I saw something" Cam confided as soon as they were out of sight. "But I have no idea what it meant or whether it had anything to do with the warning we got." Wiped out, she leaned back against the wall.

"It's okay. Just breathe," Alex advised. "We can figure it out later."

Kids streamed by, sharing summer stories, comparing homeroom assignments and class schedules. Here and there small groups gathered, causing jams that slowed the flow.

A series of cries—"Hey, watch it!" "Look out!" "Yo, chill, bro!"—followed one boy's path. He was large, with small, mean eyes and a bristly shaved head. Behind him a zoo of jocks followed, egging him on.

"Who is that?" Alex asked as the broad-chested guy elbowed through the crowd. "The dude's neck is bigger than my waist."

"Eddie Robins," Cam answered. "He's on the football team. He's kind of a jerk."

"Whoa," Alex teased. "He must really be evil for you to say that. I mean, you're so the un-Bree."

Then, a grinning Eddie viciously shouldered a mousy girl in thick glasses who was half his size.

"Evil enough?" Cam asked. The blow sent the elfin girl reeling. Kids jumped out of the way, gasped, shrank back, trying not to trample her, while Eddie's drooling gorillas hooted and elbowed one another. The heavy books the girl had been cradling flew out of her hands and skittered along the floor; her cheery red purse fell, too, bursting open on impact an sending its contents clattering every which way.

In the pandemonium, Eddie swooped down. "Let me give you a hand," he snickered, snatching the girl's bright plastic billfold. "Let's see, any ID in here?"

Is he actually going to take her money?
Alex wondered, outraged.

Right here in broad daylight,
Cam thought, starting to boil.
In the middle of the hall with...

Everyone just standing around watching!
Alex couldn't believe it.

The girl was on her knees, gathering up her books. On her skinny wrist she wore a man-sized watch; its band was inches too big for her. She was shaking.

As if in sympathy, Alex began to tremble, too. An icy wave of anger, she guessed, swept through her, setting her teeth chattering.

Some kids had knelt to help retrieve the frail girl's books and purse. A few reached out to the waif, but Eddie's pals jeered at them, and the victim's head was down. She either didn't see the decent kids or, too embarrassed, simply ignored their hands. But no one would go near Eddie, who was rifling through her wallet. He pulled out a bus pass. "Madison Knudnick," he read.

"What's the matter, Edgar, your old man dock your allowance again?" someone in the crowd called out in a soft, sandpapery voice that Alex recognized.

"It's Cade," she breathed.

The bully looked up, his eyes narrowed at the new boy, but he signaled his troops to cool out. "Yo, Richie Rich Boy. You think my old man's like yours? Mine don't make the big bucks—"

"They know each other," Cam realized.

"Are you angry enough to scorch that skank Eddie?" Alex asked her. "Give him a hot flash? Or do you need a little help?"

"Right here, you want me to do it? In front of half the school?"

"I thought maybe you could be subtle about it," Alex hissed.

Cade was moving through the crowd, trying to get near Eddie.

"Go, girl," Alex urged Cam. "Or are you waiting for me to ice the hallway?"

"Could you?" Cam pleaded.

"Do your best. Or your worst." Alex squeezed her twin's hand. "Barbecue bully-boy."

Camryn closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, focusing full-out on Eddie Robins. Her eyes began to sting; her face grew flushed; her hand gripped Alex's so hard that Alex let out a yelp of pain.

The girl on the floor heard it and glanced up. She blew a strand of limp brown hair from her forehead. She had a long nose and thin lips, which curled suddenly in a strange smile. Her sad, dark eyes widened at the sight of the twins as if she recognized them.

The sound of Eddie's breathing, shallow and fast now, almost as if he were panting, made Alex turn away from Madison. Eddie had started to blink rapidly. His face and fleshy neck began to sweat. Loosening his T-shirt collar and mopping his forehead, he searched the crowd, looked up toward the heat vents, wondering what was going on.

Just as Cade broke through the circle of kids surrounding the bully, Cam focused and a searing blast of fiery air brought Eddie to his knees. He covered his eyes and screamed, "What'd you do to me, Richman? I'm blind. I can't see. My eyes are burning. I'll get you for this!"

"Man, j'ya see that?" some of the startled jocks were grumbling. "Yo, what'd ya do to him?" A few moved menacingly in Cade's direction, but Eddie hollered, "Gimme a hand here!" and they backed off quickly.

After pulling Madison to her feet, Cade picked up the wallet Eddie had dropped and returned it to the petite girl.

People started pressing forward, slapping his back, trying to shake his hand, shouting, "Whew, that was ultimate cool, man," and "How'd you do that?"

Cade looked around, over the heads of the kids encircling him. Catching Alex's eye, he shrugged and smiled at her, as if to say,
I don't know what's going on here, honest,
then turned away.

Madison ran right past him, moving straight for Cam and Alex. Her squeaky voice added to her mousy aspect. "You're the ones who rescued Marleigh Cooper!"

It was true, but hardly anyone knew it.

Weeks ago, America's pop princess had been kidnapped. Cam and Alex had used their budding powers to find the teen singing sensation and win her release.

Thanks to Camryn's dad, David Barnes—your basic one-in-a-million, good-guy lawyer—their names had not been leaked to the press. Dave wouldn't allow them to be photographed or give interviews. So, as far as most people were concerned, a pair of gutsy teenage girls who preferred to remain anonymous had saved Cooper.

How did this newcomer know about their role in Marleigh's rescue?

"Oh, wow," the hyper girl continued. "How neat. I'm Madison. I'm new here. And sooo lost. But big-time. Gosh, you're both sooo pretty. Imagine that. Like, brave
and
beautiful. It's not fair. Just kidding. I've got orientation first period and I don't even know where the auditorium is—"

What's that face for?
Alex silently asked Cam, who was looking at Madison as if the girl really were a small rodent or bothersome bug.

Cam rubbed her forehead.
It's just, I'm... Don't mind me, Als, I have a killer headache. I'm not thinking straight.

A couple of Eddie's pals had him on his feet again. Angrily, he shook off their hands. Just before he lumbered down the hall, he glanced over his shoulder.

I'll get you!
Alex heard him thinking. It wasn't hard to read his mind; he was staring directly at them.

"I don't guess you guys could, like, take me there?" Madison was saying. She nibbled her words fast and furiously, like a mouse eating cheese. "I'm just kinda nervous. You know, 'cause of what just went down."

"No big," Alex said. "I'm going there, too. It's just down those stairs, I think." She turned to Cam for confirmation.

Cam nodded. "First floor, south."

"Catch ya later," Alex said.

Madison grinned hugely. "You guys are so stellar. I can't believe it. My first day of school and I get to meet the two coolest girls in Marble Bay. Wow."

Cam watched them making their way down the hall. Something about the fragile girl disturbed her, something other than her smallness, manic chatter, and cheerful neediness. But Cam's eyes still stung and her head ached and she couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly that troubled her about Madison Knudnick.

A note from Lady Rhianna, head of the Unity Council, Coventry Island's high court, awaited Ileana on her return.

"Oh, beans," the impatient witch grumbled, unfurling the rolled and ribboned parchment that had been tacked to her cottage door. "Now what?" She read the document, then let it curl back up like a snapped window shade. "It's bad enough you've been barking at me since I landed, now Lady Potato wants a go at me, too."

"Ileana!" Karsh scolded, setting her bags down next to Boris, who was napping on the slate doorstep.

"Oh, all right. Lady Rhianna, then. But for goodness' sake, Karsh, she's round, lumpy, and brown—and clearly she has eyes everywhere. Or should I say
spies
everywhere?" Ileana plopped herself onto the big cosmetics case, crossed her delicate arms, and breathed an exaggerated sigh.

"Anyway,
I
didn't choose the pizza place," she declared after a pause. "They did, Apolla and Artemis—"

"Camryn and Alexandra," he reminded her.

"Whatever! They chose the place, your headstrong little fledglings. I tried to get their attention outside—"

"By pulling Camryn's hair and pinching her friend's bottom?" Biting his lip to keep from smiling, Karsh shook his head gravely.

"By any means necessary," Ileana shot back. "Why should I be cautious when Thantos will not be? They needed to be warned about Thantos's messenger."

"Ileana, you interfered with the lives of three innocents. Four, counting the mother who was driving—"

"Innocents?" she argued. "It was just a flat tire. And did you see how they behaved when I was gone? Shrieking, stuffing their mouths, spitting straw wrappers at their peers—"

"We don't do that!" Karsh cut her short. "It is forbidden. We don't enchant, cast spells upon, or otherwise meddle in the lives of others—except for their good, not ours."

"Well, two of my charges were in grave danger. Two who are worth more than all the others combined—"

"Never," Karsh exclaimed, shocked. "Such a notion is unworthy of a true witch. It is totally against our beliefs. All life is sacred—"

A flapping of wings overhead startled Ileana. She tumbled off her perch, landing on Boris's tail. The sleeping cat screeched. Scrambling wildly, he dashed into the woods.

"Ah, there you are. Punctual as ever!" Lady Rhianna dipped low over the cottage. "To the Justice Dome—now!—if you please," she ordered.

"I'm as punctual as you are patient," Ileana grumbled, getting to her feet and swatting leaves and twigs from her silk cape. "I just arrived and found your summons."

Karsh hooded his eyes with one raw-knuckled white hand. With the other, he waved warmly to Rhianna. Soaring above them, she looked like a beautiful blimp, he thought, admiring her dimpled, bronze face and sparkling black eyes, her wiry gray hair, which smelled of almond oil. Most of all, he admired her glorious wings. Only a few years younger than he, and she could still manage those stunning appendages—each of which weighed nearly as much as Karsh did.

Lady Rhianna smiled at him. "I'll see you—both," she emphasized, "in my chambers. Karsh, old friend, you look weary."

"I wish he was," Ileana sulked.

Rhianna's head snapped toward the young witch. Her eyes darkened; her wings flapped once, threateningly.

"I merely meant I wish he were weary of
lecturing me
," Ileana quickly explained. "Of course, he could have taught me to transmutate. I'd almost talked him into it—"

"Transmutation?" Rhianna roared.

Karsh flinched. "But I didn't," he pointed out.

Rhianna studied him for a moment, then wheeling abruptly, flew off.

"You're in trouble, aren't you?" Ileana laughed.

"Not as much as if I'd given you your way." His knees creaking uncomfortably, the old warlock lowered himself onto the warm doorstep. "You're a guardian, Ileana—quicker and more talented than most, a truly gifted practitioner of magick. Still, you had no right to alter—"

"Alter, shmalter! I flattened a tire on that red gas guzzler. No one got hurt. That big show-off can wait. I'm going to rinse the stench of tomatoes and garlic off me. Then I'll give you a lift to the Justice Dome. Rest awhile," Ileana suggested. Moving past him into her cottage, she let her hand play delicately over his cottony hair.

Karsh smiled, surprised. The reckless young witch he'd pledged to safeguard had touched him—not just with her hand, but with her heart as well.

Her gentle gesture and kind instinct gladdened him. For too long Karsh had feared Ileana was her father's child. He closed his wind-stung eyes now—just for a moment.

He was jarred awake when Ileana cried out, "Last stop!" and, opening her arms, let him fall to the frost-crisp ground in front of the Justice Dome.

Karsh landed upright on his spindly legs. Ileana had seen to that. She'd also made sure that Lady Rhianna and her deputy, Lord Grivveniss, had witnessed their arrival—and noted how very talented she was.

Not many guardians her age could levitate, let alone fly. But Karsh had encouraged Ileana to try her wings earlier than most. Naturally, Ileana's wings were not as showy or grand as Lady Rhianna's. Still, they were adorable and tastefully dusted with gold.

The esteemed elders were waiting before the purple, red, and gold dome. Grivveniss, with his wispy goatee and bottle-thick glasses, hobbled toward her, applauding. "A remarkable landing for one so young, especially in such gusty weather," he congratulated Ileana.

She smiled at the old man. "I'm glad it pleases you," she said with enough sweet cream in her voice to set his cholesterol soaring. "It is my desire to become a tracker, my lord, as wise and skilled as you."

Lady Rhianna exchanged a skeptical look with Karsh, then loudly cleared her throat. "Yes, well, shall we get on with it?"

"By all means," Grivveniss agreed, offering Ileana his arm.

It was all she could do not to stick out her tongue as she glided past Karsh and his frumpy friend.

"I summoned you to find out why the innocents in Massachusetts were endangered," Rhianna began, once they were all seated in her chambers. "I understand they were friends of Apolla and Artemis."

Ileana grinned gleefully at Karsh.

"They're called Camryn and Alexandra now," he gently informed the head of the Unity Council.

"Thank you," she said shortly. "But now I want to hear about this flat-tire business. Whose bright idea was that?"

"Mine," Ileana confessed with no shame. "You and the Council wanted me to take more responsibility for the twins, wanted a more hands-on approach—"

"Esteemed elder," Karsh cut in. "The method was Ileana's, but the instructions were mine. I am but an aged servant—"

"Karsh, my dear, there are no servants among us. We are all lords and ladies, people with special gifts meant for the great good of humankind."

"Of course. And it is in that spirit, Rhianna, that I allowed Ileana to go alone to Marble Bay and, by any means necessary, warn the fledglings of imminent danger. I am very old and she is young and strong—"

"Strong-willed."

"Did you not see how she carried Lord Karsh in her arms?" Grivveniss asked, smiling adoringly at Ileana.

"Indeed I did. As I was meant to. But why," Rhianna demanded, easing her silk-swaddled bulk from the chair, "did you have to create a hazardous accident?"

"The visit was to warn the girls that Lord Thantos would likely send someone to lure them. Someone who looked and acted like an ordinary being. And I approached them on their way to the restaurant, Large Lady, but even then they were with a friend. They're very popular, you know—"

"Large Lady?" Rhianna's wings ruffled menacingly but did not fly open.

"Did I say 'large'? I meant 'great.'"

Rhianna glanced at Karsh, then began to pace, her gold cape flaring, her little red

shoes clacking loudly on the marble floor. "You aren't seriously considering teaching the child transmutation, old friend?"

Karsh did not answer immediately. He could not say what he felt in his

bones. That age was claiming him, dulling his senses and robbing him of strength far faster than he had expected. He felt a desire to pass along what he knew. No, not a desire, an urgent need. If Ileana was to take up her true guardianship of the twins she'd have to learn more of the trackers' art. Much more—and more quickly.

"I see." Rhianna had, of course, heard his musings. Her gaze softened. Her eyes glistened, as if with tears, as they took in Karsh's feeble but familiar form. Then, remembering her rank, she cleared her throat and continued. "I can't believe you considered for even a moment teaching this rash and reckless young witch a tracker's secret. Now that I know, what am I to do?"

"What you must," Karsh offered. "Whatever you think best."

"Good Karsh." Lady Rhianna's booming voice broke, lowered to a whisper. "I cannot... I will not punish you for wanting to speed this vain and impatient guardian's education. But causing a blowout? A burst tire? No, no, no. We are dealing with human beings here—which requires maturity, honor, good sense—"

"All of Lord Thantos's fine qualities," Ileana said insolently.

"Child," Grivveniss said kindly, "while many share your belief that Lord Thantos was responsible for the death of Aron, the twins' father—"

"Who was," Lady Rhianna reminded her, "Thantos's own brother."

"His brother... as if that made his evil act less possible! Also his business partner," Ileana added emphatically, "creator of a computer empire worth billions of dollars in the world beyond this speck of an island. Might not such riches be motive enough for murder?"

"Indeed," Grivveniss agreed. "But Lord Thantos had an alibi. An alibi sworn to by Miranda—Aron's wife, the twins' own mother—before she was destroyed by grief."

"Wait!" Knowing what Ileana was about to point out, Karsh stopped her. "Yes, there is every chance that Thantos forced Miranda into giving him that alibi, tricked her into saying what she did—but she is no longer able to tell her story."

"And, if Thantos has his way, he will do the same to Miranda's children!" Ileana declared. "They are Aron's true heirs. Camryn and Alexandra! With their father dead, his share of CompUmage belongs to them. And you know as well as I do," she confidently predicted, "that Thantos will sway them to his side or destroy them."