T*Witches: Destiny's Twins (9 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE TESTS

The usually bustling plaza was empty as the twins, flanked by Ileana and Miranda, hurried across its cobblestones to the Unity Dome. Outside the splendid building, a swarm of children waited to catch a glimpse of Cam and Alex.

Excitement crackled through the young crowd. Sighs and gulps, nervous laughter, and shouted greetings heralded their approach.

“Good luck!” “Apolla, Artemis, over here!” “How beautiful they are!” “Happy Initiation!”

Ileana strode through the mini mob with dignified determination, setting the pace. Miranda brought up the rear of the little procession. Bookended by the women,
Cam and Alex were trembling. Their hands, gripping each other’s, were sweaty and their lips were parched.

As the tall doors to the imposing building swung open, a babble of voices assailed them. The round stadium was filled to overflowing. Sunlight pierced the glass dome, illuminating a colorful, fluttering, noisy hive of expectant witches and warlocks.

That fell silent as the quartet moved across the marble floor.

At the center of the arena, Lady Rhianna waited with her colleagues, Lady Fan and Lord Grivveniss. They sat behind a judges’ bench so tall that Cam and Alex could see only the tops of the gold bowl and twin gold boxes in front of the trio, and the computer monitor that sat in front of Lady Rhianna. Lady Fan and Lord Grivveniss would each “grade” the twins with stones, then send their marks to Lady Rhianna via e-mail.

The island’s other Exalted Elders occupied the first tier of the steep stadium. Before each of them was a laptop computer. Row after row behind the Elders was filled with robed witches and warlocks. Alex noticed Sersee and her crew high up, near the back of the auditorium. Every servant or fledgling she’d ever seen at Crailmore was there, too — except for Amaryllis. Thantos’s servant was still in Marble Bay.

“Welcome, Apolla and Artemis DuBaer. It is rare that two fledglings share an Initiation day, rarer still that they are twins,” Rhianna greeted them.

Cam gave her sister a slight nudge with her elbow — not out of nervousness, but because Alex was studying the crowd and not really listening to the easily annoyed old witch, who could fail them if she wanted to.

“Check out the family row,” Alex whispered, elbowing her sister right back and nodding toward the row where Ileana and their mother were heading.

“Ugh! It’s Fredo.” Cam couldn’t control her disgust. Their uncle, the very one who’d admitted to killing their father, was there. “How’d he break out of the Peninsula?”

The Peninsula was the closest thing to a prison on Coventry. Fredo was supposed to be locked up there.

“They probably did a forgiveness ceremony on him just for our Initiation,” Alex ventured.

Cam looked blank.

“Didn’t you read
Policies of the Peninsula?
Forget Fredo. Guess who’s cutting?”

Thantos wasn’t there.

“No loss.” As Cam began to turn back to the Unity Council bench, her eyes caught sight of a couple with an empty seat between them. The man had intense blue eyes and long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. The
woman was attractive, too. Both of them were dressed in black velvet, and both seemed strangely stressed out. There was an aura of anger and eagerness about them.

Though Cam was sure she’d never seen him before, the man looked familiar to her. Trying not to move her lips, she hissed at Alex, “Who’s that guy in the black vest like Karsh’s? He looks like …” Cam tried to place him.

“Shane,” they both said.

“Bet they’re his parents,” Alex ventured.

“Bet it’s his seat they’re saving,” Cam said.

“Apolla!” They turned back to the bench to face an irritated Lady Fan. She was impatiently tossing a gleaming stone from one tiny hand to the other. “The verbal part of the Initiation test will now begin. I suggest you pay attention. For each correct response, you will receive one sacred stone, which I will collect in these boxes. There is, as tradition dictates, one for each of you.” Before Cam could fully focus, the tiny witch hurled the first question at her. “Apolla. What purpose does healing play in our craft?”

Shaken by Lady Fan’s abruptness, Cam was unprepared. “Healing?” she stalled. “Healing is … very important.”

Disappointed and disapproving, the little witch shook her head. No stones went into the gold box marked
Apolla.

“Artemis, can you enlighten us further?” the white-haired, even-tempered Lord Grivveniss, asked Alex.

She’d studied this. She knew this. But it was as if a timer were ticking loudly, drowning out the answer in her brain. Alex closed her eyes and tried to see rather than hear the answer. There was the page, the paragraph, from
Moral Principles of Magick,
that held the answer! “Every spell, all magick,” she began to recite.

“Is properly used for healing!” Cam suddenly remembered, cutting her sister off.

The next question was a follow-up, delivered by Rhianna. “What part does forgiveness play in the act of healing?”

“Most, if not all, healing comes from forgiveness!” Cam blurted.

Lady Fan frowned but grudgingly dropped a stone into Cam’s box.

Steaming, Alex stepped in front of her sister. “And forgiveness only exists in a commitment to love and service to others —” she practically shouted.

“By releasing anger and fear!” Cam called over her sister’s shoulder.

“Excellent effort!” Lord Grivveniss cheered.

Click. Clack.
Both Elders deposited stones into the girls’ boxes. Rhianna, who had closed her eyes in exasperation, now opened them and called out to the front row: “On the definition of healing, have you finished viewing the fledglings?”

“We have.” “Indeed.” “Ready, your Ladyship,” came the responses. The Elders struck a key on their laptops —
Send,
Cam figured — and Lady Rhianna checked her monitor. With a nod, she dipped into the bowl and removed a handful of stones. These she dropped quickly into the boxes.

Too quickly for Cam to figure out who got which stones and how many of each.

“Don’t do that again,” Alex warned her, under her breath.

“They asked me first,” her sister retorted.

“Silence! Artemis, Apolla!” Lady Rhianna was glaring at them. When she had their attention, she turned to her colleague. “Grivveniss —”

“Yes, well, now then,” the old man harrumphed. “Apolla. Describe the forgiveness procedure recommended in
Policies of the Peninsula.”

Cam bit her lip. Had the aged warlock listened in and chosen his question just to trip her up?

“Paranoid much? The Elders gather around the prisoner and recite to him every good thing he’s ever done,” Alex told Cam, just loud enough for the front row to hear.

A smattering of applause was cut short by Rhianna. “Did you know the answer?” she asked Cam.

“No, guess not,” Cam admitted miserably.

Rhianna shook her head. “Lady Iolande, I believe you have the next question.”

“Describe a spell, or variation of a spell, best used to heal,” the dignified old witch proposed, “and give an example of its use. Artemis, proceed.”

“The Truth spell!” Alex answered quickly, hoping to avoid a repeat of Cam’s hostile takeover.

And then she was stuck for an example!

The Truth spell?! Why had she picked that one? How could the Truth spell heal? When had they used it last, used it or some variation —

Amaryllis!
Without naming the devious little imp as the one in need of healing, Alex described the spell and how it had forced a “rebellious young witch” to reveal her true self.

“In just what way was that healing?” Lady Fan inquired.

After a moment’s thought — during which, thankfully, Cam didn’t jump in — Alex described how sick, how stressed, how terrified
she’d
been, for nearly fourteen years, not knowing who or what she was, only knowing that she was
different.
This secret had made her as sullen and snappish as the witch in her example, she said. Until she shared it with someone — who just happened to be her sister. Telling the truth, realizing and acknowledging
that they were witches and not alone, had removed major angst from their lives. It had really helped heal them. “You’re only as sick as your secrets,” she concluded, quoting Karsh.

A sympathetic murmur rolled through the auditorium. When Alex looked up, Lady Iolande was nodding with understanding, as were several others in the stands.

“And don’t forget — the truth will set you free!” Suddenly Cam was back in the game, grabbing her share of the limelight.

But Alex was feeling generous. Truth be told — no pun intended — it was the first time she’d thought of the Truth spell as something that could be healing. The realization pleased her.

“Apolla, can you give us another example?” Iolande turned to Cam.

“The If-you’ve-got-a-lemon-make-lemonade spell!” Cam said eagerly. Laughter rang through the arena. “Also known as the Transposition or Reverse spell,” she quickly amended. She described the necessary ingredients and recited the spell she’d used in the lunchroom at school, the one that had saved Nadine from Skeevy Stevie and, later, turned the bully into his victim’s loving protector.

“Ha!” Alex broke in indignantly. “I did that last part!” She turned to Lady Iolande. “The part about getting them to fall in love —”

“Ah, love.” Lord Grivveniss sighed and smiled. “Truly, what is more healing than love?”

The questions continued, and each and every answer pointed to the same thing: that healing was the witches’ art. And that love and forgiveness were the most important tools for healing.

Before the Q&A gave way to demonstrations of magick, Cam and Alex had taken the lesson to heart.

By the fourth question — identify the botanical and common names, scents, and uses of five healing herbs — they’d stopped interrupting each other. By the sixth — which sacred stones did witches use during the plague and for what purposes? — they’d stopped their goading and gloating. By the tenth — create a variation on the Truth, Travel, or Transformation spell that can stop anger — each of them had genuinely begun to hope that the other would succeed.

Love and forgiveness were in the air. So much so that Lady Rhianna, who could read even their most locked-down thoughts, had to warn them twice to stop helping each other.

Minding their own business was especially hard when each of them was asked to demonstrate powers that came easily to the other. Alex was called upon to use her eyes to see what normal eyes could not, to penetrate solid objects by staring through them, to glare hard
enough to cause fire. The first two tests so exhausted her that by the third she was grateful to raise even a wisp of smoke.

She didn’t exactly shine. Not any more than Cam did at identifying sounds too distant to be heard, raising and moving objects by focusing intently on them, and recognizing subtle scents.

Worn out and a little discouraged, they were surprised and revived by energetic applause and shouts of support and congratulations from the gathered crowd, who obviously thought more of their efforts than they themselves did.

Rhianna cut short their moment in the sun.

“Your next and most important task of the day,” she announced, as everyone grew suddenly and solemnly still, “is to think of a person who, in your mind, deserves
no
forgiveness. While there are many through the ages who have perpetrated monstrous crimes, you are to think of those nearer to you. You are each to chose only one.”

One what?
Alex silently asked her sister.
One person who’s so bad that they don’t deserve kindness, compassion, justice, or love?

Cam shrugged.
Pretty hypocritical, if you ask me. Who would you choose?

Right off the bat? No contest. Uncle T,
Alex quickly decided.
You?

Cam hesitated, then sighed.
Shane, I guess.

“They will do,” Rhianna announced decisively, before either of them had said anything aloud.

Cam’s cheeks burned as she remembered that there were few secret thoughts here in Witch Central. She glanced up at the couple who looked like Shane’s parents. The seat between them was still vacant.

“Your final task of the day is to be of service to them,” Rhianna said.

“You’re kidding,” Alex blurted.

Their Initiation Master closed her eyes as if she were hoping when she opened them again the DuBaer fledglings would be gone.

The crowd began to exit. Lady Rhianna took Ileana and Miranda aside. Cam and Alex stood in the center of the grand arena, not sure what was expected of them. Were they to stay or go? Find a way to be of service to their enemies here and now or take the task with them as homework?

All at once, Alex felt dizzy. Her heart and head began to pound; she couldn’t keep her eyes open. By now, she recognized the warning signs. She was about to have a vision, she realized, reaching out to steady herself.

Cam,
Alex called, not sure if she’d thought it or said it aloud, only that her voice echoed distantly. Her hand
touched her sister’s shoulder, which felt electrically charged yet stiff and cold at the same time. Cam, too, Alex realized, was in vision mode.

Suddenly, in the painful, pulsing darkness, Alex saw a swirling cascade of books. The final one, bound in leather so old it was dried and flaking, was called
Forgiveness or Vengeance.

It was not a real book, she understood, as the cover fell open. It was a hollowed-out box meant to look like a book. Tucked carefully inside it was a sheaf of pages filled with the shaky scrawl of someone very sick or very old.

Karsh!

All at once Alex knew that her adored old friend Lord Karsh Antayus had written and then hidden away the manuscript. She and Cam had read it! It was his final legacy to them.

The unbound pages flew out of their hiding place. They circled Alex’s aching head as if they were caught in a tornado. A single page sailed down slowly, landing before her eyes. The sentence that came into focus was:

In every generation, an Antayus will cause the death of a DuBaer son
…