Enchanter's Echo (28 page)

Allison knocked on the glass with her knuckles. “Excuse me, Madame Enchantress, but kindly remove the glass. You need to get out there. Edmund said you’re the only person who can fix this.”

“I will. But let’s park the car and I’ll walk.” With her hat so far down over her face, her own eyes wouldn’t be able to see a single soul. “No need to herald our arrival.”

“The moment calls for some efficiency,” Allison cried.

“Why are there so many people here?”

“They were gawking at your early morning work. It was quite a crowd. I was there, too. Those statues are so beautiful. I could have stayed all day. And then it all turned ugly.”

Captain Whitman stopped the car again, having caught up to the next mass of mages blocking their progress down the small, residential street. Energy shimmered through the air. The horn blared. The group in front of them jerked with surprise, as did Aurora. The horn continued with short pulses of annoying honks.

Aurora wanted to sink down into her seat and hide from the attention they were garnering. Instead, she leaned forward to the driver. “I’m sure they’ll move. You can stop now.”

He glanced at her in the mirror. “It’s not me.”

“If you won’t let me herald, then the horn will.” Allison’s blue eyes were wide with determination.

Two small flags rose from the innards of the car to stand a foot high at the edges of the hood. The crowd smashed against the sides of the road.

“Nice.” Aurora rolled her eyes at the flags. “Must be handy when you need to double-park.”

“You bet your glitter it is. Now punch it, guard.”

The damage came into view as they turned onto Park Street and drove a slow three blocks.

“Oh, goddess. What happened?” Aurora’s breath stuck in her throat at the long chain of fissures with energy so warped she could see it without her mage sense on. It shimmered through the air like a mirage.

Allison gestured out the window, turning her face so that Aurora could see her profile. “One minute the crowd was happy and laughing. They were admiring the fountain even though the ones closest were getting wet from the blowing mist. The next minute that horrible fissure appeared!”

“Did anyone catch the person?” Aurora asked, swallowing back tears. Her park was damaged yet again.

Allison shook her head. “There were so many people. It happened in a blink. Dozens of them are sense sick, those who were standing next to it. The chaos starts at that sidewalk.” She pointed at the middle of the block. “Whoever did it is ripping fissures in the bond all over the city. Edmund keeps whispering about it to me.”

An odd streak of jealousy spun through Aurora’s chest like a mini tornado. She pressed her hand to the ridiculous sensation.

Allison twisted in her seat to look at her. “Don’t be jealous. I was there when it happened and when Edmund showed up.” She wriggled her wrist and her calling charm bracelet rang with a delicate chime. “The only reason he’s calling me is because he didn’t want you to come alone. He wanted you to stay with the guard, but he didn’t think you’d be comfortable with the military mage alone. That’s all I know. He tries to tell me something and then he starts gagging. He’s grossing me out.”

Aurora squinted at the cousin. “How did you know how I was feeling?”

“I’m a dark aurist mage. You may be the lightest of the light and I may not be able to see your energetic aura, but I can sense the aura of your emotions. The dark ones anyway.”

Aurora shook off her jealousy—it had no place here—and her surprise that the Rallises had more than one dark mage in the family. She had work to do. That awful rip down the peaceful energy of the territory shook her vibes to her core. She wanted to close her eyes against its ugliness. Allison was right—parking in the middle of the street was perfectly acceptable. She reached for the door handle, her fingers shaking with such a mix of emotions she wasn’t able to identify them all.

The lock clicked. The door stuck.

“What now? Don’t you want me to fix it?” Aurora’s impatient words snapped with more harshness than she’d intended.

Allison’s glacier blue eyes sparked from within. “Yes. But you will step out of the car confident and composed, head held high. That’s what these people need. And that’s what you’re going to give them.”

“I don’t have anymore composure, Lady Allison. It disappeared when the entire Republic saw me naked.”

Allison raised an eyebrow. “You mean when you stunned them with your beauty and your power? Because that’s what they saw. A woman, one of their own, who is a conduit of the goddess’s power. And that, Aurora Firenze, is a gift. You go out there with your chin up. You show them that a metallist’s daughter carries a blessing the rest of us can only dream about.”

A metallist’s daughter. Those were magic words. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Allison had thought to say them, though. The Rallises always knew how to move the game in their direction. But it was a point that Aurora couldn’t deny.

“Calm and poised. Don’t scare them with your own worry. Or mine.” Allison’s voice wavered with the last words.

Aurora took a breath and tried to channel some calmness. “You’re right.”

Allison took her own deep breath. “Aunt Helen is much better at this than I am. I try, but I have issues.”

“I’d rather be sitting here with you than her.”

Allison tilted her head and pressed her lips together as if she might cry. “Why, thank you, enchantress. Now go get ’em.”

Captain Whitman dashed out to open her door. Aurora stepped from the car to whispers and stares. Her coat was little protection for the curves and lumps of her body against their knowing gazes, but she didn’t cower. For the sake of the people here, she couldn’t afford to.

Circling around the guard, she strode to the sidewalk where the fissure began. The damage strung in a line above the sidewalk that bisected the north half of the park in a diagonal before it veered toward the fountain. It wasn’t hard to guess where the fissure ended.

The crowd stirred like a bubbling cauldron, poking their heads up and around for a better glance at her. She tried to ignore them. With a purposeful stride, she pushed the bond’s energy before her and touched it to the fissure. The messy, dangerous chaos refocused, as easy as making Lily’s crown of flowers, though Aurora much preferred privacy when she cast. And if she had to be around strangers, she preferred ones who hadn’t seen her naked.

Behind her, Allison cleared her throat. Aurora straightened her shoulders and moved on, pushing the Rallis bond and reattaching the disordered energy. It was the longest walk of her life. Finally, she reached the pond, where the fissure ended. She turned around to face the crowd.

Applause and cheers broke around her in a wave. The car was now a gauntlet of gawkers away.

“Say something,” Allison whispered.

“I can’t.” The vow of silence weighed on her, its presence unforgettable.

“Yes. You. Can.” Each word poked at her back like the end of a sharp wand.

The crowd fell silent as if Allison had shared her expectation of a speech over them all. Their eagerness threatened to steal every word Aurora knew.

“Come on now. Deep breath. There are lots of dark mages here, you know. You seem to like that kind.” Allison spoke into Aurora’s ear. “Focus on them...the poor, beleaguered ones who need an ally...though each member of this crowd is scared right now—light or dark, rich or poor. Help them. Just speak from your heart.”

With no other choice, Aurora took a breath. “My father used to bring me to this park.” Her scratchy voice took a few words to even out. It flowed over the crowd though she spoke too softly for it to carry beyond the first few people. Allison was fulfilling her offer as herald and projecting her words.

“Every Saturday, we’d walk this path to here. We watched people play games and laugh. He was adamant that we’d only watch, that this park was for the light to enjoy but it would be frowned upon for him, for the dark, to do the same.”

Ripples of movement spread through the crowd as the meaning of her words echoed around the park. She hadn’t given much forethought to revealing that her father was a dark mage, but compared to being naked on the front page of the paper it really wasn’t much.

“I realize now that this was merely an excuse. He wasn’t hiding his own darkness. He was hiding me, keeping my power secret before I could stand on my own. Like a parent should.” She gave a soft smile. “Nevertheless, that excuse planted a longing inside me that this park, this Republic, would be for all…dark or light mage. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, at the light end or the dark or somewhere in between, it is a gift, a blessing. It’s what you do with that gift that matters.”

She held her hand in front of her, gently pointing down the diagonal walkway. “This was wrong, done only to hurt and stir fear and worry among us. I was here that day…the day of the explosion.”

The sad sigh of the crowd floated around the park. “I saw things…” She closed her eyes. This was not where she wanted to go. “But the wrongdoers were caught. Today’s culprit will be, too. Edmund…” She shook her head. “Lord Rallis is hunting—” Her throat tightened. The vow threatened to steal her words. She took a breath as the crowd chuckled softly at her misplaced familiarity with Edmund’s name, simply not done when discussing the first family.

“I’m going help him. And by finding grace and joy here, among each other, you can help, too. To do anything else is to let evil smother the goodness that dwells within this land, within everyone of us…dark or light. It’s our job to protect that spark of goodness it until its flame is so bright that nothing could ever quench it.”

There. She was done. And she couldn’t remember a thing she’d said. Had that even made sense? She tried not to break into a run in her haste to get away. The crowd’s applause clattered against her as she walked, beating the glitter out of her in sparkly clouds. It had held off during her speech, but now it was making up for lost time. No one seemed to realize the glitter was a reflection of her anxiety. Those on the edge reached out to touch it. Captain Whitman kept them from touching her.

“Well done, enchantress.” Allison spoke, though her lips didn’t move. The words popped so deep inside Aurora’s ear it felt like Allison had spoken in her mind. “Even Edmund couldn’t have done better. He’s the one who can stir a crowd to his side completely on the fly. The senator can do it, too. The senator’s son, Edmund’s father, he’s much quieter. Uncle Richard is going to need Edmund by his side through his entire senatorship, though I’m beginning to think that you might be able to help with that, too, if today’s performance was any indication. Keep it up now.”

The flash of a pic spell popped before them as someone recorded their image.

“How are you talking in my brain?” Aurora asked, her nerves easing with Allison’s presence next to her.

The other woman gave a short, soft laugh and turned her head toward the crowd, showing off her gentle smile. “I’m not, silly. I’m talking in your aura. I’ve never been able to do it with a light mage. Edmund is the only one I’ve ever done this with. I tried it with Aunt Helen once and she flung me out so fast I got dizzy. Of course, I never dared it with Vinny.

“I knew it would work on light mages though, if they were just open to my touch. And you, enchantress, are open to everything. Obviously. I’m dwelling among your aura as easily as mine. And confession time! I’m manipulating it, too. Just enough to keep you calm and cool until we get to the car. Now, not too calm. A little visible worry at this point is understandable to the average mage in this crowd. I’d never go overboard with this. In fact, I’ve never even done this part before. After all, who would I do it to? But I’ve gotta say, it’s no wonder enchantresses were always locked in a tower. You’d be incredibly easy to exploit. Rapunzel, you need some protection.”

Allison’s chatter brought them to the end of the sidewalk. “I’m riding in the back,” she declared. “We need a more formal departure. It will discourage them from following. According to Edmund the next dark spot is only a half block away.”

“I don’t like this. You need a bigger escort than one guard,” Captain Whitman muttered.

Goddess above, being surrounded by warrior mages was one of her nightmares. She drew herself tall. “No.” The hard, low word rang with a regal tone she hardly recognized. “No more guards.”

“Wow. You’ve got potential, girlfriend. You sound just like Aunt Helen. I always wanted to sound like that.” Allison shoved her into the car.

Aurora scooted over quickly—it was either that or have the territory’s royalty sit in her lap.

Edmund chose that moment to call her through the charm. “After you get the one on Dennison and Lundy Street, go to the corner of High and Goodale. It’s behind the bus stop.” His voice was hard and tense. A flood of worry saturated her vibes. She relayed the message to the guard, careful to keep all thoughts of fissures from her mind so the vow wouldn’t strangle her.

The next hours were filled with starts and stops as they drove the streets fixing fissures at Edmund’s direction.

The fact that the culprit eventually had to sleep became her only hope as the sun began its descent. At twilight, Edmund’s calls stopped. The silence was more alarming than the constant calls for repair.

Eventually, the captain pulled over to the curb at Schiller Park, not far from the Drainpipe. With a soft hiss, the car’s mage engine went silent. Captain Whitman hummed a spell and warmth waved through the already cooling air.

Through the window the bleakness of winter waved at them with stark limbs of trees and bushes. Somewhere Edmund was out there using his pain to track down fissures. Her worry grew.

The stillness in the car finally became too much for Allison. “I’m sure he’s all right. He’s just taking a little breather.” Suddenly, she sat straighter in her seat. “Oh.” She rattled her gold charm bracelet. “Why are you telling me this?” She paused for a moment before she spoke again. “By the starry sky, Edmund. Maybe you ought to get her a pair of those earrings that have the calling card spell in them. They last longer.” She turned. “Aurora, the calling charm is exhausted. Edmund says he loves you.” She continued. “Edmund, Aurora says she loves you, too.”