Legend of the Sorcerer (25 page)

He took their hands and joined them over him. “Fate works in strange ways, however. I knew as soon as I saw her dragon that she was the one, Malacai.” To Jordy he said, “You will do well by him, I know this to be true. Your soul is pure. My heart will be with you always, Jordalyn.” He
refused to let them respond. Gripping their hands more tightly and with some urgency, he said, “I have not been completely foolhardy with my birthright. Knowing time was waning, I have spent these last years putting to paper everything I have learned in my long time on earth. The volumes are hidden. I fear they are not complete, but there is enough. Dilys has the only key. I may not be here to do my duty by him, so you will need them to train the child you will create. He will be the Keeper, I feel it.”

C
ai closed the door to his office. Jordy walked to the window. They had both remained silent since leaving Alfred minutes ago.

Alfred’s final proclamation had barely left his mouth when his eyes drifted shut. He’d fallen asleep with their hands still joined in his tight grip. Cai had known a moment of soul-deep panic, uncertain if his grandfather had fallen asleep for the night, or all eternity. But his chest rose and fell evenly. They’d stayed with him until he’d relaxed into deep sleep.

“What do we do now?” Jordy asked.

“I honestly have no idea.” Cai was exhausted both mentally and physically. He couldn’t think rationally, then again, nothing about the last hour had been rational. He was no longer certain where reality ended and fantasy began.

“Do you think there’s a chance Alfred is right?”

He turned and took her hands in his, holding them still. “Even if he is, I can’t see him convincing anyone else of it.”

Jordy looked deep into his eyes. “Did he convince you?”

He spent a long time staring back at her before answering. “I don’t know.”

“He makes me want to believe,” she said softly.

Cai could drown in her eyes. Alfred said she had magic. Maybe there was a little of the believer in him after all. He surely felt spellbound.

“Maybe we should ask Dilys for the key,” she said. “To Alfred’s papers.”

He had to let her go, stop touching her, if he was going to think straight. He walked around his desk and sat.

She sat, too. “We have nothing to lose by looking at them. And you never know, maybe there will be some kind of documentation of his claims against Isolde.”

“Claims that they battled over a powerful magic pearl a thousand years ago?”

Jordy slapped her knees and stood. “Fine. Just fine. You sit here and wallow in your self-pity and pain then. I’ll go talk to Dilys.”

“No.”

She lifted a brow. “No? Alfred made it clear that he expected both of us to have access to those papers. I suppose it will be up to Dilys to decide.”

He swore when she walked from the room. But he didn’t go after her. Self-pity? He wanted to reject that, but he couldn’t. He was human, his emotions were raw, his defenses drained, and yes, he resented Alfred’s slow descent into madness. Pain? Well, yes, dammit, he was in pain. So much so he ached with it. His grandfather was fighting a losing battle and Cai could do nothing but watch.

He wished he could believe Alfred’s story. How wonderful it would be if life were that simple. But life wasn’t like that. He tilted his head back. No, his life wasn’t like that.

The kitchen was empty, so Jordy went to Alfred’s room first. She listened at the door, but heard no voices. She peeked inside, but Alfred was alone and still sleeping. She tried his office next, but it was also empty.

She went through the rest of the house, even going so far as to knock on the door to Dilys’ private quarters. If she was there, she wasn’t answering.

It was the middle of the day. Where else would she be?

She doubted Dilys was out wandering the gardens alone. Jordy walked out to the docks, but there were no boats missing. Hell, for all she knew, she might have been chasing her in circles. It was a big place.

She headed back to the house, but instead of going inside, she veered toward the path to the cottage. With Alfred asleep, Dilys missing in action, and Cai closeted away with his thoughts, there was little she could do anyway.

Maybe working on the dragon would help her sort out her thoughts.

“Hi, Fred.” She went over to the bowl and picked up his fish flakes. She’d moved Fred out here earlier, since this was where she figured she’d be spending most of her time. She sprinkled a few flakes in the water, then froze. Her mouth dropped open. Fred was swimming upright. She bent down and looked through the side of the glass, then stood and looked into the water again. There was no mistaking it. Fred looked … normal. She walked around the bowl, unable to believe what she was seeing. His crooked tail still bent at a slightly funny angle, but it was no longer twisted.

“How did you manage this?” she asked in wonder.

“ ’Twasn’t difficult if ye know the words.”

Jordy spun around, hand to her chest. Dilys stood inside the door. She looked different, too. Not in any specific way. Her hair was still sleeked back into a tight chignon, her clothes spotless and ruthlessly crisp.

But there was something …

“
You
fixed him?”

Dilys walked toward her and the fishbowl. “Aye, not that the wee thing was complainin’.” She smiled tenderly
at Fred. “Though I’m certain he willna mind seein’ the world right side up for a change.”

That was it, Jordy thought, stunned. Her tone had softened, her eclectic dialect emphasized by the change. The cold austerity was gone from her. Dilys radiated … warmth.

She turned to Jordy. “I did it because I felt ye needed a sign.”

“A sign?”

“I feel yer faith is strong, perhaps more so than Master Malacai’s. But then that one takes too much on his shoulders, he does. You hear with your heart as well as your head. I thought it might not hurt to nudge you along a bit.”

She didn’t wait for an answer, but moved over to the plastic sheet that covered her dragon. Without asking permission, she uncovered it. A smile split her normally tightly drawn features. It transformed her, so much so Jordy swallowed a gasp of surprise.

“Ye have the magic in ye, aye, and that’s the honest truth. Himself saw it in ye right off, he did. I wasna so certain, until I had myself a peek at your drawings.”

“You went through my sketch books?”

A tinge of the old Dilys surfaced as her shoulders straightened a bit. “I didn’t paw through your things, if that’s what you mean.” She gentled a bit then. “When I brought you yer sketch pad as you watched over himself when he took to his bed. I took the liberty of looking through it. I suppose I was lookin’ for a sign, too.”

“Did you find it?” The question was out before she could stop it.

“I believe so.” She looked again at the beginnings of the sculpture. “This here is further proof. You know where the slumbering creatures lay.”

“I’m a sculptor. Finding the creatures, as you say, is
what I do. I don’t know that there’s anything particularly magical about it. This one is barely begun.”

Dilys’ smile remained intact as she covered the dragon back up. “Ye’ve been through a lot in your young life, Mistress Jordalyn. Enough to thwart a trusting nature such as yours. And yet, you still want to believe. That is why I’ve come.”

Jordy looked at Fred, then back at her. “How did you fix Fred’s tail?”

“Are you asking because you are ready to know?”

She wasn’t sure of any such thing. Dilys was right about one thing though. What had happened with Suzanne had made her less likely to trust anyone but herself. And yet the L’Baan men had gained her trust in precious little time.

“They are deserving of it,” Dilys said, as if reading her thoughts.

The idea that she might be doing just that spooked Jordy into backing up a step. This whole thing was making her more than a little edgy. “I was looking for you. Before I came out here.”

She nodded, her knowing smile doing nothing to calm Jordy’s jumping nerves.

“Do you have the key?”

“Aye.”

Jordy rubbed her suddenly sweaty palms along the sides of her shorts. Now what?

“What is it ye seek there?”

“Proof. About Isolde.”

Dilys laughed, startling her with the rich, deep sound.

“The most important possessions one owns are the least tangible. Faith, hope, trust.” She walked to Jordy and laid her hand over her own. Her palm was warm, her fingers were strong, and Jordy felt oddly reassured in her presence.

“What you need is in here.” She tapped Jordy’s chest,
right over her heart. “Ye only need this”—she tapped her forehead—“to guide it.” She turned to leave.

“Wait! What are you saying we should do?”

Dilys turned. “I believe you’ve been shown the path.”

Jordy thought back over what Alfred had said. “You mean about finding Isolde?”

“I mean about finding the Dark Pearl. Ye must retrieve it, bring it home to him. He’ll need the strength only the Pearl can give him if he is to defeat Isolde this final time.”

“The Dark Pearl?”

Dilys’ smile was not unkind, but there was a trace of worry in her eyes now. “Faith, hope, trust. Those are the only tools you’ll need.” Her hand was on the doorknob. “That and a passport.”

“But—”

She was gone.

She couldn’t be serious. Jordy turned back and stared helplessly at Fred. He was swimming in circles.

Right side up.

I thought you needed a sign
.

“She wants us to what?”

Jordy sat down across from Cai. “She wants us to go to Wales and retrieve the Dark Pearl for Alfred.”

Cai started to speak, then stopped and sat heavily in his chair. It was all too much. His family was falling apart around him. Someone had to be the voice of reason.

“What should we do?” she asked.

“You should sculpt, I should write, and Dilys should continue to take care of Alfred.”

“Oh, fine. And when we take our heads out of the sand, and acknowledge this won’t go away on its own, then what?”

“Then I get him help, that’s what!” Cai spun his chair
around and lunged out of it. “What the hell do you want me to do, Jordy, huh? My grandfather has slipped permanently into la-la land and Dilys is on the track right behind him. You can’t expect us to go hopscotching halfway around the world on some wild fantasy chase after a magic pearl.” And yet he feared that was the only path left to them. Maybe some part of him had known it all along.

Cai stopped pacing. “No matter what else happens at this point, Alfred’s not going to rest until he feels it has been taken care of his way.”

“So, what do you suggest?” she asked.

“I don’t have any answers. I just keep getting more confused.”

“Me, too.” She went to him, tugged at his crossed arms until he let her in. “I want to help him, too. Do what’s best. I wish it were easier to figure out what that means.”

Cai held her cheek to his shoulder and rested his head on hers. They stood that way, drawing comfort from one another, for several silent moments. Maybe this was all family could do in a case like this, stay close and draw comfort from one another.

The fact that she considered herself family at this point was not lost on her, nor was the warm way it made her feel. These weren’t the best of family times, but a real family didn’t only rally in the good times. She wanted to be a real part of this family. Maybe she was finding that new path after all.

“There’s something else I have to tell you,” she said into the comfort of his shoulder. “Dilys did something else today.” She felt him stiffen. “She called it a sign.”

Cai leaned back. “What are you talking about?”

She looked him in the eye. “She fixed Fred.”

Clearly surprised, Cai took a moment to respond. “Fixed Fred? As in … like, neutered? I didn’t know you could fix a fish. And what in the hell for?”

Jordy laughed. It felt good after a day of heavy emotions. “No, no, not that way. She fixed his tail. He’s swimming right side up, or was when I left him.”

“How on earth did she do that?”

“I asked her and she said ‘it’s easy if you know the right words.’ I think she meant … you know … a spell.”

Cai groaned. “Not this again.”

Jordy stepped back. “Well, there’s no denying that whatever she did, Fred is swimming upright for the first time ever. His tail is still a bit crooked, but come on, this isn’t a normal type achievement here.”

“And she said this was a sign?”

Jordy nodded. “To help me follow my instincts and believe what Alfred says. Then she asked me to go to Wales and retrieve the Pearl.”

“I suppose this is so she and Alfred can say some kind of incantation over it and make the evil Isolde go away? Did she give you a treasure map with a big X on it, too? I can’t do this anymore today, Jordy. I’m tapped out on playing Fantasy Island. I’m glad Fred is fixed, but I’m not buying into the rest of it.”

“Precisely what she predicted.” Jordy shivered.

“And your job is to do what,” Cai went on sarcastically, “seduce me into going to Wales with you?”

“I know you’re upset, but that was low and totally uncalled for.”