The Wizard Heir (24 page)

“How would they know he'd end up here? It's like
I told you. Seph didn't even know about me until I showed up at school.”

“What did he tell you about school?”

“He … well … he wouldn't tell me much. But you
could tell from the way he looked that—”

“Don't be naive. Look, as soon as he met me, he
was asking about the Dragon and where he could find him. Said he wanted to help
him. The boy's just a child, but he's powerful. Powerful enough to overwhelm
you. Don't you see? It's too risky to leave him here.”

Linda made an irritated sound. “You're right
about one thing. He is a child. He's just an untrained boy who's been through
hell this past year. And now he needs to heal.”

Hastings turned and took Linda's hands. She flinched
and tried to withdraw them, but he held tight, exerting pressure of his own.
“Let me take him with me. I promise I won't hurt him. Given a little time,
perhaps I can undo the damage. It might help us learn more about what Leicester
is up to, and how to help his victims.”

“That's what it's all about, isn't it?” she
said bitterly. “You're hoping to use Seph to help you win.”

“We have to win, Linda,” Hastings said
softly, urgently, searching her eyes. “You know that as well as I
do.”

She withdrew her hands. “Yes, we do,” she
agreed. “But not over the body of this boy. I'm not letting him leave the
Sanctuary.” When she saw his expression, she squared her shoulders and her
chin came up. “Don't try to bully me. And don't try to go behind my
back, either. If you lay a finger on him, or talk him into anything, there will
be a war between us, I promise you.”

She pushed open the car door and slipped out into the
darkness.

The next morning, Seph was awakened by a tapping at
his bedroom door. He pulled on his shorts and went to open it. It was Linda.
“Let's go get some breakfast,” she suggested.

Seph shrugged. “Okay.” She had dark circles
under her eyes, as though she hadn't slept well. He wondered why. He'd been
sleeping better and better as the summer progressed and memories of the Havens
faded.

He pulled his T-shirt over his head and picked up his
flip-flops, padding downstairs barefoot. They slipped out of the back door, and
he sat down on the stoop to put on his shoes. He could tell it was going to be
another hot day, but the morning was still and cool and fragrant with the scent
of the hydrangeas that crowded the foundation of the house.

They stopped at a coffee shop down by the university
and picked up bagels, juice, and coffee, and then drove to the beach. It was
nearly deserted, save a few early-morning walkers, and the snack bar sat silent
at the top of the cliff. They picked their way down the ancient stairway to the
sand and walked out to the end of the pier. There they sat down, took off their
shoes, and dangled their feet over the water. Sea gulls wheeled over their
heads, hoping for a handout. Way off to their right, the sun gleamed over the
horizon, turning the tops of the waves to gold. The air carried with it the
scent of Canada, fresh and clean, across the water.

He thought about Toronto, far to the north and east.
He wondered who was living in his old house now, if they still took in guests,
if they'd kept the big commercial range and the tiny-print wallpaper.

“How do you like it here in Trinity?” Linda
said finally.

“Well,” Seph said. “I never thought I'd
like living in a small town, but I do. Mercedes and Blaise and the other
neighbors mind your business too much, but I like them. Jack and Ellen are
really cool. They take me with them when they go out with their friends, and
I've been meeting a lot of people. At the beach,” he added, thinking of
Madison. “Nick is awesome.”

Linda gave a quick nod, as if satisfied. “I'm
wondering about school in the fall.” She gazed down at the water
percolating around the rocks.

“I'm sure I'll be okay, wherever I go,” Seph
said. “Now that I have more training.”

“Do you always have to be so damn agreeable about
everything?”

Seph said nothing. He couldn't recall anyone applying
that particular term to him before.

“What would you think about going to school here
in Trinity?”

He looked up, startled. “That'd be okay.
Sure.” His only contacts with the Wizard Guild were Leander Hastings and
Gregory Leicester. And his connection with Hastings ran right through Trinity.
“But…how could I? I can't stay with Becka forever.”

“You probably could. Becka is absolutely taken
with you, Seph.” She paused. “I could get a house here, too. I can't
promise to spend all my time in Trinity, but you could stay with me when I'm
here and with Becka when I'm not.”

Seph couldn't hide his surprise. He'd had the
impression Linda never stayed in one place for long, never even wanted to say
how long she would stay when she visited. He'd been thinking she might be ready
to get back to London, that only her concern for him was keeping her in
Trinity.

“That'd work. Only …” He paused, and then
rushed ahead. “I'm going to have to leave the Sanctuary one of these days.
I like it here, but I don't want to be a prisoner. I'm used to big cities, and
I haven't been anywhere all summer. Don't you think it's safe now?”

“I don't know,” she said, looking out at the
water as if she might find answers in the waves. “I'll feel better when
the year is over. Maybe you could go to school here this year, and then we'll
see.” She brushed bagel crumbs off her lap and clasped her hands together.
“I've been wondering how you're doing. I mean, if you've been able to …
come to grips with what happened at school last year. If … you'd like to talk
about it.”

He looked straight at Linda and said, “I'm doing
the best I can.” And that was God's truth.

She backed off. “Okay. I'll register you at the
high school and we'll see how it goes.”

Seph smiled…He had never had the chance to participate
in this kind of decision making before, and he liked it. “Fine with
me,” he said.

“And, Seph, one more thing.” He looked up.
“Be careful with Leander Hastings.”

“What do you mean?” He remembered Linda and
Hastings walking out together the night before, and wondered what they'd talked
about.

“He and his allies have done a lot to keep people
like Gregory Leicester in check. He's always focused on the big picture. But
sometimes he runs over innocent people on his way.”

“He said he has the reputation of being careless
with the lives of children,” Seph said. “What did he mean?”

“Oh, he told you that? But he didn't explain it,
of course. Last year, in the tournament, he was Jack's sponsor in the
Game.” Linda sipped at her coffee. “Leander talked him into fighting.
In the end, it turned out well. But he's a gambler. He takes chances with other
people's lives.” Linda put her hand under Seph's chin and turned his face
so she could look him in the eyes. “You could be next.”

“Oh, I don't think so,” Seph said. “He
didn't seem too interested in me.”

Linda shook her head. “You're wrong. You don't
know him like I do. Just remember what I said.”

Later, during his wizardry lesson, Seph had a question
for Nick. “Why does Linda Downey dislike Leander Hastings so much?”

The wizard glanced up at him sharply. “What gives
you that idea?” They were sitting in the kitchen of Nick's apartment. A
large floor fan whirred at their feet.

“She warned me to watch out for him. She doesn't
trust him.”

Nick sighed. “Linda's feelings for Leander are
complex. She doesn't entirely trust him, that is true.” He paused, as if
considering how much to share. “Linda and Leander were—ah—involved years
ago.”

“What?” Seph looked up at his teacher in
surprise. “You wouldn't know it.”

“Well, yes, Seph, you would know it, if you were
older and just a bit wiser. Their past makes it difficult for them to deal with
each other in the present.”

Seph remembered the tension between the wizard and the
enchanter, the spark and energy. He thought about Linda's warning. “Is
Hastings a bad man?”

“No, I wouldn't say he's a bad man. He is one of
those wizards who has improved with age. He was quite dangerous and impulsive
when he was young. Still dangerous, I suppose,” Nick fell silent for a
moment, frowning at some old memory. "Leander's father was a wizard and
his mother Anaweir. His older sister, Carrie, was a warrior. The family did its
best to keep her out of the tournaments, but the Roses eventually tracked her
down and she was killed. His father died defending her. His mother was never
the same. Leander was ten at the time.

“By the time he was your age, he was already
fighting a personal war against the wizard-dominated hierarchy and the
tournament system. He has never been afraid of a fight. Never afraid of dying,
either.”

“But … if Aunt Linda and Mr. Hastings agree about
the tournaments and all?” Seph persisted, wanting to understand.

Nick smiled. “These are difficult times. Linda
and Leander may agree about the ends, but often disagree about the means.”
He put his hand on Seph's shoulder. “They are both very powerful people in
their own way. They will pull you, Seph, whether you like it or not.
Eventually, you'll have to decide for yourself.”

A
Picnic on the River

Seph saw no more of Leander Hastings, reinforcing his
belief that the wizard had no particular interest in him. The next day was
Thursday, Madison's day off; the day of the picnic. She said she knew of a good
place, and she was the one with the car. She suggested he bring his swimming
gear, so he assumed it would be somewhere up on the lake.

The house had emptied out early. Jack had gone to play
soccer with Will and Harmon, trying to beat the heat of the day. Becka was in
court, and Linda was actually out looking at real estate.

Seph was just loading the cooler when Madison tapped
on the screen door. “Come on in,” he said. “I'm just about
ready.”

She wore a green tie-dyed sundress over her bathing
suit, a wide-brimmed hat, and sandals. Her glittering hair was partly braided
and beaded, partly hanging free, like rivulets down her back.

“This is a great neighborhood,” she said.
“I'd like to paint this entire street. It's like a whole shelf of wedding
cakes, each fancier than the last.” She looked around the kitchen, at
Seph's bags and parcels. “Who else did you invite?” she asked in
amazement.

She helped him carry it all out to her old pickup.
They loaded the food into the back, under a tarp.

“Do you come from a big family, that you live in
such a big house?” she asked.

He shook his head, sliding into the passenger side and
buckling his seat belt. “There's just me. Like I told you, that's Becka's
house. I'm staying here for the summer, at least.”

She turned left on Jefferson, toward downtown, ramming
up through the manual gears. Seph liked that she drove stick shift. “What
are you, a senior?” she asked.

He nodded. “Will be. What about you?”

“I'll be a senior, too. But I'm going to be
taking classes at Trinity in the fall. At the Art Institute.” She ducked
her head away as she said it, as if he might question her right to be there.

“Wow. Congratulations. I hear it's hard to get
in. But how do you take classes at the college if you're still in high
school?”

“I'll be there as a post-secondary student. Here
in Ohio, you can take college classes for free while you're still in high
school. The school district pays for it.” Madison's cheeks went pink as
she warmed to her subject. “My art teacher at Coal Grove High School set
it up. She said I'd really improve with the right teacher, and I can get college
credit without having to pay for it. I'm going to be living with my cousin and
working at the inn, so …” She shrugged self-consciously, and Seph realized
she must be nervous about fitting in as a high school student at an elite
private school like Trinity College.

“Becka teaches English lit at Trinity. I've sat
in on a few of her lectures. The students seem really laid back. I bet you'll
like it there.” After his years of attending prep schools, Seph had been
surprised at the way the students dressed at Trinity: flannel shirts and
sweatshirts and jeans in cool weather, T-shirts and shorts in the summer.

He was so engaged in the conversation with Madison
that he didn't realize they were heading south instead of north, until they
reached the highway interchange. As they accelerated onto the highway, Seph sat
up straighter, looking out the window, fighting off a sense of foreboding.
“I didn't realize we were going out of town,” he said.

Madison nodded. “Uh-huh. There's this really cool
nature preserve on the Vermilion River. In Huron County. It's not far.”
She was looking at him a little strangely.

“Oh.” It's all right, he told
himself. No need to make a scene. He hadn't seen a strange wizard all
summer. There was no way the alumni could be waiting at the city limits to
intercept him, watching all the routes out of town. Besides, he was unlikely to
be spotted riding in an unfamiliar car.

They passed the city limits without incident. The park
was about a half hour away. It was remote, thickly wooded, embraced by a great
loop of the river gorge, and embroidered by rocky streams that flowed into the
river. The parking lot was empty.

“How'd you find this place?” Seph asked,
hoisting the cooler onto his shoulder.

“I've been here fishing a couple of times.”
She grinned. “Fishing's an excuse to sit by the water and do nothing.
Perfect.” They hiked upstream a short distance to a little meadow, shaded
by tall trees and bordered by little umbrella plants that Madison called May
apples. They spread a quilt and Seph laid out the food.

It was a hot day, but it was cool under the trees
along the water. This is fine, Seph told himself when he'd finally eaten
enough. He looked over at Madison and smiled. More than fine.

Madison took off her hat and set it aside, groped in
her tote and pulled out her sketchbook and charcoals. “You ruined my other
drawings, so you have to sit again.”

Seph scooted closer to her. “I already cooked for
you. You mean I have to sit for you, too?” He cupped her chin in his
hands, pulled her toward him, and kissed her. She tasted of brown sugar and
butter, and her hair smelled of citrus and lavender. Sunlight rippled over the
quilt while the trees moved overhead, as if they were underwater.

“Madison,” he whispered.

“My friends call me Maddie.” She extricated
herself from his embrace. Pulling her sketchbook onto her lap, she pointed with
her chin to the riverbank.

“You. Sit over there.”

Grumbling under his breath, Seph rose and took his
place among the rocks at the river's edge while Madison issued orders.
“Half turn. Tilt your head to the left. Right leg straight. Stop
scowling.”

Seph thought she'd done fine in the past, sketching
him without his cooperation. He posed for an hour in the dappled shade, with
the Vermilion River sluicing about his feet, before she relented and suggested
they go wading in the river.

They loaded the picnic gear back in the truck, then
walked about a mile and a half downstream to the gorge. Seph stripped off his
shirt and Madison her sundress, and they left them high on the riverbank. The
water was cold, but refreshing in the afternoon heat. It was very clear, unlike
the cove at the Havens. Seph turned over rocks, disturbing salamanders and
crayfish, catching them in his cupped hands. He hadn't realized there were tiny
lobsters in Ohio. Then the two of them sat in the shallows, letting the river
roll over them.

“Do you have brothers and sisters?” Seph
asked.

“I have a little brother, John Robert. And a
younger sister, Grace.” She spoke about them with a fierce affection, as
if they needed defending.

“Your parents were okay with you coming up here
on your own?”

“There's just Carlene. My mom. She wasn't too
thrilled about it, mainly since I'm the babysitter. But I can make more money
working for Rachel than anywhere in Coalton County. And Rachel watches me
closer than Carlene ever has.”

“So,” Seph said, trying to understand.
“At home. Do you live on a … a farm?”

“I live on Booker Mountain. My family's been
there since before Ohio was a state. It's a beautiful place, but I'm afraid
it's not much of a farm unless you want to grow rocks.” She skipped a
stone across the river so it landed on the opposite bank. “I guess you've
lived all over.”

“I guess.”

“What's Europe like?” She rolled her eyes.
“I suppose that's like asking what's the ocean like.”

“Yeah.” He thought a moment. “There's
less room in Europe. It seems like everything's packed together compared to
Canada or the U.S. But you have to pay closer attention. It's layered. Like a
tapestry woven with lots of colors and very small stitches. Or … or an
Impressionist painting,” he added, pleased to have come up with examples
from art.

“Have you been to the Musée d'Orsay? In
Paris?” She studied him like he was an exotic species.

He nodded. “It's a feast, if you like the
Impressionists.”

“I'm going there some day,” she said with
conviction. “I'm going to visit every gallery in Paris and every church in
Florence. And eat gelato every day.”

When they were numb and shivering, they climbed out onto
the rocks and sunned themselves like turtles. Madison ran her fingers over the dyrne
sefa that hung around Seph’s neck. “What's this?”

“A friend at school gave it to me,” Seph
replied. “I guess you could say it enhances magic. It lets the gifted do
things they couldn't otherwise.” The memory of Jason brought pain, as it
always did, but just then the Havens seemed far away. “You mentioned that
you'd met … witches at home.”

“Well, there's a strong tradition of magic around
there. The folks that settled that area came from Ireland, England, and Wales.
My grandmother was a reader and adviser. People used to come to her to have
their fortunes read.” She fell silent for a moment, as if lost in a
memory.

A seer, Seph thought. “Were there also wizards in
Coalton County?”

She considered this a moment. “There are people
with auras. Like you. People with power. Trinity's full of them. What kind of
power, I couldn't tell you. And I'd guess most of them don't know they have
it.”

“Were there others like you?”

She laughed. “It'd be pretty hard to tell. I
don't have an aura and I don't have magic. I just kind of swallow it up.”

When they were sunbaked and drowsy, they pulled their
dry clothes on.

The shadows were deeper than before when they headed back.
They followed a path upstream along the riverbank until they reached a place
where the sides of the ravine swept steeply up on either side, forcing them
back into the river. Seph had just taken Maddie's hand to help her across some
slippery stones, when he looked up and saw someone standing in the riverbed
ahead, between them and the sun. The contrast between light and shadow made it
difficult to see, but there was something familiar about the silhouette. When
Seph shaded his eyes against the light he saw that it was Warren Barber. And
behind him, Kenyon King, from the Havens.

Madison stepped up even with Seph, and looked
curiously at Barber, who was standing, smiling, right in their path.

“Hello, Joseph,” Barber said. His voice was
marbled with sorcery, meant to sedate and cloud the mind.

Seph looked around. On either side, the banks were too
steep to climb. Behind them, two more wizards were picking their way down the
riverbed. Bruce Hays, and Aaron Hanlon, who taught social studies.

“Who's that?” Madison began, but when she
saw Seph's face, the words died away. She looked over her shoulder, at Hays and
Hanlon, and back at Seph.

“We thought you'd never leave your little
nest,” Barber said. There must have been an unspoken question on Seph's
face, because he added, “I used a different kind of web this time.
Something to let you out, but tie a line to you. Something that made you easy
to track.”

Seph brushed at himself as if trying to dislodge the
invisible tether.

Barber flexed his fingers, readying them for use.
“We've come to take you back, Joseph,” he said. “It hasn't been
the same since you left.”

Seph spoke to Maddie without taking his eyes off
Barber, acutely aware of the wizards behind him. “It's okay. I went to
school with these people. Go on back to the truck.”

“What's going on?” Madison looked over her
shoulder. Hays and Hanlon had stopped a short distance away, as if waiting for
a signal.

“Just go. If I'm not there in half an hour, go on
without me.” When she didn't move, he pushed her hard, and she stumbled a
few steps forward. She looked back at him, her face still full of questions.
Then she turned and walked away from him, up the riverbed, her fists clenched
at her sides. But as she tried to slip past Barber and King, King reached out a
long arm and caught her by the hair, pulling her to him and wrapping one arm
around her. She struggled for a moment, all knees and elbows, then stood still,
eyes wide with surprise and fright.

“Let her go,” Seph said, trying to keep his
voice calm and even. “She's not involved in this.”

Barber smiled. “But you're involved with her,
right? You wouldn't run off and leave her with the likes of us, would you? Just
cooperate and maybe we'll let her go.”

Seph knew that his primary advantage was surprise and
the overconfidence of the alumni. If not for that, he would have been
immobilized already. If he didn't do something soon, he wouldn't get the
chance.

But Madison took that issue out of his hands. She
twisted like an eel and kneed King in the groin. He screeched and doubled over.
He must have released power into her, because after a few seconds he went down
like he'd been clubbed in the head.

Seph pointed at Barber and cast an immobilization
charm. He spun around and launched charms at the other two wizards, but they were
already throwing up shields and muttering counters. Barber stood frozen, an
incredulous look on his face.

“Go! Now!” Seph shouted to Madison, who had
extricated herself from King's grip. “Get out of here!”

“But I can help you!”

“I don't want your help!” Seph said, keeping
his eyes on the three wizards. He didn't want anything from the Havens to
contaminate Maddie Moss. Didn't want Warren bloody Barber asking questions
about her.

Didn't want her to get hurt.

She turned and splashed up the riverbed, in the
direction of the parking lot, leaping over obstacles like a deer. She'd lost
her hat, and it floated down the river toward them, spinning in the current.

Then Hays disabled the immobilization charm Seph had
used on Warren Barber. That was the problem. Unless Seph could take down all
three at once, they would help each other.

“What's this?” Barber said, looking more
amused than worried. “I believe the boy's been studying out of
school.” He looked after Madison, as if debating whether to go after her,
then shrugged. “Pity,” he said. “I was taking a liking to
her.” He nudged King with his foot, frowning. “What's up, Ken? You
going to be singing soprano from now on?” King lay on his back, still
stunned.