For a moment, Carly looks stricken, and it’s odd enough that I falter mid-sentence.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her.
“No, it’s nothing,” she says quickly, sitting down on the edge of my bed again.
“It’s just that…I thought you were going to work today?”
I stare at her for a long moment.
“I mean, normally I would, since it’s a weekday,” I say slowly.
“But, you know, there’s that tiny matter of a magical beast running amok somewhere, who we really need to find.
But, seriously, Carly, what’s up?”
“Nothing, nothing,” she says in such a way that I know, absolutely, that’s not true, that there is very much
something
going on that she’s not telling me.
Carly’s always been a crappy liar.
“Okay, I’m going to use the bathroom, and then I’m going to ask you what’s up again, okay?” I tell her.
She grimaces at me a little and waves me on to the bathroom.
I gather up my robe, a change of clothes from my chair by the door, and then go into the bathroom and shut the door.
I run the shower very, very hot and try to be quick about it—we have a beast to catch!—but end up taking a little longer than I would have liked because my shower head runs on the slower side.
When I’m finally done rinsing out all the conditioner, I step out, towel myself off and vigorously rub the towel on my head.
Oddly enough, I hear the front door open and shut.
Huh.
Probably Carly getting something out of her car or something.
I don’t really think anything of it until I’m in my jeans and t-shirt, having combed through my hair and given up on the thought of makeup for the day.
I step out of the bathroom, letting out a cloud of steam with me from my extra-hot shower…
And Carly’s right at the door.
“Hi,” I tell her, placing my hands on my hips.
“Okay, seriously, there’s something up.
What’s going on?”
“Absolutely nothing,” she says, but the corners of her mouth are twitching something fierce, and when she actually places her hand over her mouth to hide her smile, I frown at her.
“What,” I say as sternly as I’m capable, “is going on?”
“I told her!” she blurts out then with a wail.
“I told her you’d never go for it!
I know you, I told her, but—”
I raise a single eyebrow, cross my arms in front of me.
“Virago?” I call out.
There’s no answer.
“Virago’s gone,” says Carly quietly.
I feel my world fall away from me.
I feel such pain rend my heart in two that I can’t breathe.
“What?” I whisper, pressing my hand to my heart, willing the pain to stop. “Where?
Why?”
Carly bites her lip, shakes her head.
“She made me promise not to tell you.”
“Carly—”
“Hey,” says Carly gently, stepping forward and gripping my elbows with fierce fingers.
“It’s okay.
I promise it’s okay, all right?”
Her eyes are flashing with happiness, so maybe it’s not really all that bad.
“She wanted me to take you somewhere.
It’ll all make sense, soon, but don’t be upset, okay?”
“I don’t understand,” I begin, but she shakes her head.
“Get dressed.
We have to go,” she says, smiling as she presses her hands to the small of my back and all but shoves me into my bedroom.
“Carly, I
am
dressed,” I tell her testily.
My level of patience is beginning to wane.
“Well,” says Carly carefully, glancing me up and down.
“Where
we’re
going?
You’re a little under-dressed, my dear.”
Mystified, I take what she hands me, and she closes the bedroom door behind her as she all but waltzes out of my bedroom.
I stare down at the bundle of clothes in my hands.
It’s the dress I always wear to the Renaissance Festival.
---
“I feel like I’m being kidnapped,” I tell Carly when we’re in her car, driving to an undisclosed destination.
I thought we were headed to the Knights of Valor Festival, but we’re not taking the usual way, so I guess not?
I have no idea what’s going on, and it’s got me more than a little flustered.
“Drink your latte.
Do kidnap victims have lattes?
I highly doubt it,” Carly answers confidently, making a right hand turn onto a road I’ve never been on leading more toward the heart of Boston.
“Carly, if you could just tell me—”
“I,” she says with a sniff, “have been sworn to the utmost of secrecies.
So shush and drink your latte.”
“Carly,” I tell her patiently, drawing out the syllables of her name, “we don’t have
time
for whatever…well, whatever
this
is.
We have to find the beast, and—”
“Don’t worry about the beast,” says Carly with conviction, her eyebrows up.
I blink at her, splutter: “Don’t
worry
about it?
Are you
crazy
?
This is the fate of the
world
in our hands, and you—”
“There’s no reason to worry about it—we know where the beast is,” she says quietly, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
I stare at her.
She casts me a sidelong glance as she makes a left hand turn and shrugs.
“I was going to tell you about it, but this morning has been a little…well, I’ve been distracted,” she mutters vaguely.
“Anyway, the beast hasn’t moved from the same spot for about twelve hours, and we know exactly where it is, and it’s not moving, so—”
“And where,” I say, gritting my teeth as I take a deep breath, “is it exactly?”
“About a mile off-shore.
It’s in an underwater cave, and it’s not leaving,” says Carly with another shrug.
“Virago thinks she may have hurt the beast a little more than she thought, and it’s taking longer for the creature to heal or something, and it needs a little time out to regroup.
I don’t know.
I just know that it hasn’t moved, so we’re good.”
“But—but…” I splutter, trying to piece everything together in my head.
“That’s great!
But how are we going to get the beast from there to Aidan’s store?”
“Well,” says Carly carefully, “Virago had an idea that maybe we should take the whole coven on a night boat ride.
It makes a lot of sense, you know.
If we can get everyone out there, then we won’t have to attract the beast toward land, get innocent people involved, and we can banish it from out on the water.
It makes more sense that way anyway.”
I stare at my best friend for a long moment, opening and shutting my mouth.
“But…but why didn’t Virago talk over any of this with
me
?” is what I finally settle on.
I know it seems silly, but I wanted to be at least a small part of this.
I wanted to help her, if even in the smallest of ways.
But I didn’t.
I was fast asleep, probably snoring, while she came up with this brilliant plan by herself, because she
is
brilliant.
“Virago was occupied,” is Carly’s maddeningly vague response to that.
“Carly,” I mutter warningly, but she turns a bright-as-the-sun smile on me.
“Almost there!”
I blink and look out the passenger side window, noting my surroundings.
“But…”
We pull into the “parking lot” of the outskirts of the dog park where the Knights of Valor Festival is still set up.
“You
were
taking me here,” I whisper mystified to Carly, who grins hugely as she shuts off her car.
For it being so early on a Tuesday, there’s still a lot of cars and people here, but she still managed to find a good parking spot, close to the entrance.
“Yeah, I took a long way so it’d confuse you,” she says with barely concealed zeal.
“Clever, right?”
She winks at me.
“Carly,” I say, my heart pounding in me as I hear from somewhere not very distant, a hearty chorus of “huzzah!”
“What’s going on?” I ask her point blank.
“Just a few more minutes of humoring me, and you’ll find out,” says Carly, all but leaping out of her driver’s seat, and stretching.
She turns to me as I get out of the passenger side:
“I
promise,
okay?”
She smiles encouragingly.
“Just a
wee
bit more humoring.”
I stare longingly at the front ticket turret.
The last time I was here—just a few days ago now, I can hardly believe it (it seems so long ago now, so much has happened!)—it was such a sad, miserable day that contained so much hurt and pain fro me.
But those darker memories seem to leave me now, the tension evaporating from my shoulders as I stare at that brightly painted turret.
These last few days…God, there have been a lot of ups and downs.
But I’m here now.
The beast has been found.
Perhaps we have a solution.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m at one of my favorite places in the entire world.
It can’t be bad, whatever is about to happen.
I walk with Carly toward the turret.
She’s grinning at me and keeps glancing away when I glance over at her, as if I couldn’t notice that gigantic smile on her face.
She shoves her hands into her jeans pockets, tries to act casual, but I totally know better.
What could possibly be going on?
When we reach the turret, the woman at the counter leans forward.
“Are you Holly?” she asks me.
I recognize her from when we came to the festival a few days ago, but I don’t remember telling her my name.
I glance sidelong at Carly, who is the pure picture of innocence (hah!), and nod.
“Yes, I am?” I tell her uncertainly.
“Wonderful!” she says, leaning forward a little more with a wide smile.
She taps her money box and shakes her head.
“No charge!
I’ve been told to let you through,” she says decisively.
“Please go on quickly, the show’s about to start!”
“What show—” I begin, but Carly hooks her arm through mine and all but hauls me through the line and into the festival itself.
“Thank you very much!”
She shouts back to the woman in the turret, then she glances down at her wristwatch.
“Oh, my
God
, I didn’t realize what time it was!” she moans, shaking her head.
“Oh, my God, seriously, they absolutely can
not
start without us!”
She breaks into a trot, dragging me along.
Utterly mystified, I allow myself to be dragged across the entirety of the Knights of Valor Festival.
Until we come to the jousting arena.
Okay, so “arena” is kind of a generous term.
The Knights of Valor Festival
does
set up in a dog park, and they do the best they can, but the “arena” is really just a cordoned off section of the park, delineated by a waist-high picket fence on well-mowed grass.
I’m always surprised that they let horses gallop around in the enclosure, because they always divot up the grass, but the owners of the dog park are really good people, and never seem to mind.
Speaking of horses, there are four tethered to posts at the edge of the arena where a crowd is gathering, “ooh-ing” and “aah-ing” over them.
They’re all the big, heavy horses that were once used in jousting, long ago, and they’re wearing brightly colored saddles and raiment so that it’s easy for you to pick a color side and cheer for them.
There’s red, green, yellow and blue.
And, standing next to the blue-covered horse…
I blink, stop, transfixed to the spot.
It’s Virago.
She’s wearing her knight’s armor, the same armor she wore when we first met, the curved and curling breastplate over her leather pants and shirt, the metal twinkling in the bright sunshine.
Her hair is swept up high in her signature ponytail, and the silver wolf’s tail drapes easily over one shoulder.
She’s not wearing her fur capelet—it’s lashed behind the saddle—but she’s definitely wearing the hell out of her boots.
Virago stands at complete ease, talking in low tones with one of the knights (a guy, because almost always all of the knights at Renaissance Festivals are guys), while she buckles her sword in its worn scabbard and sheath over her shoulder.
I’m struck speechless for a long moment, but then somehow I find my voice.
“Virago?” I whisper, and then I’m taking a few steps forward.
“Virago?” I say louder.
Virago turns in my direction, but before I can see her face, Carly’s grabbing my arm and practically dragging me over to where the crowds have gathered to watch the jousting.
“Not yet, not yet!” she mutters to me, but I’m twisting around, trying to see Virago.
She’s disappeared, though, seeming swallowed by the crowd.
“Carly, what—” I begin, but I’m drowned out by the din of the loudspeaker.
“Lords and ladies, welcome to the morning joust!” says a man loudly, his voice crackling over the bad sound system.
“We have a
very
special treat for you today, so if you weren’t planning on watching the joust until the afternoon, I implore you to change your mind and come on over to the arena!
This is going to be a big one!”