“Yes, that’s probably a good idea,” Victoria said. “I’ll catch up with you after Daddy returns.” She smiled quickly and then turned to help her solitary customer.
“Let’s go get your ice cream,” Alex said to Nina, waving to Victoria as he headed back into the maze of carnival tents.
“Wow,” Nina said, striding beside her brother, “you are dense.”
“What?” Alex said.
“Dense,” Nina said. “Like a rock. But that Leanna sure is great.”
“She’s very nice,” Alex said.
“Boy, are you dense,” Nina said. “She’s not nice, she’s brilliant. I’m hope I’m half that good when the time comes.”
“What are you talking about?” Alex asked.
“Not like a rock,” Nina said. “Like miles of granite.”
“Have you developed your own special language?” Alex asked.
“I’m talking about the language of love,” Nina said.
“What would you know about the language of love?” Alex said, sarcasm filling his voice.
“Clearly more than everyone else I know,” Nina said, exasperated. “Except Leanna. She should write a book.”
“What’s that?” Alex said, looking over Nina’s head.
“A book,” Nina said. “She should write a book.”
“Quit babbling,” Alex said. “I see Anna and the Mad Mages.”
“Where?” Nina said, looking around.
“They went behind that orange tent,” Alex said, pointing.
“Leave them alone,” Nina said. “We have more important things to pay attention to.”
“Anna said she had plans,” Alex said, turning down an alley between tent rows. “We should see what they’re up to. Careful, though, I think Anna saw me.”
“You need to learn to focus on one problem at a time.” Nina sighed, following Alex through the crowd of carnival goers.
Alex led Nina through the labyrinth-like lanes of carnival tents, trying to keep an eye on Anna and the rest of the Mad Mages without letting them know they were being followed. When the Mad Mages went right around a tent, Alex would turn early to follow them from another direction. He and Nina ran down back paths between tents, skipping over safety ropes, to emerge ahead of Anna and the Mad Mages, slipping behind a crowd of people as they passed and turned down another lane.
Alex and Nina followed Anna and the Mad Mages like this for five more minutes, watching them stop to buy ice cream cones, and finally, sitting gathered around a tree at the edge of the field, but still within the carnival grounds. Alex and Nina hid behind the wheel of the large truck, out of sight, but close enough to hear some of the conversation between the Mad Mages. Alex turned to Nina and placed his finger over his lips to indicate silence. She looked at him as though she wanted to hit him in the head with a rock.
“…Lesson,” Alex heard Dillon say.
“I told you,” Anna said, licking daintily at her flavor-changing ice cream cone. “I have a plan.”
“I have a plan,” Koji said, around a mouthful of ice cream. “Let’s beat the crap out of them.”
“That is why you do not get to make the plans,” Anna said. “A plan needs subtlety.”
“But what is the plan?” Dillon asked, nearly pouting and completely ignoring his ice cream. “I should be informed if there is a plan.”
“We gonna burn down their club house?” Karl said, wiping his face on the back of his sleeve.
“Burn down the barn that belongs to the town warlock?” Anna said, giving Karl a piteous look. “Not even Dillon’s father could save us if we were found responsible for that.”
“Maybe, if we could find out what they are running all over the valley looking for,” Mai said, her lips stained from her ice cream as it changed from blueberry to vanilla. “We could maybe find it first and then maybe hold it for ransom.”
“Pointless,” Anna said. “Alex may be an arrogant, self-satisfied, lover of low magical creatures, but he is competent. If he can’t find what he’s looking for, I doubt we’d have any better luck, even if we knew what it was.”
“Then what?” Dillon said, finally eating a bite of his melted cone.
“We need to separate him from the thing he loves most,” Anna said.
“The horse?” Koji said with an evil grin. “She might get lost one day.”
“No,” Anna said, “something really important to him.”
“What?” Dillon asked.
“I’ll explain later tonight,” Anna said, standing up. “At the club house, not out here in public where someone might hear us.”
Anna led the Mad Mages back into the carnival grounds, Dillon, sullen at being demoted to second-in-command, following last.
“See?” Alex said turning to Nina. “They are up to something.”
“But we still don’t know what,” Nina said.
“We can find out tonight,” Alex said, still staring after Anna and the Mad Mages.
A frustrating and fruitless search for both the followers of the Shadow Wraith and the ancient artifact creating the astral barrier consumed the rest of the day. Near sundown, Alex and Nina finally met up with Daphne and Clark, who claimed to have smelled something that might have been ancient magic, and might have had the scent of Spirit Magic, but which seemed to move around too much for them to be able to locate.
Rafael and Ben reluctantly returned to the group after confirming neither Elaeda or Kendra had seen or heard anything suspicious in the previous months, much less the last two days. Whoever the Shadow Wraith’s followers were, they were well hidden among the carnies. For his part, Alex felt like he had listened to every voice of every carnie at least twice and had not discovered a single resemblance to the voices he had heard the night before.
He had come across his parents twice, but they had learned nothing helpful. They walked around holding hands and looking like two young lovers, strolling through the crowds, playing carnival games, and sharing an ice cream cone. Both times, it had made Alex jealous in some weird way that also left him feeling uncomfortable. His parents made being in love look so easy, when it seemed to be just the opposite of that.
This thought then led him to wondering when he had decided he was in love and how that decision had slipped past without him even noticing it. Recognizing it in hindsight only seemed to make it that much more important of a realization. Like something he had always known in his heart, but which his heart had not, until recently, told his head. When Victoria eventually arrived at his side, finally free of her familial duty at her father’s invention booth, Alex found he was so confounded by his new feelings he didn’t know what to say to her.
They held each other’s gaze in silence for a moment and Alex found himself lost in Victoria’s azure eyes.
No wonder I’m in love with her,
Alex thought.
“No luck?” Victoria asked.
“Nothing,” Alex said, unable to keep himself from sounding happy, even though he hoped he was the only one who knew the source of his improved mood.
“Well, I know a smelled something,” Clark said. “But it kept moving.”
“Had us chasing a gorping hotdog vendor for twenty minutes,” Daphne said with a laugh as she elbowed Clark.
“Mmm, a tasty…I mean, honest mistake,” Clark said with a rumbling chuckle.
“At least you paid for the hotdog,” Daphne said.
“Did you get your hotdog?” Nina asked Ben.
“Two,” Ben said, beaming and blushing in equal measure. “She owed me two hotdogs, but I owed her three ice creams. She’s really good. I think she let me win the last one.”
“I find it hard to imagine Elaeda letting anyone win at anything,” Victoria said. “She can be very…competitive, and…territorial.”
“What about you, Rafa?” Nina asked. “Did Kendra show you any new tricks?”
“I learned a few things,” Rafael said, his face unreadable except for the darkness in his cheeks. Alex wanted to laugh at Ben and Rafael’s discomfort under his sister’s questioning, but that sort of thing could all too easily be turned in the opposite direction. Best to get everyone thinking about something else entirely.
“We should see
The Eternal Story
,” Alex said, catching sight of a flyer in the hands of a townsperson passing by.
“Yes,” Victoria said, a question seeming to flit across her face. “I suppose we should.”
“That’s a great idea,” Nina said. “Love and romance and tragedy.”
“Adventure,” Ben said. “Eleada says it’s supposed to be a great adventure.”
“With magic woven in,” Rafael said. “That’s what Kendra said.”
“And sword fights,” Daphne said, her eyes lighting up with excitement at the thought.
“Mmm, and a really good story,” Clark said.
“Actually, I was thinking since at least half the carnies are in the play, I could get a good listen to them,” Alex said.
“Especially Leanna,” Nina said, trying to contain a giggle.
“Well, I’m sure I didn’t hear her in the tent,” Alex said, not sure what else to say.
“And Nathan,” Nina said.
“I’m sure he didn’t hear Nathan in the tent,” Victoria said, her tail swishing behind her.
“I’m sure,” Alex said. In truth, Alex wasn’t discounting anyone as a possible suspect, even if Leanna and Nathan did seem like unlikely followers of the Shadow Wraith. But, he didn’t need to say that out loud. “This way. Our golden tickets should get us good seats.”
The golden tickets got them great seats. Except Victoria, who obviously couldn’t use a seat. A raised stage filled a quarter of the giant tent, thrusting out into the middle the audience. Magic glow bulbs of various sizes and shapes hung throughout the audience and the stage, strung on thin lines between the large wooden support poles of the tent. Chairs for seating surrounded the stage, with benches on risers behind them. Alex and the Guild picked a spot halfway up a bank of raised benches. Alex took the place at the end, next to Victoria, who stood in the aisle, their heads roughly at the same level.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s like this evening,” Victoria said, twirling a finger through her long, blonde hair.
“Is it really different every time?” Alex asked as the glow lights above began to dim.
“Sometimes more than others,” Victoria said, lowering her voice, “but it’s always the same general story.”
As the glow bulbs winked out and the tent fell into darkness, Alex wondered briefly how different the play would seem this time for Victoria with Nathan in a lead role. Then the lights came up on the stage, the play began, and Alex found himself carried away by the story and the spectacle.
The Eternal Story
told the tale of a Queen struggling to save her kingdom from an invading army led by an evil wizard who had once been her suitor when they were both young. Esmeralda played the queen and she looked resplendent in her regal raiment. She was mesmerizing every time she appeared on stage. She wore her stunning necklace of nine large sapphires glittering hypnotically in the bright light of the glow bulbs illuminating the stage.
Mr. Apollo played the evil wizard, a man driven mad by lost love and a rage for revenge. It was a tragic story augmented by subplots involving a small host of characters portrayed by various carnies Alex had met over the past two days. Some even played multiple roles, changing costumes and makeup in between scenes with a speed that would have been impossible without the use of magic.
The stagecraft was as impressive as the story and the acting. A long sheet of some sort of fabric stretched across the back of the stage and magically projected the images for the settings of the scenes played by the cast. Around the stage, dozens and dozens of boxes changed shape and color and texture to transform into scenery filling in the setting created by the magical backdrop.
In this way, a castle throne room with towering marble columns almost instantly transformed into a wooded glen with ancient oak trees. A battlefield with siege machines and catapults became, a moment later, a royal library with rows and rows of books. Alex tried to figure out how the magic behind the ever-changing stage set functioned, but he found himself too drawn in by the story and the characters to focus on the question. He made a mental note to ask Victoria how the magic set worked after the show.
The sword fights Daphne had so hoped to see were nothing compared to the magical battles between the evil wizard and the queen. Balls of fire burst above the audience and lightening arced through the tent like living snakes of electricity.
Nathan and Leanna were extremely convincing as the young lovers torn apart by war. Their first appearance was very dramatic, chased by soldiers, and their first kiss drew sighs from the women, and a number of men, in the audience. Alex noticed Victoria was not among the women who sighed. She, instead, was perfectly still and silent. Alex looked at her out of the corner of his eye and wondered what she was thinking. What were her feelings for Nathan? What was she feeling seeing him kissing Leanna?
Then better questions arose in Alex’s mind. What were Victoria’s feelings for him? Why did it seem so hard to find a time a place to try to kiss her again? Was there some strange and evil magic trying to keep them apart? These thoughts led to Alex doing something he thought was both bold and decisive — he reached out and took Victoria’s hand.
Victoria looked at Alex, surprise filling her face. He smiled at her and gave her hand a small squeeze. She smiled back and her whole body seemed to relax as she turned back to watch the stage.
Alex continued to grin, extremely pleased with himself. His smile faded as his eyes saw something in the shadows at the back of the tent behind the seating risers. A figure. In a cloak. A black cloak. Although the depths of the cowl concealed the figure’s eyes, Alex could feel them staring at him. Beckoning him. Then the cloaked figure turned and slipped between a gap in the canvas sides of the tent.
Alex looked at Victoria and then down at his hand entwined with hers. He gave it another light squeeze. Victoria turned to him, her eyes bright, but curious, as he released her hand.
Alex glanced at Nina, sitting beside him, and knew she was so engrossed in the story that it would be minutes before she noticed he was gone. Spinning quietly, he slowly lowered himself down to the ground between the risers and Victoria.