“Hmm, the wood was wet,” Clark said.
“I never could understand the rules of that game,” Batami said with a soft laugh as she and Alex reached the table.
“I don’t think this game has rules,” Victoria said, frowning at Nina.
“That’s because you lost five games in a row,” Nina said with a smug smirk.
“You have to learn to think of the rules as more like guidelines,” Rafael said, leaning back from the table.
“I’ll gorping guideline you,” Daphne said, banging the table with the palm of her hand. “Since when does fire not beat wood?”
“I see your temper is improving,” Batami said, locking eyes with Daphne.
“Sorry,” Daphne said, looking down, her face a cross between embarrassment and annoyance.
“Why don’t you help me gather some sandwiches from the kitchen while Alex and the others clear the table?” Batami said. Daphne’s face fell and, for a moment, it looked like she might object. Then she smiled as sweetly as possible.
“Certainly,” Daphne said.
Alex followed Daphne and Batami with his eyes as they walked to the hut. Sufina was still lying in the grass beside the porch. She winked at Alex as his gaze came to rest on her. He winked back. He wondered what he would see in the soul-essence of the giant wolf. It would be beautiful, he was sure.
By the time Alex and the others had cleared the picnic table, Daphne and Batami returned with a large paper bag filled with sandwiches and a second bag filled with white apples.
“Ooo, Daddy loves white apples,” Victoria said.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Batami said. “Maybe someday I will make a pie.”
Alex could not really imagine Batami baking, but the thought of a white apple pie made his stomach rumble.
“Remember what I said,” Batami said to Alex as the others mounted their bikes and Victoria followed them.
“I will,” Alex said, his voice reflecting the seriousness he felt in his gut.
“You’re probably safe until you reach town, but I’ll send Sufina with you, just in case,” Batami said. The white wolf climbed slowly to her feet at the mention of her name. Alex saw Victoria eye the wolf and trot quickly toward the path leading back toward town.
“Sometimes, I think you send her with us to make sure we leave faster,” Alex said.
“Maybe I do,” Batami said, a mysterious glint in her eye.
The ride back to town did not take long, as it was mostly downhill. Victoria easily kept pace with the rest of the guild on their bikes. Alex had never seen Victoria get tired from running. She loved it. He suspected she would run everywhere if it didn’t seem so indecorous.
They ate their sandwiches and apples while they travelled. There were still a few hours before the beginning of the Founders Festival festivities, so they rode to the carnival, flashing their golden tickets at the gate and proceeding directly to Victoria’s father’s invention booth. Victoria was supposed to spend the day helping her father hawk his wares, but her presence at Alex’s side was one of the conditions his parents had set for him being able to wander around freely while people were trying to kill him. It was the best part of the bargain, as far as he was concerned.
“Daddy,” Victoria said as her father looked up from tinkering with some small contraption. “I’m afraid there has been a change of plans.”
“Plans?” her father said, looking up from his work. “We had plans?”
“For me to help you with your inventions,” Victoria said.
“Ah, yes,” her father said, glancing around at Alex and Guild. “I see you have found more interesting company for the day.”
“Not at all, Daddy,” Victoria said, “but we haven’t finished doing that thing we’re doing, and Alex and the Guild need my help.”
“Thing?” her father said.
“The project,” Victoria said.
“Project?” her father said. “You’re building something?”
“Looking,” Victoria said, lowering her voice.
“Looking where for what project?” her father said, then his eyes went wide in sudden understanding. “Ah, that project Alex’s mother mentioned.”
“Exactly,” Victoria said with a sigh.
“Well, you have fun,” her father said, and then dropped his voice to a whisper. “By which I mean, be careful.”
“Of course, Daddy,” Victoria said with a sunny smile. “And look, as a consolation, I brought you white apples.” Victoria handed her father the paper bag with the apples. “Unfortunately, there are not as many left as I had hoped. We were a little hungry.”
Victoria’s father pulled two very small white apples from the paper bag and held them up to the glaring hot sun.
“Hmmm, sorry,” Clark mumbled and seemed about to say something else until Ben kicked his leg.
“They will be a perfect complement to lunch,” Victoria’s father said, smiling and slipping the apples into the deep pockets of his vest. Alex wondered how long the apples would be in those pockets. He had once seen Victoria’s father pull a week-old hamburger wrapped in wax paper from a vest pocket.
With her father’s blessing, and words of caution, Victoria joined the Guild in the hunt. The first thing Alex and the Guild sought out was not related to the Shadow Wraith at all. They sought relief from the stifling heat that had them soaking wet from their ride back to town. Relief came in the form of flavor-changing ice cream cones that quickly became runny and sticky in the sweltering heat. Alex spent more time licking melted ice cream from his fingers than from the cone.
He tried unsuccessfully to keep his eyes from Victoria’s fingers as she delicately licked now chocolate, now strawberry, now banana ice cream from them. He needed to focus his mind on something less distracting. Like finding the Shadow Wraith’s followers or the magical artifact preventing him from searching them out.
Alex crunched at the sugar crust of his ice cream cone and looked around the carnival. He had seen most, if not all, of the carnival grounds and passed, if not talked to, most of the carnies yesterday. Where to continue the search? Alex had to admit to himself he was at a loss for a plan to find either the Shadow Wraith’s followers or the artifact. For all he knew, he had already met the Shadow Wraith’s followers. They could be anyone. And, short of searching every tent and crate and truck, he didn’t really have a clue as to how to track down the anti-astral artifact.
“Do we have a plan?” Victoria asked, walking beside him as the group turned and entered a lane of tents and attractions. Alex noted Victoria was getting as good at guessing what was on his mind as his sister. He wasn’t sure if he found that comforting or annoying.
“Nope,” Alex said.
“What did you do yesterday?” Victoria asked.
“Wandered around all gorping day getting frustrated,” Daphne said, dabbing with a napkin at a spot of ice cream she had managed to get on her shirt.
“Speak for yourself,” Rafael said, taking the last bite of his ice cream cone. “I had a perfectly lovely day.”
“That’s because you were mooning over Kendra,” Daphne said.
“I wasn’t mooning,” Rafael said. “She was teaching me a few tricks about changing shape.”
“Mooning,” Ben said with a chuckle. “You were mooning.”
“And what were you doing all afternoon with Eleada?” Nina asked.
“Archery,” Ben said, managing to look almost offended at Nina’s accusation. “We were testing each other in a game of skill.”
“I suppose no mooning was involved, was there, Cupid?” Daphne said.
“What?” Ben said. “You can’t moon over someone while you’re shooting arrows. Besides, where were you all afternoon?”
“I was with Clark,” Daphne said. “We were looking for what we were supposed to be looking for.”
“I suppose there couldn’t possibly have been any mooning going on between the two of you,” Rafael said.
“Ah, well, we were very busy,” Clark said. “There was a lot of looking.”
“But who was looking at whom?” Rafael asked.
“What are you gorping taking about?” Daphne asked, looking honestly confused.
“It sounds like you were all very busy looking in your own ways yesterday,” Victoria said, loud enough to distract everyone from the direction their discussion had been taking.
“That’s very diplomatic,” Nina said with a snort of laughter.
“Since we are all supposed to stay together today, maybe we should try to have a plan for our looking,” Victoria said.
“Who needs a plan when you have luck like ours?” Rafael said.
“Victoria is right,” Alex said, speaking for the first time. He hadn’t wanted to insert himself into any discussion about who was mooning over whom, for fear his name might come up in association with a certain centaur girl. “We should make a point of meeting and talking to every carnie we can. With Victoria to make introductions, it should be easy.”
“I can certainly introduce you to everyone you haven’t met yet,” Victoria said. “I’m not sure how that will help us, though.”
“It may not help right now,” Alex said, “but it might give me an idea of who to follow at night if we can ever find that other thing we’re looking for.”
No one could think of a better plan of action, so they proceeded to walk through the carnival, stopping at tents and booths and attractions and rides, allowing Victoria to chat briefly with the carnies they had not yet met and make introductions. Alex tried to use each exchange as an opportunity to get a feeling for the person they spoke with. After about the tenth conversation, Alex realized it was largely pointless. All of the people they met seemed to be no more than happy, helpful, harmless carnies.
As Victoria was introducing the Guild to Helga and Roman, a mother and son pair of werewolves, thankfully in human form, Alex felt a hand rest gently on his arm and tug him away from the others. He turned to see Madam Fortuna, a worried look on her face. She pulled him to the side of a tent within sight of the others, but out of earshot.
“I still don’t want my future read,” Alex said, trying to be polite.
“Can’t help that now,” Madam Fortuna said, glancing around quickly. “Too late. I’ve read the cards already. Couldn’t stop myself. That’s why I came to find you.”
“Really, Madam Fortuna,” Alex said. “I already know more than I want to about my future.”
“Then you’ll know you’re in danger,” Madam Fortuna said, looking at Alex with worry in her pale green eyes.
“What kind of danger?” Alex asked, lowering his voice.
“Not clear,” Madam Fortuna said. “The cards were fuzzy on that. Like something was holding them back. But there’s danger around you. I felt I should tell you.”
“There’s almost always danger around me,” Alex said, suddenly wishing it weren’t quite so true. “Any idea who it’s from this time?”
Madam Fortuna looked around again and then leaned close as she dropped her voice to a whisper. “The carnival. Someone in the carnival.”
While Alex was not surprised, it did give him pause to have his suspicions confirmed by the old carnie soothsayer.
“Who?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know,” Madam Fortuna said. “I’ve been with the carnival since I was a girl and something wicked has been eating at it for years now. Eating at it from the inside. Ever since...”
“Ever since what?” Alex asked.
“I’ve said too much,” Madam Fortuna said. “Things happen to people who talk too much. Don’t come to my tent. I’m sorry. But things happen to people.”
“But…” Alex began to say as Madam Fortuna spun and hurried into the crowd. The look on her face as she fled told Alex more than he wanted to know. She was terrified. Terrified someone would notice her talking to him. Terrified of what might happen to her as a result.
“What did Madam Fortuna have to say?” Victoria asked as she and the rest of the Guild stepped up beside Alex. “Did she offer to read your cards? She is always trying to read people’s cards. She comes up with the wildest predictions. She once told me I was going to be a trapeze artist. Can you imagine that? Me, on a trapeze.”
“She told me I was in danger from someone in the carnival,” Alex said.
The others were quiet a moment.
“I suppose she’s gotten rather a bit better at reading the cards,” Victoria said.
“Details?” Ben said. “Did she say who?”
“Nope,” Alex said. “And she seemed frightened someone might find out she had warned me. She said something has been eating at the carnival for years.” He turned to Victoria. “Do you know what might have happened at the carnival in the last few years?”
“I’ve only been coming to carnival for the past three years,” Victoria said. “It could be anything.”
“Cassandra’s crabapples,” Daphne said. “That’s not helpful at all.”
“Mmm, at least we know Alex is in danger,” Clark said.
“As though that were unusual,” Rafael said. Alex found it all too similar to his own thoughts about Madam Fortuna’s fortune.
“Persistence,” Ben said. “We need to keep searching.”
“Who are
they
?” Nina said, pointing to an odd group of carnies clustered in conversation back behind the row of tents, away from the main flow of foot traffic.
They were a peculiar group because of their differences. One, clearly a giant, with a large head and bush-like beard. Even kneeling on one knee, he stood above six feet. Craning back to look up at the giant while he spoke was a stout dwarf, wide as a tree stump and not much taller. He, too, had a beard of considerable size.
Standing beside the two men, and talking in an animated fashion, were two of the most beguilingly beautiful women Alex had ever seen. They were twins and wore matching emerald green dresses that gently swayed around them even though there was no breeze in the oven-like heat. They seemed ageless. While they were clearly women, they had faces resembling young girls in the smoothness of their lines. They were so mesmerizing, it took a moment before Alex noticed the slender, black feathered wings folded tightly at their backs.
Sirens
, Alex realized.
“Do you hear that?” Rafael asked, squinting his eyes at the four carnies.
“What?” Ben said. “Hear what?”
“Yes,” Victoria said, furrowing her delicate brow.
“Hear what?” Alex asked, looking at his friends. Rafael and Victoria had much better hearing than the others did — Rafael, thanks to being part changeling, and Victoria because of being a centaur.