CHAPTER 12.
Fhea settled on the box springs, not the most comfortable seat. "Now, this all happened back in the days when there was still magic, okay? And h.e.l.le -wise could do magic, and so could most of the people in her tribe. She wa s the daughter of Hecate Witch-Queen-"
"She was a witch?" Roz sounded intrigued."Well-they didn"t call it that then. They called her a Hearth-Woman. And she didn"t look like a Halloween witch. She was beautiful: tall, with long yell ow hair-"
"Like you."
"Huh? Oh." Thea grinned. "Thanks, but, no. h.e.l.le-wise was really beautiful -and she was smart and strong, too. And when Hecate died, h.e.l.lewise became co-leader of the tribe. The other leader was her sister, Maya."
Rosamund"s whole head was above the mattress now. She was listening with fi erce, if skeptical, interest.
"Now, Maya." Thea chewed her lip. "Well, Maya was beautiful, too: tall, but with long black hair."
"Like that girl who came to the vet"s after you."
Thea was briefly startled. She"d forgotten Rosamund had seen Blaise. "Well- uh, maybe a little. Anyway, Maya was smart and strong, too-but she didn"t l ike having to share the leadership with h.e.l.lewise. She wanted to rule alone , and she wanted something else. To live forever."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Rosamund growled.
"Well-yeah, there"s nothing wrong with being immortal, I agree. Except, see , that it all depends on how much you"re willing to pay to be it. Okay? Fol lowing me?"
"Nope."
"Well . . ." Thea floundered. Any Night Person would know immediately what she was talking about, even if by some outrageous chance they hadn"t alread y heard the story. But of course humans were different. "Well, you see, it was a matter of what she had to do. No ordinary spell would make her immort al. She tried all sorts of things, and h.e.l.lewise even helped her. And final ly they figured out what kind of spell would do it-but then h.e.l.lewise refus ed."
"Why?"
"Because it was too awful. No, don"t ask me," Thea added as Rosamund"s int erest level immediately shot up. "I"m not going to tell you. It"s not a subject for kids."
"What, what? If you don"t tell me, I"m just going to imagine even worse thin gs."
Thea sighed. "It had to do with babies, okay? And blood. But that"s not the p oint of this story-" "They killed babies?"
"Not h.e.l.lewise. Maya did. And h.e.l.lewise tried to stop her, but-" "I bet she drank the blood." Thea stopped and looked hard at Rosamund. Human k ids were ignorant, but not dumb. "Okay, yes, she drank the blood. Satisfied ?" Roz grinned, nodded, and sat back, listening avidly. "Okay, so then Maya became immortal. But the thing was, she didn"t know until afterward the pr ice she"d have to pay. She would live forever-but only if she drank the blood of a mortal creature every day. Otherwise, she"d die."
"Like a vampire," Rosamund said with relish. Thea was shocked for an inst ant, then she laughed at herself. Of course humans knew about vampires- t he same way they knew about witches. Silly legends filled with misinforma tion.
But that meant Thea could tell her own story without fear of being believed.
"Just like a vampire, actually," she said impressively, holding Rosamund"s e yes. "Maya was the first vampire of all. And all her children were cursed to be vampires, too."
Roz snorted. "Vampires can"t have children." She looked doubtful. "Can the y?"
"The ones descended from Maya can," Thea said. She wasn"t going to say the word "lamia" to a human. "It"s only the kind who get made into vampires by being bitten that can"t. Maya had a vampire son called Red Fern and she bit people. That"s the story, you see-Maya wanted to make everybody like her.
So she started biting people in the tribe. And eventually h.e.l.lewise decided she had to stop it."
"How?"
"Well, that was the problem. h.e.l.lewise"s tribe wanted to fight with Maya an d the other vampires. But h.e.l.lewise knew if they did that, they"d probably all get killed. Both sides. So h.e.l.lewise challenged Maya alone to a duel. S ingle combat."
Rosamund pushed the mattress over with a thump. "I"d fight a duel with Mr.
Hendries-he"s the boys" trekleader." She jumped on the mattress and attacke d a pillow with hands and feet-and teeth. "I"d win, too. He"s out of shape."
"Well, h.e.l.lewise didn"t want to fight, but she had to. She was scared, beca use as a vampire Maya was a lot stronger now."
For a moment, Thea thought about it, visualizing the old story the way she h ad as a child. Seeing h.e.l.lewise in her white leather shift, standing in the dark forest and waiting for Maya to come. And knowing that even if she won t he fight, she"d probably die-and being brave enough to keep standing there.
Being willing to give up everything for the people she loved, and for peace.
I don"t think I could ever be that brave. I mean, I"d certainly hope I would be, but I have a terrible feeling that I wouldn"t.
And then a strange thing happened. At that instant, she seemed to hear a vo ice, not her usual mind-voice, but one that was urgent and almost accusator y. Asking a question as if Thea hadn"t just decided on the answer. Would yo u give up everything? Thea shifted. She didn"t usually hear voices. I suppo se that"s what h.e.l.lewise must have been thinking, she told herself uneasily.
"So what happened? Hey! Thea! What happened?" Rosamund was war-dancing on the mattress.
"Oh. Well, it was a terrible fight, but h.e.l.lewise won. She drove Maya away.
And the tribe was left in peace, and they all lived happily ever after . . .
um, except h.e.l.lewise. She died of her wounds."
Rosamund stopped dancing and stared in disbelief. "And you"re telling me th is to make me feel better? I never heard such a lousy story." Her chin bega n to tremble.
Thea forgot she was dealing with a human child. She held out her arms the way she had to Bud the puppy, the way she would have to any creature in pain-and Rosamund threw herself into them.
"No, no," Thea said, anxiously cuddling. "You see, the point is that h.e.l.lewis e"s people lived on, and they were free. And that may seem like a little thin g, because they were just a little tribe, but that little tribe got bigger an d bigger, and they stayed free. And all the witches in the world are descende d from them, and they all remember h.e.l.lewise and honor her. It"s a story ever y mother tells her daughters."
Rosamund breathed irregularly for a moment. "What about her sons?"
"Well, her sons, too. When I say "daughters" I mean "sons and daughters." It"s just shorter."
One green eye looked up from a mop of s.h.a.ggy hair. "like "he" and "him" are supposed to mean "she" and "her," too?"
"Yeah." Thea thought. "I guess maybe neither is the best system." She shrug ged. "The important thing is that one woman"s courage kept us-them- all fre e."
"Look." Rosamund straightened up, staring through the hair. "Are you just j erking my chain or is that a true story? Because frankly you seem like a wi tch to me."
"That"s what I was going to say," an amused voice behind Thea said.
Thea"s head snapped around. The door was open a few inches and a woman was standing there. She was tall and lanky, with little gla.s.ses and long silk y brown hair. Her expression reminded Thea of a look Eric got sometimes, a look of very sweet puzzlement, as if he"d suddenly been struck by one of life"s overwhelming mysteries.
But that didn"t matter. What mattered was that she was a stranger. An Outsid er.
A human.
Thea had been blurting out the secrets of the Night World, the history of th e witches, and a human adult had been listening.
Suddenly her hands and feet went numb. The golden haze disappeared, leaving her in a cold, gray reality. "I"m sorry," the human was saying, but to Thea the voice seemed to come from a distance. "I didn"t mean to startle you. I w as just kidding. I really was enjoying the story-sort of a modern legend for kids, right?"
Thea"s eyes focused on another human behind the adult. Eric. He"d been liste ning, too.
"Mom"s such a kidder," he said nervously. His green eyes were apologetic-a nd intense. As if he were trying to make a connection with Thea.
But Thea didn"t want to be connected. Couldn"t be, to these people. She was surrounded by humans, trapped in one of their houses. She felt like the ratt lesnake in a circle of big creatures with sticks. Sheer, raw panic overtook her. "You should be a writer, you know?" the human woman was saying. "All th at creativity . . ." She took a step inside the room.
Thea stood up, dumping Rosamund on the floor. They were coming at her-by no w, the very walls seemed to be closing in. They were alien, cruel, s.a.d.i.s.tic , terrorizing, evil, not-her-kind. They were Cotton Mather and the Inquisit ion and they knew about her. They were going to point at her in the street and cry "Witch!" Thea ran.
She slipped between Eric and his mother like a frightened cat, not touching either of them. She ran down the hall, through the living room, out the door.
Outside, the sky was clouded over and it was get- ting dark. Thea only stopped long enough to get her bearings, then headed we st, walking as fast as she could. Her heart was pounding and telling her to go faster.
Get away, get away. Go to earth. Find home.
She turned corners and zigzagged, like a fox being chased by the hounds.
She was ten minutes from the house when she heard an engine pacing her. S he looked. It was Eric"s jeep. Eric was driving and his mother and Rosamu nd were pa.s.sengers.
"Thea, stop. Please wait." Eric stopped the jeep and jumped out.
He was on the sidewalk in front of her. Thea froze.
"Listen to me," he said in a low voice, turning away from the jeep. "I"m sor ry they came, too-I couldn"t stop them. Mom feels awful. She"s crying, Roz i s crying . . . please, won"t you come back?"
He looked close to crying himself. Thea just felt numb.
"It"s okay. I"m fine," she said at random. "I didn"t mean to upset anybody."
Please let me go away.
"Look, we shouldn"t have eavesdropped. I know that. It was just . . . you"re so good with Rosamund. I never saw anybody she liked so much. And . . . and ... I know you"re sensitive about your grandma. That"s why you"re upset, is n"t it? That story is something she told you, isn"t it?"
Dimly, somewhere in the pit of Thea"s mind, a light shone. At least he though t it was a story.
"We have family stories too," Eric was saying, an edge of desperation in his voice. "My grandpa used to tell us he was a Martian-I swear to G.o.d this is true. And then he went to my kindergarten Back to School and I"d told all the kids he was a Martian, and they made these beep-beep noises at him and laughed, and I felt so bad. He was really embarra.s.sed. . . ."
He was babbling. Thea"s numbness had receded enough that she felt sorry for him. But then a shape loomed up and she tensed again. It was his mother, s ilky hair flying.
"Look, Thea," Eric"s mother said. Her expression was wretched and earnest. "
Everybody knows your grandma, knows how old she is, how she"s a little ... q uirky. But if she"s scaring you-if she"s telling you any kind of weird stuff -" "Mom!" Eric shouted through his teeth. She waved a hand at him. Her littl e gla.s.ses were steamed up. "You don"t need to deal with that, okay? No kid n eeds to deal with that. If you want a place to stay; if you need anything-if we need to call social services-"
"Mom, please, I"m begging you. Shut up." Social services, Thea was thinking.
Dear Isis, there"ll be some sort of investigation. The Harmans in court. Gr an accused of being senile-or being part of some cult. And then the Night Wo rld coming in to enforce the law. . . .
Her terror peaked and left her deadly calm. "It"s okay," she said, turning h er gaze toward Eric. Not looking at him, but going through the motions exact ly. "Your mom"s just trying to be helpful. But really"-she turned the same f ace toward his mother-"everything"s okay. Gran isn"t strange or anything. She does tell stories-but she doesn"t scare anybody."
Is that good enough? Close enough to whatever you believe? Will it make y ou leave me alone?
Apparently so. "I just don"t want to be responsible for you and Eric-well. .
." Eric"s mom exhaled nervously, almost a laugh.
"Breaking up?" Thea made a sound that was also almost a laugh. "Don"t worry . I"d never want that." She turned a smile on Eric, looking down because sh e couldn"t meet his eyes. "I"m sorry if I got- touchy. I was just-embarra.s.s ed, I guess. Like you said about your grandpa."
"Will you come back with us? Or let us take you home?" Eric"s voice was so ft. He wanted her to go back to his house.
"Just home, if you don"t mind. I"ve got homework." She lifted her eyes, maki ng herself smile again.
Eric nodded. He didn"t look happy, but he wasn"t as upset as he had been.
In the backseat of the jeep, Rosamund pushed up against Thea and squeezed her hand.
"Don"t be mad," she hissed, fierce as ever. "Are you mad? I"m sorry. Want me to kill somebody for you?"
"I"m not mad," Thea whispered, looking over the top of Rosamund"s s.h.a.ggy head. "Don"t worry about it."
She had reverted to the strategy of any trapped animal. Wait and watch for y our chance. Don"t fight until you see a real opportunity to get away.
"See you tomorrow," Eric said as she got out of the jeep. His voice was almo st a plea.
"See you tomorrow," Thea said. It wasn"t time to get away yet. She waved un til the jeep was gone.
Then it was time. She dashed inside, up the stairs, and straight to Blaise.
"Wait a minute," Blaise said. "Go back. So you"re saying they didn"t believe any of it."
"Right. At worst Eric"s mom thinks Gran"s bonkers. But it was a close call.
For a while there I thought she might want to get Gran declared unfit or som ething."
The two of them were sitting on the floor by Blaise"s bed where Thea had col lapsed. Blaise was eating candy corn with one hand and scribbling on a yello w legal pad with the other, all the while listening attentively.
Because that was the thing about Blaise. She might be vain and self-centere d, quarrelsome, hot-tempered, lazy, unkind to humans, and generally hard to live with, but she came through for family. She was a witch.
I"m sorry I said you might be a little like Maya, Thea thought.
"It"s my fault," she said out loud.
"Yes, it is," Blaise said, scribbling.