"Lia..." I said.
"I know right."
"No. Look," I said.
"What?" she said. She looked what my head was pointing at. Which was at my Mark. I had brushed the sleeves back.
There, in the darkness, where it was just the two of us, my Wiccan Mark flowered silver bright. It was a flower. Faint outlines of petals twisted up my right arm, wrapping themselves around my forearm, like a sleeve, almost.
It was an orchid.
My fingers tightened and this heat raced up my arm. It seemed to energize my entire being. I had swirls and flowers, and my MarkI was either Grace or Goodwill.
"Lia..." I said, "it"s my Virtue."
The orchid was twisting away from me like it was reaching for the sun, but there wasn"t any to be had; it writhed and twisted, newly-formed and alive. When I looked at Lia her jaw was hanging open.
It was full of the aether, the Mark, the source of my Wiccan power. My delta was on fire. It burned like liquid ore; my gut clenched. I had to grit my teeth; but as fast as it came the pain receded. It traced through my body, like forged steel hissing in waterforging me. Until it glowed and I put my robe sleeve down. I felt like I could do or be anything. It was awesome. The fire in my veins was gone. But as it had pa.s.sed something new was there, I didn"t entirely understand yet. "Okay. That. Has. Never. Happened. To. Me," said Lia, and meant it. She was nearly falling out of her bed.
"I nearly melted," I said, gasping and breathing heavily.
"That must be what it"s like to be a Neophyte and to have your Mark. Your real Wiccan Mark," said Lia.
I nodded.
Is that what this was? Did I have mine now?
"No one can know," I said to Lia. "Not even Ballard, not anyone. If tongues waggle, I"ll rip them out."
"No. I swear. It"s just between us. Promise," she said.
"Sister swear," I said.
She did her two-finger thing againand winked at me. There was an energy in her bright eyes. "We"re going to need that power," she said to me.
"Lia. The world is getting ready to shift. I can feel it also. What I thought was important, isn"t," I said. "And what I never thought about before has suddenly become important. These people can"t be trusted. They"re all of them dangerous. And something more. I can"t explain it, but Rome is the key. That"s why they all wanted to meet here. To look it over. I think Gaven knows this. But he"s careful who he lets in on his secrets. You"re right about that."
She nodded her head. "Do you know?" she said. "I feel dangerous. I mean really, really, powerfully dangerous."
"We are," I said. "We just don"t know it yet." I flexed my fingertips. "But I think we"re beginning to find that out."
"I can"t wait until I Burn," she said, and showed me her Wiccan Mark. It was still nebulous. Under-formed. "I think you are her. If such a creature exists. The One," said Lia. "Not even VittoriaI"m sure of iteven she wouldn"t have a Mark like that. A flower. They"re really rare. I mean, from what I could see of her fingertips. I don"t think even any of the Mistresses had a Mark like that. And they"re from one of the Three. Heads. You must be super powerful."
"But what good is Grace or Goodwill?" I said. And I didn"t say it, but Vittoria"s Markit was a poisonous flowerdeadly nightshade. What good was my Mark against so much enmity in the world?
Chapter 25 The Last Pendderwenn.
Not having names, I realized, was a great way to mask allegiances. Who was Selwyn working for? What was his Mark? What was his House? And Marek? Was he with the Lenoir? They had a death warrant out on him. So Marek had told me. How did that work? Lia continued to talk about the Pack and her place within it.
"Lia, you"re safe. You"re one of them. It"s me. I"m not," I said. "I"m off. Haven"t you noticed how brainwashed everyone is? If you aren"t from someone"s House, that"s it. You aren"t one of them. And if you are, you better toe the line, or it"s a threat, and an or else. I"m really scared about the state of Wicca," I said. "But I definitely feel you. And I smell you, too. P-U. Is that you? It smells like wet dog in here."
The snuffling was coming closer. I peeked up at Lia. She was snoring.
The snuffling was now at the slats in my door. Lia made a noise like Mrgnagh. And the handle turned.
Selwyn was standing there. Except he wasn"t a cat any longer. He was a man. And he seemed to be deathly afraid of being found out. I understood why.
The black hairs. Selwyn-cat had stood over Julius Pendderwenn"s dead body.
Of the two of them, one thing could be said for Pendderwenn, which could not be said for Selwyn. At least, with Pendderwenn, you knew where he stood. His allegiance had been to Pendderwenn House. So who was Selwyn"s allegiance to?
He held his fingertips up to his lips, bidding me to be quiet, but I was not some doormat, he could not step on me whenever he chose?
"Why are you here," I said, "and what do you want? You come and you go, Selwyn, but who are you, anyway?" I was whispering so Lia wouldn"t wake up. Something told me if I had to use my Wiccan W it might just jerry-rig something up to ward off a sneaking cat. Selwyn must"ve needed every bit of his silent cat paws to get through the swarm of snuffling werewolves who were outside. "I know it was you," I said. "They found cat hairs, Selwyn. Black bits of you. You killed Julius Pendderwenn. You slashed him up."
He held his hands up. "I"m innocent," he said. There was no blood on them.
"You could have washed them off. Or licked them off," I said. "Your claws retract, don"t they, when you put back on your people suit?"
"I didn"t do it," he said. "I was trying to save him. II swear. I"m trying to save you."
"From what?"
"Halsey Rookmaaker..." he gasped. "You already know the answer to that."
"Tell me, then," I said. "And stop calling me Halsey Rookmaaker." I didn"t like his voice. Like he knew what I wanted to know. Which was secrets. Selwyn looked like he was in a panic.
"I can"t do that," he said.
"What, tell me, or stop calling me Halsey Rookmaaker?"
"Both," he said. "Besides... People can"t just be told... They have to be shown.... And whatever this is... you need to see it..."
"What do you mean?" I said and realized that Lia had been right about that. It was the refrain of somebody who didn"t have a clue. Me.
I thought about waking her up, but Selwyn said, "There is no need to involve your friend in anything dangerous tonight. I certainly would not. You will be safe with me. Perhaps together we can find out what neither of us knows. Come, Halsey Rookmaaker. I wish to show you everything," he said.
He held out his hand to mine. I glared up at him, but I put my hood up, and took his paw. He saw the flash of my Wiccan Mark, whereupon his eyes marveled.
"What is it?" I said, but he shook his head.
"Take your excellent motorbike," he said. "We have a trip to make."
"How far is it?" I said, but before Selwyn could answer he started to shake. His teeth chattered. Even his skull shook. It started doing funny things, like it was alive. Moving.
"Ireallyhatethis part" he said.
He transformed before my very eyes into the spectacular eight-foot-long, shining black cat; his fur was like velvet; his eyes, two gemstones sitting on jewelry cushions. In theory, there is always doubt, reasonable or otherwise, but look into somebody"s eyes, you see the truth, and his were saying: "Trust me."
We disappeared into the night together. Selwyn padded through the cold stone corridors with me at his heels. We encountered no one. He seemed to have a preternatural sense. An intuition that was not unlike Ballard"s, who frequently got funny feelings around people. Selwyn"s was the ability to disappear.
In no time at all, I found myself standing before my Gambalunga. It spit and started. Selwyn bounded ahead. It took everything I had to keep up with him.
Soon, we had left the Gatheringplace far behind, and were out in countryside. I felt free. Like I could do anything. I opened the throttle and followed after Selwyn who disappeared over the hilltops like a flash in the night. I would have to give him a nickname in my diary. He ran like a bolt of lightning. Thunderpaws, I decided.
He was taking us towards Rome... The direction gave me pause. But not really. I wasn"t a werewolf yet.
I drew even with him and let the Gambalunga backfirethe citadel, shining in the distance, stopped. Selwyn cantered and then came to a standstill. He licked his snout and caught his breath. His blue eyes shined at me.
"You"re not a were," I said, "weres are something else." I blew into my hands. It was bitterly cold out. The seasons had pa.s.sed while I was underground. "You"re a wizardpanther," I said. "You did this by magic. The Maleficarum. Of course. Witches can turn into cats. And a wizard is a witch, if he knows witchcraft. I"m just talking to myself, trying to figure things out," I said. "It"s like the whole King-Cat-Dog thing. But why, if you can do it, can"t Lia? Be magical and a shapeshifter. Because you"re not a shapeshifter. Or a natural shapeshifter, anyway. She"s a werewolf. Born with it. But you were not. You"re a wizard who learned to shift. Now I"m aware. We can continue now," I said.
He paused and then did a double take. Selwyn-cat ran on and the wind through my Wiccan hoodie was like the hiss of being Marked. I watched him leap through the countryside. Pretty soon we were on the outskirts of Rome. To a place that I knew all too well. The late-night drivers didn"t see us, as we maneuvered through heavy traffic. First Ballard had shown me. Now Selwyn. I wanted to know why.
He caught his breath and then transformed back into a human being. The black panther disappeared behind an old newspaper stand, and Selwyn reappeared. I parked my Gambalunga and the motor cut out. "I"ve been here before," I said, looking at the abandoned movie theater across the street. The letters, drooping from the marquee, spelled out disaster. Volt and Pouch had been hurt, I remembered, from standing guard duty here. I looked at Selwyn.
"The Dioscuri are inside of there," he said.
"But why have you brought me here?" I said.
"Because I knew your parents. Kinsey and Maximilian Rookmaaker. They would want their daughter to know what happened to them. I want to know," said Selwyn. "That is why we are here. Max was my mentor, you see." He looked at me. "He initiated me. He initiated you too," said Selwyn.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Come on, Halsey. Haven"t you been paying attention? How else did they know about you? The Lenoir? The Three? The Dioscuri? They have big plans for you."
"I"ve been looking for Magic," I saidand I didn"t like hearing that last bit again. It"s what Veruschka had said to me.
"You"ve been expected," he said. He shook his black hair out of his face. Selwyn was sweating slightly. I realized it must"ve been from the run. I was glad I had my thick Initiate"s robe on. The stars of a cold winter Roman night were out and about. The wind was whipping through my hair. Not a headlight could be seen down the dark and empty street.
He turned to look with me at the movie theater. "I don"t know what happened to you seventeen years ago...." he said. "I was just a kid myself. I"m only twenty-six. Max, your father, said it was for your own protection. They sent you off. He was extremely powerful, Maxperhaps he knew something. He was in Pendderwenn House, you see. Back when it was a House." Selwyn sighed. His breath gusted out in cold fog.
"The Rota...," I said.
"Pardon?"
"I got stuffed down it. It"s what unwed mothers used to throw their babies into," I said, "like a box at a kennel. Who knew I would one day be an animal, too? Maybe they were right to get rid of me. But then I got sent off to St. Martley"s, and they got killed, my parents did..."
"Which is the part I don"t understand," said Selwyn. "But maybe they do." He nodded his head at the movie theater. "They remember everything. I think they would remember this too. After all, the Dioscuri were there."
"Pardon?"
Selwyn reached into his pocket. When he withdrew his hand, he was holding on to a large red Wiccan marker, with a six written on it.
"You had a marker," I said, excited and then sadit was the sixth pick, the one that had chosen me.
"Yes," he said. "I held this marker, but I didn"t get a chance to use it. I wasn"t afforded an opportunity, really, to select you."
"Me?" I said. I couldn"t breathe. If only he had gotten to me sooner. Veruschka Ravenseal wouldn"t have her hooks in me now.
"She"s waiting for me, Selwyn. Veruschka. And she"s in with the Master House. I can feel it. I"m... a Ravenseal now," I said.
At the mentioning of the Master House, his teeth had flashed. He had to bite back some acid. They were inordinately large, his panther teeth. "You"re not," he said. "...A Ravenseal" when I didn"t look like I understood. I think he could see it, because he said, "Halsey, you don"t seem to understand what I"m doing here. I came here to select you. This marker is"
"But it"s too late," I said. "And I don"t even know which House you are with, Selwyn."
He laughed. "Don"t you?" he said. "For being so clever, you really don"t have a clue, do you?"
"Waityou"re not like my brother or something, are you?" I said. "Because that would really suck."
He blew a strand of hair out of his face and shook his head. "No," he said. He seemed to be sad about something though.
"Then what?" I said.
Selwyn paced. He was trying to reveal things to me slowly. He didn"t just realize I could be told everything. Finally, he stopped, and he said, "May I see your Wiccan Mark, please?"
I showed him. After all, he had shown me his transformationthat was something not even Ballard had ever done.
"As I suspected," he said. "You have your mother"s Mark."
"I do?" I said. Standing there, I realized it was true. I had seen it before. She, Kinsey Rookmaaker, had drawn it in her copy of the Magus Codex, which was now my copy. I had not put the two together until now. I was still so flushed with having my Mark, that I hadn"t realized my mother had had the identical same one. It was like my eyes were opened for the very first time... to my destiny, if I had one... I had her Mark. And I also had her Book. It felt special...
"Hers was a flower also. An orchid, if I recall," said Selwyn. "It was very beautiful."
I nodded. But he did not go on. Instead we stood like that for some time. Finally, he said, "I notice that you notice that I call you sometimes by your full Wiccan Name, which is Halsey Rookmaaker."
"Yeah, and it"s annoying," I said. "You"re not the only one, either. Lots of people do it. I wish they would stop."
Why did I get the sense that he was leading me somewhere? That Selwyn was trying to show me something?
"Halsey, the reason you have a last name, and others do not," he said, "is because you were born into a Wiccan Household, and we remember that. We honor it. It gives you status. Whether fair or otherwise."
"It"s totally unfair," I said. I didn"t need to motion for him to continue. Selwyn went on anyway.
"If I may," I said. He took the red marker. "The reason you weren"t selected firstor fifth or even third or secondor fourth," he winked at me, "was in honor of your parents."
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Surely they must have gasped when your name was calledthe people up in the stands, all of the witches and wizards?" Selwyn asked.
I nodded. "Vittoria was really upset," I said. "She thought Veruschka was going to pick her. In fact, do you know if Ravenseal had the first pick, because it seemed to really surprise Vittoria? She had intimated, by look, and so forth, and by being mean, that she was destined for their House, and to be the first pick. Instead, she"s off. No one picked her. And with you not there, I just realized, Pendderwenn would have had a pick.... He needn"t have left..."