11:3
The sound of voices in the hall pulled Kim out of the meditative state she’d fallen into under the waves of Patti and Sass’ voices.
“Why did you ask if you weren’t going to explain?” Gwen’s voice carried from down the hall, not quite strident but damned close.
A murmur followed, low enough Kim couldn’t tell who was answering. A mikro later the bedroom door was flung open, the knob banging into the wall and rebounding a bit, almost catching Gwen in the face. She barely slowed her stomping entrance to throw out her hand and tap the door back into position against the wall. Siobhan trailed her and from behind them the sound of footsteps announced Prairie, Abe, and Dan’s entry a moment before they cleared the threshold.
Kim followed Gwen’s stomping approach to the bed with lifted brows. Gwen pointed a finger at her. “You!”
Kim tilted her head and lifted her brows more. “Me?”
Patti turned to look at Gwen and raised a finger to her lips. “Shhhh.”
Gwen spared Ben’s supine form a glance. “If I thought yelling would wake him I’d have hollered to raise the dead yesterday.”
“That doesn’t really work.” Prairie sidled up to the foot of the bed and indicated the space next to Kim with a wave of her hand. At Kim’s nod Prairie sat down and folded her hands in her lap.
Gwen shifted her narrowed gaze to Prairie. “Really?”
Prairie just shrugged and gave Gwen a gentle smile before unfolding her hands and laying one lightly on Ben’s sheet-covered leg. “Really.”
Gwen poked a finger at Prairie. “Do you have the mark?”
“No.” Prairie’s placid tone practically begged everyone to take it down a notch. And by everyone Kim meant Gwen, who at the moment, seemed to be the only one with a full head of steam. It seemed to have no impact on Gwen who planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Prairie. “No?” Gwen swiveled to look at the others in the room just as Dempsey came walking in with Ivan in tow. “Who else has one?”
Siobhan held a finger up at shoulder-level. Abe bounced on their toes then waved a hand. Dempsey shuffled to the side to plant his shoulders against the wall next to the open door, dug his hands into his pockets, then nodded. “Me.”
Ivan’s gaze went to Ben. Then apparently satisfied at Ben’s state he said, “I do.” He shifted his gaze around the group. “What does it mean?”
Kim raised a hand, patting the air as she shifted her attention to Gwen. “Do you have one?”
Gwen’s lower lip jutted. “No.”
“Then why the hullabaloo?”
Gwen thrust her head forward, pinning Kim with a gimlet glare. “Because Siobhan’s upset and that made me upset and I don’t want to be upset.”
“Did something happen?”
“Besides Siobhan checking me for a hickey or something? No.”
“Okay, then maybe what you’re feeling isn’t your own emotions and you need to let them go?”
Gwen dug her hands deeper into her hips and gave a foot stomp. Then stopped and shifted her gaze upwards, taking an audible breath through her nose before returning her attention to Kim. “You may be right.”
“I may be crazy.” The lyric just popped into Kim’s brain and out her mouth. She gave Gwen a cringe smile to which her usually sunny friend snorted and shook her head.
“Well,” Gwen chuckled, “if I’m looking for a lunatic–”
Kim clicked her tongue and gave Gwen finger guns. To which Gwen rolled her eyes then finished her stomp to the bed so she could loom over slash beside Kim. “Move over.”
“No room.”
Gwen lowered herself towards the mattress and bumped Kim’s shoulder with her hip. Kim threw an elbow. “Ugh. No touchy.”
“Oh,” Gwen muttered and poked a finger towards Kim, “Me touchy. Me touchy!”
“Gross!” Kim sidled to the side to avoid the poke and bumped into Prairie. Turning she murmured, “Sorry.”
Prairie gave her a gentle smile. “It’s okay. So, can you please explain why Dan looked behind my ear and Abe’s ear and made thinking sounds?”
“Thinking sounds?”
“Yes. Thinking sounds.” She cocked her head. “Are you avoiding answering?”
“No.” Kim shook her head. “Not avoiding, uhm,” rubbing her forehead she looked down at her lap while she ordered her thoughts, “Just unsure what to say.”
“How about,” Gwen shoved herself between the foot rail and Kim on the mattress, nudging Kim with her hip to make room. “Start with what’s up with the marks on some of our necks?”
Kim lowered her hand from her forehead and slanted a look at Dan who gave her an enigmatic look and shifted his toothpick from the left to the right. She looked at Dempsey who just gave her a steady stare and snaked his hand out from under his arm to plant it on his bicep.
Well, you knew times was topsy-turvy when people were looking to Kim for explanations. She shifted a look to Patti who didn’t even turn from her perusal of Ben’s hand in hers. Well, okay.
Shifting to look over the group, she started her explanation. “Rapunzel asked about my tattoo.”
“You don’t have any tattoos,” Gwen said from Kim’s side.
Kim turned to look at Gwen. “I know. Right? Like you, me, and Siobhan are probably the only people in the Derby League who aren’t heavily tatted.”
“Yeah.”
“So,” Kim shifted her attention back to the rest of the group. “I told Rapunzel I didn’t have a tattoo. She said, ‘sure you do. Behind your ear’. Or,” she waved a hand, “something like that. And I’m like I do not have a tattoo. And she’s like, “right, huh–”. And she tells me I had a tattoo yesterday. Looked like a dark fingerprint. Behind my ear. That we all had one. So, we checked and Dempsey has one and Dan has one and Siobhan has one, but Patti and I don’t. And now it sounds like Prairie and you don’t but Ivan and Abe do.” She counted off on her fingers. “Me, Gwen, Patti, Prairie. That’s four without. And Ivan, Dempsey, Dan, Siobhan, and Abe. That’s five with.”
“Has anyone checked Ben for one?” Dempsey asked.
Kim shifted to give Dempsey an ‘ah ha!’ look. “No. Probably should have?”
Dempsey shrugged. “Makes sense.”
Patti leaned over Ben and very gently moved his earlobe out of the way. After a moment of squinting, she rose from her chair to lean over him and look behind the other ear. After another long moment, she turned and shook her head. “No mark.”
That said she settled back into the chair and picked up his hand again.
“So,” Kim picked up the thread of thought. “Five of us with. And correction – five without.”
Abe raised their blackened hand to rub at the spot behind their ear. “Do you think we got them in The House?”
“Makes sense,” Ivan said. “You said Rapunzel noticed them on all of us?”
“Yes.”
“And you had one yesterday and now you don’t?”
“Yes.”
“Anything unusual happen between then and now?”
Kim thought then shrugged. “No?”
“Gwen?”
Gwen looked over at Ivan. “What?”
“You don’t have one?”
“I don’t.”
“Anything unusual for you?”
“Describe unusual? I did poop.”
Ivan grinned. “And that’s unusual?”
“No.”
“Then it’s probably not relevant.”
Gwen shrugged. “You never know.”
Dempsey rolled his eyes in Gwen’s general direction. “Probably not.”
Ivan shifted his attention to Prairie. “Prairie. You don’t have one either?”
Prairie shook her head slowly. “No.” She contemplated her hand, resting on Ben’s leg, for a mikro then added, “And no. Nothing unusual.”
A thought niggled at the back of Kim’s mind. “Patti said that when she was with Ben yesterday she felt like an insect stung her behind the ear. When I was with him, dropping off MF McGee, I felt a pinch behind my ear.” She turned to look at Gwen on her one side then back to Prairie on the other. “When you came to see Ben did you feel anything behind your ear?”
Gwen frowned. “Maybe?” She tilted her head and contemplated the ceiling before looking back at Kim. “I feel a lot of things when I’m using my Magick, but maybe?”
“You used your Magick?”
Gwen shrugged. “Duh?”
Kim turned to Prairie who met her question with a placid look. “I used my Magick. I assume that’s the question more than if I felt something?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“I went into Spiritus, where coma patients rest.”
“Oh,” Gwen leaned around Kim to look at Prairie. “The domes?”
Prairie nodded. “Yes. I found Ben resting there and I poured some of my Magick into his tether. I was hoping it would draw him back.” She gave a slight shrug before looking down at her hand again. “It didn’t but I definitely felt like he drew on the energy.” Looking up, she met Kim’s gaze. “But to answer your question about any sensation around my ear? I’m not really aware of my body when I’m in Spiritus so I couldn’t say.”
Dan closed his book, the thump drawing Kim’s attention.
“There are no secrets that time does not reveal. Jean Racine.”
Kim started to question him only to stop as she felt a wave of Magick emit from him, carried on the words. A cloud of small black glints formed in the air in front of his mouth, expanding on his breath to flow across the space between him and each of the others in the group. Kim sat on her hands so she didn’t slap at the fine black glittering things as they flowed across the space to swirl around her face.
A quick look to the left and the right showed black motes do similar around Gwen and Prairie’s faces. A look down the bed showed black shining particles floating around Patti’s face too. The film of twinkling motes swirled for a mikro in front of each of their faces then flowed back across the space towards Dan.
Kim’s gaze followed the path of them, widening when she saw a distinct line of motes flowing from behind Dan’s ear and towards Ben. A quick shift of her attention showed the motes near Siobhan, Abe, Dempsey, and Ivan doing the same thing, forming lines that arrowed from each of their heads towards Ben.
Kim’s gaze darted between Dan and Ben then Ivan and Ben then etcetera etcetera until she’d traced the shimmering lines between each of her friends who had marks on them to Ben. The lines all formed a downward trajectory. Dan and Ivan’s pooled where Patti held Ben’s left hand. The ones from Abe, Siobhan, and Dempsey traveled a bit further to settled against Ben’s right hand lying flat on the sheets.
Prairie jerked back from a moment then leaned in to look at where the glittery black particles drifted just above Ben’s hands. She looked over at Kim quickly, then turned to look at Dan. In fact, everyone was now very intently looking at Dan with varying expressions ranging from confusion to assessment and in Dempsey’s case dawning understanding.
“Patti?”
Patti shifted to look at Dempsey. “Yeah.”
“Turn Ben’s hand over.”
“Okay.” So saying Patti did exactly that. “And?”
“Does he have fingerprints?”
“Of course, he has–” Patti trailed off. “Well, fuck.”
Dan drew closed his eyes, took a deep breath through his nose, then gently placed his book in his vest pocket. After buttoning the flap he opened his eyes then lifted a finger to trace the line of glittery Magick connecting him, or rather the fingerprint behind his ear, to Ben. He grunted and nodded.
“I take that to mean no?” Dempsey asked.
Patti placed Ben’s hand, palm up, on the bed and reached over him to pick up his other hand. Her fingers passed through the glittering black motes swirling around his hand as she turned his palm upwards in her hand. She leaned over and stared at his hand, like a myopic fortune teller, then turned back to look at the others.
Sass ran across the bed to lean in and stare at his hand too. The mouse squeaked, leaned in more, peered harder then turned and looked at Patti who brushed a finger over Sass’s head, smoothing down the fur that was standing up. Sighing she turned her head to look at Dempsey. “No. And yes.”
“No and yes?” Siobhan walked over to peer over Patti’s shoulder at Ben’s hands. She ticked her finger on the air, forming silent words as she did so. Kim couldn’t read lips but context suggested Siobhan was counting.
She did the whole thing two times. Then paused, looked over her shoulder to follow the black lines from Ben to their friends, then turned back and did it one more time before looking up with a contemplative expression.
“Missing five?” Dan asked.
“Yes,” Siobhan frowned at him. “You knew?”
“Guessed.”
“Would someone like to share with the class?” Gwen asked, drawing the others attention to her.
Siobhan frowned. “Ben has five fingerprints across both hands.” She leaned down and traced her finger over the fingertips of Ben’s left hand. “Two on the left. Three on the right.”
“What?” Kim craned her neck to stare at Ben’s hands lax on the sheets.
Siobhan lifted her hand to press against the space behind her ear. “He’s missing three on the left and two on the right.”
Kim eyed the two lines connecting Dan and Ivan to Ben’s right hand then shifted to follow the three connecting Abe, Siobhan, and Dempsey to his left hand.
“I mean I’m absolute garbage at math but even I can count to ten and subtract five and–” she shook her head, “Okay, I’m garbage at math but three lines to the left and two lines to the right and two prints missing from the right and three from the left and,” she screwed up her mouth and made a quick count with her fingers, “I’m going to go out on a crazy limb and say you,” she pointed at Dan, “and you,” pointed at Dempsey, “and you and you and you,” Siobhan, Abe, and Ivan, “have got Ben’s missing fingerprints. Maybe.”
“Probably,” Dan fingered where the line of sparkling black lifted from behind his ear, then he pulled his book out of his pocket, opened it and muttered, “return.”
The black lines lifted from Ben’s hands and flew across the air, pooling near Ivan, Dempsey, Siobhan, and Abe’s ears so they were almost obscured by black then the motes flew towards Dan’s book. The motes hit the open page and were absorbed. Once all the black was back Dan closed the book and returned it to his vest pocket.
Abe leaned in and looked at the page. “What did you do?”
“Magick.”
“Why didn’t you do it before?”
“Didn’t have a reason to.”
Abe just looked at Dan, their expression indicating they were waiting for an expansion and they’d be willing to wait a long time for it.
“It’s what I’ve been working with Maise on. To find The Three. Search for secrets. It’s limited though. You have to have a clear target to focus the Magick on. I gambled the fingerprints counted.”
Abe turned to look at Dempsey. “How is that different than Dempsey’s Magick?”
Dempsey answered. “Seems broader. I can find objects but not people. And I have to have a general location and be in that area. Then I can spread my Magick out to find things.” His expression suggested something had just occurred to him. He turned to Dan. “That,” he waved at Dan’s book, “works for anything?”
“In theory.”
“What if instead of looking for The Three you try to find the objects they are using? Would that be easier than trying to find people? They’re probably in one place, not moving around, so that should make finding them easier.”
Dan was quiet for a moment then he shook his head slightly. “I can ask Maise. She’s the one that designed the seeking spell. She might want to ask you about your Magick. See if she can figure out a way to fold it into the spell.”
“If it would work I’m ready to help.”
“Not to interrupt because this is probably important, but can we address the problem at hand?” Ivan fingered the space behind his ear. “We know we have Ben’s fingerprints but any guesses how that happened?”
Everyone shifted to look at Dan. He met their gazes with a steady look. “What?”
“You figured out the fingerprints,” Siobhan said.
“Guessed.”
“You guessed about the fingerprints.”
“Yes.”
“Any theories on the how?”
Dan continued to meet her stare. A mikro passed. Another. Then he shifted his toothpick right to left. “No.”
“None?” Siobhan pressed.
Dan gave a slow blink. “No.”
Siobhan blew a sigh and shifted her gaze around the group before settling on Dempsey. “Dempsey?”
Dempsey spread his large hands. “Don’t look at me.”
“Guys?” Patti said in a small voice that went largely unheard as Siobhan shifted her attention to Ivan.
“You?”
Ivan dragged his finger down his neck. “I’m the one who asked.”
“Guys?” Patti repeated a bit louder.
“Abe?” Siobhan moved on to the mop-headed youth.
Abe shrugged and wrinkled their nose. “I don’t– I might have seen something when Dan used his Words?”
“Guys!” Patti snapped, imbuing the word with a touch of Magick that yanked all of their gazes in her direction. She picked up Ben’s right hand and waved it at them. “Look!”
Gwen leaned around Kim so she could peer closer at Patti. “Look at what?”
Patti stopped waving the hand. She held it still and tapped the finger of her free hand against each of his fingers, counting out loud, “One. Two. Three. Four. Four!”
Siobhan gave her a narrow look. “Four?”
“Four!” Patti turned her attention from Ben’s hand to the group. “Four fingerprints!”
“What?” Siobhan cleared the distance between them in a huge step and leaned over to stare at Ben’s hand. Then, as if compelled, she repeated Patti’s gesture of counting Ben’s fingers with her own. Her eyes widened and she turned to stare at Prairie who was the next closest to Ben’s hand. “He has four fingerprints now.”
Prairie tilted her head to look at the hand Patti still held aloft. “He does.”
She lifted a hand to rub her jaw. Then she turned her gaze to the rest of the group. “Is anyone missing the mark behind their ear?”
Siobhan turned her head to show the back of her ear to Prairie. “Am I missing mine?”
Prairie leaned in then shook her head. “No.”
Siobhan turned to look at Abe, then Dan. By the time she got to Ivan and Dempsey they’d already shifted to look behind each other’s ears. They met her gaze and shook their heads in the negative.
“Abe?”
Abe turned to Dan and shifted their head to the side. “Check me?”
Dan leaned over to peer behind Abe’s ear. “No.”
Abe raised up on their toes and craned to look at Dan’s neck. Their eyes widened and they bit their lower lip. “Yours is missing.”
Dan shifted his toothpick again. “Figured.”
“Figured?” Siobhan’s voice and expression both expressed incredulity.
Dan shrugged. “If you, Dempsey, Ivan, and Abe had theirs made sense it was mine.”
Siobhan threw her hands up then took a calming breath and pressed them together beneath the point of her chin. Her gaze went inwards for a moment then she swiveled to look at Ben’s hand, still held in Patti’s grip. Then she shifted her attention back to Dan. Another mikro or two passed while her gaze ticked back and forth.
“Wha–” Ivan started only to have Siobhan hold a finger up.
“Can it be that simple,” she murmured under her breath. “Excuse me.” She leaned around Patti and picked up Ben’s left hand then lifted it to her neck where the fingers settled against her jaw with the thumb falling to brush her collarbone. She pulled the hand back so the fingers cleared her skin then pressed it back again.
Everyone watched her movements like they held the secrets of the universe. She placed Ben’s hand back gently on the mattress and rocked back on her heels.
Fumbling with her bag she pulled a vial from the strap and popped the top with her thumb. She dipped her forefinger into the vial then pulled it back glistening with salve. Bumping Patti aside with her hip she leaned over Ben, swiping the salve along his jaw.
She stepped back, her gaze intent on the glistening salve. It sat on Ben’s skin for a mikro and then it disappeared, absorbed into his skin. Almost like Magick. Siobhan slapped a hand to her neck, her fingers planted behind her ear and her eyes going wide.
“Ow?”
“Ow?” Ivan echoed.
“Ow.” Siobhan nodded then turned to Patti. “Look. Do I have the mark?”
Patti turned so her nose was almost nuzzling Siobhan’s neck. She tilted her head slightly to look behind the earlobe Siobhan held forward. “No.”
That said Patti turned back to where Ben’s hand still rested cradled in hers. She pressed a finger to the back of it, making the palm and fingers flop closer to her face. Then she turned and picked up his left hand and brushed her finger over the fingertips of that hand. She drew a deep breath through her nostrils and turned to look at Siobhan. “Only two missing now.”
Siobhan gave a nod and then turned her head to look at Prairie, Kim, and Gwen who’d all leaned way in to look from their place further down the bed. Then she swiveled to look at Ivan, Dempsey, Dan, and Abe. “Magick.”
Ivan raised his brows. “Magick?”
“Magick.” Siobhan nodded emphatically.
“Magick?” Dan’s drew the word out so it was less question and more speculation.
“Magick.” If Dan had drawn out the word, then Dempsey basically pulled it like taffy.
“Are you following this?” Gwen murmured in Kim’s ear.
Kim nodded.
“Share with the class?”
“Magick,” Kim whispered.
“That doesn’t help?” Gwen whispered back with a bit of oomph. Then she leaned around Kim and whispered at Prairie. “What’s going on?”
Prairie turned with a tiny impish grin. “Magick.”
Gwen gave Prairie a sad shake of her head, her expression suggesting extreme disappointment, then turned to look at Siobhan. Siobhan, looking at Abe, Dan, Dempsey, and Ivan, didn’t see it so Gwen leaned far over and poked her in the rib with a stiff finger. Siobhan turned to her with a frown. “What?”
“What?” Gwen swept her hand out, encompassing Ben and the bed, then turned and made swooshing movements in the direction of the others. “And I swear if you say Magick I am going to smack someone.”
The corner of Siobhan’s mouth quirked. She gave a two mikro pause then leaned towards Gwen and said, “Magick.”
Kim busted out laughing. Prairie giggled and pressed a hand to her mouth while her pale blue eyes sparkled with mischief.
Gwen balled her fists and growled, which brought a laugh from Patti and Abe. Gwen turned to glare at Abe then pointed a finger in the blonde’s direction which just made Abe stick their tongue between their teeth and snort- giggle. Gwen sat back with a flounce and crossed her arms. “Explain.”
Siobhan sobered. “Everyone without a fingerprint used Magick on Ben. I’m guessing those with the marks still didn’t.”
She shifted to look at Abe, Ivan, and Dempsey who each indicated with a shake of the head that they had not. To which she nodded and turned her attention back to Gwen.
“I hadn’t either. It didn’t occur to me because Sunny was using her Magick to heal him. I just thought anything I used would be redundant.”
She shifted back to look at the others that were not clustered on the bed.
Dan shifted his toothpick. He looked contemplative. “Not sure why but I didn’t try any Magick with him.”
Dempsey spread his fingers. “My Magick doesn’t work like that.”
“Mine neither,” Ivan added, then frowned. “Either?” He shook his head. “My Magick don’t work like that.”
While this was going on Abe sidled over to the bed, smiled at Patti, then leaned over and pressed their tattooed right hand to Ben’s collarbone, exposed just above the line of the sheet cutting across his chest. Kim leaned over to watch the tattoo artist, curiosity narrowing her focus to the contrast of Abe’s black ink to Ben’s brown skin.
The black of Abe’s ink shimmered then a fine tremor ran through it. A small bit of ink flowed from Abe’s fingertips and onto Ben’s skin. It pooled for a moment then spread out, forming the word “Dare” in an antique typewriter font about a half inch high.
Abe pulled back, lifting their hand from Ben’s chest. Then their eyes widened, their gaze focusing on something in the air, and they let out a delighted giggle. Kim squinted at the space Abe focused on and she drew a quick breath through parted lips as she watched black particles flow from Abe to Ben, looking like glistening dust motes. Abe raised their unmarked left hand and traced the path of the motes, their grin spreading into a full smile.
“Awesome.”
The motes finished their drift in the vicinity of Ben’s left hand. They hung for a mikro then settled in a distinct spot on the surface of his ring finger. A flex and they rose a breath from his skin then they dropped. Patti leaned in so she could stare hard at the finger, then she pulled back and nodded.
“Fingerprint?” Gwen asked.
Patti nodded again. “Yes.”
“I guess Siobhan was right.”
Siobhan turned to look over her shoulder at Gwen. “Of course I was.”
“Never doubted.” Gwen’s tone said she did, in fact, doubt.
Siobhan rolled her eyes and turned back to Dan, Ivan, and Dempsey, zeroing in on the latter two.
“You need to affect Ben with your Magick.”
Dempsey gave her a look that questioned her intelligence. “As I said there’s no way for me to Magick Ben. I already know where he is and I already know he’s Magick. That’s what I do.”
Siobhan screwed up her nose. “Hmm.” She rubbed her chin and looked inward for a moment, then dropped her hand and gave Dempsey an assessing look. Then she raised her hand to her chin again. “Hmm.” She turned to Dan who shrugged at her unspoken question. With no salvation from that quarter, she turned back to Dempsey and fingered her lower lip. “Hmm.”
Dempsey crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Yeah.”
Siobhan gave Dempsey one more hard look then turned to look at those gathered on the bed. Kim shrugged. Gwen shrugged bigger. Prairie widened her eyes. When Patti said, “I dunno,” Siobhan turned back to Dempsey.
“We’ll get back to you.”
Dempsey gave a half shrug. “I’ll be here.”
With a quirk of her brows at that response, Siobhan turned to Ivan.
He gave her a steady look. “I make gadgets and weapons and other gadgets. I do not make people wake up from comas.”
Siobhan looked to Dan again. Dan pulled a book out of one of his many vest pockets, flipped open a page, and scanned it with his eyes. Then, without looking up, he said, “Make something.”
Ivan gave Dan the stink eye. “Make what?”
“Something.”
Ivan rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed, then dug into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a coil of string, two small brass bells, and several pieces of hard candy. He dumped these into his palm then went for the other pocket. From that he drew out a pen, a comb, and jar of mystery fluid. He dumped these into his palm with the other objects then poked at them with his finger.
His mouth screwed to the side as he narrowed his eyes on the objects. After a mikro he picked the bells out of the group and shoved the rest of the things back in one of the jacket pockets.
Expression speculative he bounced the bells in his palm. They jangled softly. He tossed them to his other hand, his gaze tracking the movement.
Tapping his palm with a finger, he looked up at the waiting faces. “Silence.”
Gwen frowned and gave him the stink eye. “We weren’t talking.”
Ivan grinned. “Not you. Silence. Ben’s been bugging me to make him something that can cause a temporary ward of silence.”
“Well, that’s terrifying,” Patti drawled. When Ivan turned to look at her, she expanded. “Ben is sneaky enough without giving him the ability to move silently, which is why I’m guessing he’s asking for it.”
Ivan shot his index finger at her. “And why I haven’t made him one. But,” he shifted his gaze to Ben’s still form. “Why not, right? Life’s short. We don’t know if we’ll get past tomorrow. Or fall into comas. Why not eat the cake?” He shrugged. “Or make your best friend a magic item they will probably abuse.”
“Probably?” Patti asked.
“Probably. Maybe. Definitely.”
Ivan grinned wide then turned back to his fiddling. The others split their attention between Ben and each other with Siobhan’s focus landing on Dempsey. She stared at him. Rubbed her index finger under her bottom lip. Screwed up her mouth and narrowed her eyes. Pushed her finger into the corner of her mouth. Hmm’d through her nose.
Dempsey stood still for this for a bit but eventually he shifted his shoulders against the wall, crossed her arms, and lifted his brows at Siobhan. “What?”
“Yeah,” Gwen piped up, “What?”
Siobhan turned to Gwen, finger raised, “I’m–”
Before she could say more Ivan said, “Done,” which effectively drew everyone’s attention to him. With everyone’s gazes focused on him, Ivan lifted a black chain from his palm. A bell, equally black, dangled off it. A bell that made absolutely no noise as it swung from the chain.
“That was fast,” Patti said.
“When you’re good you don’t need a lot of time.”
“Yeah,” Patti drawled, “About that. Maybe don’t want to brag about being a two-pump chump.”
A flush burned bright on Ivan’s cheeks. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“It’s the way I heard it.” Prairie shrugged and gave an impish grin.
Ivan turned and stared at the petite woman. “Et tu, Prairie?”
Her grin widened. And then his matched it even as he gave a slow, admonishing shake of his head.
“Anyway,” he said. “All done.”
He gave the bell a shake, then another one, before pooling it in his palm and coiling the chain around it.
“Does it work?” Abe asked.
Ivan turned to Abe with a look of betrayal. “Does it work?”
Abe gave him a bright smile, bordering on a grimace. “What I asked.”
“It works.”
“But I can hear you.”
Ivan gave a long-suffering sigh then picked up the chain and looped it over his head. Once it settled on his chest he gave Abe a pointed look then jumped straight up in the air. As he flew upward he opened his mouth and—made absolutely no noise at all. The same was true of when he came down hard on the wooden floor. The floorboards made literally not a single sound, despite clearly depressing under Ivan’s weight.
He righted, gave Abe a significant look, then removed the chain from around his neck and did the same scream/jump. His scream was definitely heard. As was the considerable thump of the floorboards as he came crashing down on them.
Once settled he pivoted and gave Abe another significant look. Prairie giggled behind her hand and Patti gave him a dramatic golf clap. Abe for their part dimpled more, then curved their shoulders in as an infectious grin turned their face into a picture of delight.
“That is awesome!”
“Thank you,” Ivan half bowed, “Thank you. Couldn’t do it without the little people.”
Gwen darted in and snatched the chain from Ivan’s fingers, then slid over to the bed on her socked-feet and dumped the chain and bell on Ben’s chest. That settled she leaned back and looked at the spot with a cocked head. After a mikro she turned and looked at Ivan.
“Nothing.”
He gave her a disgruntled look. “Well, he is in a coma. So pretty quiet. Also you have to put it over his neck and say “Sploosh”.”
She gave him a measuring look. “You didn’t say sploosh.”
He tapped his chest. “In my heart I did.”
“In your heart,” she repeated real slow to which he nodded then lifted his brows.
“Are you questioning the maestro?”
“Are you the maestro?”
“In this context, yes.”
“Then I am, in fact, questioning the maestro.”
Ivan heaved a dramatic sigh then walked over to the bed. He lifted the chain and carefully fastened it around Ben’s neck. Then he whispered, almost subvocalized, ‘Sploosh.” Once said, he picked up Ben’s free hand, then extricated his other hand from Patti and brought the palms together. Not a single sound came out. Not even a displacement of air.
That settled he put Ben’s hand back into Patti’s and placed the other one back on the bed then stepped back and looked at the group.
“Well?”
“Well?” Dempsey echoed.
“I’m waiting for my applause.”
“Keep waiting, man,” Dempsey responded and crossed his arms a bit harder. His expression said he saw Magick like this every day. Maybe he did. It was possible.
Siobhan gave a sigh and walked over to Ivan. She placed a hand on his shoulder and rose up on her toes so she could look behind his ear.
“Gone.”
Ivan turned at that, almost bumping Siobhan’s nose with his. “Gone?”
“Yep.” She let go of his shoulder and pushed away. “I think we can definitively say its enacting Magick on him. So,” she turned to Dempsey, “we need to figure out what you can do to affect him.”
“Juggle?”
Gwen started and looked at Dempsey with no little interest. “You can juggle?”
“I can juggle.”
“Not sure how that’s going to Magick him,” Siobhan said in a droll tone to which Dempsey shrugged.
“Just spitballing ideas.”
“Do you have something in your bag that is Magick?” Dan asked.
“I have many things in my bag that are Magick.”
Gwen sidled over to Dempsey’s side and poked the flap of the bag. “Show!”
Dempsey gave her a long unblinking stare for a mikro then clasped her hand in his giant mitt and lifted it from the bag. “Don’t touch the bag.”
Gwen rolled her lips then looked up at him with a wide-eyed uncertainty before giving a brief nod, stepping back, and pulling her hand free of his. “Don’t touch the bag.”
Dempsey nodded like that was that then turned to Dan, nodded real slow in that guy way, before reaching into his bag and pulling out a handkerchief. Most everyone in the room gave the fabric a dubious or curious or contemplative look but it was Abe that spoke the unspoken questions inherent in those expressions. “What’s it do?”
“Minor healing. Cuts. Scrapes. That kind of thing.”
There was another long, long pause and then Abe suggested, “Are you going to try it.”
“Sure.”
Dempsey pushed away from the wall and approached the bed. Leaning around Patti he ran the handkerchief across the knuckles of Ben’s free hand. He paused, ran a look over Ben, then rubbed the cloth against Ben’s skin a second time. Then he turned and tilted his head to the side, his ear facing Patti. “Anything?”
Patti leaned in then shook her head. “Nope.”
Dempsey pulled away from the bed and replaced the cloth in his bag. “Guess that’s a no on the Magick items.”
“Hmmm.” Siobhan looked between Ben and Dempsey. “Maybe it has to be your own Magick?”
“Maybe. Still leaves us with a big zero on options for me. He’s not a Magick item,” Dempsey swept his hand in Ben’s direction, “and I know where he is.”
The room went silent as the others considered various options. Dan looked up from his book, raised his pen, started to speak then shook his head and looked back at his book. Patti laid her head on the bed next to Ben’s shoulder and Sass ran over to curl up between them.
“Have you considered peeing on him?” Gwen asked to which Dempsey scowled at her. “Why would I pee on him?”
Gwen shrugged deeply then gave him a big grin. “I don’t know.”
“It was a stupid suggestion.”
“Oh,” Gwen pressed her hand to her chest, “If only I valued your opinion that might actually hurt.”
Dempsey shook his head and took up his position against the wall again, crossing his arms and resting his head back against the wall. He stared intently at the ceiling like it would give him answers. Or maybe just a respite from Gwen’s questions.
“Fine!” Gwen said and stomped over to plop back down on the bed near the foot.
“Fine,” Dempsey muttered to the ceiling.
“You’re stupid,” Gwen snapped.
Instead of volleying another shot, Dempsey just took a deep breath and said, “Yep.”
Another long, long, long length of silence then Dan looked up from his book and focused on Dempsey. “Maybe it was the wrong Magick item.”
“Okay.” Dempsey drew the word out.
Siobhan turned to Dan. “Do you have any suggestions? Beyond maybe it was the wrong item?”
Dan paused for a long mikro then said, “No,” before turning back to his book.
“Well, that was as helpful as a thimble in the rain,” Siobhan muttered to the top of his head.
“What about the cards?” Kim asked, seemingly out of the blue.
“The cards?” Dempsey turned his head to look at Kim. “Why?”
“I don’t know? Sometimes shit just comes into my head. I was thinking about how you used the cards to tell Llora’s story and they changed so she was in them, right?”
“That’s the way they work.”
“So if you told a story with the cards about Ben wouldn’t it draw some of him into them and then maybe it would be working your Magick on him?”
Dempsey unfolded his arms so he could scratch at the ring bisecting his lip. He stopped. Flayed his fingers on the air. Went back to the scratch. Did the finger fling again then frowned.
“Would it hurt?” Prairie asked in her soft voice.
Dempsey looked to her. “It wouldn’t hurt. It might not work, but it wouldn’t hurt.”
“Then why not try it?”
Dempsey went quiet for another mikro then pushed away from the wall and strode to the bed. Kim, Gwen, and Prairie squeezed together to give him a span of blanket between them and Patti. Dempsey lowered himself to his knees then reached into his bag and pulled out a silk-wrapped bundle. He placed it on the bed then unfolded the fabric to reveal the deck of cards.
Gathering them up he shuffled the cards in his big hands. The gilded edges caught the light from above, adding a sparkle and flash to the movement. After he’d done this for several mikros he slowed the shuffle and stacked the pile in his left hand while reaching for the top card with his right.
“His name is Ben,” he said in a slow, measured voice that held a sense of ritual.
He turned the card over and placed it on Ben’s sheet-covered chest. The card held a single figure, male, hanging upside down from a tree by one leg with the opposite bent at the knee and planted behind the supporting leg. His arms were bent at the elbows with the lower part including the hands tucked behind the figure’s waist.
Gwen leaned in to look at the card. “That’s the Hanged Man, right?”
“Yeah,” Dempsey replied.
“Well, that’s ominous.”
“No.” Dempsey shook his head then turned it to look at Gwen. “It isn’t. It represents a time of repose. Accepting you don’t have what you need to make an informed choice.”
“Uh,” Patti said, “is it supposed to do that?”
Her question drew the gazes of everyone to the card.
The figure wore a blue tunic and red leggings. Or it did. Because between one blink and the next the clothing transformed, becoming a leather jacket with familiar quilting detail at the shoulders and across the top. The rounded neck of the tunic changed to a stand-up collar that framed skin that transformed from a pale, generic ‘flesh-tone’ to a mahogany. The previous blonde hair became black and the average, uninspired features transformed between one blink and the other.
“Does that look like Ben?” Prairie asked the question the others were probably asking themselves.
“Let me…” Ivan strode over and leaned over Dempsey’s shoulder. Dan, Abe, and Siobhan moved over to cluster behind Dempsey’s back, craning around him to look at the card laid out on Ben’s chest.
Dempsey moved his hand toward the card. Maybe to pull it closer, maybe to angle it for a better view. Before he could touch the card, the figure shifted again. The original image had closed eyes, a relaxed expression of repose on its features. As Dempsey’s fingers came within a breath of the card the eyes in the figure’s face, in Ben’s face, opened.
Dempsey made an undignified “eep” and snatched his hand back from the card. Ivan paused his movement towards the card and took a quick step back, jostling Siobhan leaning around his shoulder.
“I may have just peed myself.” Gwen measured a small space between her index finger and thumb. “A little.”
Before anyone could comment on that, Patti drew everyone’s gaze with a sharp, “Ben!” effectively drawing all attention to herself and then almost immediately in the direction she was staring which was Ben’s face. Or more relevantly his open eyes.
Patti pressed a hand to her throat. “They just opened. Like a creepy baby doll!”
“Ben!” Ivan hollered, a whole bunch of feeling in that tone.
Ben blinked slowly. Real slowly. Like his eyes were dry. Which, you know, they probably were. Very, very slowly his gaze tracked to the side where Ivan was leaning over and blocking the view of half the bed. Then in a rusty voice he said, “Hey.”
He moved his mouth like he was going to say more but no sound came out. He lifted his hand. Not exactly sure what he intended with it but he did manage to raise it high enough that he was able to thump his collarbone. Then it kind of just dangled limply and jerked a bit against his upper chest.
Abe sprang away from the bed, scattering Siobhan, Dan, and Ivan, still clustered like a clutch of nettles, like playing cards. Pivoting on their heel they ran for the door into the hall, yelling, “Sunny!” as they went and leaving the others to clamber about in their excitement.
Enter The Woods 