Part 20 (1/2)
”Dueling, most like”
”So they're not his Mark”
”Good heavens, no Lux has always been reckless Short fuse You see it with Marks like that A Mark, rown deeper Which is why Lux's naht, you see I don't know if he's turned fro to find his way back But I'll tell you this Aether does funny things when you play with it I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to bend Magic and got a very nasty shock indeed You see those rings he wears You kno he got theht there with our drinks Huge paper umbrellas stuck out of the lady? Not breaking the rules, are you, Professor?”
It happened One e the wizards and vaht of somebody else
He wore a pair of dark wizard dress pants and I couldn't be sure but a black, spotted with darker black, silk dress shi+rt that changed as he turned, and the light hit hi mane of black hair fell to his shoulders The serious- into my own, like chips of blue ice He was just about to ask , when somebody else fell upon lad to es! But then you already know me! It's you I'm interested in!”
He held out his hand to mine and shook it furiously with two of his own It was ato I looked for the other Wiccan but he had gone
”Good to meet you!” he said He continued to try to rip my hand off ”Halsey Rookmaaker I was in your parents' House, don't you know? Their Wiccan House”
It was the s Cere us up in the stands when the Initiates and I had been training One of the few to have done so
”I'm sorry Can I help you?” I said Still full of the wizard I had just seen, it was a moment before I realized what Julius Pendderwenn had said
”I knew your parents! Seventeen years ago! It was horrible e lost them Who do you think took over when they ell, anyway But now you're here Pendderwenn House has been waiting a long time to be complete With you, I think we can be Circles within circles What goes around comes around, eh?”
”W-hat?”
”Halsey Pendderwenn House is here in Rome,” said Pendderwenn ”Just think about it Think about us All right I'”
”We are not to the selection process yet,” said Lux, who had finally reappeared and was now pushi+ng Julius Pendderwenn away Veruschka Ravenseal and the other coven leaders popped up, along with Maria Lenoir
”Not breaking the rules, are we?” said Maria, whose hting on ulped
”I want to see!” said Vittoria, pushi+ng her way through
Maria stood, waiting for an answer
”It's nothing Just a lapse in protocol,” said Lux I noticed as he spoke Lux dig in his pants-pocket and res He slipped thes that you don't know about yet, Julius,” Maria Lenoir said to Mr Pendderwenn, who shook fro my hair fall between us She had looked atlike he had been keeping things fro in Rome? Is it really true my parents used to be one of them?”
It was hard to keep the bitterness out of my voice Had there really been a House in Rome all this tihed Vittoria looked around waiting for soers at Mr Pendderho apologized profusely ”It can wait It can wait,” he said ”Just a little overanxious is all Twenty-five years it's a long tiain Promise, promise”
”It better not,” said Veruschka
Apparently that was the end of it The olves went back to their dancingand Vittoria, with one last look, disappeared with Paolo Maria Lenoir continued to hover, however, like an overeager evil-eyed specter ”You know the rules, Lux,” she said to hi at Professor Lux with about a million questions I think he could see it because he foric drink It was a ic for so so mundane He swizzled it and took the umbrella out, which folded up all by itself What did Mariathe way he did, like he was nervousor worse scared? I wondered
”You've been ht I've put a bull's-eye on your back”
I grabbed Lux and dragged him over to an alcove where we could talk alone
No more half measures I wanted the truth
He paced back and forth, and I saw hi where his tridents were He didn't expect a fight, did he? ”The other Houses will try and recruit you,” he said to iving Ravenseal an unfair advantage This Gathering is aboutnew Wiccan Initiatesit's about staking your claims to theht to engage you like that,” he went on, ”but he thought I wasSo”
”Not so fast,” I said ”What's a Wiccaning?”
He took a sip of his raspberry-mint cocktail
”It happens in two-days' ti of sortskind of like e all held our lightsexcept this time it's for realat which point you and the other Initiates will have to choose”
”Our Marks, you mean?”
He nodded
”With this type of choice there is no second choice,” he said ”It is a chance for the other Houses to look at you as well We have an unusually high nuh spots”
”They keep threatening sand as she's easily the most powerful neitch I mean to say, there's no way Ravenseal can afford to take all of us, can they? Maybe Pendderwenn's ic split, Halsey I've beento speak with you about thiswith all of the Initiates, as a matter of fact”
”We're Neophytes now,” I said I couldn't help it I s pulled apart Like there are three of them They represent the Three Houses Harcort, Coven, and Ravenseal” He waggled his three fingers ”But there are ic continues to split Pendderwenn House is a satellite It is a lesser coven I will explain”
I watched hi if it were really true Like everything involving Magic, there seemed to be layers upon layerseach one hidden under the next
”A Wiccan coven is comprised of twelve er function,” said Lux
”There ic in the world,” I said
”On the contrary,” he said ”Unlike vampires, who keep their numbers hidden, Wiccans have to be very open about just how many of us there are The reason is because of the Last War, in which a lot of the Supernaturals were killed It happened over a century ago In the time of Charles dickens and cobblestone streets
”I won't bore you with the details,” said Lux ”Suffice it to say, that a treaty was brokered, in which certain covenants were agreed upon, a them that Wiccan covens must Hivebreak away, and form autonomous covens”
”It was the vaot sohtersifts, such as the ability to see the future, to scry, as it's called; some can travel with their minds Asher is one He has the leave of the Houses, and that of his own tribe, to attend this Gathering with the Lenoir, who just want to keep an eye on things, they say But hiving Hiving is important
”It was Erasmus of Ravenseal who proposed the idea an idea supported by Maria Lenoir She was there, you see The Lenoir had a foothold Their poas great This was 1887 Maria was second-in-coained further power I do not know