Part 24 (1/2)

Fanishwar Harcort and the others joined in. ”He does have a point...”

”The werewolves have two Initiates,” said Mariska Coven. ”It is only natural that the Rome Initiates would want to go with themthey are like naive children, who don't know any better.”

”And what about the English Initiate, Fanishwar? Or,” said Veruschka, looking meaningfully at Mariska, ”those who come from where you do? The question is where does Halsey wish to go.

The more I was getting to know her, the more I liked Veruschka Ravenseal. The two twins had still not spoken. They watched the goings-on, dispa.s.sionately, giving nothing away. I thought no more about them.

First, was to refute Mariska's claimsand Fanishwar'sneither of whose House I had any interest in joining whatsoever; I think they could tell.

”I have not Chosenany House. But it is true,” I said, looking around at them all. ”The werewolves are my friends.”

”And the vampires?”

This was asked by Pier Alexander.

”I have nothing against them,” I said. He took no more notice of me.

”Very well,” said Veruschka. ”Gaven forgoes the Rookmaaker Wiccaning, and I am satisfied. Are you, Mistresses?”

They nodded, albeit reluctantly.

”Which leaves only Mr. Pendderwenn. You can penetrate her mind, Julius, if you can, but I would think you would want to make the best impression possible. Isn't that the point, to get together so we can present our respective Houses in their best lights? You are only a number two. A second-degree Wiccan. Merely Adept. You are not powerful enough to rip the secrets from her mind.” The twitters broke out again; this time with particular significance. ”You do not know how to sift brains yet,” said Veruschka, dragging his embarra.s.sment out further. Pendderwenn swallowed hard. There were a lot of people there.

”Only because you have not taught me how,” he said. ”Besides, I seek only that which is good for my House. As any of us would do.”

”Then take it from me... she is...” Veruschka Ravenseal pointed her finger at Pendderwenn. ”But I will let you plead your case. Only make it fast.” She sat back down.

Pendderwenn stood.

”Halsey.... Your mother and father were in my House...” he said.

”ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CHOICE!”

”Selwyn, please!” Veruschka Ravenseal was back on her feet.

I looked at him, the Cold Mind. He had pounded the table with his fist. His mane of black hair covered his face. I could no longer see his blue eyes.

I faced Pendderwenn quickly, anxious to be gone; he stood trembling, with the whisperers in the background making it worse.

”We are a small House; we have not the numbers, Halsey, to be of much esteem,” he said. ”We have zero satellites. None.”

Which appealed to me. I did not want to be enslaved or enslave anyone else; no part of me was interested in that.

”As Mistress Ravenseal says,” went on Pendderwenn, ”I am only Adept. I can Craft, but not the best. I feel certain, Halsey, that you would find a place with us, that you would raise us up to the House we were. We have not been twelve since your mother and father died. Just consider that. I have had my say. I will say no more.”

He sat back down.

Mistress Ravenseal stood up. She looked at me. ”You may go, Halsey,” she said. ”Send Lia in next. Her I am most interested in.”

I looked back at Cold Mind. Everything from his bearing to his look said watch your step. I fully intended to.

When I got back to my dormitory I studied my Wiccan Mark, but it had still not appeared. I didn't know what I had expected? Maybe I was Malleable. Maybe I was also fickle. Capable of being swayed by the slightest argument. That's what it had come down to, after all. A choice. Everything was suddenly really hard. Only one path existed, and I had to choose carefully.

Asher was pretty much persona non grata the next day, as he had been scheduled to speak with me after the Wiccaning but had had to go, according to the Wiccans, to deal with a problem which had come up with his own people. I didn't know who they were. Only, that it would be a while before I saw Asher again. Apparently they lived pretty far away.

”Aether. The fifth of five elements; the fifth of All. Aether is what makes you break out in Wiccan Marks. It is what curls up your arms in bands of bright blue. The Mark is the aether.” Lux's eyes flashed like brilliant gems. It was almost December. Nearly a month had pa.s.sed, in which the other Initiates and I had been studying hard. I had not spoken to Ballard for almost two weeks; not since the Wiccaning. He kept himself elsewhere these days, doing what, exactly, I had no idea. Lia and I were by this time complete emotional compatriots, and although her band had formed, mine had not; the rest of the Wiccan Initiates who were being pelted daily to come join this or that coven, pa.s.sed the time arguing with one another over the merits of each House. Each Initiate had kept her Wiccan Mark to herself, but Lia and I were so close that I knew, for instance, what her Virtue was. It was a secret I shared with no one else, not even my diary.

Lux said that we were very close to completing the first phase of our magical education and that he was very pleased with our progress. I had stopped trying to catch his eye. In fact, there was a dropping off in the number of hands that were raised. ”You have all started to become secretive, which means that you have become aware of what your magic can do,” he said. Soon, apparently, we would become so afraid of one another, that we would be addressing each other as Mistress So-and-So and not staring too long, lest the other attack, which explained why some Wiccan Houses were so far away. They were off the beaten path so they wouldn't get beaten up, he said. Some were so far away that you had to go hundreds of miles just to go to a bookstore, if you joined their House.

The aether lecture continued: ”There is positive aether. And there is negativethe negative aether.”

”How long has it been since there was a war?” asked Vittoria.

All this talk of aether. Lux wiped the sweat from his brow. ”Pardon me?” he said.

”The Last War, when did it end? What is it like when two wizards fight? I want to know about dueling,” said Vittoria Ravenseal. The pretense may as well have been dropped. No Neophyte, that I knew of, had uttered one word of what had happened at their Wiccaning. Invitations were sent out tactically, targeting each Wiccan. I had received some myself. Fourteen, in fact. Harcort had recruited me. They had a number of openings. I wrote back thanking them for their interest. But said that I would need some time to come to my own conclusion. Somehow I didn't think any House would want a Neophyte whose Mark hadn't shown.

”Oh, and have you ever fought a duel? Someone at the party said that you had. They said you killed someone, if you can believe it, and that was why you didn't Craft anymore. Because you felt guilty.”

For a future Housemate, Vittoria was very aggressive with Lux Ravenseal. Despite myself, I leaned forward to listen.

”Vittoria, you need to be very careful with what other people say. Otherwise, you'll have to believe what they say about you,” he said.

Oh, that got her!

”That's supposed to be a secret. How dare you bring that up?” she demanded.

”I might say the same to you,” said Lux. It was obvious that he had read her mind; perhaps she had gained access to his. ”But as it will do us some good.... Negative aether can be bent. I do not say that it is bad aether, merely that it is the opposite of positive. It is in some ways much more powerful; and never does it prove that more than when you meddle with it. I meddled with the dark aether,” said Lux. ”Let us hope you will not. As for duelingnon-wizards prized it for settling old scores. This world, our world, is nothing if not full of old scores. You may hear more about them if you meddle overlong in the affairs of us all. Something to consider before indoctrination. n.o.body comes into the Magical world without accepting all which that entails. Now, off you go! I want to see those Wiccan Marks s.h.i.+ning, or un-s.h.i.+ning, as the case may be, before long.”

”I don't think your boyfriend likes me very much, Halsey,” said Vittoria Ravenseal, once we were out of earshot of the Star Room. I was walking along with Lia and some of the other Initiates. They had cooled to Vittoria when it looked like she had been Chosen and they had not. When it looked like she would be the oneand onlyRavenseal recruit.

”Maybe he thinks you'll stink the place up,” I said, referring to the House, in House Ravenseal. There must be one, mustn't there? A place where they all lived?

Vittoria blanched.

”I'm in,” she said. ”But you're not. And I know why. Everyone knows you don't belong.” She flung her hair. ”You're just not Ravenseal material, biiiitch.” She laughed at me and walked away.

I thought about calling after her, but if we dueled, I wouldn't be able to do anything except pull her hair. My Mark had to show! It had to!

Camille, that night, came to see me; it had been too long, she said. She was with Dallace. The two of them had been sightseeing in Rome. ”It's nice to see where Lennox lives,” she said. Were those tears in her eyes? Dallace laid his hand on her shoulder. ”Now now,” he said. ”It's time that we leave, my wife and I,” he said to me. ”You do not belong with us, in Venice, and we have no right to take you back, Halsey. You belong here now.” Quite to my shame it had been a while since I had even thought of their son; or of the four of us together. I was wrapped up in all of this; of being a Wiccan.

”You are discovering who you are,” said Dallace, as if he could read it in me, and forgave me. ”Undergoing your own special agones.”