Part 25 (2/2)

Time moved like sludge, when it used to flop out of the taps in my old apartment building. The clawfooted tub reminded me of Lennox. I wanted to wallow in memories of him but I couldn't afford to right now. Lux was going to be showing me what dark aether looked like today, and I couldn't miss it. I got out of my bed and got dressed. Lia was already at breakfast when I got there. I was piling my tray up with foodcalf's liver and sauteed onionswhen I turned and saw Ballard. He had a Succo del Gatto in his hand. It was thanks to the werewolves no doubt that our menu had become, shall we say, more K-9-friendly. Ballard's dog's body looked tired, careworn. ”I suppose I would s.h.i.+rk my responsibilities, too, if I thought I was special,” he said to one of the betas, whose name I didn't remember. Ballard moved on as if he hadn't seen me.

I told Lia about it but she told me not to think about it.

”It's my brother's misfortune that he considers himself the only important person in the world. We need to concentrate on us now. Otherwise, we'll get left behind.”

”So have you decided on your House, Lia?”

”I dunno,” she said. She dug through her robes. I saw some of the same brochures I had received. And some other ones. ”This one says they have an excellent library full of arcana, but I've always felt pulling your face out of a book to be more beneficial when it comes to deflecting a whammy or some other curse, don't you? I don't want to suffer the effects of the kibosh just because my eyes don't work anymore because of all the books I've been reading, you know what I mean?”

”I guess,” I said. ”What about that one?”

”Ravenseal,” she said, handing it to me.

I flipped through it. It showed lots of pictures of Prague. And was that?

”The Districts of Magic,” said Lia.

It was an alcove of the oldest Magical city.

”Entirely magical population,” she said.

It looked like a combination of algae-infested stone masonry, and dark forbidding alleyways. That was where the Vampire Hunters and other monsters lived. ”And also,” said Lia, when I told her this, ”it's where the House of Houses resides. And I don't mean Ravenseal.”

I looked at her questioningly.

”Honestly, you need to read more,” she said, which I thought was contradictory. ”Ravenseal isn't the be-all and end-all. They're just a House. One of hundreds, maybe even thousands. It is this House,” she said, taking the brochure and flipping through it to one of the pages, and tapping the picture, ”that is the Master House. The one beholden to none. They don't recruit anyone.”

I looked.

”Apparently the twins are from it,” said Lia.

A huge and ancient edifice soared above the rest of the Districts of Magic, there in Prague. Its golden dome flashed in the non-existent sun. The Master House.

”Everybody wants to go there. Including Veruschka Ravenseal. Or so I've heard,” said Lia. ”All the Mistresses are jealous of her, because apparently her time is coming; she's going to be made a member. The Master House will select her; it's apparently an opportunity that cannot be refused.”

Lia petered out. ”Is that where you want to go?” I asked her.

But Lia had dropped her fork in her fegato alla Roma, and was trying to fish it out.

”I can't even eat like a werewolf anymore,” she said. ”Where do I want to go? I want to go here. To Rome. I don't want to go someplace else. This is my home, Halsey. Besides, I would miss Gaven too much.”

Lia got this faraway look in her eyes ”We're supposed to be married soon,” she said. ”He asked, did I tell you? I can't wait to go on our honeymoon....”

I had lost Lia. I continued to look at the Ravenseal brochure, but really I was thinking about something else.

It didn't escape me that certain marks (X-amount out of such-and-such) had been awarded to the Initiates, based upon their performances at the Wiccaning, and the marks had been posted for others to seejust not us; and just not our Marks, but our futures were in the balance. Who would go where was more important than anything else.

Lux snapped his fingertips like a pair of dull flints, trying to spark a blaze; finally he seemed satisfied because his band of Virtuosity glowed brilliantly, and he said, ”I can only show it to you. I don't go there myself. Unless in a moment of absolute need.”

The aether, he meantthe bad kind.

”It really is much easier if we all form a circle,” he said.

So, with Lux directing us, the other Neophytes and I formed a circle, linking our hands; it was just my luck I had Vittoria for this handfast, gripping my palm with her own, sweaty one. Lia was on my other side.

”Your hand feels like a dead fish, V.”

”If you say so, H.”

”Ladies...” Lux closed his eyes. I could see something curl down from his delta, but if he whispered magic words or only thought them, I couldn't tell. Next second my eyes were closing and it was like we were being linked, the other Initiates and I.

Everyone was pus.h.i.+ng everyone, except it was all in our heads.

When Lux spoke, it echoed in that distant, internal-external, near-far, weirdo wacko way, which meant that we were all talking to each other without speaking, using only our minds to communicate. I also had a sense like I was in a vast mansion with hundreds of locked doors, and also, huge, open, breezy places; the places the Initiates did and did not want others to see.

”That is why we are called Houses,” said Lux, eliciting a number of oohs and ahs from the excitable Neophytes. Any kind of secret explanation for anything to do with magic sent a thrill down my back. ”And, really, why twelve is all we can ever be. Any more and it doesn't become a House, so much as a train station.”

”Choo choo...” said someone.

The other Neophytes and I spent a few minutes running in and out of each other's bedrooms. All good-naturedly. Then Lux said: ”Let me show you one of the bas.e.m.e.nts.”

I saw it. Like a dark nebulous cloud. When I went to reach for it, I could not touch it.

”That is the aether. The dark aether,” said Lux. ”Some of you may have experienced it during your Wiccanings.”

I went for it.

”Selwyn had it,” I said.

Somewhere I could feel two people's hands in my own, but it was really far away.

”He used it to hide from me. I couldn't get through it,” I said.

”We all have a little dark aether,” said Lux.

”You said the Mark is positive aether. Can it not reside in the body where the dark aether is?”

”A trenchant and profound question-slash-observation, Vittoria, of soon-to-be-Ravenseal,” said Lux. ”You may think about studying Marks at some later date. To answer your question, I don't know. Maybe.”

”Veruschka said there were some places she couldn't go, when she was in my mind. Was this what she meant by that?” Vittoria continued.

”Yes,” said Lux.

I didn't tell them that this must've been what Maria had seen in me, when she said I had dark powers lurking there. The negative aether.

<script>