Page 10 (2/2)
"We did a job this afternoon," Bri said, shaking her clasped hands over her head like a boxer "An astral job, a real big job We killed LeShan"
"I met her on the stairs She said she had to see you," Tony’s friend said Rob, Lewis, and Anna were sitting in the tiny one-room apartment Rob peered
behind Tony’s friend at the person who had to see theirl said She had clusters of curly yellow hair and the profile of a Grecian maiden Despite the yellow hair, her complexion was olive and her eyes almond-shaped like Lewis’s She was very pretty
And familiar "I know you," Rob said "You were- you ith the Fellowship"
"Tairl-Ta to smile, but it didn’t work The s of her lips, then her head went down and she started to cry
Frouys later," and left hurriedly
"What is it?" Rob was trying to lead the girl to a chair His initial excite her had deflated like a pricked balloon He’d thought the Fellowship had sent soirl choked out, as if she could hear his thought-and probably she could The Fellowship were all psychics "LeShan sent me"
"Then what’s the entle hand on Ta was the o Then I felt it I felt hiled with shock He had to s hard "Are you sure?"
"I felt it We thought we’d be safe from them on our new island But they must have found him I felt him die"
She’s really upset, Lewis said silently
She was, Rob thought Not just upset but helpless- the way the people of the Fellowship tended to be when they didn’t have a leader He didn’t send the thought to Lewis because he had the feeling Tamsin could hear
"And now I don’t knohat to do," Ta to tell ot here I came all this way and I can’t help you at all"
Rob looked at Anna, as if heto say in her face Anna was so wise But Anna’s gaze, dark and liquid with tears, held his only a ry with himself, Rob put an ar is dead, too," Tamsin whispered "She died on the way to the island There’s no help anywhere, no hope!"
Kaitlyn sat on Lydia’s bed with the black dress on her lap She had been reaching for it, glad that she’d brought it and that it had hung out with no wrinkles, when Bri had told her
Now she just sat She didn’t need to ask Bri any questions She knew the whole truth
Queen Charlotte Islands That3s what the map had said In Canada That one when they’d left Vancouver Island Bri had dowsed for them with that map
And Jackal Mac had checked the furnace out So Kaitlyn knew because she had a picture of it-a picture of a fireball, of a furnace exploding And a athered around the crystal this evening and sent out their astral forone to the Queen Charlotte Islands and then Renny had used his PK
The Passion
Oh, LeShan Kaitlyn twisted the chiffon of the black dress between brutal fingers I liked you I really liked you You were arrogant and angry and impatient and I really, really liked you You were alive
Cara hair that see brown And a spirit that burned like o and celebrate No way to get out of it They would know if she tried toto be one of the very brittle, very light, and unstable, Kait went over to the mirror She pulled off the towel and her clothes and put on the black dress She began to h her wet hair, when she suddenly realized soht, with her long hair falling about her shoulders, drying just enough to be a halo of red, with the black dress and her bare feet and the pallor of her face
I do I look extre down the street like this, barefoot, hair wild in the breeze, singing strange songs, and all the people peeping out at me from behind their curtains
The fitted spandex bodice did make her look slim as a statue, and the sheer chiffon skirt swirled from hip toIt was a new sense of her own competence, of determination
Anybody who looks this witchy must be able to call
down a curse And that’s what I’ to do Soe your death I pro outside Lydia was opening the door apologetically
"I just heard," she said She looked as hangdog and slinking as Kaitlyn had ever seen her, but also bitterly satisfied, as if she’d been proved right "I told you my father would win He always does You were smart to come in on this side, Kait"
"Could I borrow a pair of nylons?" Kaitlyn asked
Mr Z was in the living room when they all came downstairs Kaitlyn supposed he’d been in the hidden rooave Kaitlyn a courtly nod as she walked toward him in a pair of shoes borrowed froe joy He knew she was hurting and he liked that
"Have a good ti to give him the satisfaction
Gabriel was there, too, handso eyes on him He didn’t look disturbed over LeShan’s death-but then he had no reason to like the Fellowship Their philosophy said they couldn’t open their doors to anyone who’d taken a human lifeno matter what the circumstances
Because Gabriel had killed by accident and in self-defense, they refused to let him in So now Gabriel wasn’t upset
Everyone else was delirious with happiness
Mr Z saw them off, and they took two cars Kait rode in Lydia’s car with Bri and Renny Joyce took Gabriel, Frost, and Jackal Mac Kait spent the drive plotting how to make them all pay-Gabriel, too
The club was called Dark Carnival Kaitlyn stoppedshe’d ever seen before
There was a line of people waiting to get in the door People wearing everything Uniinable outfits
They looked bizarre and more than a little scary
Traffic stopped the car for a while near the door and Kaitlyn was able to watch as going on A doorkeeper with a lip-ring and a Liverpool accent was saying who could get in io holittery lipstick and silver aluown of black spiderweb A chic Italian-looking girl in a white unitard and black velvet shorts-very short
"He keeps out people who aren’t cool enough," Bri said in Kaitlyn’s ear, leaning heavily on her back
"You have to be either famous or completely beautiful or-"
Or dressed like a cross between a Busby Berkeley show and soht
"So how are we going to get in?" she asked quietly
She atching the losers-the people who couldn’t get in The nor outside behind cords, soot invitations," Lydia said in a dead voice "My father has connections"
She was right The doorkeeper let thehts, and colored lights, all flashing in an at but the flashing rainbow
Thebeat that people had to shout over On the dance floor a girl with long shiny hair was kicking high over her head
"Isn’t it great?" Bri yelled
Kaitlyn didn’t knohat it was Loud Weird Exciting, if you were in the oing to avenge you, LeShan I pro toward the dance floor Jackal Mac, the lights reflecting on his head, was giving an order to a scantily clad cocktail waitress
Where was Gabriel?
Bri had disappeared Kait was surrounded by people ings, people dressed in cellophane, people with spikes for fingernails Everywhere she looked were falls of Day-Glo hair Enor eyebrows No eyebrows Pierced bodies
If she hadn’t been so cold with anger over LeShan, Kaitlyncould touch her A man in a leopard-skin unitard and a mask beckoned her to dance and she followed hi, except what she’d done at ho
It was too loud to talk, and she didn’t really care what the leopard-ht of her-so it was the perfect opportunity to ain
And that was how she solved the mystery of the combination lock
It wasn’t like in books, where the faithful sidekick makes some offhand remark and then the famous detective sees all There was no particular reason why
it cao back to her probleet the coht, "Butwas a real prophecy What about the other?"
And then the other thought was si itself in her ht numbers?
Well, Christmas had a number, of course A date Dece the twenty-fifth of December
The dark room rocked under Kaitlyn’s feet The leopard-skinaway, but she didn’t care She backed up to a railing, her eyes on the flashing lights
She was tre to follow this new idea to the end, like a spark running down a line of powder
The ship The ship is another number And what number? It could be the nues it made Or a date, a date when the ship sailed-but what kind of ship is it?
Aopened in her stomach and she felt holloith dis would it take to research, to speculate?
No, stop Don’t panic The picture was drawn by your unconscious, so it can’t be much smarter than you are It couldn’t take a date and make it into a ship if you didn’t know the date and ship already
But I’ued back Rotten in history I only know the simplest dates-like "In fourteen hundred ninety-two "
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
That sparkly, curly blue ocean Three colors of blue Draith an excess of care
She’d found the answer