Black dawn (30 page)
"I do know,"
Aradia
said. "And that's the amazing
thing." She squeezed Maggie's hand. "Whatever happens, I'll never forget you. And neither will the
other witches, if I have anything to say about it."
Maggie gulped. She didn't want to get started
crying. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to stop.
Fortunately Jeanne was looking back and forth
between them like someone at a tennis match.
"What's all this sappy stuff?" she demanded. "What
are
you guys talking
about?"
Maggie told her. Not just about
Aradia
being Maiden of the witches, but about everything she'd
learned from listening to Hunter
Redfern
and
Sylvia.
"So the witches have left the Night World,"
Ara
dia
said quietly, when she was finished. "They were
about ready to when I left."
"You were coming here to talk to
gie said.
Aradia
nodded. "We heard that Hunter had gotten some lead about the next Wild Power. And we
knew he wasn't going
to
take any chances on letting Circle Daybreak get hold of this one."
Jeanne was rubbing her forehead. "What's Circle Daybreak?
'It's the last circle of witches-but it isn't just
witches. It's for humans, too, and for
shapeshifters
and vampires who want to live in peace with hu
mans. And now it's for everybody who opposes the
darkness." She thought a moment and added, "I used to belong to Circle Twilight, the ...
not-
so
wicked
witches." She smiled,
then
it faded. "But
now there are really only two sides to choose from.
It's the Daylight
or
the Darkness, and that's all."
"
Maggie said, feeling the ache in her chest tighten.
"He's just-confused. He'd join you if he didn't
think it meant me getting killed."
Aradia
squeezed her hand again. "I believe you,"
she said gently.
"So, you're some kind of bigwig of the witches,
huh?" Jeanne said.
Aradia
turned toward her and laughed. "I'm their
Maiden, the representative of the young witches. If I live long enough, I'll be their Mother one day, and then their Crone."
"What
fun.
But with all that, you still can't think
of any way to get us out of here?"
Aradia
sobered. "I can't. I'm sorry. If-this isn't
much use, but if I can do anything, it's only to give
a prophecy."
Maggie made an involuntary noise in her throat.
"It came while I was asleep in the healers hut,"
Aradia
said apologetically. "And it was just a
thought, a concept. That if there was to be any help
in this valley, it was through appealing to people's true hearts."
Jeanne made a much louder and ruder noise
than Maggie's.
"There is one more thing,"
Aradia
said, turning
her wide unfocused eyes toward Maggie and speak
ing
as gently as
ever. "I should have mentioned this
earlier. I can tell you about your brother."
CHAPTER
18
Maggie stared at her wildly.
"You
...
what?"
"I should
have told you earlier,"
Aradia
said. "But
I didn't realize he was your brother until my mind
became clearer. You're a lot alike, but I couldn't
think properly to put it together." She added,
quickly and with terrible gentleness, "But, Maggie,
I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't think
there's much chance he's all right."
Maggie went still. "Tell me."
"He actually saved me before you ever did. I was
coming to this valley, but I wasn't alone-there
were several other witches with me. We didn't
know where the pass was exactly-we'd only man
aged to get incomplete information from our spies
in Hunter
Redfern's
household."
Maggie controlled her breathing and nodded.
"It was
Samhain
evening-Halloween. We were
wandering around in the general area of the pass,
trying to find a spell that would reveal it. All we
did was set off an avalanche."
Maggie stopped breathing entirely.
"An avalanche?"
"It didn't hurt your brother. He was on the road,
the place we should have been, if we'd only known.
But it did kill the others in my party."
"Oh,"
Maggie whispered. "Oh, I'm sorry
.
..
"
"I wasn't seriously hurt, but I was completely dazed. I could feel that the others were dead, but
I wasn't sure where I was anymore. And that was
when I heard your brother shouting. He and Sylvia
had heard the avalanche, of course, and they came
to see if anyone was caught in it."
"Miles would always stop to help people," Maggie
said, still almost in a whisper.
"Even if they only
needed batteries or socks or things."
"I can't tell you how grateful I was to hear him.
He saved my life, I'm sure-I would have wandered around dazed until I froze. And I was so happy to
recognize that the girl with him was a witch
...
"
She
grimaced.
"Huh," Jeanne said, but not unsympathetically.
"I bet that didn't last."
"She recognized me, too, immediately,"
Aradia
said. "She knew what she had.
A hostage to bargain
with all the other witches.
And to buy credit with
Hunter
Redfern
.
And of course, she knew that she
could stop me from seeing
"All she cares about is power," Maggie said quietly. "I heard her
talking-it's
all about her, and how the witches have given her a bad deal because
she's not a Harman or something."
Aradia
smiled very faintly. "I'm not a Harman by
name, either. But all true witches are daughters of
Hellewise
Hearth-Woman-if they would just real
ize it." She shook her head slightly. "Sylvia was so
excited about finding me that she couldn't resist explaining it all to your brother. And he . . . wasn't happy."
"No," Maggie said, burning with such fierce pride that for a moment the cold cell seemed warm to her.
"She'd only told him before that she was taking him to some secret place where legends were still
alive. But now she told him the truth about the
part of it. She told him that it could be
theirs
their
own private haven-after
Hunter
Redfern
. He could become a vampire or
shapeshifter
, whichever he liked better. They would
both be part of the Night World, and they could
rule here without any interference."
Maggie lifted her hands helplessly, waving them
in agitation because she couldn't find words. How stupid could Sylvia be? Didn't she know Miles at
all?
"Miles wouldn't care about any of that," she fi
nally got out in a choked voice.
"He didn't. He told her so. And I knew right away
that he was in trouble with her."
Aradia
sighed.
"But there was nothing I could do. Sylvia played it very cool until they got me down the mountain.
She pretended all she cared about was getting me
to a doctor and telling the rangers about my
friends. But once we were in her apartment, everything changed."
"I remember her apartment," Maggie said slowly.
"The people there were weird."
"They were Night People,"
Aradia
said.
"And Syl
via's friends.
As soon as we were inside she told
them what to do. I was trying to explain to Miles,
to see if we both could get away, but there were
too many of them. He put himself in between me
and them, Maggie. He said they'd have to kill him
before getting to me."
Maggie's chest felt not so much tight now as
swollen, like a drum barrel full of water. She could
feel her heart thudding slowly inside, and the way
it echoed all through her.
She steadied her voice and said, "Did they kill
him?"
"No. Not then. And maybe not ever-but that's
the part that I don't know. All I know is that they
knocked him out, and then the two slave traders
arrived.
Sylvia had sent for them."
And they must have come fresh from kidnapping
P.J., Maggie thought. What wonderful guys.
"They knocked
me
out. And then Sylvia bound
me with spells and practiced with her truth potions
on me. She didn't get much information, because
I didn't
have
much information. There was no army
of witches coming to invade the
that I was coming to see
Aradia
sighed again and finished quickly. "The
truth potion poisoned me, so that for days after
wards I was delirious. I couldn't really understand
what was going on around me -I just faded in and
out. I knew that I was being kept
in
a warehouse
until the weather cleared enough to take me to the
valley. And I knew that Miles had already been dis
posed of-Sylvia mentioned that before she left me
in the warehouse. But I didn't know what she had
done with him-and I still
don't."
Maggie swallowed. Her heart was still thumping in that slow, heavy way. "What I don't understand
is why she had to set up a whole scenario to explain
where he went. She let some rangers find her on
the mountain, and she said that he fell down a
crevasse. But if he was dead, why not just let him
disappear?"
"I think I know the answer to that, at least,"
Ara
dia
said. "When Miles was fighting them off he said
that his roommates knew he'd gone climbing with
her. He said that if he didn't come back, they'd
remember that."
Yes. It made sense. Everything made sense-ex
cept that Maggie still didn't know what had become
of him.
There was a long silence.
`"Well, he was brave," Jeanne said finally, and
with unexpected seriousness. "If he did die, he went
out the right way. We just ought to hope we can
do the same."
Maggie glanced at her, trying to read the angular
features in the darkness. There was no trace of
mockery or sarcasm that she could see.
Well, Cady's changed into
Aradia
, Maiden of all
the witches, and I've changed into the
Deliverer
not
that I've been much good at it, she thought. But I think maybe you've changed the most after
all, Jeanne
"You know, I don't even know your last name,"
she
said to Jeanne, so abruptly and so much off
the subject that Jeanne reared back a little.
"Uh-McCartney.
It was-it is---McCartney." She
added, "I was fourteen when they got me. I was at the mall playing Fist of Death at the arcade. And I
went to go to the bathroom, and it was down this
long empty corridor, and the next thing I knew I
was waking up in a slave trader's cart. And now
you know everything," she said.
Maggie put out a hand in the dimness, "Hi,
Jeanne McCartney." She felt the cold grip of slen
der, callused fingers, and she shook Jeanne's hand.
And then she just held on to it, and to
Aradia's
soft
warm fingers on the other side. The three of them
sat together in the dark cell, slave, human, and
witch Maiden-except that we're really all just girls,
Maggie thought.