Craft (28 page)

“Do they know you can…you know?” Ellie
finally asked.

“Do magic?” Thane asked. “No…I’m not
supposed to tell anyone.”

“Not even your best friends?” Ellie
asked.

Thane shook his head. “It brings a
whole lot of trouble when you admit to doing things like that,”
Thane said. “It’s best to keep it quiet. There’s no need to make
people reach for their pitchforks and light their witch-burning
fires.”

“I read about the witch trials,” Ellie
said. “Though I don’t think those people had real craft. They could
have just crafted the flames away…or something similar, if they had
any real talent with craft.”

“They weren’t witches,”
Thane said. “But that’s what regular people did to people who
they
thought
had
magic. Imagined what they would do to us.”

“So you have to hide it all the time?”
Ellie asked.

“Well, maybe not all the time,” Thane
said. “I mess with my teachers, and there’s this guy I hate at
school. I use craft on him sometimes. But no one can know about
it.”

“So, you’re like me then,” Ellie
decided. “I can’t ever do my crafting either, or I get in trouble
with Neveah.”

“Why?” Thane asked.

Ellie shrugged. “I dunno. She just
doesn’t like it.”

“Do you think she’s jealous?” Thane
asked.

“I think Neveah is a lot of things,”
Ellie said. “But I don’t think she’s jealous of me. She’s got
everything she could possibly want…boys, craft, violence, the
family…I’m just the girl who washes the floors.”

“Hmmm,” Thane said
noncommittally.

Thane did not agree with her
assessment of herself, but he let it lie. There was no sense trying
to convince Ellie of something she would not believe. He also
realized what she was trying to do.

“You brought up my friends in hopes
that I would want to stay at school, didn’t you?” Thane
asked.

“I was just curious…” Ellie
lied.

“You don’t want me to stay,” he
said.

“I just want you to think about what
you want before you go and make any decisions,” Ellie
said.

“I will,” Thane promised.

They drove in thoughtful silence. The
dark finally gave way to a city. It was twice the size of town. It
glittered in the dark. Streetlamps filled the night with color.
People wandered under the streetlamps, the night not deterring them
from their exploration of the city. Ellie felt her mouth drop open
in wonder. The city surpassed town in its wonder. Thane barely
registered the sights. They drove through the city and the lights
disappeared again.

Finally, Thane pulled the car off on
to the side of a small street. Caw gave a low sound of excitement
as the car finally stopped moving. Ellie opened the door and threw
him in the air. He circled above them, taking in the
sights.

Thane led Ellie across a long bridge.
A sand dune blocked the water from view, but as they reached the
end of the bridge, they were able to see the full expanse of the
water. Ellie gasped. Even in the dark, the water was magnificent.
Thane smiled at her.

“Come on, Bumbalow. It’s better up
close.”

Thane’s words released her from her
shock. Ellie ran across the sand, struggling in the shifting dunes.
Thane ran after her, trying to keep up. She stopped running at the
edge of the water. She could hear the continuous roar of the water
as it moved in and out from the beach. She could feel the spray of
the water on her legs and face. The moon rippled against the
surface of the water. There was no one else on the beach. The night
ensured it was deserted. A smile spread across Ellie’s
face.

“It’s huge!” Ellie said.

“Yep,” Thane agreed.

“This has been so close all my life,
and I never knew,” Ellie said in wonder.

“Life is funny like that,” Thane
said.

“Suppose so,” Ellie agreed.

Ellie allowed herself the couple of
steps that would bring the water to her feet. The salty, cold spray
crashed over her bare feet and then tugged on her on its way back
out to sea. Ellie giggled at the feeling.

“You should go for a swim…” Thane
said.

“I can’t swim,” Ellie admitted. “Never
been around enough water to make it necessary.”

“Oh.”

Ellie took another step forward. Her
eyes took in the water and the night sky. Her body took in the feel
of the water and the happiness at seeing it. She did not worry
about being found where she was not supposed to be. She did not
worry about getting home late. Punishment was the last thing on her
mind.

“Thank you,” Ellie said.

“For what?” Thane asked.

Ellie gestured at the water. “This.
It’s something I could have never imagined. Not ever.”

“You’re welcome,” Thane
said.

Thane plopped down in the sand, out of
reach of the tide and picked up a seashell from the ground. His
happy mood changed into a more pensive one. He stared at the
seashell for a long moment. “You’re going to be at your house all
day tomorrow, right?” Thane asked.

“Course,” Ellie said. “You know I’m
not allowed out.”

“Yet…here we are,” Thane said,
gesturing at the water.

“I'm not going anywhere,” Ellie
promised.

“Good,” Thane said.

“Why?” Ellie asked.

Thane sighed. He threw the seashell at
the sand. He picked up another one and ran his fingers over the
sharp edges.

“Connor and my dad have been
pressuring me. I have to help them do something tomorrow…and I just
want to be sure that you’re not going to be…you know.”

Ellie understood. Thane had to attack
one of her family members to placate his father. She wanted to know
which one. She wanted to be able to stop it. She knew that was
impossible. Thane would never tell her where they were going. He
had to protect his family, just like she wanted to protect
hers.

Ellie sighed and sat down next to him
in the sand. The weight of the attack was heavy on her mind. It
worked to erase the happy mood between them. Their bodies were full
of tension. All of the happiness at seeing the ocean was replaced
by fear. It was not just fear for her family. It was fear for
Thane. The confliction confused her. Ellie sighed again, feeling
tired suddenly. She put her head on Thane’s shoulder without
thinking.

“Don’t kill anyone,” she said in a
small voice.

Thane took a deep breath. “I won’t,”
he promised.

Ellie knew he would keep his
word.

Chapter 10: The Worst
Present

Ellie was almost late getting back to
her house from the beach. The dawn had already crested over the
trees when Thane dropped her off. They had set aside the feud with
their conversation, though their happiness was subdued by the
weight of the coming day’s task. Neither of them wanted Thane to
attack her family.

It was suppertime when Ellie found out
what Thane and his family had planned. There was an attack on a
group of her cousins, some of Neveah’s best crafters. They were
ambushed on the road while on their way to Ellie’s house. They
would survive the ambush, though with many scars as proof of the
encounter. Their car was another story. They would have to craft a
new one.

Ellie was pleased that Thane had kept
his word. The lack of serious injuries drew contempt from Neveah.
Neveah scorned the Coopers’ inability to craft a meaningful injury,
even as she cursed them up one side and down the other for the
attack. Although the attack had been minor, Ellie knew Neveah would
go looking for blood. The Coopers would be punished.

Thane almost did not show up for their
talk that week. He expected Ellie to be angry with him despite her
calm acceptance of the inevitable. She was angry, of course, but
she could not direct the anger his way. He had kept his promise. He
had walked a fine line between satisfying his father and not
killing her kin. Thane had not started the feud. He was just doing
his best to live within the boundaries his family had set for
him.

Ellie was mostly angry with Neveah for
continually trying to escalate the feud any way she could. Neveah
had gone searching for the people who attacked her cousins, to no
success. It would not be the end of the fight. It was almost as if
Neveah thought escalating the feud would make it go away quicker.
Ellie knew it would just make the casualties greater. Her
frustration toward Neveah’s actions dominated Ellie’s week. It made
her mood sour. Cleaning around her sisters became more of a chore
than normal.

“Are you angry?” Thane asked as soon
as Ellie stepped into the clearing.

“Yeah,” Ellie said. “But not at
you.”

“I did help attack them,” Thane
admitted. “It was my magic that blew up the car.”

“Want me to be mad at you?” Ellie
asked.

“No…of course not,” Thane said. “I
just wanted you to know the truth.”

“You didn’t kill them,” Ellie said.
“You kept your promise.”

Thane did not say anything in
response. He was not so sure he had done everything he could have.
The attack weighed heavily on him. He had used dark craft to hurt
someone who shared Ellie’s blood. It could have been Ellie. He
would not have been able to stop the attack if it had been. He
would have been forced to choose between attacking her and
attacking his family. There would have been no other
choice.

Ellie was wrapped up in the
conversation she had overheard hours before her meeting with Thane.
Neveah had talked to Cousin and Careen about how they could
maximize the damage of their next attack. The conversation had only
soured Ellie’s mood further.

“I just don’t get why Neveah can’t let
something lie,” Ellie fretted after a moment. “She’s always
one-uping somebody, as if she got something to prove. It’s always
blood for blood. She can’t just let it lie. She’s searching for
something, I just don’t know what. Maybe she just likes the
violence. She likes it more than she should.”

“My brother’s like that,” Thane
admitted. “He’s always trying to prove to my dad that he’s loyal to
the family and is good enough to run things when my dad retires.
But he can’t let his victories speak for themselves…he’s always
trying to search out a new fight.”

“Sounds like him and Neveah could
start a meeting on how to be unhappy all the time,” Ellie
said.

“The only problem is getting them into
the same building without them killing each other,” Thane
said.

“There’s that,” Ellie
agreed.

“Do you think…” Thane hesitated. The
question was not an easy one.

“I can think, in spite of being a
Bumbalow and all,” Ellie said, thinking he was teasing her about
her intelligence again.

“No! Uh, I was going to ask if you
thought Neveah loved you,” Thane said. His face was thoughtful. He
wanted to explain the question. “There are some days where I don’t
think my dad, or any of my family, really love me beyond being a
Cooper. Being loved as a Cooper isn’t the same as being loved as
Thane,” Thane explained. “None of them know me. My mom was the only
one who really knew me and she’s…well, you know.”

Ellie thought over Thane’s words. It
took her a moment to come to a decision. She was not sure it was
the right one. She hoped Neveah loved her, but hope was not the
same thing as knowing. “I reckon Neveah loves me in her own right,”
Ellie said. “Family has to love each other, right?”

“There are some days where I don’t
love my family,” Thane admitted. “I feel loyal to them. I feel like
I owe them for my life…but sometimes…I just hate the lot of
them.”

“That’s only natural,” Ellie said.
“There’s not a day I don’t contemplate putting some powerful craft
over Neveah’s and Careen’s heads, but then I realize they are the
only family I got in the world. My momma doesn’t even want to take
me with her when she travels as much as she claims to love me.
Without them, I got nobody.”

“You got yourself,” he
said.

“Sometimes that can get real lonely,”
she said.

Thane shrugged once at her words and
didn’t argue with her. He did not see loneliness the same way she
did. It was possible to be lonely in a crowded room.

Lost in her thoughts, Ellie waved her
hand at the light she had formed over their heads, and it started
dancing and shifting into odd shapes. She watched it dance for a
moment, the light reflecting in her eyes. Something else that had
made her pensive and added to her sour mood bubbled to the surface
of her mind. The last time she had mentioned the subject, Neveah
had made sure it was the worse day of her life, but, for some
reason, she wanted to tell Thane. She wanted to share it with
someone. She hoped he would be different.

“Next week’s my birthday,” Ellie
admitted as she stared at the light.

“How old are you going to be?” Thane
asked.