Sorceress' Blood (8 page)

Rebecca wasn’t feeling safe. Once she’d parked the car
and eaten, she shifted quietly in her seat and tossed her head back
and forth. She was wide awake, jumping at shadows and listening,
dreading that she might hear sirens. There were none. Eventually she
fell asleep. She woke up a couple of hours later. The sky was still
dark but there were no stars hanging over the airport. She looked
over at Ashley: She was still asleep. She closed her eyes and tried
to get comfortable again. Rebecca slept, or at least thought she
slept, for another hour. The clock read 6:22. Rebecca yawned and sat
up. Everything was still and silent. Rebecca thought of turning on
the radio but stopped herself, thinking it might wake Ashley. She
sighed, somewhere between relief and a lingering fear.

Ashley woke up a few hours later and stretched her arms over her
head.

“Where are we?”

“The airport,” Rebecca told her and then went on to
explain what they were going to do.

“China?” Ashley asked when Rebecca was finished.

“Yeah. It’ll probably be a long flight but we’ll be
safe.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Rebecca wasn’t sure at all. “Edward is
related to Lord Sebastian. He’ll take care of us just like Lord
Sebastian did. You can probably go back to learning magic.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll still be there to take care of you.”

“Okay,” Ashley said. Then Rebecca saw, for the first time
ever, Ashley smiled at her. “Let’s go to China.”

Rebecca nodded. She became aware that she was still carrying the gun
in her pocket and wondered how she’d manage to get past
security with it. She spent some time looking through the car for a
bag. There wasn’t one and she decided just to stash the gun and
the motel room keys in the glove compartment. Once again she had only
what she had in her pockets when they left Lord Sebastian’s
castle – her wallet and her own mobile phone; the battery had
gone flat by then. She took the phone she found in the car with her
and put it in her pocket next to her own. Rebecca took Ashley by the
hand and began walking through the parking lot to the airport
entrance. She was starting to feel naked. She got the feeling that
Thralls could show up anywhere and at any time and now she couldn’t
fight them at all. She was at the mercy of whatever fate would throw
at her from this point on. She walked into the airport and the cold,
conditioned air washed over her. She hoped that they could get away
safely. She just wanted to get on her plane without being stopped by
any thralls or police or security guards.

Rebecca went mechanically through the airport. She passed through
security and boarded the small white private jet with clockwork
precision. Ashley’s hand never left hers and she didn’t
smile. Despite her inhuman behaviour, she was now on the plane
waiting for it to take off and that’s all that mattered.
Rebecca looked back on it from the comfort of her seat, hardly
remembering how she'd got there from the parking lot. That wasn’t
important though. They were safe.

“I’ve never been on an aeroplane before.”

“What?” Rebecca looked over at Ashley. She was staring
out the window at the other planes taxiing around the airport.

“I said I’ve never been on an aeroplane before. Have
you?”

“No.” Rebecca looked up and scanned the plane. There was
no one else on board and she hadn’t seen or heard a peep from
the pilot. The plane sat motionless.

“Where are we going, again?”

“China.”

“Is it far?”

“Yep.” Rebecca smiled. “All the way over the
ocean.”

“How long will it take to get there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where abouts in China will we live?”

“I don’t know that, either.” Rebecca said, feeling
a little stupid.

“We’ll be safe there?”

“I’m sure we will.” Rebecca said with a smile. But
she didn’t know; that was the problem. She turned to look at
the little girl. She had n idea what was going to happen. Ashley was
still gazing out the window. Oh God, she hoped this is the end of it.
The plane jerked forward suddenly. Ashley’s skin went pale.

“Is the plane meant to do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know much, do you?”

“No.” Rebecca replied. “Ashley, I don’t know
what’s going to happen. But this plane is going to take us away
from the people who are chasing us and I’m sure we can trust
Lord Sebastian’s family. I don’t know what we’ll do
once we get to China. We just have to hope that Edward has planned
everything for us. And if he hasn't…” Rebecca paused to
collect her thoughts. At least that was the idea but the truth was
she didn’t have any thoughts. She had never before had to take
care of anyone other than herself and she never had to look after
kids. She had never worked as a babysitter and she didn’t even
have a little brother or sister that she had to look out for. Rebecca
tried to give Ashley some kind of honest, comforting answer but she
didn’t even have answers. All she had were more worries, more
fears and more questions of her own that she still couldn't answer.
“If he doesn’t, I’ll take care of us. Don’t
worry.” And that was all she had. Even though she was
struggling to get by on her own in her own country, and the thought
of being stranded in another country where no one would understand
her appalled her, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything
that might make the little girl as frightened as she was. Somehow,
that gave her confidence. She didn’t have a clue what she was
doing, but having Ashley there gave her something more than survival
to struggle for. Something inside Rebecca drove her to take care of
Ashley – even though she was a complete stranger a week ago and
even though she didn’t know her last name or even how old she
was, Rebecca knew she had to take care of her and nothing would get
in the way of that.

Ashley was quiet. She’d stopped looking out the window and now
she was looking at Rebecca. The two stared silently into each other’s
eyes.

“Alright,” Ashley said with innocent, childish simplicity
and looked out the window. Rebecca sighed and let her head rest on
the seat. The plane was moving now. Finally the pilot’s voice
came over the speakers letting the only two passengers know that they
were taking off.

Rebecca and Ashley passed the hours by talking, reading magazines and
looking out the window. At some point in the flight, they’d
lost complete track of local time, Rebecca got up and walked up and
down the aisle. Passing by a seat, she spied a pack of playing cards
tucked into the pouch on the back of it.

“Want to play cards?” Rebecca asked as she took her seat.

“I don’t know how.”

“Well there’s lots of ways to play cards. I’ll
teach you.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll teach you to play Go Fish.” Rebecca named the
first child-friendly card game that came to mind. It wasn’t
until after she’d said it that she realised she didn’t
know how to play Go Fish.

“How do you play?” Ashley asked.

“Well. First I shuffle the cards like this so they’re all
mixed up.” Rebecca felt a familiar feeling, the same feeling
she’d had when she was trying to tell Ashley a story –
the feeling of having no idea at all. “Then I deal out the
cards like this. We both get two cards to start with.” Rebecca
dealt the cards and set down the deck, then turned the top card face
up and placed it down beside the deck. “Now what we do is try
to get cards with numbers that add up to twenty-one. Can you do
that?” Ashley nodded as she looked intently at her cards,
counting the numbers one by one in her head. “We take it in
turns drawing cards until we have a number close to twenty-one. But
if you draw a card and it takes you over twenty-one, you lose. When
we’re both done drawing, we compare our cards and the one with
the highest number wins.”

“What’s that card for?” Ashley pointed to the one
Rebecca set face up.

“That one is another imaginary player called the dealer. We
have to beat it as well.”

“Why is there an imaginary player?”

“I’m not sure. But there is.” Ashley looked at
Rebecca the way you look at a crazy woman talking in tongues. “You’ll
understand once we start playing.”

“What about this card?” Ashley showed Rebecca a king.

“Oh that one is called a king. That counts as ten.”

“Okay.” Ashley went quiet and counted in her head. “So
I have eleven! Now what?”

“Eleven?” Realisation dawned on Rebecca. “What’s
your other card?” She asked. Ashley showed her the ace she was
holding.

“This one.”

“That’s called an ace. If you have an ace and a card with
a picture on it like your king then you get to say ‘Go Fish’
and you win.”

“So that’s why it’s called Go Fish?” Ashley
put down both her cards, face up.

“Right. That ace card is worth either one or eleven. Whichever
you like. So your ace and your king is worth twenty-one. That means
you win this hand.”

“Can we play again?” Ashley’s lip curled slightly
into a smile for a second. Just as quickly it was gone again. Rebecca
noticed it though, and instantly that contagious smile spread to her.
Rebecca had only seen Ashley smile a few times. They were still
small, few and rare but they were smiles, alright. A brief sign of
happiness. Neither of them knew what was coming but right now they
were out of reach of the world. They were drifting easily through
clear blue skies with no trouble in sight. Somewhere off in the
distance were new dangers and the threat of the unknown but for now
everything was okay. They were just two girls playing cards.

Rebecca dealt again. She walked Ashley through the steps. This time
they got further and Ashley learned how to get cards if she didn’t
start with twenty-one. Then she won again. Ashley won twice more,
despite not really understanding the game. When she finally lost, it
was because she went bust after drawing another card when she had
eighteen. Then she won another game. Rebecca was amazed by the little
girl’s luck and it crossed her mind that Ashley may be
magically altering the cards. But more likely, she was just lucky.

“When you’re eighteen I have to take you to a casino.
We’ll be rich by the end of the night,” Rebecca said
offhand as she dealt the cards again. Ashley smiled. It was a hopeful
smile. The biggest she'd smiled, yet. Rebecca didn't see it.

Eventually they got hungry and Rebecca began rummaging through
shelves and cabinets at the front of the plane. She found some
pre-packaged sandwiches and chocolate bars. The chocolate was old and
the sandwiches were stale but they still came as no less a relief.

By the end of dinner, the sky outside their window was dark. Ashley
yawned and settled down to sleep while Rebecca flicked through a
magazine to pass the time until sleep found her. The magazine was
ancient, full of gossip that had been news months ago. Between pages
she glanced over at Ashley, just to make sure she was still there.
Sitting there, seeing Ashley like that, Rebecca's mind began to
wander. She began to think of things she hadn't thought about in a
long time. They were things she never thought of willingly and now
those tragic memories were forcing their way to the surface. How many
years had it been? Not a decade yet but almost. Rebecca closed her
eyes, forcing the tears back. In the splotchy darkness behind her
eye-lids, images began to form. She could still smell the
overwhelming smell of garlic and fresh lasagne. She was in the last
year of her apprenticeship and she had worked her way to the top. She
was Riccardo's star pupil, following him from the little Italian
restaurant on Mary Street - what was it called? - to that big, fancy
coastal resort. Life was good. She was happy. She was an idiot.

The smell of garlic began to fade. Now, in her mind, in the deepest
pit where she had tried to banish those regrettable memories, she
could hear Riccardo's voice the first time he asked her if she had
put on weight. She had put on weight. She was putting on weight
fast,, the weight of his child growing. Rebecca was sure it would be
okay. She couldn't imagine a stupider optimism now but back then, way
back then, she was one happy little idiot. Yet, at the same time, she
was afraid. She didn't know how to tell him and each awkward attempt
to bring it up ended disastrously. Then, before she knew it, she had
waited too long. She couldn't hide it and even if she had known what
was to come, she couldn't end it.

But he could. Riccardo ended it without a second thought. Rebecca was
heartbroken – not the first time or the last time she'd know
that feeling. The very worst thing was that she had this child and
she had no idea what to do with it. The doctors told her they'd never
seen a woman deal with labour pains so well. That was nothing. That
didn't even register compared to the pain of looking at this little
girl, not even aware of where it was or what was going on, and
knowing that it had to go. By then Riccardo was long gone and she had
been handed off to somebody else for the last few months of her
apprenticeship. Not that it mattered. He had no interest in Rebecca
or the girl.

That was that. Rebecca could count on one hand the amount of times
she saw that little girl before she became a social worker's problem.
A ward of the state until further notice. When she'd gotten her life
back on track, Rebecca did think of trying to find her but she knew
that no good end would come from that. There was no way she could
face that little girl any more than she could face her own guilt for
what had happened. Some things, Rebecca decided, were best left
buried deep and abandoned until, somehow, the wounds scabbed over and
faded into the barely noticeable scars that everybody has somewhere.

Rebecca and Ashley had fallen asleep when the plane began its descent
into China. The Beijing airport lay before them, under the dark
clouds of autumn and a thicker layer of smog. Rebecca thought, with
some regret, that the city was a foreboding sight to wake up to and
one that rushed towards their plane all too quickly. The cabin lights
hadn’t woken Ashley yet but the sounds of the plane’s
descent soon would. Rebecca stretched her arms above her head and
yawned.
China
. She wasn’t fully aware whether she was
talking or thinking. The mysterious Far East. Next stop: Edward’s
castle. And if they were real lucky they might just have the luxury
of not being run over or shot or set on fire before they get there.
God, this place looked awful. Were they going to be living here? She
hoped not. She hoped it was somewhere far away in a distant corner of
China where no one would find them. Rebecca closed her eyes and let
her head rest against her seat again. All that thinking and looking
out the window was just too much effort and there must have been
something else to concentrate on. Something simple? Anything? Yes,
there was. There was a deep, black pool of unconscious, calling for
her. Rebecca obliged. She didn't dream.