(6) Alors on Danse
Riley wasn’t able to stalk her way to the temple. Instead, she joined the thin but steady stream of people filing in. Once inside she pushed her way through the growing crowd and to the stairs that led up to the Magic Keeper’s office. She stopped to look around. Still no sign of Saint anywhere. She gave one last stomp of defiance and made her way up the stairs.
To Carter’s new inarguably incredible office. Impossibly high fourteen-foot ceilings accommodated the impossibly high built-in shelves. All to house hundreds and hundreds of reference books. Hillcross was home to the second largest poetry collection in the region partly due to there just being so much magic in the area. A massive wooden desk sat on one side and then along the right-side wall was the stained-glass window.
The window was an intricate recreation of the night sky during the biggest festival. An array of stars, planets, and other unknown celestial bodies. All set in a dark blue glass that could make it feel like night and day at the same time.
Riley looked out through the window over the courtyard, and the house. She didn’t need to ask if Carter knew. Or how Carter was going to deal with it. All of those questions were answered by the work Carter did sitting at the desk.
As was everything else, it was complicated. Weird magic happened all the time. It came and went like the flowers in spring, and the snow in winter. Earlier that year a woman who played the flute for a living, one day couldn’t stop. As if possessed she kept playing. The town was filled with the most beautiful music even after her hands started bleeding.
Victoria went first to the archives as she always did. She and the children searched through the day and night for any information. She had tea with the family. She arranged for the woman to be fed. And she didn’t once suggest the ritual. Eventually they found the correct herb in a poem in the archives. The music stopped and she never went near an instrument again.
The last resort to any magical problem was to elect townspeople to go and solve it. It was a binding contract, for the lower classes, payment for the safety of living in the stability of Hillcross. One that most were glad was rarely required.
It had been three years since Victoria had performed the ritual. They needed a lot of people to quickly build a pen and proper signage around a particularly dangerous invasive playground species. But all the Bonner children had helped prepare it at some point.
Saint and Riley had always loved it. Tearing the special paper along the little lines and dropping it into the chamber. Hands and face covered in flint and graphite dust. Riley still stood looking out the window at the creepy house.
At her desk Carter joylessly prepared the ritual. Mindlessly tearing it down and stuffing it in. She didn’t acknowledge Riley in any way. Riley worked her lips, took a deep breath and spoke. “Saint is letting people know and sending them to the temple.”
Carter answered, “Good.”
Riley was overly heartened by Carter’s one word answer.
“Have you even looked in the archives for anything?”
Carter didn’t answer. Riley continued. “And you are going to send our people to go fight it instead of hide like the poem told us.”
“That is the protocol. Last night you wanted me to take the poem seriously so I am taking it seriously.”
“You don’t have any information to give whoever gets elected. You need help finding information in these books.”
“And you can let Saint know when he gets to the temple that I would very much like his help with that.”
Riley took that like a slap to the face. “So, you are saying I’m banned from the archives.”
“I am saying I don’t want your help.”
“One day everyone is going to see how petty you are.”
When there was no response Riley continued to argue with the wind. “Your ego is going to get people killed.”
Still nothing, although what could she expect now. What could she or Saint have expected sending her here at all. This was always going to be a fruitless tree.
Propriety and desire ran a race across Riley’s face and desire won.
She spat out, “Mom knew you weren’t ready.”
And then she fled before she had to find out what came next. She certainly hadn’t won anything with her dig. Carter still had all the power and no one was going to listen to Riley. But that didn’t stop her from smirking as she went back down the stairs.
Her self-satisfaction faded quickly at the sight downstairs. On a normal day the temple was beautiful. More impossibly high vaulted ceilings. Statues everywhere and everything was gilded. Framed poetry on the walls and who knew how old it was. It was decently sized and perfect for casual visits and worship throughout the day.
This was something different. The temple was not built for this. Big festivals took place outside in the courtyard with tents and infrastructure. Riley was greeted with more than a hundred people squeezed in tight. Over half the town. There was barely any room to move.
Worse everyone was still bundled up from the freezing cold outside. Now pressed shoulder to shoulder together they had begun to sweat. There were some venting windows high up in the ceiling that normally handled the job, but again, for this they were not enough. It was quickly becoming unbearable in both temperature and stench. Included in that was the smell of intense stress from whatever Saint had been telling everyone.
She probably could have found out as her brother tried to get her attention from across the room. But just as Carter had ignored Riley so did Riley pass on that favor.
One of Riley’s old school friends, Bliss, was tucked into a wall nook nearby. With her usual confidence she managed to work her way over. Riley seemed relieved for the distraction. And if there was one thing Bliss always had available in abundance it was distraction.
Tall, with a beautiful carved face and wild curly hair in a halo around her head. Bliss was unmissable in any crowd. She was also the only child of the Marquis Roarke and a truly dedicated underachiever.
Marquis Roarke was the bureaucratic version of the Magic Keeper, and he was exactly as boring as the job required. Unlike the Bonners who had three children prepared to do almost anything to have their mother’s position, the Roarke’s only had Bliss. And Bliss would have rather thrown herself off something very tall than take over her father’s job. It was one of the many reasons that the Marquis seemed perpetually ill at ease.
She greeted Riley with as broadly open arms as the crowd allowed. “Hello my good lady! How are you on this day?”
Riley blinked her eyes a few times and stared at her friend in astonishment.
“Bliss. Do you know why we are here?”
Bliss gesticulated wildly as she answered. “You know only vaguely? I heard something about a house. I was throwing some pottery, then I smoked some weed and then I was told to come here. That’s about as far as I got.”
Riley’s eyes perked up, “You don’t have that with you?”
Bliss cupped Riley’s face with her hands and answered with a most regretful face. “No, my dove. Why? Oh, is it about your mom? Sorry about that.”
Riley cupped Bliss’s face in return. “Thanks. I wish it were just about that.”
Bliss laughed and dropped her hands to return to punctuating with them.
“Well then after whatever this is we will go smoke and you can tell me all about it. I insist.”
Riley rolled her eyes, “You know what Bliss. We are going to hide in the temple basement and smoke as much as we can.”
Bliss looked pleased. “Just like the old days!”
Carter came down the stairs to the main temple. With the crush of people Riley hadn’t made it past the doorway so the sisters were face to face for just a second. But it was enough for Bliss the shit stirrer to catch the fury on both of them.
Bliss gave it all she had with her greeting. “Hello Carter!”
Carter offered back the barest of nods. “Bliss.”
The sea of people parted to let Carter to the front. The same happened for Marquis Roarke as he entered the main temple door, flustered and already a little sweaty.
A hush fell. Bliss leaned in to ask Riley, “Oh we are going to smoke so much. Also, now I want to know. What is happening?”
Riley whispered back, “Not much. We are just going to sacrifice a few villagers to a house monster.”
Bliss slowly nodded. “Of course.”
Riley let out a laugh and then tried to cover it with a cough. Bliss looked at her out of the corner of her eye amused.
