18. The Mansions of Bellevue
1482 Words
18
The Mansions of Bellevue
The bus pulled onto the long bridge that would lead them to Aquidneck Island. The leaves shone orange and gold in the bright sunlight. Jacob looked down at Emilia sleeping peacefully on his shoulder. He wanted to keep watching her sleep, but he couldn’t let her miss this view.
“Emi,” he whispered, rubbing her arm. “Wake up.”
Jacob pointed out the window, and Emilia’s sleepy eyes followed. The water glistened, and Emilia smiled.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “Are we there?”
“Soon,” Jacob said.
The other passengers were beginning to gather their things.
“Good.” Emilia nodded. “I want to get this over with.” She ran a hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face, before starting to chew on her bottom lip.
“Don’t be nervous,” Jacob said, trying not to smile. She only ever chewed her lip when she was nervous. “The Hag will see us. We’ll make her.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.” Emilia leaned in to whisper to him. “My whole life, all I’ve heard is how dangerous she is. And now we’re going to walk up to her house and ask for a favor. If anyone finds out…”
Jacob wrapped his arm around her. “No one will ever know.”
“But if they do―”
“They won’t.” Jacob brushed back the veil of black hair that hid Emilia’s face.
“But if they do, they’ll bind our powers. Jacob, they’ll make us human.”
“Don’t worry,” Jacob said, looking back out the window as the bus pulled into town, “I lived as a human for most of my life. It’s not that bad. I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Emilia smacked his chest and chuckled. “You won’t leave me alone?” she said, her voice soft but serious. “I don’t think I could live like that alone. Promise me.”
Jacob pulled her closer. “I promise. Whatever happens, we’re in this together.”
Emilia laid her head on his shoulder as the bus pulled into the station.
This place was as different as possible from Carlisle. The bus station was clean and bright, right near the shining water. Shops and restaurants lined the wharf, and a line of cabs sat outside the station.
“Shall we?” Jacob gestured to the cabs. Emilia nodded, and they climbed into the nearest yellow car.
“Where to?” the driver asked cheerfully.
“We’d like to go to the mansion on Bellevue,” Jacob said.
“You need to be a little more specific,” the driver said. “Bellevue is full of mansions.”
“Right,” Emilia said. “Can you take us to where the mansions start, then?”
“Can do,” the driver said. “But if you don’t know which one you’re looking for, you better be ready to do a whole lot of walking.”
The town was packed full of tourists. It took more time for the driver to wind through the crowds than to drive the short distance to Bellevue Avenue.
“Here you go.” The man stopped in front of a huge house made of stone.
Sweeping steps led out of the mansion and onto the manicured lawn. Sculpted hedges grew throughout the grounds. Everything was perfectly placed.
Emilia paid the man, and he handed her a card in return. “Call if you get tired of walking.”
“Thanks.” Emilia pushed the card into her pocket.
“Now what?” Jacob asked, gazing down the tree-lined street.
People bustled past them in groups being led from one house to another, touring the great mansions. The street stretched in front of them and twisted out of view. There could be hundreds of houses on Bellevue, assuming Marshal had even told them the right street.
“Should we go door to door?” Jacob pictured them walking up to each of the elaborate front doors, knocking, and asking if a magical Hag lived there.
“We start walking and hope the Hag has enough magic for us to be able to notice.” Emilia slipped her arm through Jacob’s and led him down the street. To anyone else they would have looked like two teenagers on a date, not two wizards trying to find a Hag.
When Jacob had moved to the Mansion House, he thought that was as big as houses came. He was wrong. Even though the Mansion House had more space than he could ever imagine using, it was small compared to these homes. If you could even call something the size of a palace a home.
Walking past each of the mansions was surreal, like something out of a fairy tale that didn’t belong in a world with cars and tourists. The houses had massive grounds to match their grandeur, with gardens full of flowers and fountains. On one side of the street, the houses backed right up to the ocean.
Emilia pulled Jacob across the street to walk closer to those estates.
“Do you feel something?” Jacob asked as Emilia paused in front of one of the smaller mansions. A grand weeping willow covered the front of the house, its tendrils swaying in the breeze.
“No.” Emilia shook her head. “It’s just that Aunt Iz would love that tree.”
Jacob wrapped his arm around Emilia’s waist. “We don’t have to do this. We could find another way. Get Claire a computer and see what she can come up with.”
“She already tried.” Emilia sighed and continued down the street.
They walked for miles. Emilia would pause in front of some mansions and walk straight past the ones with hordes of tourists piling out.
A crowd cut in front of them, intent on getting into a mansion with a wide, sweeping lawn. But Jacob didn't notice what all the tourists were cooing about. A few houses down, a tall iron gate cut through a high brick wall. Gold shone in the center of the gate.
“Emilia,” Jacob whispered, trying to make out what the gold could be. He took Emilia’s hand and started dragging her down the street.
“What?” Emilia looked behind them into the throng of people. “Is someone following us?” she asked as Jacob sped up to a run.
He stopped in front of the gate and pointed at the gold that glinted in the light. They were symbols. Clan symbols. A crow sat above a sword that was engraved with a wand. A crescent moon was surrounded by three stars. A falcon with its wings spread wide was mixed in with eight other symbols, some that Jacob didn’t even understand. And in the center of them all was a tree―the tree of life that was the crest of the Gray Clan.
“I think I found it,” Jacob said, his skin prickling with the horrible feeling of being watched by an unseen person. “I think the Hag is here.”
Emilia nodded. She raised her hand to place it on the gate, but before she could touch it, the tree of life and the crescent moon with three stars began to glow. The gate hummed for a moment before swinging silently open.
Emilia laced her fingers through Jacob’s. He saw the fear in her eyes, but together they stepped through the gates.
As soon as they entered the grounds, Jacob knew they were in a place flooded with magic. He could smell it. Even though winter was coming, the grass was still a bright emerald green. The changing leaves on the trees shimmered like someone had sprinkled diamond dust on each one. The air was infused with a tang of salt that filled Jacob’s lungs, and the moment he took a breath, he no longer felt tired or hungry. Just alive.
“She’s here,” Emilia said. “She has to be here.”
Jacob studied the mansion in front of them. White marble housed delicately latticed windows. A huge front door of intricately carved wood was the only entrance in sight.
Together, they walked up to the door. The closer they got, the more details of the carvings Jacob could see, and the stranger they became. The carvings seemed to be of scenes that were all somehow connected.
In the top left panel, a beautiful woman looked out on the ocean. Below, the same woman was surrounded by men. She rose above them as they reached toward her in adoration. In the bottom left panel, a man held the woman lovingly in his arms, and the other men stood below them, their backs turned toward the woman in anger.
The top right panel showed the men surrounding the woman, holding pitchforks and clubs. The man who had been holding her now lay at her feet, dead. In the next panel, the woman soared above a pyre, ropes falling from her body, and the men around her writhed on the ground, suffering. In the last carving on the bottom right, the woman ran into a great forest as all the people left alive turned away from her.
The longer Jacob stared at the door, the more the images appeared to move. Only slightly, but enough to make them seem alive. Jacob knelt to look more closely at the woman in the last scene. Her face looked stricken, but there were no tears on her cheeks as she ran.
Without a sound, the wooden door swung open.
“Ready?” Jacob stood.
“Ready,” Emilia said, and they walked into the house.
- Writer
