25. The Right Question
1523 Words
25
The Right Question
The sun’s bright glow in their tent woke them the next morning. Emilia mumbled something unintelligible and stumbled over to the table, her eyes still half closed.
“Emilia,” Jacob said with a smile as they sat down to breakfast. The table had magically refilled itself overnight with fruit of the brightest colors and steaming rolls. “I think I figured it out.”
“Figured what out?” Emilia yawned and reached for a huge pot of steaming coffee.
“How to find your mom.”
Emilia opened her mouth, but Jacob rattled on.
“We can’t ask to find her, because she doesn’t want to be found. But instead of asking to find her, we ask to go where people hide and do the non-magical leg work on our own.”
“Do you really think that will work?” Emilia asked, her eyes widening.
“It doesn’t break any of the rules in the Siren’s Decree. We aren’t asking her for anything that conflicts with someone else’s desires. And what have we got to lose?” Jacob tossed a berry into his mouth.
“And how did you come up with this brilliant idea?”
“Let’s just say it came to me in the night.” Jacob grinned.
As soon as they had eaten their fill, Jacob stood up. “No time like the present, right?”
Emilia nodded and took his hand.
“We want to go where people hide.”
Jacob felt the draw on his magic. There was a swirl of red silk, and everything went dim. Jacob stumbled, and Emilia grabbed his arm.
“Well, that did something,” she whispered.
They stood in a dark, damp hallway in what appeared to be an abandoned factory. Rusted pipes dripped murky water onto the broken concrete floor. The dank stench of filth filled the air, like rancid water and putrid sweat. It was as different from the luxury they had just left as Jacob could imagine.
“There’s no one here,” Jacob whispered. “Maybe we should go. Try something else.”
“May we please have a light?” Emilia asked, and instantly a glowing, green ball appeared in her palm.
She gasped, and Jacob pulled her tightly to his side. The small light Emilia held cast shadows on figures huddled on the floor of the hall. Some slept in doorways, others leaned on walls, but none of them bothered to look at the source of the light. The wizards were filthy and wearing tattered clothes, and not all of their clothes were modern. Just like the others they had met, it seemed that some of these people had been pulled out of time. A woman only feet away from them lay on the floor in a corset.
Emilia locked her fingers through Jacob’s, and they started down the hall. A girl not much older than them shielded her eyes as they walked by, but she didn’t speak.
Jacob looked down at her sunken face. The girl had red curls caked with mud, and her stench burned his nostrils.
“Come on.” Jacob pulled Emilia down the hall. They passed dozens of dark rooms. Some were crowded with filthy figures. Others held only one. Emilia paused at every person, holding the light in her hand out to search each face. There were plenty of women and some with dark hair.
Jacob caught sight of a woman, lying spread eagle in the center of a room, laughing. It wasn’t a happy laugh, but rather a high and pathetic laugh of desperation. Her face couldn’t be seen from the doorway, so Emilia crept quietly into the room. The woman had short, black hair. She was pale and looked like she could be the right age, though it was impossible to tell under the layers of dirt.
Emilia stood right next to the woman when a hand reached out and grabbed her by the ankle.
“The Siren takes. Always takes, and I have nothing to give!” the woman shrieked.
Jacob wrenched Emilia away from the woman.
“I must be able to give!” she cried.
“I―I’m sorry,” Emilia stammered, stumbling backward out of the room. “It’s not her. The face isn’t right.”
Emilia jogged down the hall. Jacob chased her, unwilling to let her get more than a few feet away from him. She stopped when the hall opened up into a dark, cavernous room that smelled thickly of mold and filth. Hallways led in every direction, and scaffolding climbed all over the room. The people in this room weren’t lying on the floor. They were wandering aimlessly around each other. For a moment, Jacob wondered if zombies really did exist.
“We’ll never find her,” Emilia said. “There are too many people. It could take weeks to search this whole place.”
“Who?” A man stumbled toward them, tripping over himself so Jacob had to catch him. “Who do you wanna find? I can help. Me, I know everybody here. There’s not a person in this joint I ain’t met. I’m Kevin.” The man reached for Emilia.
“Emilia.” She didn’t take the man's hand.
Jacob tried to stand the man who reeked of stale alcohol back up on his feet, but he swayed and fell onto Emilia. “Sorry, sweetheart,” the man slurred. “And you?” he pointed at Jacob.
“I’m Jacob.”
“Look at us being good old pals,” Kevin said as Emilia heaved him up, holding onto his shoulder to keep him steady. “Friends help friends.” He winked at Emilia.
“We’re looking for Rosalie Wilde,” Jacob said, turning Kevin away from Emilia and trying not to inhale his fumes.
“Nah, no names. I can’t remember names, James. Just tell me who she is.”
“Well,” Emilia began, “she came here about seventeen years ago. She was about nineteen when she got here. And I think she looks a lot like me.”
The man turned to Jacob. “Mommy issues.” He nodded. “Got it. And what would she be doing here?”
“She was hiding,” Jacob answered.
“All right, I got your girl. But you don’t get nothin’ for nothin’ round here. I’ll make you kids a deal. You give me a pull of magic, I find your mommy.” He looked at them expectantly. “What do ya say? We got a deal?”
Jacob looked at Emilia. She bit her lip and nodded. “Deal, but you have to take us to her before you get to draw any magic.”
“Not gonna happen.” He shook his head. “Magic first or no deal. Come on kids. Does this look like a face that would lie?”
Jacob studied the man's face. It was barely visible under the thick layers of dirt.
“Kid, everybody down here is hungry for magic. You ain’t gonna find nobody who’ll help you for free.” Kevin waved a hand at the people shambling around the room. More of their faces turned toward Jacob and Emilia, as though they could sense the presence of people who still had magic left in them.
“Fine, I’ll give you some of my magic, but if you don’t deliver, you have to deal with her.” Jacob pointed to Emilia.
Emilia smiled. “You don’t want to deal with me.”
“Got it, no tricks here.” Kevin took Jacob’s hand in his.
Jacob could feel his magic being drained out of him. It was a sickening feeling, like having his life sucked out of every vein. Jacob’s legs began to tremble.
“Enough.” Jacob tried to pull his hand away, but Kevin held on tighter. The room started to spin, and Jacob’s knees buckled. Even as he fell, the man smiled and held on.
“He said enough!” Emilia shouted, shoving Kevin backward and breaking his hold on Jacob. “Are you ok?” She helped Jacob to his feet.
“Fine.” Jacob blinked, bringing the room back into focus. He looked at Kevin, but could barely recognize him. Instead of being filthy, he was dressed in a deep purple three-piece suit with shining black shoes and a matching purple hat.
“That’s better,” Kevin said, grinning and bouncing his shoulders. “Haven’t felt like myself in a while. With a stockpile like that, the Siren’s gonna treat me real good.”
“Wait,” Emilia said, stepping to Kevin, “take us to the woman we’re looking for.”
“Don’t worry, kid. I don’t need the karma of breaking a promise like that following me. Right this way, my lovely lady.” He sauntered across the room. The other derelict wretches watched him longingly.
“Help me, sir,” a woman called to Jacob. “I can trade, too!” The woman crawled after them, but Jacob didn’t look back. He didn’t have any more magic to spare.
Kevin whistled as he led them down a hallway like the one they had been in before. There were people lying on the ground and scattered through all the side rooms. The hallway was impossibly long. The light was so dim, the end of the corridor couldn’t be seen, but they kept walking. As the minutes stretched past, Jacob wondered if the corridor even had an end. How could there be this many desperate people stuck in the darkest place of the Siren’s Realm?
Finally, the man stopped outside a room. “There ya go. My duty is done, and I’m going back out to the streets.”
“Why don’t you use the magic to get out of here, go back home?” Jacob asked.
“Kid, the Siren’s got things you wouldn’t believe. I ain’t never gonna leave. Time for some fun!” The man shimmered for a moment, then vanished.
“This had better be the right room,” Jacob murmured, turning to Emilia, but she had already disappeared through the dark doorway.
- Writer
