Deathless (28 page)

“
Not that I know of,” he said after a few seconds. “They were all men, I think.”

“
Well, there goes your theory, then. Unless you think that somehow I’m the first female waziri.”

“
It does seem a bit far-fetched,” Rave admitted. “But stranger things have happened.”

“
Ha! Name one.”

Rave smiled. “I fell in love with a human.”

Leesa rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Well, there is that.”

Rave wrapped his arms around her back and she nuzzled her cheek against his chest. Whenever he held her like this, all her worries seemed to melt away.

Finally, she stepped out of his embrace.

“
I guess we’re back where we started,” she said, a half smile on her face. “We don’t really know a darn thing.”

“
I’ll talk to Balin. Perhaps there were female versions of the waziri I am not aware of. Or maybe hearing about the things happening to you will trigger some other idea in him.”

“
And maybe the guy who claimed to be my father will find me again. This time, I’ll make sure to ask him some questions, to see what he might know.”

Leesa took Rave’s hand and they began walking back across the field.

“
I’m supposed to go back tonight,” Rave said when they reached their blanket. “But I don’t like leaving you, especially with all that’s going on.”

“
Don’t worry. None of this stuff seems really dangerous—not yet, anyhow.” Leesa picked up the blanket and began folding it. “If the dreams start getting scarier and begin coming true, I’ll tell Max. Besides, you need to go back to New Hampshire so you can talk to Balin about the waziri.”

“
I know. But that doesn’t mean I have to like the idea.”

“
That’s good,” Leesa said, smiling. “I don’t ever want you to like the idea of leaving me.”

37. SEARCHING

O
nly thirty miles to the south, the man Leesa was hoping would find her again exited a grimy bus at the edge of the Yale University campus. Neither Leesa nor he knew how close to each other they actually were, but until Dominic found her, the distance did not really matter.

With no clues to guide him about what college Leesa might be attending, Dominic had been systematically working his way up the Connecticut coast. Yale was the sixth school he had visited in the last five days. Searches of campuses in Stamford, Fairfield and Bridgeport had all come up empty. The New Haven area contained six different colleges he would have to check, so he expected to be here five or six days, at least. Then he would have to decide whether to head north toward Hartford and its collection of colleges, or to continue east along the coast. He thought he would probably go north, since there were more schools in that direction, but he didn’t have to make that decision until he was finished here in New Haven.

The afternoon was cold, and a chill wind blew off nearby Long Island Sound, making the day feel even colder. The first thing Dominic had done when he disembarked from his cross country Amtrak trip in New York City was to purchase a worn black jacket and a pair of black leather gloves at a used clothing store. He wouldn’t need them unless it got much colder than even this, but he wanted a jacket and gloves to help him blend in.

As soon as he stepped off the bus, he donned the jacket and gloves. He would search Yale the same way he had checked the other schools—by systematically walking up and down every street or walkway on campus, and climbing the stairways of any building taller than three stories. Despite his past failures in locating Leesa, he was pretty sure he would be able to sense her if he got close enough, and vertical distance counted just as much as ground distance.

Fortunately, all the campuses he had searched so far had been urban schools, with their necessarily more compact grounds. Still, his painstaking searches were time consuming, but he had no other choice—not unless he chose to unleash a magical search. Such a search would draw his enemies to him as surely as if he had lit a beacon fire atop a mountain. No, that had to remain a last resort, to be used only if his present tactics failed and he saw no other options.

There were holes in his methodology, he knew. If Leesa was off campus for any reason while he was seeking her, he would miss her. She could even be on campus, but moving in a direction that would keep her too far from him, despite the thoroughness of his search. Still, this was the best strategy he could come up with, without resorting to magic. He wished college administration offices were not so protective of the names of their students, but several attempts to find out if Leesa was at a college had been met with stiff resistance.

He turned his back to the wind and opened the map of the city he had obtained at a tourist kiosk in the New Haven train depot, protecting the paper from the wind with his body. He folded the map into a smaller square that showed only the Yale area and was able to handle it much more easily. The campus was about seven short blocks wide and slightly more than a dozen much longer blocks long. That was the good news. The bad news was that parts of the campus were built in quadrangles with lots of walkways and plazas, and there were many dorms and other buildings taller than three stories. The stair climbing would not really tire him, but it would take valuable time.

There was nothing he could do about it, though, so he tucked the map into his coat pocket and set off down the first block.

38. WAZIRI

S
unday morning, Leesa slept late. Her sleep had been peaceful and relaxed, the result she guessed, of leftover feelings of contentment from Rave’s visit. He had departed late last night, but the chance to spend an entire day with him had been wonderful.

She got out of bed and slipped into a comfortable pair of sweats. Turning on her stereo, she fixed herself a breakfast of bran flakes and raisins and a big mug of hot chocolate. Part way into her meal, Semisonic’s “Closing Time” started up on the stereo. She stopped chewing and listened to her favorite line about new beginnings. She had experienced so many new beginnings in the last few months and most of them had been great. There was Rave, of course, but also Cali, and college, and Aunt Janet, Uncle Roger and Max. Some of the beginnings were not so good, like her troublesome dreams, but maybe even they would turn out to be positive eventually. There had been a number of “ends,” too. Good ones like the end of her mom’s affliction and the end of Bradley’s captivity. And most importantly, she had managed to avoid the most horrible end of all—the end of her humanity after she had agreed to become Stefan’s consort. She wondered whether this waziri thing she and Rave had discussed would turn out to be a beginning or an end….

Her breakfast finished, she washed the bowl and mug in the sink and then stretched out contentedly on her bed. She wondered if Dr. Clerval would be in his office today, and whether he knew anything about those waziri wizards. She was pretty sure he would have at least heard of them, and he might have some useful knowledge. A glance at the clock told her it was after ten. Might as well give his office a call, she thought.

Not surprisingly for a Sunday morning, she reached his voice mail. She left him a message telling him she had something important to talk to him about and to please call her back, especially if he was going to be in his office later today.

She ended the call and sat back down on the bed, not sure what to do with her morning. Homework was always an option, but Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, so she wanted to keep that as a last resort. Maybe Cali would have some fun ideas.

Before she could even call Cali, her phone began playing “Rolling in the Deep.” She had made the Adele hit her generic ringtone, so she had no idea who was calling. Not Cali, though, and not her mom or Bradley, or Caitlin or Stacie. They all had their own special ringtones. And it’s certainly not Rave, she thought, grinning.

She picked up her cell and saw it was Professor Clerval, returning her call already. He said he would be in his office in an hour or so, and would be happy to see her anytime after. Leesa thanked him and said she would be there.

Yesterday’s sunny sky had transformed overnight into a gray, leaden one. The air was still cold, without even the meager benefit the winter sun had provided yesterday. Leesa didn’t have Rave to keep her warm, either. So she bundled up in her parka, gloves and ski hat, and even wrapped a dark blue woolen scarf around her neck before stepping out into the cold.

Even so, the frigid air stung her cheeks and her breath steamed out in front of her. Luckily, Dr. Clerval’s office was little more than a ten minute walk, so she tugged her scarf up over her chin and mouth and headed across campus.

She wondered if a storm might be on the way. The winter had been unusually dry—the meager dusting they had enjoyed on Christmas Eve had been the only snow so far. The benign winter surprised Leesa, especially after an early winter ice storm paralyzed the state way back in November. She had expected that massive storm to be a harbinger of lots more ice and snow to come, but she had been disappointed. Some real snow would be fun—she hadn’t played in the snow since she was seven years old and living in New Jersey.

She saw very few fellow students as she walked, not surprising for such an uninviting Sunday morning. Winter might be fun when there was snow to play in, but cold and windy provided little joy to most. A small pond on the other side of campus had been frozen for awhile, and Leesa guessed there would be some kids ice-skating there, but the section where she was walking was mostly deserted.

Inside the professor’s building, the air was warm and toasty. Leesa quickly unwrapped her scarf and took off her gloves and hat as she headed up the stairwell. By the time she reached the third floor, she had pulled off her parka as well.

Dr. Clerval’s door was open, so she knocked lightly and walked in. As usual, the air smelled of fruity pipe tobacco—cherry, she thought. The professor was sitting at his roll top desk, a book open on the desk in front of him, his old wooden pipe hanging from his lips. He twisted around at Leesa’s knock and smiled.

“
Hello, Leesa,” he said, placing the pipe into the brass ashtray on the corner of his desk. “It’s always good to see you.”

“
Hi, Professor. Thanks for letting me come by, especially on a Sunday.”

“
Nonsense,” Dr. Clerval said, smiling again. “I’m always happy to see you. You bring me the most interesting questions.”

“
Ha! That’s for sure, huh?” Leesa said, returning his smile. She took her usual place on his old cushioned wooden chair. “I hope that stops one of these days soon, though.”

Dr. Clerval chuckled. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “So, what do you have for me this time? Another dream? More objects moving about? Or are we perhaps back to vampires again?”

Leesa wasn’t sure how to reply. “I did have another dream—more zombies and much scarier this time. But that’s not why I’m here. At least not directly.”

Dr. Clerval leaned back on his chair and clasped his hands on his lap. His posture was one of relaxed ease, but his eyes sparkled with keen interest.

“
Go on,” he said.

“
Have you ever heard of a bunch of wizards called the waziri?”

Professor Clerval raised his eyebrows. “I have, yes. But I’m surprised that you have.” He smiled. “You never cease to amaze me, Leesa.”

“
Yeah, me, too,” Leesa said wryly.

“
May I ask where you heard of the waziri? They were always very secretive. Very few people know that name, especially nowadays.”

Leesa hesitated. She should have known he would ask her that, but she hadn’t thought it through. He knew so much about her and her family, but he didn’t know Rave was a volkaane. That secret was not hers to share.

“
I’m sorry, Professor, but I can’t tell you that. It would mean betraying a very important trust.”

Dr. Clerval studied her from under his thick white eyebrows. With all she had already shared with him, he was clearly a bit surprised by her response. Leesa hoped she hadn’t offended him.

“
I’ll respect that,” Dr. Clerval said after a moment. “What do you wish to know about the waziri?”

Leesa leaned forward. “Anything you can tell me. They were wizards of some kind, right?”

“
Wizards, sorcerers, magicians… call them what you will. But yes, they were said to possess magical powers.”