The Frozen Moon: Book Two of The Living Curse series + BONUS Full Version of Book Three! (3 page)

             
It was a pendant of sorts, crafted from the finest white-silver she had ever seen.  All at once, the symbol was delicate and powerful: made of sweeping lines and sharp corners blended together.  When she saw it, she couldn’t read it the way she could read the Warlock’s book; it was an ancient faerie language, she guessed. 

             
She pulled her own token from the pocket of her belt.  It was cool, as if it had been left in the snow and had only just been picked up again, though it had rested close to her skin for some time.  The similarities between the two symbols was clear; they were both made of the same sweeping lines and corners, but hers seemed familiar, as though she had created the symbol herself or seen it in a dream.  It seemed to call to her, as if it desperately wanted to tell her the message it cocooned within the metal, but she could not quite understand.  She strung her talisman around her neck, instantly feeling that it had become a part of her.  She watched Max do the same, fumbling with the intricate fastener.  He looked up to see her watching him with an amused smile.  He returned her smile embarrassedly, and for just a moment, she saw a glimmer of the Max she had seen earlier that night.

             
“So, what are you?” she asked as a sudden thought.

             
“What am I?  Well, that’s kind of broad.  Let’s see, 5”11’, blond hair, blue eyes, Protestant…shall I continue?”
              “Hmm, Protestant; didn’t see that coming.  I meant, what’s your talent?  You said I was a Listener, what are you?”

             
“See, that’s more specific.  I’m what they call a Senser, that basically means I can feel magic more exactly than other Markbearers.  I can sense exactly how many Children of the Spark are in Central Park right now, for instance, or how many humans will be waiting for us when we return to the Academy.  I can also sense how much magic is in the marks the Queen gave us: a hell of a lot if you were wondering.  It’s hidden magic, though, most people won’t be able to sense it.  Unfortunately, we can’t use it until we figure out what they mean; or, that’s how normal marks of the tah work.”

             
“Apparently, you’re not a very good Senser,” she said playfully.

             
“Why do you say that?” he asked almost defensively.

             
“Because, I tailed you for over a half an hour, and you couldn’t shake me, or determine who or what I was.”

             
“Sensing is not that exact.”  He looked at her with a convincing glance. 

“Why didn’t I know immediately that I was a Listener?”

“Most people take a while to figure out what they are; it usually presents itself in some situation of need.  For example, Talar and I found out we were Sensers when we were on a training run.  We were supposed to go out and find a nest of hobgoblins in some subway station.  We wandered for a while, not realizing that they take well to hiding, if we hadn’t been able to sense them behind us, we may have been ripped to pieces.” 

“I wonder what Mira is, then.” she mused.  “I wonder if Wyd would be a
Senser too, if he weren’t a warlock.”

“You certainly do a lot of wondering, don’t you?”

“I am a curious person, I suppose.”

“She’ll find out on her own someday, Mira I mean.  Come on,” he said quickly, “let’s go.  Dawn’s coming and the others will be waking up soon.”  She followed him toward the edge of the park, the cold pendant around her neck the only reminder of what they left behind.

             
Even though several minutes had passed, Max still felt his heart pounding in his chest, aggravated by something other than battle.  The scent she carried was nearly intoxicating, though she had no knowledge of it, and the breeze brushed it temptingly against him.  She wandered on unknowingly, probably ignorant of how his breath was catching in his throat, he thought.  Feelings were usually much easier to suppress, but he couldn’t choke these out, a frightening realization.

             
He couldn’t keep his eyes off how her fair skin and pure white hair caught the lingering moonlight.  Her dark eyes seemed to perfectly mirror the night sky, and she was at peace in the night.  They passed a small pond surrounded in lush grass, and Nameh immediately turned off toward it.  He knew that dawn was coming fast, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull her away.  He was sure that her stomach couldn’t be twisting as his was, that her heart couldn’t be screaming and taking her so off guard like his was.  She couldn’t feel like he was feeling, his mind told him.

             
Nameh dragged a slender foot over the surface of the water, having removed her shoe, drawing gentle ripples in the pond.  He saw the relief in her eyes at the cool water’s touch, and a soft smile crossed her features.  Silently, he sat on the bank beside her and gazed off at the surroundings.  He had always preferred being out at night, when the world seemed to sleep and problems of the day seemed to fade into silence for a time.

You know… he began, but was cut off by
Nameh’s finger on his lips as she leaned toward him.

“Not now” she whispered, brushing a butterfly kiss on his lips,
retreating just enough to look him straight in the eyes, intently watching his response.

After what felt like an eternity, he gently answered her kiss.
For a moment, they were two people feeling completely at ease, not two Markbearers with dark futures and death likely awaiting them.  He framed the moment in his mind, hoping to capture its essence indefinitely.  The scene stretched on for a lifetime, and was over in a breath- he didn’t know or care.  They lost themselves in the closeness of each other and the shadows plaguing their souls retreated for a time. They felt love. But dawn was approaching fast.

              Mira’s eyelids fluttered open to reveal a groggy world bathed in the early morning sunlight.  She admired the golden beauty for a moment before stirring; it was going to be a good day, she thought.  She sat up and brushed a curl from her face; she hadn’t put it up last night as she usually did, she had simply been too tired.  The wretched book laid sprawled open next to her bed, the infernal thing had taken all of her energy in exchange for its knowledge.  She had retained many of the spells and techniques from its pages, but not without great effort.  She preferred making connections throughout history, repeated mistakes and successes.

             
At the thought of her friend, she glanced over to find Nameh’s bed empty.  She sheets and blanket lay in a crumpled heap; she rarely bothered to make her bed.  Mira stood and began to smooth her own covers into a neat arrangement, tucking the edges beneath the mattress.  When she finished, she surveyed her work; order brought her calm, whereas Nameh thrived on chaos.  She rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear her sleepy mind. 
Coffee
, she thought
, I need coffee. 
She began to think of the places that Nameh could have gone; she wouldn’t be in the cafeteria because they were avoiding questioning teachers; they hadn’t been attending classes. 
Max’s room?
She wasn’t exactly in the mood to go knocking on his door, especially if her theory proved wrong, but she didn’t know where else to look.

             
When she reached his door, she hesitated, letting the invisibility spell drop from around her. 
What if he was still sleeping?  Were Talar and Wyd sleeping here too?  Maybe I should just go wait for her in our room. 
Before she could follow through on any of her thoughts, the door swung open, revealing Max standing behind it in a slightly wrinkled white t-shirt and blue pajama pants.  “You know, when you use invisibility spells, you actually become
more
visible to other Markbearers.”  His comment was confusing, but she was too tired, she would ask later.  She surveyed him again: he had thin bags around his eyes, he hadn’t gotten quite enough sleep, and his short hair was rumpled.  She had the urge to reach up and smooth down the pieces that went astray, but immediately thought better of it.  She almost stammered, something she rarely did, but his cool blue eyes were so piercing and disarming that she was taken off guard.

             
“Uh,” she began, not sure if her question would seem absurd, “is Nameh here?”

             
“Tall girl, dark eyes, white-ish hair?  Yeah, she’s here; I think she’s torturing Wyd right now, but if you’ll wait a moment…”  He was quite witty, she thought.  His presence and casual jokes were pleasant and refreshing.  He turned back into the room as if to confirm his theory; he gave a small nod and let her pass.  Nameh stood from where she had been seated on the bed and extended a mug to her.  She peered into the contents and was overjoyed at the sight of the steaming brown liquid.  It was just the way she liked it, lots of cream and sugar with a little foam.

             
“I annoyed Wyd into conjuring it.”  She twisted her face into a thoughtful look, “I wasn’t sure how else to get coffee without going through the lobby, and it’s much too early for a teleportation spell.”  The perk in her friend’s voice was surprising; she had always wondered how she managed to run on such little sleep.

             
“It’s also much too early for a conjuring spell, so you’re welcome,” Wyd half-muttered in a tone that had an attempt at displeasure, but failed entirely. 

             
“Thank you,” Mira said with an apologetic look.

Talar was lounging on a bed that she was fairly confident hadn’t been there the day before.  Guest beds, she assumed; likely Wyd’s handiwork.

              “Now that everyone’s here, we may as well get down to business. We can’t very well stay here much longer, now that none of us are really Guardians anymore.”  Talar’s words gave her a painful shock, she hadn’t thought of it in this way before.  She felt as though she was abandoning a lifestyle, an oath.  “But I know of a place that takes in Upperworlders who don’t have anywhere else to go.  There’s quite a…motley crew of creatures there.”  He laughed a little at this thought.  “Werewolves, vampires, faeries; I actually met a centaur there once.”  He added his last thought with an absent minded interest.  Mira’s curiosity heightened at the mention of a centaur; they didn’t frequent urban areas, but they had always fascinated her.  Centaurs were one of the few remaining groups of Children of the Spark who were considered purists.  They believed that their place was outside the realm of humans, and therefore mostly existed in their own cities in less inhabited parts of the world.  She had dreamed, as a child, of visiting far off lands to see all of the distant and rarest magical creatures.  There were dwindling numbers of banshees in the Himalayan and Appalachian mountains, and mermaids in all of the world’s oceans; there were centaurs in Central and South America, and phoenixes that bathed in the fire of Hawaii’s volcanoes.  But most of all, she longed to watch the fierce and beautiful griffins fly over the skies of Nepal; it was one of the few places where they could live in peace.  It was a sort of crazy dream, but one that she hadn’t entirely given up on. 

             
“My vote is for leaving today,” Nameh’s voice cut in, “the sooner the better.  We’re not getting any closer to finding the Relic just sitting here.  That
is
still the plan, right?”  The room was silent, leave it to Nameh to ask a perfectly simple question at just the right time, and leave everyone speechless.  After a moment, Max broke the silence with a characteristically well thought out answer.

             
“I don’t see what else we can do.  The local branch of the Vine is all but gone, and there isn’t time to locate and get to another one.  Not to mention the fact that I’ve been sensing weird changes in the Guild’s magic; they’re getting closer, and we’re just treading water.”

             
“I still think it’s too dangerous, but if you’re in, I’m in,” Wyd said with an even tone.  He was very level headed, Mira thought, and wasn’t as shy as he’d seemed at first.

             
“Alright then, problem solved.  Well, one problem anyway.  There’s still the matter of not having a clue where to start looking for the damned thing,” Talar said amusedly.

             
“Why don’t we just go to this place Talar’s talking about, and ask around the Upperworld?  We’ll have to be careful, obviously, but if we don’t raise too much suspicion about our motives, then the Guild will probably leave us alone,” suggested Mira.  The others weighed her words in silence, making her feel uncomfortable.  She almost wished that she hadn’t spoken, that she could take her words back like physical objects.  As soon as this thought had formed, it was shattered by a consensus of approval.

             
“I can get us there with a moving spell as soon as we’re ready,” Wyd said, now warming up to the idea.  Mira liked the fact that he made decisions slowly and carefully, but seemed eager once he had.  The idea of leaving was beginning to sink in as an actual decision, and she was excited.  She began to wonder what strange encounters would be waiting for them in the Upperworld outside the Academy.  Max broke the pensive mood with a final lighthearted joke.