The Conjurer (The Vine Witch #3)(31)
Elena turned to the dog to ask about the types of sorcery popular in the village, but he ducked his head and darted away before she could say a word. She watched his tail disappear down the street with that quicksilver speed of his and knew she wasn’t possibly meant to chase after him. So, what then was she supposed to do?
The answer came sooner than expected when she heard a pair of familiar voices. Two women bickered about a snake, of all things, as they walked along the narrow lane leading from the hillside apartments adjacent to where she stood. Sidra and Yvette, her raison d’être, at least for the moment. Or at least that’s what her instinct was telling her. A tingle ran up her spinal column, dispersing like a Fête nationale sparkler inside her cranium to make the roots of her hair stiffen, now that she’d found them. But why had the dog run away when this was obviously why she’d been brought to the plaza?
Left on her own to work it out, she waited until the pair stepped into the market street. She wasn’t sure why Yvette had come to be there, but she was glowing ever so softly. Her hair was pinned up neatly, and her face appeared bare except for a hint of blush. She walked with a sense of grace she’d not displayed before reuniting with her family. Breathtaking, the way she carried herself now.
In comparison, Sidra seemed to have lost some of her luster. Her silks were fraying and dull with dirt, and her usually proud bearing had shrunk so that she walked furtively, full of tension. Elena had never seen fear in the jinni’s eyes before, not even when she faced execution, but the way they stalked the crowd, searching for some expected threat, suggested she knew already that Jamra was on his way.
Elena waited for them at the corner. They hadn’t spotted her yet, though they would soon. She wondered then if a public street was the safest place for a meeting. She scanned the faces at the market wondering who might be watching. Was Jamra already near? Did he have allies in the village already? She sorted through her satchel to find something suitable. She had only a moment and very few items of practical use, thanks to being abducted by an angry jinni while in the middle of vine work. But then her hand found the two coins at the bottom of her bag as she spotted a vacant storefront across the plaza. Perhaps she could minimize attention.
Holding the coins in her palm, she whispered, “Moon of silver, moon of gold, create a shop where charms are sold. Make a sign, make it shine, let them see the magic is mine.” The copper coin wasn’t technically gold, but the color was close enough to mimic a golden moon. The illusion took shape in a little alcove that had become the entrance to Elena’s newly created charm shop. A sign hung above the door with two back-to-back gold and silver crescents shimmering in the daylight. She crossed the street and jimmied the door open by copying Yvette’s spell for picking locks, then waited for the keen eyes of the jinni to discover her sign.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
He knew the witch was clever, but to create an illusion so quickly and with such detail was admirable. Perhaps the signs in the fire prophecy had been right about her. He hoped so. So many lives depended on it.
The dog sat on the roof of the market loggia where he could watch without being seen. No one ever looked up in a town, but rooftops were where all the best omens were discovered.
“She’s arrived?” asked the creature who’d previously perched on the rim of his ear. Now human-size, the being sat cross-legged on the edge of the roof, watching the street below.
“They’ll meet any moment,” he answered. “And then we won’t have much time.”
The being squinted. “We are prepared.”
The animal lifted his ears as the jinni and the fair one came down the lane. Sidra would see the illusion for what it was, of this he was certain. But would she see beyond into the ether too soon? Her growing reliance on fire prophecy had become a concern, though he understood why she kept looking. The path behind her had been sealed, so there was only the future upon which to gaze.
“It’s like watching a game board and waiting to see who will move next,” he said. “How do you resist the urge to intervene?”
The creature flipped Yanis’s talisman in the air, then caught it in an open palm. “I don’t always. Though after a while you grow detached to the sensation of so many lives interacting under your nose. But this is no time for grand apathy. The alliance was the right choice, strange as our acquaintance must seem to you.”
The dog nodded, then stood and padded along the roof’s edge when Sidra stopped midstride. She’d seen the sign.
“You honestly don’t know where the dagger is hidden?”
He ought to know. Perhaps he could even guess correctly. But the vision wouldn’t come to him. “I cannot see the damned thing.”
He felt the being studying him, but his face remained placid, only because he remained in his canine state. So unnerving the way her eyes could bore into you, searching beneath the surface for ethereal truth. The creature turned away, and he released his breath slowly so as not to reveal his unease.
“There, we’ve managed that objective,” the being said, tracking the jinni and fair one as they entered the shop. “Everyone delivered safe and reunited. We’ll meet again at the crossroads, and then we’ll see what progress we’ve made.”
The dog wagged his tail. When he looked again, he was alone on the rooftop.
There were many moments he’d second-guessed his choice. And it had been a choice. His will to see the endeavor through to the end. He’d watched wish magic churn like a storm through people’s lives to meet its desired end before, but never from a rooftop looking down on those unaware of the force bearing down on them. And him powerless to do anything to stop it.