Page 71 of Rise of the Melody
Now Ms. Barclay went still. “No, child.Iwas babysitting you—the whole lot of yous.” She pointed at Teague and Mairi too. “Except Zar, who was glued to his mother’s hip after an incident with a love potion.”
I tilted, feeling dizzy, and found myself leaning heavily against Clare, who put an arm around me. “Are you okay, Letty?”
“Yeah.” It came out a whisper.
Ms. Barclay leaned forward and peered at me. “If she doesn’t recall being there, then she very well may have been a victim of mind play. It’s very dark magic. Anything involving the mind is dangerous.”
Aunt Lorna had been there. She really had. Zar was remembering it right. I felt like my whole world was imploding and righting itself in different patterns that made no sense. I stood very still as a wave of nausea passed over me.
“I don’t understand why someone would take that memory from her,” I said.
“She saw something she wasn’t supposed to,” Ms. Barclay said.
But what? So far, the three people who were there and lived to tell the tale, Bryant, Stevens, and Zar, only remember my mother singing. That’s it. If that wasn’t wiped from Bryant or Stevens’ memories, why would it have been wiped from my aunt’s?
“Take me to her,” Ms. Barclay said, standing nimbly and leaving the pipe on the armrest.
“But Gran,” Mairi began, cut off by a sharp look from her grandmother.
“I’m perfectly able. And the only one capable of trying to decipher the signature in her mind.”
“You can do that?” Teague asked, a glean of awe in his voice.
“Well, it’s been ages, but yes.”
“Wait, what’s a signature?” I asked. “And can this hurt her?”
“I’ll be as gentle as I can,” she promised me. “All dark magic leaves behind a signature. Like…a feeling. It’s difficult to explain. Almost a scent or flavor. That’s the best I can do.” She looked at Chrystamos and waved him over.
He looked around at the group before hesitantly stepping forward. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Let me try to decipher the hex signature on you.”
“Oh, um…on me? Nah, that’s okay?—”
He tried to step back, but Shani shoved him forward. “Go, idiot. Let her.”
The terrified look on his face and stiffness of his body made me want to laugh, but at the same time I understood the alarm he must be feeling. Our group circled them with rapt attention as Ms. Barclay reached up and took his head in her hands. He clamped his eyes shut tightly. Ms. Barclay watched his face with distant eyes for several long moments before nodding and gently releasing him. Chrys sucked in a gasp as if he’d been holding his breath and stumbled backward, making Nora laugh.
“It’s a young signature. Very fresh like a perfectly ripe apple that’s just been sliced.”
“That’s…specific,” Mairi mumbled.
Ms. Barclay ignored her granddaughter. “It was a very powerful nix or druid for being so young. Who did you upset, child?”
Chrystamos shook his head, blinking innocently. “No idea.”
“Everyone,” Shani mumbled.
Clare snorted, and when we looked at her, she shrugged. “Wasn’t me.”
Ms. Barclayhmph’dat Chrys. “You’ll figure it out soon enough.” She reached down and opened the box I’d given her, taking out a sugar cookie, then she turned her attention to me. “Shall we go?” She held up the cookie. “I’m ready.”
I nodded, trying to push away my apprehension at letting someone paw around in Aunt Lorna’s mind. “I’ll take you to her.”
Chapter21
Decay
