Chapter 10

She turned into the alley. Odale didn't want to go to her mother just yet, but Zamir was making her uneasy. Maybe, she thought, he was thinking of leaving again. If he was... what could she do?

Odale looked down. By a tree, she could see a patch of snow. Clean, untouched snow. It was too welcoming to resist. She sat down and leant her cheek against the cold bark. The tree was large, so large she couldn't have wrapped her arms around it. It had to be old, at least half a century old. Odale drew her fingers over the bark.

She was surprised that it was there at all. It took up space, at least five feet, and it was tall. Odale knew someone who would've had it cut down...

Slowly, without realizing it, she fell asleep.

As Odale slept on underneath the tree, Lorea wandered back and forth in her aunt's livingroom. Her aunt had left her there. Something very important, she had said, and it was so alike Rodrian that Lorea had almost had to smile.

She looked around. It was a nice-looking place to live. The walls were painted in a light green, almost white, colour. There was a portrait of a significantly younger Marcia, but no signs of any relative to her or Lorea. Lorea signed. Very much like home.

Lorea hoped that Marcia would come back soon.

Cashmére glanced anxiously at the clock in her kitchen. Her daughter should have been there half an hour ago. She supposed that Marcia had made Odale stay for a little while longer, but there was something odd in the air. Cashmére had for a long time felt that she and her daughter had gotten along well, yet the last two weeks they had begun to drift apart again.

She didn't like that, and she was almost sure that it had something to do with Marcia. Cashmére grabbed her cloak and hurried out of the door.

If Odale wasn't already on her way she would fetch her, and if she was on her way they would simply meet up and Cashmére'd walk her home. None of the scenarios sounded especially bad to Cashmére.

Cashmére brushed her hair back over her shoulders. Recently, she had begun noticing a few grey strands and it was annoying her. Growing old had never bothered her before, but then she had met Joseph's ghost. He was so young, and would stay that way, meanwhile she was just aging and aging eternally.

She had finally reached the Wizard Way. Far down the street, by the Palace, a large mass of people had gathered. Cashmére would love to go there and see what it was all about, but she knew better than to do that. Instead, she headed for the Wizard Tower.

"Laurine..." Odale sat up, "Laurine... Laurine..."

She didn't say anything. Odale didn't like that name, and it rarely happened anything good when someone called her that anyways. The voice kept on calling. "Laurine... Laurine..." it was light and soft, as a little girl's, and it grew shriller by each time it said her old name.

Odale put her hands over her ears. There was something incredibly inhuman with that voice. She rose up. "Who is it?" she finally asked.

It just kept going. Odale winced and looked around to localize the noise. It seemed to her as if it came from further down the alley. She put her hands together and begun walking in that direction. Odale thought it was a horrible idea, the one who calling could be anyone and could want anything. If it even was human. "Hello..?" Odale called. "Hello?"

Something hard struck her to the chest and Odale fell. It clawed at her, her face, neck and arms. Odale shoved it off, raised her arms and prepared to hit it with the first curse she could come up with. She localized the creatures face and... her arms dropped to her sides. "Little," she murmured. "Little..."

The creature snarled at her. It begun backing on it's two legs. "Little," Odale begged, "C'mere."

She walked towards it. The childlike figure shrieked at her. Odale attempted to grab it, but it jumped onto the wall behind and climbed upwards.

Odale looked around for for a quick way to get up. She saw a drain, grabbed it and begun to climb. Everything she was supposed to do faded away, Odale completely focused on catching Little.

She reached the roof. Little was hiding behind a chimney. Odale smiled and knelt before her. "It's me, Little," Odale whispered. "Come here, I don't want to harm you. Please, come here..."

Little begun to approach her, with a shy smile on her lips. She looked sad, though, and Odale didn't know why. Odale opened her arms and Little flung herself at Odale.

Zamir's heart beat like a drum. He was watching one of the most powerful Spells he'd ever see, and he loved it. For some while he had wondered why Odale had stayed in the Wizard Tower, but now he understood. Odale simply wouldn't be able to stay away, and neither would he be able to.

Marcia was raising a Safety Curtain. He had never seen it, just heard a little about it. It had been used in ancient times to protect the Castle when it didn't have walls yet and even later to quarantine an area, which was what they were doing. Zamir wondered where on earth Odale was, and Septimus... They should be there and look. One of them maybe would have to do it themselves in the future.

Zamir watched as Marcia sent the curtain to her left. She watched as the curtain went all around the Palace, then came back and met up with the already set up part of the curtain. Zamir whistled lowly. It was an impressive sight.

As soon as everyone realized that the Magyk was over, they begun to leave. Even the ordinary wizards. Marcia stopped one, Bertie Bott, and demanded that he stayed and watched the seam. Very wise, Zamir thought. All Magyk had breaches.

Bertie, however, protested. "I can stay," Zamir heard a girl offer. It was Rose, the sick bay apprentice.

"I could, too," Zamir said. "If mr. Bott doesn't want to..."

"No," Marcia replied. "None of you. Bertie, you can stay. None of these have eaten, they need to do that first. Rose can come back later, when she has."

"But until then," she said, "Bertie, you stay."

"Very well," Bertie sighed.

Marcia walked away and Zamir followed. "Have you seen Odale, Zamir?" Marcia asked him.

"Yes," Zamir replied hesitantly. "She was with me, but left. It was a few minutes before the announcement..."

"Did she say why she left?"

"She was going to her mother's," Zamir said.

"Hmmph," Marcia snorted. "Very well. Go back to the Tower, Zamir. It's much better if we have all the wizards there than everywhere else. Tomorrow, we'll get rid of whatever it is that Merrin Meredith has done."

Odale would be furious, Zamir thought. Marcia seemed to read his thoughts. "Odale will have to realize that what her friend has done is wrong," she snapped. "She can't protect him in any way from this."

Zamir nodded and walked back to the Tower, alone.