The Whimsy Witch Who Wasn't (Tales of Xest Book 1) Page 6

  There were shops with nothing but bottles lining the walls. Other shops had nothing but plants, the likes of which I’d never seen. And the people—what I could see of them, as they tended to cross the way when we approached—were even stranger. The hair colors ranged from natural to rainbow. The colors they wore were either brighter than bright or all black.

  We didn’t stop walking until we got to a building with a shingle over the door with “Broker of All” carved into the wood. There were large picture windows comprised of many tiny, wavy glass panes on either side.

  The place was packed with people who appeared to be waiting to speak to one of three workers who sat behind desks.

  The wall above them was at least two stories high and was covered with strange levers and wheels that seemed to rotate and grind to no rhythm I’d ever heard. The gears would begin and then stop, only to start up two seconds later, pause for a split second, and then grind faster. At the far-right corner, slips of paper shot out of a slot to pile up into a woven basket that was nearly five feet tall and spilling over.

  The entire place, other than the machine wall, ground to a halt as all eyes turned to Hawk and me as we entered. Even here, the crowds seemed to part for him. Everyone continued to stare until he opened a door on the other side of the room. He had me precede him into the next hallway, the buzz on the other side of the closed door kicking up even louder.

  Beyond the door, there was a landing and two sets of stairs—one to the left, the other to the right.

  “Don’t use those unless you want to die,” he said while pointing to the stairs on the left, as if that were normal conversation.

  He climbed the stairs to the right. They led to a platform and a door that he opened.

  “This will be your room while you’re here.”

  It wasn’t Shangri-La, but it was better than the barracks by far, even better than my apartment bedroom, with a cozy charm, a comfy-looking bed, and white bead-board walls. He flicked a wrist, and a flame ignited in the wood-burning stove. That would take the chill out of this room quickly and keep the place comfy on the coldest nights. I had a feeling they might have some doozies in Xest that would put a Salem winter to shame. I still wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying, but I hoped I’d be gone before January, when things would get even colder, if their seasons worked the same.

  “Belinda will get you some clothes. If you need anything else, ask one of them below. We’ll work in the evenings, starting tomorrow. I’ll need you to keep up the pretense of being help around the place during the day. Zab, Musso, and Belinda will know, but I don’t want to draw any outside attention.”

  Since I didn’t know exactly what business I’d be helping with, that was going to be exceedingly easy to accommodate.

  “What do you need me to do, exactly? And can it be done fast? I’m fairly certain that this isn’t somewhere I should linger too long. Plus, I’ll be missing work while I’m here, not to mention my boss is going to be a wreck, since we’re more like family at this point. If I get back to Salem in the next few days, I won’t be late with my rent, either. Of course, I have to get Rabbit out first.”

  The less he talked, the more I continued. I’d never been a nervous rambler before I’d met him, but something about this man put me on edge.

  “But back to my landlord. I’ve never been late before, so he’ll probably be okay even if I am. Point is, if I can get back home in the next few days, it would limit the damage to my life. I could figure out some excuse for Loris. It’ll be manageable.” I nodded as I added up the tally of damage. I’d be out of here soon and mitigate most of it. It would be okay.

  I’d stopped watching him watch me as I’d run on. But now, as my brain was finally quieting, silence was becoming suspicious. The dead, heart-wrenching silence. Something wasn’t right.

  I pulled my gaze up from the floor, where it had gotten stuck, and turned all of my attention back on him. He was relaxed enough in form, but his steely eyes were a whole other matter. They didn’t look like they ever relaxed.

  “This is going to take more than a couple of days, isn’t it?”

  He nodded, his expression flat. No clue as to how long I’d be here.

  “A couple weeks?” I asked. Weeks would still be okay. More damage to go back to, though. Loris would be sick, thinking I was dead. She’d probably be robbed blind, but not too badly. My apartment might still be there. Not optimal but still doable.

  “Considering you couldn’t light the fire?” Hawk asked. “I’d say closer to three, but maybe more. You’ve got the magical ability, but you’re raw. You don’t know how to use it. Magic is like a muscle, and yours is atrophied. It’s as if you have two working legs but never learned to stand. Getting you out of the factory was easy. Getting what I need out of you isn’t going to be as simple.”

  He watched me in a way that made it obvious he fully intended to get what he wanted. He looked the type that always did. I’d always had the reverse experience in life, so I could spot my opposite easily. I’d studied them for years, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong. I was still studying.

  “What exactly am I going to be doing for you?”

  “A spell. I’ll tell you more as I can.”

  “What’s the spell for?” I asked.

  “I’ll let you know when it’s time to do it.”

  Really? That was all I was going to get? There was nothing to be done about it now. I wasn’t going back to the factory, and I couldn’t go home. There should’ve been more negotiating on my part before I’d come here, except it was hard to bargain when you were climbing out of a ditch of nothing, nothing, and more nothing.

  If I could convince him to get me back home, though…

  “Couldn’t I commute while I learn this spell? Why can’t I do whatever this is back in Salem? Why do I need to be here? You can get me back. I won’t go anywhere. You’ll know where I am.”

  “Because we can’t do what needs to be done there, and jumps can be tracked in the ether. They leave a trace.”

  How many times had I jumped in puddles when I was kid and had no idea of what might actually lay beyond? If I did ever get out of this place, I’d never step in a puddle again. Dry land only.

  I dropped onto the bed, sitting down before I did something crazy, like try to jump out the window or yell like a maniac.

  “I’ll have your rent taken care of,” he said, with no discussion of how much or where to send it.

  “It’s not just the rent. It’s my life.” Having a place to go back to was on my mind, but not the beginning and end of my issues.

  “Then you’re going to have to make this work, because it’s the only way back. You made a deal. I got you out. You could be looking at a lifetime in the factory. I’d say a month is a fair trade-off.”

  He walked out of the room as I watched his back. It was becoming a trend, and not one I liked.

  8

  Hunger and darkness drove me out of my room. I walked downstairs slowly, hesitating by the door, listening for sounds and trying not to look at the other set of stairs. I wished Hawk had never mentioned the other stairs at all. Then I would’ve assumed they led to some storage area or something equally mundane. Might never have looked twice at them. Now all I was going to do was stare and wonder if something was eventually going to climb down from them and try to eat me, and it was his fault.

  I pushed the stairs from my mind and planted an ear to the door, making sure I was facing my stairs as I did. Someone was definitely moving around in there, but the hordes were gone. Hawk had told me to come down if I needed something. Well, I did. I needed to get out of that room for a minute.

  I cracked the door open slowly, listening to the gears on the wall moving around.

  “Hey! I’m Zab.”

  I spun around and saw the guy who’d been behind one of the desks earlier. He had spiky hair that was black at the roots with lavender tips that fit his youthful face. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older t
han me. But unlike me, he seemed very happy.

  He waved a little too vigorously, as if an abundance of friendliness could overcome any uncertainty on my part.

  “Hi. I’m Tippi,” I said a little less enthusiastically, but not for trying. It’d been a long day and his energy was hard to match. I held out my hand to shake, trying to make up for my lack of zest.

  He stared down at it, confused.

  I dropped it, wondering where I’d misinterpreted something. He’d seemed friendly.

  He motioned to my hand. “That’s a Rest thing, right? We don’t do that here.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “No need to apologize. It’s a magic thing. Sort of personal.”

  Like the way Hawk’s flesh had tingled on mine. That was what he meant. Once he’d said it, it made sense. No one really touched around this place, now that I thought about it.

  “Things are a lot different here.” I crossed my arms so I wouldn’t accidentally make another gesture.

  “There’s going to be a learning curve, I’m sure. Are you hungry?” He moved over to the back shelves, where he pulled a cover off a dish. “I was going to bring this up if you didn’t come down soon.” He put the dish and a fork on the other side of his desk, where I’d seen clientele sitting earlier in the day.

  “Actually, I’m starving. Thanks.”

  I took the offered food and seat as he continued to watch me, as if I were some freak of nature.

  Pretending not to notice, I dug into the shredded meat of unknown origin. It was heaped over something that might’ve been rice, if it wasn’t red and twice the size. Whatever it was, it was tasty.

  He sat on the other side of the desk, staring as I ate, waiting.

  “It’s good. Thanks,” I said, smiling as he watched me.

  “I wasn’t sure what to order you, coming from Rest. I’ve never even talked to someone from Rest before.” He planted his chin in his hand, watching me like he’d never seen anyone eat before. “So what’s it like over there?”

  “The factory?” I asked between bites.

  “No, in Rest. Do you like it there? I’ve never been. Heard it’s crazy, though. Lots of weird people and almost no one can do anything magical.” His lips parted as he shook his head.

  “It would probably be as weird to you as this place is to me.”

  The wall took that moment to grind into overtime, the candles glittering off its golden metal parts. Shelves lined the rest of the room, filled with bottles and books that looked old enough to belong in a museum. There were all sorts of other knickknacks as well, from lamps that looked like they’d spew smoke and strange dice carved of stone. It was an odd blend of what appeared to be antiques, toys, and machinery.

  He looked around. “Yeah, I guess I can see that.”

  “So what do you guys do here, exactly?” I spooned another couple of bites in while I waited.

  He shrugged. “Broker magic. You know, the usual stuff.”

  There was nothing usual about any of this. “How does this stuff happen?”

  “It’s pretty simple, actually.” He pointed to the large wall of gears and machinery. “See this thing? It’s called the Helexorgomay. It runs on the energy created by the hopes, dreams, wants, and fears of the people in Rest. If they give them enough juice, so to speak, that request shoots out there.”

  He walked over to the basket I’d seen earlier that was overflowing with slips of paper. He grabbed the first one off the stack and read, “‘Please let me pass my science quiz.’” He held up the paper. “This goes right in the shredder because there’s no payment offered.” He tossed it in another basket. “Lots of requests don’t offer payment that’s worth anything. If they don’t, there’s nothing we can do. Everything costs something.”

  “What kind of payments are offered?”

  He riffled through the basket. “Here’s a good one. This person is asking for their daughter to get better, and they’re tattooing something on their arm. That’s basically offering a pound of flesh. This we can do something with.”

  He moved the slip to a basket beside his desk.

  “So you take the flesh as payment?” I suddenly wondered what exactly I was eating as my fork hovered over my strange meat.

  He let out a deep laugh. “We don’t take the actual flesh. That sacrifice is converted. The list of commodities we deal in is very long. Some pay in time, some in energy, happiness, you name it. See that board?” He pointed to the wall behind me on the other side of the room.

  I’d been so busy taking in the things at eye level and the machine that I hadn’t looked behind me. There were all sorts of emotions, dates, lengths of time, and numbers jotted down on a huge gridded chalkboard.

  “What does that all mean?”

  “It’s exchange rates. If the request isn’t paying in a form the supplier is accepting, we can convert it for them for an additional three percent rate, unless it’s loneliness. No one wants to touch that, so it’s a twenty percent surcharge.

  “We make the deal. I’ll call in a witch or wizard who can handle it. Once the order is filled, it’ll be fed back into the Helexorgomay machine—or Helen, as we call her.” He pointed to a slot that looked more like a mouth with grinding teeth above and below the opening.

  “So people wish, pray, ask whatever god they believe in for something, and you guys connect the dots, getting them what they want?”

  “Pretty much. Like I said, business as usual.” He sat back down, rocking in his chair as if this were just another day at the shop, and for him, it was.

  I looked at that basket, wondering how many times my deepest wishes had ended up as a slip in the basket. However many had made it to the basket, they’d ended up shredded every time.

  “Can they wish for anything? Or are there certain parameters to what ends up here?” Maybe I hadn’t ended up in that basket, another scrap among the desperate.

  “Yes and no. There’s limitations, mostly in what can be paid for. Like, say you have some whack job wanting the end of the world?” He waved his hand as if that were the only thing crazy about this situation. “They’d never be able to fund that kind of request. It won’t even make it to Helen. It’ll go right to the spam box.”

  “Was that what I was doing in the factory with the dandelion wishes?” I asked.

  “Nah. Marvin is a hack. The factory you came from has a wholesale deal that they’ve had the contracts on forever. Lots of cheap magic that’s been spread pretty thin at this point. Mass-produced garbage that doesn’t usually produce.”

  “Wholesale deal?”

  “You know, like wishing on an eyelash? Some of the stuff Marvin is supplying was negotiated a long time ago. He gets a steady trickle of income, but not the big orders like we do. And now that we’re nearing the holidays, it’ll really be booming. Lots of transactions to be made.”

  “Do you live here too?” I wondered if there was a barracks for the workers here, similar to where I’d left.

  “Nah, I got a place down on the other side of town. I like to have company over, and Hawk’s real funny about who he’ll let overnight here. Too much sensitive information.”

  “I’ll be alone here at night?”

  “Hawk’s in and out of here sometimes.”

  “Does he live here?”

  “Sort of.” He hummed and shrugged, just enough to tell me to stop with that line of questioning. “If you’re worried about being bored, there are a ton of books if you want to read. No one ever touches them. Not sure where half of them even came from.” He motioned to the half wall that lined the other part of the office. “Plus, there are more in the back room, and a tea and coffee station if you like that. There’s cocoa, too. Nothing like they serve over at the Sweet Shop, but good enough in a pinch. Oh, before I forget, there’s a bag of clothes Belinda left for you.” He pointed to a sack in the corner.

  “Thanks!” I couldn’t wait to lose the orange stripes that made me feel like I’d broken out of a ma
gical jail.

  I ate a couple more bites as he kept glancing at the clock on his desk.

  “If you have to go, it’s okay. I’ll be fine.” More than fine. Somewhere in those books, somewhere in this office, I might find an explanation of how to jump puddles.

  He got to his feet. “You sure? If I’d known you were coming today, I would’ve canceled, but I’ve got this date, and…” He was grimacing and shrugging.

  “Go. I’ll be fine. You’ve helped me immensely.” He was already grabbing his jacket as I said, “And thanks for the food!”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

  “Yep.” I tried to keep the smile strong.

  He walked about, snuffing out all the candles one by one. He took the final one and handed it to me. “Here, take this with you. Can’t read in the dark.”

  As soon as he was gone, I was off to scanning titles, half of which seemed like gibberish. I grabbed anything that was readable and contained the word magic in the title, flipping through them.

  After skimming the first ten books, I decided I’d just try it out. If they could get me here with a puddle, I’d get myself out with one. If I could make that gem glow, I had to be at least as strong as those losers who’d brought me here.

  I made my way to the back room, where there was a little area set up in the corner with a teapot and some other odds and ends, as Zab had said there’d be.

  There was a shaker of salt and water in the teapot. The mess on the floor would be unfortunate, but it would have to be done. It wasn’t like this could happen outside, with an audience.

  I poured a puddle in front of me and then scattered the salt over it, the way Braid had done. With a deep breath, a thought of my little apartment in Salem, I did a quick click of my heels just for good measure. Had to give it all I had. I stepped into the puddle.

  And there I was. In the back room, except now I was standing in a puddle. Maybe I hadn’t jumped firmly enough.

  I took a step out of the puddle, and then jumped with purpose, leaving out all The Wizard of Oz stuff, since clearly it wasn’t working in my situation, and closing my eyes as I did.