I replaced the fox on my table. My mother had a point about Tula’s flag and, while we may embrace the new, we won’t ever forget.
“…Opal decided to try to use a bellows to pump air into the molten glass. She made a huge bubble. It was so thin it cooled too fast and burst. Looked like snow,” Mother said.
The dinner table erupted with laughter and I wished to disappear. Why couldn’t they pick on Mara or my brother, Ahir? Because their mistakes weren’t as funny and they didn’t try everything they could imagine to put a bubble into glass and produce disastrous results. They just had to blow air into the pipe. Jealous? Who me?
Ulrick was enjoying himself so I tried to keep my sense of humor. At least my family paid attention to me. It would be worse to sit here while everyone ignored me. I suffered through the stories and didn’t die of embarrassment. When dinner was over, I helped clean up and then escaped outside, needing a moment alone.
I sucked in the crisp night air. A half-moon hovered in the sky, casting a mist of light. I scanned the grounds around my home. A cat stalked a field mouse behind the glass factory, but otherwise all was quiet.
I hadn’t told my parents about Sir and Tricky’s abduction. But since the night of the wild dog attack, no other incidents had happened on the road. I felt safe here. The kitchen door opened. Leif and Mara headed toward the factory, hand in hand. I checked on the horses, and pulled a few things I would need from my saddlebags.
“There you are,” my father said. “Let’s go to my lab and go over your supply list. I told Ulrick to meet us there.”
He waited while I dug the small orb and a few glass spiders from my bag. I wanted to show them to him.
“Nice young man, your Ulrick,” Father said as we headed toward his lab.
“He’s not mine. We’re colleagues.” I tried to keep the exasperation from my voice.
“Don’t get all huffy at me.” He aimed a stern stare.
I regressed into a ten-year-old being scolded. “Sorry, Father.”
“As I was saying, Ulrick is quick and intelligent. I like him.”
It was the same description Ulrick had used for Moonlight. I suppressed a giggle, thinking about other descriptors like strong and loyal, which could be applied to both men and horses.
“He comes from a good family,” Father said.
A purebred, I thought.
“He has a very different style with the glass.”
Unique markings.
“It’s a shame Cesca didn’t encourage his experiments.”
Rejected by his mother.
“But I’ve told him he could use our factory anytime.”
Joined a new herd.
When we entered my father’s lab and Ulrick greeted me with genuine affection, I felt bad about my comparisons. Deep down I knew why I did it and why I kept telling my family Ulrick and I were colleagues. Because I didn’t want to hope. Didn’t want to imagine there was more between us than building a glass shop for the Keep. Avoiding the pain of rejection, I tried to rationalize. Or was my distancing due to a certain Stormdancer? Talk about slim hope. Kade had probably distanced himself from our connection. I should do the same. He would soon forget about me.
My father sat behind his desk and the three of us reviewed the supply list for the kiln. Beside each item, he wrote the name of a supplier Ulrick and I should visit in the morning. We discussed the specifications of the kiln and who to order the white coal from.
“A good day’s work and you should have it all ordered,” my father said. “Just make sure Gid doesn’t charge you more than three silvers for a load of coal.”
Satisfied we were done, I placed the orb and three glass spiders on my father’s desk. “What do you think?”
He picked up the orb and examined it close to the lantern light. “Is this one of the Stormdance orbs?”
“No. It was made by another,” I said. When he raised an eyebrow, I continued, “Someone named Ash. He might be from the Krystal Clan.”
“Never heard of him. Hmm. Functional and a little misshapen, otherwise sturdy.” He gave the orb to Ulrick and picked up one of the spiders. “It looks like a real spider. Who made these?”
Time for a little creative explaining. “I did…in a way.”
Twin confused expressions peered at me. I steeled myself and launched into how I channeled Tricky’s attack into the glass orb. “One reason for the decision to build the Keep’s glass shop, so we can experiment with this ability.”
“So these are magical spiders inside here?” my father asked. “Do they glow like your other animals?”
“No glow, and Master Cowan couldn’t use the magic inside.”
“Are you going to tell me why this magician attacked you?”
“As long as you don’t tell Mother.”
Father considered. “Unless there is a need to tell her, I won’t say anything.”
I explained about Sir’s group and their desire to duplicate the Stormdancers’ orbs.
Before he could reply, a muted shout reached us through the windows. The door flew open and Leif stood in the threshold. His eyes filled with horror.
“Mara,” he panted. “Bit by a snake. Come. Help.”
18
LEIF BOLTED TO the factory. Ulrick, my father and I scrambled to our feet. Mara had been bitten and had mere minutes to live. In my rush to leave, I knocked the glass spiders to the floor, and crushed one under my boot.
By the time I arrived, Mara was in Leif’s arms. Sweat dripped from her forehead and her body shook. A decapitated fer de lance snake and a bloody machete lay next to her.
My father cursed. He knelt beside her leg. The bleeding punctures were above her ankle. The venom coursed through her leg. Shock froze all other emotions as I watched my sister die.
“Ahir ran for the healer. I tied a tourniquet under her knee. But that won’t save her,” Leif cried.
Suck the venom out, I thought and moved to ward her. Father yelped. A large brown spider scrambled onto Mara’s foot and bent over her wound. He drew his arm back to swat it away.
“No,” I yelled instinctively. “Let it alone.”
The spider stabbed its mouth into the bite. Its body grew like a water skin being filled. When it finished sucking, the spider vanished. Blood splashed on the floor.
“The poison’s gone,” I said.
“How do you know?” Leif asked with a voice laced with pain.
Everyone stared at me. “The spider told me.”
Without hesitation, without question, Leif untied the leather strap on Mara’s leg; my father covered the bite and rubbed her calf to improve the flow of clean blood back to her foot. Leif cradled her in his arms, and she was enduring Mother’s worried attentions in the kitchen in no time. I loved my family. Only they would take the magical spider’s appearance and rescue in stride. Questions would arise later, but, for now, they were focused on the happy result.
Ulrick remained in the factory, disposing of the dead snake and hunting for more.
“Mara, you should know better,” Father admonished. “Cold night and hot kilns draw the snakes into the factory. What were you doing?”
She glanced at Leif, who had his arm around her shoulders. “I was…preoccupied.”
“Doing what?” he demanded.
Kissing Leif, I guessed. As her cheeks turned pink, Mara silently appealed to Mother.
“Jaymes,” Mother said, “you left the lanterns burning in your lab. Are you planning to do more work tonight?”
Deftly distracted, my father returned to his lab. I followed. About halfway to the building, I stopped. My emotions melted and drenched me. Relief—Mara didn’t die. Surprise—she was saved by a spider. Shock—a spider who magically disappeared. Fear—it resembled one of Tricky’s spiders.
By the time I joined my father, he had his magnifying glass in hand, inspecting one of my glass spiders. “Just what I thought. It’s the same spider only smaller. Care to tell me what’s going on?”
“I would if I could.” I grabbed a dustpan and brush, sweeping up the crushed glass from the floor. “I stepped on one. Maybe I released the illusion?”