Bright Blaze of Magic
Page 14

Normally, I would have enjoyed watching all the tourist rubes, but that strange tension I’d felt back at the mansion just wouldn’t leave me. My sight magic didn’t let me see the future, not like Seleste’s Talent did, but I couldn’t help but feel something bad was about to happen. Or maybe that was just because I’d spent the last two weeks stealing weapons from the most dangerous man in town. During the last four years, I’d avoided the Families—and especially stealing from them—as much as possible. But now, I’d swiped the very thing that Victor prized above all—his magic-filled black blades—and I was afraid it was going to come back around and bite me, like a monster I’d gotten a little too close to.
Sometime very, very soon.
Devon pulled into a parking lot off the Midway that was reserved for the Families, but it was already full of cars and there weren’t any empty spaces. The surrounding streets were also full of vans, buses, and other tour-group vehicles, and he had to drive five blocks over before he found an empty spot on one of the quieter side streets.
“Come on,” Devon said, getting out of the car. “We’re on the opposite side of the Midway from the restaurant. We’ll have to hurry to catch up with the others.”
Felix and Mo took the lead, both of them still talking about Mo repainting the Razzle Dazzle and arguing about which colors were more soothing, but Devon stepped up beside me and held out his hand. I smiled and laced my fingers through his, enjoying the warmth of his skin against mine. Together, we followed our friends.
We cut through a couple of alleys and stepped out into the Midway, which was even more crowded than the surrounding streets and shopping squares. Loud, upbeat music blasted out of the restaurants, candy shops, and other businesses that made up the enormous outer circle of the Midway, with still more music blaring from the carts selling popcorn, cotton candy, T-shirts, and sunglasses that were spaced along the cobblestone paths winding from one side of the area to the other. The scents of funnel cakes, corn dogs, and other deep-fried treats filled the air, and neon lights flashed on practically everything, all of them in the shapes of swords, monsters, and other magic-themed objects. Despite their modern goods, almost all of the businesses had old-timey-sounding names like Courtly Chocolate Creations and Princely Pizzeria. It was an odd mix of contemporary and renaissance faire, with a whole lot of cheap and tacky thrown in for good measure.
We slowly maneuvered through the crush of people, made it over to one of the cobblestone paths, and wound our way through the large park that took up the center of the Midway. Fountains bubbled up into the air, with kids laughing, shrieking, and running through the cool, arching sprays of water while their parents looked on from their perches on nearby benches. The heat of the day had finally broken, but the air was still as thick and sticky as one of the caramel apples you could buy from the food carts.
But I looked past the running kids, tired parents, and busy vendors at the other people in the park—the guards.
The Families had long ago divided up the Midway like the sections of a pie, and every Family’s guards patrolled their respective area. It was easy to tell the tourists with their matching, neon-colored T-shirts and baseball hats from the guards, who were dressed in black boots and pants, along with cloaks and feathered cavalier hats that boasted their Family’s colors. Of course, the tourist rubes thought that the guards, their old-fashioned clothes, and the swords and daggers belted to their hips were all just part of the fun, and many of the rubes stopped to snap photos of the men and women who were patrolling through the park. What the tourists didn’t realize was that the guards and swords were more than just cheesy decorations. The guards all took their jobs very, very seriously, watching out for everything from shoplifters to pickpockets to monsters who might wander out of the shadows and slither a little too close to the crowds.
I grew especially tense as we moved through the Draconi section of the park and started seeing men and women wearing red cloaks and hats, along with gold cuffs stamped with that dragon crest. Of course the Draconi guards knew that our black suits and shirts marked us as Sinclairs, and they all turned to follow our movements as we walked through their territory.
The guards didn’t make a move to attack, but they all glared at us and dropped their hands to the hilts of their swords. My own fingers twitched, itching to feel the security of my own sword strapped to my side. Beside me, Devon gripped my hand a little tighter, as tense as I was. Even Felix and Mo stopped talking and picked up their pace, wanting to get through this section of the park as quickly as possible.
Still, the deeper we moved into Draconi territory, the more something bothered me, something about the guards. I don’t know exactly why or when I started counting the ones we passed, but I did. One, two, three.... Just like up at the Draconi mansion last night, it didn’t take me long to figure out what was different.
There weren’t nearly as many Draconi guards patrolling here tonight as there usually were.
With their blood-red cloaks and feathered hats, the guards were easy to pick out of the crowd. Given how many tourists were out on the Midway, I would have expected at least three dozen guards to be patrolling, if not more, but I only spotted a handful of them. I scanned the food carts, the bubbling fountains, and the grassy areas beyond, but I didn’t spot any other Draconis. Weird.
Last night, Victor had had too many guards up at the Draconi mansion, and now there weren’t enough down here on the Midway where they were truly needed. What was he up to? Maybe he thought that doubling the guards at the mansion would keep all of his black blades safe and secure inside his secret room until he was ready to use them. Of course, that wasn’t the case, but still, I wondered why he’d changed the guard rotations so much.
“Something wrong?” Devon asked.
I shook my head. “Still wishing I had my sword, that’s all.”
“Don’t worry. In a couple of hours, we’ll be back at the mansion, and this dinner will be nothing but an awkward memory.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I forced myself to smile at him.
Devon grinned back at me, then turned to keep an eye on the Draconi guards as we hurried past them.
A minute later, we finally left their territory behind. Devon, Felix, and Mo all relaxed and started talking back and forth to each other, but I remained quiet, still scanning everything and everyone around us, and still feeling like something was seriously wrong.