His hands were clasped in front of him, left over right so we could see the circle and the star.
“Do you see it?”Ricky asked.
“Yes,” Lula said.
“Then that’s Cardamom.We know what you’re trying to do,” she said, wisely not announcing the book or us wanting to kill Headwaters.“He thinks he can help.”
“Why aren’tyouhere?”I asked a little louder.
“Because I’ll be more help here.Call me if you need anything.The house is looking for items or information that will give you guidance with the object you’re dealing with.”
“Thank you,” Lu said.
“You can do this,” Ricky said.“I know you can.”
Lu thumbed off the call.“It’s him.It’s Cardamom.”
“I’ll let Pamela know to bring him in,” Josie said.“She’ll lead him through the west door.That will dump them into a containment room.They’ll stay there for at least fifteen minutes.Overabundance of caution, but now’s not the time to skimp.”
“Oh, we agree,” Lu said.
“You have time if you want to pick out a room,” Elmer said.“They won’t be inside for at least a half hour.That is, if you’ve decided to stay with us.”
“We have,” I said.
There might be a safer place along the Route to find a magical weapon or to try using the spell book of the gods, but I didn’t know where it would be.
Besides, the Walches were family and had adopted us as such.They were not only offering every resource they had—physical and magical—to us, they were doing it at great risk to themselves.
“Down the hall,” Elmer said.“You know the way.My room’s first on the left.The girls have the first on the right.Any other is open for the taking.”
We walked into the control room where we’d dumped our duffels and bags, and then to the bedroom wing of the place.
Abbi skipped ahead of us, opening every door and makingoohandahhnoises as she looked into the rooms.The last door on the right made her stop.Then she ran to it.“I want this one!”
Each room was pretty much the same on either side.They held two twins or a double bed, wood floors with rugs beneath the beds.The walls were wood and brick and there were shelves and bedside tables or dressers.
The bedding was clean, functional, and in no way new.The pillows were plump enough I knew they were good quality feather.
“You picked the one the farthest from the kitchen?”I asked Abbi.“Are you sure?”
I looked in the room.Abbi was sprawled on the bed, arms akimbo.Hado, who apparently was done guarding the book, curled on her chest in kitten form, purring.
“Oh,” Lula said.“Look at that.”
Everything about the room was identical to the others except the ceiling.
The ceiling was painted midnight blue with a huge, accurate full moon in an arc of constellations and planets, each carefully identified in clean gold writing.
“I like this one,” Abbi sighed.“The moon is the best.”
“We’ll take the one across the hall,” Lula said.
“That puts us farthest from the kitchen, too, you know,” I said.
Lu patted my arm.“The least of our problems.”
She turned the light on and walked into our room.
