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.well, I couldn’t think what witches talked about.“You, in part,” said Robert and I wondered if, perhaps, that should have been a little more obvious.I had had a strange and long day, I could be forgiven, I thought.“We will need to decide your future,” he finished.I considered the last twenty-four hours.My future looked very different now from what I had planned.Hell, I couldn’t even have planned the past day.“And I actually get a say in that?”Robert smiled companionably.“We can’t force you to do anything.You did after all come here willingly,” he reminded me, a small smile playing on his lips.“I didn’t have much of a choice.Not that I don’t appreciate Étoile turning up in the nick of time,” I added hastily, spreading my hands, the teacup wobbling precariously.“I do, but this all seems very much out of my hands.”“If you will do us the courtesy of meeting and listening with the council tonight, you will, of course, be at liberty to do whatever you choose.Naturally, we hope that you will take on board what we have to say and listen carefully to our recommendations before you decide anything,” said Robert, and his voice was at once authoritative and open.“It is our wish that you stay safe, above all else.”“Why am I so special?” God help me, I sounded whiny and ungrateful.Eleanor looked at her husband before answering me herself.“Because you are,” she replied, inflection on the last word, as if that answered everything.I wondered if Étoile had learned evasive lessons from her.I pondered Eleanor’s answer and wanted to ask more, but I had the feeling that neither Robert, nor his wife, were going to tell me much at this stage.This initial meeting seemed to be about pleasantries, a meet-and-greet and a glance-over, much as I might have gotten at any new temp job, but not a moment to impart knowledge of any great worth.Well, that could work both ways.Oh well.I had nowhere better to be, I reminded myself, I could wait and see what happened.Eleanor poured another cup and handed it to Robert.He took it with a nod as he moved towards the mantelpiece and seemed to be staring somewhere over my head as though lost in thought.He sipped and returned the cup to the saucer with a delicate chink.He was clearly in no great hurry either.“Witches have been a part of the world for centuries,” Robert said at last, choosing his words carefully.“I say witches, but, of course, we have been called all sorts of things.Spell-casters, wizards, magicians, warlocks, sorcerers and worse.Witch seems to have stuck in the lexicon.Of course, we have gone to ground for the past few hundred years ever since the ghastly witch hunts that destroyed so many of our kind and others that were accused of being one of us.“After a few generations, we were relegated to myth and legend, which suited us just fine as we were able to live peacefully once again and regroup.The short version of this sorry tale is this.We’re out.There are those out there who have always been aware of us and have taken advantage of the world’s turmoil to persecute us once again.We have taken steps to gather whomever we can, to draw them to us and protect them.” Robert was getting into his stride, his voice rumbling on and I listened with fascination as he unfolded a history of which I had barely been aware.“Stella, you have a rare gift, an inherited gift.We don’t think you can control it yet, and we want to help you and protect you.We want to keep you safe.”It was Robert’s last words that chilled me to the bone.“We don’t want to see you burn.”I shivered.The sight on the television – earlier today? Last night? I couldn’t be sure – seemed to have stuck to my eyeballs.If anyone wanted to protect me from that, well, great.I was hardly going to knock them back without another thought.“Did you save everyone?” I asked.Robert shook his head and sighed.“There simply wasn’t time or enough of us to reach everyone.A lot of the craft has simply gone dormant, or died out.There aren’t that many of us with real power, though occasionally some throwback talent crops up and we help where we can.“Some of the older, more skilled witches went to ground as soon as the attacks came to light in Europe.They will make their way to us, or band together, when they deem it safe.Others are barely aware of their powers and we decided it was safer to leave those who were unlikely to be attacked.Their magic can barely be identified.Some, like you, are on the cusp of realising real power and so it was you we decided to save.We were too late for some.”“Am I one of these throwback.talents?” I asked as Robert and Eleanor quickly eyed each other.Robert answered.“No, your magic is strong.It could only have come from your parents.”As he was speaking, a thought had been creeping up on me and it was out of my mouth before I could stop it.“You knew where I was?”Robert inclined his head in a brief nod.“You’ve known where I was for.how long?” Had they known where I was throughout my long, lonely childhood when I so desperately needed people? Solid, dependable people who didn’t think I was a freak? I clenched my jaw.Robert and Eleanor exchanged another glance and it wasn’t reassuring.They had known then.Perhaps they had known where I was for a long time, not just in the few days or weeks that led up to the witch hunt.At least they had the grace to look embarrassed, or I thought they did.It was Eleanor who answered in her clipped Manhattan accent.“No, we had no idea for quite some time.Not until the last year or so.We couldn’t just pluck you out of England on a whim,” she said.“You wouldn’t have come.Besides, we didn’t know what would become of you for certain.”“You managed to get a passport for me when it suited you.” I was trying to keep my voice as even and inoffensive as possible.It was tough going.“That passport is yours.Your name, and your nationality.” I was puzzled [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]