The diminished size and the passivity of Celia left me scowling. The fake ghost had rattled the glass at us in City Centre, but took no other actions as Ana and I had walked down the street. And now it had floated behind them brilliant-colored, but passive. I wished I knew what the display meant, but I was still learning—I had avoided deeper knowledge of the Grey at times and now wished I hadn't. Every time I thought I had eliminated something, or gained information, I came up against contradiction as dense as the sudden wall in the Grey.
I toyed with the idea of following the couple into the club and hanging out in the lounge to see what happened next, but I knew they would spot me. Sight lines in the Musiquarium lounge were short and broken, and if the two had gone into the main showroom, I'd have to take potluck on a seat—if the show wasn't sold out already. I'd have to let it go and turn my energy to something more productive.
I called Mara Danziger.
CHAPTER 24
When I called, Mara was stuffing food into Brian and had to relay her answers to me through Ben. She made some guesses, but said she could only confirm them in my presence, so I was heading for another evening with the Danzigers. I hoped Brian would be in a calm mood, as I was already tired.
Mara let me through the door to wonderful quiet. I stood in the entry hall and blinked, looking around for signs of rhino. Mara grinned at me, her green eyes sparking with mischief.
I cast her a wary glance. "You've put him in a barrel in the basement," I stated.
"No," she replied, laughing, "though I'm sure he'll be as hung-over in the mornin' as if we had done. His Irish nature is showin' through— I'm afraid he snatched a whiskey glass and helped himself before we could stop him. He was as fluthered as a fiddler at a wedding, then out like the proverbial light." She fairly skipped ahead of me to the living room.
"Brian didn't have any help getting at that whiskey glass, did he?" I asked.
"Not a bit," she replied, plumping down on one of the pale green sofas with a whoosh of breath. "The horrors'll probably cure him of ever drinking another drop again. If the Children's Services ever get wind, they'll call me an unfit parent for letting him at the booze the once and I'll never hear the end of what damage I've done my poor child. But it's blessed quiet for once. Ben just took him up to bed.”
"How much did he get?”
"Oh. . not much—less than half an ounce, and that watered. He just grabbed the glass and took a drink, then made the most awful face! You'd have thought he'd swallowed fire. Then he dropped a perfectly good glass of Jamey on the floor and ten minutes later he was passed out on the rug. I finally understand why my aunt used to slip a tot into my cousin's bedtime milk. He was a right monster." She caught her breath, then blew it back out in a cheek-bulging gust. "My, I am blathering on. Now, let's see what's on with you. Oh.”
I stopped on the verge of sitting down as Mara stared at me with surprise. "What?”
"There's somethin' tangled on ya. Some magical thing.”
I looked down at myself. "It must be the damned poltergeist, though I don't see anything.”
"Well, you wouldn't, would you? It's rather like tryin' to see the back of your own head without a mirror. Every time you look it moves around. I suppose I could snip it off…”
I had an idea and I put up my hands to keep her back. "No. If I'm connected to it, it's connected to me, and I can follow this line to it— if I can find the thread to follow.”
"Would you want to?”
I thought about it. "I might. Can you remove it later?”
"Well. . yes. I don't see why not. Its not the same as that knot or whatever it is that monster stuck in you—though that might be why it's caught on you. Attracted like to like. Grey things sticking together like Velcro.”
"I hope that won't be happening a lot in the future.”
"Not likely. It's never happened before this. Just a moment, let me get the mirror so you can see it.”
A mirror—
But she'd already jumped up and run out of the room. I shrugged and sat on the sofa in the comfortable creaking of the old house muttering to itself. Albert wafted in and circled around the room before fading away again, and as I relaxed and let the Grey flood in on me as it wished, I could see the curling, golden vines of Mara's protective charms that lay over the house. Without the charge of the rhino-boy, the Danzigers' home was serene and more restful than my own. The poltergeist didn't seem to be able to penetrate it any more than most other Grey things.
Mara returned with Ben and a small silver hand mirror. She told Ben to sit down a moment and brought the mirror to me.
"Let me just get this charm back in place," she said, muttering and fingering the edges of the mirror. She made a shape on the surface that glittered a moment in blue and gold before it sank into the mirror and vanished. "There now. It's a silly trick, but it shows you the back of yourself." She glanced into it. "Hm. My hair wants brushing. Here, you take a look and see if you can spot the thread.”
She handed me the mirror and I took it, looking into the surface and seeing only a patch of straight brown hair. "You may need to move it about a bit to see more of yourself. Hold it out farther," Mara suggested.
I stretched my arms out and moved the mirror around slowly. It was strange seeing my own back from such an angle, like a weird camera. The reflection in the mirror moved like a regular mirror: in the opposite direction of my perceived motion. The small, weird view made me feel a little dizzy, but I spotted the thin yellow thread. It circled my head and neck, then spun away into the deepness of the Grey the same way I'd seen similar strands on the séance members. Now that I knew what to look for, I could catch a hint of it out of the corner of my eye.
"That's going to be a real pain to try and follow," I said.
"Why would you want to follow it?" Ben asked.
"To find the poltergeist and the person on the other end—the one who has control of the thing. I don't know how I'll follow something that's behind me, though.”
"Just twist it around to the front," Mara suggested.
I looked askance at her.
"Here, I'll give it a go," she said. She put her hands up on either side of my head and hummed a bit as she tried to get ahold of it. "Stiffer than I thought," she muttered. "There's something awfully strong on the other end, but it doesn't actually care if it's behind or before, so. ." She gave a grunt, concentrating hard, and made a sudden twist with her hands. "There," she crowed.
I gasped as something wrenched across the back of my eyes. A ripping sensation like a hank of hair being yanked from the back of my head flooded my skull with a flash of pain that vanished as fast as it came. "Ow.”
"Oh. I'm sorry. It shouldn't have hurt.”
"It did. Not much, but…" I rubbed the back of my head but felt nothing unusual. Another look in the backward mirror showed my head as it usually was, the yellow thread twisted now to leave its tail in front, though the loop around my head remained as it had been. I looked down my chest and saw a weak yellow gleam near my left arm.
"It's a bit off to the left…" I observed.
"I could give it another shove," Mara suggested.
I was quick to nip that idea in the bud. "No. I can work with this. How am I supposed to chase after this thing, though? When I tried to take a look at it once earlier tonight, it was cut off by a building. Or I think it was a building.”