Free February Thaw by Tanya Huff Page B

what else could she do? What else had Fred taught her?
    Trust what you actually see not what you think you see.
    They'd already gone after Fred once.
    What will you do if they come after you again?
    No wonder the ambulance attendants were so terrifying. Their eyes were a deep, blood red. Her dad couldn't see it, but he could tell something was wrong.
    As she pulled her hands apart creating a cat's cradle of light, the closer shadow turned to face her. She froze.
    "They should take all these sorts of people off the streets and put them in institutions where they belong."
    Thank you, Mrs. Harris . Shadows held no terror for her, she spent her life surrounded by shadows of her own making.
    For the second time that night, Isabel slapped her palms together.
    When she could see again, the shadows were gone and Fred was gone – was safe, she knew that for a certainty without knowing how she knew. Unfortunately, Mrs. Harris and the cop remained.
    "Well, you have your daughter home safe and sound, Mr. Peterson. I'll leave you to handle it." From the look the constable shot her, he clearly thought rather too much had been made about a sixteen year old who stayed out late on a Friday night.
    Her father looked like he had every intention of making even more about it. "I'm sorry to trouble you, officer."
    "No. This isn't right." Mrs. Harris stared wide-eyed around the foyer. "Where are the others? There were other men here. A filthy one, and two strong men to carry him away."
    "Uh, ma'am, there was only the three of us until the young lady came home."
    "No. That's wrong!"
    The constable exhaled once, through his nose, and moved behind Mrs. Harris. "Just the three of us, ma'am. It's late, I'll escort you safely home."
    She could walk out the door or she could be pushed. She chose to walk.
    Isabel turned to face her father. "So. How was your trip, Dad? Have a good time?"
    "Apparently not as good as you did."
     
    *
     
    Isabel was out on the terrace at dawn, holding a three day old salmon steak.
    With a poof of displaced air, a broad shouldered blond in a cable-knit sweater appeared by the table. Throwing the piece of fish at him seemed like a perfectly reasonable reaction.
    He frowned and deflected it with a glance. As it hit the floor, he turned his bright blue gaze back to Isabel. "Congratulations, you am passing your test."
    "Am passing?"
    "Are passed?"
    "Let me guess. English as a second... Are there going to be many more of you?" she asked as a small Asian woman and a tall, distinguished looking man in a turban appeared as well.
    All three of them ignored her, turning instead on each other.
    "What are you doing here?"
    "I came to inform her..."
    "No, we agreed I would tell her that..."
    "I are telling her, yah."
    "Oh no, not you. Me."
    Shouting simultaneously, they disappeared.
    "Well, you can see how much help they'd have been to you," Godfry muttered, dropping out of the sky beside the salmon. "Is that for me?"
    "Yes. Let me guess; three more of the nine?"
    "Who else. Do you know what they call a group of wizards? An argument."
    Made sense. She shifted her weight to one hip and waited until the crow finished eating. "They said I passed my test."
    "Yep." He flew up to his regular perch on the chair. "Last night, when you didn't immediately try to save your own ass and saved Fred."
    "The first time or the second time?"
    "The second time. The first time you were thinking that once they finished with him, they'd come after you." Wings folded, he cocked his head up at her. "As Fred would say, the world doesn't need wizards that taste good, they need wizards with good taste. You have to be worthy of the power."
    "So Fred wasn't teaching me how to pass the test?"
    "Wasn't he?"
    Try compassion.
    Isabel sighed. "Where is Fred?"
    "Having breakfast."
    "At the Second Cup garbage bin?"
    "Nah. Not on a Saturday. Saturdays it's the dumpster behind the Royal York. You get in much trouble with your old man?"
    She shrugged and, greatly daring,