I just waited. I knew my magic created a response in nature. That much had been evident.
A splash landed in my palm and then another, so I lifted my hand higher. Go higher it said.
“Sure,” I mumbled.
There was a muted gasp as I scrambled to my knees and held my hand above my head. Finally, summoning up some serious courage I opened my eyes to see what I was actually doing.
The water bounced between my hand and the bowl in an endless cycle, it reminded me almost of a water feature where the same water was recycled in a loop. It lifted upwards in a gravity defying stream and then hit my palm before cycling back down to the bowl and the starting the process all over again. It seemed extra sparkly and I decided it must be showing off.
All the girls, regardless of where they were sat had their necks craned to watch. Zafina came to my side falling to her knees. “How do you do that? You said you had no power?”
“I…” I hesitated. “It’s the gold in my veins. Don’t you feel it, too?”
They all looked at me, all of them understanding me, yet I could tell from their blank faces they didn’t understand what I meant. My stomach and heart plummeted to the ground as one by one they all shook their head.
“You must have. It’s gold, I can sense it inside me. The Emperor, he has red, it courses through him, I can feel it in him, it’s opposite to mine.”
All I received were blank stares. Zafina put her hand on my arm and the water splashed to the floor; droplets landed everywhere.
“I knew as soon as you walked through the door.”
“Knew what?” I asked, but I already knew her answer.
Already could feel a dense weight of helplessness landing on my shoulders.
“Knew you were the one to save us.”
“How?” I muttered, my voice cracking. “How, when I can’t even save myself?”
If ever there was a chance to try to find out who I was or what my whole role in this random dual life, I seemed to be living was—this was it.
Zafina’s face was alive with emotion, her hand clutching my arm when the door down the far end of the corridor swung open and a guttural cry shouted, “Druid” into the large space.
My instant response wavered between trying to hide and puking, but with one hundred and ten other girls all focused on me there was no way in hell I’d let it show. They were waiting for someone to come and set them free of this hell, not to run quivering and hide under a deer skin.
“Guess I’m the only Druid in the room?” I cast a quick glance about, although there was little chance of Druid cloaks making it into the jail. We were all dressed the same, simple cotton chitons and not much else.
One hundred and ten heads shook in my direction.
“Well, ain’t that a bitch.”
“Druid!” The call cried louder, and heavy footsteps rang through the silence.
Zafina grasped my hand and pulled me close. “Don’t let him have it, Mae. You need to hide it. You’re our only hope, but if he finds it, he will never let you out of his sight.”
“And if he doesn’t find it, what happens to me then?” My voice quivered like a string on a bow.
“Then eventually he will get bored and you’ll get sent back to us.”
“But you said—”
“Druid!” The voice was closer, more impatient, closer down the passageways.
“But you said the ones who didn’t please never came back.”
Zafina nodded. “You’re a pretty girl, I think you’ll keep him entertained.”
Dear Lord. I had no idea what the girls from this age were used to, but just about every sense of self-preservation I’d ever maintained on the streets of Queens raised its furious head.
Now where was that can of mace when I needed it? Oh yes, at Fire Stone, two thousand years away.
A burly soldier found where we were all gathered, his skin perspiring from the heat. He didn’t look the kind of man who wanted to stomp through a sauna looking for a not quite trained Druid.
Desperate to know what awaited me, I nearly closed my eyes and sensed outside of myself trying to snatch a vision of the immediate future, but Zafina pinched me hard on the arm. “No. Don’t.”
The guard reached his arm for me, grasping me tight and leering at my squirm. “The Emperor waits, and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
He pulled me, half dragging me back towards the exit. I let him pull me away, staring at Zafina until she was out of view.
What in the hell was I going to do now? The gold in my veins bubbled and popped. Let us help, it cried, but I shut it down, locking it back into that place behind my heart where no one would be able to find it.
Augustus had been wrong. This was mine to control and even now, while being dragged down an endless hallway at the hands of a brutish man, I knew that this magic inside me was mine. Mine alone, to control. By some slip of fate, I had the magic everyone wanted.
Now, scared as I was, I was finally in the place where I could find out more.
“Ah, my Druid priestess.” The Emperor purred as I was flung in front of him. I caught my balance managing not to crash at his feet. I wasn’t in the mood for dirt diving. I wanted to get back down to the humid jail and discover what the other girls could do, but Zafina’s warning
