I wasn't strong enough to search for my mother in Cansino's world and stay aware of the real world. I focussed on Sarafina. And found her. I recognised the movement of her magic, the undulating Fibonacci waves. She was away from here. And in motion. Not alone. Another magic tumbled around her, stronger than that of my mother. An entirely different flavour. I said its name.
I forced myself to open my eyes completely, to reclaim daylight.
"What did you say?" Jay-Tee screamed, hurting my head.
"Jason Blake," I said. "My mother is with Jason Blake."
10
Following Magic
"No! How? Where?" Jay-Tee spluttered.
She couldn't believe it. Not him. Not here. "Why would he be here? What would he want with— "
Reason took off at a run for the main road. Jay-Tee easily kept pace, without even remotely needing to use magic. Reason was moving like Reason again, not like she was under a spell. Jay-Tee grabbed her arm. "Reason? How do you know he's got your mom? What's going on?"
Reason shook Jay-Tee off, jumped the low stone fence, and stuck her arm out for a taxi. Two women walking by in office clothes turned to stare at them. Jay-Tee ignored them. "Reason! Tell me what's happening!"
"I have to get to Sarafina!"
Several cars drove by, none of them yellow. Jay-Tee wondered if they even had taxis in Sydney. Maybe they had gypsy cabs, but she didn't see any black limos drive by either.
Reason moved a little farther out onto the road, waved her arm some more.
"Reason, where are we going?"
"I'm not sure."
"What do you mean you're not sure? What do you mean you saw
him
?"
A taxi pulled up, painted red, blue, and white. Only the small light on top made it look remotely like a cab. What was the point of a taxi that didn't look like a taxi? Why wasn't it yellow? Reason climbed in and Jay-Tee scooted after her.
"Where to, girls?"
"Ah," Reason said. "Er." She paused, turned to Jay-Tee, like Jay-Tee had some idea of what was going on. "This is going to sound weird, but I'm not sure exactly where to. Can I just give you directions?"
Jay-Tee thought it sounded very weird, but the driver turned around and grinned at them. "What? You're not going to tell me, 'Follow that car'?" One of his teeth was metal. Jay-Tee shuddered. Metal in her mouth made her want to barf. She didn't even like accidentally touching a fork or spoon to her tongue. "Can you at least give me a general direction," he continued, "or do you want a scenic tour of the inner west?"
Reason stuck her head out the window, then her shoulders, and then started easing more of herself out of the cab, until Jay-Tee worried she was going to fall. She was just about to grab her when she slid back in. "South," Reason said, "and a little bit east. You need to do a U-ie."
"Consider it done."
The cab turned to the right violently. Jay-Tee clutched her seat belt and winced, expecting to be wiped out by oncoming traffic. It took her a second to remember about everyone driving on the wrong side of the road here.
Jay-Tee didn't much like cars, especially being in back. It made her carsick. Walking was better. Running was best. Not that she could run properly anymore, not without killing herself. She glanced at Reason. Well, Jay-Tee might never run or dance again, and she was about to go barking mad, but at least she wasn't glowing or moving like an alien or seeing stuff that wasn't there. She wished Tom were with them. He'd be bummed, missing all the excitement.
"So where are we going?" she whispered to Reason.
"We're following my mother. She's headed southeast."
"What's southeast of here?" Jay-Tee asked.
"I don't know. The ocean, I guess."
"You think she's going to get on a boat?"
"You got some kind of tracker on your mum?" the driver asked, and Jay-Tee wondered how he could hear them from the front seat.
"Yes," Reason said. Jay-Tee hoped the driver wouldn't ask to see it. "She's, um…she gets confused."
The driver nodded. "I saw where youse were coming from. Kalder Park. Must be hard."
Reason agreed that it was. Jay-Tee suppressed a laugh. The driver didn't know even the half of it.
"You know, the airport's south of here," he said. "Do you reckon your mum could have it together enough to catch a plane someplace?"
Reason looked at Jay-Tee. "The airport," she said. "Jason Blake couldn't have come through the you-know-what, could he?"
Jay-Tee shook her head. There was no way he'd come through the door. They'd been at Esmeralda's practically the whole time. But he could have come by plane.
"So you want me to head to the airport?" the driver asked.
"Yes, thank you."
"No worries."
"We should call Esmeralda. Tell her what's happening."
"There'll be a phone at the airport."
"That might be too late. What if we have to catch a plane or something?"
"Do you have a mobile phone?" Reason asked the driver. Jay-Tee was so embarrassed, she didn't know where to look. Reason didn't know anything! Only someone bone ignorant or bat-shit crazy would ask to borrow a taxi driver's phone.
"Sure," the driver said, as if Reason had asked the most normal question in the world. He handed it to her. "No calling overseas, mind."
"Thank you," Reason said, passing it to Jay-Tee.
"Okay," Jay-Tee said, wondering if this was just another thing they did differently in Australia. "What's Esmeralda's number, math girl?"
* * *
Esmeralda didn't pick up on her work number, so Jay-Tee tried her cell. She answered first ring.
"Cansino. Who's speaking?"
"Hey, Mere, Jay-Tee. Wha— "
"Where are you?" Esmeralda said, sounding angry. "I came home for lunch and there's no Reason, no you, no Tom. I checked Tom's place and the other house. Why didn't you call me?"
"Sorry," Jay-Tee began. "We— "
"What happened with the social worker? She's left me messages at work and on the mobile. What did you three say to her?"
"Nothing. I mean— "
"Whatever it was, she wasn't very impressed. Where are you now? Is Reason with you?"
Jay-Tee told her as much as she could with the driver listening. Esmeralda said she would meet them at the international terminal in front of the departure gates. She was convinced that Jason Blake and her daughter would be flying back to New York.
Jay-Tee hoped she and Reason would be able to find their meeting place. She'd never been to an airport before. She also hoped that Mere wouldn't be so mad at them by then.
* * *
Reason paid with money she pulled from the air, and the driver wished them luck. She jumped out of the cab and dashed through the sliding glass doors, skidding along the tiled floor, around people laden with suitcases or enormous backpacks— there were so many of them, and a ridiculous number had small children clutching their hands, or worse, attempting escape and getting in the way of everyone else. Reason headed up escalators, then into a maze of overcrowded shops and restaurants. Past hundreds of confusing signs. If Jay-Tee hadn't been chasing after her, she could've gotten lost pretty damn quick. So many different airlines, different exits. So many doors with big signs, all in red, screaming that only authorized people were permitted.
It was as crowded as midtown. All of the people not out walking the streets of Sydney, Jay-Tee decided, had found their way here. She finally believed that Sydney was a city. She wondered how big JFK airport was. It had to be at least ten times the size of this one, given that New York was at least that much bigger than Sydney.
Reason moved faster than Jay-Tee'd ever seen her move before. Jay-Tee weaved her way through the crowd, her skin prickling with magic. She could feel it pulling at her and started to move faster, easier, her legs becoming oiled and limber.
No! She couldn't do this.
She slowed, biting her lip, forcing herself to resist the crowd magic. But that magic was so easy— it felt so good.
A cute guy smiled at her, did a turn to keep looking, half held his arms out, like he was asking her to dance. So many people in between them, and yet the path to him was so clear, she tingled with it.
Jay-Tee pinched her palm, let go of what she'd been feeling, said no to the pull of crowd magic, and followed Reason without giving in to her own speed, her own rhythm. She had so little magic left.
By the time Jay-Tee caught up, Reason was standing with Esmeralda at a big entranceway littered with discarded luggage carts. A big sign said, PASSPORT CONTROL, PASSENGERS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT; smaller ones instructed passengers to leave their carts behind. Jay-Tee bent over to catch her breath.
"Through there?" she asked.
Reason nodded, looking like she was going to cry again.
"That sucks," Jay-Tee observed, when her heartbeat was almost back to normal.
"Sarafina doesn't have as much magic. I think he's draining her."
Jay-Tee didn't know what to say. She wasn't surprised. It was what he'd done to her too. Over and over. And to Reason, that once. He was greedy and evil. He didn't care about anyone but himself.
"I'll just get us tickets. Doesn't matter to where," Esmeralda said. "We'll go through there and rescue her." She took a step away, then stopped. "Passports. Mine's at home."
"I don't have one," Reason said.
"Me neither," Jay-Tee said. "Never have had one. This is my first time anywhere foreign." And Jay-Tee's first time at an airport, though she wasn't going to admit that. She'd never been outside New York (well, except for Hoboken and Jersey City, which hardly counted). If you're born in the coolest city in the world, Jay-Tee figured, you didn't need to travel. "Can't you just magic your way past them? Can't be that hard. I've been getting into clubs for years."
Mere looked at Jay-Tee, considering. Jay-Tee didn't like the look.
"Getting past all that security, passport checks, immigration," she said, "would take serious magic, Jay-Tee. A lot of it. And if just one of them is a dead spot…Well, I'd be buggered, wouldn't I?"
"How many dead spots are there, really?" Jay-Tee asked. "I mean, I've only— "
"I'll do it," Mere said firmly.
"You will?" Jay-Tee hadn't expected that turn.
"Oh, no! She's moving
really
fast now." Reason turned and ran to the huge glass window, pressed her face up against it.
In-a-plane fast
, Jay-Tee thought, joining Reason at the window. "It's okay. We'll find her."
Reason nodded, a tear trickled down her face. She wiped it away. "Why did she go with him?"
"Maybe he drugged her? Or…"
Reason turned to her, looking bleak. Jay-Tee shut up.
"Come on," Mere said. "Let's check departing flights."
Reason walked along beside them, but her movements had changed. She'd gone alien again. Jay-Tee suppressed a shudder.
"They're flying west," Reason said as they came to a large board thick with flights to all parts of the world. A whole bunch Jay-Tee'd never heard of before. Where were Auckland, Bahrain, and Guangzhou? Or Incheon, Nadi, and Nouméa?
"West?" Esmeralda asked. "You're sure? If they're heading to the U.S. they'd be flying east."
"Of course he's going to New York," Jay-Tee said. "Where else would he want to take her?"
"None of the recent departures are to America," Esmeralda said. "Look: the flights at the right time are to Auckland, Bangkok, Nouméa, Shanghai, and Singapore."
"And Kuala Lumpur," Jay-Tee said, reading it off the board. "Why would he go to any of those places?"
"There are other doors," Reason said in her new, creepy way. This time Jay-Tee failed to suppress the shudder.
* * *
In the car on the way home, Jay-Tee felt dizzy again. She leaned her head against the window, closed her eyes. She remembered once driving out to Coney Island with her uncle and aunt and five little cousins. It had been August, and the car was so crowded that her littlest cousin, Tia, had to sit on her lap. Tia'd thrown up before they'd even hit Brooklyn.
There was no air conditioning. They had all the windows rolled down, letting them breathe in hot, fumey air. Even after cleaning up, all Jay-Tee could smell was Tia's vomit.
The traffic was bumper-to-bumper, like everyone in the whole city had decided to go driving. Jay-Tee remembered wishing that they'd just taken the train, because then her dad could've come too and it would've been quicker and more comfortable. Though nothing would've gotten Danny to go— he was always too busy playing basketball.