Page 64 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“The Dark Ones will guard you while I’m gone,” Yrian told me as I sat at the table and, as swiftly as I could without making a pig of myself, consumed my breakfast.
“OK, but where are you going?Are you looking for Candy and Andy?”I asked, feeling itchy, a sensation I put down to them being near.I could almost feel them amongst the crowds, hunting for me.
“No.”He had his phone in hand as he walked out the door.“I must see the First Dragon.”
I won’t say I didn’t have about a million questions for him, some of which included why he needed to talk to his dad, how we were going to get to the Duat, and how he expected me to help him there if I couldn’t create glamours, but instead of sending him copious texts, I thanked Allie and headed down to the festival grounds.
“Do you have all of your glamours made?”Skye paced past me an hour later.We’d had a quick rehearsal and were back in one of the tents that had been turned over to us.Since the competition was winding down, many of the bands had already left, but it was the weekend, and the crowds seemed to have grown exponentially.I couldn’t help watching the streams of people as they milled around, and despite my contingent of vampire guards, my stomach felt tight and heavy.
“Yup, although maybe I should make a few extras.Does that person in the pink kerchief look like a demon to you?”I squinted against the sun, shading my eyes to watch a woman who I thought looked a bit suspicious.
“She looks fine to me, but I have only seen the one demon, and he looked normal, too,” Billie answered as she strolled over to where I peered around the edge of the tent at passersby heading for the main stage, which was being set up for the first band’s final set.“You are so jumpy, Becket.You should meditate.”
“I’ve never been able to do that,” I said absently, my attention shifting to one of the vampires, who was patrolling the area behind the stage where we were resting.“But I do think I’ll make a few more glamours.”
“Just don’t get yourself electric,” Skye warned as I retreated to the back of the tent, where I could sit in peace and focus on crafting, not only a few more visual effects for our set, but also a couple of glamours for Yrian and me.
“I’ll discharge, don’t worry.I don’t want to electrocute myself when we’re onstage,” I answered, and spent a productive half hour crafting glamours, getting up to vigorously dance off the buildup of magic, and then returning to watch the crowd.
“Revolution is done, and I have to say, whoever is making their glamours really came up with some nice effects—they had white doves flying from the stage, a line of waving French flags, and even a shadow crowd marching off the stage and into the audience,” Skye said when she and Billie returned from watching our competition.
“Shadow crowd?”I asked, looking up from where I was creating a detailed glamour for Yrian.“I don’t think I’ve heard of that.”
“They were transparent, like spirits,” Billie said, plopping down next to me, her face flushed with both time in the sun and excitement.“It was straight out ofLes Mis, you understand.The shadow people marched down off the stage, and everyone danced with them.”
“People interacted with these spirits?”I asked, wishing I’d gone with them to see the band.I had a feeling something wasn’t at all right.
“Yes!There weren’t enough of them for the entire audience, but everyone at the front was dancing with them,” she answered, casting me a curious glance.“Can we do that?”
“No,” I said, thinking hard.“To be honest, I don’t think that’s a glamour.Even my best illusion glamour can’t make something that is an image be corporeal.It’s why we don’t get burned by the firework glamours being cast so close to us.Shadow crowd ...I think I’m going to mention that to Yrian.”
Just as I pulled out my phone, Deni trotted up with one of the competition officials, a thin man with blue hair.She spoke so rapidly in French that I only caught half a dozen words.
“Our time has been moved?”I asked the official, since Deni and Billie ran into the tent to start changing into their outfits.
“Yes, yes, the Furry Kittens of Unbridled Doom have had a catastrophic argument, and three of the five members have already left,” he answered, running a hand through his choppy hair.“I tried to reason with them.I told them they were just twenty minutes away from performing, but the ladies, eh.They did not wish to stay when Daoud and Carlton insisted they bring in a Swede to join them in bed, so they left.They said that since they are currently in second place, they are guaranteed at worst the third-place prize.I tried to tell them that was only if they performed, but they would not listen, and drove off in Daoud’s van.”
“Ouch,” I said, feeling conflicted.I sympathized with the female band members, but at the same time, I was hoping that Yrian would be back in time to see us perform.Immediately, my inner narrator pointed out how telling that thought was.I ignored her, as usual.
The official took a deep breath, glancing over his shoulder toward the main stage.“Carlton said they would perform without the women, and asked if they could take your spot.I said no, but you know how he is.”
“Bitchy,” Skye said, going into the tent, obviously to change, as well.
“Very much so, yes,” the official said, and spread his hands wide in supplication.“He insisted, and since you were all here, I told him they would take your spot.You have ten minutes.”
He hustled off before I could protest.Given that the ladies were clearly not bothered by our change in time, I kept my disappointment to myself, and simply texted Yrian that our set was moved up, just in case he finished with his father early.
The crowd was pretty amped up by the time we stepped onto the stage, and once again, I doubted if I needed to deploy the special-effect glamours, but cognizant that the other bands were using them, as well, I lined ours up, and set them off as we progressed through our four-song set.We had fireworks that sparkled despite it being the middle of the day, and showers of light resembling glitter that drifted down onto the crowd, only to fade to nothing before actually touching them.For our final song, a thousand butterflies made of light flitted around the audience.I’d worked hard on those butterflies for the last week, and was proud to see that they not only landed on people but remained with wings gently fanning for a good three minutes before they disappeared into nothing.
“We have to win.We were so good!”Deni crowed when we made our way back to our tent after taking three bows.“The butterflies were the best I’d ever seen, Becket!And I love the silver shower of sparkles that trailed after me on my song.You didn’t tell me you’d made that!”
“I figured we needed a little extra oomph for the finale,” I said, sipping at an icy bottle of water.One of Christian’s vampires, a tall black woman named Hannah, poked her head into the tent and told me to not wander, because they’d caught sight of a couple of lesser demons.I nodded to her, and added, “But I agree we were on fire—so to speak—and everyone did phenomenally.”
“There’s no way we can’t win,” Billie said in voice thick with satisfaction.“Especially since the Doom Kittens can’t possibly be as good without their singers.”
“Mm-hmm.”I checked my phone, but there was no response from Yrian.
I stayed in the tent for the next hour, aware that the last band was performing, but not needing to see them.“I feel guilty that I’m more focused on the demons lurking out there than the actual contest,” I confided to Hannah, who had remained on guard outside the tent.“The band has worked so hard for this, but ...”I stopped, not wanting to admit just how selfish were my thoughts.
