Worldweavers: Cybermage by Alma Alexander Read Free Book Online

Ben asked.
    “Now. They’re waiting for us back in San Francisco.”
    “You’ve been flitting about again, haven’t you?” Tess said, grinning. “Well, I’m in.”
    “Hell, yeah,” Terry said. “I’ve been poring over some of those notes that Humphrey May left behind. It’s confusing and there’s a vast amount missing, but what there is…I want to know more. I’m in.”
    Magpie and Ben both hesitated, and then spoke more or less at once.
    “But I promised I’d go…”
    “I don’t want to go on this wild goose chase if…”
    They stopped, glancing at each other. Ben tilted his head in a signal that Magpie should go first. “Really,” she said, “but we do make plans sometimes, you know. You might have given me a few days’ warning. I need to organize my life before I can just flit about, lending you my senses.”
    “I don’t see why I should,” Ben said. “I’m the one who doesn’t quite fit in here, anyway. It was…different last year—the Whale, the Nothing—but thenthis summer you went off chasing ghosts, Thea, and you didn’t need us then.”
    “That’s not fair,” Tess murmured. “She did call us all in.”
    “Not really,” Ben said mulishly. “We weren’t a part of anything then, not together, and I—”
    “Oh, get over it,” said a sixth voice unexpectedly, in a tone of such exasperation that the five at the corner table all sat up sharply as though stung.
    The girl sitting at the next table suddenly scraped back her chair and whirled to face them.
    “You’re just put out because she hasn’t asked you properly,” Kristin said, pointing at Ben, who gaped at her in complete astonishment. “And you ”—she turned sharply toward Magpie—“you’re just scared that you’ll lose your place in the hot set. And none of you has any idea how wonderful it is to have friends who are just your friends and whom you can just call up out of the blue and say, hey, I need your help with something weird, and you don’t ask questions and you just do. Because you’re friends .”
    “Kristin,” Thea began, but Kristin turned on her next.
    “To have someone you can trust,” she said. “Just like that.”
    “Good grief, what set you off?” Ben said. “Did that Faele that handed you the tooth spell make you prone to unexpected temper tantrums?”
    “No,” Kristin said. “I get the temper from my mother. That’s probably how she managed to annoy the Maledicent who cursed me in the first place—by sassing her back when she shouldn’t have. Other people get to be pretty or successful or rich. My Faele gifts are snaggle teeth, and other useless stuff. Like, I can find things. Big deal. You should just see how grateful my grandparents are when I ‘find’ stuff they’ve mislaid—they just think I’m making constant fun of them—every time they start with ‘Where’s my…whatever…?’ and there I am, holding it in my hand. At least you guys might actually achieve something useful . But no— you ’re sulking,” she said, pointing to Ben, “and you ’re playing the homecoming queen”—the finger swung to Magpie—“and you are interested in the logistics of it, pure and simple, and aren’t even thinking about what it might mean.” The final point was at Terry, who looked startled to be included in this tirade.
    “I am so , interested,” Terry protested. “I’ve been working with—” He shut up abruptly, glancing around.
    “There’s too many secrets,” Kristin said. “You should all just trust each other.”
    She turned on her heel, her cheeks suddenly scarlet, and stomped away with her shoulders hunched around her ears.
    “ She was eavesdropping ,” Magpie said, outraged.
    “And then she has the gall to give us a lecture?” Ben muttered.
    But Tess, still staring at Kristin’s retreating back, looked thoughtful. “Who was that and what did she do with the Walrus?” she murmured.
    “It’s Kristin. Kristin Wallers . Those teeth really aren’t her