Hiding The Truth

Druids, Talents, and Truth

"I'm sorry, what? Druidry? Like... ancient wizards traveling the world working magic and healing and advising kings, Druidry?" Lila's expression made it clear she thought Cam had lost his mind.

"Exactly like that. I'm not a full Druid yet, only an Initiate. It takes a lot of training and learning and travel to become a Master. One of the things I've learned is how to spot Talent. Another is how to recognize malevolent forces. I don't have natural Discernment, I had to be taught. But you do, you should know Reever is a bad apple and the Organization is worse." Cam turned her again, keeping time with the music.

"I don't use it, Cam." Lila shook her head. "Too dangerous."

"Too dangerous not to!" He countered. "Anyway Talents don't work that way, you can't shut them off like a switch."

"I beg to differ. Maybe you can't. I most certainly can."

"At what cost, Lila? How could you be so foolish? Squandering such a gift?"

"Foolish? I was trying to stay alive, stay free... stay White." She had slipped. Damn!

Cam winked, "I warned you I could always find the truth."

"Is this really the place for this discussion?" Lila huffed.

Cam surveyed the crowd. "Maybe not. Shall we take a break?"

"Please." She said. "I need to freshen up. Perhaps you could fetch us some punch? I'll meet you at the entrance."

Cam headed off to fill cups while Lila went the opposite direction. She didn't stop at the ladies' room at all. Instead she went straight to the dagger-seller's stall outside and bought the owl-emblazoned blade. It wasn't cheap, but somehow she knew she had to give it to Campbell Stuart. She didn't know why and she didn't want to think too much about the impulse that drew her to it. It felt too much like Intuition. Forget it, she told herself, slipping the slim box into her large leather purse. It's gift wrapped now. No going back.

When she met him at the entrance, she was coming from the wrong direction and Cam knew something was up. He eyed her up and down, but couldn't quite suss out what she had been up to. Spotting some commotion inside the gymnasium, something to do with the square dancers, he was suddenly gripped by an intense desire to get away from the party, away from the festivities, anywhere but here. Lila felt it too, and in near unison they spoke it aloud.

"Do you want to-" His words tumbled over hers.

"Can we g-" Lila started to say.

"Yes," he said. "Let's go down to the river park."

The drove away in silence, the Buick's windows open a crack and the breeze streaming in, ruffling Lila's hair and blowing Cam's curls about madly. Some new, popular musical group made up of men barely out of boyhood sporting slightly-too-long hair and slightly-too-tight pants played on the radio, singing some presumably Russki-inspired inanity about imagining there was no heaven. When they arrived at the river, Cam offered his hand to help Lila out of the shiny car. After he closed the heavy door, she didn't let go.

"Lila," he began, but she interrupted him again.

"I don't want to believe you, Cam. I signed the contract. They gave me train tickets to Shadow Holler. I only have a couple of weeks left. Doug promised me enough salary to put Junior in private school! I know it's vulgar for a lady to talk about money, but I don't give a fig. Arrest me, I suppose. My husband left us, Mama hasn't been herself since we left the Reserve, and at the end of the day, I'm all Junior has left. I have to take care of him. I have to make him White." The desperation in her voice was almost pitiful and it hurt Cam to hear it.

"It's the same story everywhere, Lila," he said. "Powerful men with money make messes trying to rule the world and the women and babes are left to clean them up. And they can't always be cleaned. I'm sorry it's come to you too, here in Cotton."

"What else have you heard about the Organization?" Lila asked.

"The Druid Council and other Talented leaders are working to fight the Organization. It's an impossible task. They have spies everywhere, like I told you. They recruit too many Talented people, leaving our numbers depleted. They spread disinformation and false religion everywhere to make our kind seem evil."

"False... religion?"

"Do you really believe a God who creates Talents would then turn around and command His people 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'?"

"I don't know what to think. This sounds crazy. You sound crazy."

"How do you think I know Doctor Skye and Mrs D'Angelo, Lila? How would a simple writer know a doctor? Take all the time you need."

"Doctor Skye..." she trailed off.

"Is a Druid." He finished for her. "A Master, one of the youngest Masters in recent memory. It's expected he'll be on the Council eventually. His wife works within the Catholic Church to protect Talented members of the clergy and congregation alike."

Cam stopped and covered their clasped hands with his free palm, and Lila mirrored his motion, her small fingers wrapping around his long, lean ones. That electric crackle rose again. She tried to fight it but Campbell Stuart mumbled some disjointed syllables in a lyrical language and his energy overcame hers, blowing open the shields she had so carefully maintained around her Talents.

"Listen to me," he hissed in her ear, "and know the Truth."

She felt trapped, wanted to run away from this beautiful man who was seemingly trying to wreck all her plans and crumbling her hope for a future as a Somebody, but she couldn't move, could barely breathe, and there was no escaping the magnetic pull of this eyes or of the white-hot magic cracking between them.

"The Organization is not fighting Nazis. Douglas Reever is not some benevolent savior. And Junior will be better off if you run far, far away from all of this. Keep your Talents working, day and night. Use them. Leave Progress City, with or without Nita. Tear up the train tickets and go anywhere but here." Cam demanded.

The truth washed over her. She had been deceived by the broad shouldered man in the blue suit. The contract was a trick. She had been so blind without her Talents!

"How do I do that?" She whispered