HEART OF ICE

CHAPTER 10

Bright, golden sunlight painted the tops of the buildings across the street when Huron opened the front door. Cold air washed past the threshold and warped molding. The noise on the sidewalks and street filled the old entryway, echoing subtly around us. The whole block seemed to be out and about and in a hurry that busy morning. The little world around the house had seemed so quiet for the last few weeks. I imagined the neighborhood had been hibernating and now had awoken from an all-too-brief winter nap.

"Lunch," Huron asked from the doorway as I buttoned my jacket. Yes, I had remembered to put on my jacket.

"I've got money. I'll buy something at school." I glanced up at the taller of the two dwarves standing in the hallway of my house. I noticed a disappointed expression on his face. "But, umm...maybe you can make something tomorrow."

Huron smiled, nodding his head enthusiastically.

"On that note," I said, turning to look at Orion leaning against the open entrance into the living room. "How long are you guys going to be here?"

"Until we finish making sure this place is protected against chalking," Orion answered before taking a bite on an apple.

My stomach gurgled and growled at the sight of the red fruit. My body was in a weird state at just that moment. I was simultaneously ill from the stuff Huron had cooked, which I wasn't ready to define as food or digestible, and hungry from the lack of actual food to start the day with. The hunger came and went quickly though, disappearing each time I tasted a hint of the "eggs" lingering on my breath. Brushing my teeth-very aggressively-hadn't seemed to beat back the breakfast monster.

"We don't want any uninvited guests dropping in for a visit," Orion said after he swallowed the mouthful of apple he had been chewing.

I thought about his answer, remembering the doorless apartment across the street. It was the residence of the kindly Eleanor Crance. She was a longtime friend of Silas the Archivist and the dwarves standing in the hallway of my house. She had also been a medic and nurse once upon a time in history. Currently, she was the person Aunt Meredith paid the monthly rent to.

"Does that mean...no doors? Like, at all?"

Orion smirked. "Maybe. But hopefully not. One woman's eccentric solution is not necessarily standard procedure...Yet."

I stared at the dwarf wordlessly, feeling little comfort from his answer.

"You better get going. Moe's likely on his way. We'll meet you both at the mansion this afternoon."

I nodded at Orion, turning back around to face my bike. I picked up my book bag that had been leaning against the rear wheel. The old, cloth straps felt no different than they had any other school morning I had started by hoisting the antique backpack onto my shoulders. But the earthy-brown, canvas satchel had taken on a whole new meaning and purpose in my life. Images of the events from weeks before flashed through my mind. I spotted a few flecks of crusty marshmallow still stuck to the bottom of the magical bag. It hugged the contours of my back perfectly. It's weight was never unbalanced. Other than when someone else was pulling on them, the straps never dug into my shoulders. Anchored over my jacket was an ancient well of cloth from which whatever I most needed would always be provided.

Of course, what I most needed was almost never what I most wanted. Still, the solutions to impossible situations were always at hand. Ever since I drew my way onto a Russian cargo plane three weeks earlier with a half-stick of magic, yellow chalk, impossible is exactly how I defined my life. Crazy impossible.

Orion was right. As I led my bike, a Christmas present from Aunt Meredith, to the front stoop, I could see Moe's name floating through all the others beyond the wall and window near the door. Here was an ability equal parts disturbing and overwhelming with only a little bit of awesomeness thrown in. Very recently, such a sight as seeing the names of everyone nearby on the block would have already overloaded my brain. But I had been learning how to block it out. By focusing on Moe as best I could, for example, the rest was almost like noise I could tune out to the fringes of my senses.