Hugh winced. "Great. You're sure?"
"Yeah. It was a little kid, eight years old, and she was something special-but not that. She was..." Jez tried to think of a way to describe it. Hugh watched her with eyes that were clear and fathomless, sad and wry and gentle all at once. And suddenly Jez got it. She gasped.
"Goddess-I know! She was like you. That kid was an Old Soul."
Hugh's eyebrows went up. "You think?"
"I'm sure of it. She had that same way of looking at you as if she's seen all of history and she knows that you're just a little part. That... trig picture' look. As if she were beyond stupid human things."
"But not a Wild Power," Hugh said softly. He looked half discouraged and half relieved. "So then the Morgead connection is useless."
"Actually, no. Because he's got evidence for the Wild Power on videotape." Jez explained about the movie and the fire and the blue flash. "So somebody around that kid is probably it. I know that area and so does Morgead. We may be able to find out who."
Hugh chewed his lip. Then he looked directly at her. "It sounds dangerous. Just how is Morgead taking tins-you coming back and all?"
Jez stared out across the BART tracks. They looked like regular train tracks, except for the big one labeled danger electric third rah.. There was a sound like faraway thunder, and then a train came whizzing up like a sleek futuristic white dragon. It stopped and a few people got on and off in the distance. She waited until it left again to answer.
"He... wasn't very happy at first. But then he kind of got used to it. I don't think he's going to make any trouble-unless he finds out, you know."
She wasn't sure what else to say. She didn't want to talk to Hugh about Morgead-and she certainly didn't want to explain what had happened. Especially not when she was so confused about it all herself.
"You still think he'd hate you if he found out you were half human?" Hugh's voice was quiet.
Jez laughed shortly. "Believe it. He would."
There was a silence, while Hugh looked at her. Suddenly Jez found her mind posing an odd question. If it were Hugh or Morgead, which would she take?
Of course, it was a completely ridiculous question. She couldn't have either of them. Hugh was an Old Soul, and beyond her reach. Not to mention that he only thought of her as a friend. And Morgead might be her soulmate, but he would murder her if he ever discovered the truth.
But still, if she did have a choice... Hugh or Morgead?
A day ago she'd have said Hugh without question. How strange that now it came up the other way.
Because, impossible as it was, deadly as she knew it to be, it was Morgead she was in love with. And she had only just understood that this moment.
What a pity that there was no hope in the world for them.
Jez found herself giving another short laugh- and then she realized that Hugh was still looking at her. She could feel color rise to her cheeks.
"You were miles away again."
Tm just foggy. Not enough sleep, I guess." Plus all that fun yesterday. She was still sore from the stick
fight and the fall with Iona. But that wasn't Hugh's problem.
She took a breath, groping for another subject. "You know, there was something I wanted to ask
you. Morgead said the Council had dug up another prophecy-about where each of the Wild Powers is from. Have you heard it?" When he shook his head, she quoted:
"One from the land of kings long forgotten; One from the hearth which still holds the spark; One from the Day World where two eyes are watching; One from the twilight to be one with the dark."
"Interesting." Hugh's gray eyes had lit up. " 'One from the hearth'... that's got to be the Harman witches. Their last name was originally 'Hearth-Woman.' "
"Yeah. But the line about the one from the Day World-that one's a human, right?"
"It sounds like it."
"That's what Morgead thought-that's why he thought the little girl might be a Wild Power even though she was human. But what I can't figure out is what it means by 'where two eyes are watching.'"
"Mmm..." Hugh gazed into the distance, as if he liked the challenge. "The only thing I can think of that combines the idea of 'Day* and 'eyes' is a poem. It goes something like 'The Night has a thousand eyes, and the Day only one.' The one eye being the sun, you know, and the thousand eyes the stars at night."
"Hmpf. What about the moon?"
Hugh grinned. 'I don't know. Maybe the author wasn't good at astronomy."
"Well-that doesn't help much. I thought it might be a clue. But the truth is that we don't even know if it's the human Wild Power we're after."
Hugh put his chin on his knees again. "True. But I'll let Circle Daybreak know about that prophecy. It might help eventually." He was silent a moment, then added, "You know, they dug up something interesting, too. Apparently the Hopi Tribe predicted the end of the world pretty accurately."
"The Hopi?"
"I should say, the ends of the worlds. They knew that it had happened before their time, and that it would happen again. Their legend says that the first world was destroyed by fire. The second world was destroyed by ice. The third world ended in water- a universal flood. And the fourth world-well, that's ours. It's supposed to end in blood and darkness- and end soon."
Jez murmured, "The first world-?"
"Don't remember your Night World history?" He tched at her, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"The first civilization was the shapeshifters'. Back when humans were scared to go out of their caves, the shapeshifters ruled and the humans thought of them as gods. Animal spirits, totems. It was Shapeshifter World. That lasted for about ten thousand years, until a bunch of volcanoes suddenly became active-"