Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Meeting

Table of Contents

Unmasking
Child of an Ancient City (with Tad Williams)
The Thread That Binds the Bones
The Silent Strength of Stones
A Red Heart of Memories
Past the Size of Dreaming
A Fistful of Sky
A Stir of Bones
Time Travelers, Ghosts, and Other Visitors (short stories)
Catalyst: A Novel of Alien Contact
Spirits That Walk in Shadow
Fall of Light
Thresholds (Magic Next Door, Book I)
Meeting (Magic Next Door, Book II)

To Devon Monk and Eric Witchey, co-conspirators and late night e-mail buddies.

To Ashton (again) and Connor and Zack H.

To Sharyn, who works so hard with me to make these books better.

Thank you all.

Maya Andersen held the front door wide on a crisp autumn Saturday night to let the neighbors into the Andersens new house.

There were a lot of neighbors. She didnt know all of their names, even after having them over every Saturday Music Night for six weeks, and spending three days a week after school studying magic and related arts and sciences at Janus House, the big apartment building next door, where all these people lived. Every Music Night she tried to focus on new people, get their faces into her mind so she could draw them later and put names to them. Different people kept showing up, though. Where did they all come from? Maybe the warren underneath Janus House, where the portal to other worlds was.

Hi, she said as the people flowed inside, and most said, Hello, Maya, as they passed her, or Nice night!

Five orange pumpkins perched on the porch railing. They glowed in the soft light spilling from the front windows and the open door. Mayas family had visited the pumpkin patch that afternoon. Halloween was a week away.

The air carried the spice of dead leaves, fallen, raked, stacked, jumped in. There was the tang of cold working on water. Smoke from the chimney flavored the air. Maya sniffed the mix of autumn scents, remembering last year, back in Idaho, when her best friend, Stephanie, had still been alive. Maya and Stephanie had been plotting their costumes for a week already by this time. Stephanie always dressed as something magicala witch, a wizard, an elf, or, the year when they were six, a unicorn. Maya liked dressing as Stephs sidekick. If Steph was a witch, Maya dressed as a black cat to be her familiar. If Steph was a wizard, Maya might be a fellow wizard. Some years Steph dressed as something that didnt need a sidekick, like a fairy, and Maya went trick-or-treating as a Viking, in honor of the Andersen family heritage. She had a nice metal helmet with horns and rivets, and not enough occasions when she could wear it.

Steph had already started chemo by October of last year, and shed lost her hair. She found a Lady Godiva wig at a Halloween store, blonde, curly hair that touched the ground. She dressed as Rapunzel, only Stephs Rapunzel had a magic wand with a crystal on the end. Its the spirit of television, she had said, touching the crystal. The witch can lock me in a tower, but Ill still find something to entertain me.

Maya had dressed as a ghost. She didnt want to do that againnot with Steph dead and not haunting, the way Maya and Steph had planned sometimes when they sat together in the middle of the night with the lights out near the end of Stephs life.

Maya wasnt sure who to be this year. She was living in a new house, in a new neighborhood, with lots of strange new friends, including one she wore like a shadow, Rimi.

Did Janus House people even celebrate Halloween?

Some of the neighbors carried plates covered with colorful dish towels. Some carried instrument cases. Some carried their own chairs. When the visitors ran out of room in the living room, where the piano was, they placed their chairs in the dining room and on the porch and settled. Those with food took the plates to the dining room table and set them down. Those with instrument cases opened the cases, got out instruments, and tuned.

Twelve-year-old Benjamin Porta crossed the porch, following two adults Maya didnt know yet. Hey, Maya. Did you save me a seat? He was just her height, with cinnamon skin, dark hair, and warm brown eyes with gold flecks in them. He wore a charcoal hoodie, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes.

I put my coat over part of the couch, Maya said, pointing toward the couch near the piano. Dont know if that worked. She peered past people to the couch. Nobody had sat on her coat yet, but two other people had claimed spots on the couch. There was still a space just wide enough for two, if they were small. Guess it kinda did.

Did you save me a seat? asked Mayas other new friend from Janus House, Gwenda Janus. Gwenda was tall, pale, dark-haired, and slender, with eyes the color of sky. Tonight she was wearing a dark, full-length skirt with no stiffening to make it stand out. Her blouse was fairly subdued, for her: pale green with lines of white embroidery that showed vines and flowers.

Maya sighed. She had left her coat on enough of the couch to reserve space for three, but that hadnt worked.

Just kidding, said Gwenda. I brought my own chair. She held up a three-legged folded stool.

Maya kicked the doorstop under the doorsillthe door would have to stay open, anyway, so the people on the porch could hearand the three of them made their way through the crowd to the couch.

The ancient witch and weaver Sarutha Gates, Mayas main Janus House teacher, was one of the people already sitting on the couch. Beside her was her almost-twin sister, Noona. Both of them had long silver-gray hair and wore dark velvet dresses.

Maya picked up her coat and put it on. The sisters smiled at Maya and Benjamin as they squeezed onto the couch, Maya between Benjamin and Sarutha. Gwenda set her stool nearby.

Mayas jean-clad leg pressed against Benjamins jean-clad leg, and her shoulder was against his. He felt warm through all those layers, and he smelled like fresh bread and spices. She liked being next to him.

Mayas mother stood beside the piano, smiling at the company. She was short, pleasantly plump, and dark-haired, and she wore a light jacket over her clothes. Since fall had fallen, the nights were cool, but they had to keep all the windows open. When it froze, they might have to rethink the set-up. Dad had built up a fire in the fireplace, but the heat only went so far. People bundled up. Welcome back, everyone, Mom said. Whats your pleasure tonight?

Benjamins mother, Dr. Porta, said, from the far side of the room, Can we start off with Pretty Polly?

Sure, said Mom. What key?

A.

And you want to do Pollys lines, right?

Dr. Porta just smiled.

Mom sat at the piano. People with instruments put them into playable positions, and they all started the song on a downbeat from Mayas tall, blond father, who leaned against the wall near the piano.

Everybody sang about the evil Willy, who stabbed his girlfriend Pretty Polly through the heart, and her hearts blood did flow. Dr. Porta sang Pretty Pollys lines alone. Willy, oh Willy, Im afraid of your ways, Polly cried, as well she should be, since Willys idea of a fun tour was to lead pretty Polly over the mountains and valleys to a grave hed spent the night digging. Fear didnt save Pretty Polly, and begging didnt either. Willy stabbed her, threw her in the grave, and dropped a little dirt on her.