by Lucia Ashta
The more I speculated about it, the more I realized I could speak up in their defense. “I never felt any kind of threat from them. It was more like they were in it along with me.”
“Please listen to her and don’t hurt us,” the woman said, near begging, shaking her husband with desperation now. He would groan, agitated, but then he’d settle again, his eyes never opening. “Please don’t hurt my children.”
“Give us reason not to then,” Mordecai said. “A real reason.”
“Mordecai,” Arianne scolded. “I realize you’re trying to impress upon this woman the dire nature of her choices and associations, but threatening her family isn’t the way, especially when you don’t mean it.”
“He doesn’t?” the woman asked in the tremulous voice of someone who barely dared believe it.
Arianne moved toward her, crouching close enough to make eye contact, but not near enough that the woman could reach out and grab her. I couldn’t help but notice the caution Arianne employed. She was suspicious of the woman.
Then Arianne smiled at her. “No, he doesn’t. We aren’t going to do anything to hurt you or your family.”
Mordecai sucked in breath behind her and opened his mouth to protest. Arianne held a hand up. “Unless you give us reason to, and even then we are unlikely to hurt you unless it’s to prevent you from hurting any of us.”
“Oh, thank goodness—” the woman started.
“But we will keep you prisoner if we must.”
“Oh.” The woman gulped and reached for her husband another time, jostling him harder than she had before.
The man complained louder as Arianne said, “We don’t mean to frighten you.”
I was pretty sure that’s exactly what Mordecai had been trying to do by saying things that were so out of character for the staff of the academy.
“We mean only to protect ourselves. If you truly prove not to be a threat to us in any way, then you, in turn, have nothing to fear from us.”
Clara stepped forward, crouching next to her grandmother. “We aren’t the enemy here.”
“No, that’s clearly the SMS,” the woman said with enough vehemence to suggest she detested the organization as much as we did.
Marcelo and Brave shared a meaningful look, then Marcelo said, “Convince us you aren’t the enemy.”
“I’ll be happy to, just as soon as I rouse my family and am convinced they’re safe.”
“They’re safe,” Arianne said.
“We promise,” Clara added. “You’re all safe so long as you harbor us no ill will.”
“We definitely don’t.”
“Then you and your children can be at ease,” Arianne said.
But the woman looked to me instead of Arianne. She was waiting for me to assure her that she and her family were safe, despite what the rest of them had said. Why? I had no real idea. It wasn’t like I’d saved them; I’d just arranged it so that they could get out of Miranda’s control along with us.
Maybe that made me their unintentional savior after all, even if I didn’t ask for it.
I tightened my hold around Nando’s waist, and then released him, moving toward Arianne, Clara, and the family. “Isa,” he called after me right away.
“I’m all right,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him. He looked so worried, and so very unlike his usual relaxed self. So did Walt, staring at me much like Nando was. “I’m starting to feel better.”
“You just died!”
“I know, I’ll be careful,” I said. What else could I say? I had just died, and no, that wasn’t normal; it also wasn’t something I supposed people recovered from easily. But the truth was that I felt alert, and a thousand times sharper than I had when I helped the family into the portal to escape.
I ignored the silent pleas Nando broadcast; I wanted to help this family if I could. It was true that I’d always felt (relatively) comfortable with them, considering they’d been firedrakes.
I hadn’t forgotten how overwhelmed I’d been when I first arrived at Acquaine, and I hadn’t felt threatened then—at least not by the staff at the academy, the SMS had done all the threatening.
I reached the woman and took my time lowering to the grass, mostly for Nando’s sake. I wanted him to see me taking it easy. “None of these people want to hurt you or your family,” I told her. “All they’re trying to do is keep the SMS from harming anyone else. You can trust them to honor their promises to you. If you have nothing to hide and you don’t intend to hurt any of us, then you’ll be safe here.” Or as safe as they could be when taking into account that the SMS seemed to be plotting against us at all times. I hadn’t forgotten about the potion Miranda had been preparing to use on the academy, even if the threat had been relegated to the background because of more pressing problems.
The woman considered what I’d said, studying me with big brown eyes. When she offered me a tremulous smile, I realized that I liked her. I dared to hope that she and her family could transition into the academy.
Her hand stilled across her husband’s shoulder when he started to stir in earnest. His groans became serious complaints as his eyes blinked open.
She whipped her head toward him, messy brown hair flying. “Trevor. Trevor, wake up.”
“Ugh,” he complained. “What’s going on?” he asked in a scratchy voice.
He rubbed his hands across his face. “Ew, what is this?”
This was a very large quantity of hellhound drool.
“Why am I covered in... gooey, wet stuff?’
“Trevor,” his wife insisted. “You need to get up.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“Just sit up already.”
“Fine, you don’t have to be so snappy. I’m not feeling all that great. I passed out or something.”
“That’s because we used to be firedrakes until some witches broke the spell, don’t you remember?”
“Oh.” From that one sound, it was apparent it was all coming back to him. “Are the children all right?” he asked, suddenly agitated.
“Yes. Now sit up.” His wife scooted across the ground, obviously not entirely back to her usual self either, and tried to help push him up.
But she fumbled, and he tumbled, and neither of them was steady or strong.
“Here,” Marcelo said, appearing suddenly. “Let me help you.”
Before Trevor could complain, Marcelo pushed him to sitting and held him in that position. “There. Are you stable? Can I let you go?”
“Um.” Trevor’s eyes were wildly taking us all in.
“Are you able to sit on your own, yes or no?”
“Hm, sure,” Trevor said, but I could tell he was distracted. His eyes were partially glazed, and he looked as nervous as his wife originally had.
“Good,” Marcelo said, releasing the man.
Trevor plopped right back down to the ground with a loud thump. Air whooshed from his mouth as he gasped for air.
“I guess you weren’t ready,” Marcelo said, looking down at Trevor.
Trevor floundered like a fish out of water, trying to sit back up. It would have been comical had the situation not been so serious.
Since I’d arrived at the academy, circumstances had forced me into one situation after another long before I’d been ready. Half the time, I felt like I was struggling much like Trevor.
Life at the Magical Arts Academy didn’t wait for you to be ready.
And the SMS counted on catching us off guard.
I willed Trevor to get up. We had to hurry. I sensed the SMS closing in around us as clearly as a ticking clock.
The dark sorcerers were up to no good, and we were far from prepared for them. That had to change... and fast.
Chapter 9
We’d looked on with varying degrees of compassion and impatience while Trevor and Delilah worked to rouse their three children, who now huddled close to their parents just as they had when they were firedrakes. Even the older boy of the three, who appeared to be arou
nd my age or Nando’s, seemed nervous and wouldn’t move from his parents’ side. I didn’t blame him. Even if he was seventeen or eighteen, he was surrounded by a bunch of imposing magicians, frightening firedrakes, and people he didn’t know.
But me. Like his mother, the older boy stared at me more than he didn’t. He too seemed to feel connected to me, although I wasn’t entirely sure of all the reasons why.
“Now that everyone is finally awake,” Mordecai said, not bothering to hide his bristly impatience. “Tell us what happened and what you know about the SMS and its plans.”
Delilah nodded, and Trevor swallowed loudly.
“Don’t even think about telling us any untruths. That won’t work on us, right, Vlad?”
“That’s right,” the count said, stepping forward.
“Do you know what Vlad is?” Mordecai asked.
Trevor shook his head while his wife nodded and tried to wrap her arms around all three of her children at once. Given that they were all adolescents, it wasn’t easy.
“Good.” Mordecai addressed only Delilah since she understood what he was talking about. “Then you know he’ll be able to tell if you lie.”
“I do.”
“Wait, what is he?” Trevor whispered to her.
“He’s a vampire,” the younger boy answered instead of his mother.
“Oh.” Trevor gulped.
“So is the woman who looks like him,” the boy whispered, drawing curious looks from several of the magicians surrounding his family.
Neither Delilah nor Trevor seemed surprised that the youngest of their children should be the one to realize what his father hadn’t.
Hmm. Interesting. I studied the boy curiously. He appeared to be maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, and looked much like his mother, with his straight brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes.
“We’ve already wasted enough time waiting for you to wake up,” Mordecai said. Then, as if he heard himself and regretted how harsh he’d been to this potentially mostly-innocent family, he softened and added, “Although I am relieved that you’re all well and unharmed after the strength of the spell that held you captive in the bodies of firedrakes.”
“Thank you,” Delilah said, also softly. “We understand that the SMS is holding your brother captive. We won’t delay any longer.”
“How do you know about my brother?” Mordecai snapped too quickly to have pondered his response.
“Because we could hear everything when we were firedrakes.” Her pretty face turned sad. “We were fully capable of watching life pass us by while we missed out on it.”
Wow, I hadn’t considered how difficult it must have been for them.
Arianne took Delilah’s hand. “Tell us what you know so we can better prepare to defend against whatever the SMS has planned, and choose the best course of action to rescue Albacus. Then I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to help you and your family, assuming that there are no unpleasant surprises I haven’t anticipated in what you have to say.”
“Fair enough,” Delilah said, offering Arianne the gesture of a hesitant smile. Then she tilted her head up and locked her gaze on Count Vabu’s. “Do I need to look at you the entire time I’m speaking so you can verify what I say is true?”
Count Vabu arched his eyebrows as if surprised Delilah was so direct and unflinching. “That would be best.”
“Very well. I’ll do my best to hurry.” She rubbed her hands nervously across the shoulders of her two sons and one daughter, and then launched into her story. “The SMS recruited Trevor under the pretense that the world of magic was in danger, and that we were needed to help defend and keep it whole.”
“But the SMS is the one who poses danger to the magical world,” Marcelo said.
“Exactly. We didn’t realize the truth of things until Trevor and I were both involved, and where we go, our children go.” She said this last part with bitterness. “We didn’t understand until it was too late that the SMS was really trying to get at Simon. Recruiting Trevor was a ruse to get to him.”
Without removing her focus from Count Vabu, she patted the shoulders of the younger boy. “All my children are special of course. But Simon here, well, he has some skills none of the rest of us possesses.”
“And what skills are those?” Gustave asked.
Delilah tilted her chin even higher and addressed Gustave while staring at the vampire. “You’ll take no offense, I hope, but that’s a secret our family holds dear. You don’t yet know if you can trust us. Well, we haven’t decided if we can trust you. If we can, we’ll tell you, but for now all you need to know is that the SMS found out.”
“Fair enough,” Gustave said.
“How did the SMS find out?” Mordecai asked.
“We don’t have a clue.” The admission pained the mother, I could tell. It was as if she felt she’d failed her son. “What we are certain of is that the SMS was playing us from the start. It was all a ploy to get Simon on their side—to do what, we aren’t sure.”
“Probably to attack us,” Marcelo said. No one denied the likelihood of his statement.
“They did talk about you as the enemy, so it’s possible. They told us many times that you were intent on keeping magicians oppressed and diminishing the magic that we all possessed.”
“That’s not even a petit bit true,” Arianne said, huffing.
“We didn’t figure that out for a while. Up until then, the SMS had us doing small things. Bringing in dark sorcerers who were out of control, stuff like that.”
“And you could do that?” Clara asked.
“As long as Simon was with us, yes.”
I immediately looked back to Simon, but he averted his gaze, probably as shy as I’d felt when everyone’s attention was on me.
“Continue,” Mordecai said.
“When we finally realized that the SMS wanted to expose magic to the masses, and prove to the world that their accusations of sorcery were more than fearful hysterics, we wanted out. Something like that would be bloody. People without magic aren’t ready to accept that real magic exists.”
“No, they aren’t,” Arianne agreed.
“And the SMS wants to kill everyone who disagrees with the superiority of those with magic.”
“That’s our understanding,” Clara said.
“Given how often witches and wizards are persecuted, the SMS would have to take out much of the population to ensure compliance.”
“Either that or force them to do their will through violence,” Marcelo said, moving to stand behind Clara.
“Exactly. When Trevor and I realized that the SMS didn’t want to defend the magical world, but rather force it on the world at large, no matter what the cost, we tried to withdraw from the group. The persecution of magicians is bad enough without us turning around and persecuting those without magic.”
“Precisely,” Clara said. “Just because they’re ignorant and wish us harm doesn’t give us the right to hurt them back. Might doesn’t equal right.”
“Precisely,” Delilah said with a hesitant smile, all the while staring into Count Vabu’s eyes. “That’s what we teach our children. When we figured out that we’d somehow ended up on the wrong side of things, we told them we wanted to withdraw.”
“Who is ‘them’?” Mordecai asked.
“Well, there are a lot of sorcerers involved in the SMS. We didn’t know most of them at first. Now we know some of them, obviously, but none of them is as important as the one who ordered our punishment.”
“Let me guess. Maurisse?” Mordecai’s tone was murderous. He was going to make Maurisse pay for his betrayal and capture of Albacus, that much was evident.
Delilah nodded. “Yes. Maurisse dealt with us directly, and I’m pretty sure that was because of Simon. If not, he would’ve relegated us to one of the others. But he wanted Simon, so he pretended to be a caring magician just out to protect the magical people of the world.”
Mordecai laughed without mirth. “I’m sure h
e did.”
“He said you were forming some kind of army under the front of an academy and that you were going to force all magicians to do as you said and coerce those less powerful than you to do your bidding. That you were standing in the way of what was best for magicians worldwide.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Marcelo said. “All we want is to be left alone, and to leave the magical world as it’s been. We don’t want to change anything. Non-magical people aren’t ready to accept us, and no one should make them. They don’t fully believe in the existence of magic now, and look at how they treat us whenever they think they’ve snagged one of us. They label us mad or worshipers of the Devil and kill us. Things will just... boil over if the SMS has its way.”
“Yes, well, we learned the truth too late. When we tried to pull out, Maurisse told us we were free to go as long as Simon stayed. That obviously wasn’t going to happen.”
“So he cursed you into the bodies of firedrakes,” Marcelo completed.
“Yes and no. He ordered it, but the dark sorceress Miranda actually cast the spell and then kept us under her watch. Until Isa came along and helped us get out of there. Thank you for that, by the way.”
It was strange to be spoken to but not looked at, but I responded anyway. “You’re welcome, though I’m not sure I did all that much to help.”
“Sure you did,” Trevor said, looking straight at me. “You understood what we were trying to suggest by our behavior and trusted us. You vouched for us to Madame Pimlish so we could come along. Thanks for that.”
“Of course,” I said. What else was there to say? I was grateful things worked out as well as they did. They could have turned out very differently, and then I would have been the one to blame.
“Do you mean any of us here any harm?” Count Vabu asked.
“No,” Delilah said without hesitation.
“Do you support the mission of the Sorcerers for Magical Supremacy in any way?”
“Absolutely not. We want to stop the SMS. What the sorcerers mean to do is enough to bring violence to the entire world, not only this region. Someone has to stop Maurisse, Miranda, and all the others.”