The Common King

by Brian Olsen

  “What did he think?” Chris asks. “When you said you were going to kill your parents?”

  The question takes me a little by surprise, as does Chris’ genuine curiosity. I thought he was trying to provoke me, but perhaps not. I think for a moment before I respond. There’s not much point lying. I’m not sure either of one of us can lie to the other. Not here.

  “He cautioned me,” I say slowly. “Warned me to be certain before I acted. That giving up one’s family is not done lightly. ”

  “He had just lost his own family, right?” Chris asks. “His sister and her husband and son. He showed me them being killed by goblins.”

  “Yes.” I shrug. “He had much greater affection for them than I did for my own people, though. So I dismissed his concerns and took the course of action I thought necessary. He supported me, once my mind was made up.”

  “But was he right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Chris exhales in exasperation and shakes his head, like he’s surprised I don’t understand. “Did it bother you? Killing your parents?”

  “You felt everything I felt. You tell me.”

  He bites his lip. “I think you were glad they attacked you first. Once they figured out you meant to kill them, your father hit you, and your mother tried to stab you. That gave you an out. You didn’t act first. You could tell yourself it was self-defense.”

  “I would have done it anyway.”

  “Would you?”

  “I had just killed everyone who lived on my father’s lands. Hundreds of peasants. People I knew. Servants who helped raise me. Children I had grown up with, played with. The first boy I ever kissed. What are two more, after all that?”

  “You didn’t care about any of them.” Chris leans forward, gripping the edge of the floor in his hands. “But you loved your parents.”

  I laugh. “You’re mixing my feelings with yours, I think, Chris. I might…might…have had some lingering affection for my mother. And perhaps her death has caused me a few sleepless nights. A very few. But don’t mistake that for love.”

  “You loved Mr. Miller. Muln.”

  I scowl at him. “Don’t be sentimental. He was my servant. My most trusted adviser.”

  “He was more of a father to you than your real father. Jasmine showed me memories of you two together. I know it’s true.”

  “Muln was important to my plans.”

  “He was important to you.”

  “Yes! Fine. Muln was my friend.” I stretch my legs down again, so I’m in a standing position. “So what? He’s dead now.”

  “I know.” Chris leans back, resting his palms on the floor behind him. “I killed him.”

  I don’t say anything.

  Chris puts a finger to his chin. “Or did I? I mean, I had already climbed all the steps up to the floating room at that point. Hadn’t we switched places already? It all happened so quickly, it’s a little confusing. Your feelings, my feelings, they were all mixed up.” He points at me. “Are we sure you didn’t kill him?”

  I clench my fists. “I did not kill Muln.”

  “The thing is,” he continues, “I remember reaching the top step, and you grabbing me, and then being in the room. I don’t actually remember killing him. I wanted to kill him, sure. But you remember what it’s like being in here. I have no idea what’s happening in the real world. You were in the driver’s seat.” He nods. “Yup. It was definitely you.”

  “It was not!” I form flames around my hands and fly at him. “You killed him! You did!”

  He leans forward and grabs for me. I stop myself and his fingers catch air, just shy of my shirt. He totters and falls from the room, but some invisible force propels him violently back. He rolls uncontrollably across the floor and slams into the far wall.

  I float a little farther away, in case he runs for me again.

  “Okay.” He’s out of breath. “Maybe it was me.”

  I let a moment of silence go by. I need to control my temper.

  “That was clever,” I say finally.

  “Worth a try.”

  “There may be truth in what you say.”

  He pulls himself up to standing, brushing himself off. “Of course there is.”

  “I was back in my body in that moment,” I say. “But not in control. Your emotions, your rage, overwhelmed my reason. I could not stop myself.”

  “Yeah.” He nods. “Makes sense. Different personalities, but same body, same brain. Emotions have a physical effect. And I was feeling a lot of emotions.”

  “From murdering your father.”

  He doesn’t respond for a moment, but then he smiles at me. “From being tricked into murdering him, yeah.”

  “A rather weak trick,” I say. “I don’t remember it, of course. That was entirely you. But Tes told me everything.”

  “How Muln tricked me. Jasmine summoned goblins from his nightmares. They had faded away already, but I didn’t know that.”

  “Yes. And Muln made you see a goblin about to murder your father, so you let loose my flames, only to find the goblin was your father.” I laugh. “She said you blasted a hole clean though his chest! Well done. Such control after, what, less than four weeks practicing logomancy? We may not have much in common, but I can’t deny you share my affinity for the Logos.”

  Chris walks back to the front edge of the room. “There’s no point provoking me. My situation can’t get any worse.”

  I smile broadly at him. “I’m not trying to anger you, Chris! I’m just pointing out that you were rather easily gulled. I understand it was an emotional moment for you, believing you were saying goodbye to your friends and family forever to spend eternity in the fay. But honestly, such a simple illusion? You knew exactly what Muln’s powers were. How were you fooled so completely?”

  He puts a hand on the cutaway portion of the wall, gripping the ragged edge tightly. “I thought we had won. Zane had him imprisoned. Jasmine and my mom had stopped fighting. Kenny wasn’t amplifying their powers anymore. I thought it was over.”

  I tsk at him, waggling my finger. “Battles are never over while your enemy still lives. Didn’t Muln teach you anything useful during your history lessons?”

  “Mr. Miller taught me the importance of being kind,” he replies. “About helping people who need it. I wish he hadn’t forgotten those lessons after the Moment happened.”

  I wave my hand. “Yes, yes, spare me the treacle. Do you want to know the real reason you fell for Muln’s illusion so easily, Chris? Why you fell for the weakest, most obvious application of Muln’s logomancy?”

  “I think you’re going to tell me.”

  “Because you loved your father.” I spread my hands out. “Isn’t it obvious? You loved him, you saw him in danger, and you reacted without thinking. It’s as simple as that.”

  He squints at me. “I’d almost think you’re trying to make me feel better, if I didn’t know that couldn’t possibly be true.”

  “You can feel your fake feelings any way you wish, Chris, I don’t care. I’m simply pointing out that you loved your father, and I didn’t love mine, yet we both committed patricide. We both wound up in the same place. Well.” I wink at him. “Not exactly the same place.”

  He furrows his brow for a moment, then nods. “Yeah. We both killed our fathers. But I am left with so many happy memories of mine. I’m left with all I learned from him, with the man he shaped me to be. And I know he loved me. And I know he would forgive me for what I did to him.” He tilts his head, grinning. “How about you?”

  “You knew your father for four weeks,” I say. “Any shaping of your life that you believe came from him, came from an ill-planned spell cast by a pack of desperate logomancers. My memories may not be as happy as yours, Chris, but at least they’re real. My life may not have been as happy as yours.” I pound my chest with my fist. “But it’s real.”

  I turn in place, as if I’m looking out over the beautiful greenery extending to the horizon, instead of taking
a moment to control myself. By the Logos, I wish I could burn the grass and the rich earth beneath it down to hard baked clay. And then the room, and this phantom within it.

  But I can’t. I’ve tried.

  “Good talk,” Chris says. “Did you come here so we could piss each other off? Because I’ve got a full schedule of sitting and staring I should get back to.”

  I spin back to face him. “Shonda Yeboah.”

  He chuckles. “Okay. I knew there’d be a name. Didn’t expect hers. Did Shonda experience the Moment?”

  “She did. You know her well?”

  He laughs louder and pounds the top of the cutaway wall. It looks like pieces should fall off, but they don’t. “Why do you keep asking? Kenny. Dante. Mr. Finlay. Mrs. Kumar. Have I yet to tell you anything useful about any of them? Why do you think this time will be different?”

  “I’ve taken all those you named,” I reply. “All serve me now.”

  “Not Kenny,” Chris says quickly. “Not willingly.”

  “True enough. The other three, I abducted. It was terrifying for them. And the awakening is traumatic. Tes restores all of their memories at once. It’s painful. But I don’t have the luxury of a slower approach, such as my Nightmare Queen tried on you.”

  “What’s the rush?”

  I ignore the question. “I just want you to tell me a little about Shonda. About what I should expect from her. What kind of person she’s become in this new world. She’s going to join my fold, one way or another. With your help, I can make it less frightening for her. Surely you want that, if she’s truly your friend?”

  “And then someone else after her?” he asks. “And then another? How many of my friends and teachers and neighbors will you expect me to help you brainwash?”

  I sigh heavily in exasperation. “She’s the last. After her I can…”

  Chris steps forward. “You can…what?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  He folds his arms. “What’s the harm in telling me? I’m trapped here. Afraid I might influence you, like you influenced me?”

  I snort. “I saw nothing of your life from this prison. Don’t blame your actions on me.”

  “But you remember me climbing the steps,” he continues. “I got a little more of your power every time. And a little more of your personality, too, I think. Jasmine must have told you how I burned Andy Palakiko?”

  “She did.” I clap slowly. “Well done. I approve.”

  “That wasn’t me.”

  I sneer at him. “Keep telling yourself that.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  Hm. He’s very calm. Very sure.

  I don’t remember influencing him. All I remember of my time in the floating room is the few occasions when he visited me. I knew what he was, somehow. I knew he was living my life, controlling my body, and that he was the antithesis of everything I held dear. I knew if he came to me, if he climbed all the steps leading to my prison, that I would be free. But I knew no more than that. I knew nothing of what was happening in the outside world.

  Tes was surprised when I told her that. She believed that she saw glimpses of me shining through Chris’s facade. More and more as he climbed the steps.

  “My will is very strong,” I acknowledge. “And you were borrowing my power, after all. Perhaps taking on some of my character was the price you paid. But I’m not afraid of you doing the same to me, Chris. Even if I weren’t so much stronger than you, well…” I look down at the plain far below, and the single step. “I’m not so foolish as to run headlong towards my own destruction, as you were.”

  “Then why not ask Jasmine to show you my memories?” he asks. “Like she showed me yours. Ask her to send you a dream about me and Shonda. That would tell you what you need to know, right?”

  I don’t answer.

  Chris steps right to the edge of the room. His toes dangle over the edge.

  I float a few inches further away. Just in case.

  “I think you are afraid, Kirt.”

  This is the first time he’s called me by my name.

  He continues, “I think you’re afraid of me getting my body back.”

  “My body.”

  “I think you know, whether I’m real or not, that I was much better at living your life than you ever were.” He looks down at the plain. “And if this is all just a metaphor, are you sure you actually need to climb the stone steps for me to bleed through?” He reaches his arms out to me. “You’ve spent a lot more time with me than I spent with you. Are you sure I’m not influencing you already?”

  I float back a little further. “If you are, you’re doing a piss poor job of it. I just burned a servant to death. Is that something you’d have done?”

  “You’ve got me there. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re completely in control.” He scratches his head. “Although I wonder…it’s been, what, two months since you got your body back? And in that time you’ve recruited three whole people? Out of all your potential allies in the world? I know you’re not telling me everything, but it sounds like you haven’t confronted any of my friends. Your enemies. It sounds like you’ve just been hiding away.”

  My breathing is deep and measured. The air suddenly feels cold.

  He grins at me. “Why are you moving so slow, Kirt?” He laughs. “It’s almost like something’s holding you back.”

  I unleash a geyser of flame at him. It parts around the room, blocking my view. I let it burn until I’m exhausted.

  When I drop it, Chris is there. Unmoved. Unharmed. Smiling at me with my face.

  “Was it something I said?”

  Slowly, I lower myself to the plain below.

  “Enjoy your petty victories, Chris,” I call up to him. My feet touch the cool ground. “They’re all you have left.”

  I open my eyes. I’m lying sprawled in my bed, in my suite at the hotel. I’ve thrown the covers off and half the pillows are on the floor.

  “You’re never getting out of the floating room, demon,” I whisper. “Never.”

  Five

  “Shonda?” Kumar sits on the edge of the sleeping girl’s bed. “Shonda? Wake up.”

  Kelle throws open the curtains covering the window, letting the dawn light shine in. It’s only a few minutes past sunrise. Tes located Shonda via her dreams easily enough, though she needn’t have bothered – Shonda was home, in her own bedroom. Once the sun was up I teleported us outside her house, and breaking in was simple. We could have abducted her while she slept, but there’s something I need her to do before we can be on our way.

  Shonda stirs and murmurs something confused and indecipherable. She rolls onto her back, throwing one arm over her eyes. She says something else, I think it’s, “Mom?”

  I knew Shonda as Theen Gandenschild, a clever logomancer, useful in a fight. She was a charming and intelligent young woman, recruited by Muln during the war but quickly elevated to a position by my side. She was about the same age as Tes and myself, and once the throne was won, we spent many evenings drinking, laughing and celebrating together.

  Shonda’s skin is a deep, dark brown. As Theen she wore her hair long, cascading down past her shoulders in loose corkscrew coils, but Shonda’s hair is cropped close to her skull. I like it. I don’t usually like when someone’s appearance has changed from how I remember them, but Theen has beautiful cheeks, full and glowing, and this hairstyle shows them off. I’ll have to remember to tell her that, once she’s back to her true self.

  “It’s not your mother, Shonda.” Kumar shakes the slumbering girl’s shoulder gently. “It’s Mrs. Kumar, from school. I’ve brought some of your friends. We need to talk to you.”

  This finally rouses her. Shonda lifts her arm from her face and squints at her headmistress. “Mrs. Kumar?”

  “That’s right.”

  She rubs her eyes and blinks, then pulls herself up a little, leaning against her pillows and her headboard. She yawns, and I have to stifle the urge to yawn back.

  “Hello, Shond
a,” I say.

  “Chris?” She rubs her eyes again, then opens them wide, forcing herself awake. “Why are you… Is that Kenny?”

  “Hi, Shonda,” Kenny answers. “I’m sorry about all this. Really sorry.”

  I shoot him a deadly look and he shuts his mouth. Kenny is standing near the door, on the other side of the room. I made him stay where I could watch him, but he’s amplifying Tes’s powers while she’s out in the hallway, keeping Shonda’s parents and sisters asleep.

  “What’s going on?” Shonda pulls herself up more until she’s sitting properly. She lifts her sheet to cover herself, although she’s wearing a dark t-shirt that already preserves her modesty. “Is something wrong?”

  Finlay sits on the end of the bed. “Don’t be scared, Shonda. We’re not going to hurt you.”

  “Hurt me? Is that Mr. Finlay? Why would you hurt me?”

  I clamp my hand down on Finlay’s shoulder and send a little bit of warning heat through it. “He means, we know it’s scary to wake up and find people in your room, Shonda. I apologize, but it was necessary.”

  Shonda looks around the room now, really taking us in. “Mrs. Armstrong?”

  Kelle nods. “Hello, Shonda.”

  “Okay.” She rubs her eyes one more time. “Two teachers. Two school friends. And one of their mothers. In my room while I’m sleeping. At…what time is it?”

  “Early,” I answer. “The sun is just rising.”

  “At sunrise. What’s going on? It must be something bad.” Her eyes suddenly widen. She drops the sheet and starts to scramble out from under the covers. “My parents? My sisters? Are they—”

  Kumar puts a hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place. “They’re fine, Shonda. Everyone’s fine. Nobody’s hurt. We just needed to talk to you.”

  Shonda sits back down, but she’s breathing rapidly. “Okay. Is this anything to do with why Mr. Finlay and Chris and Kenny’s whole family have been missing for the past couple of weeks?”

  “It is,” I answer. “Shonda, I need to ask you something. Does the name Theen Gandenschild sound familiar to you?”