The Common King

by Brian Olsen

  I pry my hands loose from his and wrap my arms around him.

  “I don’t know about that, Zane.” Mr. Montgomery pulls Nate closer to him. “I don’t know about that.”

  “I do.” Liefer sneers down at us. “As you’re making your confession, Zane, memories are flooding back. After your supposed fight, you begged us to surrender. You were fervent about it, impassioned past all reason. We feared your mind had snapped from your brush with death at the king’s hands. That’s why we didn’t tell you about our plans to reshape the world at first. Didn’t want to burden you with the pressure of it. We were protecting you! Oh, yes.” He laughs. “We were utterly convinced. You should have signed up for the Drama Club at Charlesville Academy. You’re obviously meant for the stage.”

  “It wasn’t an act, Mr. Liefer.” Zane swallows. “My memories are coming back, too. And I was terrified of the king. I was…drawn to him, yeah, but I was honestly afraid of what he’d do if we didn’t surrender.”

  “I suppose we’ll never know.” Liefer waves his bandaged hands in the air. “Just like we’ll never know if the Moment could have worked as we intended. Maybe the Common King would have slept forever inside Chris’s mind, and we’d all be going about our new lives, happy and oblivious.”

  Zane drops his head. No matter how tightly I hold him, I can’t stop his shaking.

  “That’s enough, Mr. Liefer,” I say.

  “Maybe your father would still be alive, Chris.”

  Zane inhales sharply.

  Mr. Montgomery sits up. “Liefer, you’re way out of line.”

  Liefer shrugs. “Maybe everyone the Common King has killed would be alive. But we’ll never know if the Moment could have worked, because Mr. Miller interfered with its casting at the last second. And Mr. Miller only knew how to find us because, when we finally let Zane in on our plans, he turned right around and told our enemy everything.” Liefer sits back in his chair. “How long until you lead him to us again, Zane?”

  “Enough.” Alisa’s been quiet this whole time, staring straight ahead. She pulls some braids forward, twisting them in her hands. “Zane, you’ve told us everything?”

  “Everything, Alisa. I swear.”

  “I believe you.” She lets her hair go. “Okay, then. Nate, did you learn anything while they had you at the hotel? Anything we can use?”

  Nate blinks. “Uh…”

  “What?” Liefer turns to Alisa, astonishment on his face. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

  “I wish Zane had told us this before, sure. But getting our memories back messes us all up, in our own ways. I understand why he needed time to process.”

  “Time to…?” Liefer sputters. “He betrayed us!”

  “He tried to stop the Moment. So did I, remember? You weren’t exactly forthcoming with me about what would happen to the magical species. Not until the end.”

  “You left to warn the elves. You didn’t turn us over to the Butcher King.”

  Zane half-turns and buries his head against me. I hold him as he tries to suppress his sobs.

  Alisa slides off her chair. She rests a hand on Zane’s back.

  “We’re not condemning anyone for choices they made before the Moment,” she says. “And that’s final.”

  Liefer stands. “That’s not your decision to make.”

  “No.” Ihsan’s face has been unreadable through all this. “It’s all of ours to make, individually. But I am glad of it.”

  Liefer turns to him in surprise. “You were more afraid of the Common King than any of us. You can forgive this so easily?”

  “It is a virtue to show forgiveness.” He stands, speaking directly to Liefer. “And if we speak of deeds done before the Moment, I have my own crimes to be forgiven for. Not least of which is casting the Moment itself. We were arrogant, and we forced our will onto the people of the world. We imprisoned the magical species, and violated the minds of all humans, everywhere, without consent. Wouldn’t you like to be forgiven for that, Mr. Liefer?”

  “I…” Liefer’s mouth opens, closes, then opens again. “We made a hard choice. For the greater good.”

  “Yes.” Ihsan sits back down. “So, I think, did Zane.”

  Liefer frowns. He bites his lip. Then, slowly, he sits. Quietly, he says, “As long as we’re sure he’s not going to turn on us. I suppose…” He folds his arms, then winces at the pressure on his injured hands. “I suppose I have no objection to him staying with us.”

  Alisa squeezes Zane’s shoulder. “If you need my forgiveness, Zane, you’ve got it.”

  Nate drops down to the floor with us. “Mine, too, dude. For this. For the bullying. For everything.”

  Zane breaks out of my arms and throws himself into Nate’s. Nate, over Zane’s shoulder, raises his eyebrows at me and Alisa, wordlessly asking for help. I lean back against the end table. Alisa gives Zane’s hair a tousle as she gets back up into her chair.

  “Uh.” Nate pats Zane’s back. “There, there?”

  Zane pulls away. He wipes his face with his sleeve. “Thanks, Nate. Really. Thanks.”

  Nate pushes Zane’s shoulder. “It’s cool. I’m gonna run away now, okay? I’ve already had enough emotions today.”

  Zane laughs and leans back against me. “Yeah. Me, too.”

  Nate gets back on the couch next to his dad, who kisses him on the top of the head. Nate rolls his eyes, but smiles.

  Alisa asks Nate again to tell us if he learned anything while he was held captive. While they’re talking, I whisper to Zane, “Feel better?”

  “Yeah. Hopefully everybody else will be as forgiving.”

  “They will be. Liefer was the hard sell.”

  He strokes my wrist. “Chris. About what Liefer said. About your father—”

  I kiss his neck. “Don’t even think about it. I don’t blame you for that. Not for a second.”

  “Ahem.” Liefer glares at us. “Do you two have some other bombshell to drop on us, or may we continue our strategic session?”

  “Is that what this is?” Nate asks.

  “Sorry, Mr. Liefer,” I say. “We’re listening.”

  “Nate.” Liefer nods at him. “Please continue.”

  “Uh, yeah, sure. I was just saying that I didn’t learn much. Jasmine kept me away from the anti-Chris. I tried to get through to her, but…” He sighs. “She thinks they’re doing good. That the world will be better off with Mr. Sunshine in charge. But I think…” He yawns. “I don’t know. I’m probably wrong.”

  “What?” Alisa prompts.

  “There might be some dissension in the ranks. I got the idea that Jasmine and Shonda were surprised that he was so quick to blast you all to bits. And that they didn’t much like it.” He looks at me. “And your mom flipped the hell out when they told her, dude. For a second I thought she was gonna go for his throat, but then she just stormed out of the room. He was pissed but Jasmine calmed him down.”

  “That’s good,” Alisa says. “That might be useful.”

  Nate nods. “Dante looked a little bummed out, too. Mrs. Kumar didn’t care, though. And Mr. Finlay couldn’t stop laughing about it, the creep.”

  “Mr. Finlay was a petty, vindictive man,” Mr. Liefer says. “It sounds like his life before and his life after the Moment aren’t so different.”

  Liefer’s face is red, and not from being mad at Zane. He looks exhausted. His hands are freshly bandaged but he’s cradling them to his stomach. Andy’s been using his limited healing abilities to help, but Liefer must still be in a ton of pain. He’s an ass, but even so I feel bad for him.

  “How you doing, Mr. Liefer?” I ask.

  He gives me a wary smile. “I’m well, thank you, Chris. I’ll have to go back to basics with my logomancy, though. I relied too much on hand gestures to help communicate my word and my will.”

  “We can practice together, Mr. Liefer,” Ihsan says. “I have had to learn very much, very quickly, but I have a great deal more distance to travel before I can match
the logomancy I remember wielding in my patchwork memories.”

  “Oh!” Alisa tears the tree necklace from around her neck. “Ihsan, do you think you could help me with this? I managed to hold onto it when the Common King took back all the others. It has the elves in it.”

  He takes it from her and holds it up by its black cord. The metal medallion spins. “Yes. Yes, I feel them. Oh, so many.” He catches the medallion in his other hand, dropping the cord into it. “I don’t believe I have the skill yet to reproduce a spell like this.”

  “Not reproduce it. Bring someone out. Since we strengthened the Moment, anybody we let out will stay out. Mr. Ambrose has done it before, but now he’s afraid he might disrupt the artifact’s magic so much that he’ll accidentally let all the elves free. ”

  “Who do you wish to release?”

  “I’m sending you a picture of him, in your mind.”

  Ihsan’s eyes open wide. “Tannyl. Ah, the elf who was with you when we first met.”

  “That’s right.”

  He nods. “I will begin right away. Excuse me.”

  He gets up and moves to another corner of the room. He turns a chair to face the wall and sits in it, rubbing his hands over the medallion.

  “I hope he finds him,” I say to Alisa.

  “Me, too.” Nate gives an over-exaggerated sigh. “I miss my BF-elf. And I’ll bet Mom misses her shopping partner— Hey!” He sits up and turns to his father. “Mom? Davey? Are they—”

  “Oh, shit, I mean, shoot!” Mr. Montgomery jumps up and reaches into his pocket. “They’ve been calling and texting since the museum exploded.” He pulls out his phone and waggles it at Alisa. “It’s safe now, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, of course.” Alisa addresses all of us. “Anybody who needs to contact loved ones, do it. The king knows we’re alive now, no point in hiding it. Same rules as before, don’t say where we are in case Jasmine goes dream-surfing.”

  Mr. Montgomery taps his screen as he moves into the hallway.

  Nate bunches a pillow in his hands. “Should I be worried about them, do you think?”

  “I wish I could say no,” Alisa answers. “Our friends and family were safe before, even if we didn’t know it. He wanted us all working together to complete the spell. But now that he doesn’t need us…I just don’t know. He could use anyone as a hostage to draw us out.”

  Mr. Liefer looks around the living room. “Perhaps, with practice, Ihsan could expand this place. We can’t protect everyone, it’s true, but we could bring more loved ones here.”

  Alisa taps the arm of her chair. “It’s more secure than the old basement was, that’s for sure. But we can’t hide forever. We need to be proactive.”

  Liefer shrugs. “Just a suggestion. It’s up to you.”

  “Are you worried about your kids, Mr. Liefer?” I ask.

  “Kids?” He frowns. “I’m worried about my daughter, of course.”

  “Have you spoken to…” What was his son’s name again? Oh, I’ve got it. “Emmet. He’s at Harvard, right?”

  Liefer looks down at me from his chair, a puzzled expression on his face. “Who?”

  “Sorry. Did I get his name wrong? Isn’t it Emmet?”

  “You must be thinking of someone else, Chris. I don’t have a son.”

  Alisa leans forward. “Maybe Dante’s the key here. Without him hiding the book from us, we could—”

  “Just a sec.” I shift my weight. Zane slides out and moves next to me, so I can talk more easily to Mr. Liefer. “You do have a son.”

  “I’m sorry, Chris, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Helen and I only ever had one child. Claudia.” He gestures with his wrapped hands towards the bedroom, where his wife sleeps. “I know Claudia’s birth is a false memory created by the Moment, but it’s very clear in my mind.”

  “No, no.” I turn to face Nate. “You know who I’m talking about, right? Emmet Liefer.”

  Nate shrugs. “Sorry, dude. Could be. I don’t pay that much attention to my teachers’ family lives.”

  Ihsan stands, drawing everyone’s attention away from my confusion. He rejoins our circle, tapping Alisa’s necklace against his palm. “I’m sorry.” He hands it back to her. “I face the same problem as Mr. Ambrose. The Moment is stronger, and so the magic binding the elves to their prison is weaker. I found your friend, but I cannot free him without releasing them all.”

  Alisa’s face falls as she slowly puts the necklace back on. “It never even occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to get Tannyl out again.”

  “Perhaps, as I regain more of my old memories…”

  “Thank you for trying.” She pats the tree medallion. “Tannyl says thanks, too.”

  “You can speak with him? While he’s in there?”

  She taps her head. “We’re linked.” She closes her eyes for a second, then opens them and laughs. “And now he’s telling me to focus on our current situation and stop wasting time worrying about him.” She tucks the necklace away under her shirt. “Tannyl will be ready when we need him.”

  “In that case.” Ihsan stretches and yawns. “If you don’t need me any longer, I think I will retire for the evening. I will need to refresh our prison spell in a few hours, and it is best if I am refreshed myself when I do so. Goodnight to you all.”

  “Goodnight, Ihsan,” Alisa says. “And thank you again, for saving us.”

  He bows his head to her. “We save one another.” He turns and heads for the bedroom, passing a returning Mr. Montgomery. “Goodnight to you, sir.”

  “Oh, uh, yes. Goodnight.” Mr. Montgomery rejoins us, shoving his phone back in his jeans’ pocket. “Your mother and brother are safe, Nate, and much relieved that we are as well. They saw you on the news and feared the worst.”

  Nate drops the pillow. “Um. What?”

  His father sits back down next to him. “There was quite a bit of cell phone footage of the exploding museum and the flying, vanishing teenagers. Chris, I’m afraid your face is everywhere, too.”

  Alisa grabs some braids in her hands. “We’ll have to hope people will forget and move on, like they’ve done before.”

  Liefer clucks his tongue. “Perhaps. Perhaps not, now that we’ve altered the Moment—”

  “People!” I clap my hands above my head. “One problem at a time! We were talking about Emmet Liefer.”

  Mr. Montgomery frowns. “Who?”

  “You have to remember him, Mr. Montgomery, you met him a bunch of times. He was in Davey’s class at Charleston. They played baseball together. He’s been to your house!”

  Mr. Montgomery tugs on his lip while he thinks. Then, “Sorry, Chris. It’s not ringing any bells.”

  Zane rubs my neck. “A glitch in the Moment, maybe? Somehow you got different memories from everyone else? Small differences, like remembering somebody who isn’t real.”

  “That doesn’t sound right…” I snap my fingers. “No, Mr. Liefer, you mentioned your son to me a few days after the Moment, in your office. And I saw a picture there! That was after the Moment, too. Do you have any pictures here? Family photos?”

  Liefer gestures around the room. “We didn’t pack heirlooms, Chris. And everything we brought was burned up anyway. Although…” He stands. “Just a moment.” He goes down the hall, to the bedroom.

  “Emmet Liefer!” I look around for support, but only get blank stares back. “Come on! We thought he was hot but we decided to hate him because he was Liefer’s son. Carved his initials into the underside of the piano bench in Winston Hall. Nobody? Alisa?”

  She shrugs. “Sorry.”

  I slump. “I mean, we didn’t know him well. But we saw him plenty of times. He would come home from Cambridge once in a while and visit the school. I’m not making him up.”

  Alisa smiles at me. “We know you’re not. We’ll figure it out.”

  Mr. Liefer comes back with a bleary-eyed Mrs. Liefer. She’s carrying a phone. “What’s going on?” she asks.

  “My phone’s as
hes now,” Mr. Liefer explain. “But Helen had hers on her.”

  They sit in neighboring chairs. The rest of us get up and gather around.

  “Mrs. Liefer,” Alisa asks. “Does the name ‘Emmet’ mean anything to you?”

  “No. Should it?” She yawns. “What are we talking about? I’m sorry, I’m still asleep, I think.”

  “Open your photos,” I say. “Do you have any pictures of your family all together? At holidays, maybe?”

  “I’m sure I do.” She opens the photos and starts flipping through. “Here, this is last Christmas. Is this what you mean? Here’s us by the tree. I took it with the timer. It came out pretty good, I think.”

  I lean over to look at the picture. It’s Mr. and Mrs. Liefer, arm in arm. In front of them stands Claudia, their pre-teen daughter. And next to her, a young man, about twenty or twenty-one years old. He looks more like his mother than his father. Blond hair. Long, narrow face with big ears and a goofy grin.

  “There!” I point at the picture. “That’s him! Emmet Liefer!”

  Mrs. Liefer gasps. “Who is that? I don’t remember seeing him before.”

  “So you can see him?” I ask.

  “Of course I can see him, he’s right there.” She looks up at me. “He’s…” She wrinkles her brow. “Sorry, what was the question?”

  “I asked if you can see him.”

  “See who?”

  Mr. Liefer gestures to the screen with his bandaged hand. “Him, Helen! That stranger in our Christmas photo.” He looks up at her. “Chris thinks he’s…” He bites his lip. “Chris, I wonder if Zane’s theory is correct after all. Some problem with your memory.”

  “Okay.” I lean over Mrs. Liefer’s chair again. “Everybody. Look at the picture. Keep your eyes on it. How many people do you see?”

  “Four,” Mrs. Liefer says quickly. “Who’s that young man?”

  “Everybody else?” I ask.

  “Four,” Mr. Montgomery says.

  “Four,” Alisa agrees.

  Zane nods. “Ditto.”

  Nate says, “One, two, three, four. Never saw the guy before, though.”

  “Four,” Mr. Liefer says finally. “Is that young man the person you remember, Chris?”

  Before I answer, I cover the picture with my hand. “Now. How many people were in the picture?”