by Brian Olsen
Yasu sticks the tip of his trunk into his mouth and blows out a noxious gray mist. He swallows it all, sticking his tongue out to catch every last drop. His meal finished, he trumpets happily.
Then he turns his attention to Jasmine.
She backs away in fear, but stumbles and falls on the step behind her. She catches herself on one hand and throws the other out to ward Yasu off. “No, no, keep it away from me!”
The baku jumps on top of her, pinning her down with his front legs. His trunk attaches itself to her forehead and he begins to suck. Jasmine screams in terror, but her fear quickly turns to disgust.
“Ew, ew, ew! This is so gross! Get off me, you mangy monster!”
Nate stands guard over her while Alisa and I continue up the steps. Shonda’s bashing away at Andy with her stone. Doesn’t look like she’s hurting him – he must have made himself invulnerable – but he can’t get up.
As we come up from below, Alisa grabs Shonda’s leg and pulls it out from under her. She drops the rock and falls, landing half on Andy. She rolls off him, onto her back, and conjures the stone into her hand again. Before she can use it, Alisa puts her foot on her neck.
“You want to see your truth?” Alisa’s voice is calm and measured. “You want me to show you what kind of person you’re turning into, Shonda? No hiding, no denials, no justifications. Just your own truth seared into your soul. You want to see that? Then keep on fighting.”
Shonda stares into Alisa’s eyes for a second. Then she turns her head to the side. Her hand goes limp, dropping the piece of stone.
Alisa removes her foot. Shonda scuttles out of our way as we help Andy up.
“Your power is kind of terrifying,” I say quietly.
She blows air out of her cheeks. “Scares the hell out of me. Andy, we can’t—”
He puts his hands up. “Sorry, Alisa. I know, we need the king alive for this. But I saw an opportunity and…” His eyes dart towards me. “I guess I’m not as over my anger issues as I thought.”
“I wouldn’t blame you,” I say. “If you—”
“No. It was stupid. With his power, if I didn’t get him on the first blow…and who knows if he even can be killed.” He puts a firm hand on my shoulder. “I let my fear get the better of me, Chris. You’re so brave to do this. I’ll borrow some of your courage to get me through.”
Alisa casts a worried eye over the plaza. “That’s great, but Chris won’t get the chance to be brave if our friends are unconscious. Andy?”
“On it.” He extends a hand, then raises it slightly. “Body.”
Emmet, Mr. Ambrose, and Tannyl jolt awake like they got a shock to the heart. They look around in confusion, breathing heavily and holding their chests. Kenny and Zane, recovered from Jasmine’s attack, go to help them.
The only person left fighting is Mr. Finlay, still in ogre-form, barely kept at bay by Mrs. Wollard and the other wolf. His brutish features twist in fear as he looks around for help and realizes he’s on his own. Then he spots my mother and his face lights up. She’s near Mr. Liefer, who’s sitting on the bottom step, warming up after being freed from her ice block.
“Mrs. Armstrong!” Finlay roars. “Finish Liefer off and help me! Get in the fight already!”
She cracks her knuckles. “Oh, I intend to, Mr. Finlay.”
With a snap of her wrist, an ice spear shoots towards the ogre. He flinches, covering his face with his arm, and the spear glances off his thick wrist.
He stares at her in amazement. “Traitor! You’ll burn for this!”
“Your king won’t be burning anyone, ever again.” Mom raises her hands, preparing to encase him in ice.
“Maybe he won’t.” Finlay plucks the smaller wolf from his neck and casually tosses it aside. “But I will!”
The ogre shimmers, his skin rippling as it turns a dark metallic green. He drops to all fours, his body distending, growing larger and larger, while his head stretches, shedding any semblance of humanity. Two wings burst from his broad back.
Oh, crap.
Mr. Finlay, my meek, annoying biology teacher, finishes his transformation into an enormous dragon, taking up much of the plaza. The wolves jump for him, but one swipe of his foreleg knocks them away. Finlay spreads and beats his new wings, sending a powerful wind down on us as he rises into the air.
Alisa mutters an uncharacteristic swear. “We don’t have time for this!”
She’s right, we don’t. The Common King’s eyes are still closed but he’s twitching and muttering softly, like he might be about to come around. Our window is closing.
Alisa puts her fingers to her temples and furrows her brow. My mother starts in surprise at her telepathic message, but recovers quickly and hurls an ice spear at the dragon. It bounces uselessly off his chest. Finlay, wings beating, rises off the ground, ascending a story or so above us, and flies in a tight circle above the square.
Zane runs beneath the dragon and sends a shadow up at him, but the darkness barely covers one of the monster’s legs. Kenny points at Zane and yells, “Amplify!” Zane’s shadow grows larger, spreading up to the dragon’s underside, but not fast enough to contain him.
The flying reptile dives towards Zane and my mother. Mom forms a huge stalagmite of ice in his path, but the dragon isn’t landing. He’s strafing. He opens his mouth and inhales, revealing a spark of red light flickering at the back of his throat.
Mr. Ambrose, still sitting on the ground, throws one hand forward, catching himself from falling with the other. “Disrupt!”
At the exact moment the dragon exhales, Ambrose’s spell forces him partway back into human form. The jet of flame he intended for Mom and Zane backfires, engulfing his own head instead. He half-screams, half-roars in agony and tries to fly higher, but his now shriveled wings can’t keep him aloft. He plummets, landing squarely on Mom’s stalagmite. The ice pierces his hybrid dragon-human torso, emerging from his back stained a muddy pink. With one last cry of pain, Finlay’s flaming head drops and goes still.
Mr. Ambrose covers his mouth with his hands. “Oh, my lord. Finlay. Oh, god. I didn’t mean to…I didn’t mean…”
My mother’s back is to me. I can’t see her expression as she says, softly, “I did.”
The immediate crisis over, Alisa gets our focus back on the task at hand with a loud whistle. “Everybody up here! It’s now or never!”
Nate passes the frame to me and runs down to help Liefer up the steps. I hold out the picture. It shakes, and Ihsan flies out of it. The framed photo disappears, having served its purpose. Ihsan used his logomancy to create the tiny prison, a magical Trojan horse holding Andy, Yasu and himself in reserve until we needed them.
Ihsan clasps my shoulder. “Are you sure about this, Chris?”
“Little late for second thoughts now.”
The others join us. Mrs. Wollard shifts back to human form, then pats the other wolf on the head, turning her human again.
It was Lily. Her features look a little softer now. Like her face is sliding downward, just a tiny bit. In all the commotion I doubt anybody else will notice.
I grab her arm and pull her aside. “You shouldn’t do this. What if using your magic speeds up what’s happening to you?”
“It does. That’s why I volunteered to go werewolf instead, so I’d last until now.”
“But if you—”
“It’s going to happen anyway, Chris. Soon. Let me go out on my own terms, okay? Saving the world? You just do your part when this is over. Keep him under control.”
I swallow. “I will. I promise. I love you, Lily.”
She puts her hand on my heart. “Love you, too. You’ll always be my favorite ex-boyfriend.” She smiles sadly at me, but the moment is broken by a disgusted curl of her lip. “Ugh. Why is your hand a bloody mess?”
“Oh, yeah. I fed my pinky to a ghoul.”
“What’d you do that for, dumbass?”
I laugh. “Long story.”
Alisa snaps her fingers at us. “Y
ou two ready? I think he’s waking up.”
Lily kisses my cheek. “Better tell me later, then.” She nods to Alisa. “We’re ready.”
Nate and Zane move closer to me. They have no part in this spell. They just want to be near me when it happens.
We didn’t say goodbye. That’s okay. This isn’t goodbye. I won’t let it be.
“What’s happening?” My mother stands a few steps below. “What are you doing? Chris?”
“It’s all right, Mom. We’re doing exactly what he was afraid we’d do. Putting us back together, with him where he belongs, in the floating room. I’ll be in control, and I’ll never let him out again. This time I know the stakes.”
“Yes.” Her lips tighten. “And so do your friends, I’d guess.” Snow swirls around her hands as she looks over the group. Her eyes linger longest on Mr. Liefer, but Tannyl and Andy also receive close inspections. “I’ve no objection, so long as once the king is locked away, nobody has plans for a more…permanent solution.”
I should probably tell her that I want them to kill me if I’m in danger of losing control again, but it feels too good to see my mother trying to protect me. Even if it’s in a terrifying, murderous kind of way.
My double moans, making my heart jump. His cheek sports a huge purple bruise and there’s a little blood trickling from his mouth. Andy got him good, but he’s waking up now. He mumbles something and his eyes move underneath their lids.
Alisa stands by his head. “We’re doing this now. Mr. Liefer, Lily and Andy, you’re putting the bodies back together. Emmet and Ihsan, you’re making sure it’s the Common King who winds up in the floating room and not Chris. I’ll link us together, and help strengthen Chris’s truth over the king’s. Kenny, you’re amplifying us all. Even unconscious, he’s too strong for this to work without you. Nate, Zane, Mr. Ambrose, Mrs. Wollard, and Mrs. Armstrong, watch our backs. Everybody else, join hands around the king.”
“I don’t think so.”
The voice of Mrs. Kumar cuts across the plaza. Our former math teacher and acting headmistress stands at the base of the stairs, holding a long knife. Dante’s behind her, fidgeting uncomfortably.
“Ignore her.” Alisa extends her hands, waiting for someone to take them. “Kumar has no magic. Zane and Mrs. Wollard, take her down if she comes any closer. Mr. Ambrose, disrupt Dante’s magic if he hides the king from us. Everyone else, circle up.”
“I don’t need logomancy to stop you, Alisa,” Mrs. Kumar calls up. “All I need is to break one link in your chain.”
Alisa stamps her foot. “Move it, people!”
We move into position. Liefer winces as he carefully takes his ruined hands out from his pockets. Emmet, seeing the full extent of the injuries for the first time, gasps.
“You should sit this out,” he says. “You can’t–”
“I have to. We all do.” Liefer smiles at him. “But I appreciate your concern.”
I stand over my twin’s prone body, one foot on either side of his waist. The logomancers form a circle around us and join hands. Emmet gently takes one of Liefer’s wrists, and Lily follows his lead with the other.
“Truth.” “Space.” “Split.” “Body.” “Memory.” “Imprison.” “Amplify.”
I feel something. A faint stirring of magic. A tingle in my skin.
I hate this. I hate it.
The king’s head tosses from side to side. “No,” he murmurs. “No…”
I take a deep breath. Gotta put my feelings aside. He may fight me. I need to stay focused.
“Truth.” “Space.” “Split.” “Body.” “Memory.” “Imprison.” “Amplify.”
“Kenny?” Mrs. Kumar, still at the base of the stairs. “There’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”
“Truth.” “Space.” “Split.” “Body.” “Memory.” “Imprison.” “Amplify.”
“Kenny!”
That wasn’t Mrs. Kumar. Who is that?
“Truth.” “Space.” “Split.” “Body.” “Memory.” “Imprison.”
“Kenny!” A boy’s voice. “Kenny!”
Instead of his word, Kenny says, “He’s…he’s alive…”
The tingling in my skin fades.
The other logomancers stop chanting. The circle breaks apart as we turn to look.
Bobby Pillman, Kenny’s little brother, who we saw burn to death alongside his father, stands at the base of the stairs. Mrs. Kumar stands behind him, holding a knife to his throat.
“We’ve had him locked up in a room at the Marriott we took over.” Mrs. Kumar tosses her head back, indicating someplace behind her. “The king sent me to fetch him while you were all fighting. Sorry it took me so long. Had to dodge a few chimera.”
Kenny’s voice cracks as he cries out, “Bobby!”
Nate intercepts him, blocking his path. “It’s a trick, dude!”
Kenny steps around Nate, but pauses, narrowing his eyebrows in suspicion. “A trick, how?”
“A ghoul?” Mr. Liefer suggests. “Perhaps they kept a piece—”
“Yeah, no.” I cut him off before he can finish that gruesome thought. “Ghouls don’t talk.”
“It’s him.” Kenny takes another step down. “It’s Bobby. He’s alive.”
Nate grabs his arm. “It’s not! Kenny, it’s gotta be an illusion!”
Kenny pulls away. “An illusion?” He points at Jasmine, who’s still incapacitated beneath Yasu. “Cast by who, Nate?”
Mrs. Kumar calls out, “I assure you this is real, Kenny. Bobby’s death was the illusion, plucked by the queen from your nightmares. You needed to believe we had no further hold over you, so you would help the traitors strengthen the Moment. Your father died, but the king kept your brother in reserve, in case we required your services again.” She strokes Bobby’s cheek with the edge of her blade. “A sensible precaution, it turns out.”
“Liefer, get the knife!” Alisa shouts.
Dante stops digging his toe into the ground behind Mrs. Kumar and snaps to attention. “Hide!”
Nothing changes as far as I can see, but Liefer yells, “Damn it!” He scans the plaza, squinting. “He’s hiding them from me.”
My mother had her ice-throwing hands at the ready, but now lowers them. “I can’t see them, either.”
“Mr. Ambrose—” Alisa starts.
Mrs. Kumar presses her dagger against Bobby’s throat again. “One magic word and the boy dies.”
Kenny presses his fists against his forehead. “Is she telling the truth?”
Alisa touches his shoulder. “Kenny—”
He shoves her away. “Is it the truth, Alisa? Is that Bobby?”
“Yes. But—”
Kenny runs down the steps two at a time. He stops in front of Mrs. Kumar, his arms out in supplication, but she doesn’t lower the knife. Kenny drops to his knees at his brother’s feet, buries his face in his hands, and sobs.
“We can do this.” There’s a waver of doubt in Alisa’s voice, but she repeats more forcefully, “We can do this! Mrs. Wollard. Zane. Listen up. I want you to—”
“I’m sure it would have been a wonderful plan, whatever it was.”
Behind us, the Common King sits up. He rubs his cheek.
“But I’m afraid you’re out of time.”
Andy moves to hit him again, but the king gestures and levitates him into the air. Andy’s fist flails wildly, connecting with nothing.
“You’re the one who hit me?” The king touches the blood drying around his mouth. “You’re the one who dared to lay a hand on me?”
He flicks a finger, sending a bright yellow ball of fire, the size of a baseball, at Andy’s chest. Andy screams as it burns into him.
“Disrupt!” Mr. Ambrose shouts. “Disrupt!”
The flames don’t so much as flicker. They burn steadily as the fireball slowly eats its way through Andy’s body.
It’s horrible.
The screaming stops.
None of us move.
The ball emerg
es from Andy’s back and puffs out of existence. His lifeless body drops to the steps.
“There. Now. The rest of you.”
My double stands and brushes himself off.
“Kneel and face my judgment.”
Thirty-seven
I don’t mean to kneel. Not because I plan to resist, or out of any sense of pride. I’m just too stunned by Andy’s sudden death. Oh, god. Poor Andy.
I don’t mean to kneel but I do anyway because I’m suddenly so heavy. My body weighs more than my legs can support. I’m forced down to my knees, then I have to lean forward, resting my hands on the step right above. The pain in my partly-severed little finger is excruciating.
My friends are all in the same position, except Mr. Liefer, whose hands won’t support him. He lies flat across one step. Even Yasu is immobilized. The whimpering baku rolls off Jasmine, who staggers to her feet looking weak and unsteady. Shonda stands and comes to her king’s side. Mrs. Kumar releases Bobby, who drops to the ground next to his big brother. Dante is behind her, looking dumbstruck.
Mom remains standing too, on the steps near us. Does the king not realize she turned on him?
The Common King climbs back up to the top step, his voice carrying through the plaza. “Such knowledge this world has. Logomancy is a powerful force but has made us weak in many ways, I think. Stunted our scientific development. The internet, for example. What a marvel! I’ve learned so much from it. So much about the sun, and all it can do.”
He snaps his fingers and my mother cries out. She drops flat, bent awkwardly across three steps.
“Like gravity,” the king continues. “I didn’t even know that word before. The sun exerts a strong gravitational pull. Can you feel it, Kelle? Does it hurt you as much as your betrayal hurt me?”
She screams.
“Stop it,” I yell. “Please. You’ve won. Stop hurting her.”
He hops down the steps until he’s just above me. He crouches, lifting my chin to look in my eyes, but addresses my mother. “Why, Kelle? He’s not your son. I know you understand that. So why? What was the point?”