by Brian Olsen
“Kirt!” Jasmine reaches futilely for a passing ember. “We needed that! If you can’t show the world leaders that you can control the magical creatures, they won’t surrender to you!”
“Oh, Tes. We’re far past that. I don’t need some pretentious magical tome if I’m rewriting the whole world!”
“Your Majesty.” Shonda swallows hard. “You don’t mean to rewrite us as well? We’re already your loyal subjects.”
He scratches his chin. “But are you? You’re clinging so strongly to this ‘Shonda’ fiction. I’ll wipe that away and you can be Theen Gandenschild again. My friend. You too, Tes.”
Jasmine shoots a quick look at Nate. “But…but Kirt, I don’t want that.”
He freezes. His fingers dig into his palm. “I beg your pardon?”
A look of fear flashes across Jasmine’s face, but only for a second. She forces it away and thrusts her fists at her sides. “Don’t try your scary voice on me, Kirt. Not on me. Am I your friend or aren’t I?”
I expect the king to lash out at her. He doesn’t. He actually blushes. “Yes. Of course you are, Tes. I’m sorry.”
“I’ve had my mind wiped once already. I don’t want it to happen again.”
He shakes his head and runs to her. “But I can make your life better!” He waves a hand at Nate. “You can keep this one! I’ll make it so he loves you again, but as the Nightmare Queen, not some dizzy schoolgirl!”
“I’m not dizzy!” Her face goes red. “I like being Jasmine O’Kane!”
“Oh.” He sighs sadly. “Oh, Tes.” He strokes her cheek. “I’m so sorry for what they did to you. I’ll fix it.” He turns away from her. “I’ll fix all of you.”
“You can’t!” Shonda shouts. “Please, Your Majesty. These are our lives you’re talking about. What if you get it wrong?”
“Wrong?” He snorts. “It’s not like you to doubt me. Something else I can fix for you, Theen.”
“My name is Shonda!”
The king doesn’t respond. Just looks at her.
Shonda bows her head. “Forgive me. But so many logomancers crafted the Moment, and still there was so much that went wrong with it. Can you do this on your own?”
“Of course.”
“But…” She raises her eyes. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I’m still confused. You tricked your enemies into strengthening the Moment because you couldn’t do it on your own, even with Kenny’s amplification.”
“True, true. It’s a complicated spell, and having its original architects adjust it seemed prudent. I’ve learned so much about my word in this new world, making me so much stronger. I feared I might shatter the Moment completely.”
Shonda bites her lips. “Again, my apologies for questioning you. But…isn’t that danger still there?”
“Yes.” He shrugs. “But so what? If I get it wrong, I’ll try again.”
“Again?”
“And again. That’s the beauty of it. If I don’t like the world I made, if it’s wrong or irritating or even just grows boring, I can wipe it clean and start over.” His eyes light up. He jumps back up to the top step. “Wipe it clean! Yes! There’s an idea. Should I destroy the sun?”
Jasmine and Shonda look at each other. “What?” Jasmine says. “You can’t…why would you do that?”
“I don’t know. To see if I can? If I’m starting the world over anyway…is that a step too far? Be honest, Tes.”
“But…but you’ll kill us.”
“I’ll bring you back!” He seems genuinely surprised by their dismay. “I love you both. I wouldn’t harm you. Not permanently. Oh!” He claps his hands. “I can bring Muln back! And my mother. No need to hide my parentage anymore.” He bites his lip. “I’ll leave my father dead, though, I think.” He nods towards Mr. Finlay’s body, slowly sliding down the melting column of ice that pierces its chest. “Besd, too. I never cared for him. Unless you two want him back?” He peers out at the plaza. “Where did Ope go?”
“You mean Dante.” Jasmine’s face bears a wary, false smile. “You’re calling everyone by their old names again, Kirt. You said you’d use their new names, remember?”
The Common King sneers at her. “I’m past the need to indulge your weaknesses, Tes.” He claps his hands. “Ope? Ope, don’t hide. I’ll take care of you, too. Maybe make you a little smarter next time around.”
“I’m good.” Dante appears behind the king. He’s got a folding chair in his hands, which he whacks my double over the head with.
The king, taken by surprise, drops to his knees, but he lands half off a step and falls forward. Shonda hefts a brick which has suddenly appeared in her hand and raises it up over his head.
But Mrs. Kumar is there, ready, and she tackles Shonda. The brick flies up and over the back of the steps, landing somewhere on the street below.
The king gets up, holding his head.
Dante gently leans the now bent folding chair against the glass barrier lining the back of the steps. It topples over with a crash.
“Um.” Dante smiles. “Sorry?”
The Common King’s face is calm. “I forgive you, Ope.”
Dante swallows. “You do? Because I’m not usually that brave but you were talking about blowing up the sun or something, and their leader, what’s her name, Alisa, was in my head kind of egging me on, so it’s sort of her fault, really?” He smiles again. “Are we still good?”
“Yes, Ope. We’re good.”
Shonda pushes Mrs. Kumar away and lifts her chin defiantly. “I hope you’re not expecting me to apologize, Kirt.”
“I’d be disappointed if you did, Theen.”
His eyes glow red, and Shonda and Dante cry out. They drop, like us, to their hands and knees.
“I forgive you both,” he says. “You’re not yourselves. But I’ll fix that.” He extends a hand to Mrs. Kumar. She comes to his side. “Baroness Chand. Ever loyal.”
“She was in my head, too, Your Majesty.” Mrs. Kumar sneers down at Alisa. “Trying to capitalize on my fear. Fear of what? Of rebirth at your hands? Or a world remade into a paradise for your loyal subjects?” She bows to him. “I trust in you now, as I always have.”
He laughs. “You trust in the riches and power you’ll receive in the next world, you mean!” He clasps her shoulder. “Riches and power you shall have, my friend.” He turns to Jasmine. “And you, Tes. You weren’t tempted to help them?”
“Of course not.” Jasmine chuckles. “As if a clumsy attack like that would ever work on you.”
He laughs with her. “Foolishness. I knew you would never turn on me. Not you.”
“No. Tes Tesbrunchild would never turn on a friend.” She twirls a red curl around one finger. “But Jasmine O’Kane’s gotten pretty good at it. Nightmare!”
The Common King staggers back, then braces himself, as if facing a stiff wind. He grits his teeth. “No! No, Tes!” Tears form in his eyes. “Tes, please! Don’t make me hurt you!”
Mrs. Kumar runs to Jasmine, but the Nightmare Queen extends a hand towards her and the middle-aged woman drops to the ground with a cry of fear.
“Whatever you’re gonna do, Alisa,” Jasmine says, “do it now!”
“Lily!” Alisa yells.
Lily’s voice comes from behind me. “I need to touch them both!”
“What?” Alisa tries to twist her head to look, but the king’s gravity spell hasn’t weakened at all, despite Jasmine’s attack. “Since when?”
“Since I don’t have Andy or Liefer to help me!”
“Zane!” I shout.
“On it!” my boyfriend yells back. “Get ready for a pile-up!”
Darkness appears beneath me. It spreads quickly, covering the steps I’m kneeling on, and I drop through. I appear in the air above the Common King, and all my augmented weight drops down on him. We fall hard to the stairs.
Being hit by me weakens whatever resistance he mustered against Jasmine’s attack, because his eyes widen and his jaw drops. He looks me dead in the face and screams
.
Huh. I guess we’re each other’s greatest fear.
Ooh! Something drops on top of me. Something heavy, knocking the wind out of me.
“Ouch!” Lily lays flat, splayed across us both. “Oh, wow.”
Then something else falls on her. Kenny. All three of us cry out in pain and lay still. Four bodies tangled together, draped across the top steps, three of us too heavy to move, the fourth on the bottom pinned under the rest of us and paralyzed with fear.
“I guess Zane thought I could help,” Kenny says.
“You can,” Lily replies. “We meant for their split to be permanent. Without Andy or Liefer to help reverse the spell, this is gonna take a lot out of me.”
Our faces are next to each other, pressed cheek to cheek. Her face is soft against my skin. Unnaturally soft.
“Lily,” I say. “If this—”
“Shut up, Chris. Kenny, boost me. Oh, and just in case I don’t get to say this later, I have a huge crush on you.”
“What?” I can’t see Kenny’s face, it’s down near our legs, but I imagine he looks surprised. “Since when?”
“Since most of this year. I was waiting for you to get over Alisa.”
“I’m over her! I’m totally over her!”
“Oh.” Lily’s voice drops. “I probably shouldn’t have waited.”
“That’s okay!” Kenny’s voice cracks a little. It does that when he’s excited. I haven’t heard that from him since this whole mess started. “We’re gonna get through this. We’ve got time, Lil!”
“Yeah.” Lily’s voice is quiet. “Time.”
“Let’s do it,” Kenny says. “Amplify!”
Lily takes a deep breath. Her heavy fingers grab the king’s arm, and she presses her cheek harder against mine. “Split.”
I tingle, a little. But nothing else.
“More!” Lily yells. “Kenny, more!”
“Amplify! Amplify!”
“Split!”
Weight! I’m heavier still! So much heavier! I’m sinking!
No. I’m melting.
There’s no pain. Not this time.
It’s warm. So warm. It feels wonderful. Was I cold before? I must have been. I’ve never known warmth like this.
My hand is resting on the king’s stomach. Or it was. Now it’s inside it.
My chin sinks into his chest. I slide into him like a warm bath.
It’s good. It’s right.
The king screams. “No, no! Not this! Stop! I’ll kill you all!”
“I’ll kill you all!” I scream. “I’ll—”
Why am I screaming? There’s nothing to fear.
Everything goes dark as my eyes melt into him.
When the light returns, I’m in a barren plain. The earth is burnt clay, dry and dusty.
A flight of stone stairs, made of individual unsupported steps hovering in place, leads up to a room, floating in the air above.
The Common King stands next to me, his face red and his eyes bulging. He grabs me by the throat and lifts me into the air. I grab his wrists and kick my legs against his stomach and thighs, but he doesn’t flinch.
“This is my body!” he snarls at me. “My mind!”
He climbs a step.
“You want back in? Then back into your prison you’ll go!”
He keeps climbing, carrying me up towards the floating room, where I’ll be locked away again, lost inside his mind. I can’t stop him.
“Kirt.”
The king pauses, halfway up the steps. At the bottom stands Jasmine. Next to her, Alisa.
“Tes.” His grip on my throat loosens, though he doesn’t let me go. “Tes, no. Please. Don’t bring her here. Not her.”
Jasmine shakes her head. “It’s done, Kirt.”
“Liar!” His voice is choked with tears. “Betrayer!” He gives out one fierce sob. “You were supposed to be my friend!”
“I am your friend. You’ll see.”
Alisa climbs the bottom step. “Truth.”
He weakens and opens his hands, dropping me onto the step beside him. He rubs his tears away with his sleeve, then grabs me by my shoulders, but he’s not strong enough to lift me now. I push him off.
Alisa climbs another step. “Truth.”
“Lock me away, then.” Kirt spits at my feet. “I’ll never stop fighting you. I’ll get out, some day. I’ll take back control. You know I will.”
“Alisa,” I say. “Wait.”
She pauses, a few steps below us. “Chris, we can’t hesitate. You have to help me. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to get him back in the floating room by myself. I’m making your truth stronger than his so you can—”
“Don’t.” The floating room looms above us. “That’s not the way. It won’t work, and it’s…it’s not right. It’s not just.”
“But if we don’t—”
“Finish what Lily started, Alisa.” I take a deep breath. “Put us back together.”
Her jaw drops. “No, Chris. I can’t…don’t ask me to do that.”
“I won’t have it.” The king shoves me, but the rules of this mental prison keep me on the step. “I won’t.”
“You don’t have a choice,” I say. “I’m sorry, Kirt.”
“Don’t do this.” He hugs himself. “Please, don’t.”
“It’s going to be okay. Do it, Alisa. Hurry.”
She wavers for just a moment, then climbs another step. “Truth.”
“No. No.” The king thrusts his hands into his hair. “I don’t want this.”
“I know.”
“I want to stay me!”
“I know. So do I.” I look out over the plain. Blasted, ruined, no sign of life anywhere. “But we can’t have what we want. Not after what we’ve done.”
Alisa climbs faster, saying her word again and again.
The king slumps against me. “Please, Chris.”
“Shh, Kirt.” I put my arms around him. “We’ll get through this.”
Alisa reaches us. She meets my gaze. I nod.
She steps past us. She climbs to the top step.
She rests one hand on the outside of the floating room.
“Truth.”
The floating room explodes in a ball of fire.
The king screams. I do, too. We hold each other.
Wood and stone from the room fly all around us. The chunks of debris land on the ground below, where they sink into the barren earth.
Alisa turns to us, untouched by the violent blast. There’s no sign of the floating room behind her. Just bright blue sky.
The stone steps are gone. The four of us stand on the barren plain.
No, not completely barren. There’s green, too. Lush green grass, here and there. Not in any kind of pattern, nothing neat. Patches of beauty in the harsh ugliness.
Alisa and Jasmine are gone.
The sky is gone.
The plain is gone. Everything is dark.
Kirt is gone from my arms.
Chris is gone from my arms.
I open my eyes.
There are people on top of me. Kenny and Lily. Their weight is crushing me. But I’m doing that. Making them heavy. I can stop it.
“Sun.”
The weight eases. Kenny sits back, pulling Lily with him. He’s calling her name, again and again.
I look up. At the sky.
At all the suns above me. All the suns in the universe. Shining down. Giving me their power.
A face appears.
Ree. No, not Ree… Alisa. Alisa.
“Chris?” she asks.
Somebody else appears. The elf. Tannyl. His blade is in his hand.
“Chris?” she asks again. “Is that you? Did it work?”
“Yes.”
I sit up. I’m dressed in the clothes I wore as Kirt. The clothes I wore as Chris are draped over me, empty. I brush them aside.
“And no.”
I smile up at them.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’m going to fix everything.
”
Thirty-nine
I am Kirt Kanaxchild, known to most as Kirt Nonechild, the Common King. To other species I am known as the Human King, but some call me the Monster Child, or the Butcher, or a host of other terrible epithets. I am the most powerful logomancer in all of recorded history. I conquered the world before my sixteenth birthday.
I am Christopher Armstrong, but I go by Chris. Sometimes my classmates call me ‘golden boy’. Sometimes my parents call me ‘hero’. I’m a student at Charlesville Academy. My favorite subject is history. I like acting and I love lacrosse. I never wanted to conquer the world. Just leave it a little better than I found it.
I fully remember living two completely different lives, as two completely different people.
Kirt’s life is the one that really happened, and Chris’s life didn’t, but it doesn’t feel that way. Not at all. I’m both people. Both sets of memories shape who I am now. Two lives, two sets of values, two ways of seeing the world.
Is this what it was like for everyone else? Alisa, Andy, Liefer, Miller? No wonder they were all so confused. No wonder this was so hard for them.
I’m not like them, though. I’m stronger.
I’m better.
Everyone’s quiet as I get to my feet. Waiting to see what I’ll do. Watching my expression.
“What do you mean, Chris?” Tannyl’s dagger is low, but ready. “You’ll fix everything?”
I don’t answer right away. I don’t have an answer, yet.
Tannyl doesn’t like that. His jaw sets and he positions himself protectively between me and Alisa.
Alisa grabs his shoulder. “Wait—”
“I’m sorry, my love. And I’m sorry, Chris. But I made you a promise.” He raises his dagger to strike.
“That’s all right, Tannyl,” I say.
He’s incredibly fast. I’ve no time to dodge the slash coming for my throat.
“Sun.”
The dagger’s blade turns to molten metal. It splashes across my neck, but the heat does me no harm. Tannyl jumps back to avoid the drops, but there’s no need. I’ve made him immune to heat, too. He’s my friend.