Judgment of the Elders

by Gregg Schwartzkopf

  He turned to Cass, still astonished at how small and fragile the former knight looked now. “What’s bothering you? Your muscles are tensed for combat, which looks very odd paired with pink pajamas. Are you spoiling for a fight, ‘cause I’m kind of tired.”

  Cass rolled his neck to relieve some tension. “I’m not looking for a fight with you. It’s this senior boy at school.”

  Jamil sat on the end of the sofa. “Forget him. He’s not worth starting trouble.”

  “I think he might be,” said Cass. “He’s upset with me because I wouldn’t play his game. He’s pulled some pretty nasty tricks on other students.”

  “Has he done any harm to you?”

  “He’s tried, but hasn’t been effective. It’s mostly other people he’s hurting.”

  Jamil wasn’t impressed. “He’s hurting other humans. That’s what humans do. You don’t need to get involved. Let the school worry about it.”

  Tugging a lock of hair, Cass persisted. “This guy is a real problem. He’s part of the popular crowd and most teachers don’t see him as a troublemaker. But he went after Rodger to get to me and that makes me crazy.”

  “Look, Cass, if you go after this boy, even if you win, you become a savior to some and an enemy of others. We don’t need that kind of attention. You’re here to observe and absorb, not intervene. Let the primitives squabble. You’re not a Knight of Whiteleaf anymore.”

  Cass gave Jamil a withering glare that worked surprisingly better with his small, feminine features than it would have when he was a man. “When I was a knight, I stood guard outside pavilions or the Council Chamber. I drilled endlessly with weapons and dressed up for formal gatherings. I never did anything important. This isn’t something Caswel needs to do. Cassandra needs to do it.”

  Jamil was taken aback for a second. “Fine, be stubborn. But if this plan of yours shows any sign of exposing our identities, you back off.”

  “Don’t worry. The secret is safe with me.”

  ##

  After the last bell Rodger went to the computer lab to finish homework and Cass took his time in the bathroom applying lipstick and eyeliner. Maggie had given him a brief tutorial on makeup upon arrival in the Realm of Mortals, but he wasn’t applying it regularly. The school frowned on too much face paint and Cass had wanted to tone down his physical attractiveness in the hope of being outcast and ignored. All that was about to change. He needed to look his best for this date with Rodger.

  Once the majority of students cleared the building, Cass and Rodger met up at the cafeteria. Linking hands, they moved quickly toward the west end of the school’s long hallway. Cass kept a lookout while Rodger tested the last door on the left. The latch gave without protest. Rodger tapped Cass on the shoulder and they both slid into the room and closed the door.

  The room still contained a chalk board, large clock, and teacher’s desk, but was otherwise furnished with two round tables accompanied by school desk chairs. Boxes of cards and dominoes adorned the surfaces. Two small sofas occupied the window wall and drapes combined with blinds to soften the sunlight. The door had a frosted glass window that glowed with light from the hallway.

  Cass pulled open a drawer in the desk and commented, “If we’re going to snoop around we’ll need more light. It will be hard to find stuff worth exploring in the dark.”

  The drawer contained pens, pencils and highlighters on the mistaken assumption seniors might use the senior lounge to do school work. There was also an incongruous object among the writing tools. It was a smoky quartz crystal sitting on a bed of crushed greenery. Cass caught the smell of juniper. Too late, he realized what it was.

  Cass’s eyes locked on the stone and his thoughts instantly refocused on a ceremonial chant he’d learned as a sapling: The Dryad’s Ode to a Stand of Birch Trees. It contains five hundred and thirty-four largely repetitive verses including all the contributions birch trees make to the natural beauty of the Realm of Fae.

  Oh glorious mottled bark enrobing the slender tower stretching gracefully toward the canopy.

  I was hearing it second hand and it still made my skin crawl.

  The quartz crystal was a focusing charm, used by Alfaran elemental mages to keep their minds from wandering during long ceremonies. The charm caught Cass’s mind and locked tight.

  Rodger stuck to the script he’d rehearsed. He walked over behind his lab partner and placed a hand on Cass’s shoulder. “Well, I found something worth exploring right here.”

  Cass was supposed to turn around, flash pale blue eyes at Rodger and offer some trite rejoinder meant as acceptance of the boy’s advances. But the tiny, blond girl just stood there looking down.

  “I said, I found something worth exploring… Cass. Cass?” Having the advantage of height, Rodger peered over Cass’s shoulder to see what was in the drawer. The magic worked its entrapment and the poor boy began experiencing a jumble of forest images strongly featuring birch trees, because he didn’t speak Alfaran. In some sense, this was a mercy, because you don’t want to learn The Dryad’s Ode to a Stand of Birch Trees unless you really have to.

  Meanwhile, Tim Meeks crouched uncomfortably behind one of the room’s two sofas waiting for Cass and Rodger to make out. He saw Rodger make his move and Cass ignore him. Tom groaned inwardly. The Twins had warned Peter that Rodger would blow this, but their fearless leader was determined to push forward with the plan. Now the two sophomores were just standing there, barely touching. The Loon, because of shyness, revulsion or weirdness, wasn’t responding to Hamilton and he didn’t have another approach in reserve, so he stood there mutely. It was the mating dance of the high school geek.

  At some level of consciousness, Cass realized what was happening. The focusing charm was a tool of Alfaran magic and a reasonably competent earth mage could break the focus if an emergency situation required their attention. Cass was once a reasonably competent earth mage, before he became human. Now his mind was hopelessly ensnared by the Ode. Worse, Rodger was also caught and he would have no idea what was happening. Their entire plan for Peter was falling apart.

  ##

  Meanwhile, out in the hall, Alan Gunderson was beginning to think this was a waste of time. When Hamilton, Petrov and Forest came to him with a complaint about Peter Goodkin, the vice principal was of two minds. Goodkin was both a good student and a track star, but Gunderson never really trusted the boy. There was a smug satisfaction about him deriving from a privileged upbringing. However, Petrov was the student who’d complained about the vice principal with an unsigned suggestion. The charge was ridiculous. Certainly his Master’s Degree was in business instead of Education, but his Bachelor’s was in Physical Education. His duties at the school involved administrative work and coaching, so accusing him of being unprepared for teaching was irrelevant. Still, it did sting him a bit. Petrov claimed that Goodkin made her write the suggestion, but Peter’s story to Sister Patrice was slightly different. Peter admitted telling Katrina that Mr. Gunderson didn’t teach because he lacked credentialing, but thought Trina wrote the suggestion as a way of impressing Peter. When she told the senior what she’d done, he came to the administration.

  So Gunderson stood here waiting for the next line in Forest’s little play hoping to gain evidence that Goodkin and the Meeks boys were regularly blackmailing other students. So far, there was a whole lot of nothing going on.

  Then his cell phone went off. He’d set it to vibrate in case it rang while he was hiding out here. He almost let it go to voice mail, but saw it was his wife and she rarely called if it wasn’t important.

  In a low voice he answered the call. “What’s up Deb? I’m in the middle of something.”

  “I hope you’re not going to be late tonight Alan.” said the voice on the phone. “Jen is bringing Stan over for dinner so he can meet us.”

  “Is that the Polish boy she met at college? Isn’t he from Canada?”

  “He’s from Buffalo, NY. Please don’t get all cranky and please don’t be late.�
��

  Gunderson thought Buffalo was pretty darn close to Canada and a particular Canadian was getting on his nerves today. “I should be wrapping up here fairly soon Deb. I can’t promise I won’t be cranky when I get home though.”

  Before this was over, somebody needed detention for making him stand around twiddling his thumbs.

  ##

  Cass finally concluded that Rodger might be the answer. His relentless, logical mind would be seeking explanations for this situation. As a scientist, he wouldn’t accept magic as a solution. Eventually, the inexplicability of the situation might drive him mad. But if Rodger could break concentration on the stone for a split second, his rational mind would reject its power.

  Cass’s conscious mind was endlessly repeating the cursed poem that he’d been forced to learn as a sapling Alfaran. In order to move at all, he needed to rely on some unconscious routine that depended more on muscle memory than thought. He chose the ready posture for Quick Knife practice. It took every ounce of will Cass could muster to move even a fraction of an inch and it took far longer than he wanted. He forced himself to rock forward on his toes, repositioning his center of balance and shuffling backward just a little bit. Then he settled back on his heals bringing all the weight of his diminutive body onto Rodger’s toe.

  The boy gasped in pain and jerked his head up, thus breaking eye contact with the charm. Rodger was struck with a momentary wave of disorientation as his mind left the forest primeval and returned to the senior lounge. He felt dizzy and reached out instinctively for something to grab and steady himself. He latched onto Cass… right at chest level. This had two consequences. It pulled Cass backward and away from the desk drawer and it gave Tim Meeks the picture he wanted.

  Tim made his sudden appearance, smartphone in hand, from behind the sofa near the back corner of the room. “Congratulations on joining the Man Club, Rodger. I’ve recorded it for posterity. I gotta say you have an odd technique; hand on shoulder for three minutes and then right for the goodies.”

  Rodger towered over Tim, but his slender frame wasn’t very intimidating. “Give me that phone.”

  “Fat chance Hamilton. You think this is embarrassing? The two of you are heavy petting on school property, not to mention breaking and entering. I think Mr. Gunderson will be very interested in seeing these pictures.”

  The door flew open. “Yes, I believe I would. Hand over the phone, Meeks.”

  The vice principal strode over to the shocked Twin and reached out a hand. The force of those gunmetal gray eyes compelled obedience, so Tim relinquished his phone. Still, he was able to stammer out “Mr. Gunderson, sir. I just caught these, um, sophomores in the lounge, sir.”

  “While conveniently taking a nap on the floor behind the couch. Yeah, that story’s going to fly. My office. Now.”

  Then he turned his gaze on Rodger and Cass. Rodger was standing stiffly with hands clasped before him studiously avoiding glancing at Cass or looking into the vice principal’s eyes. “Thank you for coming, sir.”

  “That was the worst bit of acting I’ve ever seen. It probably needed more rehearsal but, if I ever see you rehearsing this scene again… ”

  Cass piped up, “We’ll both be on detention for the rest of the school year.”

  “That’ll be his fate. You’ll get deported.” He almost managed not to smile at that, but his composure cracked at the last second. Mr. Gunderson recovered quickly. “I’ll need both of you later when I’ve assembled all suspects and parents.”

  “Thank you for believing us, Mr. Gunderson. Your timing was perfect.”

  “Darn right. Let’s not forget that.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  It was quite a crowd by the time Mr. Gunderson was finished. Sister Patrice backed him up as part of OLAM’s administration. Tim and Tom were there with Ms. Meeks. Peter was accompanied by his father. Maggie was there with Cass, but Rodger stood alone. Katrina Petrov was there with her mother and also another girl Cass didn’t recognize. This girl, named Mary, quickly related the vampire blood incident and departed.

  Katrina gave witness that Peter and Tim had returned to the senior lounge after last bell and unlocked the door; Tim remaining behind while Peter made himself scarce. Cass and Rodger had presented the idea of going along with the set-up to Mr. Gunderson the day before. Given the rumored history of degradations perpetrated by Peter and the Twins on underclassmen, they assumed Peter’s generous offer to Rodger had ulterior motive written all over it. So the hunters became the hunted and everybody was complaining they’d been conned.

  Mr. Gunderson decided to settle the matter. He was late for dinner and his wife and daughter were already fuming at him. He said, “We could push this to extremes for Tim Meeks, given that he contrived to photograph two underage teens in a compromising position. That’s criminal, especially given he’s older than them. I’m reluctant to turn a vicious prank into a matter for the police, but there is a pattern of offenses here.”

  “For which you have no proof,” interjected Mr. Goodkin.

  Cass looked over at Katrina, but the girl smiled and remained quiet. She’d presented her testimony and had a reputation as solid as Peter’s. Mr. Gunderson continued.

  “I have Mary’s story about having fake blood spilled on her skirt, and I’ve been teaching long enough to know smoke equals fire. Tim, Tom and Peter will turn in their phones to me every morning and get them back when they leave school. If they need to make a call, they see me. If you parents need to reach them, you call me.” Ms. Meeks glared at her son and nodded to the vice principal.

  “Tim and Peter both get a one week suspension for this incident.”

  “Mr. Gunderson, I’ve applied to a number of good colleges and something like this on my record… ”

  “We will just have to work with it, Peter. Mr. Gunderson is being more than fair here.” Peter’s father was no more than five foot, six inches tall with straight black hair beginning to thin. He had a little gray in his sideburns. Anger rose off him like fog on a lake, but he maintained iron control over his voice.

  Mr. Gunderson turned to Cass, Rodger and Trina. “Thank you all for being brave enough to come forward with this. Bullying is not something we wish to tolerate or condone at OLAM. I would present you with some public recognition, but I’m not sure you want details of this incident to be public knowledge.”

  Trina looked down at the floor and Rodger developed a rosy blush. Cass spoke for all of them. “Gossip happens. Peter and Tim being out of school will start people talking. Word will get out. I suspect some freshman and sophomores will see us positively and some seniors will see us as troublemakers. Rodger’s not a player and I’m not a slut, but people will think what they want. Maybe just a general reinforcement of the No Hazing policy is in order.”

  “All of that is in line with my thinking, Forest. You have a level head on your shoulders.”

  Sister Patrice smiled. “Of course she does. She’s Canadian.”

  ##

  Peter was seething as he walked behind his father to the car. “I don’t understand why you didn’t pursue this more aggressively. The word of one student regarding my involvement could be dismantled. Cornell won’t look favorably on this suspension. What do you have lawyers for anyway?”

  Mr. Goodkin reached up, grabbed Peter by the collar and body slammed the teenager against the car. “Let me explain a few things about business to you. Business is all about customer service. I currently have a customer who is very happy with the shipping services I provide. Having police investigating any member of my family would not make him happy. He’s very skittish around law enforcement. Additionally, he has a niece attending this school. Her name is Katrina Petrov. So, you will swallow this suspension and return to school with a halo over your head, or I will see you attending college somewhere on the Arctic Circle.”

  Peter knew better than to argue.

  ##

  Magolyn and Cass walked back home in companionable silence until they
reached the front porch of their residence. The entry light glowed softly now that electric power was fully restored.

  Maggie turned to her pseudo-daughter and smiled broadly

  “You were very brave today Cass, almost like the knight you were back home.”

  Cass blushed. “Peter Goodkin was hardly an enemy of the realm. He’s just an arrogant teenage boy.”

  “True, but he was terrorizing the younger students and that’s likely to stop now. Still, I hope you appreciate the parallel between his behavior and your own.”

  They stepped inside while Cass pondered Magolyn’s statement. “I think that’s a little unfair. Peter was deliberately cruel to his victims. He knew he could humiliate them and enjoyed doing it. I never set out to be mean. I was just selfish. I honestly believed that my charming, life-affirming presence was payment enough to human girls for feeding me and keeping me amused. When I’d vanish back to the Realm of Fae, I imagined them recalling me with fond regard; a fleeting dream of a better world. Instead, they probably cursed my name and fretted over what they might have done to scare me off.”

  Magolyn started pulling out pots to make dinner. “At least you realize that now. Humans worry about everything. The last thing they need to worry about is visitors from the Realm of Fae.” She paused before filling a pan with water. “What about the focus crystal?”

  “I went back for it after our meeting with the vice principal, but it was gone so we have no evidence.

  ##

  The sun was low in the Western sky when the moon rose, gibbous and glowing. It would now wane inexorably toward New. Esmeralda contemplated it from the edge of the park. Two and a half weeks in the Mortal Realm and she had little to show for it. The Grimel Kin had been a waste of time and her divination suggested eventual success for her foe. She’d also given up a useful spell book to a man who probably couldn’t use it.

  The man who really possessed that book, however, suddenly made his presence known. Once again, he was protected by near impenetrable wards. Neither Esmeralda nor I sensed his arrival until he spoke.