by Laurie McKay
Rosa’s cheek twitched.
Brynne nudged Caden’s ear with her boot. “Rosa, would you like me to kick him in the head?”
Best Caden get his royal head away from Brynne’s foot. He scrambled up.
“No one is to kick anyone in the head ever,” Rosa said. And she definitely sounded angrier than before. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Brynne said, though she sounded more disappointed than contrite. Caden glared at her as he squeezed into the middle seat. Then he buckled his special little seat belt.
In front, he saw Rosa take a deep breath. She looked over at Jane and placed her fingers under Jane’s chin. “Eyes any better?”
“They’re still dry and itchy,” Jane said.
Rosa furrowed her brow. “Any worse?”
“Maybe a little.”
In Jane speak, that meant a lot.
Rosa stared at Jane a little longer. Then she looked roadward and turned the key. The engine revved and vibrated with power. As Rosa pulled the pickup onto the road, Tito leaned across the seat. When he finally spoke, he gestured to Jane and whispered, “In the freaky first part of the spell you saw this morning, they used one of the ingredients, right?”
Brynne blinked and her face seemed to blossom with understanding.
Caden shivered with cold realization. Each of the four spell ingredients had been stolen from someone of unique status—Rath Dunn had gathered Jane’s tears (tear of elf), Brynne’s hair (magical locks), Jasan’s blood (blood of son), and Ms. Primrose’s perfume (essence of dragon).
“Tear of elf,” Caden said. “The green vial.”
“Jane’s tears, right? Could that be what’s wrong with her eyes?”
The ingredient used that morning was tears of elf, the ingredient stolen from Jane. Now her eyes were dry. Mr. McDonald was dead. Only part one of the spell was complete. What would happen when the other ingredients were used? Better they not find out.
By evening, Jane’s eyes were redder and more irritated. She seemed in good enough spirits, but her sight was clearly affected. After dinner, Caden gathered with Brynne, Tito, and Jane in the girls’ room.
The walls were painted sunny yellow. There was a large window. In the daytime, it overlooked the colorful mountainside, but night was arriving sooner now that summer had ended. The view out the window was only of shadows and sky.
Small metal objects were strewn about the floor and nightstand—tiny objects Jane had collected to enchant. On the bed, there was a large pile of Brynne’s clothes. Caden itched to fold them.
Brynne sat on the floor and stretched like a cat. “Don’t move that,” she said.
“I’ll put them in your hamper.”
“I don’t want them in the hamper.”
“But that’s where they belong.” He held Brynne’s gaze. She didn’t blink, didn’t falter, and Caden drew back his hand.
After a moment, Jane took in a deep breath and addressed them all. “So you think my eye problems are a side effect of the spell?”
Brynne reached up to twirl a strand of her short black hair. “Exchange is a principal of magic. I use my physical and mental energy to fuel my sorcery; I exchange it for the magic. Just like you use your life force to make your enchantments, and Ms. Jackson uses the life forces of others to power her ritual spells.”
Tito looked concerned. “You think something similar is happening with Jane’s tears?”
“When the four-part spell devoured the contents of the green vial, it’s possible it affected Jane’s eyes—also like an exchange.” Brynne turned to Jane. “Your tears were sacrificed to magic so you can’t make new ones. It could be coincidence, but it seems unlikely since the morning your tears are used, your eyes dry out and your vision blurs.”
Obviously, Brynne was troubled. First for Jane, who seemed to have lost her tears. Second for herself. Brynne’s hair, her “magical locks,” was also a spell ingredient. If Jane was no longer able to make tears, what did that mean for Brynne’s hair?
Brynne prized her hair. She’d been upset when it was cut short and was thrilled as it started to grow back. If her hair was to stop growing, she’d be devastated. And as Caden was the one who had cut her long hair short, he might feel her fury. She’d placed the compliance curse on him when she was mildly annoyed. Who knew what she’d do if her hair stopped growing altogether?
Jane squinted toward Brynne. “If we stop the spell, will my eyes get better?”
Brynne took a long time to answer her. “I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Then we’ll have to stop it,” Tito said. He held up his binder and a large sheet of paper. “It’s a map of the city.”
“I see,” Caden said.
“We can plot location facts about the four-part spell,” Brynne said. “Mr. McDonald had maps that helped Rath Dunn and Ms. Jackson. We should have the same.”
As a future Elite Paladin, Caden had studied the local terrain and the layout of the city. It was important to know the lands in which he traveled. The red mark was in a low area near a stream of blue. “This is beside the river? By the park?”
“Yeah,” Tito said.
Caden traced a gray line that crossed the blue. “This is the bridge?”
“Yeah,” Tito said.
Brynne hopped off the floor and considered the map. “It’s where the first part of the spell was cast.”
Jane seemed grateful to have something to discuss other than her failing eyes. She traced her finger over the red mark, tapped the sheet. “And there are three more locations.”
“And three more ingredients,” Brynne said.
“And three more sacrifices to prevent,” Caden said.
“According to Maden, the next part of the spell will be cast in three days at dusk. That’s Monday.”
Knowing which day and what time the next part of the spell was only part of what they needed to know. If they wanted to stop it, they also needed to know where it would be cast.
Brynne must have been thinking similar thoughts. “We need to figure out where,” she said.
“You’re the sorceress,” Caden said. “Shouldn’t you be able to figure that out?”
“I don’t do that kind of magic, Caden,” Brynne said, but she peered at the map. “It will be cast in the city limits, though. The first part was, and the magic that binds and banishes the villains seems connected to Asheville proper. A spell to break down barriers would be, too. The first part of the spell happened at dawn, the second part will happen at dusk. The second location will be different from the first, too.” She grabbed a marker. “We can likely exclude the area around the river. The park was on the western side of town so maybe somewhere east, north, or south next?”
“Great,” Tito said. “That just leaves everywhere else.”
Brynne began to get huffy. “At least I’m trying.”
“I feel like it will be toward the north of town,” Jane said, and placed her palm over the map. “That area feels funny.”
Tito frowned, and his face went crooked. “You got any facts to back that up?”
Even if Jane was correct about the north part of town, which was a big “if,” that wasn’t specific enough. They needed the exact location. Then they could stop the spell. Caden could save someone. “We don’t have enough information,” he said.
Something more bothered him: about Mr. McDonald, the river, the sacrifice. Something didn’t make sense. “Why would Rath Dunn sacrifice an ally, even one as cowardly as Mr. McDonald? It seems like Mr. McDonald mapped out locations for the spell. Why kill him when he could sacrifice anyone?” Caden said. “The city is full of potential victims who aren’t nearly as useful.”
The others were quiet. Caden looked to the window, to the dark. In the distance, he thought he saw something zoom through the air. When he blinked, it was gone. Perhaps his eyes were deceiving him. Shadows often seemed to dance on the small mountains.
“Well,” Tito said, and Caden turned back to him. “According to the employe
e contract, the teachers have to respect the local laws while in the city. That’s why when they kidnapped Jane they kept her outside the city limits. They found the loophole.”
“The park is in the city limits, and killing people is against the law,” Jane said.
“If Rath Dunn were so bound,” Caden said, “he shouldn’t have been able to kill anyone in the city limits, Mr. McDonald included. He shouldn’t have been able to push me in the river.”
“Maybe he’s changed his contract?” Jane said.
“I read that thing,” Tito said. “No way he could do that. And I think murder is pretty much covered as not okay for the teachers.”
Brynne wrinkled her brow. “He’s not a teacher now,” she said. “He’s acting principal. We haven’t seen the principal’s contract. We don’t even know if he has one.”
“Even if he is so allowed, why kill an ally?” Caden said.
Tito opened his mouth as if to speak. Then he closed it. Then he opened it again like a blabbering word fish. “Ms. Primrose is bound by the rules, too, right? Now and when she was principal?”
If she wasn’t, Caden was certain Rath Dunn would have long ago been her breakfast. Caden, Brynne, and Jasan would have been lunch, dinner, and dessert. “It seems so.”
“She still ate people,” Tito said. “No one survives that, right?”
A vision of Scribe Trevor’s boots flashed in Caden’s mind. Most definitely, he hadn’t survived. “No one survives being eaten by an Elderdragon,” Caden said, a bit shakily.
Tito nodded to himself. “She’s eaten banished villains who she didn’t pick to teach or who didn’t fulfill their contracts. And she also threatened to eat you a bunch of times before you made that pact with her,” he said. “You all have one thing in common.”
“Jasan, Scribe Trevor, Brynne, and I have nothing in common with the rightfully banished.”
Brynne, however, seemed to brighten up the way she did when an epiphany hit her or she stole something expensive. “That’s not true, prince,” she said. “We’re all from the Greater Realm. That’s what we have in common. We don’t belong here.”
“So,” Tito said. “Maybe as long as Rath Dunn is principal, he can kill people from your world? It’s in the wording. The contract said employment could be terminated. Maybe that includes the person along with their job. Maybe it supersedes the local law in the contract.”
What had Ms. Primrose told Caden about him and Brynne soon after they’d been enrolled? “Ms. Primrose said Brynne and I were in her youth program. She said she’d free us when we graduated. If we behaved.”
“Yeah,” Tito said. “I’m guessing the principal can terminate you, too.” He wrapped his knuckles on the green binder. “You know, if your grades are bad, or if you have an attitude problem, or whatever.”
“So he has to sacrifice a teacher,” Caden said. “Or me or Brynne.”
“Yeah,” Tito said. “And you’re the one with the bad grades and attitude.”
“I don’t have an attitude,” Caden said.
Brynne sniffed as if he’d said something funny.
So Rath Dunn needed to sacrifice Brynne, Caden, or one of his teachers; and he seemed as likely to sacrifice an ally as an enemy. Could Caden trust some of the teachers to help them? Not all of them were on Rath Dunn’s side.
Since this morning, Rath Dunn’s words kept ringing in Caden’s ears: “You can’t save anyone.” The taunt made him feel sick. Worse than that, helpless.
That was what Rath Dunn wanted, wasn’t it? That was why he kept saying things like that to Caden—to discourage him, to kill his morale. Words had power. Caden was gifted in speech; he understood that. He wouldn’t let Rath Dunn’s taunts keep him from fighting.
“We need to do more than observe the teachers. We need to question them,” Caden said.
“The spell’s set for Monday at dusk,” Brynne said.
Caden walked over to the window. “Then we’ll question them Monday morning at school.”
Brynne, Tito, and Jane began to discuss the merits of his idea while he looked out. The mountain made a darker outline against the dark sky. Mountains, even small Ashevillian ones, made him feel more at ease when his mind was full of difficult thoughts.
Whoosh. Whoosh!
Something zoomed past the window. What was it? Caden fell into a defensive stance. It was no trick of the eye. He kept his sights on the window. Something had been there. He was certain. “There is something outside.”
“It’s called a mountain,” Tito said.
Perhaps Caden preferred it when his foster brother’s attention was captured by numbers or studies. Caden pressed his face to the glass. “No, there is something flying out there.”
“A bird?” Tito said. “Or—”
Before he could finish, the thing charged the window. It knocked it with a loud whap. The thing banged the window again. Suddenly, Tito, Jane, and Brynne took the outdoor threat more seriously. They gathered closer.
“It’s going to break the window,” Tito said.
That, Caden could prevent. He unlatched the lock, slid the window open. Among the four of them, they could defeat whatever monster attacked. Caden jumped back into a defensive stance. Brynne did as well. Tito curled his hand into a fist. Jane grabbed scissors from the desk and held them like a dagger.
The creature sped inside. It didn’t attack, though. It landed at Caden’s feet, and he saw it wasn’t a monster after all.
“It is a bird,” Tito said. “Ha. I was right, bro.”
Yes, Tito had been right. It was a bird. A small falcon of some kind. Its feathers were tawny and white. Its eyes golden and sharp. Something silver glinted around the bird’s right wing as it hopped toward Caden.
Caden bent down to get a better look, then gently reached out and pushed back the falcon’s feathers. They were tinged with the slight pink of dried blood. A silver chain of paper clips was wrapped around the wing—familiar, magical-looking paper clips. Carefully, he touched one. It hummed with enchantment.
He pulled back his hand, stunned.
Jasan’s right hand was attached to his body with a chain of magic paper clips. If Jasan removed the chain, his hand would fall off. It had been severed from his arm by the blood dagger. No wound made with the dagger would ever truly heal and would reopen in the dagger’s presence. Without the paper clips, Jason would bleed to death.
But enchanted items were rare things. It was unlikely more than one chain of enchanted paper clips existed. Caden didn’t know what to think. The silver paper clips shimmered. “Lady Jane,” Caden said, “did you enchant more paper clips?”
“I don’t do repeats,” Jane said.
Caden reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and called Jasan. No one answered. His stomach dropped. Why was the chain of paper clips that kept Jasan’s hand attached wrapped around the wing of this Ashevillian bird?
Jasan wouldn’t remove the paper clips willingly. Even if someone overpowered Jasan and removed the paper clips, why would they wrap them around a bird’s wing?
The bird hopped, then flew to Caden’s forearm.
If Jasan were a bird, he likely would look a little like this one: powerful and fast, with gleaming feathers and golden eyes. Caden calmed some. Now that he thought about it, there was only one reasonable answer. “This bird is Jasan.” Caden turned to Jane, Tito, and Brynne. “It’s the most logical explanation.”
Brynne nodded.
Tito, however, did not. “You think this bird is your brother?” Tito said. “How is that logical? I don’t think you know what logical means.”
“I know what all words mean,” Caden said. The falcon jumped to his shoulder. “Are you Jasan?” Caden asked. The falcon bent its head down and found a feather to pick.
“If he was fully transformed, he might be confused,” Brynne said.
Jane reached out to pet him. “He’s a pretty falcon,” she said.
Pretty was a description Caden’s other brothers occ
asionally used to tease Jasan. He wouldn’t consider it a compliment, even in bird form. “Kak, Kak, Kak!” Jasan squawked. He hopped closer to Caden’s head and out of her reach.
“Um,” Tito said. “I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff this last year, and your brother does keep those paper clips wound around his right wrist, so I can accept he’s a bird. But, bro, why is your brother a bird? How does someone even turn into a bird?”
“It happens,” Caden said.
“What happens?” Tito said.
“Many spells and curses can cause transformations or partial transformations,” Brynne said. “It’s not so unusual. Certain magical fogs turn people into frogs.”
“The frog fog?” Tito said.
“Yes,” Brynne said.
“Sure, okay,” Tito said, and pointed at Jasan. “Is there a bird fog?”
Brynne scrunched up her face. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Most transformations only lasted for a limited amount of time. Caden turned to Brynne. “How long will this last?”
“It’s hard to say,” Brynne said. “Not without knowing the power behind it: who cast it and why.” Then she fidgeted and chewed on her bottom lip. “However, you did tell Ms. Primrose she could share Prince Jasan’s house. If she moved her treasures there tonight, perhaps she and Prince Jasan clashed.”
Could it have been Ms. Primrose who transformed Jasan? Caden considered the falcon on his shoulder. “Why would she turn him into a bird?”
“Because she can’t eat him due to your pact. Maybe he’s less appetizing in bird form, and the pact is easier to follow,” Tito said. “Or maybe she’s punishing him for something else. She threatened she’d get creative.”
Brynne glanced at Tito, then Caden. “When did she threaten that?”
“In an incident neither Tito nor I talk about,” Caden said.
The cold wind blew in again. It ruffled Caden’s hair and Jasan’s feathers. Caden felt a frown pull at his lips. Jasan dug his talons into Caden’s shoulder. Jasan was their strongest ally against Rath Dunn and the biggest threat to his villains. How could he fight if he was a bird? How could he follow Ms. Jackson when he had the body and mind of a bird?