“For once, I agree with you,” Marzi added and closed her book.
Gelé scowled.
“Let’s explore the garden,” Faruk suggested, breaking up the tension.
“We’ve tried.” Vivienne slumped dramatically in her chair. “We’ve gone miles and miles and—nothing. It goes on forever.”
Fritz stood up and stretched. “I’ll explore it with you. What could it hurt?”
He looked over at Marzi.
She picked up her book and flipped it open, purposefully obscuring his face from her view.
“Might be nice to get away.” Fritz walked out of the pavilion.
“Awesome!” Faruk said. “I’ll go this way.” He pointed to his left.
“I’ll go that way,” Fritz countered.
Andor took straight ahead.
“The girls are going to wait here,” Vivienne said, gesturing to the pavilion.
“Girls,” Faruk chided, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Andor followed.
Fritz looked at the farthest point and traveled. He landed on a hedge and rolled off, yelping in pain. “Stupid thorns.”
He healed the scratches with a quick spell then traveled again. This time, he pushed against the ground, wobbling on the unsteady point of the spell, hovering long enough to step to the right of the hedge onto the gravel-lined path.
The distant horizon was still just as far away. The glassy blue sky and warm sunlight enveloped everything in a comforting glow. The pavilion was nowhere to be seen—hundreds of miles away at this point.
Fritz pushed off the ground, balancing the trajectory of the spell better but feeling his strength begin to wane as he forced himself higher. He landed again and took a few steps, an idea burning in his mind.
He began to spin, his cape flaring out. As he spun, he drew symbols for a spell. A rune for wind, a few lines to give it shape, another set of sparkling characters to add direction. Dust began to swirl around him in a vortex, picking up speed and power.
Fritz felt his feet lift slowly off the ground. He found his center of balance, adjusted the spell, and shot into the air with a powerful gust of wind underneath him. His hair blew flat against his head. He closed his eyes and stretched out his arms, enjoying the sensation of weightlessness. He let out a loud whoop and changed directions, soaring back toward the pavilion.
He stopped, looked down, and let out a low whistle. The vast expanse of green hedge rows lay in a complex maze.
He blinked. It wasn’t a maze. It was shapes. He soared higher into the air until he could see miles of hedges below his feet.
The hedges made shapes, and they were shapes he’d seen before. There was the cube, the helix, the swirl—it was an exact replica of the dome that protected the school.
His heart beat faster, and he scanned the verdant patterns below him. He leaned forward and flew toward the pavilion, taking in the shapes as he went.
The pavilion sat in the dead center of a circle where all the hedges converged. He flew a giant circle around the pavilion to confirm his suspicions.
The hedges formed spells and, like the dome magic of old, terminated at the top with the pavilion. The capstone spell was the wooden structure they’d been relaxing under.
The trellises formed a circle made of dashes, as the lines were interrupted by the entryway into the sunken pavilion.
He floated to the ground and walked back to where the girls sat talking.
“Hey Drossie. That was fast,” Vivienne called out when she saw him.
“I reached the end,” he joked, sprawling on his couch to take a nap until Faruk and Andor returned. He dozed off for a while, recouping the strength he’d expended on his flight.
Faruk and Andor arrived within minutes of each other. Andor had scratches all over his arms, and his axe had small notches in the blade. Faruk wiped a small bead of sweat from his forehead and almost immediately began launching tiny fireballs at Vivienne’s topiary.
The tone sounded, and everyone got up to leave.
Before he left, Gelé called out to Fritz. “Drossie, are you sure about how the attacks happened?”
“I am,” Fritz responded. “It’s probably best not to travel anything in until we figure out what to do.”
“When will that be?” Faruk asked.
“Very soon, I hope.” He waved goodbye and disappeared in a whiff of smoke.
Boroda was waiting in Fritz’s bedroom when he stepped from the cloud. His face looked old and worn. There were dark circles under his eyes, and the lines in his forehead creased with a mixture of pain and sadness. “Did you attempt to do magic at school?”
Fritz went white.
Boroda pulled at his hair. “Fritz!” Nearly sobbing, he called louder, “Fritz!”
“Please, hear me out,” Fritz begged softly.
“It doesn’t matter.” Boroda looked up. His eyes were red. “The Order has commanded me to remove you.”
Fritz grabbed the poster of his bed and gripped tightly. “Remove?! What does that mean?” Fritz knew what it meant but couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
“It means that once I remove you from The Order, any member or their apprentice can kill you, no questions asked and without repercussions.”
“Will they come after me?”
Boroda squeezed the sides of his head. “If they fear you will reveal secrets about The Order.”
“Boroda, you have to listen to me,” Fritz reached out toward the wizard. “Something’s not right.”
Boroda kept his head cradled.
Fritz spoke urgently. “Yes. I performed magic at school. I’m sorry; I wasn’t thinking. I was getting attacked, and my friends were getting attacked, and I used a spell—one spell—to help us escape. I was doing it to help save the other apprentices.”
Boroda sat still, then slowly lifted his head. His brow was still creased but with question, not sadness. “Did you say that you performed magic?”
“Yes, but …”
Boroda interrupted him. “Just so I understand you correctly, you are saying that you actually cast a spell while on school grounds?”
Fritz nodded.
“Tell me the story,” he commanded. “Leave nothing out.”
Fritz told him about the rats at school, about Nicholaus, and about Andor’s stunt as a woman in a large skirt.
“At first, I thought Nicholaus just had friends plant the rats on me, but there was no way he could plant that many in the forest. After the attacks here, at Minerva’s, and in the woods with the Black Wizard, I think the Black Wizard may actually be working for Prince Nicholaus. Not the Czar. No matter what, the enchantments placed on the school grounds no longer work.”
Boroda sat still.
“I cast that spell over a month ago,” Fritz finished. “I didn’t even realize I had used magic until a couple days ago when the apprentices had an emergency meeting to discuss Gelé getting attacked.”
“I wondered why Glacinda stayed in her chair tonight,” Boroda mused.
Fritz gritted his teeth and chastised himself for giving up his secret so easily.
Boroda didn’t stop to ponder the new information but walked over to the fireplace, sat in the chair, and studied the blaze.
Fritz joined him. “Are you still angry with me?”
Boroda waved him off. “Something isn’t right. But … I can’t put my finger on it.”
“If the Black Wizard is the one sending the rats,” said Fritz, putting the pieces together, “then the Black Wizard must be a student at St. Michael’s.”
“If the spells are no longer working, then he’d be able to practice magic and not even the apprentices would know.” Boroda squinted, and the flames on the logs grew larger.
“Are there any other wizards who attend St. Michael’s?” Fritz asked.
Boroda shook his head. “Just the apprentices.”
“Then the Black Wizard must be one of us.” Fritz felt his heart thump strongly. “Anyone can change shape and size. You said so.”
“The Black Wizard has been killing for over a decade now,” Boroda said, squeezing his eyes shut. “The only apprentice who’s still around now would have been five or six for the first kill.”
Fritz stared at Boroda intently. “You said a girl with a knife can kill a wizard if he’s sloppy.”
Boroda looked at him.
“Could a small wizard kill a human if he’s being mind controlled?”
Boroda recoiled. “Mind controlled? Where in Watcher’s name are you getting that?”
Fritz folded his hands and looked away.
“There’s something else I need to tell you,” Fritz said. “But I need you to promise you won’t get mad.”
Boroda set his jaw. “I’m beginning to tire of hearing ‘something else I need to tell you,’ Fritz. If you have any secrets left, I would appreciate knowing them now before other people get killed.”
Fritz exhaled nervously. “I also investigated your last apprentice, Perrin.”
Boroda’s face clouded.
“Several months ago, I found a note he’d written stuck in a book on mind control in the library. It looked like he had discovered something suspicious and that he wasn’t sure who to tell.” Fritz traveled in the note and handed it to Boroda.
Boroda looked at it, and tears welled up in his eyes. He cradled the note in his hands.
“I didn’t even know who wrote the note until later when Edward showed me some letters written by Perrin to his oldest brother, Richard. That’s when I learned who wrote this note and made the connection that Perrin, the famous ghost at school, was your apprentice.
“The note looked ominous to me, so I dug further. Yesterday, I questioned Richard about Perrin’s death and, while I am not at liberty to give you all the details, I learned that Perrin was killed while he was investigating the questions written on that note.”
Fritz watched Boroda from the corner of his eye. He was staring forward, unresponsive.
Fritz continued, “When Perrin was killed, he was carrying a book with him, but it wasn’t the book I found the note in. It was an entirely different book.”
“There was no book on his body,” Boroda rasped suddenly.
Fritz closed his eyes. “Perrin was killed outside of school grounds. His body was carried, post mortem, to where it was discovered.”
“What?” Boroda hissed suddenly.
“At midnight,” Fritz said. “All the books that have been taken out of your library travel back to their spots unless they’re being actively used. The book he had was transported back at midnight as part of the cleaning spell. There was no way of knowing he ever had it.”
Fritz lowered his voice. “The two books he was reading were about mind control and ancient magic.”
Boroda began to cry. His moans grew into sobs. “I should have listened. I should have listened.”
Fritz spoke louder and faster, trying to keep Boroda’s attention. “Before he died, he had time to leave one final message; I think it’s a clue but I can’t figure it out. It was a magical symbol attached to the brass button of a jacket. It was the circle symbol.”
Fritz drew it in the air. “Does this mean anything to you?”
Boroda whispered Perrin’s name and rocked in his chair.
“Boroda?” Fritz asked tenderly. “Can you think of a connection between those two books and the symbol ‘O’?”
“Perrin!” Boroda sobbed inconsolably.
“The Black Wizard attacked me when I was investigating Perrin’s death. I think it’s connected somehow with the death of your generals and whatever Borya has planned,” Fritz continued.
Boroda didn’t respond. His shoulders were quaking and his hands muffled the guttural sobs.
“Boroda?” Fritz asked shakily.
Boroda stood up. His eyes were glassy, and his body sagged.
“Where are you going?” Fritz called after him. “Please, Boroda, don’t.”
But the grieving wizard stepped into a plume of thick, black smoke.
Fritz stripped out of his uniform and left it on the floor. He crawled into bed and pressed his face into his pillow.
“Why is this happening?!” he cried out.
“I am unsure, sir.” Doll turned his head to look at Fritz.
Fritz grabbed the wooden toy and held it against his chest.
“Doll, I think you’re my only friend left.”
Chapter 21
Fritz shoved several books from his bag into his locker. He grabbed some paper and pencils then swung his locker shut. It made a sharp rap, and a small group of freshman girls jumped and looked over at him.
“Drossie!” Vivienne said. “Has Marzi found you yet?”
“No,” he growled and pushed past her.
Vivienne threw her hands up. “What’s wrong with you?”
Fritz rounded the corner and walked into Faruk and Gelé. They both looked at him in surprise.
“Hey, man,” Faruk said. “Did Marzi talk to you yet?”
“Yeah, what did she say?” Gelé asked.
“I haven’t talked to her,” Fritz said and sidestepped them. He stormed into his first period class.
Nicholaus sat in his regular seat near the door. He grinned and winked as Fritz walked past.
Fritz briefly considered breaking every bone in the prince’s body but decided against it.
“Drosselmeyer,” Ms. Wakimba said his name slowly, ire dripping from her voice. “I am looking forward to your report today.”
She flashed a sardonic smile.
“Yes ma’am,” Fritz replied.
Andor lumbered into the room and looked around. Nicholaus made some faces, but Andor ignored him and clomped over to Fritz.
He signed frantically, “Marzi is in the library. She needs to talk to you.”
“No,” Fritz responded with a flick of his thumb and first two fingers.
“She’s hurt,” Andor said. His face was creased with concern.
Fritz didn’t hesitate. He bolted from his chair, ignoring the confused stares of his classmates.
Ms. Wakimba called after him. “Where are you going, Mr. Drosselmeyer? Drosselmeyer!”
Her calls faded as Fritz raced down the hallway toward the library. When he crested the stairs, his pulse was at full pump. He ran to the small turret room where he found Marzi sitting on the couch.
She looked up at him with red, bloodshot eyes. Her arm was wrapped in a sling, and he could see several bruises poking out just beyond the neckline of her shirt.
“What happened?!” Fritz demanded and ran to her side.
Marzi wiped her eyes.
“Did Hanja do this to you?” Fritz said, pointing at her arm.
Marzi sniffed and looked away.
“Why?” He sat next to her on the couch.
Marzi shifted and winced.
Fritz looked down. Her knee was swollen.
“Why didn’t you heal these?” Fritz asked her.
“Hanja said I had to leave them or it would be double next time.” Marzi’s shoulders quivered.
“That’s not right,” Fritz hissed and balled his fist.
“There’s something else,” Marzi said. “Something I need to tell you.”
Fritz took her good hand in his.
Marzi gently pulled her hand away and looked at Fritz. “When you first joined The Order, Hanja told me to get you to like me. I was supposed to find out as much as I could about you and Boroda and report back to her.”
“Ok … everyone was trying to do that,” Fritz said.
“That’s why I brought you up to this room and pretended to be your friend. Then, we started investigating the attacks, and it was the first time I ever enjoyed being around someone.
“I tried to tell myself that it was just an act; you couldn’t really be this nice. I tried so hard to only pretend to like you.”
She sniffled. “Then you kissed me, and I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t spy on you for Hanja.”
She lowered he
r head. “I told her that I couldn’t do it. I said you were too tight-lipped, and she threatened to hurt me badly if I didn’t get her some information.
“Then you ended our relationship … or whatever that was, and when I told Hanja, she lost it. She waited until The Order meeting was over and then … ” Marzi motioned to her arm.
Fritz gritted his teeth.
“I wanted to apologize for my actions.”
Fritz shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize to me.”
“I do!” Marzi cried. “I used you. You were so nice and decent and honest, and I was so wrong and petty and foolish. I’m so sorry.”
Fritz stared into her eyes.
She trembled. “Boroda needs to know that Hanja is working with Borya to unseat him.”
“What?” Fritz asked, confused.
“It’s been happening for years now. Hanja doesn’t know how much I overhear her when they’re talking. Borya wants Boroda out and has promised Hanja his position in The Order if she can get him any information about how to get rid of him. That’s why I had to spy on you.”
Fritz tried to control his breathing.
“I also want you to know that Hanja told me to get more information, or this ‘will look like a small training accident.’ I’m going to tell her no, Drossie. I won’t betray someone I …”
“My real name is Fritz,” he interrupted.
Marzi started.
“My parents died when I was very young, and I grew up in an orphanage just outside the capital of the Central Kingdom.”
“Fritz, stop!” Marzi choked through the tears.
“What else does she want to know?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Marzi began to sob. “I’m not telling her.”
“You have to.” Fritz squeezed her hand. Marzi squeezed back then pulled away.
She raised her voice. “If she knows this information, she will own you.”
Fritz locked eyes with her. “It’s a small price to pay if it helps protect someone I love.”
Marzi returned his stare, fists clenched. “It’s no use telling me because I won’t betray someone I love.”
They both froze.
Fritz leaned in and kissed her.
Marzi wrapped her uninjured hand around his head and held him tightly.
Fritz pulled away and tenderly ran his fingers through her hair.
Drosselmeyer: Curse of the Rat King Page 21