Gelé motioned to him. “You’ll have to get rid of something.”
With a look of immense sadness, Andor began unpacking his charm like a child forced to throw out toys. He tossed small spells into the air at the beginning but paused when he held a large, twisting swirl of runes. He hesitated and looked back at his charm reluctantly.
Marzi patted his arm. “It’s ok, Andor. You can get rid of it. We can all learn sign language without it.”
Gelé approached him and placed her delicate hand on his shoulder. Andor stared in wondrous disbelief at her gesture.
“I will learn sign language,” she mouthed, “if you will teach me.”
The red-haired giant released the spell like a bird from a cage and watched it sparkle and fizzle into the space up above. He packed Fritz’s spells into his charm and signed “finished” to the group.
“Let’s go,” Fritz said and closed his eyes. A swirl of mist surrounded them and when it dissipated, they had arrived in the large, wooden chamber in the Czar’s palace.
“We don’t have much time,” Fritz said. “The hallway is this way.”
Faruk stopped him. “Just in case there’s fighting, I think we should be in battle gear.”
Faruk stepped away from them and spread out his arms. His school clothes began to warp and twist until he was left with a black leather jerkin, a black eye mask, and a curved scimitar. His medallion, a series of sharp boxes and angles, gleamed against the jerkin.
Gelé’s school outfit transformed into a gleaming silver gown. Spires of ice jutted from the top of her head like a tiara of translucent stalagmites. She gripped the handle of a long, transparent sword. Resting against her skin, her pendant—a delicate swirl of silver—glistened blue in the reflection of her dress.
“Let’s go already,” Vivienne said. Her short, green dress hung in leafy patterns. Flowering vines that snaked together to hold her hair up also formed her umbrageous mask. A short dagger adorned one hip. On the other, she wore a small leather pouch. Her medallion looked like a wild tangle of circles and lines. Small gems punctuated the charm at random places.
Marzi wore a red fitted tunic studded with metal spikes. Two swords crisscrossed her back. Her charm—a jagged swirl of silver resembling a dragon—hung at her neck, secured by a black choker. “Andor and I will neutralize any guards that are outside.”
She signed to Andor to follow her. His charm, a simple weave, flopped loosely from a leather strand over his leather vest. He pulled a large club from his belt and motioned for Marzi to lead the way.
“Where’s your battle outfit?” Vivienne asked Fritz.
“I don’t have one,” he said.
“Of course you do. It’s passed down from previous generations of apprentices,” Faruk said. “It’s in your charm.”
Fritz fingered the small pendant at his neck. He closed his eyes and willed his battle gear on. He felt his clothes writhe on his body. His hand closed around a wooden staff.
He opened his eyes to inspect his new attire. His hooded coat hung mid-calf, the rich scarlet vest offset by gold ropes cinched, creating a tailored fit. The material stretched and twisted as if it were part of his skin. Fritz punched the air, testing the range of movement. He flexed and grinned at the cloak’s response to his bicep.
“Are you ready to go or do you want to primp some more?” Marzi teased.
Fritz turned his attention to the group. “When we find the Czar, I’ll grab him and find out where my brother is. You fight off the Black Wizard—if he shows up. When I’m safely away, you all travel to safety.”
They agreed and started a careful path over the squeaky floor boards toward the door, but Fritz stopped them again with a harsh whisper. “And remember, the Black Wizard can follow you when you travel, so have a spell ready when you get to where you’re going.”
The apprentices quietly assured him they would and continued to creep toward the exit.
“Also …” Fritz whispered again, and the apprentices whirled to glare at him, annoyance clearly visible on their faces. “Be safe.”
“Are you finished?” Vivienne asked. “Or do you have something else to say?”
Fritz cleared his throat and looked away from their stares. “No. I’m finished. We can go.”
Marzi stepped outside the door.
Two guards were on duty, both leaning against the wall. When Marzi stepped into the hallway, they barely had time to register her presence.
She moved with fast, precise strikes. A single kick to the first guard dropped him to his knees, and a rigid hand to the throat paralyzed his vocal cords. She smashed his head against the wall with a hook kick, and he fell to the floor.
The second guard only squeaked the beginning of a yell before Andor’s backhand sent him reeling across the hallway into the wall, cracking the plaster and leaving a large indentation.
The group moved down the hallway in ghostly silence. Fritz turned down a passageway, but it was a dead end. They returned the way they came and tried a different path.
“Sorry,” Fritz whispered. “I’ve only ever been to the office.”
Andor signed something, and Fritz brightened.
“Andor says he smells food in that direction.”
The apprentices chuckled and followed Fritz quietly down the hall.
A servant stepped from a doorway in front of them and, when she saw them, gasped. She inhaled to scream, but Fritz reached out and shut off her airway. She clawed at her throat, trying to breathe, then slumped over. He released her windpipe and floated her gently to the floor.
Faruk motioned to a large set of double doors.
“This is it,” Faruk said and lit up his sword.
“When we go in, I’ll grab the Czar and travel out. If the Black Wizard shows up, you keep him busy until I have my brother. Got it?” Fritz reiterated the plan.
“Got it, Drossie,” Vivienne said, annoyed.
“I’ll sneak in and locate the Czar …” Fritz began, when Faruk blasted the doors open.
The Czar sat at a table on the wall opposite the doors, and between him, at more modest tables, sat the elite guards and soldiers sworn to protect him with their lives. The room immediately fell quiet.
“Welcome, Drosselmeyer,” the Czar said with a smug grin. “I feel like I’m saying that to you a lot these days.”
“Was he expecting you?” Marzi tightened her grip on her sword.
“I expect you’re looking for your brother,” the Czar said with a chuckle. “He’s fine. For now …”
Fritz shot out a blast of magic toward the head table. The magic stopped short and rebounded against a protection spell. The force of the blast knocked several guests over, but the Czar sat motionless—eyes locked on Fritz.
“Guards,” the Czar called out. “Get them.”
The guards erupted in shouts and charged the small group.
Andor swung at some oncoming guards, and two of them went hurtling back over the crowd like small bags of sand.
Gelé yelled and sent a circle of icy spikes that hemmed in a small group of soldiers. They stopped moving for fear of being pierced, and she wrapped them in ice up to their elbows.
Vivienne opened her pouch and threw seeds at three soldiers coming at her with swords drawn. Vines erupted from the seeds, twisting around their arms and feet. The soldiers thudded to the floor, kicking and flailing against the bonds. The vines latched onto the pillars and climbed toward the ceiling, yanking the unsuspecting soldiers into the air.
Faruk blocked a sword with his own blade and shot out a blast of magic. His attacker fell to the ground, unconscious.
Fritz charged toward the head table, dodging guards and yanking guns from hands, and throwing both the guns and the guards across the room.
The Czar sat motionless, a sneer plastered across his face.
“More guards are coming,” Marzi shouted. “Viv. Shut the door.”
Vivienne flipped over a charging guard and threw seeds at the door. Roots explod
ed from the pod and in seconds, a sapling sprouted and grew into a large tree directly in front of the door. She lifted her hands and a tight cluster of trees sprang up on either side of the massive tree, all the way to the edge of the room.
Gelé dodged a sword, twisted around another soldier, and iced his feet to the floor. She continued the arc of ice up his back, freezing his arms and sword in a striking pose. He looked confused and yelled for help. Gelé covered the lower portion of his mouth with a sheet of ice.
Gelé then backed four soldiers into a corner and raised her hands as a thick ring of ice surrounded them and shot up above their heads.
Despite a small cut on his arm from a landed blow, Andor continued to battle five men at once. The men hung from his feet and back, trying desperately to trip the large apprentice.
Andor twisted and launched one of the men on his back into the wall. He kicked the others from his feet and punched the floor, his fist encased in a flaming ball of magic. A shockwave tossed them into the air, and he grabbed them all in an invisible grasp and slammed them into the floor.
The blast knocked Fritz off balance, allowing his attacker to jab at him with a knife. It stuck in his side, and he grimaced.
Fritz broke the man’s arm and headbutted the screaming soldier. He tossed the knife aside, healed his cut as best he could, and advanced to the table.
Only a few men remained. They gathered at the head table, ready to protect their Czar to the death.
Vivienne joined the apprentices as they lined up to face the shrinking force. She took out a single seed and tossed it on the floor.
The men yelped and a few swung their swords in random arcs.
Vivienne shook her head. “It’s just a seed.”
They eyed her and tightened their formation.
“I’m just kidding,” she admitted and flared her fingers out. Vines shot out from the seed like cobras striking. They wrapped the small group of men in tight coils and squeezed until the writhing bodies went limp.
“Be on the lookout for the Black Wizard,” Fritz whispered to the team.
The group circled up, backs to each other, spells at the ready.
“Where is my brother?” Fritz asked the Czar.
The Czar smirked. “Touch one hair on my body, and you’ll never see him again.”
Fritz returned the threat. “If I find one scratch on him, I will make sure the story of your death terrifies people for centuries.”
The Czar leaned his head back and laughed. “Ooh, what a fantastic deal. How could I not take you up on that?”
He held up his hand. A silver bracelet hung loosely on his wrist. “Do you really think a little apprentice like yourself can challenge the Czar of the Central Kingdom and win? I’ve paid too much money to be left defenseless. Try your best.” He chuckled, a low, rumbling sound full of conceit, and stood. “And for your impertinence …” He motioned to the wreckage and bodies. “I’m going to cut off one of your brother’s hands right before I kill you.”
“I believe Borya gave Ivanov a similar charm,” Fritz said.
The Czar looked blankly at Fritz, unimpressed.
“I got to have a really good look at it after I killed him,” Fritz said calmly but pointedly. “The problem with powerful people like you is that you never have enough. You keep taking what’s not yours until little people like me have nothing left to lose.”
Fritz’s eyes began to turn a darker shade of green. The spinning glyphs around the Czar’s body pulsed with a deep, powerful magic.
“Tyrants like you will continue to oppress the rest of us because you have an army to protect you from assault and The Order to ward off attacks from other wizards. But we, the little apprentices as you called us, have worth, dignity, agency, and humanity.
“You only fight for power. We fight for survival.
“And now, I understand a little bit more how this world works. Tyrants will always subjugate weaker people until someone stands up and says, ‘No.’”
The enchantment on the Czar’s bracelet appeared in a perfect replica above Fritz’s hand. He reversed the protective spell, snapped his fingers, and the protection on the charm vanished.
The Czar, unaware of the now useless jewelry adorning his arm, snapped his fingers back. “And I suppose you think you’re the one to stand up to the most powerful person in the … ”
Fritz lifted the Czar into the air, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Tell me where my brother is.”
The Czar yelled out in fright and began to turn red and purple as the air was squeezed from his lungs.
“Conserve your strength, Drossie,” Gelé warned.
“Where is my brother?!” Fritz yelled again and squeezed a bit more.
“In the dungeon!” The Czar coughed and a splatter of blood fell over his chin.
Fritz let him drop to the ground. “Vivienne, will you bind him?”
A vine twisted around his body, hoisted him off the floor, and lashed him to a chair.
“You have no idea the pain I will cause you,” the Czar said through bloodstained teeth.
Vivienne flicked her hand, and tiny thorns sprouted from the vine. The Czar gasped and then cursed them with hisses.
“Breathe shallow breaths,” Vivienne told him. “It will hurt less.”
A cloud of smoke billowed from behind them, and Borya stepped into the room, followed by four members of The Order.
Chapter 25
“Let him go!” Borya commanded.
The apprentices spun around. Five of the members of The Order stood in a single file line, weapons at the ready.
Fritz felt the hair on his neck rise.
The apprentices wilted and stepped closer together.
“Not until I get my brother,” Fritz shouted back.
“Faruk!” Borya shouted at his apprentice. “Go home. Leave now, and I will say nothing of your actions here tonight.”
Faruk lowered his sword, looked at the group, and shook his head. “Sorry, guys.”
“It’s ok, Faruk,” Gelé said.
Faruk disappeared with a puff.
“Boroda will not be a member of The Order much longer,” Borya announced for all to hear. He looked at Fritz. “He will soon be sentenced to death, as you are now.”
The head wizard took a step forward, and The Order followed him, struggling to keep their shoulders slightly ahead of the wizard next to them. “Leave now, and I will rethink your punishment. Stay, and I will …”
“Did you know about the boys?” Fritz interrupted.
Borya halted.
“Is the rest of The Order going to stand by while you profit off of human trafficking?”
The wizards exchanged furtive glances.
“The Order does not answer to you or …” Borya interjected but was cut off again.
“And do they know you’ve been keeping a secret wizard in your employ to kill for the Czar? That you’ve been plotting to take over everything—the Central Kingdom, the Southern, the Northern … even The Order?”
Glacinda lowered her weapon slightly and looked at Borya accusingly.
Borya laughed defensively. “You have no proof.” He raised his hand, sparked with a spell.
Fritz waved his hand, and the limp body of Ivanov appeared in front of The Order.
Everyone jumped back.
“Meet Ivanov,” Fritz told him. “He was the Headmaster of my orphanage and a special guest at the Czar’s soiree.”
Fritz spoke loudly enough so the four wizards flanking Borya could hear. “I was in the office the night Borya and the Czar told the Black Wizard to kill Klazinsky. I also heard your plan to remove Boroda.”
“Interesting story, Drosselmeyer, but this goes far deeper than you could ever imagine. I assure you, my relationship with the Czar is completely professional and does not violate the rules and regulations … ”
“Vivienne, will you release the Czar?” Fritz said over his shoulder.
Vivienne flicked her wrist and the vines uncurle
d.
“Borya, you treacherous goat, get me out of here!” the Czar screamed.
Borya offered nothing but a blank stare.
The Czar held out his hands to the old wizard. “Travel me away, now.”
The wizard didn’t budge. He squinted, calculating his next move.
“I did not pay you all that money to …”
Borya cut the Czar off with a flick of his hand, launching him backward, where he landed unconscious on the floor.
“The balance of power is sacrosanct with the mission of The Order,” Fritz announced. “I am calling on The Order to detain Borya to be tried in the wizard’s court for crimes subversive to The Order’s sworn duty.”
“Go home, Drosselmeyer,” Hanja said dismissively. “Unless you crave death, go home.”
“He’s not going to give you the position,” Fritz taunted. “He promised it to Glacinda, too.” It was a gamble. Sylvia had attacked General Andoyavich for Borya and Hanja, and by Marzi’s report, was already plotting Boroda’s demise. No reason to think Glacinda wasn’t involved as well.
Hanja shot Glacinda a heated glare.
“Is that true?” Sylvia shrieked. “Borya, is that true?”
Borya kept his gaze on Fritz.
“You promised to give ME the medallion!” Sylvia was livid.
“You’re giving HER the medallion?” Hanja faced Borya, and her swords smoldered.
“Shut your mouth! All of you!” Borya roared and the room vibrated with the force of his shout.
“Drosselmeyer is obviously trying to play us against each other,” Borya said to the other wizards. “And I would be willing to bet Boroda is behind all this.”
“The deal was: Sylvia got the medallion and I got control of half the Central Kingdom,” Eric growled through gritted teeth.
“But which medallion?” Fritz called to Eric. “When Borya sent that bear to your house, he may have had a different ending in mind.”
Glacinda gasped and pointed at Borya. “A bear?! Did you attack me as well?”
“That’s probably where Hanja was going to get her medallion,” Fritz added, watching with growing satisfaction as The Order turned their angry glares on each other.
Glacinda snarled. “We all know what Hanja would do to climb the ladders.”
Drosselmeyer: Curse of the Rat King Page 25