by Bill Hiatt
“Why would you boys drive all the way up here for a prank?” he asked. The cool detachment during cross-examination had been replaced by…well, not anger exactly, but anger was not too far away, bubbling just beneath the surface. Only the fact that Dan and I had been best friends with Tal for years was keeping that anger down.
“Mr. Weaver, I promise you this is not a joke,” I said.
His gray eyes bored into my head. He leaned forward and spoke in a voice that was quiet but intense. “Tal is really someone from King Arthur’s court? You’re King David? Shar is Alexander the Great? Rhys is really Dan’s dead brother? Khalid is a genie? You’re all being chased…by shadows? Meanwhile, Carrie Winn is really a shapeshifter who’s gone insane and had you locked up in a dungeon under her house from which you escaped a few hours ago? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll give you this: one of you has a great imagination.”
“Dear, they’re telling you the truth,” said Mrs. Weaver, even more quietly than her husband, and much less intensely.
Mr. Weaver looked at her as if she had just sprouted a second head. “That’s right! I forgot the part about you being a seer. Sophia, what would possess you to join in this joke, in this…lie?”
“Mr. Weaver, I’ve been friends with Tal as long as either of us can remember. You know me. You know me better—”
“I thought I did, but perhaps I was wrong.” He was still superficially calm, but the anger was pretty close to bursting out. I had to do something.
“We can prove it!” I said. I was immediately sorry I’d said that. We didn’t have any magic…well, except for Umbra’s ability to work with shadows, which she couldn’t do easily with so much light and which might be a bad idea with the Populus Umbrae so near. Our dragon armor looked just like regular clothes to him. Our swords were invisible to him until we drew them, and then they would look like fencing equipment.
Mrs. Weaver abruptly went pale. “The lights are about to go out,” she said, voice shaky.
“What—” began Mr. Weaver.
Then we were plunged into blackness. Twisting around, I couldn’t see any light except the flickering of passing headlights through the front window. Probably at least the whole block had gone dark, maybe more.
The Populus Umbrae had grown tired of waiting.
Chapter 9: Paper Moon (Eva)
“How long is it going to be before you try to break the spells?” I asked Magnus, trying hard to sound less anxious than I felt.
“Atlante is preparing right now. Just so you’ll know, we’re going to do Alex first because he’s not locked the way Tal is. We can learn about the spell that way, so when we do take Tal’s spell on, we can hopefully break it without killing ourselves in the process.”
I must have looked disappointed, because he added, “I know you’d rather I kill myself,” sounding almost hurt.
“I…I…” I started but just couldn’t finish. The truth was I wanted him gone—and he knew that perfectly well. He could always read my mind when he wanted to, so the diplomatic lies I might have been able to get away with normally wouldn’t work here.
“Just as I thought,” he finished for me. “There’s one thing I don’t get, though. I can understand why you don’t love me—though you might if you gave me a chance—but why don’t you love Tal? You pay more attention to little Tal than you’ve paid to his big equivalent for months.”
I hadn’t really thought about what I was doing in that way. “Past Tal was frightened and alone. He needed me.”
Magnus looked at me so intently I had to look away. “And you think Tal doesn’t need you? You think I don’t?”
“Magnus, if I were going to love one of you, it would be Tal, and that wouldn’t do you much good.”
“It would be better than seeing you with Jimmie,” he said sadly, and this time he was the one who looked away.
“I don’t know why you even started this conversation,” I said. “Jimmie and Tal are both better people than you are. You’d cut my throat in a second if your master plan required it.”
“I would not!” he said so loudly the hippogriff, who had been grazing nearby, looked up at us curiously. “Have I ever killed any of you, even people like Dan, who deserved it? So why would I kill the woman I love?” By now everyone except Atlante was in the courtyard, watching Magnus suspiciously.
I should have tried to calm him down. Instead I said, “You aren’t capable of love.” All of us thought that, and I’m sure Magnus must have groped around in our minds enough to know exactly how we felt. Despite that, he jumped as if I had slapped him.
“Or maybe you’re the one who isn’t,” he said after a long pause. “You dropped Tal, then Dan. You dropped real men so you could be with…a nine-year-old in a sixteen-year-old body? A nice safe choice who’s probably going to be ready for sex about the time he turns thirty.”
“Stop it!” I demanded. I could take his abuse, but the guys around us were a hair away from losing control, and a big fight was the last thing we needed.
“Or maybe you’ll end up with twelve-year-old Tal, who’s never going to be ready for it. That’s it, isn’t it? You’ve got a thing for little boys!”
This time I would have slapped him, but young Tal, moving faster, was throwing punches before I even had a chance.
“Take it back!” Tal snarled. “Take it back!”
Magnus looked surprised by the sudden assault, but he had too much combat experience to be easily taken down by a twelve-year-old. Magnus punched Tal so hard the kid was thrown to the ground with a loud thud.
Magnus hitting Tal was the signal for the very kind of free-for-all I had hoped wouldn’t happen. Gordy tried to grab Magnus, who escaped Gordy’s grip easily; apparently Tal’s evil twin had bumped himself up to faerie speed. However, Lucas could match that, and Magnus still wasn’t used to capoeira moves. A couple kicks got Magnus’s legs out from under him and sent him sprawling again. Gordy, a champion wrestler, jumped on Magnus at that point and got him pinned.
“Get off me!” demanded Magnus.
“Maybe if you apologize,” said Gordy coolly.
“If this is the way you all intend to behave, we will never restore your friends,” said a voice that was Jimmie’s, yet not.
Everyone turned to see Atlante glaring at Gordy and Magnus. Like school kids caught by a teacher, they separated and got up, looking embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” said Gordy, “but he insulted Eva and hit Tal.”
“After she insulted me, and he hit me,” pointed out Magnus.
“I care not!” snapped Atlante. “Our needs are both urgent; our circumstances, grave. Put your differences aside, or face my wrath!”
Magnus had said Atlante was a sorcerer at about Merlin’s level, so my guess was that would be powerful wrath. Even the usually cocky Magnus looked worried.
“We all want the same thing,” said Gordy. “We will keep from fighting.”
“I agree,” said Magnus. “No more violence among us.”
Atlante looked a little less angry. “Well, see that you keep that promise. I am nearly ready to proceed with Ascalaphus. Make sure that you are all ready as well.” He turned and walked hastily toward the stairway up to the tower, where he had been meditating and studying the lunar spells.
Aside from Magnus and Ascalaphus, I wasn’t sure what the rest of us could do to prepare, but everyone made a great show of looking busy for a while.
I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Atlante was the only adult among us, unless we wanted to count eighteen-year-old Gordy. I don’t know if that was Atlante’s secret, but despite being in Jimmie’s body, the sorcerer oozed authority, at least when he needed to.
“What is to become of me?” Ascalaphus asked Gordy after a few minutes. “When this enchantment is broken, will I cease to exist?”
“I’m the wrong person to ask,” replied Gordy slowly, “but I know you will always exist in Alex.”
“I wish to exist enough to help
with the liberation of my father,” said Ascalaphus. “I know things Alex does not, both about combat and about Olympus.”
“Honestly, we have no idea,” said Carlos. Right now you exist in a version of Alex from the past. It was that version who received the awakening spell. If Alex is returned to the present, I’d assume the spell on his past self would be gone, but none of us here know. When Atlante or Magnus show up again, we can ask.”
“I will wait patiently,” said Ascalaphus. “Whatever comes, I will accept it.” Something in his eyes told me he might not really be willing to pass into nothingness. I began to think again that it was shortsighted to have left him with Alex’s equipment. If Ascalaphus decided to, he could fly away, and if he wanted instead to turn and fight, he had the sword of chaos.
We had to hope he was as honorable as he seemed. The last thing we needed was another enemy.
Magnus did reappear shortly, but he stood in the corner and pretended we weren’t there. I didn’t have the nerve to approach him, but Ascalaphus did.
After the Greek king explained his question and the earlier conversation about it, Magnus seemed almost relieved to have something besides us to think about.
“It’s likely everything that happened to past Alex will be erased when present Alex returns, but we won’t know for sure until we try,” Magnus said. “If I had my choice, I’d leave you in control of the body until after our current crisis is resolved.”
That got everybody’s teeth on edge, but fortunately nobody said anything. Nobody wanted another scolding—or worse—from Atlante.
“Perhaps we could use the awakening spell on Alex after Cronus’s spell is stripped away,” said Magnus. “Now that we know who we’d get, it wouldn’t be as dangerous.”
“It would still be plenty dangerous,” said Carlos.
“Stan and King David seem to be able to occupy the same body without trouble,” said Magnus. “I know how to set up that kind of working relationship, and if Atlante is willing to lend me his strength, I have no question I can do it right.”
“If Alex consents,” said Gordy. Magnus, who had never liked Alex much, frowned and said nothing. If he could erase Alex and just have Ascalaphus, he would probably do it.
After a short time, Atlante started bringing supplies down, enlisting Tal to help him. Then he and Magnus began setting up for the spell.
“Magic mostly happens in the mind, but the more powerful the spell, the more ritual can help to focus that mental power,” explained Atlante as he and Magnus set up.
On the ground they drew two intertwined stars: a black three-pointed one Atlante said represented Saturn, the planet connected to Cronus; and a silver nine-pointed one representing the moon, the drawing barely visible on the silver ground.
“We’re on the moon, after all,” Atlante explained. “We may as well invoke it to amplify the magic.”
Around the two stars they constructed an elaborate circle of alternating black and white candles. As they lit them, I realized they were scented: the black ones smelling of pomegranate, the white ones of jasmine. I wanted to ask why, but both Atlante and Magnus now seemed almost in a trance as they worked. Everybody else had also gotten quiet.
Without speaking, Atlante waved Ascalaphus over and motioned for him to lie down on the ground at the very center of the ring of candles, which was also the center of the interlocking stars.
Atlante and Magnus stood on either side of Ascalaphus. Both began to chant, and Magnus began to play the lyre of Orpheus, making his part of the chant a song. Even those of us with no magic could feel power building all around us. We had experienced some strange things in recent months, but few that could rival this feeling of an overwhelming surge, cold as the depths of the ocean, vast as the far reaches of the sky.
Almost entranced by the spell, I had enough awareness to notice Lucas moving, though everyone else except Atlante and Magnus were now still as statues. Lucas did not enter the candle-ringed circle, but he moved around it, faster and faster, dancing as I imagined a faerie warrior might, preparing for a battle. What a weird image to have! Maybe not, as I thought about it. Lucas was part encantado, part xana. Perhaps on some psychic level he was channeling his ancestors. As he continued, though, his dance became wilder, making me think of something more primal, something that existed even before faeries.
The three-pointed star pulsed darkly, and simultaneously the nine-pointed one pulsed purest white, the two simultaneously contradicting and affirming each other.
Abruptly the light display and the feeling of power both faded. Magnus, Atlante, and Lucas had all stopped what they were doing, seemingly shaken by the experience. Lucas looked confused; the other two looked so unhappy I knew something must have gone wrong.
“Alex?” asked Magnus.
“No, I am still Ascalaphus,” replied the prone figure.
“How is that possible?” asked Atlante. “We did everything correctly, and we had more than enough power.”
“It wasn’t my fault, was it?” asked Lucas.
Atlante looked at him appraisingly. “No, what you were doing perfectly complemented the ritual. You should have told us that you had magic.”
“But I don’t,” replied Lucas.
“People don’t always know,” I said. “We found out after the fact that Carla had cast at least one spell without being aware of it.”
“Yeah, and she turned out to be Alcina in an earlier life,” said Magnus. “I wonder who you were, Lucas. That performance enormously increases the odds you were someone powerful—someone who could help us now more than you know.”
“You aren’t going to use the awakening spell,” Gordy said, stepping in between them.
“Perhaps Lucas would consent to it,” said Magnus, looking pointedly at Lucas. “We’re in a fight that requires every ounce of power we can find. What do you say, New Kid? You’ve clearly got game. Want to find out how much?”
Lucas, normally pretty stoic, looked frightened. “I don’t want to be a guinea pig,” he said, taking a step back, his body tensing as if he expected to have to dodge. Having seen Magnus in action, who could blame him?
“Whoever you were was powerful,” Atlante agreed. “I would stake my life on it.”
“Would you stake your life on whoever he was being on our side?” asked Carlos. “Because Alcina certainly isn’t. We could end up with a powerful enemy.”
“That is true,” conceded Atlante, “but when we determine who Ruggiero is now, might we not be able to determine who Lucas once was?”
“Lucas is the one who will have to decide,” said Gordy firmly. “Regardless of who he was, it must be his choice.”
Atlante sighed. “Very well, then. We will not waste further energy on that problem. Better we decide where we erred in casting our spell to restore your friend.”
“I’m an idiot!” said Magnus abruptly.
“Finally, we agree on something,” muttered Gordy.
“I’ve had enough experience with multiple personas in the same body to know that magic often only affects the persona that is in control of the body at that point. We were hitting Ascalaphus with all that power, but Alex is the one with Cronus’s spell on him.”
“The body belongs to Alex,” Atlante pointed out.
“It does,” agreed Magnus, “but I can’t help thinking our spell didn’t work because the body and mind were both affected, and the counterspell was only reaching one of them.”
“You know more of this kind of multiple-personality situation than I do,” said Atlante. “Tomorrow we shall put this theory to the test.”
“Now would be better,” said Magnus. “I feel up to it if you do.”
Atlante paused for a moment, then nodded. “It is best to proceed now if we can. Lucas, what say you?”
Lucas looked startled. “I don’t really know what I did the last time. I just heard the music and felt compelled to dance.”
“Could you answer the same compulsion now, or have you exhausted yourself?�
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“I’m up for it,” said Lucas, but he looked fidgety to me. He’d had a hard time adjusting to his supernatural ancestry. I was willing to bet adjusting to an even stronger past-life supernatural tie wasn’t going to be easy for him.
“I also am ‘up for it,’ for time is precious,” said Atlante. “How shall we proceed?”
“We can’t risk making Alex the controlling personality without ensuring he can’t attack us,” said Magnus. “We’re going to have to tie him securely.”
It took them a few minutes to cast a spell over ropes to make them strong enough to hold Alex. Then they tied Ascalaphus, asking him questions to make sure the ropes were tight enough.
After that, Magnus put Alex back into control of the body. They should have gagged him as well as having tied him, because his threats to kill us in all kinds of inventive ways were unsettling. We already knew what kind of guy he was and how he felt, though, and once the spell casting started up again, his yelling, hoarse by now, was largely drowned out.
Again Atlante and Magnus started, using exactly the same method as before, and again Lucas started dancing to the music. I looked at him more closely this time, and his eyes seemed unfocused, yet every movement was precisely coordinated with Magnus’s rhythm.
When the ritual came to an end this time, we had our Alex back. The shift was not as dramatic as Tal’s was going to be, since present Alex was only a few months older than the past Alex we had seen. The fact that his face was no longer twisted by hate was a good indication, and when he spoke, his tone was much more gentle, even though he was clearly frightened.
“What’s…what’s happening?” he asked, looking around. “Where’s…I was on Olympus.”
Magnus explained what had happened in the hours Alex had been regressed. Alex waited until the end of the explanation and then asked, “Did I hurt anyone?”
Khalid, hurt more badly than any of us when Alex had been in his evil phase, was at his side. “We’re all fine!” As soon as Magnus had untied Alex, Khalid hugged our still-rattled friend, who managed a smile.
“What about Tal, Carla, Nurse Florence?” he asked.