by Lisa McMann
Samheed drummed the arm of his chair with his fingers. He stood up. “There’s nothing happening. I’m going to get food.”
“Yeah.” Alex got to his feet too and followed Samheed out. The two wandered back to the balcony and down the stairs. Alex looked at the empty spot where Simber used to stand. It was strange not having Simber to guard the mansion door at night. Impulsively Alex said, “I’m going for a walk. See you in the morning.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Alex went outside and stood at the seashore for a few moments, feeling the salty spray and tasting it on his lips. He sucked in an enormous breath and let it out as he thought about Arija, and about Mr. Today up on the stage, and the strange but welcome surge of electricity that had pulsed through him. It was still there, that feeling. It was like he’d been sick for so long he forgot what feeling well was like. But today, he remembered. He felt like running and doing push-ups. Instead he turned and jogged past the mansion toward the gate.
“Hello, Alex,” Simber said without turning around.
“Hi.” Alex came up alongside the great cat. He sat down in the grass and leaned up against the gray stone wall. He looked out to the road that encircled Quill, to the very place where he stood with Simber when Quill attacked. A visit to the gate often conjured up strong feelings and vivid memories to those who passed through it. Alex shuddered as he thought about the other side.
“Arrre you cold?”
“No. Just remembering.”
They sat in silence for a while, Simber’s ears, eyes, and nostrils moving now and then.
“Can’t sleep?” A steady, low, rumble-purr added comfort to the night noises. “Orrr doing something else tonight?”
“I haven’t felt like doing much of anything lately,” Alex said, surprising himself’he hadn’t voiced that feeling before, but such was the power of the gate. “Not since … you know. Since that whole attack in Justine’s palace.”
Simber nodded.
Alex waved away a mosquito that had strayed in from Quill. “That was really hard, you know?”
“I rrrememberrr,” Simber said in a way that made Alex feel a bit better about it all. “You nearrrly died as I was carrrying you home.”
Alex let his head rest against the wall and he sighed.
“It’s okay forrr you to feel that way,” Simber said. “Yourrr body has rrrecoverrred, but yourrr mind also needs to rrrecoverrr.”
Alex was quiet for a long moment. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. “I just can’t stand to think about another battle like that. About getting hit, and getting hurt like that again. You know?” He remembered how long it had taken to recover, how painful it was. “But,” he said, almost with wonder at the words that were coming out, “if I had to, I’d do it again. I’d do it for Mr. Today and Artimé. For sure I would.”
Then he looked at Simber and asked, “Do you think I have drive?”
Simber tilted his head, as if he were searching for the meaning behind the question. “The rrright question is, do you think you do?”
Alex pressed his lips together tightly and nodded. “I guess so. I think I do.”
Simber almost smiled. “How does it feel?”
“It feels scary. Dangerous. It’s a lot easier to just … be nothing. Ignore things.”
For the first time since Alex sat down, Simber looked at the boy. “Yes, it is.”
“Mr. Today wanted me to lead. Like … when he’s, you know, gone.”
Simber turned his face back to Quill. “I know.”
“I told him no.”
“I know,” the cheetah said again.
“Does he tell you everything?”
Simber smacked his chops. “Prrretty much.”
“Oh.”
“Rrright.” Simber stood, walked to the road, and then returned, arching his back into an impossibly high arc, and then stretching out his hind legs as well, one at a time. “I feel as if therrre’s something else you want to ask me.”
Alex bit his lip. “I’I guess so. I mean …”
Simber sat on his haunches and waited patiently.
“I mean, who would … be there with me’for me’if I did it? Like, how you’re there with him. Or, you know, would I just be alone? Or have to find my own … Because I don’t … really … have anyone like that. Not at all.” He thought about his friends, knowing of course they’d be there whenever he needed them, but they just didn’t feel … big enough. And the job felt so cavernous, and Alex felt so … swallowed up by the thought.
Simber turned once again to face Alex. His eyes were warm and they glinted in the moonlight. “I am alrrready herrre forrr you, Alex. Wheneverrr you need me, as long as you need me. And even longerrr,” he said. “It is my duty. But it’s also my pleasurrre.”
Blood rushed to Alex’s face, but at the same time, warmth also flooded his chest. No one in Alex’s memory had ever said words quite like that to him before.
Magic in Quill?
Aaron and Gondoleery met daily now by the gate to the high priest’s palace, a most peculiar-looking pair, though to the casual onlooker they appeared simply to be a young man with his grandmother’a deceptively innocent combination. Thus they became nearly invisible to the Quillitary over time.
Every day the two were inseparable as they quietly coerced angry Wanteds and lured them with food to their way of thinking. Aaron, after a few days with Gondoleery, took a chance and told her where he was getting the food. He brought her with him to see the Favored Farm and showed her how easy it was to pick fruit and vegetables. And while Gondoleery had heard of this place from the high priest, she had no concept in her head of what it could be like, and had never gone to it because it was a Necessary job.
“This place reminds me of where I grew up. People planted things,” Gondoleery said. She’d been thinking about her childhood a lot lately now that she had her memory back. “Each person grew their own, and brought the extras to a market once a week for the people who had no place to grow things. And those people would buy it,” she said.
Aaron narrowed his eyes. “What’s ‘buy it’ mean?”
“Exchange a valuable coin for it. The coins could trade for anything, and everyone wanted more coins, so that was the best thing to have.”
“Strange,” Aaron said, glancing over his shoulder to see if the guard was watching, and then shoving a handful of berries into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. “You can’t eat these coins, can you? So what good are they?”
“No, you can’t eat them, but you can buy food with them, and other things.”
Aaron shrugged, disinterested. “What else is there to need except food? It sounds like extra work, trading coins for other things when you can just go get the other things.”
Gondoleery wolfed down some grapes and nodded. “They kept making coins until everyone had hundreds and thousands of them, and then they weren’t valuable at all anymore.”
Aaron furrowed his brow trying to make sense of it, but it sounded completely crazy to him. And soon he forgot all about it. They picked their four items each that they were not stealing, showed them to the guard, and went on their way.
There was something else Aaron wanted to ask Gondoleery, and finally he ventured. “You said that when Mr. Today gave you back your memories, he also gave you back your magic. Does that mean you have magical powers, like Mr. Today and the Artiméans?”
Gondoleery hobbled along next to him. “Maybe,” she said.
Aaron salivated. As much as he hated the creativity behind magic, it was still a powerful weapon to have on their side. “You aren’t … sure?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not sure of anything,” she said, “including you. So I’m not going to answer that question.”
Aaron bristled slightly. “Fair enough,” he muttered. “I thought that you might have noticed how much trust I’ve put in you, how much food I’ve given you, and now I’ve showed you the secret of the Favored Farm, which is p
ractically our own private stash. But no matter.” He tried not to feel vulnerable, but he was suddenly afraid he’d made a big mistake in showing Gondoleery the farm.
“Keep doing what you’re doing to upend Artimé and maybe one day I will tell you,” the old woman said. As it stood, she wasn’t quite sure what she could do magically. So far, it wasn’t much. But Aaron didn’t need to know that.
“I have no other plans than to do just that,” Aaron said lightly. “We have ourselves quite a group of supporters now who have already enthusiastically made a mark on Artimé. Thirty-three at last count, including two governors’ sons, which I’m very pleased about. I intend to grow our group to a majority in Quill so that we might take over the palace, get rid of Haluki and Artimé, and return to the beautiful peace we once had in Quill. Do I have your full support?”
“Of course,” Gondoleery said. “You have my full support to restore Quill. But that doesn’t mean you get all my secrets.”
Aaron almost sniped back, “I don’t want all your secrets’just the one!” but he held his tongue and nodded, returning his demeanor to caring and friendly.
As they approached the gate for the second time that day, Aaron saw a familiar figure waiting for them. They drew near, and Aaron held out his hand to the woman in greeting. “Ahh,” he said grandly. “My dear Eva Fathom.” He bowed over her fingertips. “What news do you bring us from the mansion?”
A New Spell
Alex, Lani, Meghan, and Samheed stood with hundreds of other Artiméans in two rows that stretched from the side lawn of the mansion all the way to the edge of the jungle. The rows faced each other, twenty yards apart, and Florence thunder-stepped between them, giving instructions on Advanced Magical Warrior Training.
She called this session “Advanced,” though last year it was just called regular old ordinary Magical Warrior Training, because, after several very frustrating sessions with Necessaries and Unwanteds together, it became clear that certain new Artiméans were in need of a very basic class. More of a let’s-see-if-you-can-actually-pull-this-off-before-we-put-you-in-the-action sort of class.
Lani’s little brother, Henry, ten years old but still about the size of a gargoyle (and, if you asked Lani, similar to a gargoyle in looks as well), was a quirky boy who asked a lot of questions and carried around a magnifying glass in case he needed to examine things, which he often stopped to do, to Lani’s exasperation. But Henry was also exceptional at magic and took to it very quickly, so he joined the advanced class with his sister and her friends. They actually really liked the boy. He was clever and a hard worker and took his spells very seriously.
But Lani’s mother was one such Artiméan who perhaps “needed improvement” in Florence’s eyes. And there were many others’most of them adults, curiously enough, while the younger Necessaries were quite able to pick up the art organically. So the Beginning Magical Warrior Training class was born.
The beginners were originally assigned to watch the advanced students, taking notes and trying things, but after several accidents around the community, it was decided that they were no longer allowed to actually touch any components at this time.
So Alex and his friends waited patiently while Florence instructed the beginners, young and old alike, on what to watch for. Even Eva Fathom was there, watching with interest on the sidelines and taking notes.
Alex fingered the new heart-shaped component in his pocket, eager to give it a try. He was very proud of this particular creation’it was likely his most powerful spell yet, and he was already working on a lethal level spell to it. It scared and thrilled him just to think about it, and a little chill ran up his spine and quivered at the back of his neck. He hadn’t felt this excited since … well, since the last time he began Magical Warrior Training. Maybe it was because he had worked so hard for it back then, or because he’d been somewhat unfairly held back from it originally, but deep down, Alex thought he knew what was so exciting about battle. It was because he was, to put it boldly, quite amazingly good at fighting.
He smiled to himself as he realized it. It was totally true. Alex was a great fighter, and he was also an excellent spell builder’one of the best. Mr. Today said so. So did Simber, and Mr. Appleblossom, and Ms. Morning, and especially Ms. Octavia, who knew his skill level was far beyond many others his age.
“What are you smiling at?” Lani whispered.
Alex startled and looked at her. He grinned even bigger, and sort of goofily, because he realized that Lani was just as excellent in different ways. She was extremely stealthy and sly, and no one ever had to worry much about her’she could naturally get out of any pinch with her fast thinking and her intricate moves.
Lani grinned too. “What?” she asked again. And then she laughed. “Why are we smiling?”
Alex just looked at her, and his heart clutched and sputtered. “We’re awesome,” he said finally. “I’m smiling because we are awesome.”
Lani laughed again and shook her head. “You are such a dork.” But she said it in the sweetest way a girl could ever say it to a guy.
It was crazy. Alex felt like he was finally getting his energy back after the last battle, and he hadn’t even known he’d lost it until this excitement surged through him these past few weeks. He bounced on his toes in anticipation, focused now on the Unwanted opposite him’a woman who’d been purged about ten years ago, whom Alex had thought he’d seen around with a baby recently. He didn’t know her name, but she flashed a cheeky grin at Alex and gave him a nod that said “bring it.”
As Florence counted down nearby, Alex put all his focus on the heart-shaped bit of clay between his fingers, and when she shouted “Fire!” Alex pulled his arm back, whispered “heart attack,” and then sent it forward in the fluid motion of a true artist who knows that speed isn’t important’only focus is.
The little heart left his fingers and sprouted tiny white wings, which gave it an incredible range. It sailed perfectly at the woman, who still grinned, knowing she’d get him back in a minute. It struck her in the chest.
With the smile melting from her lips, the woman’s eyes grew wide, and she collapsed to the ground, her body in spasms. A few seconds later she stopped moving.
Alex gasped. The roar of the crowd around Alex sounded far away as all the others let go of their components and the row opposite them erupted into the strangest fits anyone had ever seen. Some ran away screaming, some flew backward and were pinned to the great gray wall, others hopped around, and still others froze and didn’t move.
There was complete silence from the beginner students who watched in fear, and a momentary collective pause from Alex’s row as they peered to see where their opponents ended up, and then a cheer. They ran immediately to their counterparts to release the spells. But Alex wasn’t cheering.
He ran to the woman he’d hit. Her body had curled up on the ground, still and pale as death itself. Alex’s stomach twisted in fear’what if it was a little too strong? He hurried to release the spell.
A tense moment passed and Florence approached. She looked at the woman and turned to Alex, alarmed. “What spell?”
“A new one,” Alex said, ripping his fingers through his hair anxiously. “I call it ‘heart attack.’ ” His own heart sank to his gut as Lani, Sam, Meghan, and a dozen other Unwanteds gathered around to see what the fuss was about.
Florence, never one to panic, patted Alex’s shoulder. “Okay. It’ll be fine. Look’she’s coming around now.”
The color slowly returned to the woman’s cheeks and her eyelids fluttered. She rolled to her stomach, coughed, and pushed herself up on one elbow, a dazed look on her face.
Alex sucked in a breath and let it out in a loud, relieved whoosh. “Wow,” he said. “Sorry about that.” He held his hand out to her and she took it, getting up slowly. “Are you okay?”
After a minute she grinned weakly and shook her head in wonder at the boy. “That,” she said, “was quite an experience.” She coughed a few times as Florence
examined her.
“I’m really sorry,” Alex said again.
And then the woman looked Alex in the eye and said very seriously, “No, don’t be. I mean it. That was intense. I’d do just about anything for you, Alex, if you’d make me a dozen of those.” She straightened her vest and wiped a few blades of grass from her elbow. “As soon as possible, please. That’s the worst spell I’ve ever seen. Or felt. Or … experienced. And by worst, I mean best.”
Alex let out a rattled laugh, still slightly unnerved. “Okay, sure,” he said. “No problem.”
The woman held out her hand. “I’m Carina,” she said. “Carina Fathom. You can find me in the family hallway.”
Alex relaxed a bit when he heard her familiar last name. “Alex Stowe,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake. “I’ll make some for you, I promise.”
The woman chuckled. “You’re so modest. Don’t you realize that everybody here knows who you are? In our hallway you’re known as ‘the guy to stand behind’ if we ever have to go to battle again.” She laughed. “That’s a pretty big compliment.”
Alex felt his face heat up. “Wow,” he said, feeling extremely awkward. He thought he was still regarded as the one who almost ruined everything.
He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and looked up at Florence, who had a very pleased look on her face. “Okay, everybody,” she said. “Back to work.”
The crowd dispersed back to their rows, but Florence kept her hand on Alex’s shoulder as they walked more slowly than the others and stopped halfway. When no one else was within listening distance, she faced him and spoke in a low voice. “You are a true warrior.”
Alex blushed again and looked at the ground.
“I’m going to need two things from you, Alex.”
“Yes?” he said, looking back up.
“A thousand heart attack components’after you supply your test victim first, of course’and your presence at a private magical weapons meeting with Ms. Octavia, Mr. Today, Simber, Ms. Morning, and me. Mr. Today’s office, immediately after this session. Can you make that?”