by S. M. Boyce
She hesitated. Crap. She hadn’t even thought of a language barrier as an issue. Desperate and going out on a limb, she cringed a bit and asked, “Do you speak English by any chance?”
“Ah, English. Certainly,” the troll-like creature said.
Audrey’s eyebrows shot into her hairline. “Wow, I can’t believe that worked.”
“To succeed in Fairhaven, it helps to know what everyone’s saying, even those from above,” the shopkeeper said, winking.
Victoria hesitated. Good to know. “Do you get a lot of human visitors?”
The shopkeeper’s smile wavered. “No, we don’t. Mostly it’s the witches and wizards who speak English. I thought you were one of them. You’re human?”
Double crap. Victoria had apparently given them away. She would have to be more careful. She tensed, ready to run if necessary. “Is that a problem?”
“Not to me, but don’t go bragging about it,” the shopkeeper said, winking.
Phew. Victoria relaxed a bit in relief, though Audrey still watched the crowd, many of whom continued to stare.
“My name is Bertha, and I’m happy to serve anyone who enjoys food. You look hungry. Eat!” Bertha gestured to the bins of fruits. Silver peaches filled one of the lower crates Victoria hadn’t noticed before, and a half-dozen other types of fruits filled the rest. Now closer to the store, the sweet aroma of the food was tantalizing, almost irresistible.
Audrey nodded, leaning in to whisper. “I'm famished. I think the crystals are currency. You mind using some of them for food?”
“Not at all.” Victoria grinned, grateful Audrey had picked up on that too. She knew her friend would always catch anything she missed and confirm the things she didn't.
Bertha gestured to the bins. “What will you have?”
Victoria hesitated, eyeing the shopkeeper. Bertha seemed kind enough, was certainly happy, and she had been the first person to speak to them so far. Hopefully, she wouldn’t take advantage of them and their ignorance of the city. Truth be told, Victoria had no way of knowing even if she did price-gouge them. Unless…
Time for a test.
If a leather briefcase as fine as the one Victoria had seen cost only four crystals, food had to be far cheaper. Time to see how honest Bertha really was.
Victoria reached into Audrey's backpack, careful not to pull the pouch out as she selected six of the smaller crystals. She offered them to the shopkeeper, palm open. “What will this get us?”
Bertha flinched, standing a little straighter as she stared at Victoria's hand. “Little one, that will buy you feast.”
Good. This creature was honest. “A feast it is, then.”
***
About one hour and a good meal later, Victoria leaned back in her chair, satisfied and about to burst from all the food. She eyed the leftovers still on the table in the back of the shop, wondering what on Earth she would do with the extra. There was enough left to last them at least two or three more meals—which they would certainly need—but she didn't have any way to preserve it.
“Do you want anything else?” Bertha settled into the chair at the head of the table, her massive frame blocking most of the dark shop behind her. She was an ogre, they had discovered, and more than happy to tell them whatever they wanted to know about Fairhaven and the creatures who lived here.
And they didn't even have to bribe her.
“No, thank you. This was amazing,” Victoria said, smiling.
Bertha laughed, a loud and boisterous sound that filled the room and hurt Victoria's ears. “You are too kind, little one. I don't usually get compliments as fine as yours.”
Audrey quirked an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? That was some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life.”
“No, no, my food is mediocre compared to what you'll find here. Fairhaven is a culinary capital, the kemana with the best food in the world.”
“Kemana?” Victoria tilted her head in confusion.
Bertha hesitated and squinted a little, as if surprised by the question. “Are you asking me what a kemana is?”
Victoria nodded, palms a bit sweaty as she tried to get a feel for what she was supposed to know. Even the most innocent of questions was met with complete and utter shock, as though this were all common knowledge.
If only Victoria still had that damn notebook.
Bertha studied her for a moment, almost as if she were trying to decide whether Victoria was playing her for a fool. Finally, she answered. “A kemana is a magical city, one tied to Oriceran, of course. Magic is stronger here thanks to those crystals above us, which store the power and give us the energy we need to thrive here on Earth.”
Oriceran—there was that word again. The alternate world where magic lived and breathed like a creature of its own. Apparently, its magic had spilled onto Earth.
“Ah. I figured that's what it was,” she lied, forcing a smile.
Audrey shot her a quick glare, the one that meant, Good going, idiot.
Victoria squinted her eyes and wrinkled her nose. Shut up.
Bertha tilted her head, hiding her mouth as she coughed. “Anyway, no one can beat our food. If you like to sample new tastes, I think you’ll enjoy your stay.”
“I already am,” Audrey said, sighing happily as she sank into her seat.
“Food is one of the reasons I came here. I'm surrounded by my kind.” Bertha surveyed Victoria, an odd expression on her face that Victoria couldn't quite figure out. Perhaps it was confusion, or mild curiosity blended with a bit of fear.
Her throat tightened a bit, and she couldn’t help wondering if Bertha had somehow figured out what was embedded in her arm. Unconsciously she held her wrist, the solid metal of the dagger under her sleeve still foreign to her touch.
“If you don't mind my asking,” Bertha said, leaning in and hunching her shoulders as she lowered her voice, “why are you here?”
Victoria tensed. “What do you mean?”
“You’re human.”
“You said that wasn’t a problem.”
Bertha sighed heavily, her thick fingers tapping the table. “Not a problem, but confusing. By law, mankind should never discover us. Those who perform magic outside of a kemana can be put to death for risking the exposure of the magical world. Through the millennia we have found it best if humans don't know we exist. Even the witches and wizards aren't human, although I can't really tell you lot apart. You all look the same to me.”
“That’s a little racist,” Audrey mumbled under her breath.
Bertha continued, apparently not hearing. “Humans don't come to Fairhaven, and on the rare occasions they did in the past, it usually ended in bloodshed.”
“Awesome,” Audrey muttered again, rolling her eyes.
Victoria leaned toward Bertha. “If humans mean trouble, why did you let us into your shop?”
The ogre smiled, revealing the small white boulders that served as her teeth. “Because I know good from bad. You're strange, ugly little things, but you're good at heart.”
“Hey,” Audrey muttered at the insult. Victoria grimaced, but she figured it was a matter of perspective. Bertha certainly wouldn't have won any human beauty pageants herself, but she had been kind to them, and Victoria liked her laugh.
Bertha grinned. “You could have tried to cheat me out of my food, or left without paying. But here you are, asking questions and trying to figure out where you fit into our world. My question is why?”
“Fair enough,” Victoria said, catching Audrey's eye.
Audrey stiffened, furrowing her brows in concern. Don’t you dare.
Victoria gently shook her head. It's fine.
“We’re looking for Fyrn Folly,” she said before Audrey could protest.
Bertha laughed, which was not quite the reaction Victoria had expected. The sound filled the room, almost echoing off the walls. Victoria winced at the sheer volume.
“Why is that funny?” she asked softly, suddenly afraid of the answer.
Ber
tha wiped a tear from her eye. “You poor, dear things. You came all the way here, descended into our city, and all to find that sad excuse for a wizard? That's a lot of effort put into a mistake.”
Fabulous.
“What—”
“He doesn’t talk to anyone,” Bertha interrupted. “If he walks past someone, he doesn’t look them in the eye. He does his errands and he goes home, and that's it. There's talk that he’s not what he used to be, or that perhaps he wasn't anything special to begin with. No, if you want help from a wizard, you should see Diesel Armstrong. Diesel is the king’s wizard and widely revered. Even though the king doesn’t seem to care about his people, he does care about power, and Diesel is the best. But we all love him because Diesel always looks out for those of us who live in Fairhaven.”
“Who is he?” Audrey stood and slung her backpack over one shoulder.
Victoria shook her head. “No, we need to go see Fyrn.”
“But if Diesel is a better wizard—”
Victoria frowned, glaring at Audrey. Her parents had specifically mentioned Fyrn for a reason. Since merely possessing this artifact could get her killed on sight, she wasn't about to trust anyone her parents hadn’t explicitly mentioned.
Audrey lifted her arms in surrender. “Fine, fine. We can at least pay him a visit.”
“Where does he live?” Victoria asked Bertha.
Smiling as if they were sweet, stupid little things, Bertha shook her head. “You stubborn human girl! Fine, you can find him on the outskirts of town in the Interval and Highland district.”
“Wonderful, thank you. Now, uh, where is that, exactly?” Victoria smiled widely, the grin forced, her cheeks a bit red from how little she knew of the city.
She would have to learn this town inside and out, and fast.
Chapter 10
Armed with a map and a backpack full of exotic fruit they didn't know anything about, Victoria held the door for Audrey as they returned to the street. Bertha waved from the window, and they returned the gesture.
As they walked down the still-busy street, dozens of eyes followed their every move. It sent shivers down Victoria’s spine, but it didn't seem to faze Audrey in the least.
“I like it here,” Audrey said, a goofy grin on her face.
“Any attention is good attention, huh?” Victoria said with a smirk.
Audrey laughed. “I never got this much attention in the school hallways. You, however—”
“Oh, shut up,” Victoria said, eyes rolling.
Audrey shrugged. “I can’t help it if my best friend looks like a supermodel.”
Victoria felt heat crawl up her neck and into her cheeks, but she pretended to study the city around her to keep from admitting her embarrassment. The road seemed to go on for miles, with intersections every eight to ten buildings as another thoroughfare cut through the main street. A narrow alley separated buildings here and there, each shrouded in shadows.
She checked the map. “I think we need to take a left up here.”
“You mean by the sign with the jacket that has four arms on it?”
Victoria quirked an eyebrow and glanced upward. Sure enough, a sign hanging over one of the doors had a traditional suit coat with four arms etched into it.
Fairhaven would take some getting used to.
They continued to follow the map, twisting and turning through roads that got increasingly busier. Quite a few times, hands the size of her face brushed against her back or shoulders. It seemed personal space wasn't really a concept here, and she nervously eyed Audrey's backpack.
“Keep close tabs on the pouch,” Victoria whispered.
Audrey nodded, eyes darting over the ocean of heads in front of them. Everyone still watched them, but Victoria was starting to get used to it. On the plus side, it was unlikely any thief would try to steal from them with so many witnesses paying such close attention.
With every step, the towering white palace loomed closer, its spires soaring into the sky. It acted as a sort of backdrop to every street. The beautiful green crystal above the tallest tower glimmered and shone, and the closer they got, the more detail she noticed. The light within the crystal morphed and twisted, reminding Victoria of lava held back by a sheet of frosted glass.
Bit by bit, the busy streets faded away. They began to take narrower and narrower paths, until the two of them could barely walk side by side. It got slightly darker, and the buildings were taller and thinner than the shops they had seen on the main roads. Judging by the laundry hung between the each of the homes, this was Fairhaven's equivalent of the suburbs. Each house had a small patch of land, most of them covered with moss or various vines and walking stones.
Eventually even these dwellings faded away, replaced by larger and larger stretches of moss-covered rock that sat undeveloped. The trail began to wind, cutting a lazy bend into the increasingly steep incline. Above them, nestled into a cliff face that got steadily nearer with every step, was a squat cottage with a roof that reminded Victoria of a wizard's hat. Green smoke puffed out of the cracked chimney. She estimated it would take probably another ten minutes to climb the steep trail that wound its way over the cliff face and ended at the front door.
“Did we take a wrong turn?” Audrey grabbed the map from Victoria's hands, tilting it to the side as she studied it.
“I'm positive we didn't. Look! Is that not the most stereotypical wizard’s cottage you’ve ever seen in your life?” Victoria pointed at it as she paused to catch her breath.
Audrey squinted as if she couldn't see the blatantly obvious cottage, and took a few steps forward. She shuddered, and ripples of gold light radiated away from her as if she had just walked through the surface of a pond.
“Oh!” she shouted, startled.
Confused, Victoria took a few more steps as well. Nothing happened. She didn't shiver, nor did she feel a chill run down her back as she had expected. The cottage remained visible, same as before. “What just happened?”
Audrey pointed up the cliff. “Before all I saw was rock, but as soon as I stepped through…well, whatever the hell that was, I could see the house plain as day. Do you think he has some kind of forcefield around his cottage?”
Victoria laughed. “This isn't Star Trek. He might have cast a protection spell, though. He is a wizard, after all.”
Audrey hesitated, peering at Victoria. “But it didn't work on you. You saw the cottage the whole time, right? I didn't.”
Victoria nodded, her lips a thin line as she tried to understand what had happened. It must have been the relic in her arm, since nothing else set her apart from Audrey. All the more reason to figure it out. The thing was filled to the brim with powers, and she didn't understand any of them.
They headed up the trail, puffing a bit as they finally reached the top. Without waiting to catch her breath, Victoria knocked on the door.
It opened immediately, as if someone had been standing there waiting for them to knock. Inside the front door stood a tall man wearing a blue cloak and a scowl. He wore a pointy hat with a brim as wide as his shoulders, and he had three braids in his long white beard. He leaned on a five-foot-tall walking stick with a glowing green stone set into the top.
Victoria smiled charmingly. “Hi. You don't know me, but—”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped.
“Hello to you, too,” Audrey said.
He snorted, and a bit of gray smoke rolled out of his nose. “You two are human. Humans don't belong in Fairhaven. This is a magical city, filled with magical folk. It doesn't make any sense for you to be here unless you're bringing trouble with you. So, out with it! What the hell are you doing here?”
“The trouble thing,” Audrey said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe.
“What my friend means,” Victoria said with a glare toward Audrey, “is that someone is after us. My parents told me to find you. They said you're the only person who can help me.”
“I'm not known f
or my charity,” he said, closing the door.
“Michael and Alison Brie sent me!” Victoria shouted seconds before the door clicked shut.
The door paused mid-creak, and she heard a deep sigh from the other side of the threshold. It swung open again, and he was scowling even harder than before, if such a thing were possible. “Those meddling jackasses are your parents?”
Victoria seethed. Anger hit her hot and fierce, taking her over. Her grief was still so raw that she suddenly didn't care if this guy helped them or not. It didn’t matter if they lost their only chance to work with him—no one spoke about her family that way.
Her parents had their enemies, sure. It happened to journalists, especially good ones who asked questions people didn't want to answer to get to the truth that so many tried to hide. But no one, not even an all-powerful wizard, would insult the parents who had loved and cherished her with everything they were.
She kicked open the door, and it slammed against the wall. “Those 'meddling jackasses' are dead, killed by some fire-breathing asshole, and I'm going to learn how to kill him if it destroys me. They told me you are the only one I can trust. Why would they say that if you hate them so much?”
His demeanor shifted ever so slightly, and the scowl disappeared. Now he studied her as if she were an interesting book, and she honestly wasn’t sure if that was an improvement or not. He tapped the floor with his cane. “Michael and Alison nearly got me put to death for treason, child. They chased things they didn't understand for the thrill of discovering answers, and it never occurred to them that perhaps the truth was something they didn’t really want to know. Worst of all, they tampered with things they didn't understand, a trait they seem to have passed on to you.”
Fast as lightning, too quickly for an old man like him, he grabbed her arm and lifted her sleeve to reveal the dagger embedded into her skin. She yanked her hand back too late, hiding the artifact as quickly as she could.
He leaned in, eyes narrowing. “They were an utter nuisance, and as far as I can tell, you're no different. Good day, Miss Brie.”
The door slammed in their faces, and all the lights went out at once. The smoke coming from the chimney stopped, the last puff dissolving into the air.