by D J DuMont
Willow had no good answer for that, so she only shrugged again.
Cara hopped up from the couch and started pacing, wringing her hands as she walked. “How long do you think they’ll keep us in here?” she asked, in that same trembling voice she always used when she was scared.
Willow was starting to hate that voice, and hate how cowardly Cara could be. She knew she should give Cara the benefit of the doubt. After all, the girl had gone through a lot last night, and still didn’t know if Nutmeg was okay. But Willow was losing patience herself at this point. Thankfully, Locke answered Cara before Willow could snap at her.
“We won’t be in here too long,” Locke said. “A day tops. The Dragon Heart Agents are going to want to talk to us, so they’ll be dragging us to a hearing before long.”
“A hearing?” Sylvie asked. “Are you sure about that? Willow supposedly is up for a hearing on two counts of unauthorized use of magic, but it’s been months and she still hasn’t heard anything about it.”
“Yeah, because the Agency is so short on funds right now. It took them forever to get together a group of investigators to send out. But now that those investigators are here, they’ll go ahead and do a hearing for all of us, all in one blow. Saves them time and money.”
Willow sank into one of the hard wooden chairs by the table. “Wait a minute. Are you saying that the group of Agents here was actually sent for my hearing, not to track us down?”
Locke gave Willow that look of exasperation he always did when he thought she was missing a point that any idiot could have seen. “Yes, genius. Of course they’re here for your hearing. Think about it. The soonest Anjali would have possibly realized we were missing was when Nutmeg fell last night. And that’s assuming Nutmeg did come back to the stables. We don’t even know whether she did. If she didn’t, Anjali wouldn’t have known we were gone until we missed class over at Birch Point this morning. But either way, it would have taken several days for the Agency to get together a group of Agents to come after us. They don’t move quickly. Even if they had sent a group the second Anjali called for help, it would have taken hours for a group to get here from D.C. No, that group was already on its way here when we went missing. It was coincidence that they showed up the same morning.”
Willow didn’t know how to feel about the fact that the Agents were here for her. She’d been dreading her hearing, but it had been put off for so long that it almost hadn’t seemed real anymore. Now that she realized that Locke was right, and that she was probably going to have to answer for her earthquake spell and other misdeeds before the day was through, she felt her stomach twisting into a ball of nerves. With a moan, she put her elbows on the table and let her head fall into her hands.
“What’s the matter?” Sylvie asked. “You knew the hearing was coming. It’s not like it was a surprise.”
Willow suddenly felt a rush of anger. She knew she shouldn’t lash out at Sylvie. They were all tired, and they’d all had a long day. But Willow couldn’t fight the bitter taste that rose in her mouth when Sylvie spoke of the hearing.
“Yes, I knew it was coming. And so did you. And yet you deserted me. I thought you were my best friend, but you just…just disappeared. You ignored me and only hung out with Locke and Cara and…and…”
Willow started sobbing. She hated herself for crying in front of all of them, especially in front of Locke. But her emotions and the exhaustion of the last twenty-four hours were too much to fight. “You abandoned me!” Willow shouted.
Sylvie’s eyes widened, and she looked taken aback at Willow’s outburst. Cara’s face filled with fear and she ran to the back corner of the room, as far away as she could get from Willow. But Locke was off the footstool in an instant, rushing over to Willow and kneeling down beside her chair. He took her hands in his and squeezed them.
“Willow, calm down, do you hear me? You have to calm down. I know you’re upset, but just take some deep breaths and calm down.”
Willow turned to look at Locke, and felt her anger dissipate, mostly because she was so surprised that he was kneeling in front of her and holding her hands. It was a very un-Locke-like thing to do. He seemed almost like he cared.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Trying to calm you down before you set off another earthquake.”
Willow blinked at him a few times, then finally understood. She looked up at her three fellow students to see that they were all looking at her with deep nervousness.
They all think I’m going to do another terraemotus spell by accident, even though I don’t even have a magic ring right now.
“Should we tell her?” Sylvie asked, looking at Locke.
“Anjali said not to,” Cara piped in.
“I know, but…” Sylvie trailed off.
“Tell me what?” Willow asked.
Sylvie looked at Locke again, and he only shrugged. This seemed to be encouragement enough for Sylvie to go on. She took a deep breath and looked at Willow.
“Anjali asked us all to avoid you.”
Willow frowned, feeling like she hadn’t quite understood. “Avoid me? All of you?”
Sylvie nodded, and to Willow’s surprise tears sprung up in her eyes. “It’s been horrible, Willow. I know you think I abandoned you in one of your darkest hours, but I didn’t. At least, not by choice. Anjali told us all that you had mental magic abilities, and that if you got too angry or excited you might set off another earthquake.”
“So you guys were all just supposed to not talk to me so that I didn’t get too excited about something?”
Locke was nodding now. “Yeah. I wasn’t happy about it. I know we’ve had our differences, Willow, but I don’t think isolating you was the best idea. We didn’t have a choice, though. Anjali gave us official orders.”
Willow sat back, stunned. Several times she tried to open her mouth to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
“For the record, I didn’t like it either,” Cara said.
“None of us liked it,” Sylvie said. “It felt weird. But Anjali said it was for your own good.”
“My own good?” Willow felt her anger flaring, but she did her best to get it under control. She had enough sense to know that setting off an earthquake would be about the worst thing she could do right now.
“Yeah, your own good,” Locke said, standing and beginning to pace the room. “I know it sounds strange, but Anjali said that there are a lot of leaders in the Dragon Heart Agency who are skeptical of people with mental magic abilities. They don’t believe mental magic is real. They say it’s just something someone invented to be able to get away with doing spells whenever they want and then blaming it on their mental magic being out of control.”
“Great. Another thing the Dragon Heart Agency doesn’t believe in. Do they believe in anything?”
Locke actually laughed. “Not if they can help it. Most of the leadership there is a bunch of old-timers who don’t like change. Research keeps revealing new methods of magic, and they keep claiming they’re all bogus.”
Sylvie got up and came to sit across the table from Willow. She took Willow’s hands in hers and held them tightly, as though afraid if she didn’t hold on she might lose Willow’s friendship. “I’m really sorry. I hope you can understand that I was only following Anjali’s orders. I’ve felt horrible these last few months, but Anjali convinced me that if you messed up one more time, you would be expelled for certain. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I wanted what was best for you.”
Willow forced herself to look up at Sylvie, resisting the urge to pull her hands back. She was angry, but when she saw the sincerity in Sylvie’s eyes, much of her anger melted away. “I can’t believe this. I…I guess it’s good news. I thought you all hated me for the earthquake. I never imagined that you were avoiding me because you were ordered to.”
“It’s true,” Cara said. “Even Marcus and Alexis were told to be careful around you.”
“What?!?”
“Yup,�
� Sylvie said. “Anjali told them that she couldn’t tell them why, but that for their own safety they needed to make sure not to make you angry, and that the best course of action was probably just to avoid you as much as possible.”
Willow sat back in shock. “Wow, sounds like Anjali wants me to be miserable.”
Cara emphatically shook her head. “No, she wanted you to be safe. She’s been trying to get a specialist in mental magic to come work with you, but it hasn’t been easy. The Dragon Heart Agency is low on funds, and, like Locke said, the leaders don’t all believe in mental magic.”
Willow put her head in her hands again. This day had been so much longer than she had thought it would be. But some part of her felt relieved to know that Sylvie didn’t hate her. Anjali didn’t, either. Even Locke seemed to think she was okay, although he always had to insist that he was better than her at everything.
“Thank you for telling me,” Willow said. “I understand you were following orders, but it’s been very hard to feel so alone. It’s nice to know you were only following orders when you snubbed me.”
Sylvie hopped up and ran around the table to give Willow a big hug. “I wish I had stopped following those orders much sooner. I know Anjali meant well, but it was stupid. It’s so good to be talking to you again.”
“I agree,” Cara said. Then, to Willow’s surprise, she rushed over and joined in the hug.
Locke sighed. “Well, jeez. You guys know I hate being left out of stuff.” He came over to join the group hug as well.
When they finally pulled back and looked in each other’s faces, Willow smiled at all of them. “Listen, guys,” she said. “I want you to know that, whatever happens, I’m really proud of all of you. The Agency can say what they want about us, and Anjali can be as mad as she wants. But we did something tonight. We made a difference in this fight. I know it. The Agency won’t be able to ignore the reality of magic capture and projection when they see the evidence we’ve presented. And that’s saying something.”
“To us!” Locke said, raising his fist high in the air.
“To us!” repeated the three girls. They bumped fists and let out a whoop.
But their whooping died down when the door to the room suddenly started creaking open. They all looked up, startled, to see Anjali walking into the room. Her face looked calmer than it had before, but she still did not look happy.
“Willow Ember,” she said in a tired voice. “Come with me. There are some Agents who want to speak with you.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Anjali did not speak to Willow during the long walk to the room where the Dragon Heart investigators were waiting. Willow couldn’t decide whether that was a good or bad thing. At least Anjali wasn’t yelling at her, but the silence made Willow nervous, too.
Her nervousness only increased when Anjali led her into the main Dragon Heart conference room. Sitting at the rows of long tables were all of the Dragon Heart Agents who had caught up with Willow and the other students right after they’d lost track of Stein. The Agent named Tom, who had insisted on searching for Stein’s secret passageway, had returned. Did that mean he had given up on the search already? Willow’s heart felt heavy in her chest. If they had found the tunnel, it would have been much easier to explain away why she and the others had flown so far away from the Dragon Heart Campus. Willow knew she was in deep trouble, but all she could do was defend herself as best she could and hope she didn’t get expelled.
To Willow’s surprise, her magic ring was returned to her before the meeting officially started. Willow wasn’t sure why. Her best guess was that since this was an official procedure, they wanted her wearing her official magic ring. Whatever the reason, she felt a little better having her ring on her finger once again.
“Willow Ember, please come sit here, in front of this investigative council.”
Willow nodded meekly to the Dragon Heart Agent at the front of the room who had issued this order, then walked up to the wooden stool he’d indicated. She sat down and stared at her hands to avoid having to look into the stern faces of the Agents sitting in front of her. When she briefly glanced up, she saw that Anjali had taken a seat in the front row. Willow quickly looked down again. She had no idea how Anjali felt about her right now, but she had a feeling it wasn’t good. Willow couldn’t stand to see the disappointment in her mentor’s eyes.
When the Dragon Heart Agent who stood a few feet away from her started to speak, Willow forced herself to look up at him to show that she was paying attention.
“Willow Ember,” he said in a booming voice as he looked down at an official looking document. “You’ve been summoned here today to answer for two counts of unauthorized use of magic, and one count of disobeying a direct order from Dragon Heart Leadership. Specifically, you’re accused of using magic to crack the magic shield above the Dragon Heart campus, of setting off a terraemotus spell in front of non-wizards, and of leaving campus boundaries when you were specifically forbidden to do so. The penalties for these infractions are severe. You face possible expulsion from the Dragon Heart program if you cannot make a satisfactory explanation of these violations, so choose your words carefully.”
Willow took a deep breath, and stood. She could feel her hands trembling, and she hated herself for that. After all, she wasn’t timid and fearful like Cara. But this situation did feel horribly intimidating. The Agents waiting for her response looked like they were waiting for her to hurry up and get her little speech over with so they could officially punish her.
Willow didn’t know the best place to begin, so she decided to start with the magic shield cracks. She figured since she had photographic evidence of what she was talking about, the Agents would be more likely to believe her. Explaining the terraemotus spell was going to be much harder. She had to hope that they would believe she had mental magic power, and not think she was just trying to pass off a major magical infraction.
“Honored Agents,” Willow began, her voice sounding strange to her as she tried to sound loud and confident. “I know that it seems that I haven’t been the best student lately. But I promise you that I’ve had good reasons for every action I’ve taken. I hope that once I’ve explained everything, you’ll see that what I’ve done has ultimately been for the good of the Dragon Heart Agency.”
The Agents stared back at her with the same stern faces, not giving any indication that they were willing to have an open mind toward what Willow had to say. There was nothing for Willow to do but explain, and hope for the best.
“As for the cracks in the magic shield,” Willow said. “I did not make those. I discovered them because Cayenne, my dragon, took me flying up to see them. She knew about the cracks, and wanted to show me. She knew that the Dragon Heart campus was in danger, and she wanted to warn us.”
There was still no change in the Agents’ expression, so Willow pressed forward.
“After I saw the cracks, I intended to go warn Anjali. But Anjali found me flying down, first. She assumed that I made the cracks, but I promise I did not. I did not perform any sort of magic spells while flying up there with Cayenne. I did, however, see a blue light flashing that looked suspicious. Over the course of the next few months, thanks to my own experiences with seeing similar blue lights, and thanks to reading things about magical capture and projection, I came to believe that these cracks were caused by an enemy using magical capture and projection.”
For the first time, the Agents in the room broke their stoic expressions. Murmurs of shock and disbelief could be heard, along with a few snickers. Willow ignored the laughter, and continued.
“I know that many of you don’t believe in magic capture. But I have evidence that might change your mind. If you would allow me to look in my backpack, I have pictures in there that show Stein Viker using a magic gun to attempt to blast through the shield. Locke, Cara, and Sylvie have similar pictures as well.”
More murmurs of disbelief went up, although this time Willow could tell that some of the Agents
were growing curious. She glanced at Anjali, but Anjali’s face gave nothing away about how she was feeling.
Willow tried to open her mouth to continue, but she was cut off by one of the Agents shouting that he wanted to see the pictures. Another Agent joined in the cry, saying he wanted to as well. He also said they should look at the pictures from the other three students. A loud discussion started, and one of the Agents was sent to retrieve the backpacks, which had been confiscated from the students the moment they were back on the Dragon Heart Campus.
Willow was told to sit down and wait while the Agents looked through the pictures, and so she did. She felt somewhat helpless, and the few times she tried to say something, she was silenced with a stern look. The Agents did not want her input as they reviewed the pictures.
Willow couldn’t see what they were looking at, and time seemed to drag on forever. She hoped the pictures and videos had come out well enough to prove to the Agents that Willow had not been the one responsible for the cracks in the magic shield, but she herself hadn’t been allowed to look through the pictures. She had no idea how much good evidence she actually had.
The Agents all tried to crowd around the small digital cameras that Willow and her friends had used. They couldn’t all see at once, and finally someone suggested connecting the cameras to the projection screen at the front of the room so that everyone could look. Willow’s heart leapt at this idea, because it meant she could see as well.
As a few of the more tech-savvy Agents were setting up the connection between the camera and the screen, one of the other Agents suggested bringing the other three Dragon Heart students in.
“These are their pictures as well. They should be required to answer for this also.” Several of the other Agents agreed, and so Anjali was sent to bring back Locke, Cara, and Sylvie. Willow felt a rush of relief when she saw the three of them walking into the conference room. No matter how the Agents ended up reacting to this news, at least Willow was not alone.