Black sauntered up to Piper. He seemed oddly jubilant for a man whom I had always known as serious.
It was a few minutes to twelve. Black and Piper were both early.
"Good," I said to them. I was getting better at this mind-speak stuff. "You're both here. Now we can begin negotiations."
Black looked surprised and glanced around, eyes narrowing. Piper, to his credit, had accepted that the mysterious voice was not going to attack him.
I didn't think of it at the time, but it wasn't like Black to simply take orders. I expected him to at least ask who I was. But instead he stood passively by, waiting.
"This war over the key is unnecessary. I know that you each think the other has the key. But neither of you have it."
"Black stole it from me!" Piper had lowered his voice, low enough that Black could hear it without disrupting the polite flow of people moving dutifully around them in the square.
"No," I said. "Someone stole it from you."
Black said nothing. Piper said out loud, unaccustomed to speaking with his mind alone, "Then where is it?"
"I have it," I said. "And I know the secrets it holds." That was a threat to Black. I had nothing to lose by bluffing.
Black didn't say anything. I tried not to panic.
"So what now?" asked Piper, fingering his pipes.
"Call off this stupid war. I will personally see to it that any possessions you concealed with the key are opened and returned to you. I don't care what you hid with it, I just want this war to stop."
"And who are you?"
"An interested third party," I said. "That's all you need to know."
"I never started this war," Piper said after a moment. He took a deep breath. When he slouched he looked much older. "But it's time to end it. I'm willing to move on if you are." He straightened up again. "But I warn you: if this is a ruse, the fury I will bring upon you will be terrible indeed."
Black smiled and extended his hand to shake on the deal.
That's when I caught sight of Black's hand. Where Jacko had supposedly bitten him.
There was no wound…there was no wound!
My mind raced. What had Ura said?
I don't have to eat the entire person. Sometimes I just take a bite.
Jacko hadn't bitten Black at all! I connected the dots: Ura eats a dog, then becomes a dog to enter the dog-fighting contest. Jacko fights Ura/dog, and Ura chomps on him. Then Ura poses as Jacko and bites Black. That meant Black was…
I was about to blast a warning when the clock beneath me bonged twelve.
The obvious flaw in my plan: that being on a clock tower at twelve in the afternoon might be a bad idea, literally struck me then, reverberating throughout my entire rat body. The booming was deafening, shaking the entire structure with a deep gonging sound. I could only cling and watch helplessly.
BONG!
Piper grasped Black's right hand.
BONG!
Black's left hand wound up and punched Piper square in the face.
BONG!
There was shouting, but not everyone heard it, because the clock was still bonging.
BONG!
Piper stumbled backwards, clutching his nose. He lost his grip on Black, who turned and ran.
BONG!
"URA!" I mind shouted. "I know it's you!"
BONG!
Black turned and for a moment I swore he looked right at me. "War is profit, little rat. Remember that."
BONG!
Black disappeared from the square down an alley as the city guards advanced on Piper. Piper, a thin trickle of blood streaming from his nose, reached for his pipes.
BONG!
The real Black entered from a different alley. Piper lifted the pipes to his lips, his fingers playing over them. I couldn't hear the tune over the bonging.
BONG!
No, no, no! This was going all wrong! The real Black was punctual as ever. He looked around for Piper.
BONG!
Screams echoed around the square. People were pointing and shouting. I could see a black carpet crawling its way from the alleyway in the direction of Piper’s headquarters.
BONG!
Black didn't hesitate. He lifted one hand. From his side of the square marched an orderly stream of golden miniature clockwork soldiers, led by a clockwork captain on a clockwork horse.
BONG!
Hidden along the many rooftops facing the square, goblins fired miniature crossbows into the fray. Piper retreated to the safety of an alley.
The city guards worked to clear the square, their primary concern on getting citizens out of the line of fire. The two armies, one black and one gold, surged forward.
War had come to Stromgate.
My plan was a complete failure. Ura had somehow survived and was working to undermine my peace efforts, escalating the feud between Piper and Black. But why? What did he have to gain from it?
The remaining citizens were hustled out of the city square, crunching scorpions and kicking clockworks as they went. The guards swept a path with their polearms, but soon that wasn't even possible. Fortunately, the two miniature armies were so intent on each other that they ignored the guardsmen, who weren't having much of an effect anyway. The few remaining guards retreated into the side alleys, leaving their polearms behind. I looked on, helpless.
The black scorpion army hissed as it advanced on the clockwork soldiers. The miniature soldiers, heedless of their impending doom, took careful aim and fired. Their rifles went off in a row, firing rapidly one after the other with a multitude of fireworks.
The first wave of scorpions went down, but it was impossible to stop them. Goblins fired miniature crossbow bolts into the black carpet of insects, to little effect.
The clockwork captain raised the arm holding his saber, and the clockwork soldiers lowered their bayonets. With a blast from the horn permanently affixed to his face, the soldiers charged into the black mass.
Stingers struck the soldiers everywhere, probing for an opening. The attack of a scorpion's tail was awful to watch, like a hideous finger that never stops poking until it finds an eye. But there were no soft spots on the soldiers, which is what made them an implacable foe for Piper's army.
The scorpions' claws were much more formidable. The clockwork soldiers had but one bayonet to the two pincers of every scorpion. The angry arachnids grabbed each soldier as they approached, one claw keeping the bayonet at bay. Then more scorpions piled on, pincers gripping the soldiers until they broke into pieces.
The first line of soldiers completely disappeared under the scorpions.
POOFT! One after another, the soldiers exploded in the street, sending scorpions parts everywhere. Just as I had witnessed in the black lotus field, the soldiers were self-destructing as a last resort.
The two armies struggled back and forth, locked in combat. When the scorpions gained ground, the soldiers halted their progress by exploding, ensuring no casualty on one side was without cost.
The goblins on the rooftops switched tactics. They launched fire bombs into the sea of scorpions. The scorpions immediately skittered away from the miniature explosions, leaving circular gaps in their mass.
Piper played another tune, unseen somewhere in a side alley. The sky darkened.
A swarm of bats flew down, screeching. One goblin was snatched right off a rooftop. Another was knocked from his perch into the scorpion swarm, disappearing with a yelp.
The goblins turned their crossbows on the bats. Some goblins tried to run, but the bats had the advantage on the precarious rooftops, knocking goblins to their doom or even catching one in mid-air as he jumped between buildings.
The few goblins fled in a panic, scrabbling across rooftops and down pipes.
"ENOUGH!" boomed a voice, audible even over the explosions, goblin wails, bat screeching, and scorpion hissing.
A man dressed in flamboyant orange robes and a matching high pointed hat stood at the edge of the battle. I knew him by his curled yellow shoes. It was Hale
wijn.
Halewijn pointed, and a pogeyan blurred into action. The cat charged right through the two armies, heedless of the melee around it, and kept on going into the alley where Piper was playing his music. Piper's music had provided a perverse background score to the battle. There was a shrill sound a moment later punctuated by a shriek of dismay.
Piper's music stopped. His unconscious body was dragged back into the square by the pogeyan, which shimmered in the full daylight.
The scorpions and bats dissipated as quickly as they had come; the bats swooped back into the dark eaves of the city, the scorpions into the cracks of the streets. Even then, there were still disorganized clumps of scorpions, milling about in confusion. Stromgate would be plagued by them for years to come.
Piper was dropped before Halewijn like a cat might drop a mouse before its master. The pogeyan sat back on its haunches, awaiting his next command. The city guards returned from the safety of the alleyways, fanning out, polearms at the ready.
Unopposed, the remaining clockwork soldiers advanced again. They marched toward Piper, heedless of the guardsmen. Halewijn pointed again and the pogeyan flashed into action, bounding through the opposite alleyway towards where Black presumably hid.
Black stumbled back into the square, landing on some of his soldiers. Blood streamed from claw marks on his face. The pogeyan loomed over him as it padded back out from the darkness.
Black got the hint. He raised one hand and the soldiers froze. Slowly, he limped his way towards Halewijn, the pogeyan following behind him.
Defeated, Black fell to his knees before Halewijn. It was a gesture of capitulation and a plea for mercy. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen.
Then Halewijn turned and looked directly at me. Me, Scrap, the rat hiding on top of the clock tower. How could he know?
"Uh oh," was all I got out before the pogeyan came bounding towards the tower.
I ran inside and took a flying leap onto the ropes that hung from the huge bell in the clock tower.
If the pogeyan was insubstantial, it couldn't climb, could it? I had to be safe on higher ground. Right?
I scrambled up the rope, making my way to the top of the bell. It hung from a cross-joint. I crossed the span and climbed that, making my way towards the uppermost finger of the clock tower, the very hilt of Sikkar’s Blade.
There was an opening at the top of the tower. I climbed up it and was greeted by a breathtaking sight. This was the highest point in all of Stromgate. Below, the people were insects and buildings were models that princes might use to plan their war games. I understood the beauty and majesty of Sikkar and why he held his sword in defiance or tribute to his father, Cyrn. Below, nothing mattered and I was master of all.
Amazed by the sight, I momentarily forgot a phantom cat that could walk through walls was pursuing me…
But I was reminded when a ghostly paw scooped me off the roof and into the cat's waiting mouth.
* * *
"Well, well, well," said Halewijn. "It looks like fate finally caught up with you, eh Tesso?"
I blinked, looking around. I was in yet another cage. This one wasn't gilded. It was a rusty trap used to catch rats. The cage was in a prison cell. Halewijn was taking no chances.
Halewijn's bright form stood nearby. "I know you can understand me, so you can drop the façade."
"Where's the key?" was all I could think of.
"The key?" Halewijn chuckled. "The key to everything? It's right here," he showed it to me, dangling from a cord around his neck. "And that's where it will stay. I've still got some uses for it yet."
"What are you going to do with me?"
"With you?" Halewijn's features shifted from menacing to a broad smile, as if he had just thought of a hilarious joke but he declined to share it. "First, you're going to witness the utter destruction of all you hold dear. Then," he fingered the key, "I think you're going to use the key one last time, in a place nobody else will ever find you."
"But why?" I squeaked, desperate. "What did I ever do to you?"
Halewijn sat down on a plush velour chair, facing me. "Why nothing, my dear boy. That's what made you so useful!" He stretched. "I have to admit this has been extremely cathartic. You're the only person who knows my secret, and here chatting with you really does take the burden off."
"You used me as a scapegoat." I wanted to claw his eyes out. "You poisoned the guards and the nobles so it would look like a sorcerer had attacked the queen—"
"Of course," said Halewijn. "So, you remember that, hmm? The Queen was threatening to ban all magic. And when you can't fight the winning side, you have to win them over instead. So if there had to be laws prohibiting magic within the city limits, I would be the one to enforce those laws, as I saw fit."
I pointed at the badge that was pinned to Halewijn's shirt with one paw. "And that's how you combined the Headmaster position with the City Marshal."
Halewijn clapped. "Very good. Yes, it was quite convenient to have a wizard in the Queen's employ when she was both the recipient of a magical attack and her first captain failed her so spectacularly."
"He didn't fail," I snarled. "He was trying to protect the Queen. And he did too, or she would have died that night."
Halewijn waved off the notion. "Minor details. It took some quick thinking on my part, but the final part of the plan was your transformation into the sniveling rat I always knew you to be. Do you know we killed hundreds of rats for treason, for the mere excuse that they happened to be in the palace?" He rubbed his chin. "I almost felt sorry for the poor things."
"And why aren't I being…killed?" Halewijn was toying with me for some reason. I was missing something.
Halewijn's brow furrowed. "Because you're more useful to me alive, my boy. Or at least, trapped forever in a magical box. But don't worry, there WILL be death sentences handed down today."
The clock tower bell rang out. Halewijn walked over to the bars at the window to stare out at the city square, where the war had taken place.
"Piper, using his pipes. He's really quite talented, but he has no finesse. A man using his musical talent to summon VERMIN of all things! How very callow." He snorted. "But Black's the real achievement: he taught himself his own form of wizardry! A common thief, creating magical clockworks. He's really quite resourceful."
It never occurred to Halewijn that maybe Black had been a clockwork maker who had fallen on hard times.
Halewijn sighed. "A shame they will both be put to death. But sacrifices must be made, as they say. I'm sure you know all about that."
He unlocked the prison door and grabbed the metal handle at the top of my cage. "Come now, it's time to face the denouement to our sad little play." Halewijn whispered a spell over the cage. "From the outside, your cage will look like a decorative box."
I couldn't see much at first. Unlike others who had held me in cages, Halewijn wasn't gentle. I slammed back and forth a few times until I managed to grab hold of the cage with all of my claws and cling for dear life.
A cool wind blew through the cage as we went outside.
A crowd had assembled. The citizens were there to see a hanging; not just any hanging, but a hanging of two wizards. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and mothers, daughters, grandparents, and children of all ages were there to see it. Entire camps had been set up, with people staking out their spots early so they had a great seat. People gladly paid the single guilder fee. They were still streaming through the corner alleys, ushered by guards who collected the fee, as the gruesome assembly prepared their show.
Black and Piper, dressed in sackcloth, stood with their hands behind their backs. Their wrists and ankles were manacled by thick padlocks. An executioner in a black hood stood by as the nooses were prepared. He measured each of them.
It became apparent, with the two men standing side-by-side, that Piper was taller than Black. I had never thought of him that way—Black loomed so large in my memory. But in truth he was a small man, shrunken even more by h
is current circumstance.
Piper's blue eyes were narrowed, his lips set in a thin line. Black, on the other hand, was muttering to himself over and over. They were both terrified.
Halewijn placed my cage on a podium, erected in front of the clock tower that loomed over the gallows.
"This is awful," I said. "Why don't you just hang them and be done with it?"
Halewijn snickered. "Oh my dear boy, have you no respect for theater? The people want a show, so we shall give them one. Each of them will be allowed to make a speech. The crowd loves the last words of a condemned man; the noble soliloquy of the wronged innocent, the last plea of desperate men…" He rolled his eyes. "In truth it's all very boring. It's not like it changes anything."
I looked around. "Ura's in your employ, isn't he?"
Halewijn looked down at me, feigning surprise. "Ura? I've never heard of him."
"The pogeyan caught Ura instead of me and you pressed him into service!" I said. "That's how you started everything. You WANTED a war between Black and Piper. So you could eliminate both of them and keep the key for yourself."
Halewijn's eyes narrowed as he scanned the crowd, pretending not to look at me. "You're a clever boy. Such a pity."
I looked around, desperately. There was no blue skinned ogre, so Ura had to be concealed somewhere. He could be any member of the crowd; it was just a sea of faces, impossible to distinguish one cheering person from another.
But I did notice the one-eyed dog.
Jacko was sitting in the alleyway, wagging his tail. His eye patch had been replaced. It had a red gem on it, giving him the appearance of some kind of bejeweled pirate.
I tried to speak to Jacko, but received no response. The same spell Halewijn cast to keep me from being visible must have prevented me from using my telepathy.
Halewijn addressed the crowd. "We have before us two condemned men accused of sorcery against the good people of Stromgate. Many people were hurt in their little conflict, and scores more have been killed or wounded over the past decade. They are both criminals that have long plagued this noble city and now it is time they get their just comeuppance!"
The crowd roared.
While a one-eyed dog was somewhat noteworthy, the teeming masses made it impossible to pick out any one detail unless you knew to look for it. Halewijn didn’t seem to notice, but I knew something was up.
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