by Blair Drake
Worker bees? Was that what had flew around him when he first met Henry? If so, and they worked for Queen Gaanne, then she knew he was in Craydusk . This couldn’t be good.
“Overwhelmed by magic?” Dylan didn’t understand. “Does magic hang in the air?”
“It’s an energy force, just like everything else. And having the entire realm in her presence, the energy didn’t set well with her. I heard it was a horrible day,” Woli added her two-cents.
Tully nodded. “It was indeed. King Riata wept, and Queen Gaanne didn’t look to be breathing. But alas, she was. Everyone was ordered away from the palace, and the king soon place a moratorium on magic. It’s never been lifted, but it’s still not acceptable. Still, in small amounts, everyone in the territory uses magic if they’re able. Burnt cake, sprinkle a little fairy dust and it’s tasty again. That sort of thing.”
“Just a little magic?” Dylan asked.
“A little bit of harmless magic is tolerated, outside the gates of the palace, but none inside. The king learned his lesson the hard way. He performed magic in the palace, and the queen exiled him.”
Exiled for using magic, and yet he was sent here to learn his magical abilities. This made no sense. Didn’t GCA want him back? He was a smartass, but he was a good student. Why would he be sent to a land where magic was not completely welcome?
Dylan’s mouth opened, but he couldn’t speak. Magic ruined their lives. He had a feeling it was about to ruin his life, too.
“King Riata has been on the periphery ever since. The only major magic allowed in the territory now are the wards surrounding the castle, and those are some powerful magic indeed,” Henry added.
“Poor guy. The whole land was his before he married Queen Gaanne?” Dylan pitied the old king.
“It was all his, and still is, but one of the wards repelled him from the castle. He stays on the edge of Craydusk,” Woli said. “I’ve seen him in River Ruin, where his sister is a princess. He sleeps under the bridge, the one between Craydusk and River Ruin. He now lives with the trolls.”
“That bridge is in Craydusk, not River Ruin,” Henry corrected.
“It’s actually split evenly between the territories, and it’s exhausting to cross it. Speaking of that bridge, Dylan must get that grimoire and cross the bridge,” Tully said. “He’ll have to set the realm right before he leaves.”
“Why does he have to cross the bridge?” Woli asked. “There are portals here.”
Henry leaned against the bar, his right leg crossed in front of his left. “What makes you say that? I’ve never had a Gray Cliffs Academy student who set anything right. They just get the grimoire, take some lessons, and find their way back to the portal.”
Henry made it sound so easy, but Dylan doubted it was that straightforward. Nothing ever was, and nothing in Craydusk seemed straightforward at all.
“This young man is different. He’s the strongest mage to enter Craydusk in a very long time.”
Dylan smiled and cringed at the same time. The idea of being so strong was cool, but why couldn’t it be in football or basketball? His crappy luck, he was supposedly a strong magician. He didn’t want this. He wanted a do-over. He wished he never went to the headmaster’s office this morning.
“I don’t want to be different, and I don’t want to be a mage. How is this even possible? My parents aren’t magical in any way whatsoever. This must all be a mistake, and I need to go home. If not GCA, then my actual home.” Dylan clinched his fists.
“Stop being a drama queen,” Woli said. “You should be honored to be so powerful. This is a great thing.”
Dylan shook his head. “Look, I want to finish high school and go to college like a regular kid. I’m going to be a lawyer or something, not a mage.” He added, “Maybe even an architect, like my dad.”
Henry laughed. “A mage isn’t an occupation, it’s an innate talent you’re born with. You hone it. Like being a lippy, you learn when it’s appropriate to use your talent, by doing little, innocuous things to keep it fresh.”
“Little, innocuous things? Like telling you to STOP TALKING!” Dylan screamed the last two words.
Henry’s mouth clamped shut.
Woli got in his face. “That wasn’t innocuous, that was obnoxious. And it’s ugly on you. Stop being a jerk, or I can make sure you never get back home.” Her face was within an inch of his face as she almost whispered the last sentence.
Again, Tully snapped his fingers. “Rhuffles, same shelf, nine books over.”
Dylan looked at Henry while Rhuffles pulled down another book for Tully. “Sorry, Henry, you can speak.”
Henry’s face turned beet red. “You snot-nosed little heathen. I told you to never use that magic on me again. I’m done. You’re on your own.” With that, Henry stormed out of the parlor.
Dylan almost yelled, “Wait,” but he knew it would be a lippy command, and he didn’t want to force Henry to stop. Instead, he ran after him.
Woli moved so quickly Dylan didn’t even see it until she was hovering above the ground in the doorway, block him from exiting. “Let him be. He’s right. You’re a pompous ass, and I’ll leave you, too, if you don’t get an attitude adjustment.”
Dylan looked at the floor. He didn’t mean to be a jerk, but he was tired and scared, and even missed Rex. Yes, he missed his pain in the ass roommate, Rex. He couldn’t believe it.
“I’m not a jerk, really I’m not. I’m just out of my realm.”
“Literally,” Rhuffles said.
“Come, sit. Rhuffles will make us another round of drinks.” Tully patted the cover of the book Rhuffles handed to him. “I have a story to tell you. Please, be seated.”
Chapter 7
Dylan and Woli sat on the loveseat across from Tully. Rhuffles moved behind the bar to make more applebawms.
Tully moved his fingers across the page as he read. “Dylan Streetman, son of Augie Streetman and Lisbeth Loudus Streetman, born of cross magic.” Tully looked up. “Your mother is a lippy, and your father is a chameleman. So you are crossbred, and instead of inheriting only one innate ability, as is normal, you inherited two. And both of your parents are mages, so this makes you strong and powerful if you know how to use your magic wisely.”
Professor Tully went on to explain about powerful magical crosses in previous centuries, and how mages saved many universes from the powers of evil. He explained how all mages were elementals, but not all had the power to control the elements of earth, fire, air and water. He stopped short at that point, as if he realized he said too much.
Dylan put both hands up to stop Tully from continuing at the exact same moment Tully stopped talking.
“That’s not possible. My parents aren’t magic. They work in corporate America. They are CEOs of two extremely successful companies. My dad’s is an engineer and architect, my mom has an MBA, and works in corporate America. That’s how they could afford to send me to private boarding school. If I hadn’t been such a handful when I was twelve, I might be in a private school but living at home.”
“And how do you think your parents achieved their success? They were graduates of Gray Cliffs Academy, or GCA as you so crudely call it.” He looked back at the book. “Yes, it says here they met in high school, and they attended colleges on the West Coast. Your dad went to Stanford and your mom went to UC Davis.” He looked up again. “Both very good schools.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. I know they met in high school and stayed together through college, but that doesn’t mean they have magic in them.” Dylan blew out a frustrated breath.
“Do you know nothing about the origins of Gray Cliffs Academy? Even I know it’s for people of magic. Witches, wizards, mages, even a few trolls, pixies and fairies attended. How could you not know?” Woli said. “I’m jealous, I wish I’d gone there. Henry speaks so highly of it.”
The wheels were turning in his head as he tried to think of anything out of the ordinary at school. He never saw anyone who didn’t look li
ke a normal human being. Was there a spell on the school making them all look like humans? Maybe when they left the school they returned to their natural state. He never saw anyone who looked like anything but a human being in his years at GCA. Sure, there was some strange happenings, but they didn’t necessarily add up to magic.
Then again, the crazy stuff that went down in the headmaster’s office, and then again on the roof, was not ordinary. It could have be magic, but it was a dark magic if so. It was cold and hollow, and it chilled Dylan to the bone.
“That’s crazy. I’ve never seen a troll, fairy, or pixy, except in books. Well, I guess I’ve seen a pixy now, but I know I never saw one at Gray Cliffs.”
“I didn’t say they had any there now, Mr. I Know Everything. I said they’ve been known to attend school there. The school determines who has the strongest abilities. The strong ones are sent on a quest.” Woli now spoke to him as if he were six years old.
“Then where is everyone else?” Dylan said.
Tully cleared his throat. “Each person of magic has their own quest. And according to this,” he ran his fingers along the page again, “Gray Cliffs is in danger.”
Dylan leaned forward. “What? Danger? How?”
Tully scanned the page before asking, “Has it been dark and cold lately?”
Dylan shivered, remembering the cold. “Yes, for more than a year. And lately, we never see daylight. Many of the students are depressed, and there’s lots of whispering and secret meetings.”
“I see you’ve been eavesdropping on a few of the secret meetings,” Tully said.
Dylan frowned. “How do you know that?”
“It’s all right here. You sit in the ductwork and eavesdrop. Tell me, what did you learn?”
Dylan waved his hands in front of him. “No, you don’t understand. Those were just dreams. I’ve tried to listen in by putting my ear to the heater vents, but each time, I black out. Then when I come to, I’m usually in bed. Though I woke up on the floor occasionally, too. It’s all a dream. I hear the guys clearly, and know what they are saying. I can even see them as if I’m sitting at the opening of the vent in the room they’re in, but when I wake up, I can’t remember most of what I heard.”
Tully nodded his head. “That’s understandable. You’re morphing, but your body doesn’t know how to handle the transition. What you see and hear while you’re a smaller creature in the vent gets lost when you transition back to Dylan the boy.”
“But he’s a chameleman, shouldn’t he retain everything he learns?” Woli asked.
“He hasn’t practiced enough, and I gather he didn’t really know he transitioned into another being. To him, his body and mind stayed the same, but he dreamed the change and what he learned. He just needs more practice.” To Dylan he said, “And he needs his chameleman mentor.”
Looking down at the floor again, Dylan said, “Fine, I get it. I’m sorry for what I did to Henry. But I’m not good at the lippy stuff, either. I guess I need to understand, hone, and refine these skills you say I have.”
“Yes, being a lippy can be very dangerous in the wrong body. Hitler was a good example. Look at the atrocities he caused commanding people. When it was all said and done, many of his army and followers had no idea why they did what they did to those poor people.”
Dylan felt a memory forming in his head. “Oh my goodness, my mom used to say, ‘Don’t get lippy with me’. She meant I was telling her what to do, but being a lippy herself, she wasn’t so easy to manipulate, was she? I get it now. And my dad would say, ‘He’s just like you, my dear.’”
Woli laughed.
“Back to the academy: it’s in trouble. There’s an evil encroaching. I suppose this is why you were sent to us earlier than usual. Many times, the mage knows more about his or her abilities before we see them. They just aren’t quite sure of the powers they have. Gray Cliffs Academy is all about teaching its students to use their power for good, not evil, but evil always wants to win.”
“The blackness and cold are the evil?” Dylan asked.
Tully nodded. “There’s been a shift in the energy forces. And yes, the darkness and cold are evil encroaching on Gray Cliffs.” He read some more. “I can’t see where the shift happened, or how, but I know that evil is moving in fast. The academy needs the strength of its students to keep it at bay.”
“Keep it at bay? Why can’t they banish it altogether?” Woli asked.
Tully put up a finger. “One step at a time, my dear pixy.”
“So I need to find my grimoire and hone my abilities, so I can go back and help the academy?” Dylan knew the answer but asked anyway.
“There’s much more to it. Even if the evil wasn’t there, you’d have come here eventually. But banding together with your fellow people of magic, you’ll all be stronger. And you need to learn the potions, spells, and so much more. There’s no time to waste because the evil isn’t just limited to Gray Cliffs Academy; it’s seeping into parallel realms.”
Dylan and Woli both gasped.
Woli jumped up. “What if he could help King Riata?”
Tully smiled. “You’re getting ahead of me, dear.”
“How could I help a king?” Dylan asked.
“I think this would be a good excuse for King Riata to start using magic again,” Tully said. “But you’ll have to find him. Henry said he lives under the bridge with the trolls. We need to make a plan then go visit him.”
Woli’s wings fluttered. “I’ve always wanted to meet King Riata. This is going to be so exciting. Will you come with us, Tully?”
Tully’s closed his eyes for a moment, looked down to the book, then back up. “Sadly, I do not leave my house. I can see all the world from sitting in my library or my parlor, and I do not leave these walls.”
“Why not?” Dylan asked.
There was a silence. It was so quiet Dylan could hear Woli’s wings fluttering.
“I guess I’m called a hermit. At least that’s what I’ve been told. I prefer the company of my minions and books. And I do love visitors, but I do not have any desire to go outside.”
That would explain his pale skin, Dylan thought.
“But Tully, you know King Riata. He doesn’t know us, and he’ll never help us.”
Tully flipped a few more pages in the book. He scanned down three full pages, using his fingers to keep his place, before saying, “The king will see you. He’s a scryer, and you’ll need him. All you must do is convince him to look in a reflecting pool of some kind. He will see the darkness and see it’s encroaching on our territory, too.”
“Okay,” Dylan said, even though he had no idea what they were going to do or how they were going to do it.
“The king will know for sure. He may even know how long we have until we are engulfed in the darkness.”
Dylan and Woli sat silent, waiting for more.
“King Riata is very powerful, but he is very loyal. His loyalty is what kept him at the bridge between the territories and from performing magic in his territory. Though he was separated from his queen for centuries, he still loves her. Your job is to prove to him his loyalty is to Craydusk—not his queen. For if there is no territory, there is no king or queen. You’ll go to King Riata, and you’ll tell him you are from Gray Cliffs Academy. He knows about the students. He can help you.”
“But he’s a king. I’ve never spoken to royalty before,” Dylan said.
“He’s a very nice young man. You’ll like him,” Tully said.
Dylan put the tip of his finger in his mouth and began chewing on his fingernail.
“Dylan is going by himself?” Woli asked.
Tully looked up at Woli. “That is impossible. Henry left him behind, and he doesn’t know how to get to the bridge between here and River Ruin. He will need you to guide him, and to keep him safe. I know you don’t have many magical powers, but your wings feel things people don’t feel.”
Woli reached her arm around Dylan’s shoulder and squeezed him hard. “It�
�s just you and me, dude. We’re gonna rock this thing.”
Dylan gave a sideways glance to Woli. He wished he felt as confident about this excursion as she did. They said King Riata lived under a bridge with trolls. And if these trolls were anything like he read about in books, their lives would be in danger. He couldn’t control his magical ability even in the least stressful times, how would he control it when his life was on the line?
“Professor, where do we start?” Dylan’s voice was shaky.
“It’s simple. You go to the bridge and ask for King Riata. You tell him where you’re from and about the evil and the darkness. Tell him Professor Tully told you he was a scryer, and he could see exactly what was happening. If you mention me, he’ll believe you. There was a time when King Riata and I were close friends.”
Woli’s excitement already had her three feet off the ground. “Anything we need to bring with us?”
Tully placed his book on the chaise lounge next to him, then turned so his legs were hanging off the side. He took a deep breath and stood. “The only thing you need to take with you is common sense and a sense of direction. Do you know how to get to the bridge between here and River Ruin?”
Chapter 8
They didn’t even try to keep a low profile as they walked down the sidewalk in Craydusk. The streets were teaming with transportation such as elephants, nothing-drawn carriages that couldn’t have a motor to propel them. If they did have motors, they were so quiet they couldn’t be heard. Kids played stickball in the street too, just like in the suburbia where he grew up. But there seemed to be no noise. Only the movements, and a slight sound of music in the air. He couldn’t say the people looked happy, but they looked content.
The kids who played in yards and on the streets didn’t laugh and scream; they just played quietly. It was as thought someone thought this happened in suburbia and tried to replicate it. Only the replica’s sound was muted.
One block away from Professor Tully’s house, Woli pointed to the left. “Look. See that tree?”