Lake in the Clouds

by Edward Willett

“Really?” Ariane said. “Where is he right now?”

  Wally blinked. “I…uh, I don’t know.”

  “For that matter,” Ariane said, “where are you? You obviously know where I am.” She reached out and grabbed the webcam from where it sat atop his monitor and flashed it around his room. “I’m afraid it’s a little the worse for wear.”

  She shoved the webcam back into place. Wally looked stricken. “My Iron Man poster? You tore up my Iron Man poster?”

  “You stole the second shard of Excalibur and gave it to the evil wizard Merlin,” Ariane said. “One of these things is not like the other.”

  “He’s not…” Wally took a deep breath. “Ariane. He’s not evil. He wants to make things better on Earth. And what does it matter whether I know where he is or not? He just had to go out of town on business.”

  “What business?” Ariane opened the browser again, over top of the Skype window, so she didn’t have to look at Wally. She typed “#rexmajor” into the “Search Twitter” box.

  A line of tweets appeared: and there it was. “Freakin’ cool: saw #rexmajor at Glass Field. Geek attack! Dying to know what he’s doing here. #computers #technology #ypa.”

  Glass Field? Ariane thought. Airport? But what city? That last hashtag…

  “I don’t know,” Wally’s voice said, though she could no longer see him. “He doesn’t tell me. He’s not just a wizard, you know, he’s also got a company to run.”

  Ariane barely heard him. She was checking to see what the airport code YPA stood for.

  It leaped out at her.

  Prince Albert Municipal Airport (Glass Field).

  Aunt Phyllis!

  Forgetting all about Wally, she grabbed the wireless handset on his desk and punched in the number for Aunt Phyllis’s cottage. The phone rang – and rang – and rang – and then, just when she thought there’d be no answer…

  “Hello?” said a man’s voice.

  “Who is this?” Ariane said.

  “Who is this?”

  Ariane hesitated. “Wrong number,” she said, and hung up.

  She stared at the phone as if it were a rabid dog.

  “Ariane?” Wally said. “Ariane, what’s going on?”

  Ariane closed the browser so she could see that hated freckled face again. “You want to know where Rex Major is?” she snarled. “He’s in Prince Albert, that’s where he is. Practically on top of Emma Lake. He’s going after Aunt Phyllis. I think he already has her. So screw you, Wally Knight, and screw your excuses, and your lies. Rex Major has gone after Aunt Phyllis!” The sword tip blazed against her side. “And now I’m going after him!”

  She leaped up, the swivel chair flying back from the desk to crash against the wall, then turned and ran out of the room, hearing Wally calling, “Ariane? Ariane!” from the speakers behind her.

  Down the stairs, down the short hall to the pool, into the water. She flew north, faster than she had ever travelled before, and exploded from the dark water of Emma Lake right on the shore by Aunt Phyllis’s cottage.

  There were two men there. They stumbled back as she burst into existence right in front of them, ordering the water from her body with such force that for a moment she was surrounded by fog turned white by the yard light. They reached into their suitcoats, presumably for guns, and she sent them flying with two tendrils of water she tugged from the lake and whipped against their legs. She charged past them.

  There was a big black limousine on the road on the other side of the cabin, clouds of exhaust enveloping it in the cold air. Its headlights showed her Aunt Phyllis walking calmly toward it, arm in arm with Rex Major, who was carrying Aunt Phyllis’s blue suitcase.

  Ariane screamed, “Aunt Phyllis!”

  Aunt Phyllis glanced her way. Major leaned down and whispered into her ear. She nodded, waved cheerily at Ariane, and then got into the car without the slightest struggle. Ariane charged forward, but she was too slow. Major got in next to Aunt Phyllis, holding the suitcase on his lap. The door closed. The car backed up, swung around.

  Ariane frantically called up water from the lake and hurled it at the limo, but it fell apart, splashing to the road, well behind the car’s receding red taillights. But the streetlights showed her the small white rectangle that fluttered out of the car’s back window as it sped away.

  Ariane ran forward and picked it up from the damp asphalt. It was a business card, with Rex Major’s name, the Excalibur Computer Systems logo, and a cell phone number. On the back was scrawled, Call me.

  Rage roared up into Ariane, some of it hers, much of it from the sword. She whirled to see the two thugs she had upended in the yard hurrying into the old metal boat with the putt-putting outboard. They started the motor and headed into the lake. In a moment they’d be out of sight, beyond the reach of the lights on shore…

  But they didn’t get that far. Ariane reached out and sent an enormous wave hurtling into the boat from the starboard side. The small craft capsized, dumping the men into the water. She clenched her fist, and the wave towered up and split into two tentacles, each capped with a sword of ice. She started to bring the blades down on the struggling men…

  …and then realized what she was about to do. She gasped and relaxed, letting the tendrils and ice-blades fall apart. The men had found their feet in the still-shallow water and were making a beeline for the shore, albeit an angled beeline that insured they got as far away from her as possible as fast as possible.

  I wanted to kill them, she thought, feeling a little sick. I was going to kill them.

  A thing of war, the Lady had called the sword.

  But maybe I’m in a war, she thought. Would the time come when she wouldn’t hold back from the violence the sword was always urging her to commit?

  She looked down at Major’s business card. If the sword urged violence on Merlin, she thought she’d be happy to submit. He intended to use Ariane’s aunt as a hostage, to force Ariane to give up her shard. He’d threaten to hurt Aunt Phyllis, even kill her, unless Ariane surrendered.

  It had worked for him once before, after all. Major’s threat to kill Wally had convinced her to give him the first shard of the sword in Yellowknife, though they’d later stolen it back.

  Call me, she read again on the card.

  It’s a trap, she told herself.

  Of course it’s a trap, she replied.

  And she didn’t see any other option but to walk right into it.

  The front door to Aunt Phyllis’s cabin stood open, and that, as much as anything else she’d seen, convinced Ariane that Major must have used his Voice of Command on her aunt. There was no way, if her aunt had been in her right mind, she would have left her front door open and unlocked, even if she was at home. Especially not this late in the season when most of the cabins were empty and “anyone might come wandering by.”

  As anyone certainly had.

  Ariane took a deep breath. Then she went into the cabin, picked up the handset of the old black rotary telephone, and dialed the number on the card.

  Chapter Five

  Awkward Conversations

  Wally stared at the screen, still showing his bedroom in Regina. Rex Major is in Prince Albert? He’s going after Aunt Phyllis?

  He called up Twitter and did his own search. Sure enough, someone had seen Major at the Prince Albert airport.

  He could be there for other reasons, he thought. Mining. Logging. Fishing…don’t jump to conclusions. He hasn’t lied to you yet. He’ll tell you why he was there.

  But…

  He sighed. The file folders on Major’s computer were still calling to him, but he shoved back from the desk and went to his own room. In his backpack there was a leather pouch containing his passport, a few left-over Euros – and a card Aunt Phyllis had given him before they left her house in Regina for Chamberlain, where he and Ariane had parted ways with her before heading to France, he by jet, Ariane by cloud-jumping. The card had Aunt Phyllis’s phone number in Emma Lake written on it in green ink.<
br />
  He picked up the handset in his room and dialed the number.

  The phone rang, over and over. On the eighth ring, he heard it picked up. “Hello?” said a voice.

  A man’s voice.

  Just in time, Wally thought to deepen and coarsen his own. “May I speak to Phyllis Forsythe, please?”

  A pause. “She’s not available. Can I take a message?”

  Wally ignored that. “Then can I speak to Rex Major?” he growled.

  A much longer pause. “Who is this?”

  Wally disconnected, swearing. Ariane had been telling the truth. Rex Major had grabbed Aunt Phyllis. He was going to hold her hostage to force Ariane to give him the first shard. It was the only thing that made sense.

  He doesn’t know I know, Wally thought. And that means it’s the perfect test for his promise he’ll always tell me the truth. He stared at the phone. He’s supposed to call me this evening. I’ll see what he says. And then…

  He swallowed. He was beginning to think he’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. And if he had – with a guard on the door, no money, and nobody to turn to for help – he didn’t see a thing he could do about it.

  •••Ariane held the black Bakelite handset as if it were a poisonous snake that might whip around and sink its fangs into her wrist at any moment. But of course the snake was on the other end of the line…and answered after two rings.

  “Hello, Ariane,” Rex Major said.

  She didn’t bother asking how he knew it was her. “What have you done with Aunt Phyllis?” she snarled, the shard of Excalibur burning against her skin and filling her with righteous anger.

  “She’s safe,” Major said. “Would you like to talk to her?”

  Ariane blinked. “I can?”

  “Of course.” Fumbling sounds on the other end, then, “Here you go, Phyllis.”

  “Thanks, Rex,” Ariane heard Aunt Phyllis say. Then her aunt was on the phone. “Hello, dear. How nice to hear your voice. How is your vacation?”

  Dumbfounded, it took Ariane a moment to respond. “Vacation?”

  “Rex…Mr. Major…tells me you’re camping with some friends. That sounds like fun.”

  “No, Aunt Phyllis,” Ariane said, bewildered. “I’m at your cabin at Emma Lake. Where you were taken from. Like, ten minutes ago. You saw me.”

  “Well, I must say it’s so nice to hear that you’re doing things with other friends than just Wally,” Aunt Phyllis went on as if she hadn’t spoken – or as if she had said something completely different than she really had. “He’s a nice boy, don’t get me wrong, but you need to make more friends.”

  “Aunt Phyllis,” Ariane said, speaking very slowly and distinctly, “you are a hostage. Rex Major has kidnapped you. He’s using you to get the shards of Excalibur. You know all that, don’t you?”

  “That does sound delightful,” Aunt Phyllis said, then, “Oh! Rex wants to talk to you again. Stay warm, dear, and I’ll see you soon.”

  And just like that, she was gone.

  Major came back on the line. “I told you she was fine,” he said.

  “Fine?” Ariane exploded. “She’s not fine! You’ve…brainwashed her, or something. She didn’t hear a word I said.”

  “She heard you,” Major said calmly. “Well, she heard your voice. The words she came up with herself, to match the Commands I gave her. She is convinced I’m an old family friend, that I’ve invited her to stay with me for a few days, and she is delighted to do so.”

  “You’ve twisted her mind,” Ariane said, feeling sick. “You’re a monster.”

  “Hardly,” Major said, voice sharpening. “I have done nothing to hurt her. I take no pleasure in causing people pain, Ariane. But my needs are great and my ultimate goals, the liberation of an entire world – my world! – and the return of magic in all its power to this one, outweigh ordinary empathy for others.”

  “That’s inhuman.”

  Major laughed. “You mean that as an insult, I suppose. But it’s a simple statement of fact. Yes, I’m inhuman…because I’m not human. I’m a…” He chuckled again. “Fairy.”

  “I’m sticking with monster,” Ariane said. “So let me guess. You want me to give you the first shard in exchange for Aunt Phyllis’s life.”

  “Oh, no,” Major said. “Quite the contrary. I want you to meet with me…so I can give you the second shard.”

  Ariane pulled the handset away from her ear, stared at it a moment, then put it back. “What?”

  “I want to give you the second shard. So you’ll have both of them again.”

  “Why?”

  “Can’t tell you that over the phone, I’m afraid.”

  Ariane said nothing for a moment, chewing her lower lip. It’s a trick of some kind, she thought. It has to be.

  But what choice did she have? Major had Aunt Phyllis. Ariane had to try to get her back.

  I’ve got the magic of the Lady of the Lake, she thought. I’m powerful. I can do this.

  But there was one other thing she could do first. Something that might give her some protection Merlin hadn’t counted on.

  Mind made up, she said, “All right. How do I find you?”

  “You don’t,” Major said. “You stay put. I’ll send my limo back. It will bring you to me. I have to arrange a few things first, of course, so let’s say…first thing in the morning. You have a lovely night in Aunt Phyllis’s cabin, and I’ll send a car around at 9 a.m.” Even over the phone, she could tell he was smiling. “I look forward to seeing you again.”

  “The feeling is not mutual,” Ariane said, and slammed the handset down into its cradle. I’ll say one thing for the old phones, she thought, staring at it. It’s way more satisfying hanging up on someone that way then pushing a virtual button on a smartphone screen.

  She had all night. Plenty of time.

  She rushed out, waded into the lake, and let the water suck her down.

  •••

  Rex Major winced as the crash of Ariane’s hang-up spiked his ear, but smiled all the same as the limo rolled along the road toward Prince Albert. That went well, he thought. Now that he had received the expected phone call from Ariane, he could make the promised phone call to Wally Knight. He glanced at Aunt Phyllis, debating whether he needed to Command her to not hear his end of that talk. He decided it was unnecessary. She was so muddled and delusional thanks to the Commands he had already given her she probably wouldn’t even register it, and if she did, she’d imagine it as something completely different from reality.

  Ariane had accused him of twisting the old lady’s mind, but he hadn’t twisted anything. Her mind was fine. In fact, it was working overtime, imposing its own dream-like layer of alternate reality on the world around it in obedience to his Command. Once he lifted the Commands…if he lifted them, if Ariane cooperated…she would return to normal, albeit with a certain amount of confusion as to what had been real and what had been imagined during the time she was under his spell.

  He couldn’t Command Wally, because he was the heir of King Arthur – or so Major strongly suspected. He couldn’t Command Ariane, because she was the Lady of the Lake. But he could Command his guards, and, it turned out, he could Command Phyllis Forsythe.

  He rubbed his temple with the heel of his right hand. He had a deuce of a headache, though. There were several Commands keeping Phyllis happily ensconced in her pleasant dream world. He had used more of his meagre store of magic than he liked to at any one time. But needs must, he thought.

  He dialed the number of his Toronto condo. He was applying the mushroom principle when it came to Wally: keep him in the dark and feed him crap. There was no need for Wally to know anything about what was happening here in Prince Albert. In fact, the less he knew, the better. He’d never understand about Phyllis.

  The phone rang several times before anyone answered. “Hello?” said Wally’s light tenor.

  “Hi, Wally,” Major said. “What are you doing?”

  “Just finished watching a movi
e,” Wally said. “I asked the guard to join me but he didn’t seem interested in Spiderman 3.”

  Major laughed. “Don’t take it personally. I would have fired him if he had.” He glanced out at the passing trees, barely glimpsed in the spill from the headlights. “I’m just sitting on the terrace of my hotel in Vancouver, looking out at the harbour,” he said. “Sipping wine and wishing I didn’t have more meetings tomorrow.”

  “Sounds nice,” Wally said, unenthusiastically.

  “Feeling cooped up?” Major said. “Even after play-testing the King Arthur game all day?”

  “A little,” Wally said.

  “Well, I’ve arranged for you to start fencing lessons tomorrow,” Major said. “And your tutor will be coming in on Monday. I’ll try to keep you from being bored.”

  “We don’t even know if Ariane is alive,” Wally said, sounding more like a stereotypical sullen teen than Major had ever heard him. “Why do I have to stay cooped up?” His voice tightened. “Or have you heard something? Is she alive?”

  “I still don’t know,” Major lied, keeping his own voice warm and sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Wally. I really need you to stay safe. We don’t know what she’ll do if she is alive, with the sword driving her. You hurt her far more than your sister did, and you know what she did to her.”

  “Yeah,” Wally said. “I know.” A pause. “When will you be coming back?”

  “I’m here for one more day, at least,” Major said. “Things are a bit up in the air after that. Depends on what happens in my next meeting.” It always pleased Merlin when he could deceive while actually telling the truth. It didn’t happen all that often. “If things go well, I may have to take another trip after that…could be overseas.” Depending on where the third shard is. “I’ll keep you posted.” I mean, I’ll lie to you on a regular basis.

  “All right,” Wally said. “Guess there’s nothing I can do but cue up another movie.”

  “Sorry,” Major said. “I’ll make it up to you when I get back…I think I’m about ready to tell you what I’ve discovered about you. But not over the phone. In person.” That’ll keep him quiet, he thought.