by Jake Kerr
We were in his library having tea. He leaned forward, and his hand shook slightly as he tried to keep his teacup steady. He was very old and reminded me of my Great Grandfather, one of the greatest Archmages in history.
“What were they like, Tommy? I’ve never seen a free Marid.” His voice was full of youthful curiosity and tinged with awe. His eyes sparkled as he asked the question. He waved his hand around the room and its shelves of books. “I’ve read about their terrible might but also their majesty. It must have been extraordinary to see them so close.” He took a sip of his tea. “We were always taught to fear them.”
“They are fearsome,” I replied. “When they emerge from the trains you can see them changing from a kind of compressed energy into their true being, and it is amazing and horrible. Their screams are of triumph but also rage and sadness. I’ve seen people faint as they hear it. They always fly straight into the sky and then off toward the South.”
“Always to the South?” I nodded. “Interesting. So how did you free them?”
“I took control of the train and simply told them they were free. The master of the train is also the master of the magic binding the creatures.” I raised a finger. “However, before I would free them I would ask their forgiveness and request that they not hurt anything.”
Lord Ainsley shook his head. “I heard about Southhampton.”
The Marid in Southhampton was the only one that took out his wrath on the surrounding area. I tensed as I remembered the scene. “The Marid was old and mighty. Maybe he had been enslaved for centuries. I don’t know, but he was full of uncontrollable rage. Most of them would destroy the train, tearing their prisons apart and leaving behind a ruin of twisted pieces of metal, but the Marid in Southhampton didn’t stop there. He destroyed the station and started to demolish nearby houses. He only stopped after I said I would free no more of his brothers or sisters if he continued. The Marid landed in front of me, and I was certain it was going to kill me, but it howled loud enough that my ears rung for hours afterward before flying off.” I shuddered. It was the most scared I had ever been in my life.
Lord Ainsley stared at me for a few moments and then put his teacup down. Waving a finger at me, he said, “The Marids respect you, Tommy. I don’t think there is anyone in history that can say that.”
I nodded, wondering if that mattered much when it turned the entire country against me.
Captain Rechin came to see if I had any need of supplies. I was finally able to tell him the story of how his magic glasses had saved me, which made him so happy that I thought he was going to cry.
After spending two years wandering across England without friends being chased by government magicians, I felt like I was at a place that was at least something like home. I didn’t spend much time with others at the Citadel, but those I did treated me well.
I took one last look around as I was about to climb into the car that was to take me to a naval base on the coast for my trip to France. The illusions were as strong as ever and completely baffled me. Was the wall near me or in the distance? Was the gate to my right or to my left? I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that the Citadel was a towering achievement in magic, and it was due entirely to Cain.
Shaking my head, I turned away from the wall, which moved once again out of the corner of my eye. To my surprise, Cain approached. His arms were behind his back, and he looked his normal gloomy self. I turned to meet him.
“Cain,” I said.
He stopped and looked me up and down, shaking his head. “You’re on your own from this point forward, Black.”
“I thought you were providing an escort?”
He shrugged. “Sure. An escort.”
I had no patience for another Cain mind game, so I tapped the staff on the ground and asked the direct question. “Anything you’re not telling me, Cain?”
“Yes.”
When it became clear Cain wasn’t going to add anything to his comment, I replied, “Anything that might be helpful?”
He stared at me for a moment, and then smiled. “Just be yourself, Black. I’m sure you’ll cause maximum damage that way.” And with that he turned and walked away, his steps made awkward by one of the spasms caused by his illusions.
3
"CHIN UP, BLACK."
A day later I understood what Cain meant by my being alone. I was escorted by two soldiers on my way to meet with a Vice Admiral named Bruce Fraser, and the walk to his office was full of suppressed laughs and audible whispers from the soldiers about wasting time with another magician. They made little effort to hide their disdain. I clenched my fists around the cane, knowing that there was nothing to gain by teaching them a lesson in the power of magic.
We reached Fraser’s office. He was a high-ranking officer and the person who was supposed to oversee my transit. The door closed behind me, and I was alone with the Vice Admiral. He stood behind his desk, staring at a document spread across his blotter. He looked intimidating and hard, as if he believed sitting at his own desk was a sign of weakness. He didn’t look up as I walked toward him.
His office was huge and not unlike Cain’s. There were maps of the English Channel, the North Sea, and the North Atlantic on the walls, while one side of the room featured a long table with papers spread all over it. The other side included a couch with some wingback chairs and a coffee table. The side with the couch was mostly tidy, although there were a few papers spread on the table. A teapot and some empty teacups stood beside the papers.
I stopped in front of the desk, which had a single uncomfortable looking chair in front of it. Those who met with the Vice Admiral were clearly split into two groups—those that were meant to sit in the uncomfortable chair with Fraser towering over them from behind his desk, and those he entertained with coffee or tea while sitting on the sofa.
I was clearly in the former group.
Fraser continued to ignore me. I had dealt with this kind of rudeness while meeting with Cain, so I cleared my voice and kept things simple. “Vice Admiral Fraser, I am Tommy Black. Cain sent me to see you.”
The Vice Admiral looked up at me, a deliberate and slow motion that was rather intimidating. “Ah, the traitor. I notice that you are not taking a train for your important trip. I wonder why that is?” I said nothing. “Perhaps you should swim to Calais as a lesson for your traitorous destruction.”
Did everyone in the government hate me? I closed my eyes and took a breath. There was no need to fight with this man. Cain said he would get me to Calais. That’s all that mattered. I had to make every effort not to let him upset me. “I was told you would arrange my transportation to France.” The Vice Admiral didn’t reply. “Swimming is not transportation.”
Fraser sighed and sat down, placing his hands on the desk. “This is absurd. I can’t believe Cain expects me to devote two men from the Special Boat Section to escort a child across the Channel.”
I stood tall, refusing to sit down as the admiral lounged behind his desk. “I am the Archmage.”
His eyes narrowed. He looked like I had insulted him. “I don’t know why London keeps sending me magicians. Your lot are useless. Do you know what happened to the last magician I sent out on a ship?” I shook my head. “He created an illusion that the small ship he was on was a mighty battleship.”
“That’s impressive!” I felt a need to defend magic from the ignorance of those like the Vice Admiral.
“Then the Germans focused all their attacks on that ship, and he died in the fusillade.” Rather than seem sad, Fraser smiled. “At least one good thing came out of that.”
“And that was?” I replied.
“I had one less magician to deal with.”
The comment was appalling and beyond acceptable. I tapped the end of my cane on Fraser’s desk, but unlike Cain he didn’t react, not knowing the power he faced. “Your disrespect over the loss of life of someone whose only desire was to help the defense of England is treasonous and wrong.”
Fraser’s face t
urned red, and he stood up. “You dare talk to me about treason?” He walked around his desk while unsnapping a holster that held a gun at his waist. “I know of you, Black. We did a good job keeping it quiet so that the populace wouldn’t riot, but I know what you did. Sabotaging our rail lines.” He rested his hand on his pistol. “I don’t know why you haven’t been executed.”
I glanced at the hand on Fraser’s pistol. He looked under control, but I didn’t know if he was unstable enough to shoot me. I was tempted to stop time and flee, traveling to Germany on my own, but I also knew that not only would I get there faster with the help of the military, but it would be good to at least have the appearance of them on my side.
“I freed magical slaves. No more.” I could see Fraser’s jaw muscles clench and unclench. “I am here to help, Vice Admiral. Ask Cain if you doubt me.”
Fraser’s hand moved, and I was nearly positive he was going to pull his gun on me, but he just tapped his fingers on the holster. The tension in the room was overwhelming. Just as I again considered freezing time, Fraser nodded his head. “At least all I have to do is transport you to Calais. Even a magician would have a hard time messing up a mission that simple.”
“Perhaps you haven’t seen the power of true masters of magic.” I tapped my cane, but the admiral ignored it. “Then you would be more grateful.”
That evoked a laugh from the Vice Admiral. “Grateful? Let me teach you of magic. Here’s all you need to know.” He quickly pulled the pistol from its holster, but rather than aim it at me, he held it up and stared at it. “Do you see this? This is magic. There is nothing you can do to stop the magic of a bullet. Any man with a gun can defeat you.”
My patience was at an end. I had to teach this Vice Admiral a lesson. If magic was dying in the world it wasn’t due to technology—it was due to the lack of understanding and respect of its power. I could change that with Fraser easily.
I smiled, and re-arranged my grip on the cane. With a thought I stopped time.
Fraser lowered the pistol and returned it to his holster. “I see I’ve made my point.” I glanced down at the cane and once again made the utterly natural movement of stopping time. I had done it many times before. It was something I understood. It was something I had total confidence in.
And yet time didn’t stop.
I started to sweat and my hands shook. Behind his desk, Fraser noticed. “Chin up, Black. You’ll face more than a pistol on the Continent. If you lose your composure over this, how do you expect to face down the Germans?”
Desperate and fearful that I had lost all of my power I tried the most basic of the staff’s abilities in my hands—creating light. I held up the cane, and a bright beacon of light shone from the top. I was so full of relief that I almost broke down in tears.
“Ha! Good one, Black. Light has its uses. Maybe you’re not completely worthless.”
I cleared my throat. “I need time to prepare.” I needed time not to prepare for the trip but rather to figure out what had gone wrong. I couldn’t stop time. What else couldn’t I do? What scared me most was that I knew there were a number of things I could do with the staff, but I had relied on stopping time so much that I felt defenseless, even if the staff could do everything else.
Even if I could do the other things… what had changed? Why could I make light but not stop time?
“You leave tomorrow. If you need time, use your own, not mine or that of my men.”
I barely acknowledged Fraser’s comment. I stood up straight, clutching the cane. Thinking of what I could learn from it while alone, I wanted nothing more to get back to the room I had been given at the naval base. “Yes, sir.”
Fraser smiled. “Very good, Black. Dismissed.”
I didn’t remember the walk out of Fraser’s office. I think I was escorted back to my room. Maybe the soldiers talked about me. Maybe they didn’t. All I remembered was that my connection to the staff seemed normal. I could sense that it was. Yet it somehow wasn’t.
I didn’t know what was happening, and that scared me more than the Shadows, Djinn, Ifrit, Marids, and even Cain.
4
A CHANGE IN PLAN
When my grandfather first gave me his cane I didn’t know how to do anything but make light, but that was okay as I didn’t expect to be able to master it for many years. But as I sat in my cramped room in the naval base, I was near tears in frustration because I was in the exact same spot as that first moment with my grandfather. I could make light. I could remove light. What I couldn’t do was stop light from flowing.
Which meant that my most powerful weapon, the one that had saved Naomi’s life and had saved my own a number of times, the one that I counted on to help me defeat the Germans, was no longer under my control. I squeezed my hands on the cane so hard that my knuckles turned white and the outline of the runes pressed into my skin.
It didn’t help.
I lay down and held the cane in my hands with my eyes closed. I relaxed and did my best to communicate with the staff, to understand it, to beg it to give me some kind of guidance as to what was wrong. I still had a deep connection to the staff, and that was perhaps what made the current situation so frightening—that connection didn’t seem to change. It was still there. The staff remained a part of me. I could feel it.
It was the ability to stop time by stopping light that was no more.
I questioned whether I could defeat the Germans without that power. What use was blinding them with light or filling the area with darkness? Bullets are not stopped by darkness. Blind soldiers can still shoot.
The words of Vice Admiral Fraser became a nightmarish reality for me. I was no longer even as powerful as a single man with a rifle.
I was nothing more than a streetlight.
That thought made me think of Naomi. She was an extraordinary magician when I met her, nearly a master already at illusions, shields, and offensive magic. How much more powerful would she be two years later? Maybe she would join me and use her powerful magic to help. And, as humbling as it was to admit, it was clear I needed help.
As I considered asking Naomi for help, I realized that I was tired of being alone. I had spent two years by myself, running around, evading magicians and the military as I freed the Marids. My grandfather supported my mission, but had moved back to his home in New York. I missed having Naomi beside me, blowing things up and teasing me. I missed her calling me names. I even missed Mister Ali, the man who had betrayed my grandfather.
Still, more than friends I needed more information about what was happening with the staff, and I could think of only one person who could help me—my great grandfather. He was retired and living at his cottage in Balmoral. I had seen him every few months, and he was his same crotchety self, part inspirational and part insulting. I decided I should visit him and ask him about what may be happening with the staff. Of all the people in the world, he would know.
I had last seen him four months earlier. He was frail then and probably not long for the world. That depressing thought made me want to see him even more. Even if he knew nothing, I could at least say goodbye.
Vice Admiral Fraser was dismissive of my request, but within a few hours a soldier showed up at my quarters, telling me to pack. Cain had overruled Fraser and stated that a visit to my great grandfather should be accommodated. I wasn’t sure if it was because he felt he owed my great grandfather for being willing to help him or because he felt it would help me in my cause in fighting the Germans. In the end it didn’t matter—I was in a military automobile being driven to Balmoral, where I hoped to find answers.
5
THE RETIRED GARDENER
On every visit to my great grandfather I challenged myself to find something that was different. The path up to the cottage was always perfectly manicured with the same razor sharp lines, while the flowers and plants sat in the same beds and pots. Sometimes they were blooming, while other times they were awaiting spring, but they were always there in some form or another. The
cottage itself didn’t change at all.
In a world of violence, being hunted, and never knowing where I would end up next, the stability and familiarity of visiting my great grandfather was comforting to me.
This visit, however, was different in two key ways: A male nurse opened the front door instead of my great grandfather, and his cottage smelled strongly of antiseptic and medicine. Normally Great Grandfather would open the door, squint like he was pondering whether to let me in or not, and then I would walk in to a room fragrant with fresh flowers.
I followed the nurse through the living room, which was devoid of its usual vibrant plants, and into Great Grandfather’s bedroom, where he lay in a bed under thick blankets. As I entered, his normal snarl was nowhere to be found. He smiled widely and lifted a skeletal hand. “Tommy! I’m so pleased you came to visit before I become fertilizer for my garden.” He laughed, which turned into a cough. The nurse tried to hand him a glass of water, but he just waved it off.
“Nonsense, Archmage. You will outlive me!” I liked calling him Archmage, as it was a title he had been stripped of as a teenager and yet one he deserved even more than my mighty grandfather. My great grandfather could manipulate life itself with the staff.
“Bah. If I outlive you it will be because you did something stupid, which is quite possible, mind you.” Even ill, Great Grandfather hadn’t lost his bite.
I walked over and sat at his side. I rested the cane on the edge of the bed next to him. He didn’t reach for it, which was his normal response. Ever since I had proven my ability with the staff, he wouldn’t touch it without my permission. “How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Well, my entire body hurts. I’m hungry, but can’t seem to eat anything. I’m thirsty, but they won’t give me beer, and, as perhaps the final insult, the nurse they provided me is male.”
I laughed. “I’m sure he’s quite capable.”
“Capable? He’s not going to stop me from dying, so they may as well have given me someone pleasant to look at.” I shook my head. Great Grandfather was blunt if nothing else. “Speaking of pleasant to look at, have you finally worked up the courage to go see your girlfriend?”