“Try something. Something small,” she said.
I don’t know how long it would have taken for me and Branna to trust each other again in ordinary circumstances, though I think it would have happened eventually, because deep down, we were still friends. But the giant emergency sped things along.
“Like what?” I said.
“I don’t know,” said Branna, scowling at me. “You’re the one who’s lived with magic all her life. You figure it out.”
So maybe the giant hadn’t fixed everything between us.
“What about me?” said Mark. “You could turn me into a giant, and I could go fight the other giant.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” I said. But how did I know, really? Mom hadn’t explained anything about my magic, except about spitting in her potions and that it was based on fire, water, air, and earth. But how to use those against a giant?
“Try something,” said Mark. “Anything.”
So I did. I remembered when Mom had asked me to think about Tristan’s healing potion in the ambulance. She said I should think about him getting better. So I thought about Mark fighting the giant. I thought about the giant falling over and starting to burn. I thought about it so hard I could hear my ears pop.
Then I looked at Mark and realized that his hands were on fire. The popping sound had been the skin on his palms opening up.
“Stop it! Stop your stupid magic!” said Branna. “You’re killing him?”
But I had no idea how to control my magic. I thought as hard as I could about water, and icebergs, and smoothies, and anything cold and wet that I had ever seen. I thought of ice-skating rinks, and falling snow, and hail, and mountain streams with ice-cold water in them.
“Good. That’s enough,” said Mark, shivering. He had turned blue in the face, and there was a big icicle hanging off his nose. The whole school seemed colder, in fact.
“You’re stealing all the heat from him,” said Branna. She pointed at me, and I realized I was so dry I could have started a forest fire, and there was a faint scent of burning around me.
I let go of the magic, fire and ice, and crumpled to the floor, my harsh breathing echoing in the huge, empty halls of the school.
I lay there, thinking about how I might have used magic a thousand times in my life without even knowing it. About the chances Mom took with me, sending me to a regular school every day, with hundreds of regular kids. How could she have done that? I was a walking time bomb.
And I still hadn’t even really figured out how to do magic yet, hadn’t figured out the extent of my powers. It was over-whelming. I felt as if I was flapping around like a chicken with its head cut off.
“It’s okay,” said Mark. “I’m okay now.”
That was enough to make me shake myself back to sanity. I had to get control of myself and my magic. I had no time to freak out.
I looked up, and Mark seemed normal again. Or mostly normal. He wasn’t dead. In fact, he was kissing Branna.
Mark looked … glowing. I remembered how Tristan had looked like that after he’d drunk the love philtre. I had thought it was a magical thing, but apparently not, because Branna hadn’t done anything magical to make Mark fall in love with her.
I stood up and took a deep breath.
Now the giant outside could see me, and it seemed that the use of my magic had made him even angrier. He shook his fist at me. “You! Magic! Coward!” he shouted.
Then he threw another rock at the school.
This one landed right in front of me.
If it had landed even two inches closer, I would have been crushed.
Was the giant toying with me?
I thought for a moment about the serpent from what I had thought was my dream. I wished I knew more about the elemental magic my dad and I shared. I was fighting a giant, though, so the same tricks he had used with the serpent might not work. And besides, my father had died fighting the serpent.
Maybe the giant wasn’t as strong as the serpent, but that didn’t make me feel better. It only made me surer I never wanted to meet the serpent.
I saw a helicopter above us, and the giant turned toward it and grinned. I thought of how small the helicopter would be next to him, and hoped it wouldn’t come closer. Even if the people in it had weapons, what good would a gun be against a giant?
“Mark. I have something I want you to do,” I said urgently.
“What is it?”
“I want you to go get Tristan. Find him. He should be close by.” Tristan had said he would protect me. “Tell him about the giant. Send him to help me.” His sword would be a useful thing to have here, though I had no idea if Tristan would come in time. Or if he would come at all.
“Where does he live? Do you know his uncle’s address?” said Mark.
I didn’t try to explain to him that there was no uncle or that Tristan hadn’t come from Parmenie. “Go look for him around town, in underpasses and stuff. He’s not at home right now.”
“He ran away?” asked Mark.
“Yeah,” I said. That was the easy way of explaining it.
“Okay. I’m gone. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to hold off the giant as long as I can.” I tried to be brave, but my voice wavered on the last word.
“Branna, come on,” said Mark.
“No,” she said.
“What? You can’t stay here. You don’t have magic.”
I turned around. Branna’s jaw was set. I had seen that look before. “I can help Izzie,” she said.
“I’m not going if you don’t go,” said Mark. “I can’t.” He looked at me, beseeching.
“Branna—” I said.
“Don’t. You wouldn’t let Mark tell you what to do. Why should I let him tell me what to do? He should go get Tristan, but I’m going to stay with you.”
“You could get killed,” said Mark.
“So could Izzie.”
“But—”
“I’m her best friend.” That seemed to be the end of the discussion.
Mark took a breath. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” he said softly.
“I don’t want to die,” said Branna. “I have every reason to live—now.”
Mark nodded, then turned to me. “You won’t do anything stupid, either, will you?”
“Promise me you’ll bring Tristan back,” I said, eyeing the helicopter as it came closer.
“Promise,” said Mark.
“Then go.”
Chapter 20
You spend a lot of time in a high school. You get attached to it, even if it is utilitarian and box-shaped. You get used to the bright blue and yellow walls that are supposed to keep you alert in class. You get used to the rows of gray lockers, with the number 151 that bulges out on the side from the time a football player couldn’t get it open and kicked it.
And then a giant comes in and ruins everything.
I had good memories of this school. Mark and I kissed for the first time here during a dance in the pit. It would never be the same now. Even if they rebuilt it, it wouldn’t be the same place. Not to us. The big clock that hung on the wall above the pit like the eye of the principal, warning us that we were late to class, was dangling by a single wire.
Mark ran out the side door as the helicopter closed in.
The giant turned away, and I thought that was a good thing for Mark.
I cringed as the giant cupped his hands to his mouth and blew at the helicopter. That was all it took. The helicopter twisted in the air, then was pushed back. I didn’t see it crash, but it went down hard somewhere.
The sirens from the police cars and ambulances stopped then, too. I hoped that meant they were going to hold off until they figured out what to do next.
But then the giant turned back toward the school and put his head down to the ground, his nose twitching.
“What’s he doing?” asked Branna.
“I don’t know,” I said.
The giant started to mo
ve again, in the direction Mark had run.
What? No. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
I started jumping up and down, shouting at the giant, trying to get his attention.
But the giant looked like an enormous bloodhound, sniffing along.
“The elemental magic,” said Branna in a hollow tone.
“Right. From when I almost set Mark on fire,” I said, understanding. “The giant can smell my magic.” And now the creature was following Mark.
“I’m going after him,” said Branna.
She thought that would help? “No. I’ll do something.” What, I had no idea.
I could just see the hind end of the giant disappearing behind the edge of the school. I ran out the front door, though why I bothered with doors, I don’t know. There were plenty of holes in the walls.
“Giant! Come back!” I shouted. “I’m your magic!”
But he didn’t come back. Stupid giant. You’d think with a big head like that, he would have a few more IQ points.
“Giant!” I kept jumping up and down, screaming. I wasn’t going to let the creature hurt Mark. Or Branna.
I could hear him sniffing around beside the school. Then I got mad. I didn’t mean to focus my magic, but I guess I did it anyway. I felt a fireball shooting out of my hand in the giant’s direction. It wasn’t pleasant. It was terrifying, actu-ally. But I was using my magic now.
Branna came running up beside me.
“Shhh!” I told her, and put an arm out to keep her from going any farther.
I heard the swish of the fireball, then a thunk, followed by a sizzle and a roar. Then I saw some smoke.
The giant turned back, trailing smoke, and started moving toward me and Branna.
“Branna, get out of here!” I called.
“Not until you come with me,” she said.
Did I mention how stubborn Branna can be? And how she never does what I tell her to?
“Branna, I don’t know if I can control my magic,” I shouted. “I don’t know if I can keep it away from you!”
She didn’t listen.
“You’re not facing this alone,” said Branna.
I stared up at the giant, who looked pretty angry. Blood dripped from under his left eye, where the fireball had hit him. I think it was blood, though it was blackish red, not regular red like human blood. His giant mouth was twisted into a parabola. (Even at that moment, I felt smug that I’d learned that term in math.) His nose was dripping, and part of the reason I started to run was to get away from what-ever was coming out of his nostrils. It looked like thick glue, and whatever it touched slowly began to melt. I could see the evidence all around the school yard, where even cement blocks and shards of glass had melted.
“Magic!” shouted the giant in a low voice that was enough to make me feel like another earthquake had struck, right in my heart.
Aren’t people who have magic and fight giants supposed to be brave? Well, I wasn’t.
“Run, Branna!” I said. I tore back into the school through a broken window, Branna right behind me. We took shelter again in the pit. My arms were wrapped around my body as I rocked back and forth.
Branna must have been wondering how she had gotten stuck with a best friend like me, blind and stupid as I was.
“Magic?” said the giant. “Where Magic go?” He was clearly unhappy, and he expressed it in his eloquent giant way: by collapsing onto the plaza in front of the school and punching the cement patio.
The cement flew up and peppered the windows around us. It was worse than when he had thrown the giant boulders, because there was no way to avoid all the flying shards of cement. I got one in my cheek, and let me tell you, it hurt. Then one hit my knee, and another lower, on my calf.
Maybe you think that after you’ve been attacked by a giant, hit by a few chunks of cement, and almost killed by thrown boulders, you’d be too scared to feel pain. But that isn’t the case.
Branna was even worse off than I was. She’d been hit in the head by one of the larger pieces, and her blond hair was turning red with her blood. “Now what?” she asked in a low voice.
She must have been wishing by then that she had left with Mark after all. Or that she had never met me.
“I’m going to try to use magic on your head,” I said. “To heal it.” If I’d had one of Mom’s potions with me, it would have been easy. But even if Mom was in one of the ambulances up the street, she wouldn’t arrive in time to help Branna.
I tried to put myself into a trance to focus, terrified that a fireball would come right out of my hands and sink into Branna’s bleeding wound or that I would inadvertently turn her into a newt. Or that I would somehow call another giant and then we’d have two to battle.
There were probably a lot of wrong ways to use magic. But the only way I’d had success with it by myself was with fire. If only I could control it a little bit …
“You can do it, Izzie. I’ve always known that. You can do anything you want.”
I felt fire in my hands, and I jerked away. “Branna!” I cried out.
But she wasn’t on fire. She wasn’t shrieking in pain. She put her hands to her head and felt along the top, where the worst wound had been. “It’s healed,” she said.
“Really?” I put my hand out to touch it. It wasn’t sewn up neatly the way they do it in the hospital. It hadn’t disappeared, either. It was sealed up as if it had been cauterized with a very small, precise iron. It was still a little hot to the touch.
“Does it hurt?” I asked. I felt the other spots that had been bleeding, and they were the same.
“A little. Not as much as before, though,” said Branna.
“You should go now,” I said. “Before it gets even worse.”
“If I left now,” said Branna slowly, “the giant would smell your magic on me. It would come after me like it went after Mark.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Right. Bad idea. You stay here. I’ll go out.” I stood up.
Branna pulled me back. “No, I’ll go out. Distract it. Make it think I’m you. Then you can attack it from behind. I bet the magic you did on me will make me smell even more like you than Mark did. Besides, I’m female, too. That might confuse it.”
But Branna didn’t look anything like me. Unless … I took off my sweatshirt and handed it to her. I loved how soft it was after Mark had worn it so much. I had always felt like he was next to me when I wore it, like he was telling me that I was his and he was mine. It seemed wrong for me to have it now, anyway.
It was a faded red, and it smelled of fire. Magical fire. That was one of the elements. But what about the other three? How could I use them to fight the giant? Earth and water and air.
“Thanks, Izzie,” said Branna. She pressed her hands gently against the fabric of the sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. “Ready?” she asked.
“I’m ready if you are,” I said.
She ran out to face the giant with her head held high, confident, powerful, like she believed she could kill it. Or I could. Maybe it was an act, but if so, then she is the best actress ever. If I was the giant, I would have run away, yelping in fear.
She held her hands out in front of her. “Giant,” she said in a strong, loud voice, without a hint of fear. “I am Magic. You wanted me?”
The giant straightened up to his full height. He had been hunched over, peering into the school through the windows and attacking small objects on the ground. Now he was ready for a real battle.
“Magic,” he said with satisfaction. “You are not coward.”
That didn’t make me feel so good, because I was still inside the school, and did that make me a coward? I was being tricky; that was all. I was outsmarting the giant, like you’re supposed to when you’re fighting someone bigger and stupider than you. That’s what happens in all the fairy tales, right?
“No. But I will give you one chance to flee before I burn you to a cinder,” threatened Branna.
I started moving. I needed to be in a
hidden location for this to work, a place where the giant wouldn’t immediately see me and smash the roof in. I couldn’t stay inside, as tempting as it was. Its safety was an illusion. The giant could come in anytime. He just wanted to make sure he was killing the “magic.”
I went outside through a broken window, and I felt the glass cutting into my arms and neck, making me bleed. But I didn’t dare use my magic on myself right now. I had to save it for the giant.
I saw a row of cars that had been thrown together in clumps. Grimacing in pain, I tucked myself behind the first one, ready to leap to the next one as soon as I had to.
“No chance,” the giant said to Branna. “No run away. I kill you.”
“That’s not going to happen,” said Branna.
The giant put down his hand and picked her up.
I winced at the sight of Branna being lifted sixty feet into the air, higher than a Ferris wheel. She still acted as if the giant could not hurt her. I don’t know how she had the courage to stay so calm.
Branna was right next to the giant’s face now, and he was examining her carefully. Maybe he was nearsighted. Who would make glasses in that size?
The giant opened his mouth.
I thought how bad his breath must smell from up close. It was bad enough where I was, yards away. I didn’t think he was a vegetarian. He looked at Branna like she was a tasty treat, a bite-size chocolate-covered ice-cream bar. He wasn’t going to worry about the calories, either. Guys never do. They want to be bigger.
“Let me remind you: you were sent to kill me. Isn’t that so?” asked Branna.
“Does not matter,” said the giant.
“Well, why didn’t whoever sent you come himself? I’ll tell you why. Because you’re the first wave. I’m supposed to use up all my strength on you so I don’t have as much for him. He doesn’t think you’re going to win, though. You’re just collateral damage.”
“Magic use too many words,” said the giant. His nose twitched. I thought, I’ve got to do it now. No more waiting.
I concentrated on the image of a giant fireball, and I sent it right at the giant.
Tris & Izzie Page 13