The School for Good and Evil #5: A Crystal of Time

by Soman Chainani

  “Idiots,” he murmured.

  He headed back to the bath.

  Heart rattling, Sophie seized the crystal from her dress pocket, said a silent prayer . . . and dropped it into the tub.

  She ducked into the toilet nook as Japeth entered.

  His suit of scims magically receded, revealing his frost-white flesh as he approached the tub and disappeared into the thick steam.

  Without his spying eels able to detect her, Sophie breathed easier, safely concealed. Evelyn Sader’s dress swaddled tighter, nuzzling her reassuringly. As Japeth climbed into the bath, Sophie was surprised at how vulnerable he looked, the savage who’d murdered her friends nothing more than a slim teenage boy. Little by little, the Snake submerged into scalding water, letting out an ordinary gasp of pleasure and pain.

  Sophie peeped out of the nook, waiting for it to happen.

  Because if Rhian’s and Japeth’s souls were recognized by Dovey’s crystal, then they had the same powers as Dovey or her Second . . . which meant the moment Japeth sank into the bath, fished the crystal out from under him and looked into its center . . . all of which unfolded now as Sophie watched, her stomach in knots . . . then in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

  Blue light beamed through the bath and Japeth sprung back in surprise, splashing water everywhere.

  Slowly Japeth extracted the glowing crystal from the water and held it up to inspect it. Then he noticed there was something inside . . . a scene playing out within its glass edges. . . . He peered closer as Sophie held her breath. . . .

  “Japeth?” a voice called.

  Rhian’s.

  Japeth squeezed the crystal in his fist, snuffing its light.

  “Get out,” he ordered.

  “She’s gone.”

  Japeth’s face changed. “How gone?”

  “Gone.”

  Silence passed between brothers.

  “I made you tea,” said Rhian’s voice. “Just the way you like it.”

  Japeth slipped the fist with the crystal back underwater. “Come in.”

  Sophie cursed to herself.

  Rhian pushed through the door. He was in his blue-and-gold suit and carrying a mug.

  “Poisoned, I assume?” said Japeth.

  “Naturally,” said the king, his crown catching gilded light. “What was that noise?”

  “Avalanche in your closet. Shoddy work.”

  “Evidently. A chandelier just crashed outside. Could be Sophie’s parting gift, though. Guards are searching the castle to make sure she’s left.”

  The twins eyed each other.

  “No wedding, then?” Japeth asked.

  Rhian smiled limply. “Not sure what we’ll do with all the gifts. Apparently the Sultan of Shazabah is sending a magic camel.”

  Japeth exhaled. “You won’t miss her, brother. In a few days, you won’t even remember her name.”

  The king smoothed his blue-and-gold suit, as if brushing away this part of the conversation. “We’ll summon the Kingdom Council tomorrow and burn the last ring.”

  “Then the Pen’s magic will be yours,” his brother said eagerly. “Lionsmane, the new Storian. You, the One True King with infinite power.”

  “With infinite power comes the burden to do right by that power,” said the king. “A responsibility I hope I’m worthy of.”

  “As if that’s in question,” Japeth flattered. “You’ve always been the Good brother. The one everyone loves. That’s why you’re the king.”

  Rhian cleared his throat. “Where should I put your tea?”

  “What will you do first?” Japeth pushed. “What will be the first thing you write with Lionsmane?”

  “To abolish the Kingdom Council and that wretched school forever,” Rhian replied. “Time to return these Woods to the people.”

  “Never got over that you weren’t taken to be an Ever, did you?” Japeth baited. “Or maybe it was that I wasn’t taken away, leaving you and Mother in peace.”

  Rhian stiffened. “Japeth—”

  “What will you do with the school?” Japeth asked sweetly.

  “Burn it to the ground,” the king said, relieved by the change in subject. “‘A conflagration so fierce and high that it can be seen all across the Woods.’ Something like that. Words to be written. Words you and I will watch come true.”

  “And Agatha and Tedros and all the rebels? What of them?”

  “They’ll be dead with a penstroke. Erased into thin air.”

  “No Harpies to skin their flesh or trolls to eat their brains? No cataclysm of pain?”

  “Only the pain of a footnote,” said Rhian.

  Japeth snorted. “I knew there was a reason I helped you become king.”

  Rhian turned serious. “We both know the real reason, Japeth.”

  His twin suddenly looked unsettled.

  “You helped me fulfill my wish, Japeth,” said Rhian. “And once we burn the last ring, it’ll be my turn to fulfill yours.”

  Blush spots rose on Japeth’s cheeks.

  “A wish I promised you, for your loyalty and faith,” said Rhian intensely. “You vowed to help me become king if I vowed to bring the one you love back to life with the Pen’s powers. You’ve kept your word. Tomorrow I’ll keep mine.”

  Japeth choked up with emotion, hardly able to speak.

  “Thank you, brother,” he whispered.

  Rhian rested the tea on the tiled edge of the tub. “First day back on my feet has been more than I can handle,” he sighed. “No magic healing blood for me, I’m afraid.”

  “Go lie down,” Japeth said, with tenderness Sophie had never heard from him before.

  Rhian nodded, loosening his belt and sword. He turned for the door—

  “Rhian?” Japeth said.

  The king looked back.

  “Mother would be proud of you,” said the Snake. “For putting family first.”

  Rhian smiled faintly. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

  He shut the door behind him.

  Japeth leaned back in his bath. He closed his eyes, as if drained by the exchange, only to open them when he realized he still had something in his fist.

  He raised the glowing blue crystal out of the water, honing in on the scene inside.

  Sophie held her breath.

  This time there were no interruptions.

  The Snake watched the scene replay, again and again and again.

  Slowly his muscles tensed, his body curling upright, his knuckles gnarled around the glass droplet. Ice-blue veins popped out on his neck; his teeth clenched, coated with saliva; his eyes narrowed to murderous slits.

  Slowly, the Snake looked up at the door.

  He rose out of the water, eels materializing on his skin, black scaly strips crisscrossing the smooth white flesh, re-forming his suit. Then he stepped out of the bath, his wet feet shrieking softly against the tile.

  He pulled open the bedroom door.

  “Where is she?” he asked.

  “Mmmm?” Rhian answered sleepily, Sophie unable to see the king from her hiding spot.

  Japeth stepped into the room, out of Sophie’s view. “The girl. Where is she.”

  “I told you. Gone—”

  “Liar. Your little she-wolf never left. You made me think that you gave her up. That you chose me. But she’s been here all along. Waiting for you to get rid of me.”

  “What are you going on about—”

  “WHERE IS SHE!” Sophie heard Japeth roar. “You think she’ll love you? You think she’ll be your beloved queen when I’m gone? She’ll murder you in cold blood the second you kill me.”

  “Kill you? Did a scim cut a hole in your brain?”

  “I see through you. I’ve always seen through you. I’ll find her myself!”

  Sophie heard the familiar shhhppp! of scims scudding off Japeth’s suit and the sound receding as they sprayed into the castle, hunting her.

  “You really think she’s here?” Rhian retorted angrily. “That I’m hiding her?”


  “I know what I saw.”

  “Saw what? Saw where? Search the castle all you want. She’s in a carriage, halfway to Gillikin—”

  Sophie slid out from her nook, crawled along the bathtub, and scrunched into the tiny triangle of space behind the door. She peeked between the hinges.

  “You’ve always chosen others over me. Me, your own blood,” Japeth hissed at the king, who was on the bed in his rumpled blue-and-gold suit, the belt with Excalibur strewn aside. “And yet, I choose you over and over and over. I kill for you. I lie for you. I sack and pillage kingdoms for you. I do everything for you. Rhian, the Good. And me, the Evil monster. Me, who can never love. And yet, when I did have love, the one and only time in my life, you destroyed it.”

  “Here we go,” Rhian moaned.

  “I had a friend. The only friend I ever had,” Japeth said, quivering with emotion. “A friend who made me believe I wasn’t so Evil after all. And you took that friend away.”

  Rhian sprung to his feet, scowling. “That’s not true—”

  “You voted with the others to banish him! You voted to dump him in the Woods like a dog!”

  “He tried to kill me!” Rhian thrashed, clutching at the scar on his skull. “He put a dagger in my head!”

  “’Cause you said things about him! About him and me! About our friendship!”

  “Because he was a monster! A sadist with no soul! And you were too blind to see it. Cozying up to him and following him around like a dog. Siding with him over me. Like he was your brother. Or more than a brother—”

  “He was my friend! My best friend!” Japeth screamed. “And the Dean put his expulsion to a vote and if you’d voted for him to stay, if you’d forgiven him, everyone else would have too! They would have listened to you! The Good forgive. And they thought you were Good. I thought you were Good.” Tears soaked Japeth’s eyes, his voice a child’s. “You made my friend leave. Just like you say I made Mother leave. But Mother left by choice. You had my friend banished. I never saw him again. Because of you.”

  “You think he deserved forgiveness? Your brother’s would-be murderer?” Rhian blasted. “He wouldn’t have rested until I was dead! I saw it in his eyes. Those hateful, violet eyes. He wanted you all to himself. Disgusting animal. Deserved what happened to him. And I never said you made Mother leave—”

  “Lies. More lies. I know what you think of me. The same thing she did. That I can’t love. That I’m a disgusting animal,” Japeth wept. “You were just waiting for an excuse to get rid of me. And now you found it in a girl. A girl you think loves you, when I can see the truth in her eyes. The truth that she wants you dead.” Japeth smeared at his face. “It’s the same way you and Mother looked at me.”

  “Don’t say things you can’t take back,” Rhian assailed. “You’re my brother. My family. I love you. And Mother loved you too. That’s why I’m bringing her back to life. For you. Because you want a second chance. Because we all want a second chance.”

  “Right,” said Japeth quietly. “Funny that.”

  The tears stopped.

  He raised his eyes, red-veined and raw.

  “You assumed it would be her. All this time. But you never asked me who I would bring back to life with my wish. You just presumed. That she was the one I loved. That she was the one I wanted back. But that’s who you wanted back. Not me.”

  Rhian went cold. “What?”

  “It was obvious if you just thought about it,” his brother said, fully composed now. “But you only think of me as something to be used. A liege, a henchman, who would get you a crown and also get you Mother back in the process. You made your wish into mine. But I wish for someone else. I’ve always wished for someone else.”

  Behind the door, Sophie paled. She’d understood. She knew who Japeth wished for.

  “The only person who ever truly loved me,” said the snow-white twin. “The only person willing to kill for me. The only person I trust more than my own brother. My real family.”

  Rhian stepped back. “A-A-Aric?”

  Sophie couldn’t breathe.

  “And now you’ll help me bring him back, brother. Just like you promised,” the Snake said to Rhian, his gaze smoldering. “Right?”

  The king froze. His eyes darted to Excalibur on the table—

  “I’ll take that as a no,” said the Snake.

  He went for the sword.

  Rhian got there first. He grabbed Excalibur by the blade and swung the jeweled hilt, smashing the handle into his brother’s neck. Japeth crashed onto the night table, shattering the glass top, before scims rocketed off his black suit and pinned his brother to the wall, knocking Excalibur out of Rhian’s hand and onto the floor. Rhian tore at the scims with all his strength, ripping his body from the wall and bludgeoning eels with his fists, just before Japeth came swinging again. The two boys launched at each other wildly, punches and kicks landing with bone-crushing cracks, sprays of blood flying, before they locked arms viciously and hurled each other to the ground.

  “You think I’d bring him back? To run rampant in my castle? My own death sentence?” Rhian snarled. “Never. Never!”

  Japeth bashed the king’s head against the wall. Rhian kneed him in the face—

  Sophie watched, her heart in a knot, the scene following the crystal’s script.

  Only not quite.

  Because in the crystal, she’d been in the room with them, cowering in plain sight.

  Something tapped her shoulder. Sophie spun. Three eels screeched with discovery, snaring her in a tight collar and dragging her from the bathroom into the bedroom, throwing her into a corner.

  Japeth jolted upon seeing her, his bloodied face contorting with rage, before he turned on his brother. “Halfway to Gillikin, I see.”

  Rhian gaped at Sophie. “But I . . . I didn’t . . . I . . .”

  Japeth pummeled him, spurting Rhian’s blood onto the Snake’s own face. “Thought you could kill me! Your own brother! Thought you could replace me with her!”

  Choking, spitting, the king flailed towards Sophie. “Call the guards! Now!”

  Sophie swiveled to the door, but the scims collaring her jumped off, re-forming into a thick spike before they bolted the doors to the chamber from inside. Sophie cowered against the wall, trapped. Trust the crystal, she told herself. Rhian would win in the end. And yet, he was losing now. . . . Should she help? Should she stay put? Had she missed something in the crystal’s scene? But she didn’t have the crystal to look at anymore. Nor did Evelyn’s dress intervene, suddenly dormant, as if it had never been alive at all.

  Japeth seized the advantage, the king too weak to fend off his brother’s assault. The Snake savaged him with a punch to the eye, swelling Rhian’s face beyond recognition, sending the king crumpling to the ground, his crown knocked off his head.

  Japeth stood up, breathing heavily, covered in blood.

  Then his eyes went to Sophie.

  He prowled towards her. Sophie blanched. This wasn’t in the crystal! This wasn’t in the script—

  Rhian snagged his twin by the ankle and pulled him to the ground. The king scraped to his feet and kicked his brother in the face, harder, harder, until the Snake wasn’t moving.

  Rhian wheeled to Sophie, masked with blood. “I told you to leave. I told you,” he wheezed, staggering towards her. He reached a wounded palm and touched the wet blood on her cheek, her blood mixing with his. “Now look what you’ve don—”

  He stopped, his arm still in the air.

  Because his hand was repairing before his and Sophie’s eyes.

  Sophie’s blood snaked along the lines of Rhian’s palm, magically sealing up the open cuts, restoring his tan, perfect flesh.

  Her blood was healing him.

  The same way her blood had healed Japeth.

  Slowly, Rhian and Sophie met eyes, both shell-shocked.

  “Well, well,” said a glacial voice behind them.

  Sophie and Rhian turned as Japeth rose from the ground, his face
as bloodied as his brother’s, his hair matted tight against his skull. The Snake had Excalibur in one hand. With the other, he reached up and placed Camelot’s crown on his head.

  “The pen said one of us would be king, the other healed by her blood,” the Snake spoke, leering at his brother. “But it never said which of us would wear the crown. It never said the elder. Two brothers. Two possible kings. And yet I let you be king. Not because I thought you deserved the crown. But because you promised me a wish. You promised to bring back the one person I loved. A love that is worth more to me than a crown. Ironic, isn’t it? The Good brother wishes for power. The Evil brother wishes for love. But that was the deal we made, bonded by a promise. A promise you no longer are willing to keep. So I propose a new deal. You can be the one healed by your new love’s blood. And I’ll be the king. A king with the power to fulfill your promise myself.”

  Japeth’s black suit of scims morphed into Rhian’s blue-and-gold suit. The king’s suit. One of the newly gilded scims flew off Japeth and, like a paintbrush, magically swept across Rhian and turned Rhian’s suit gold and blue. Japeth’s old liege’s suit.

  The Snake grinned. “I like this arrangement better.”

  Rhian charged at him, ramming his head into Japeth’s chest, spraying the king’s crown into the wall and Excalibur onto the bed. The twins grappled for the sword, blood obscuring their faces, as the Snake magically transformed their suits, from blue to gold, gold to blue, back and forth, until Sophie couldn’t tell who was who anymore.

  “Who’s the king, who’s the king,” Japeth chanted, their suits changing faster, their blood-covered hands straining for Excalibur, closer, closer . . .

  Sophie suddenly questioned what she’d seen in the crystal. Two brothers dead. Herself, still standing. Had it been the truth? The real future? Or had it been a crystal of mind? A script of wishful thinking?

  She couldn’t leave it to chance. Witches won wars themselves.

  Lunging out of the corner, she dove for the sword—

  The king threw her out of the way, his blue-and-gold suit spattered red. Sophie rebounded, but she was too late. Rhian swiped the hilt into one hand, double-fisting with the other. His blade swung through the air, the edge catching the light like a sunflare—