Dream Magic

by Joshua Khan

  Mr. Funny leaped onto the back of the donkey and clapped. “I’m ready, m’lord!”

  Gabriel trotted through the gate. “Shall we?”

  “Wait for me, m’lord!” yelled Mr. Funny.

  Gabriel complained. Mr. Funny cried. Lily sulked. Dott sang, and Thorn…he wished he were somewhere else. Anywhere else.

  Thunder shared his annoyance. The big warhorse snapped his teeth at the other mounts and wouldn’t let anyone else take the lead.

  “Will you control that beast? He’s worse than that flying rat of yours,” snarled Gabriel when Thunder buffeted his horse, Lightning, off the path.

  “Control him? I don’t control nothing about Thunder,” replied Thorn. “I just sit here and try not to rile him.”

  “My father says servants and beasts need whipping. That’s the only way they learn.”

  “Anyone who tries to whip Thunder best prepare to spend the rest of their life with a hoof-shaped dent in their face.”

  And so it went on, mile after mile, as snow fell gently over Gehenna.

  “What’s Malice like?” he asked Lily.

  “Just a town. Quite a few ghosts, too, so I’m told.” She fished a couple of pears from her saddlebag and tossed one to him. “The mayor sent a letter of complaint about them. A few were causing trouble, and he wanted them removed. Or, if that didn’t work, he wanted to charge them rent.”

  “How can you charge a ghost rent?”

  “Find the family they belong to. It’s easier for some than others. They’re affecting house prices, too. People don’t like strangers floating through their bedrooms.”

  “I’m never going to get used to this place.” He nudged Thunder over. “What’s that up ahead?”

  Long spindles of white rose out of the frosty earth. They were trees, but unlike any Thorn had ever seen. Their branches spread crookedly in all directions, and their trunks were twisted like the backs of old men, gnarly and bulging with knots.

  Dott whimpered. “Bad place. Bad place.”

  Lily gazed up and around her. “Did you never wonder why it’s called Bone-Tree Forest?”

  Thorn dismounted and let Thunder go dig for some grass. He put a bare palm against a tree. It was smooth, not patterned with wrinkled bark. The main trunk looked like several thin trees melded together, moss and dead leaves wedged into the ruts between them.

  “They do look like bones,” declared Thorn. “Giant bones.”

  The boughs could have been arms, and the branches resembled fingers, ancient and bent and calcified.

  Dott wailed. “Go now, Prin’ess! Me want to go now!”

  Thorn was spooked, but Lily looked about in wonder, not fear.

  She was a strange girl.

  Lily brushed her fingers along a low branch. She turned away from Dott and said in a low voice, “This is why trolls don’t come this far south, not unless they’re desperate. These trees are made of the skeletons of the last troll army that dared to attack Gehenna.”

  “And which of your ancestors did that?”

  Lily smiled. “Tormentus. He led a conclave of dark sorcerers who all shared Shadow blood, back when it was still thick with magic.”

  “You have the scariest family ever.”

  “Thank you.”

  Thorn stopped and sniffed. “Smoke.” He turned left and right, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. He pointed west. “Over there. A village?”

  Lily nodded. “Must be Three Barrows. We’ve made better time than I thought. We could sleep there tonight and be in Malice by tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  They passed by three mounds with moss-covered stone entrances. Tombs? Thorn thought he heard tapping from within one.

  Ten small, single-story thatched cottages made up Three Barrows, circling a central common where sheep nibbled at stalks through the snow. A pair of guard dogs barked as they approached, and within a minute, a small crowd of villagers had gathered to greet them.

  “You honor us, Lady Shadow,” said the headman, bowing. “How can we help?”

  “Somewhere warm by the fire would be fine.” Lily dismounted and handed the headman the reins. “Stable the animals and feed them well.”

  “Of course.” He pointed toward the biggest of the cottages. “Please, be welcome in my home. I’ll have one of the sheep slaughtered for dinner.”

  “Only if it’s convenient.”

  Thorn scowled. A whole sheep? He nudged Lily as the villagers took care of the horses. “You’ll pay them, right?”

  “Why?”

  “They can’t afford a sheep.”

  Lily shook her head. “I am their ruler, and it’s their honor to host me. If I offer to pay them, it’s saying that there’s a price on honor, when there isn’t. It would shame them.”

  “You nobles have it all figured out, haven’t you?”

  “I think I know my people better than you do, Thorn.”

  How could she be so arrogant?

  Nobles and commoners. They lived by different rules. When was he going to remember that?

  “Please, have some more, m’lady.” The headman, Jared, pushed the chunk of mutton across the table.

  Lily leaned back in her chair, the only one with a cushion, and patted her stomach. “Honestly, you’ve been more than generous.”

  Generous didn’t begin to describe it. The villagers had laid out a feast that would have filled their bellies a dozen times over. Everyone had brought something: breads, cakes, vegetables and fruit, plates of salted fish. Thorn knew they were part of their winter stores and couldn’t be spared.

  And Lily had hardly eaten a plateful. She’d nibbled this, broken a piece off that, dipped in one bowl, and spooned cream from another.

  What a waste.

  He would’ve rather dined in the stables, but his renown had preceded him. The villagers wanted to meet the famous Thorn Bat-Rider, so there was no escape. He’d eaten quickly, trying to ignore the faces peering in through the windows. He’d offered a chop to one of the children and seen her hand reach for it before her mother shook her head.

  “The food’s for our noble guests,” the mother had warned.

  Now a cat prowled under the table, and Thorn dropped it a strip of meat. At least he could feed the pet.

  “More an’ more, puhlease!” roared Dott. She belched, and the cat scampered off. Some of the smaller children, daring one another, crept closer, eyes and mouths wide open. Dott glared at one. “You for my dessert?”

  They ran off screaming.

  Gabriel meticulously trimmed off all the fat as he ate and fussed about how he didn’t have a seat cushion. He’d grimaced when he was offered the apple pie, but Thorn noticed that he didn’t hold back on the cream, pouring half a pot over it. Mr. Funny was missing from the feast. He’d dragged his aching bones off his donkey, accepted a bowl of soup, then headed off to the barn, moaning with each painful step.

  Poor fool. He deserved a night away from Gabriel, even if it was sleeping with the animals.

  “My, what a handsome child,” said Lily as one of the village women showed her a baby.

  Jared beamed. “My first grandchild. We named him Iblis, after your noble father.”

  “A proud name. Here…” Lily took off a ring and placed it in the baby’s chubby fist. “You wear it when you’re older, in honor of my father.”

  The baby put it in his mouth.

  Lily winked at Thorn. He blushed; he should have known. Lily didn’t pay, but she did give presents. That ring would buy them a whole flock to replace the one sheep they’d cooked tonight.

  Talk moved on to farming, families, and the undead. In the last three months, the village had gained a zombie; it was him they had heard tapping inside one of the mounds.

  Jared bounced his grandchild on his knee, took the ring out of its mouth, and put it into his pocket. “We reckon it’s one of the old lords, from way back. More of a dusty skeleton, really, flesh long rotted away. We open up the tomb ever
y week or two to let him stretch his legs.”

  One of the village women joined in. “Over at the next village, they’ve just got a couple of chattering skulls, not a proper crypt dweller like we have,” she said proudly.

  Thorn really didn’t want to spend tonight listening about Gehenna’s undead. He got up. “I’ll go check on the horses.”

  A chilly mist covered the short distance between the headman’s house and the barn, with just enough moonlight to mark the way. The guard dogs lurked within their kennels, but Thorn glimpsed their wary eyes in the dark. The ground, frosty already, broke and crunched under his heavy boots.

  He’d better go in quietly. Mr. Funny would be asleep by now, and there was still a day’s journey ahead; best let him rest his bones as long as possible.

  Thorn crept in. He pushed the door shut behind him. He paused to let his eyes grow accustomed to the dimness within.

  And saw Mr. Funny, wide-awake and unwrapping his traveling bundle.

  Thorn stilled himself. Something wasn’t right. Mr. Funny’s movements were quick, sharp, methodical. Nimble fingers undid knots and rolled open the bundle. The dimming torchlight caught the edge of metal.

  Mr. Funny stood up and buckled on a thick leather belt. He flipped a dagger from one hand to the other and slid it into a sheath. He attached a scabbard with a short sword to his left and then slid two hand axes into hoops dangling on either hip. He blew softly onto his hands and then wiped them on his threadbare trousers. He stretched, reaching his fists slowly toward the ceiling, as if he was unlocking his body from the twisted, bowlegged, and knock-kneed version. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.

  “I can hear you breathing,” said Mr. Funny, his voice calm, steady, and deep. He turned around. “I’m surprised a poacher like you wouldn’t be stealthier.”

  Thorn spoke. “Who are you?”

  Mr. Funny cracked his knuckles, one after the other. His smile didn’t shift, and his eyes were hard and pitiless.

  Thorn threw the best punch he had. Hard and fast and straight, with shoulders and hips powering it. Enough to take a man off his feet and shake out a few teeth.

  Mr. Funny brushed it aside and delivered a punch of his own.

  Thorn was unconscious before he hit the ground.

  “Thorn, are you in here?” Lily entered the barn and looked around. Where was that boy? He’d gone to check on the horses ages ago!

  She found him, asleep under a blanket, in the corner of the stables.

  Typical. He had a comfortable pallet waiting back in the warm house, yet he’d decided to bed down with the animals.

  She should wake him. Tell him it was rude to sleep out here when Jared had offered them his hospitality. That was the trouble with Thorn: he always did what he thought was right. Sometimes you had to do what other people thought was right.

  And that’s why I’ve got this stomachache.

  Lily sat down on a hay bale. She’d had to try every single dish at dinner, so as not to offend anyone. She hadn’t thought they would have laid out quite so many. At least she wouldn’t have to eat for the next few days.

  A heavy mist covered Three Barrows. She’d barely been able to see the stables from the cottage door. Ice was already glazing the puddles; it was going to be a cold night.

  Maybe I’ll let him sleep here. But he’ll need another blanket.

  She got up and turned to find Mr. Funny standing in the doorway.

  “Oh,” said Lily.

  “Please do not move, Lady Shadow,” said Mr. Funny. “If you scream or attempt any magic, I shall kill you immediately.”

  Lily stared, too stunned to speak. Mr. Funny had…threatened her? Was this some joke? Some very poor, very bad joke?

  Then Lily saw his eyes and knew he wasn’t joking at all.

  She looked at the ax in each hand. “But you’re going to kill me anyway, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. But there is no need for us to be uncivil. It’s not every day I kill a ruler of a Great House.” He pointed his weapon at a hay bale. “Please, sit.”

  “Since you asked so politely, I shall.”

  Think! Think!

  She needed a plan, some way to get out of here, get help. But first she needed to know who she was up against.

  Lily’s mind raced. “Duke Solar sent you to kill me?”

  “He did. You revealed your magical powers to Gabriel, remember? Back at Halloween.”

  “I save Gabriel’s life, and this is how the duke rewards me? By sending an assassin?”

  “Better a single man than an army. You have broken the most sacred law of the New Kingdoms, Lady Shadow. Death should be no surprise.”

  Duke Solar was no fool, even if Gabriel was. He’d send his very best. He’d send…

  “You’re the Solar executioner,” said Lily. “Golgoth.”

  A smile flickered across Mr. Funny’s lips. “Very good.”

  Lily would have collapsed if she hadn’t already been sitting. Her strength abandoned her, leaving cold dread.

  Golgoth. She’d heard the stories. An executioner who’d never failed. The perfect killer.

  Better even than Tyburn.

  Golgoth put the edge of his ax against her neck. Lily stiffened as the icy blade nicked her throat.

  “My people will know,” she said. “Then war will come, whether you like it or not.”

  “They’ll never find the body. Believe me when I tell you I’ve done this before.”

  “I’ll return as a ghost. I’ll tell them what happened.”

  “Who’ll bring you back? There are no other necromancers. You are the last Shadow.”

  She needed to play for time. Surely someone in the cottage would wonder why she wasn’t back yet? But then again, Dott lay snoring by the fire, and Jared and his family had retreated to their beds. The only one still up was Gabriel. No help would be coming from him.

  Lily glanced over at Thorn. “And what about him?”

  “He’ll die, too. People will think you ran off together.”

  It was dark. The lantern light was low, casting plenty of shadows. She needed to make her move.

  But the edge of the ax was against her throat. She couldn’t disappear into the darkness quickly enough.

  She had to try. For her and for Thorn.

  Then she heard something…odd.

  A chiming.

  She looked up.

  “Hailstones?” asked Golgoth, also gazing at the ceiling.

  Something was falling onto the wooden tiles above them. Pattering down.

  Lily saw movement among the rafters. Light reflected off shiny glass legs and crystalline bodies.

  She swallowed. “We need to run.”

  Dozens of jewel spiders glided down on silvery threads of silk. Others tumbled off or scurried down the wooden posts and walls. They formed shimmering, sparkling streams, their narrow stalklike legs prodding and testing ahead of them.

  Everything depended on Golgoth. He was here to kill her, but now there was another threat. What would he do? He could finish her off, but then would he survive the spiders? This was magic—Lily’s world, not his.

  He needs me. But does he realize that?

  He did. Golgoth flipped the ax away. “Get up. Go for the cottage. Warn them.” He lifted up a bale and threw it between them and the creeping creatures. A few spiders shattered; the rest merely climbed over the obstacle.

  Lily ran to Thorn.

  “Leave him!” shouted Golgoth, smashing his axes down on the spiders. “You don’t have time!”

  “Get up, Thorn!”

  Thorn tried opening his eyes. He groaned.

  “For the Princes’ sake, get up!”

  “Watch out…for Mr. Funny…” he mumbled.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” Lily took his arm and tried to haul him up. When did he get so heavy?

  “Behind you!” yelled Golgoth.

  “All right!” Lily swept around and reached out. She tore a sheet of darkness off the far wall and
threw it over the hundreds of glistening creatures.

  The blackness lay there for a moment, then sank away, and the spiders were gone.

  Golgoth looked about him. The walls sparkled with more jewel spiders. “A hundred down, only another thousand to go.”

  “Just help me with Thorn.”

  Golgoth grimaced, then handed her his dagger.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” she asked.

  “Fight with it?” He lifted Thorn.

  “I don’t fight,” said Lily. “That’s why I have executioners.”

  “I am not your executioner, Lady Shadow.”

  Thorn shook Golgoth away. “Leave me!” He waggled his jaw. “I’m…I’m all right.”

  The horses were panicking, even Thunder. He slammed his front hooves against the pen door as the jewel spiders clambered over him. He tossed his head savagely, desperate to throw them off.

  Each horse bled from dozens of tiny bites, but it seemed the jewel spider venom wasn’t strong enough to take out such big animals. Lily patted Zephyr until the horse calmed down. “You get ready,” she warned him.

  Lily then checked outside.

  The trees glistened. The jewel spiders coated every branch and trunk, and thousands of threads dangled down out of the mist.

  Where were the spiders coming from?

  Most were minute, some the size of her open hand, but she spotted larger creatures, as big as cats, with bodies lumpy with diamond warts and legs growing out at odd angles.

  “Everyone get up!” Lily yelled. “We’re being attacked!”

  She flung the barn door open, and the horses bolted. Thunder stampeded over the spiders, crushing dozens with each hoof. Zephyr, the donkey, and Gabriel’s white steed followed, neighing wildly and trampling the jewel spiders as they fled into the surrounding woods.

  Golgoth pointed to the cottage. A mass of spiders blocked their way. “And how are we going to get across to there?”

  “Leave that to me,” said Thorn.

  Lily stared at him. “With one arrow?”

  He’d collected his bow and a single shaft. Even though he could barely stand, Thorn brought the bowstring to his chin using that weird thumb draw of his. “One’s all I need.”