by Bo Savino
Chapter 18: Dark Stormy Knight
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“:Time to get up,:” Starsong’s voice whispered across Reggie’s mind.
Reggie moaned in protest, but rolled over and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He had been doing this all week now, getting up before everyone else. He looked around the room to make sure the others were still asleep. They were, except for Meek, who was just starting to stir.
Like Reggie, Meek had been crawling out of bed even earlier than before. They were both pulling double magic practice to try and help Ryssa get control over the wild magic that surrounded her every time she tried to connect. They’d actually had some success. Ryssa could now call the magic and link to it without causing major havoc. This was good—considering the amount of magic she seemed to be able to call forth.
They managed to teach her to pause between the calling of the magic and the actual doing something with it. That appeared to be the key. Reggie knew they’d eventually need to get past that block. Hesitation could be detrimental in a desperate situation—such as when he and Ryssa were first being chased by Darkwind through the In-Between. Starsong explained that if Aurelius had hesitated that day, he and Ryssa might not be here.
For now, the magic wasn’t running rampant, because Ryssa gave herself over to the magic instead of trying to control it. The emotional thing—that was still a bit of a problem. In moments of hesitation, if she gave herself over to her emotions, they were channeled into whatever magic she called forth. She and Reggie were still trying to find a balance between her giving herself over to the magic and giving herself over to the emotion.
Reggie sometimes wished Debra was there to help him understand female emotions better. His foster mother might not understand the whole magic thing, but he was way out of his element where Ryssa’s emotions were concerned. Even she didn’t seem to understand them—how was he supposed to figure it out?
Moira and Jet both admitted they had never seen the kind of power Ryssa called forth, let alone the stumbling blocks she faced with the control of it. But they also admitted they were very young compared to the rest of Faery and had spent most of their growing up years, like Reggie and Ryssa, in the Zombie Zone. The Phooka twins bowed out from participating in the task of helping Ryssa with her magic control. It seemed that having fewer people around made a huge difference in how much control she had. The rest of the Team were frightened of her to some extent, and it was almost as though she sensed that fear. When others were around, she acted more out of desperation than finding the balance for true control.
So it had settled down to Reggie and Meek pulling extra magic time. They never mentioned it to Aurelius, but their Counselor was always up and about in the common area when they returned. He never did anything more than give them a nod of his head before bustling them off with the rest of the Team to magic training. Ryssa went to practice with the rest, but abstained from using magic while there. Strangely enough, Aurelius didn’t push her.
Ryssa paid close attention when the others trained, watching how they manipulated their flows, each one reacting differently with their own use of the magic. It was almost as though each individual had a magic signature that only she could see. Sometimes she would ignore the individuals themselves and pay attention to only the flows, playing a private game of who-is-casting-magic-this-time? She was actually getting good at it. Now, if she could only figure out her own magical signature, she might have the whole thing licked.
Every night before bed, Reggie would fill in the male half of the Team with the progress made for the day. And every morning, the boys would fill the girls in before Reggie, Ryssa, and Meek returned from their extra lessons. It wasn’t that Reggie was carrying stories behind his sister’s back. He had talked it over with her before starting along those lines. They would eventually have to work together as a Team for the competition, and they couldn’t do that with the level of anxiety currently running rampant among them. With each progressive step that Ryssa made, some of the anxiety faded. But they all had the same worries. Would Ryssa gain control soon enough for the competition? And would they be able to pull together as a Team?
The lack of information about what the competition would entail didn’t help matters. One rule of the competition was that they didn’t have any foreknowledge. The Teams were expected to prepare for overall competence in magic—not plan specific tactics. How would they ever pull this off?
“:Something’s wrong.:”
Reggie frowned. Starsong’s voice pulled him from his sleepy reveries to a more alert state of awareness. A murmur of sounds and voices filtered through his consciousness, coming from the common area. He looked around at his teammates who were still in their beds, but were now stirring, awakened by the same sounds. A quick glance at Meek, and the boy’s answering shrug, indicated that he, too, had no clue as to what it was all about. Without bothering to get dressed, Reggie jumped out of bed and headed to the door, still in his pajamas. He opened it a crack, and peeked out.
The door had apparently muffled most of the sound, because as soon as he opened it, the room was flooded with birdsong. The other boys tumbled from their beds and rushed up behind him to see what caused the racket.
Hundreds of sparrows roosted in scattered places about the common room. Many sat amongst the imitation branches of the miniature replica of the Sithin tree in the center of the room. They were everywhere, on tables, desks, chairs, and shelves. Some had settled on the buffet table and were pecking at the children’s breakfast. A Brownie scolded the birds, waving her hands and arms to shoo them away, but those that scattered merely relocated to another section of the buffet and continue feasting. Still others chirped and swooped throughout the room’s high domed ceiling.
The warning chimes of the Sithin tree added to the almost deafening noise of the birds. Aurelius stood in the middle of the room, hands on his hips, a mixture of emotions crossing his face. His normally well-managed hair was in a serious state of disarray, giving him a wild look that added to the strangeness of the morning.
Eyes wide, the girls huddled inside the half-opened doorway of their bedroom. An annoyed Glinda swatted at a sparrow that kept flying at her. Reggie wondered whether it was the one that had dive-bombed her that day outside the Sithin mound. It was hard to tell. They all looked the same.
Ryssa was standing off to the side of the girls’ room. A sparrow landed on her shoulder. Wary, she slowly brought her hand up to touch the bird. It nuzzled its head against her finger. After a moment, the bird sidled closer to rub its head against her neck.
Odd, Reggie noted, but his sister seemed pleased, despite her initial caution. Pleased, that is, until the bird stretched its neck and caught her earlobe in its beak. It must have bitten hard from the cry Ryssa gave before she smacked it to the floor.
The bird barely hit the ground before it took off for the door that led from the common area. At the last possible moment, it changed direction and flew back to Ryssa. It fluttered in a circular path over her head. She wouldn’t allow it to land on her shoulder again, so it flew back to the doorway instead. It repeated this pattern a couple of times before Reggie realized the bird that was annoying Glinda was doing the exact same thing.
“:Hey, Ryss.:”
His sister looked around for him and met his gaze. “:Uh, a little busy here.:”
Reggie felt her agitation.
“:I think it’s trying to get you to follow it. Check out Glinda—the same thing’s happening to her.:”
Ryssa looked at the Feathernest girl, and the corners of her mouth turned down in thought.
“:I think you’re right. So what should we do?:”
“:Follow it. Let’s see what’s up. Let Glinda know.:”
“:What about Aurelius?:” Ryssa ganced to their uncle, who was paying little attention to anything other than the birds.
“:What about him? They’ll be three of us at least,:” he looked at Meek, “:I bet four. Even if Aurelius doesn’t come, we’ll
be safe enough.:”
Ryssa determinedly worked her way to Glinda’s side, whispering in her ear. Reggie saw Glinda eye the birds and nod. The two girls headed toward the door. Reggie grabbed Meek’s arm and noticed that Jet had come to stand next to them.
“We’re going to see where they want to take us,” Reggie spoke over the din in the room.
Jet and Meek both turned to check out the two girls heading toward the exit, the birds still flying back and forth between them and the door.
“I’m in,” Jet said. Meek echoed the statement with a nod.
The three started toward the door as Ryssa and Glinda hit the bottom of the ramp. The girls stepped into the archway, their two winged annoyances shooting past them to the tunnel ahead. The room fell silent. Everyone glanced at each other, and then the room erupted in confusion as torrents of chirps and squawks burst forth. As one, the sparrows swooped toward the exit.
“Watch out, Ryss!” Reggie shouted.
Ryssa and Glinda had already ducked, screaming and covering their heads as the birds flew over them and up the ramp. Ryssa stared at Reggie in horror, frozen in place.
“Go, Ryss!”
She came to her senses and ran up the ramp to follow the birds, Glinda on her heels. Reggie and the other two boys sprinted after them. Not totally oblivious, Reggie noted that the rest of the Team followed, with Aurelius bringing up the rear behind the stampede of children and birds.
The ramp took them directly from the Sithin mound to the streets of New Faery City. Reggie paused for a second to gain his bearings and saw his sister and Glinda head off to the right.
“This way.” He grabbed Jet’s arm, pulling him in that direction. Ryssa and Glinda were disappearing down the street, birds swarming around them.
The birds led the group through the streets of the city. Wide-eyed Fey joined in as the pajama-clad Team Phoenix ran past. Before long it was a winding parade of Fey and sparrows. Reggie might have spent more time examining those who fell into step with them if he hadn’t been so intent on trying to figure out where this was heading. It wasn’t long before he got his answer.
The streets opened onto one of the training fields. Reggie hadn’t been here before, but he noticed Ryssa hesitate at the edge of the field and shoot Meek a strange look. The birds flew across the field to one of the tree-lined edges. He remembered what Ryssa had told him about the encounter with the Black Knight. He bet odds from the looks on their faces that this is where the encounter had taken place. Hurrying to his sister’s side, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“It’s okay. Nothing will happen—there are too many others around.”
She gave him a grateful look.
Glinda paused just ahead of Ryssa and asked over her shoulder, “Are we going to keep following them or what?”
Ryssa nodded, and they continued toward the flock inside the edge of the trees. The birds regrouped, jumping and twittering in a single location amongst the branches.
The girls stopped suddenly and Reggie plowed into Ryssa, pushed by the oncoming group of people who followed. Ryssa and Glinda stepped back, retreating against the crowd, not wanting to move any further forward. Reggie put his hand on his sister’s shoulder, and she turned, throwing her arms around his neck. Glinda stared at the ground, unable to move, but unable to look away.
She crumpled to the ground sobbing. Gervais was the first to reach out and help Glinda to her feet, pushing his way back through the crowd by growling at anyone who got in his way.
Reggie held tight to his sister, peering over her shoulder to see what was there. He almost wished he hadn’t. No, he really wished he hadn’t. On the ground before them was something so hideous that he wasn’t sure what it was.
It had arms and legs and a head and a body. The face was pulled out from the skull in an elongated manner, almost as though someone had taken a human face made of putty and pulled on the nose to stretch the rest of the face away from the head. The body was bloated, almost round, but more egg-shaped. The arms were shriveled and emaciated, the hands a single lump, but you could see they could have once been fingers. The legs were twisted at an odd angle under the body, almost as skinny and sickly-looking as the arms. Reggie would have thought it to be some sort of human-type Fey if the knees hadn’t been bent totally backward from the way a human’s should be.
Then Reggie noticed two things as the flow of people moved around them and came to stand in a single mortified circle around the seemingly dead creature. The first thing was that the bones in the legs were broken. They hadn’t been made to bend the way they were bent now. The second was that this horribly deformed creature was wearing the uniform of Team Firefly. It was one of the potentials—or what was left of him.
And he wasn’t as dead as Reggie first thought. A leg twitched, and then an arm. The head didn’t move, but the eyes opened and stared at Reggie, a single tear seeping from the corner of one.
Reggie’s stomach churned. He felt like he was going to be sick, yet he couldn’t turn from the sight now burned into his brain. A wailing, keening sound erupted overhead, the noise of it so loud and high-pitched that he, like everyone else in the circle, covered his ears against it.
“For the love of the motherland,” an awed voice shouted above the sound. “’Tis the Baen Sidhe, come to New Faery.”
Banshee? Reggie looked up and saw a beautiful young woman floating overhead in an old-fashioned green dress, the train almost reaching the ground near the potential’s head. Her hair was bright red-gold and flowed in curly waves down her back and to her ankles. Her eyes glowed red, her face streaked with tears. For a brief moment her eyes stared directly into Reggie’s, and he saw a flash of pain pass through them. The wailing stopped, and the woman vanished.
Reggie felt his legs tremble. What was going on here? He glanced around the circle and realized that Fey and Faery alike had bowed their heads. Those with hats removed them and were wringing them in their hands. Reggie looked down at the misshapen form of the potential and realized the body had gone still. The eyes that had been staring at him but moments before no longer held the spark of life. He was dead.
Ryssa twisted her head around to look, but stayed in the tight hold of Reggie’s arms. She stared strangely at the body, before turning to Reggie.
“Magic, Regg,” her voice held traces of horror. “He was killed with magic. I can see the pattern—but it’s starting to fade. Someone did this to him on purpose.”
Reggie saw the shock in her eyes, and understood. How could someone have done that to another living being? And what kind of magic could do this?
“:Dark magic,:” Starsong whispered.
Reggie shivered. No wonder it had been banned.
Sounds of anger rose from behind him. He heard cries of outrage as someone pushed through the crowd. Reggie was shoved aside as a boy wearing a Team Hedgehog uniform burst through the ring of people and creatures. The boy stared for a horrified moment before falling to his knees at the side of the dead potential. He lifted the body to his chest and cradled it in his arms, rocking back and forth. He threw his head back and cried, the loud keening almost matching that of the Baen Sidhe.
“Sweet Dana,” Jet was in shock. “They’re twins—bonded twins. That’s Knot Landstrider, so that,” Reggie knew he referred to the grotesquely disfigured potential on the ground, “must be Woody. They were one of the few sets of twins who were put on separate Teams.”
Reggie felt coldness spread through his body. He clutched Ryssa tight, never wanting to let her go. He couldn’t begin to imagine how he would feel if he lost her. He heard someone getting sick behind him, but didn’t turn to see who it was. He was too afraid that he would do the same and never be able to stop.
Whispers flew all around the circle, but Reggie’s mind was so numb he couldn’t understand a word. Someone else pushed into the circle. A man in the orange and white robes of the House of Bonemender came forward, his robes bearing the crest of Team Hedgehog on the right side of
his chest. He went directly to Knot and gathered the boy in his arms. Another elder stepped into the circle. The woman, dressed in the green and black colors of the House of Landstrider, moved to help the Counselor from Team Hedgehog pull the struggling boy from his twin. The boy fought, kicking and screaming for them to let go, but they finally managed to remove him from the site of his brother’s death.
Queen Medwyn finally made her way into the inner circle and stared at the body of Woody Landstrider. Reggie detected a twitch, a tick in her cheek, as she ground her teeth with an anger she was trying hard not to display. Others stepped through the circle, pushing the children back from the scene. Someone touched Reggie’s shoulder gently and he turned to look into the somber face of his uncle.
Aurelius said nothing as he quietly ushered the children of Team Phoenix away from the macabre vision of death. Reggie knew for certain the image had been forever etched into his mind.