The Width of the World

by David Baldacci

  “Why Greater True?” asked Delph.

  “That’s where we lost the invisibility ring.”

  Petra looked down at her missing finger.

  I said quickly, “Petra, I have never blamed you for the loss of the ring. But I think we need to try to get it back.”

  “But how can you?” Petra asked. “You don’t even know if it’s in Greater True.”

  “You said the Maladons jumped you?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And one of the Maladons had your wand.”

  “Well, that makes sense if they were the ones that attacked us.”

  “But yet you ended up in the barracks of the Elite Guard and not in the custody of the Maladons.”

  Petra looked confused.

  “How did they take the ring and your finger? By magic?”

  “I … I … It happened so fast.”

  I glanced at Delph. “And you lifted one of them up and threw them against a wall. A Maladon with a wand? I know you managed that at Saint Necro’s in True, but you were invisible then. You weren’t invisible that night. You said the wind knocked you around and the invisibility shield was thrown off.”

  “That’s … that’s right,” said Delph, looking puzzled.

  I had been giving this some thought lately, and what they had initially told me now didn’t make sense.

  “Well, it was one of the blokes that attacked us,” said Petra.

  “So Maladons patrolling the streets en mass? And they just happened to be there when you became visible?”

  “Well, yes. Right, Petra?”

  He looked at her, but she didn’t seem nearly as certain.

  I asked, “What were they wearing? Suits and hats? Black cloaks with red hoods?”

  “Cloaks,” said Delph at the same time as Petra said, “Coats.”

  I gazed at each of them in turn. “Well, which was it?”

  They glanced sheepishly at each other.

  “I don’t know,” admitted Delph, and Petra shook her head in agreement. “I was a bit wonky in the head from getting thrown by the wind.”

  She said, “Come to think of it, it might have been a knife that cut off my finger.”

  “Let me see it,” I said.

  She held it up and I studied the stump.

  “This was not done by a spell,” I said, wishing I had examined it more closely when it had first happened. “A spell would have been more precise, and it would have burned the skin. This is jagged and there is no burning. I think it was a knife.”

  Petra said, “They grabbed me and I couldn’t really see what they were doing. And they didn’t have to cut my finger to get the ring off. It was loose anyway; that’s why we became visible when it got turned back round.”

  “They did it to cause you pain. I think members of the Elite Guard were the ones who attacked and captured you, not the Maladons. I wondered why you were taken to the barracks and not somewhere else, like the castle. When I used one of the Maladons to get into the barracks, the guard there said, ‘We’ve got our pair here still.’ And then he wanted to know if Dullish had managed to trap me. And when I searched the Maladons, I got your wand back but not the ring.”

  “So you think one of them Elite Guards might have it?” asked Delph.

  “It’s possible. He might have thought it was valuable and he could sell it. And regardless whether one of the guards or a Maladon has it, I want it back.”

  “Who do you want to take?” asked Petra.

  “Amicus, Sara and Dennis.”

  Delph nodded. “Yep, they’re three of the best.”

  “So it’ll be the five of us?” said Petra.

  I shook my head. “The four of us. You have to stay here. If anything happens to me, you need to carry on.”

  She looked at me as though the weight of the world had descended upon her shoulders.

  “Me, carry on?”

  “We took a blood oath, Petra. For me it was more than a way to stop our squabbling. It was also an unbreakable bond, so that if one of us falls, the other one will continue on. We can’t count on both of us surviving.”

  She slowly nodded, and Delph said, “Then I’ll go with you.”

  “No, Petra will need your assistance, Delph.”

  “Why don’t I go with them, then, Vega?” offered Petra.

  “You will at some point. But the first time, it has to be me, Petra. It just has to be.”

  Petra studied me, and I could tell by her expression that she knew I was right. I was the superior sorceress, especially now with my wand fully and completely my own.

  I rose and went to tell the others so they could prepare. They were all excited and scared. Exactly what I had expected.

  With their magic returned and their being trained up properly, all fifty of the formerly enslaved were now fully branded with the three hooks on their hands. That meant they could be traced by the Maladons once they left the protection of Empyrean. In response to this, I had performed an intricate spell that had produced fifty copies of the glove that Alice had given me. They would wear them whenever we left Empyrean. I was pretty confident they would work, but this night we would find out for certain.

  When I went back to my room to get my cloak, Petra was waiting for me.

  “Delph told me it was your birthday today.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  She looked at the necklace around my neck.

  “Delph made that for you?”

  I smiled. “He gave it to me as a present.”

  “Is that what you do on birthdays?”

  My smile vanished even as my heart went out to her. Of course; why would she know about presents on birthdays?

  “Yes,” I said. “When is your birthday?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I remember my mother telling me it was cold when I was born. And I know I’m seventeen because we would mark off the time when I was young. And I would cut a notch in a stick I kept for each one.”

  “Well, it’s cold outside now, so maybe your birthday is coming up,” I said.

  She shrugged, but kept staring at the necklace.

  I ended the awkward silence by saying, “I need to get ready.”

  “Happy birthday, Vega. And much luck on your journey. I’ll … I’ll see you when you get back. And I hope you find the ring.”

  “Thanks, Petra. I hope I do too.”

  She turned and left.

  * * *

  WE SILENTLY APPEARED at the rear of the train station in Greater True. We were wearing long coats and hats pulled low that covered most of our faces.

  I knew that Dennis, Sara and Amicus knew this place better than I did, having lived here for so long.

  We had gone over the plan several times before leaving Empyrean.

  When I looked at them, I could tell they were ready. Their wands were held loosely in their gloved hands; their gazes were steady and calm.

  I led them through the darkness toward the barracks of the Elite Guard.

  Along the way I saw a paper tacked to a wooden post.

  I used my wand to illuminate it so we could see what it said.

  REWARD FOR ANY INFORMATION LEADING TO THE RETURN OF THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND THE CAPTURE OF THEIR KIDNAPPERS

  And there listed were fifty names.

  Dennis, Sara and Amicus reacted when they saw their names there. I thought they might be frightened, but I was heartened to see that each of them looked, well, proud!

  I took down the paper and balled it up. “So they turned this into a mass kidnapping instead of a mass breakout for freedom,” I said. “And no doubt blamed it on the awful Campions.”

  As we continued on, I was hoping for something, and it turned out to happen.

  “Subservio.”

  The spell hit the uniformed bloke dead in the back.

  Dennis and Amicus each grabbed an arm and dragged him into the dark recesses of an alley.

  I looked at the blank-faced bloke for a moment. I didn’t recognize
him, which wasn’t surprising. There were a lot of them, after all.

  I held up the disc that Delph had made for me.

  “Have you seen a ring with this mark on it?”

  The man looked dully at the image and nodded.

  “Where?” I demanded.

  “The commander of the barracks has it. Major Nelson. He wears it on his hand. Spoils of war, he called it.”

  “Did he tell anyone else that he had it? Mr. Endemen or any of his blokes?”

  The man shook his head. “No. He hides it from them when they appear.”

  “Because they’ll take it?”

  “They’ll take his life.”

  This comment surprised me. It showed a deeper understanding of the Maladons than I would have given this gent credit for.

  “You know that they are murderous?”

  “I have seen them kill.”

  “Do you fear them?”

  “We all fear them.”

  I glanced at the others, who were staring openmouthed at the man.

  “Okay, where is Major Nelson now? At the barracks?”

  He shook his head. “At home.”

  “The address?”

  “One Hundred Greater True Court.”

  “That’s right next to the general assembly building,” noted Dennis. “Big brick building with a blue door. My mas — the ones who enslaved me lived only one avenue over.”

  I nodded.

  I wiped the bloke’s thoughts and sent him on his way, oblivious to what had just happened. We heard him whistling as he walked down the darkened street.

  I looked at Dennis. “Lead the way.”

  We hurried through the darkness. I had to keep reminding myself that we were no longer invisible. When we heard steps approaching our way, I cast a befuddlement spell in front of us.

  A moment later two soldiers appeared carrying guns. They passed right by us, the incantation having done what it was designed to do.

  We kept going and reached the house five minutes later.

  We looked up at the place from across the street. The building was imposing and totally dark.

  “Okay,” I said. “Everyone here knows that all you lot have disappeared. It’s been a long time, granted, but they will still be on their guard. So if anything happens, we must act quickly and efficiently.” I tapped Amicus on the shoulder. “You’ll bring up the rear. Keep an eye out for anything that looks or sounds suspicious.”

  After he nodded I turned to Dennis. “You’ll be on my left flank.” I glanced at Sara. “And you on my right.”

  She nodded.

  I lifted my wand to the ready position and they all did the same.

  Their breaths were slightly elevated, as was mine. They had trained long and hard, but all within the safe confines of Empyrean. This was far different. This was the real thing, and there were blokes here who would want nothing more than to kill us.

  Amicus looked determined, Sara keenly observant and Dennis a trifle nervous.

  We entered through the back door. A simple incantation did the job.

  The house was beautifully decorated and furnished but I didn’t care a whit about that.

  I just wanted my ring back. It was the only thing I had left of my grandfather’s. Even if it couldn’t turn me invisible, I would have wanted it back.

  There was no one on the first three floors. That left the top floor.

  I used my Crystilado magnifica spell to see inside the rooms until we came to the last one on the left.

  The man was asleep in bed.

  And on his finger was my ring.

  “Ingressio.”

  The door swung open and we edged inside.

  My gaze hit every corner of the room before it settled back on the bed where Major Nelson was fast asleep.

  “Rejoinda, ring.”

  It flew off his finger and onto mine.

  I instantly twisted it round.

  When I looked at Sara, my heart sank.

  She could obviously still see me.

  “Embattlemento,” I cried out as the spell lights shot at us.

  A dozen Maladons had appeared in the room and were firing spell after spell at us.

  Dennis cried out as a spell ripped into his arm and blood shot out.

  Using Destin, I soared above them all and fired spells downward.

  “Triangulate,” I cried out.

  The three of them quickly formed a three-point perimeter stance, which I had taught them.

  I continued to rain spells down on the Maladons, which meant they had to lift their wands and defend against me.

  That gave my lot free rein to fire away.

  Sara sent a wickedly curving Jagada curse at a Maladon. After slashing him, it bounced off and cut through another.

  Amicus was a bloke on fire, sending Impacto spells that blasted a half dozen Maladons across the room.

  One-armed Dennis ensnared two more Maladons and then knocked them out.

  I finished off the rest with a brilliantly tricky spell that Astrea had shown me.

  The first wave of the spell was a blinding wall of light. When they shot at it with their wands, they found out, too late, that the wall of light was actually a magical mirror that sent their spells hurtling right back at them.

  When the last Maladon fell, I returned to the floor.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said. I was just about to magically tether them and cast my Pass-pusay incantation when he appeared inches from me.

  “Looking for this?” sneered Endemen.

  He held up my real ring.

  “A useful magical element, wouldn’t you say?”

  There would have been a time when the mere sight of the bloke would have paralyzed me. That time had long since passed.

  I lowered my wand and bowed my head.

  “Acknowledging my superiority, Vega of Wormwood!”

  I lifted my gaze to his. And right then I could tell the bloke knew he had made a mistake. But it was too late.

  I knocked the sneer off his face, not with my wand.

  But with my fist.

  My gloved hand, powered both by Destin and all the loathing I held for this disgusting creature, hit him so hard that he was catapulted across the room and slammed into the wall with such force that he smashed right through it and into the next room.

  I stared at the crumpled mess of a Maladon for one gloriously wonderful moment.

  “Rejoinda, my real ring.”

  The ring shot off his hand and flew onto mine

  I tethered us together, turned the ring around, said my incantation and we vanished.

  This had been my absolute best birthday ever!

  ONCE WE GOT back to Empyrean, I used the Adder Stone to fix up Dennis’s arm, a burn on Sara’s face and a gash on Amicus’s leg. I praised all three of them on their performance in battle.

  At breakfast we all recounted the story of how we had gotten the ring back. When Sara got to the part about me blasting Endemen through a wall, the cheers rang out so loudly I didn’t think they would ever stop echoing through my ears.

  Having my grandfather’s ring back buoyed my spirits wonderfully, and we continued our training. I threw more and more difficult tasks to my troops, confident that they were up to it.

  As Astrea Prine had done with me, I used the Golem Masquerado spell to craft clay statues for us to use as targets. I know it was a bit cheeky of me, but I fashioned the statues so they all wore bowler hats!

  As time passed, we moved on to ever more complex spells. And as I looked around the Great Hall, I saw lights zipping across and smashing into the statues, either exploding them or ripping them to pieces.

  I noted with a certain satisfaction that the women seemed to be getting things faster than the men. And they were certainly more aggressive. And they gave no quarter to their opponents!

  I was so proud!

  No doubt emboldened by having fought Maladons for real, Sara Bond had become a spell machine, whipping her wand around and
incanting like she had been doing it her whole life. And she had become one of the most popular among the fifty. For weeks after our adventure in Greater True, I could hear the others asking her to recount in exacting detail everything that had happened during the course of the battle.

  Dennis and Amicus were inundated by these requests too, but I didn’t mind. I wanted them to explain to the others exactly what it felt like to be in a fight for your very life. I knew that would be important later on.

  Now that we had the invisibility ring back, Petra and I took turns shepherding groups of twos and threes to True, Greater True and even Bimbleton Station. We had several skirmishes with soldiers and Maladons but we always survived and came back intact. And the experiences were helping to mold my young army into quite the fighting machine.

  And I grew to take a real interest in all of them, because I knew that at some point we would depend on one another to make it through the coming war alive. So while Dennis, Amicus and Sara were well on their way to becoming fine magical warriors, I needed all fifty to be at the same level.

  Cecilia Harkes was a tall, lithe girl of nineteen. She had red hair, freckled cheeks and a quick but steady wand hand. We had rescued Cecilia from an elderly Greater True couple who thought nothing of making her sleep next to the coal bin, forcing her to eat her meals from a bowl served on the floor and slapping her across the face whenever they bloody well felt like it.

  I gave her some finer pointers on the Jagada spell, showing her how to move and turn her hips together with the wand motion. As Astrea had shown me, it added to both the speed and potency of the incantation.

  I watched her do it once more, and nodded approvingly as the clay statue became riddled with innumerable cuts and slashes.

  “Nice job, Cecilia. Couldn’t have done it better myself.”

  She swelled with pride as I moved on.

  Across the hall, Petra was putting a group through the rigorous process of mastering the Subservio spell. I watched as Petra performed the incantation on Nicholas Bonham, a tall, sturdily built young man with handsome features, beautiful blue eyes and long blond hair. Nicholas stiffened and assumed a blank stare when the spell hit him.

  Petra then made him jump and spin around.

  And then she made him tell her that he loved her.

  The rest of the group laughed, but I wondered about that last part.