by Eric Nylund
“What do you want, Henry?” Audrey said. “Your visits are never merely to exchange pleasantries.”
“It could be that way. . if you desired, my Queen of Swords.” Henry looked about the room. “How quaint. I see you still have my grandfather clock in good repair.” His gaze caught the picture window and its view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. “A lovely location. I approve.”
Cecilia, stone-faced, poured a cup of tea for Henry and offered it to him.
He smiled, accepted her gift. . but paused as the vapors reached his nose. “Thank you, dear witch of the Isle Eea.” He set the cup back on the table. “I think we’ll pass on your poison this morning.”
Cecilia wisely said nothing.
“You’re in an unusually good mood,” Audrey said.
“Am I not always?” His attention drifted to the game of Towers. “But you’re right, today is special: my favorite nephew and niece’s first day of high school. So many plots and devices afoot. It makes for a delectable mix.”
“So many words,” Cecilia hissed, “and yet he says so little.”
Henry’s smile cooled a few degrees, but his gaze did not lift from the board. “You know, old woman, that you can win in six turns? Here.” He reached over and slid two cubes at once to flank Audrey’s collapsed tower.
“That’s not a legitimate move,” Cecilia told him.
“It is,” Henry said. “Just one that you, in your too-long years, have failed to learn. Or perhaps senility has settled upon your once-keen mind?”
Audrey saw that her captured pieces could be used to build additional Towers on Cecilia’s side in three moves-and her own border defenses after that would be insufficient. While she could still get to the center, Henry’s new strategy had her losing her entire backcourt. . and then the game.
She locked eyes with him. There was no more emotion or additional truths, however, behind his sparkling empty eyes.
“One must practice to keep one’s defenses sharpened, no?” he asked.
“The Council?”
“Meeting today,” Henry replied. “They require our presence. I thought that I would offer you a ride.”
“Always and never the gentleman,” Audrey said, and stood. “I accept your offer.”
“Splendid,” Henry cooed. He turned to Cecilia, and his slender hand reached out to caress her face. Cecilia recoiled before this gesture. “Ah, I would bring you as well, my lovely,” he said, “but there are some on the Council who would love to part your head from your shoulders should you cross their path.”
Cecilia gripped a butter knife.
Henry spared a glance at its edge. “Perhaps another time you and I will dance.” He moved to the stairs. “Today, regrettably, we have business to attend to: The Council wishes to discuss its newest members, and provided they are allowed to live. . we shall discuss how to avert the end of the world.”
Audrey gathered her courage and followed. “I expected no less.”
3. ENTRANCE EXAM
Eliot had this creepy feeling he and Fiona were being watched. Fog and shafts of sunlight swirled around them on the sidewalk. He glanced up at their new house.
He liked it. It wasn’t “home.” That had been their apartment in Del Sombra. This place, though, made up for it by at least having more than one bathroom.
It was a modern Victorian squished on all sides so it towered three stories tall on their lot. The trim was green and gold geometric art deco lines. Three scalloped balconies cupped the sides of the house like bracket mushrooms. A gold solar system weather vane topped the highest spire. It was an odd melding of styles. . but it somehow worked, like something a mad genius architect might have sketched.
Every building was tall and quirky on their street-stacked at least three stories tall. Most had been built with so little room, they actually touched their neighbors. Cee said it was the high cost of real estate that made every home tiny and built this way.
That feeling of being watched, however, was still there. Eliot squinted, but the windows of his house were solid reflections of sky.
Fiona glanced around, too, perhaps sensing the same unease he felt.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“Hang on a sec.” Eliot tightened the strap of his canvas backpack. Inside were pencils, notebooks, Cee’s lunch, and a battered violin case (sticking slightly out of the top of the pack), which contained his most prized possession: the violin Lady Dawn. He shifted his shoulders inside his too-big Paxington jacket. No luck there-it still looked all wrong. “Okay,” he told her. “Let’s go.”
Fiona unfolded their map, got oriented, and then pointed. “That way to Lombard Street.” She marched ahead and Eliot followed. She was in her figure-it-out mode, and nothing got in Fiona’s way when she was like that.
For several blocks they tromped in silence and then turned onto Lombard.
A nonstop stream of cars and trucks rolled by. Eliot and Fiona took a step back. The scents of coffee and freshly baked bread drifted with the odors of exhaust. People queued in line for coffee from latte carts.
“All we have to do is follow this street west,” she told him. “That’ll get us there.” She scrutinized the map but looked unconvinced.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
Eliot knew it was something, but before he could get it out of his sister, she started walking.
Why did she always do that? Leave him behind, thinking she got to lead. Eliot had half a mind to go his own way. . but then, Fiona might get lost and never find the place by herself.
So he followed. For her sake.
One day, though, she was going to find out just how much she needed him.
They passed shoe stores and a Taco Bell and one store that sold nothing but globes and maps. Fiona paused to admire a massive world that levitated magnetically on its pedestal. She checked the building’s street number and then compared it to the address on their welcome letter.
“This is the right direction,” she said. “We should almost be there.”
Lombard veered southwest. The street narrowed and filled with houses and apartments. Eliot didn’t see anything that looked like a school.
They walked another entire block-passing the address where Paxington should have been-the last two digits of the closest number jumped from 16 to 22.
“You’re reading that map wrong,” Eliot told her.
“I’m not,” she replied.
Eliot then did the one thing he had vowed he wouldn’t do this morning. He dug into his pack, found a slender case, and pulled it out. Inside were his new glasses. The silver wire rims made him look like an ultra-dork when he wore them.
“Let me try,” he said.
Fiona glanced back down the street, confused. “Fine.” She handed him the map and letter.
He donned his glasses, cringing as he did so, but the pages came into focus. He checked the Paxington address, and then their map.
“Look,” he told Fiona, “it says it’s at the intersection of Lombard and Chestnut Streets. We’ve checked Lombard. We should go down Chestnut instead.”
Fiona examined the map. “It’s only one block north of here.” She almost looked impressed with this idea, but then added: “Not bad. . for an Architeuthis dux.”
Eliot ground his teeth at this simultaneous compliment and insult. Architeuthis dux was the scientific name for the giant squid. Its eye was one of the largest in the animal kingdom-the size of a volleyball-and could spot prey in the murkiest ocean depths. Her commentary on his new glasses.
As he mulled over the appropriate counterinsult, Fiona grabbed the map and letter and flounced down a side street. “Come on,” she called back. “Don’t sulk. . it was a good idea.”
Eliot removed his glasses, placed them back in their case, and dashed after her.
They emerged on Chestnut Street with its quaint pastel and stucco houses and apartments jam-packed together, every parking spot filled, and even more peop
le on the sidewalks-all of whom seem to be very much in a hurry to get to work, or jogging as fast as they could, or delivering very important-looking packages.
. . or like them, just trying to get school.
Eliot spotted a navy blue wool jacket, khaki slacks, and a flash of gold threads shimmering from an embroidered Paxington crest.
Another student.
Eliot pointed to this boy on the opposite side of the street. “Let’s follow him.”
Fiona nodded, and they raced alongside, shadowing the other student until they came to a crosswalk. The light was red. The other boy crossed; they had to wait.
Eliot watched the traffic. There was a break coming. They could sprint across the street, but technically, that was against the law-jaywalking-and something Audrey would definitely have disapproved of.
He thought, however, she’d disapprove more of them being late for their first day of school.
Eliot started to cross.
“You can’t do that!” Fiona shouted after him-but nonetheless she followed.
A truck pulled out of a driveway and accelerated toward them.
Eliot and Fiona sprinted.
The truck blared its horn.
They jumped together onto the sidewalk. A whirlwind of dust and fumes and papers swirled around them.
“That was stupid,” she hissed.
“There he is!” Eliot said, ignoring her, and ran after the boy from Paxington.
The student must have heard him, because he turned. The boy was older, eighteen maybe, two heads taller than Eliot, and he had a faint mustache. His dark hair was long and wavy and combed back. He was deeply tanned and muscular. He smiled at them.
Eliot found himself smiling back. A friendly face was the last thing he expected today, but he was glad to find one.
The boy held out his hand for Eliot to shake and asked, “Paxington? Transfer students?” His voice was embroidered with a rich Italian accent.
“Yes,” Eliot replied. “And no.”
Up close, Eliot noticed the boy’s uniform was different from theirs. The fabric was smoother and of a more luxuriant texture. It looked like it had been custom tailored.
Fiona and Eliot shifted uncomfortably in their too-baggy and too-tight uniforms.
The boy gave Fiona a slight bow. “You look like you might need some help. Allow me to introduce myself. I am from the family Scalagari. My given name is Dante.”
“It’s great to meet you. I’m Eliot. Eliot Post. And this is my sister-”
“Fiona.” She tried to smile, but it wavered and failed. “We were beginning to worry that we had the wrong street.”
“Can you help us find the school?” Eliot asked.
Dante Scalagari’s smile faded. “Ah, I see. You must forgive me. I did not know you were freshmen. You both look. . well, take no offense, but you look like you’ve seen more of the world than our typical freshman.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Eliot said.
Fiona cleared her throat and glanced at the sidewalk. “If you don’t mind very much. . we have to get to the placement exams before the time runs out.”
Dante held out his hands in an apologetic gesture. “Believe me,” he said, “I’ve nothing against you. In fact, you have my deepest sympathies. But, alas, I cannot show you the way.”
“What?” Eliot said. “Why!”
Dante’s hands clasped and his fingers interlaced. “Tradition,” he said. “Rules. And because I’m late for school myself. Perhaps I will see you again on campus.”
“If you just point us in the right direction,” Fiona said, and started to unfold their map.
Eliot leaned closer and traced their route, explaining, “We tried following Lombard, but that didn’t. .”
He glanced up.
Eliot looked back and forth along the sidewalk. There was no trace of Dante Scalagari.
“Impossible,” Fiona breathed. Her head snapped sideways. “Wait, there’s another student.”
Eliot saw them as well. A girl this time; he caught just a glimpse of platinum curls over the Paxington navy blue blazer-as she turned a corner, entered the shadows, and disappeared from view.
Fiona sighed. She looked over the map again. “Well, with two students so close, the school has to be nearby. Let’s go this way.”
They followed the street numbers as they increased, and once more passed where Paxington should have been-but clearly wasn’t.
Fiona clutched the map, crinkling its edges. “What are we doing wrong?”
Eliot leaned closer and examined the map. “The directions said it was at the intersection of Lombard and Chestnut?” He followed those two roads with his fingers. “That can’t be right. They must mean Richardson Avenue. That cuts across both.”
“Not Richardson,” Fiona told him. “It specifically said the intersection of Lombard and Chestnut.”
“I remember what it said,” Eliot answered, anger creeping into his voice. “I’m not an idiot. I’m saying that’s impossible because they run parallel. They never cross.”
Fiona checked, and then double-checked this.
“Give me the map.” Eliot gently took hold of one corner. “I’ll puzzle it out.”
Fiona refused to release her grip. She pulled away. “They have to cross somewhere.”
Eliot didn’t let go either. The map snapped taut between them. He pulled hard.
Fiona yanked the map, too.
The yellowed parchment tore down the middle. . almost all the way through.
Eliot stared at the ruined map, remembering how Cee had told them to work together. And here they were: they hadn’t found Paxington, let alone faced the placement exams, and were already fighting each other.
He glared at his sister.
She glared back at him. “Great,” she said. “Like we don’t have enough trouble already.”
“Thanks to you,” Eliot said. “Just because you’re a ‘goddess’ now doesn’t mean you know everything. . or even anything.”
Fiona tilted her chin up and tried to look “down” at him the way Audrey could. It didn’t work.
“At least now you know how to make two parallel lines meet,” Eliot told her.
“What do you mean?”
Eliot snorted. “It’s easy, but useless, really.” He crossed one of the map’s torn flaps so Lombard and Chestnut Streets, once parallel, angled toward each other.
Static electricity raced up his fingertips, growing stronger as he brought the pieces of the map together.
Fiona guided the other part of the map toward his. “I’ve felt something like this before,” she whispered.
The two portions of the map wavered as if magnetically attracted and then repulsed. . and then the two sides snapped together.
Lombard and Chestnut crossed-at least on paper.
Fiona ran her fingers over the parchment. “This feels like that spot in the Valley of the New Year where there was a hidden exit. A spot where space folded.”
“Like there’s an extra space or a doorway”-Eliot pointed to the spot where the two streets intersected-“here?”
“We passed that spot and didn’t see anything,” she said.
“But did we really look?”
They stared at the map. The “intersection” was a block and a half away.
Fiona crumpled the outer edges of the map, and they both ran.
They dodged people on the sidewalk; Eliot careened off a trash can, stumbled, but kept going. He caught glimpses of other Paxington students, but didn’t bother to ask for help. There was no time left.
They sprinted toward the address where Paxington was supposed to be, where the lines crossed on the map.
It looked like the same place they had walked by earlier. . but it felt different.
That static electricity sensation was here.
He slowed and stopped.
So did Fiona.
They looked for something out of the ordinary. There was only a wall made of roughened granite blocks.
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Eliot ran his hand over the surface.
It was just rock. . but there was something else, faint at first, and then stronger. Deep inside the stone there was a vibration, almost like he was touching the strings of his violin.
Fiona felt the wall with both her hands. “It’s like threads,” she whispered.
“Like music,” he said.
He spied a minuscule crack in the stone, and as he touched its edges, there was a pause in the music.
Fiona found the spot as well.
Eliot stared at the crack and found that when he looked at it from a particular angle-an angle that hadn’t been there before-the crack tilted and expanded and was really a four-dimensional corner.
Disorientation washed over him as this new space revealed itself. The sensation was like staring at one of those crazy M. C. Escher drawings: Everything appeared normal, until suddenly you saw an extra dimension tilting sideways.
Eliot and Fiona stepped around this new corner and found themselves-
— on a cobblestone boulevard running perpendicular to the main street.
It wasn’t as if this new passage were hidden. It opened quite plainly onto the main street behind them.
Eliot waved to a man as he rushed past on the sidewalk. “Hey, mister,” he called.
The man ignored him.
Apparently no one on the outside could sense this place, unless they knew exactly what they were looking for.[5]
There were a dozen stores on this in-between street: antique and curio shops, a few high-end fashion boutiques, a Chinese noodle house, and a café on the corner, where older Paxington students sat at canopy-covered tables. Farther down the boulevard, brick walls rose along the sides, weathered and ivy-covered, which ended a half block away at an intricate wrought iron gate.
Beyond those gates were majestic cathedral-like buildings stained black with age, structures with Greek columns that rose like a forest of marble, and wavering in and out of the ever-present Bay Area fog lorded a clock tower glinting with hints of gold filigree.
“It’s amazing,” Eliot said.
“Yeah. . ” Fiona immediately sobered. “But the time!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him along.
Eliot shook off his wonderment and ran with her.