I stopped and watched Brutus’ face turn crimson. His eyes bulged and his right hand swung for a backhander that would have knocked Ciara into late next week. I heard my own voice, loud and clear, ringing down the oak-paneled corridor, and Brutus froze.
“I wouldn’t do that, Brutus—not if you want to walk out of this school on your feet this afternoon.”
There was absolute silence. His face was a picture. He turned his head slowly to peer at me.
I said, “You heard what she said, ape man. The lady wants you to leave her alone.”
I guess there is only so much a spoiled brat can take in a short period of time, and in a matter of a few seconds, Brutus had gone way beyond that limit. He turned his whole body now to face me, incredulity and rage wrestling for control of his ugly face.
“Did you speak to me, little man?” He looked around at his wingman, gaping theatrically. “Am I going crazy? Did this pipsqueak just talk to me?”
I knew what I was doing was stupid. In fact, what I was doing made stupid appear like Leonardo da Vinci on a serotonin high, but I didn’t give a damn. All I could see right then was that the whole damned world was so damned unfair, and it was all, somehow, Freddy-damned-Brutus-damned-Muller’s fault. And the small part of my brain that still retained some intelligence watched and listened in horror as I said, real loud, “What’s the matter with you, Freddy? Are you deaf as well as stupid? The lady told you to leave her alone. And now I’m telling you to get lost before I do something you’ll regret. Beat it!”
Whatever was going to happen next was worth it a thousand times over, just for the pleasure of seeing the expression on his face. More than that, for the one on Ciara’s face, just behind him. Her eyebrows were arched high on her forehead, and her amazing green eyes were sparkling like the Mediterranean on a clear, spring morning.
It took him three strides to reach me. The backhander knocked me off my feet, made my ears ring and stung. When I opened my eyes, I saw three things through the ache in my head. First, I saw DB holding Ciara. She was struggling and trying to run either to me or at Brutus. She was shouting something I couldn’t hear. Second, I saw Brutus turn and hold out his hand as someone threw him a baseball bat. He straddled me with his legs. He seemed to catch the bat in slow motion, turn to leer at me and mouth, “Get up, little man.”
And third, I saw Sebastian stepping out of the changing rooms. He appeared as cool and impassive as ever. He was holding another baseball bat. He swung it and I watched it sail through the air toward me, slow and graceful.
I’ll never know how I did it. I caught it by the handle, and the next thing I knew, I was on my feet, holding the bat as I would a saber, with my left hand relaxed behind my back. I smiled and heard myself, like I was somebody else, saying, “Last chance, Godzilla. Walk away.”
He came at me, swinging the bat in a wide arc. If it had connected, it would have knocked my head off. But he telegraphed it so far in advance that I would have had time to go home, read the paper, have a second breakfast and mow the lawn before coming back to parry the blow. The block jarred him to the bone and I stepped forward and placed the tip of the bat on his nose.
I said, “Lesson one, proto-man, do not slash. Thrust!” and I lunged forward, sending him staggering back, clutching at his nose with tears streaming down his face.
I gave the bat a couple of easy swings with my wrist, just for effect. “What’s next, Oddjob?”
He hurled himself at me like an elephant on speed trying to swat a mosquito with an adrenaline overdose. All I could hear was his grunting and the rush of air as his bat swung past my head over and over again or smashed against my own bat—that, and my growing laughter as I ducked, parried and danced around him. I was, as Gorm had promised, invincible. He couldn’t touch me.
Finally, he stopped, panting, with beads of sweat running down his face, and that was when I got serious. I fixed him with my eye and saw a glimmer of fear in his. “My turn, Gothmog…”
It was a dazzling display of skill and sheer brilliance. I sprang, and with perfect control, smashed my bat against his fingers. His bat clattered to the floor. Two sideswipes connected with his forearms, making him clutch at them in a self-embrace. I spun the bat in my hand, crouched and hammered his shins in two lightning-fast, devastating blows. As he staggered back, whimpering with pain, I leaped, jabbed him hard in the solar plexus and, as he doubled up, whiplashed his nose. His legs buckled and he collapsed to his knees.
I stepped up and placed the tip of the bat on his forehead. I cocked my head and said, “You’re on your knees, Brutus. That is a perfect position from which to apologize to the lady. Do it.”
It must have been hard for him. He actually wept before he could say the words, but he said them. Really, he whispered them, so I made him say them again, louder.
“I’m sorry, Ciara.”
Then, out of sheer devilry—I am, after all, a mischievous elf—I said, “On your back, ape man!” and I shoved. He fell, sprawling onto his back. I pointed the bat at him then at DB, who immediately let go of Ciara. “Do not touch the lady again, dogs, lest you incur the wrath of Norgard!”
It was a kind of a weird thing to say, I guess, but nobody laughed and it seemed to fit the occasion.
Brutus and his pack shuffled away to the changing rooms. Ciara looked at me with a weird expression I couldn’t interpret then hurried away down the corridor. Sebastian was leaning against the wall, the way Englishmen do, with one leg crossed over the other, frowning at me.
He said, “Well, that was surprising.”
I looked down at the bat. I couldn’t help smiling, but I felt confused and suddenly very alone. I said, “Yeah…” I had to agree.
“Where did you learn to do that?”
“It’s a long story.” I couldn’t meet his eye.
“I’d like to hear it.”
“Some other time.” I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb. “I think I’m going to resign from the baseball team, maybe join the fencing club.”
“Admirable idea, I should say. Catch you at lunch?”
I nodded, threw him the bat and left.
* * * *
At lunchtime, I wasn’t hungry, so instead of going to the Luncheon Hall, I went out into the gardens and sat under a large oak tree to think. I knew I was being a dork. My biological parents had given me up at birth. That sucked. But it only sucked if you knew it. And until yesterday I hadn’t known it and I had been happy. What had changed apart from my knowledge? Nothing! What had changed was me—my attitude.
I was lucky. I was lucky I had been given to two parents who loved me unconditionally. Sure, my mom had died, but the memories I had of her were beautiful, happy ones. My dad was as much a friend as he was my father. And he was my father, biological or not. I was lucky to have the life I had been given. The truth was there were plenty of kids in the world who had lost a lot more than their biological parents.
I smiled. Okay, I smiled ruefully, but I smiled. I was the best swordsman in the world—and the best archer! How cool was that? I should be grateful and overjoyed. And yet…I sighed—yes, I sighed ruefully—because even though this amazing thing had happened to me, the fact was I had no one I could share it with. For all that Dad was as much a friend as a father, for all that my mother had been the coolest mom in the world, there was no one on Earth I could tell about what had happened to me. They’d think I was crazy, and who could blame them? I’d thought I was crazy myself till I’d seen the medallion.
“Jake?”
I turned. It was Ciara. She smiled. It was an uncertain smile, but her eyes still looked like the Mediterranean with the morning sun on it.
I said, “Hi.”
She hesitated, seemed to study my face then shrugged. “I just wanted to say thanks. It was pretty brave, what you did. And pretty amazing at the end.” She gave a really cute laugh. I swallowed, coughed, blushed and prayed she hadn’t noticed. She seemed not to and carried on. “I’m sorry you got hit, though.�
�
I shrugged and tried to find my voice in all the turmoil inside my chest. It came out a bit mangled and I heard myself say, “With some people, it’s whales or the environment. With me, it’s Ciara Fionn.” I wondered what the hell I was talking about and grinned stupidly.
She seemed like she thought I was insane but amusing and she sat next to me. I noticed she had nice legs and I flushed again.
She said, “Is that what I am? A cause? Now that I’m rescued, will you lose interest?”
I was lost for words and had to turn away. I picked up a twig and examined it. Finally, I said, “Whales and the environment were both amazingly beautiful long before they became causes.”
She laughed. I despaired.
She said, “You have a touch of the old blarney, so you have. Are you sure there isn’t a touch of Irish in you?”
I joked, “Would you believe me if I told you I had a twin brother in Tír na nÓg?”
She seemed to study me for a moment. “I would at that. There’s something of the Tuatha about you.”
“Of the what? The two-ah?”
“Tuatha Dé Danann.” She made it sound like two-ah de Danan. “The tribe of the goddess Danu—a kind of fairy folk from Irish mythology.”
I must have stared, because she burst out laughing. Then I laughed, too, and I’m pretty sure there were bluebirds, a rainbow and a heavenly choir—but perhaps I just imagined that bit.
Anyway, after a while she put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Honest, Jake, thanks.” She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then she was up and running across the grass.
I stammered a strangled, “Catch you around later…” after her and flopped back on the grass to grin like an idiot and relish the memory of her soft lips on my cheek.
In the midst of my bliss, something solid landed on my belly and Sebastian’s voice said, “I brought you a disgusting sandwich.”
I shaded my eyes and looked up at him as he sat down.
He added, “No need to thank me. I’d do the same for any miserable wretch.”
I sat up and grinned at him. “You brought me a disgusting sandwich and called me a miserable wretch. How could I not thank you?”
“She kissed you.”
“How can you tell?”
“Quite aside from the fact that you have an idiotic grin on your face, I saw it.”
“I think she likes me. She said I have blarney and I look like a Tuatha.”
“Oh, good grief.”
“Come on. Let’s go have some real food. I’m starving.”
“Oh, good grief!”
On the way in to the Luncheon Hall, we didn’t talk much, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that, though this was a guy I hardly knew, in this short time he had become a friend. He’d reached out a hand when he’d known I was in trouble, even though he had no idea what trouble I was in. I also had the feeling that if I didn’t tell somebody about what had happened to me, I was going to go crazy. And what are friends for, right, if not to stop you going crazy?
The Luncheon Hall was fairly crowded when we got in. We grabbed some food and found a place to sit. I saw Brutus and his pals just a couple of benches away. They ignored us, but they were looking pretty sheepish. Sebastian started cutting at his steak and kidney pie. He was quiet. I knew he was giving me space and time to tell him what was troubling me. I picked up my knife and fork, took a deep breath and set them down again.
“Sebastian?”
“Yes, old chap?”
“I have something I need to share with you.”
“Fire away. I’m all ears.”
“I don’t really know how to say this.”
He frowned at me with a forkful of food halfway to his mouth. “Just plunge in. Start at the beginning and go from there.”
Just plunge in. Okay. “You’re not going to believe me, but here goes.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “You see, the thing is, Sebastian, I am a fairy.”
You have to admire the English stiff upper lip. His only reaction was to raise his left eyebrow. He swallowed, dabbed his mouth with his napkin and smiled at me. “I am a little surprised, after your carry on with Ciara. But though I don’t share your proclivity personally, these days it is nothing to be ashamed of. Have you spoken to your parents?”
“No, you don’t understand. My dad isn’t my biological father—”
“You think it might have a Freudian root? Still, Jake, there is not the stigma attached to it these days. I would honestly just come out with it, if you’ll excuse the pun.”
“Will you stop? I am trying to tell you. I am not a normal person. I’m an actual fairy.”
He sighed. “Look, Jake. I hate to burst your bubble, but it really is not a big deal anymore.”
“Will you cut it out already? I am trying to tell you, me and all my family are fairies! My dad, my mom… Every one of us is. A. Fairy!”
There was a deathly silence as my voice echoed around the Luncheon Hall. Sebastian sat blinking at me and wiping his mouth as heads turned to stare at me. There was a loud clatter of a tray hitting the floor and Brutus rose to his feet and slammed out of the room, followed by DB.
Suddenly Sebastian burst out laughing. People glanced at each other and shrugged and turned back to their meals. Sebastian spread his hands. “I really don’t know what you want me to say, Jake. It isn’t an issue for me.”
I sighed. I realized he thought I was saying I was gay. “Let me start again. Racially, ethnically, genetically, I am not human. I am of the fairy folk. I am an elf, if you like. I am a changeling. I was swapped at birth. I am not human. Don’t worry. I don’t expect you to believe me, but I only found out yesterday and needed to tell somebody.”
“I’m flattered. May I urge you not to tell anybody else?”
“I don’t intend to. I didn’t believe it myself at first, but then I saw the medallion.”
“Medallion?”
“It’s a long story. I realize I can’t expect you to believe it. I have to prove it to you. I get that.”
“Jake, before we go any further, you have to realize that this is a delusion. It isn’t real. It happens sometimes, but these days it is treatable.”
“I’m not crazy, Sebastian. I can prove it. Listen, I have never done fencing or any kind of sword fighting in my life! I have never shot a bow, but I’m going to join the archery club and you’ll see. I won’t miss a single shot. I’ll split an arrow for you. I’ll split five! Ten!”
He sighed and drummed his fingers on the table. “So being an elf means you can automatically use a sword and shoot a bow?”
I shook my head. “Uh-uh, these are my gifts. The powers I was given.”
“To help you get the ring to Mount Doom.”
“No, there is no quest.”
“Jake, listen to yourself. You really need to talk to your father about this and get help.”
“Wait! I can prove it to you.”
He appeared pained and sighed loudly. “How? You going to take me for a walk on a rainbow?”
“I can read your mind. I was given three gifts—maybe more, but that isn’t important now—and the last one was that I can read people’s minds. Will you give me permission to read yours?”
Now he seemed bored. He spread his hands. “Be my guest.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated. “Okay, you’re a bit disappointed and embarrassed, because you thought I was a nice guy, but this is getting a bit too weird and now you want a polite, diplomatic way to get out.”
I opened my eyes. He was watching me. He said, “You don’t need to be a mind reader to see that, Jake.”
I held up my hands. “Okay, wait…” I closed my eyes again and tried to go deeper into his mind. Then I said, “Sarah. Sarah Churchill.”
“What?”
I opened my eyes. He was serious. I said, “Sarah Churchill. You were crazy about her last year. You still are. You never really got over her, but she left you. She left you for…Nigel. Nigel Weller, th
e captain of the rugby team. She said… She said you were too nice.”
He screwed up his paper napkin and dropped it on his plate. He had his lips in a tight line. He said, “Not funny, Jake. Not funny. Sorry.” He stood up. “Don’t get too clever, Jake. It’s liable to backfire on you sooner or later.”
“No, wait.”
“Goodbye, Jake.”
He walked away. I tried to call after him, “Wait. You don’t understand!” A few heads turned, but he didn’t. He just walked away, out of the Luncheon Hall.
I looked down at my food. I hadn’t touched it. And I’d lost my appetite again.
“Shit!”
Chapter Four
I spent the rest of the day in a weird agony of mixed feelings. I was buzzing and elated because I knew in my bones that Ciara liked me. At the same time, I felt like crap because I had upset Sebastian, and in a short time, I had come to think of him as a friend. He was one of the good guys, and I was afraid I’d blown our friendship. What made it worse was that I had been disgusted when Gorm had given me the power to read other people’s minds precisely because it was an invasion of their privacy and I’d gone and done just that with Sebastian, trampling all over his most private feelings, just to prove a point.
The next couple of days dragged by and were anticlimactic. I hardly saw Ciara except a couple of times in the distance—usually running to get in her dad’s Jag—and she made zero effort to see me or talk to me. In fact, she seemed to be trying to avoid me. I did see Sebastian a few times, but when I tried to talk to him, he cut me dead with an empty smile as he walked straight past me.
One minute, it had seemed like I had the girl of my dreams, the best pal a guy could ask for, plus these amazing powers, and in a matter of a few seconds, those very powers had cost me my friend, and the girl of my dreams seemed to have forgotten I even existed.
That was Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Thursday, things began to look up. As I was no longer on the baseball team, I had joined the fencing club and the archery club. The archery club was on Thursday afternoons, and on Wednesday, I’d gone with Rosie to buy a nice six-foot yew longbow with a fifty-pound draw weight and a dozen wooden arrows. The guy at the shop had tried to sell me a carbon fiber beginner’s bow with a twenty-pound draw weight, but I’d told him I was an experienced archer and wanted a pro bow. I’d glanced at Rosie when I’d said it because I’d thought she might have something to say about that, but she’d just smiled at me and paid the thousand pounds without batting an eyelid.
The Dreaming Spires Page 3