“I have a guess. He was on the plane that day, Siggy. Remember how you and I tried to stop it from outside? Von Dread jumped inside the plane to try and stop it.”
“Jumped, like magic teleport?”
Rachel nodded.
“Ace!” Siggy shouted, leaping from the bench and punching the sky. “And this time I mean flying ace, like what Dread was when he took over the controls. So, you think he dreamt about smashing into the school and killing everyone?” Siggy suddenly snickered. “Or, maybe he dreamed that a really bright light filled his dream—like a camera flash went off or something.”
Rachel laughed. “Could be, though I can’t imagine why that would be unnerving.”
“Obviously, he thought it was a death ray.” Grinning like a gargoyle, Siggy raised his right hand, palm out, as Von Dread had done, and shouted. “So swears Dread! He is so cool! I want to be like that, too. So swears Smith!”
“Me, too!” Rachel leapt to her feet and raised her hand. “So swears Griffin!”
“So swears Smith!”
“So swears Griffin!”
And they continued thus for some time.
Chapter Twenty-One:
Blood Sister of a Blood Brother
“There he is!” Rachel grabbed Siggy’s shoulder and pointed. “Do you see that boy, the one dribbling the soccer ball? With the spiky hair? He’s the one I want you to skunk! He said some very rude things about my boyfriend and me.”
She pointed at where John Darling walked across the Commons with Arun Malik, Claus Andrews, and John’s cousin, Liam MacDannan. Rachel felt bad about skunking Liam. He was a serious boy, with a delightful Irish accent, and he was always quite nice to her. Upon reflection, she decided that if he were accidentally sprayed, it would be an acceptable civilian casualty. He was the one who chose to be friends with a rude, big-mouthed rotter.
“Finally!” Sigfried exclaimed with glee. “A target I can sink my teeth into. Or rather sink into my flaming skunk spray.” He looked around, rubbing his hands. Then he pulled out two vials of chameleon elixir. “Okay, get your broom ready. Here’s the plan.”
• • •
Hidden among the trees, the two of them downed their chameleon elixir, and both of them jumped onto Rachel’s steeplechaser. Siggy conjured the skunk. As he faded from her view—or rather as images of the background trees replaced his face—Rachel could see him partially as he drew the skunk into being with the muria cantrip. Lucky lunged forward and set the conjured creature afire. Then, Siggy sent it winging toward John Darling with a ti cantrip.
Again, she could not help admire his command of the basic cantrip. If he could do all this with ti, what was he going to be able to do when he learned tiathelu?
Rachel waited as Siggy launched the skunk through the air, directly at Darling. Then she shot forward, weaving through the trees at high speed. Siggy lost control of the floating, burning, conjured skunk when a tree passed between him and it. When they arrived at their new location, far from where the flaming skunk had first appeared, he took control of it again with a ti from his wand, which was surreptitiously hidden under his arm.
The startled-looking conjured creature floated through the air, aflame and spraying wildly. Its tail blazed like a torch. With an elegant spin, Siggy changed its direction, skunk-spew sprayed all over Darling, Andrews, and Malik. MacDannan, who was behind them, threw himself down and covered his head with his arms. Whether that saved him, Rachel could not tell.
John Darling was struck straight across the face. Shouting, he dropped and rolled. The fallen leaves—red and orange and brown—swooshed beneath him.
Sigfried slipped from the broom and called softly, “Now.”
“Obé,” Rachel ended the effects of the elixirs.
Screaming like a banshee, his hands waving above his head, Sigfried burst from the trees and ran toward the offending skunk. A few other students on the Commons were running toward the disturbance as well, though most were running the other way.
Siggy shouted dramatically. “Behold, it is another flaming skunk! Threatening innocents! They’re in perilous peril! We cannot let those flaming skunks win! Even if we get sprayed! Even if we die! Even if we go down in flames! We. Will. Not. Let. Evil. Flaming. Skunks. Win!”
In a sinuous blur of red and gold, Lucky arrived in all his glory. Drawing back his head, he breathed out a truly gigantic gout of dragon fire. The flaming skunk vanished with an audible pop. The crowd cheered.
Rachel flew up and leapt from her broom, purposefully stumbling slightly, as if she were arriving in a huge hurry.
“Is everyone all right?” she cried, deliberately breathless. “Is there anything I can do?”
Others had arrived, too. Someone was helping Liam to his feet. Rachel moved toward John Darling, as if she intended to help.
Lying on the ground, leaves in his hair, John tried to sit up. He coughed terribly. His eyes were red and watering, and his skin had turned a sickly green. The stench of skunk was so terrible that just approaching him caused Rachel’s eyes to smart.
Rachel stood with arms akimbo, regarding him coldly
“I would say you look like a jackass,” she used the same word he had used for Gaius, “but I’ve known a few donkeys. They don’t deserve the comparison.”
The older boy’s face grew blotchy with embarrassment. Turning on her toes, Rachel abandoned him to his skunky fate.
• • •
Ten minutes later, Rachel and Sigfried lay on their backs behind Dare Hall, laughing hysterically and rolling back and forth in the lacy ferns. Above them, the late October light filtered through the remaining golden leaves. Glimpses of perfect blue and fluffy white were visible between the branches of the paper birches. A brisk breeze rustled through the trees, shaking free a leaf or two that landed on the students and Lucky. The stems of broken ferns poked into their backs. The smell of crushed fronds fragranced the air.
“Did you see his face?” Rachel launched into another fit of laughter.
Siggy was lying on his back, grinning ear to ear. “The hero. Once again. Lucky and me.”
“We’ve got to be careful though,” Rachel said. “If you show up every time there is a flaming skunk, someone will figure it out. Maybe we should launch one sometime, and let someone else get the glory for stopping it.”
“Never!” cried Siggy, grinning. “No one is as brave as I!”
“True,” Rachel smiled back. “But you don’t want them to catch you.”
“I’m not afraid of them! I’m a sorcerer. I know magic.”
“Er…so do they. And loads more than us.”
“Ah.” He looked unimpressed. “Besides. What can they do to me?”
“Well…expel you for starters,” Rachel mused philosophically.
“So? True, I wouldn’t be here with all the free food and my beautiful G.F. I’d hate to go back to my old life, except I know magic!”
“In the World of the Wise, everyone else would know a great deal more.”
“But the mundanes don’t. I could go back to the real world. A Wary among the Unwary. I know magic! I’d like to see the expression on Bruiser and Squiddly at the orphanage after they’ve taken a flaming skunk to the face!”
The mirth fled from Rachel’s face. “Siggy…if you did that—tried to go back to the Unwary world and use magic—they’d take your memory away. The Obscurers, I mean.” She shivered. “Make you forget you knew any magic. And then, you’d just be—”
“A punk.” Sigfried scowled viciously. He was quiet for a while, all the humor gone from his face. Finally, he declared with extreme seriousness, “I would die first!” Under his breath, he added, “Or they would.”
From the tone of his voice, she believed he actually would go down fighting before he returned to his former life.
She declared stoutly, “You are absurdly brave, Sigfried Smith.”
“Or maybe just absurd,” replied Siggy, a shadow of a grin beginning to return.
“I lik
e to think of the Boss as cowardice-challenged,” contributed Lucky, his serpentine length still rolling back and forth through the ferns.
“Or maybe common-sense challenged,” announced Sigfried. “At least that’s what Valerie would say. And it’s important to give my G.F. her say, even if she’s not here to say it herself.”
Rachel sat up and made a half-hearted effort at securing her hair, which was currently flying every which way. “Speaking of G.F.s. Or rather, of B.F.s. I’ve been meaning to ask you. You bought twelve calling cards in all, didn’t you? And you have given them so far—to me, you, Valerie, Nastasia, Joy, Zoë and Salome, right? Do you have plans for the other five?”
“Hmm?” he shrugged. “No, not yet. Did you have anyone in mind? Maybe Flops-Over-Dead-Chick. She did save my life. I’d like a chance to return the favor, were she to get into trouble.”
“That’s a good idea. But that’s only one.” Rachel pressed her palms together in a beseeching gesture. “Could you give one to Gaius? Please?”
“Who?”
“Gaius.”
“Who is this guy?”
“Gaius Valiant.”
“Never heard of him.”
“My boyfriend!”
Lying on his back in the ferns, watching the clouds, Sigfried shrugged with a supreme lack of interest.
“Siggy! I’m asking you a favor!”
“What’s in it for me?”
“What do you want? And no more doing your school work. I’m not doing that again!”
Sigfried sat up, grinning. “I want treasure.”
“You want more treasure?”
“Sure. You can never be too rich.”
Lucky’s head bobbed up and down eagerly in agreement. He snaked over and laid his chin on Sigfried’s lap. His large, unblinking jade eyes watched Rachel eagerly.
“Um—I’m not sure how—” began Rachel.
Siggy cut her off. “Specifically, I want your help with books and such. Library stuff. You help me find lost treasures. Ships that went down and their general vicinity. That kind of thing. Then, Lucky can dive down there and find the hoard. Or help me find some old barrows that might have kings buried in them. I can look through the earth with my amulet.”
Rachel considered. That sounded easy enough and even surprisingly feasible.
“Okay, you have a deal,” she said with a nod. “You give Gaius a mirror, I’ll help you find another treasure.”
“You give it to him yourself.” Siggy reached into one voluminous pocket and pulled out a square green calling card, which he handed to her.
Smiling gratefully, Rachel slipped the card into her pocket. She looked at his face. He seemed so intent—so brave and boisterous, and yet so young and vulnerable. All of which made him inexpressibly dear to her. She wished she could put a name to the fierce devotion she felt toward him. It was not the slightest bit romantic. But she still wished that they shared some real bond, something that could be named and respected by others.
Rachel rose to her feet. Siggy lunged at Lucky, and the two of them rolled around, sending up a spray of golden birch leaves. Watching him and Lucky frolic among the autumn leaves, she recalled the look of longing on his face when he saw Joy’s dream room and wistfully wished for a sister.
“Sigfried, do you know what a blood brother is?” Rachel asked impetuously. “Would you like to be my blood brother?”
Pushing Lucky aside, Sigfried jumped to his feet, reached under his robe, and drew his knife. In one motion, without pausing or flinching, he made a savage yet shallow cut along his forearm, just to the side of his wrist. He held the wound toward her, staring her in the eyes.
Meeting his gaze, Rachel held out her own arm for Siggy to cut—held sidewise, so that the cut would be in the matching spot, on the outside of her right wrist. He made this stroke with more care. It hurt. Rachel gritted her teeth and refused to cry. Blood ran down her hand.
She touched her cut to his until their blood mingled.
“There. It’s done,” Rachel announced fiercely. “We’re sister and brother now.”
“And I shall defend you with my life,” Sigfried declared. He held up his hand. “So swears Smith!”
Rachel raised her own blood-covered arm. “So swears Griffin!”
A feeling of nausea assailed over her. She swayed on her feet.
“I…don’t feel very well.”
“Hm,” Siggy peered at her. “Blood cooties? Magic? Faintness at the sight of blood?”
Rachel thought of all the sacrifices that she had been forced to attend for various religious festivals: pigs, doves, horses, dogs, cows, sheep.
“I do not grow faint at the sight of blood,” she replied haughtily. “I am a duke’s daughter.”
“Let us go see Nurse Moth. She’s nice. Not like most adults. She actually takes care of a bloke. I haven’t seen her yet today. I’ll carry you. Maybe we can get sweets. Look more wounded.” Siggy scooped Rachel up into his arms and ran around Dare Hall, down the path to the Commons, and across the lawns to the infirmary.
“We could take my broom.” Rachel’s head bounced up and down on his shoulder.
“No time. My sister could be dying.”
“Um…probably not,” Rachel murmured, but she did feel strangely light-headed.
Siggy maneuvered his way through the door and into the Infirmary.
“Look in your memory to see if something unseen happened,” Siggy said as he placed her on the nearest cot. “Also, see if you can contact Lucky via mind-waves now.”
Rachel, who was beginning to feel better, thought back, but there was nothing there she had not seen the first time. Mentally, she called, “Lucky?”
Sadly, nothing happened.
The nurse did not seem happy to see them. She glared as she looked Rachel up and down. “You seem to be in one piece, non?” She looked rapidly from Sigfried to Rachel, noting the blood. “What have you done to your arms?”
“I was practicing with my trumpet in the hall and accidentally blasted a suit of armor carrying a halberd, so that the weapon dropped. It is my fault; Miss Griffin is merely an innocent bystander,” answered Sigfried.
“We fell and landed on something,” Rachel answered simultaneously.
Sigfried cleared his throat. “Ah, yes—about that: to be precise, I was practicing with my trumpet in the hall and accidentally blasted a suit of armor carrying a halberd, so that the weapon dropped, and when Miss Griffin and I went to pick up the mess, we fell and landed on something. It is my fault; Miss Griffin is merely an innocent bystander.”
Rachel held up her arm and asked hopefully. “Can you make sure it leaves a little scar?”
She was pretty sure the nurse understood what had actually happened. She saw the French woman’s eyes dart to Sigfried’s arm, where his cut had already begun to heal. Rachel assumed other people did this kind of thing occasionally. Of course, she could be wrong. Maybe she was the only student at Roanoke who had read Rosemary Sutcliff books at a vulnerable age.
Nurse Moth eyed them dubiously. She disappeared into the back, returning with iodine and cotton swabs. She wet a few swabs in the healing waters of the fountain at the center of the room. Returning to where Rachel and Sigfried were, she cleaned both their cuts with burning, stinging iodine.
“Cool. Now I am a man,” crowed Siggy, holding his arm aloft. “I love the sting of iodine in the morning. Stings like…victory!”
The nurse sighed and cleaned up the mess.
Rachel asked, “Some of his blood splashed on my arm, and I felt kind of ill. Is that normal?”
Siggy gestured at Rachel. “What do you think made her sick? Dirty Orphan Disease? Space-Virus? Is she just allergic to me?”
“Je ne sais pas.” Nurse Moth ran her scrutiny sticks, two lengths of wood carved with runes and set with gems of various colors, up and down Rachel, but none of the gems lit up. Her lips formed a moue. Then, adjusting her white wimple, she lifted her silver flute to her lips.
“
No!” Rachel cried, “please!”
“Oui?” inquired the nurse in her native French.
“If you heal it with enchantment, there won’t be a scar. There’s supposed to be a scar!”
The nun of Asclepius pressed her lips together into a thin line. Then, she sighed and played a different melody. Rachel’s arm tingled. The flesh mended together, leaving a faint scar.
“Thank you!” Rachel exclaimed in delight.
Nurse Moth lowered her flute and hung her head. “Tell no one that I have done such a thing. It is shameful.”
“It’s worth it,” Rachel murmured, as she gazed at the scar, her eyes shining. “I’ve got the bravest boy in the world for my brother now.”
Sigfried grinned a grin so dazzling that it could have blinded moon nymphs.
• • •
Rachel and Sigfried walked across the Commons. Nearby, Lucky rolled through the red and orange leaves, creating a small tornado of fall colors. Watching him, Rachel blanched. It had not occurred to her to consider what was going to happen when the princess found out about this? Would Nastasia be angry that she had not been included? What would Rachel say if the princess asked to be her blood sibling, too?
“Shall we tell everyone that we’re siblings now? Or have it as our secret?” Rachel asked. “If we tell them, that’s fine. Then everyone knows…but some of the others might want to do it, too…and things like this aren’t as special if everyone does them. If we keep it a secret, that’s one more secret we have to keep. But it stays more special. Or you could tell Valerie, and I could tell my family. And we could leave it like that—which is what I suggest. Then we don’t have to keep it a secret, but we don’t have to spread it around either.”
Siggy looked puzzled. His brow furrowed as if he was annoyed. Rachel’s heart lurched oddly. Did he think she was trying to renege on their new family bond?
She added hurriedly, “I thought of keeping it secret only because, in the books, blood brothers always seemed to be secret…normally, it is revealed decades later, when one brother comes to save the other. At the climax.”
Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland (The Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 3) Page 28