The Heart of the Phoenix

by Brian Knight

  “You got one too?” Katie closed the door softly behind herself and sat close to Penny, her wand out and ready.

  “If you mean a flying note, then yes.” Penny looked back at the door and smiled. “Is Ellen coming?”

  “No idea,” Katie said. “I didn’t know what it was about and I didn’t want to drag you and Ellen into it if there was going to be trouble.”

  Penny was about to point out how stupid that was, but decided not to. She had decided not to tell Katie or Ellen for that very reason. She had contacted Zoe, since the note asked for her by name, but she and Zoe had decided to meet the mysterious note-writer on their terms, not his, and so Zoe was nowhere to be seen.

  Penny and Katie settled into a tense silence, waiting, and a few minutes later the door creaked open one more time, admitting Ellen to the hollow.

  Ellen spotted them and seemed to relax a little. She closed the door almost prissily, winced when the latch clicked, and moved closer to the fire pit.

  “Did one of you guys send that crazy note?” She sounded somewhere between annoyed and impressed.

  Before either Penny or Katie could answer, a new voice spoke from the darkness.

  “No, that would be me.”

  The girls turned in unison, Ellen letting out a small scream as they saw a man-shaped figure standing on the other side of the creek. He was a lightless shadow figure, squat and stout, shapeless in what was a robe or long coat. The tall shadow of a hat perched on his head rang a small bell in Penny’s memory, which was silenced a moment later when she saw the wand in his hand.

  “Where is Zoe? I was expecting her as well.”

  “Zoe couldn’t make it,” Penny said.

  “That is unfortunate,” the man said, then raised his wand and pointed it at her.

  Penny dove to the side, noting that Katie had dropped down behind one of the larger boulders ringing the fire pit and Ellen had darted into the trees at the hollow’s perimeter. She felt the heat and wind of a spell that just missed her, heard the whoosh as it came close enough to blow her hair back, and she fired a spell back at the man.

  It missed him by a few feet, she heard the crack as it hit the stone beside him, and she had a moment to hope Rocky had gotten out of the way when she fired. She landed a second later, her impact causing a flaring pain in the shoulder that Turoc, the terrifying humanoid snake they had fought only a few months before, had bitten. Her wand flew from her hand.

  After a short, stunned moment she lifted her head and saw the man block a second spell, a bolt of electricity from Katie’s wand. It crackled across his shield, lighting him in a spectral blue glow, and Penny recognized him by its light. It was Erasmus, the strange man she’d met in town that day. His white cane was nowhere in sight now, and though he still wore his dark glasses, he wasn’t fighting like a blind man.

  A sudden, strong gust of wind whipped past her, rustling the canopy of willow limbs that framed Aurora Hollow like a green curtain. It danced across the creek and pulled water into it like a miniature tsunami, buffeting the man. His long jacket whipped around him, covering his face for a moment, jerking the tall black hat from his head. The hair beneath it was a tangled nest of long and thick dreadlocks. They danced in the wind as he freed his arms from the entangling coat, but when the wind died a moment later they continued to dance. One dove down the back of his coat and emerged again a second later holding a second wand.

  Erasmus shouted something indecipherable as Penny struggled to her feet and searched for her dropped wand, and something hit her hard enough to knock her flat again. Katie hit the ground beside her, and Ellen fell with a cry, deeper in the trees out of their sight.

  Grunting with frustration, Penny conjured her special power, the thing Ronan once told her he had heard only in old legends but had never seen. The Phoenix Fire that had been a gift from their old, sentient book blazed to life in the palm of her right hand, warming her skin but not burning it, and she threw it at the man.

  She watched as the wand held high by his living dreadlock began to aim, but Rocky disengaged himself from the rock wall behind him and tried to wrestle the wand away from it. The strange man’s full head of living hairy appendages attacked Rocky in turn and soon had him bound tightly and suspended over Erasmus’s head.

  Penny’s Phoenix Fire hit the man before he could raise his other wand in defense, and he was soon sheathed in the bright but harmless flames, harmless at least until Penny decided to make them burn. The fire obeyed Penny’s will, burning only what she wanted it to burn, and though the man had come to their place and attacked them, Penny just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  Far from panicking, Erasmus stilled, then removed his dark glasses. He looked at Penny, and she found herself gaping open mouthed at the strange eyes those glasses had concealed.

  For what seemed like an eternity Penny knew only restful blackness, and then she found herself facing Katie and Ellen with her wand raised.

  “Penny!” Katie screamed. “What are you doing?”

  “What?” Penny was frozen in shock and could offer no resistance when Ellen magically disarmed her.

  “You attacked us!” Katie looked on the edge of fury. Ellen just looked stunned.

  “Don’t be angry with her,” Erasmus said, reminding Penny that they had been in something of a close fight with the strange little man before she had apparently lost her mind and switched sides. “She was out of her mind for a moment, so I just slipped in and took it over.”

  They all turned to face him, and Penny saw that her Phoenix Fire had gone out. Rocky stood nearby, seemly as stunned and surprised as she was. He shook his over-large stone head and looked around in confusion.

  Erasmus was now suspended several feet off the ground, firmly cocooned in a hundred hanging willow limbs. Zoe stood not far away, her open palm pressed against one of the trees.

  Controlling trees was one of Zoe’s special gifts, though it took all of her concentration to do it, which left her vulnerable. She relaxed her concentration then and joined the others, leaving Erasmus to dangle harmlessly.

  Penny noticed his glasses were back in place.

  “You told me she didn’t come,” Erasmus said in a comical offence.

  “I lied,” Penny said.

  “Never trust a Red,” the strange man grumbled.

  “She’s not a Red,” came a familiar voice from the mouth of Ronan’s cave. A second later Ronan emerged and surveyed the scene.

  “You’re right, Ronan,” came a second familiar voice, this from thin air close to Ronan.

  “Bowen?” Penny said.

  “Who?” the other girls said.

  Rocky, still dazed, prodded the invisible man beside Ronan with a finger, then backed off a step.

  Penny didn’t see Erasmus draw yet another wand from inside his jacket until the tentacle-like dreadlock brandished it in the direction of the invisible man, and the form of Bowen, the owner of Golden Arts, appeared.

  “Can you see me now?” Bowen looked at each of the girls in turn and smiled at the surprise on Zoe’s face. “Ah, very good!”

  Katie trained her wand on Bowen, then Erasmus, and then Bowen again. She seemed unsure of who she should attack next. “Would someone please tell us what’s going on?”

  “Point that thing somewhere else, would you,” Bowen said, inching surreptitiously to the side.

  “Relax girls,” Ronan said. “My friend up there just wanted to see what you’re made of, and Bowen has been curious for a long time.”

  Katie lowered her wand, and Penny and Ellen followed suit. Zoe kept one hand pressed to the tree from which Erasmus dangled. “You know this guy?”

  “Indeed,” Ronan said. “Girls, I’d like you to meet my old friend, Erasmus.”

  The girls remained silent, glaring at Ronan.

  “Yes, yes, it’s excellent to meet you all,” Erasmus snarled. “Now would you kindly let me down?”

  * * *

  An uncomfortable silence followed as Erasmus
, Bowen, and Ronan seated themselves on one side of the guttering fire and surveyed the girls, Ronan with pride and humor, Bowen with frank amazement, and Erasmus with a grimace.

  Penny, Zoe, Katie, and Ellen stood facing them with varying expressions of exasperation, waiting for an explanation.

  “Well?” Penny asked, and the others stepped away from her as flames erupted from her hands and began to snake up her arms. She shook them out distractedly.

  “Does she do that a lot?” Erasmus asked, his irritation giving grudging way to curiosity.

  “Sometimes,” Katie said, taking another step away from her. “But only when she’s angry.”

  “Well I needed to know if you were any good. I’m not going to teach you if you don’t have any talent.”

  “Teach us?” Penny and Zoe said.

  Katie let out a sharp bark of laughter. “We don’t need him to teach us anything.”

  Ellen nodded agreement with Katie. “We have you to teach us.”

  “Now girls,” Bowen said, “Erasmus is the best. He’s taught two generations of Reds.”

  Erasmus spat on the ground at the mention of the Reds.

  “Who are the Reds?” Penny had heard Susan mention them before, and her impression wasn’t a good one.

  “Your kin,” Erasmus said, frowning at her.

  “Erasmus,” Ronan growled in warning.

  “Don’t you growl at me, Ronan. I told you how it was going to be. I said I’d teach them but I’m not keeping your secrets for you.” Erasmus rose and paced, his nest of dreadlocks dancing around his head in agitation. One of them swatted a long hanging willow limb out of his way as he rounded the fire pit. “You told me they were in trouble, that I was the only one who could teach them what they needed to know, and that means the truth about what’s coming.”

  Ronan followed Erasmus’s progress across the hollow, but held his tongue.

  “I agree with Erasmus,” Bowen said.

  “You would,” Ronan grumbled.

  “But why do we need a new teacher?” Penny had a bad feeling she knew what Ronan was about to say, and desperately wanted him to put her fears to rest.

  “Because I’m leaving,” Ronan said, and turned his face away from the girls. “There’s something I have to do a long way away from here, and I may not return for a long time.”

  “Why?” Ellen said. “You just got back.”

  “Where?” Penny shouted.

  Katie’s glare deepened, and Zoe stood in place looking like she’d been hit over the head.

  “That is not for you to know,” Ronan said, then turned to regard Erasmus and Bowen. “And that is one secret you will keep for me.”

  Ronan’s tone brooked no argument, and neither of his friends offered one. Bowen’s smile had vanished, he looked more serious now than Penny had ever seen him, and Erasmus ignored them all, staring into the dark somewhere past them with crossed arms. His blind act was so convincing Penny almost fell for it again, but she had only to recall the fight of a few minutes past to dispel his illusion of helplessness.

  “I leave tonight,” Ronan continued, “and I would prefer to leave on good terms, knowing you’ll be in good hands until I return.”

  Grudgingly, Penny stowed her wand in the back pocket of her jeans and knelt.

  Zoe, Katie, and Ellen joined her, and Ronan trotted over to meet them.

  “Do we really have to do what he says?” Katie whispered, but loudly enough for Erasmus to hear. One of his dreadlocks slithered out from beneath his top hat, gripped it around the rim, and tipped it to her in mock salute.

  “Yes,” Ronan said, but smiled. “He’ll be able to teach you much more than I have. I’ve never used a wand.”

  He moved closer to the girls and they crowded in around him.

  “Bowen can help you too. He has no magic, but he can teach you other things you’ll need to know.”

  “Bowen.” Zoe shook her head. “How long has he known about us?”

  “All along. I felt it was safer for him to keep his cover, but Erasmus disagrees. He doesn’t like secrets. He thinks if you’re in, you should be all the way in.”

  Penny said nothing, but her estimation of the strange little man rose.

  “It’s time,” Ronan said, and held still as the girls took turns hugging him, even nuzzled Ellen’s hand when she stroked the top of his head.

  “We’re going to miss you,” Katie said, her voice breaking on the last word. She cleared her throat, seeming to brace herself against tears; Penny noticed that Zoe was crying.

  She felt tears on her own cheeks then, and wiped them away.

  Ellen hadn’t known Ronan as long, but even she looked depressed by the news of his departure.

  “I’ll miss you all too,” Ronan said, and then backed away, breaking free from the huddle. He turned away from them and faced Erasmus.

  Erasmus, blind or not, stood and then bent as Ronan approached. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it one more time… you’re a lunatic, and if you get yourself killed I will drag you back from the afterlife and kick your furry backside.”

  Ronan barked laughter and put out a paw. One of Erasmus’s dreadlocks reached down, grasped the offered paw, and shook it.

  Ronan turned to Bowen next. “You keep him in line and them out of trouble.”

  “That’s a tall order old friend, but I’ll do my best.”

  Ronan nodded, then turned his face back to Penny, Zoe, Katie, and Ellen. He winked, and then his body faded into a mist that settled to the ground and blew away in an errant breeze.

  “Well,” Erasmus said, rising to his full if unimpressive height, “this has all been very edifying, but a body can only stand so much excitement in one night.”

  He doffed his hat again, then removed one of his many wands from inside his jacket and gave it a shake. It lengthened and thickened, transforming into the red tipped cane Penny had seen him with earlier that day. He tapped the door with it, and Bowen stepped up to open it. Beyond the frame Penny could see the back room of Golden Arts. He gave the girls a cheery wave before stepping through, and Erasmus followed him without another word.

  Chapter 4

  Conversations with a Reflection

  Penny found herself in the cavern again, walking down an empty stone corridor with nothing but the Phoenix Fire dancing in the palm of her outstretched left hand for light. She thought she could hear something further down the claustrophobic hallway, maybe a scuffing of shoes against stone, and followed it. The place was cold and smelled like damp earth. A slight breeze wafted down the cavern from the direction in which she walked, an exit to the outside world she hoped, and the small flame in her hand flickered, throwing the path ahead into full darkness. When the light returned, Penny was no longer alone.

  Penny and the stranger made identical grabs for wands that neither had, then smiled when they recognized each other.

  It was her doppelganger, identical in every way down to the clothing she wore and the haphazard fall of her hair.

  “It’s you,” they said in unison, then laughed.

  Penny continued on her way, walking toward the draft and the hoped-for exit, and this time the girl didn’t shy away, but fell in beside Penny and walked with her.

  “What is this place?” The girl inspected the walls, the ground, the ceiling, just visible at the edges of the fire’s light. There was enough room for them to walk side by side, but not much more. “You keep bringing me here.”

  “I don’t know,” Penny said. “And I didn’t bring you here.”

  “Who else could have?” This was not a rhetorical question. Penny heard honest curiosity in her doppelganger’s voice. “I go where you go.”

  “That’s right, you are me, right?”

  “Yes,” the girl said simply.

  “I don’t know where we are,” Penny said, and with a touch of frustration, “I’m trying to find my way out.”

  “Oh, that’s easy.”

  This time Penny stopped dead in her t
racks. The other girl continued a few steps beyond her before realizing she was now walking alone.

  “How?”

  “Where would you rather be?”

  Penny opened her mouth to respond, but the doppelganger stopped her with an upraised hand. “Just think about it. This is your dream.”

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Penny said, but saw almost instantly that she was wrong. When her doppelganger had asked her where she would rather be, she’d thought of Aurora Hollow, and that’s where they were now.

  “I like this much better,” the girl said. “Where is this?”

  “If you were me you’d know.” Penny didn’t know why, but the girl’s questions made her uneasy.

  “You don’t trust me?” The girl laughed. “You know that says a lot about you, and none of it very good.”

  Penny found that her wand was back in her hand, and the flame she’d been carrying was now burning in the stone pit. Her doppelganger surveyed the hollow by its flickering light. “You don’t think you know everything about yourself, do you? You keep a lot of secrets from yourself, and this place is just one of them.”

  “You’re full of it,” Penny said, resisting the urge to point her reacquired wand at her doppelganger. “Tell me who you are.”

  The girl held up her own wand, identical to Penny’s distinctively twisted and burned one. She didn’t point it at Penny, didn’t threaten her in any way, but her point was made. There was no attack Penny could launch that this girl could not protect herself from.

  “You know who I am,” the girl said. “But you don’t know everything. I’ll come back when you’re ready to talk.”

  The girl began to fade, and Penny took an instinctive step toward her.

  But awoke in her own bed, sitting propped up against her stacked pillows, her wand in her hand and the Conjuring Glass in her lap. She looked down at her own reflection and waited for it to do something. Wink, wave, or turn away.

  Penny touched the glass tentatively with one finger, and when the reflection touched her back Penny pulled her hand back and stifled a scream. She had expected to feel the cold, smooth glass against her fingertip, but she’d felt the press of warm flesh.