by Brian Olsen
“Lacrosse is a sport?”
“Yeah. It’s fun.”
This is inane. I feel like I’m making polite small talk with one of my parents’ work friends. But I guess as long as she’s not killing me I should keep answering her questions.
“And what else do you do? Outside of your schooling?”
“I volunteer at Hope House.”
“What is Hope House?”
I’m conscious this’ll make me sound like some white knight do-gooder and it feels like bragging, but at the same time I should probably tell her anything that makes me not look like a horrible maniac.
“It’s a place that provides services for homeless people.” I smack my thigh. “I mean, the unhoused. The currently unhoused. Sorry, they tell us to try to avoid saying homeless. They do have a home. Charlesville is their home.”
“Charlesville?”
“That’s my town.”
“And what services do you provide for the unhoused of Charlesville?”
“Oh, I don’t provide any services myself. But Hope House has a shelter with some beds, and they provide daily meals, and they work with local businesses to provide, like, haircuts and clothing and job training and stuff. Help them get medical help if they need it and want it. Legal aid, too, although that’s mostly done out of Hartford. Uh, Hartford is the nearest big city. Charlesville’s small-to-medium sized. We don’t have too big of a homeless…shoot. Too big of an unhoused population. I work in the office, not the shelter. I help with fundraising and I answer phones after hours. I’m only there one day a week, usually. More if they’re doing a big donor drive or something.”
The piece of grass I’ve been winding around my fingers shreds and falls apart. I pull up another one. It’s identical to the first.
“Do you receive payment for this work?” she asks.
“No, I volunteer.”
“Admirable.”
I can’t tell if she genuinely thinks I’m admirable, or if she knows I told her all this because I want her to think I am. So I just shrug. “I guess.”
She puts a hand on a tree and swings herself to a stop, winding up leaning against the trunk. It’s a surprisingly casual, even playful, motion from her. “Do you have a family?”
Feels disrespectful to lean in front of her, so I stand there awkwardly, the piece of grass sticking out between my fingers. “Yeah. My parents. Eric and Neve Armstrong. No brothers and sisters. My mom’s an only child and her folks are dead, but my dad’s parents are still around. And he’s got a sister with two kids, one around my age. They live in another state but we see them a couple times a year.”
“Tell me of your parents.”
I take a breath. “They’re great. My dad is the chief financial officer at an insurance company. It’s the biggest company in Charlesville. Nate’s dad works there, too, he’s the head of human resources. My dad convinced him to move here, actually. They’ve been friends since before Nate and me were born. Dad’s really into his friends and family, the people he loves are important to him. And he’s kind of a homebody. I don’t know. He likes music a lot. He’s got a big vinyl collection. And football. That’s another sport. Oh, you probably don’t know what a vinyl record is. It’s—”
“And your mother?”
I guess vinyl records aren’t all that relevant. “She’s great, too. She’s a vice president for a graphic design company. Not in Charlesville. It’s right outside Hartford. She commutes. She’s not a designer but she works with the clients. Makes sure they’re getting what they need. She likes to do a lot of different things. I get that from her. Wanting to keep busy. She volunteers for stuff at my school all the time. Pretty much anytime they want parents to help with something, she’s there. She’s really funny. They both are, actually. And supportive. I’m gay. Do you know what that is?”
She shakes her head.
I don’t know if I’m bringing up being gay to score sympathy points, or maybe just to reinforce that I’m my own person. See, I’m nothing like the Common King, he was married to a woman and I like dudes!
“It means I’m into guys instead of girls.”
“Ah.” She nods. “Humans have a special word for that? Interesting. But yes, it was clear there is a romantic connection between you and Desh Nonechild.”
“Zane. Yeah.” I fidget with the blade of grass and it snaps. “That’s new. And complicated. He used to bully—”
“Tell me more of your mother.”
I stiffen. I’m sure she notices. She notices everything. I try to sound casual. “Oh, yeah. That’s what I was going to say. She and my dad were both supportive when I told them I’m gay. I don’t know how it was before the Moment, but in our world anybody who’s a little different with their sexuality or their gender can have a hard time. But my parents were great with me. I mean, I was scared to tell them, because the world kind of makes you scared, you know? But I know now I didn’t have to be. They pretty much already knew. And then they helped Nate. His parents had a harder time and my folks helped them through it. He’s not gay, he’s trans. Well, he’s a little gay. He doesn’t call himself anything, like gay or straight or bi or whatever, but he mostly likes girls.”
“Your mother.” Her expression hasn’t changed, but her voice is a tiny bit harder.
“Right. Yeah. My mom. I don’t know. She does Zumba? She likes to travel? What else do you want to know?”
She steps away from the tree she’s been leaning against. “I want to know why talking of your father made you happy, but talking of your mother made you sad.”
I bite my lip. “I’m sorry. It’s hard to talk about.”
“Hear me on this, Chris Armstrong.” She locks her eyes on mine. “The Human King murdered thousands of my people. Countless numbers of other peoples of magic. And many of his own human subjects as well. So understand that I do not care at all for what you find hard to talk about. Answer my question.”
She has no weapons that I can see. But if she decides I need to die, she’s not going to take me back to camp and have her subjects do it. She brought me all the way out here so she could do it herself, where my friends wouldn’t see, and couldn’t interfere.
“My dad’s like Nate,” I say. “He was created by the Moment. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know about any of this.”
“And your mother?” Dyllic asks.
“She’s a logomancer. Her name before was Kelle Gerddinchild. Did you know her?”
“The name is not familiar.”
“Her word is ice, I think. Or maybe cold. She was a servant of the Common King.”
Dyllic looks up for a moment as she thinks. “That strikes a chord. A woman in the Common King’s service who slays her enemies with ice. Yes. I never encountered her myself. And she remembers her life before?”
“Yes. Not completely. Nobody out there remembers everything, as far as I know. But she remembers enough.”
“And does she serve you again?”
“No!” I rip up a few blades of grass and start tearing them into pieces. “No. And I don’t want her to. She’s working with someone else. Mr. Miller, my old history teacher. He served the Common King too. He has illusion powers.”
Dyllic’s eyes widen. “Muln Velkinchild? He is alive and awake in your new world?”
That’s the name Mr. Miller had in my dreams. “Yes. And he’s bad news. They want to restore my memories of the Common King. Make me him again. But I don’t want that, Dyllic.” I clench my fists. “Please believe me. I don’t.”
She gives me a thoughtful look. “What others are awake?”
“Mr. Liefer. What did you call him?”
“Rahk Ungsilchild.”
“Right. Him, and he’s got three others with him, three more of the group who cast the spell.”
“Name them.”
“Oh. I don’t know their names from before.”
“Their new names, and their words, then.”
“Lily Deng is a friend of ours. She can split herself an
d other stuff into copies. Andy Palakiko was my drama teacher. His word is ‘body’ and he can make himself super strong. And Mr. Ambrose. Darryl Ambrose. His word is ‘disrupt.’ He can disrupt the Moment a little, so he’s how they’re keeping their memories from being erased again.”
“These people were the Common King’s enemies.”
She doesn’t ask a question, but I kind of know what she’s asking anyway. “Yeah, and they tried to kill me. We’re in a truce. For now. They’re working on finding Mr. Miller and the rest.”
“Do they know you want to free us?”
“No. Lily does, but she hasn’t told Liefer. He thinks you’re better off where you are until the problem with Mr. Miller is solved.”
She laughs a little, without any humor. “Yes. And then I’m sure there will be another problem to be solved, then another, until he finally decides it is best to leave matters as they are, and us where we are. Any others?”
I twist the grass around my fingers some more, sending more pieces flying. I can’t keep this from her. The other elves might be questioning my friends now to compare our stories. “The Nightmare Queen.”
She draws a sharp breath, and touches the tree behind her for support. “The Nightmare Queen? She is awake?”
“We’re pretty sure. She attacked Lily and some other students with their nightmares. And Liefer and the rest, they’ve been having dreams of their worst fears.”
“And you?”
“Me?”
She narrows her eyes. “Have you had dreams?”
I look down at the pale grass. “A few. They’re not getting to me, though.” I look back up at her and add quickly, “They’re not, really. Alisa’s watching me, I promised I’d tell her if I felt like I’m changing. Which I’m not. But if I do. And you trust Alisa. And we decided to stay away from the Nightmare Queen. Let Liefer take care of her. We all voted. So she won’t have a reason to come after me for real.”
Stop babbling. God.
“What new life has the Nightmare Queen been born into?” Dyllic asks. “Does she have all her memories back?”
“We don’t know. We don’t know who she is. Do you know anything about her? What she looks like? Maybe we can figure it out. She’s probably somebody I know, or at least have met. That was one of the Moment’s rules.”
Her lip curls. “I know nothing of her, save that her power is as great as her cruelty. Few have seen her true face. Only what she chooses to show in the visions she sends.”
She’s silent for a moment, staring past me.
“Did she ever send you a nightmare?” I ask quietly.
“During the civil war, when the Common King sought to seize the throne, I assisted the humans in several battles, leading the warriors of the Sagemoss tribe.” She leans heavier on the tree. Her voice is distant. “Towards the end of the war, the Nightmare Queen began visiting the leaders at night. Every night. To shake our morale.”
“What did you see?”
Her eyes snap into focus, on me. Her glare is deadly. “I think we have had enough questions.”
I look away. “Sorry,” I whisper.
She straightens up, brushing the dust from the tree bark off her hands. Her expression is unreadable again.
I straighten as well but my posture is, at best, a poor imitation of her regality. My palms are sweaty so I wipe them on my pants, letting the shards of grass I’ve been playing with fall. My mouth is dry.
Dyllic raises her chin. “I’m not going to kill you, Chris Armstrong.”
I collapse a little. “I’m really glad to hear that.”
“I believe that you are sincere in your desire to keep your current identity, and that you do not wish us the harm that the Human King did.”
“I am! And I don’t!”
“Do you truly wish to free us into your world?”
“I do. There are about a million problems to solve first, but we can’t leave you here. Mr. Liefer should never have done this without your permission.”
“Indeed he should not. Perhaps we would have agreed to it, as a temporary solution. The threat you posed was dire. I won’t deny that.” She peels a strip of bark off the tree. “And perhaps we wouldn’t, and this spell would not have been cast. We could have found another way to stop you. One less costly.”
I shift a little. I don’t love being spoken to as if the Common King and I are the same person, but I’m not going to correct her.
“Maybe if he consulted you,” I suggest, “you could have designed a better world for yourselves.”
“I have no doubt we could!” She pounds the tree, sending bark chips falling. “We move among the trees with ease, yes, but we do not make our homes there! That is a shallow stereotype humans have of us. But this dead forest is safe, I’ll grant the logomancers that.” She laughs, this time for real. “The greatest danger we face here is boredom. I’m beginning to think I’d rather face your fires again than deal with this endless tedium!”
Oh, well. At least I made her laugh.
She walks back the way we came. “Come, Chris Armstrong. Let us return. We’ve plans to make.”
I hurry after her. “Thank you. For trusting me. It means a lot.”
She smiles warmly at me. “I trust your intentions to keep the Monster Child at bay. I have yet to decide if I trust your ability to do so.”
She brushes her fingers across my face. “But fret not. I can always kill you later.”
Eleven
“Tannyl has told me what he saw of your world,” Dyllic says. “It sounds a strange and chaotic place. We cannot simply arrive there, in all our numbers, all at once. For now, we must remain.”
We’re back in the camp, inside Dyllic’s shelter, sitting on chairs and benches made from the flimsy brittle trees of this place. My chair creaks like it’s going to collapse any second.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I say. “I don’t think Charlesville has room for millions of elves.”
Dyllic asks, “You say the spell, the Moment, it continues to assert itself?”
“Yes,” Alisa says. “We believe that even if we get you out of the necklace, it’ll pull you back in.”
“Maybe we can use the book to keep that from happening?” Nate suggests.
“A temporary solution,” Dyllic says. “We would not be beholden forever to a logomancer’s trinkets to keep our place in the world. But…” She tilts her head. “A temporary solution may suffice for now. Tannyl will accompany you, as our voice, our scout and our emissary. He will assist you in finding a place for us, and for the other imprisoned peoples of magic, in the new world.”
Tannyl bows his head. “Thank you, Dyllic. I am honored.”
The elf queen stands, so we jump to our feet. “Go now. Return to your world. I must meet with the leaders of the other tribes and justify my decision not to slay Kirt Nonechild while he was in my grasp. I can only hope my status as queen of queens survives.”
“Hold up,” Zane says. “I thought my name was Desh Nonechild.”
“I do not speak of you,” she replies. “I speak of the Human King.” She lifts the curtain of stitched-together clothes covering the doorway. “Go. The other leaders will be here soon, and I cannot promise your safety.”
She steps outside, leaving the five of us alone.
“Kirt Nonechild?” I say. “That was my name before? I mean, that was the Common King’s real name?”
“It was,” Tannyl replies.
I don’t feel anything. Zane and Alisa both felt recognition when they heard their real names for the first time, but mine might as well belong to a stranger.
Zane’s lip curls. “We had the same last name? We’re not related, are we?”
“Not to my knowledge.” Tannyl makes a sour face. “The Nonechild name is a distasteful practice. Humans build their surnames from their parents.” He indicates Alisa. “Ree Vardanchild is the child of Var and Dan.”
Alisa gasps. “Those are my parents names? Which is which?”
&nb
sp; “Var is your mother, Dan is your father,” he answers. “But the names could go in any order. Vardanchild and Darvanchild are the same name. If the parents are unknown, then the name Nonechild is used. A Nonechild is a child who has been orphaned.”
Zane takes my hand and I squeeze it. I already knew my parents weren’t my parents in the world before, but he didn’t know his weren’t.
Alisa takes her phone from her pocket. She taps it for a second, then shows the screen to Tannyl. “Is this them? Var and Dan?”
He leans close to the phone. “Yes, that is them. Your parents.” He taps the screen. “This image moves. I thought there was no magic in the new world?”
“It’s not magic. Just a video.” She puts the phone away. I catch her smiling a little, but she sees me looking and hides it.
“It’s okay,” I say. “Your parents are your parents in both worlds. It’s okay to be happy about that.”
She nods. “Thanks.”
Nate peeks out the curtained doorway. “There’s a whole bunch of new pointy-eared faces out there. Should we get going? Jasmine’s probably getting worried.”
“Yeah.” Zane swings our clasped hands. “Let’s go home.”
“Let’s hope the book works from the other side,” I say. “Otherwise we’re counting on Jasmine to get us out.”
Zane shudders. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“Hey!” Nate snaps his fingers at him. “Watch it.”
“Let’s get in a circle again.” I pull Zane to my side. “Like before.”
We stand holding hands, like we did when we entered the necklace, only this time with Tannyl in our circle.
Okay. I have to do what I did before. Communicate to the book what I want it to do.
“Book. Let us out of the necklace. Bring us back to the real world. Safely. Do it now.”
It works, even though I still can’t hear the Logos. Just like before, I feel like I’m moving and staying still at the same time. The shelter bends around me and I hold Nate’s and Zane’s hands tighter. The ceiling lowers to meet us and the whole world is dull brown and cold, then silver and warm, and the feeling of not-moving stops.