by Brian Olsen
“Turn him back!” I yell. “Turn them all back!”
The wolf that used to be my best friend springs at Zane, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there. Wolf-Nate growls in Zane’s face, saliva dripping. Zane’s shadow vanishes, releasing Mrs. Wollard.
“I’ll free them when you’re dead, Common King.” Mrs. Wollard points at me. “Kill him, my friends! Rip out his throat!”
The pack charges.
“Sun!”
No attack from the Nightmare Queen this time. A wall of flame appears in front of the nearest of the wolves. They stop short, whining in fear. The wall is tall but only extends so far to either side, and two of the wolves barrel around it and come for us.
Tannyl stabs the leader in the flank. It yowls and retreats, dripping blood.
“Stop!” Alisa shouts. “These are innocent people! Don’t hurt them!”
He thrusts his dagger at the other wolf. “What choice have we?”
Alisa pushes past him. The uninjured wolf is leaning back on its haunches, preparing to spring. It growls at her.
She flexes her fingers. “Take your true form. Turn back to your true self.” She holds a hand out towards him. “Truth!”
The wolf flinches, then collapses to the ground and rolls back and forth, its body spasming. Human features form, mingling grotesquely with the wolf face. The animal screams in horrible pain.
“Wolf!” Mrs. Wollard shouts. “Wolf! Wolf!”
Beyond the wall of fire, more people drop to all fours and transform. The original wolves move along the flames, towards the open sides.
“I can’t change him back!” Alisa says. “She’s fighting me!”
On the far side of Mrs. Wollard, Jasmine is in tears. She’s got her arms around Nate’s furry neck, trying to pull him off Zane. Nate whips his head around and snaps at her. She falls off him in shock. Nate turns back and snarls in Zane’s face again. Shadows form around Zane’s head, but Nate barks viciously in his face and they dissipate.
The wolves advance on us. Mrs. Wollard comes closer, behind them, blocking my view of my friends.
Tannyl steps towards them, wielding his dagger.
Alisa kneels by the wolf she’s trying to restore, saying her word again and again, oblivious to the others advancing on us.
Enough.
“Give me a little more,” I whisper to myself. “Just a little more.”
I’m in the barren plain, on the steps. I’m on the twelfth step. I climb to the thirteenth.
Not enough. She’s going to kill us all. I just need a little more.
I take one more step, to the fourteenth.
I’ve covered about half the distance from the ground to the floating room now. I can see into it, a little bit. The side facing me is mostly open. I can see the inside of the walls, the wooden boards stained a dark brown. There’s no decoration on them, or on the ceiling.
Somebody’s standing at the back of the room, mostly out of my sight. I catch a glimpse of hair, that’s all. Ash blond, like mine.
I’m back on the Millennium Bridge. I let the fire wall vanish. I don’t need it. The wolves take advantage, advancing from every side. Alisa gasps, giving up on the wolf she was trying to cure, but Tannyl stands in front of her, dagger in hand. Mrs. Wollard throws her snout up and howls in triumph.
I fly up and over the advancing animals and land in front of her. She takes a step back in surprise, then brings her arm up, preparing to slash her claws across my face.
“Sun.”
Her hand burns. Her arm is already in motion, but the pain throws her off balance and I duck under the swing, avoiding it easily. I shove her and she falls face-down onto the metal walkway, whimpering and cradling her hand. I flip her onto her back with my foot, then kneel, one knee on the bridge, the other on the werewolf’s chest. The fire on her paw is out but I set my hands ablaze and hold them an inch from either side of her head.
“Mercy!” she cries. “Mercy, Common King!”
“Don’t call me that!” I spit the words in her face. “I’m done being blamed for what he did! Now free these people or I’ll melt your eyes out of your skull!”
“Wolf!” she shouts. “Wolf! Wolf!”
All the other wolves shake and transform back into their real selves. It happens quickly, leaving most of them huddling on the ground, crying. A few stagger to their feet and run for their loved ones. A woman sits leaning against the railing, holding her bleeding leg and screaming in agony. The one Tannyl stabbed.
Nate sits, his legs up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs. Jasmine crouches next to him, holding him, whispering something soothing.
“You hurt my friend.” My fires grow hotter. “You hurt Nate.”
Mrs. Wollard’s body ripples beneath my knees. I’m not pinning down a fearsome half-wolf anymore. Just a terrified old woman.
“Please,” she whimpers. “Please don’t kill me.”
She’s disgusting.
I put my flames out, but then I lean in very close.
“I need you to listen to me,” I whisper. “If you come after me. If you come after my friends. If I find out that you’ve used your magic at all, I will come back and I will kill you. Do you understand me?”
She tries to say something a few times, but her tears stop her. So she nods instead, digging her gray hair into the bridge.
“You ran and hid before,” I say. “Do it again.”
I get up, leaving her curled and sobbing on the ground, and walk over to my friends.
Alisa looks at the old woman. “What did you say to her?”
“I told her to leave us alone.”
It’s the truth. Maybe not the whole truth, but the truth. I wonder if Alisa can tell the difference?
I don’t care. I don’t care about all the phones recording us right now, either. I just want to go home.
We gather by Nate and Jasmine. Zane hugs me. I kiss him.
“I thought Nate was gonna kill me,” he whispers.
“It’s okay now. She won’t hurt us again.” I crouch down. “Nate?”
Nate looks up. Tears stain his cheeks. “That sucked. That really sucked. I had no control. I was totally…that sucked.” He reaches for Zane’s hand and grasps it to his chest. “I’m sorry, dude. I’m really sorry.”
“Oh, geez, man.” Zane cups Nate’s hand in both of his. “Not your fault. It’s good. We’re all good.”
“Ready to go home?” I ask.
Nate pulls his hand from Zane’s and wipes his face. “Hell yeah.”
With Jasmine’s and Zane’s help he gets to his feet. He takes in the scene, all the other people twisted by Mrs. Wollard’s logomancy.
“Will they ignore this?” he asks. “Will the Moment make them forget, like with the lightning bird?”
“I don’t care,” I say. “Right now, I honestly don’t. We’ve got a promise to keep to some fairies. Let’s get it done.”
Nate touches his face and says softly, “I’ll never forget this. Never.” He takes a breath and puts his hand on my shoulder.
Everybody else touches me too. I summon up a picture in my head, of the secluded spot in the woods outside Charlesville, near the Rocks.
“Sun.”
This time the Nightmare Queen doesn’t interfere. We vanish, leaving London, the Millennium Bridge, the crowd, the cameras, Mrs. Wollard, and the traumatized victims of her magic behind.
Twenty-two
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” The fairy flies up into my face, then does a couple of loop de loops around my head. “Thank you, thank…oh!”
He elongates into fairy-string and spirals into the painting. The piece of art lies on top of the book, which sits on a tree stump in a large clearing we found in the woods. This location isn’t as inaccessible as I thought – the “impassable ravine” I remembered that separates it from the spot where kids come to party is more of an “annoying gully” – but it’ll have to do. The fairies would have died if we hadn’t let them o
ut. We can come up with a long-term solution later.
Alisa sighs. “I got it.” She touches the painting, and an instant later the fairy shoots back out into the world with an excited cry.
Jasmine is a little ways away from us, spinning and laughing while fairies fly all around her. As she spins, she drifts closer to a glowing golden shimmer floating in the air. Fairies flit in and out of it, vanishing or reappearing as they do.
“Jasmine,” Tannyl calls out. “Stay clear of the portal to the fay. It’s not safe for mortal folk.”
“Got it!” she says. A fairy lands on her head and tugs at her curly red hair. She screams with delight.
The painting sucks in a dozen more fairies. Alisa groans.
I touch the painting. “I’ll get this one.”
Book, release the fairies inside the painting into the world.
The painting bounces once and the fairies zip back into reality with high-pitched whoops of joy.
“Why do they keep doing that?” Zane asks. “Why don’t they stay in fairyland where they’re safe?”
“Fairies are creatures of the moment,” Tannyl answers. “They forget that they remain tethered to the painting. Alisa, can you free them from it, as you freed me from the necklace?”
“I didn’t free you from it,” she replies. “I couldn’t. I have to keep giving you boosts so you don’t get pulled back in. There’s no way I can do that for three hundred thousand fairies.”
I rub my eyes. I barely slept last night. We were out all morning in London but now it’s just past sunrise in Connecticut. I’m all out of whack. “Gildglass? Are you around?”
The first fairy we met zooms out of the fay and stops in front of me, hovering level with my face. His formerly-sickly glow is now so bright I can barely make out his joyful expression. “I’m here and well, friend logomancer! We are revived! Thank you all!”
“You need to be careful. We freed you but we didn’t break the spell that imprisoned you. If you stay in this world too long you’ll be pulled back into that fake one.”
He shudders. “We do not wish that! We will be careful!”
“Ouch!” Jasmine cries out as the fairy in her hair distorts and stretches towards us. The pull of the Moment yanks him free from her, and he and a bunch of others vanish into the painting.
Zane grumbles, “I’ll do it,” and kneels by the tree stump to release them.
I shake my head. “One of us will check in on you once a day to re-release anybody who needs it, how does that sound? You lasted a few weeks in there before, you can manage twenty-four hours if you have to.”
“Most gracious!” Gildglass says.
“One other thing. Keep away from any humans besides us. If you see any coming, disappear into the fay until they’re gone.”
Gildglass rubs his hands together. “You wish to make a bargain? What will you give us for this boon?”
“No bargains.” I squint and lean in close to him. “A request, from the people who saved your lives.”
He laughs. “We will do our best! But it is such a joy to be free, and this world feels new! So new!” He spirals up and up, above the treetops, then swoops down to join his fellow fairies’ dance.
Jasmine runs over to us, smoothing back her mussed hair. “Oh my gosh! They’re so pretty! I want to live here!”
“We may have to.” Nate’s been standing apart, leaning against a tree, looking at his phone. He walks over to join us and holds it out. “Check it out. This just went up.”
It’s the BBC, reporting on the incident at the Millennium Bridge a little while ago. They don’t offer any explanation for the bizarre events, but they show snippets of videos taken by several different people. There are shots of Wollard’s victims turning into wolves, and clear footage of all of us, including Zane’s shadow, Nate’s transformation, and Tannyl’s ears. I’m seen flying and making fire before all of us disappear.
“Oh, crap,” I say.
“They don’t know who we are yet.” Nate stops the video. “But they’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe the Moment will make them forget?” Jasmine suggests.
“Maybe them,” Alisa says. “But not Mr. Liefer. What are we going to do?”
I yawn again. “Sleep. I can’t think straight. I need sleep.”
Jasmine hugs herself. “What if the Nightmare Queen comes after us?”
“I’m more curious about why she waited this long.” Alisa bundles some of her braids in her hands. “Why ignore Chris all this time, and then wait until we’re in London to attack him?”
Zane puts his arm around my waist. “Was she in London too, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t know how close she has to be to use her powers.”
“Tannyl?” Alisa asks. “Any ideas?”
Tannyl starts. “Hm? Forgive me, my mind was elsewhere. An ocean seems too great a distance for any logomancer, but I do not know for certain.”
Alisa bites her lip. “Maybe it was a different logomancer. Chris, are you sure it was the Nightmare Queen?”
I am, but I don’t want to explain that she’s been sending me memories exactly like I saw on the bridge. “I saw images in my head,” I say instead. “From nightmares I’ve had. Just like Lily told us about.”
“She must have been watching.” Jasmine hugs her pink elephant backpack to her chest. “She knew exactly when you were going to say your word.” She shudders. “Oh, that’s so scary.”
Nate shrugs. “It’s not like we can do anything about it. So why not nap?”
Alisa frowns. “Well, I mean, we can do something. We’re not giving up.”
Nate looks away. “Yeah. Whatever.”
I break the awkward silence by saying, “Okay, rest first, then we’ll meet up this afternoon and figure out our next move. Sound good?”
“Do we have a cover story?” Alisa asks. “Our parents probably called around looking for us last night.”
“Say you were at my place,” Jasmine suggests. “I have the house to myself. My parents are still in Europe.” She blows air out of her cheeks. “Not London, thankfully.”
“I’m glad one of us won’t get in trouble.” I stick my arms out. “Everybody grab on.”
Alisa takes the book, replacing the painting on the stump.
“Oh!” Jasmine finds a heavy rock and places it on top of the light canvas, keeping it in place. “There. Bye, fairies!”
“Goodbye, Jasmine!” comes a buzz of responses.
“They know my name!” Jasmine squees.
“Yeah, great.” Nate takes her hand and places it on my shoulder. “You can play more with your little friends later, babe.”
Everybody else touches me and I take us to Alisa’s backyard.
“Oh, hey.” Jasmine opens her backpack. “Alisa, can I hang onto the book until this afternoon? I want to find the next creature we should look for.”
“Yeah, sure. Your fairies worked out pretty well. First, let me just…” She takes off her necklace, rests it on the book, and says, “Truth.” She lifts the necklace. “That should keep our elf solid for a few more hours.”
Tannyl bows and smiles. “My thanks.”
Jasmine takes the book and shoves it in her backpack. Alisa waves goodbye as I take the rest of us to Jasmine’s to drop her off, then an instant later to Nate’s.
“Give me a sec,” I say to Zane. He nods and takes out his phone.
I pull Nate aside. “You all right?”
“Fantastic. Why?”
“You looked pretty shaken up about the whole wolf thing.”
“The whole wolf thing.” He shakes his head. “Yeah. I guess I’m shaken up about turning into an animal and having somebody else control my mind and making me almost kill somebody I’m just starting to forget I hate. But what does it matter? You wizards can do what you want. I’m just along for the ride.” He laughs. “It’s not like I’m a real person.”
I frown. “I thought you were over that.”
&n
bsp; He laughs again. “Over it, he says! Sure, why not? Why have an existential crisis about a life that could be completely different from one second to the next? Maybe Mr. Liefer will rewrite the world again and I’ll be white, or a logomancer, or, hey, maybe I’ll get to be the big evil king next time around!” He shrugs. “Or maybe I won’t be in that world at all. Maybe I’ll go back to not existing.” He shakes his head. “No, dude. I’m not over it.”
I grab his shoulders. “Nate—”
“Don’t.” He pulls away. “It’s cool.” He rubs his eyes. “I mean, it’s not cool. At all. Shit.” He hugs me. “Thanks for worrying about me, dude, but I’m good. I’m functional.” He breaks away. “Save the magic creatures, stop the bad guys, all that. I’m on board. I’ll work through this shit while we do it.”
“We can talk—”
He gives my shoulder a light push and puts on a smile. “Nah, you’re exhausted from all the bully sex. Go on, get home. I’ll see you in a few.” He whistles and beckons for Tannyl. “Come on, elf. Let’s go get yelled at.”
Tannyl joins us. “I will follow you in a moment, Nate.”
Nate sighs. “Sure, leave me to face the music alone.” He waves to Zane. “Sorry again about almost eating you!”
Zane doesn’t look away from his phone, but gives a thumbs up in acknowledgment. Nate goes into his house through the back door.
Tannyl gives me a cool look. “I heard you threaten the wolf woman. Your words were harsh. Even cruel. That was unlike you.”
I bite my lower lip. “Yeah. I wanted to scare her, make sure she didn’t come after us. I wouldn’t have hurt her.”
“You were very convincing.”
“I’m a good actor. You should see my John Proctor.”
He glances down at my waist. “Your…what?”
“From The Crucible. It’s a play, it…doesn’t matter. You’re right, I was too harsh. I was terrified, I guess I got carried away.”
“More furious than terrified, I think. That was quite a display of power. You flew effortlessly.”
“The Nightmare Queen stopped interfering.”
“Still. You used your magic in multiple different ways in rapid succession, without needing time to gather your will. You didn’t even say your word aloud.”