by Brian Olsen
“Don’t panic, babe,” he answers. “We’ll figure it out. They can last a few weeks, remember?”
“I can free them, maybe,” Mr. Ambrose suggests. “I got a minotaur out of the trophy by accident twice before, without the book. I should be able to help these fairies. I can do that much, at least.”
“I can take you to them,” I say. “Thanks, Mr. Ambrose.”
“Anything else?” Liefer asks.
I shake my head. “That’s it. We haven’t had time to find any more.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Surely there’s one you haven’t mentioned?” He points at Tannyl. “He had to come from somewhere, didn’t he?”
“He—”
Alisa cuts me off. “I have his artifact.” She taps her chest. “The necklace I’m wearing. The elves are inside.”
Liefer holds out his hand. “I’ll keep it safe.”
She tilts her head. “Will you? Because I’m failing to understand why these artifacts are so much safer with you than they are with us.”
“Because the Common King isn’t one of us.”
Zane stomps towards him and shouts, “He isn’t one of us, either!”
Mr. Ambrose stands up. “Please, Zane, please. Let’s not escalate this again. We only want to keep you kids safe. You shouldn’t have to shoulder this much responsibility.”
Nate laughs. “Seems to me your generation hasn’t done such a good job protecting the world. If you didn’t want us to take on responsibility for fixing it, you shouldn’t have messed it up so badly.”
Liefer shakes his head. “It was a teenager who ruined the last world, remember? He’s standing right there.”
I slam my hand down on the back of the easy chair. “Enough of that. We keep telling you, you’re not our headmaster anymore and we don’t have to put up with you being such a dick to everyone all the time.”
Liefer’s jaw drops. The mixture of shock, outrage, and anger on his face makes me so happy. Mr. Ambrose coughs and I think – I’m not sure but I think – that he’s covering a laugh.
“I’m getting a little tired of being insulted by my students,” Liefer says. “Former or not.”
“Yeah, well.” I step up to him. “I’m getting a little tired of being blamed for things the Common King did. You can have the coin and we’ll show you where the painting is so long as it stays put. But Alisa’s keeping the necklace.”
“This isn’t a discussion.”
Zane cracks his knuckles. “It better be a discussion. You don’t want to start something. I did pretty good against you last time, Mr. Liefer, and I’ve been practicing since then.”
“And so have I.” Alisa stands at Zane’s shoulder. “The truth is a powerful weapon, I’m finding.”
Tannyl moves across the room to stand with Alisa. “Since it is my people’s safety we are discussing, I believe I should have a say?”
Liefer’s eyes narrow, but he nods.
Tannyl smiles broadly. “The elves do not like you, logomancer. Perhaps out of the hundreds of distinct tribes and millions of individual elves, there are one or two who think well of you. But I feel confident when I say that none who knew you liked you much. You were a useful ally in a common cause. Until you betrayed us. In this world I speak for our queen of queens, and she would agree with me that we feel safer around Alisa’s neck than we would in your hands.” He puts his arms behind his back. It looks like a harmless gesture, but everybody knows his knife is hidden back there, and he knows everybody knows it. “That should settle the matter, should it not?”
Liefer takes in Tannyl and Alisa, standing close to each other. “I think I do remember you, Tannyl. A flash of memory, just now.” He smiles. It’s the same smile he used to give at school, whenever he caught somebody breaking some ridiculous rule that only he cared about. Stupid smug smile. “You two were a couple, weren’t you? Don’t you think that makes you a little biased? Maybe you’re not the best elf to speak for your people, after all.”
“Oh, there it is!” Nate throws his hands up. “Old straight white man, thinking he knows better for a minority than they do for themselves!”
Liefer clenches his fists. “That’s hardly fair, Nate. We’ve had this conversation before. You recklessly throw around accusations of racism without thinking through the consequences just because—”
“Because I’m Native? You think I’m reckless because I’m Native?” Nate cups his hands around his mouth and bellows, “Raaaaaaaaciiiiiiiiist!”
“That’s not what I was going to say!” Liefer smooths back his oily hair. “I’m not racist.” He makes a small gesture towards Mr. Ambrose. “Ask one of my—”
Mr. Ambrose makes a cutting gesture across his neck. “Ronald, for the sake of our long friendship I am giving you the chance to stop talking before you try to prove how not racist you are by calling me ‘one of your black friends.’ Please. I’m begging you.”
Andy smashes his fist into the front door, making us all jump. The wood cracks where he struck it. He storms back into the room. “Why are we arguing with them? Teleport it off her neck and let’s get out of here.”
Liefer, still a little flustered, tugs down his polo shirt and slaps a polite smile back on his face. “I would rather you hand it over willingly, Alisa.”
Alisa puts on an identical polite smile. “And I’m not going to do that, Mr. Liefer.”
He holds out a hand.
Alisa doesn’t move.
He lowers it. “I will take it from you by force if I must.”
“Mr. Liefer.” Alisa plants her feet. Her hands are down by her side and she flexes her fingers, like she’s getting ready to practice some serious logomancy. “You are more than welcome to try.”
“Um, hey, everybody?” Jasmine grabs the remote from the coffee table. “Sorry to interrupt, I mean, I’m not really sorry because it looks like you’re about to fight so I’m glad to interrupt that, but I think there’s something happening everyone should see?”
She turns up the volume. A breaking news story has interrupted whatever channel 8, the ABC affiliate out of Hartford, had scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I recognize the anchor from the local news. He’s talking about something happening in Charlesville, some kind of riot, and then shows footage somebody took on their phone.
It’s downtown, the main shopping area right by Charles Park. The video is taken from a window, up above, and the person recording it keeps saying, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” in disbelief, but past his voice screams of fear are audible. He’s zoomed in on the sidewalk right below him and we see the tops of people’s heads sprint by, but then he lifts the phone up and zooms out, giving a wide view of the street running along the front section of the park.
Minotaurs. Dozens of them, charging out of the park and into the street. They’re all carrying huge double-edged battle axes. One drops his down on the hood of a parked car, denting it and making the vehicle bounce. Another swings at a fleeing woman, who’s slowed by the toddler she carries. He misses her by inches.
The bull-men and cow-women fan out from the park, spreading up and down and across the street. There’s a loud sound of glass shattering and the phone pans down to show a minotaur smashing his way into the video guy’s building. With one last “oh my god” the footage cuts out.
“Oh, no,” Alisa says. “Oh, no.”
“Is this live?” Zane asks. “Is this happening now?”
“I think so,” Jasmine answers.
“Quiet!” Liefer barks. “Look at the anchor!”
The news anchor hasn’t said a word since they cut back to him. He’s staring off with a confused look. The same look Mrs. Wollard gave me. The same look just about everybody from the world before the Moment gives when they begin to remember their former lives.
“I know what those are,” he says softly. “Don’t I? I’ve seen those before…I knew one. We were…did we work together? Were we…friends?” He blinks, snapping out of it with a start, and touches his earpiece. “Sorry
about that. I’m being told a News 8 team is on its way to Hartford now. We’ll be back live with more information as the situation unfolds. I’m…” He pauses. “I’m…” He touches his earpiece again. “Are you sure that’s my name? That doesn’t sound right…”
“Damn.” Nate takes the remote from Jasmine and mutes the TV. “It’s like the Moment all over again.”
“No,” I say. “It’s the Moment weakening.”
I look over everyone assembled in my living room, both my friends and my maybe-allies, maybe-enemies. Any thoughts of fighting one another have disappeared.
I flex my fingers.
“Let’s go.”
Twenty-eight
“Lily, Andy, Darryl.” Mr. Liefer snaps his fingers. “Get ready.”
“We’re coming, too,” I say.
“Absolutely not.”
“We can help!”
“You can’t.” He sticks his finger in my face. “You, specifically, can’t. Seeing you do magic is still a trigger for breaking the Moment for anyone who helped cast it. How will you help if you’re busy defending yourself from logomancers regaining their powers and attacking you?”
“Then I won’t use magic.”
“You’ll stay here, out of the way.”
I fold my arms. “I can teleport now, too. If you go without us, we’ll follow.”
He looks at my friends, assembled behind me, all equally determined. “Fine,” he grumbles. “Space.”
And just like that, we’re outside, downtown. We’re a little ways down Center Street from the main action, nearer the intersection with Charles Street, but there are plenty of panicking people nearby. Two cars collided in the middle of the intersection, but the drivers must have already abandoned their vehicles and ran off on foot. A couple of minotaurs head in our direction, chasing a small clump of people.
“Darryl,” Mr. Liefer says. “Disrupt any electronic recording or transmissions. No more cell phone footage.” He nods down the street behind us, further from the action, where a camera crew is setting up. “And especially no news broadcasts.”
Mr. Ambrose nods. “I can do that.” He clenches his fists and furrows his brow. “Disrupt. Disrupt.”
“Lily,” Liefer continues, “split off and leave a copy here with him. Keep him safe and guide him away from any fighting, but not so far away that he’s out of range of the cameras.”
Lily immediately splits into two. “Got it,” they both say.
“Andy and Lily-prime, with me. We are to keep humans safe and stop the threat by any means necessary. The rest of you…” He turns to us. “Stay away from the minotaurs. Get people to safety and assist the injured until emergency services arrive.”
“Shouldn’t they already be here?” Nate asks. “The police station is only a couple blocks away.”
He’s right. It hadn’t even occurred to me, but there isn’t a single police car, ambulance, or fire truck to be seen. Plenty of noise, but no sirens.
“Yes, that’s odd.” Liefer pinches his lip thoughtfully. “Lily, send another duplicate to the police station, find out what’s happening there and report back. Everyone else, you know what to do.”
Lily splits off another copy, who runs off in the direction of the police station. The original follows Liefer and Andy as they intercept two minotaurs, coming between them and the people they’re after. One of them charges Lily, but she splits his axe in half before he can finish his swing. Andy punches him square in the snout, knocking the man-bull over with his super-strength. Liefer takes the other one, teleporting her forty feet into the air and letting her drop to the ground. Blood splatters and the creature lies unmoving on the hard street.
“Damn!” Nate shouts. “That was cold!”
“Disrupt,” Mr. Ambrose mutters. “Disrupt.”
“Hey.” I motion to gather my friends together. “Let’s move across the street. We don’t want to distract Mr. Ambrose.”
The Lily who stayed behind to guard him says, “Thanks, Chris. Don’t worry, I’ll keep him safe. No videos of your face this time.”
The remaining six of us rush across the street, dodging the throng of fleeing people. Once we’re on the opposite sidewalk, next to the tall stone wall bordering this side of the park, Alisa brings us to a halt. “Okay. So what are we really doing?”
I turn to our best resource, the only one of us with full memory of the world before. “Tannyl, quick info dump on minotaurs?”
“Info dump?”
“What can you tell us about them?”
“Ah. They are not typically aggressive.”
Nate jerks his thumb over his shoulder, back towards the riot. “You sure about that?”
Tannyl nods. “Minotaurs are people, of course, each one unique, but for so many of them to react to a strange new environment by immediately rampaging…it is unlikely. They are intelligent, and there is no noteworthy history of war or hostility between minotaurs and humans. Until the Common King’s ascent, many minotaurs lived peacefully in human communities, and vice versa.”
“The Nightmare Queen,” Jasmine whispers. She’s sweating a little and has gone back to hugging her pink elephant backpack tightly to her chest. “She’s doing something to them, I bet.”
“Jaz.” I touch her elbow. “You all right? I’m sorry, we didn’t ask if you wanted to come.”
She nods, a little too quickly. “I’m good. I’m okay. I want to help.”
Nate puts his arm around her. “Are we gonna do what Liefer said? Hang back and wait for the cops who obviously aren’t coming?”
“No. Zane, Tannyl, will you follow Mr. Liefer? Try to keep people from getting hurt but also try not to hurt the minotaurs if you can help it. If Jasmine’s right, they might be innocent.”
“I’m on it.” Zane kisses me. “I can lock down a couple cows, no problem.”
“Be careful. Don’t get too close to the fighting.”
“You be careful, too, with whatever stupidly brave plan you’ve got.”
I grin. “Who, me?”
Tannyl draws his dagger. “I will assist for as long as I am able, but I feel the call of the necklace again. I fear if we don’t recover the book soon, I will be forced to rejoin my people inside.”
“Oh, damn it.” Alisa clutches her necklace. “I should have asked Mr. Ambrose to give you a boost.” She grabs Tannyl’s hand tightly. “We’ll find the book, don’t worry.” Suddenly, and a little awkwardly, she puts her hand on the back of his neck, pulls his head down and kisses him. She breaks away and says, “Please be safe.”
Tannyl’s smile looks like it could swallow his whole face. “And you as well.”
Zane pats Tannyl on the shoulder and the two of them run off after Liefer. Alisa watches them go, fidgeting with her braids.
“Was that the first kiss?” I ask.
“Yup.”
“Feel like you’ve gotten to know him a little better, then?”
“I like how he handled your confession. Calmly. Kindly. Rationally.” She drops her hair. “Yeah, I know him better and I like what I know.”
Jasmine nudges her. “Doesn’t hurt that he’s hot.”
She shakes her head. “I honestly don’t care about that, Jaz. That’s the truth. But Alisa’s feelings are starting to catch up to Ree’s, and I’m more okay with that than I thought I’d be.”
“How was the kiss?” I ask.
She smiles. “Didn’t suck.”
“Finally!” Nate holds his hand up for a high five. “Tannyl’s awesome. It’s about time you gave him a chance.”
Alisa rolls her eyes at Nate’s gesture. “‘About time,’ he says. I’ve known him all of four days.” She puts her hands on her hips. “Enough mooning over elves. Chris, you’ve got a plan?”
I point along the stone wall, towards the park’s main entrance. More and more minotaurs keep appearing from the path, pouring out into the street. “They’re coming from the trophy, so the trophy’s gotta be in the park. If we find it, we can stop this.�
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“We’re gonna run towards the horde of killer monsters?” Nate asks. “Why’d you send away the two of us who can actually fight?”
Alisa smacks his chest with the back of her hand. “Hey. I can fight. If they’re under a spell, a little truth might be just what we need.”
“And I can use my magic if I have to,” I add. “As long as nobody’s watching. I doubt there are any people left in the park at this point.”
“There are an awful lot of minotaurs, though.” Jasmine shudders as a bovine roar sounds from not too far away. “How do we get past them?”
“We’ll go in through Charles Street.” I walk away from the action, towards the intersection behind us. “It doesn’t look like any are coming from that direction. Come on.”
The wall only extends to the corner. We turn down Charles Street and the park is open on our left, the grass ending at the sidewalk’s edge. We walk a little ways down to a path leading through the trees, and follow it to the top of a small hill. The trees block most of the interior of the park from view, but from this vantage we can roughly see where the minotaurs are coming from.
“There.” I point. “Near the pond, I think. Let’s skirt around. I don’t want to teleport us until I know exactly where.”
Alisa starts down the slope. “You realize, somebody is using the book and the trophy right now. Which means we’re not just walking into a horde of minotaurs, we’re walking towards an evil logomancer.”
“Yup,” I say. “Probably the Nightmare Queen.”
“Awesome.” Nate jumps down to the bottom and catches himself on a tree. “At least we’ll see who she is. I wonder if we know her.”
“Probably.” Alisa kicks up some dirt as she descends. “She’s somebody Chris knows. That’s how the Moment worked.”
“Oh.” Jasmine holds onto a thin tree for support as she joins us at the bottom. “I hope it isn’t anyone nice, like Mr. Miller used to be.” She scowls. “I’ll bet it’s Mrs. Kumar. She’s been extra mean since she became headmistress.”
“Maybe we can sneak up on her,” I suggest.