House of Enchanted

by Sarah Noffke

  “I absolutely will, but first I’ve got to put on some clothes,” Azure said, closing the bathroom door.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Azure didn’t think going to the Harvest Celebration was a great idea, but how else was she going to fuel her human magic? She knew it was likely that the Duke of Terran had security looking for her, but he didn’t know that she was in Terran. They’d met in the forest. Actually, he probably thought she’d run as far from Terran as possible. That was what most witches would have done. No one would voluntarily invade the borders of this strange society, except someone who had everything to lose if she didn’t.

  Heidi was waiting for Azure with eager eyes when she exited the bathroom, her skinny jeans and see-through tank fresh and clean.

  “First things first. On Earth, have you been to Los Angeles? That’s supposed to be the entertainment capital, from what I’ve heard,” she asked, speaking rapidly.

  “I have,” Azure confirmed, glad she didn’t have to lie…yet.

  “Wow! Tell me all about it! What’s your favorite part? I hear that the movie stars live there, people like Marilyn Monroe and Abraham Lincoln,” Heidi gushed.

  Azure wasn’t sure what she’d gotten herself into. Not only was she hiding the fact that she was a witch, but she was now impersonating an Earthling. The only thing that made her feel better was that her intuition told her the people of Terran really didn’t know much about Earth and Heidi wouldn’t know if she was lying. “Well, the shopping is great. You can buy anything you want at the mall. Traffic absolutely sucks. And there are theme parks, like this place called the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.”

  Heidi’s bright eyes suddenly dulled. “Oh, a theme park devoted to wizards and witches? That sounds like a horrible place. Why would humans build something like that?”

  Azure worked to keep her face neutral. “We love wizards and witches on Earth. They are considered a really special species, and are revered for their use of magic,” she said, catching the wink Toby gave her behind Heidi’s back.

  “Special species is right, like they all ride the short bus,” Heidi snorted. “The Consumer Party says that witches and wizards are all incredibly poor, and will be extinct in another hundred years.”

  “That’s not true. We just… I mean, they are just conservative. Not wasteful like humans,” Azure said, her voice flaring. “I mean, like us.”

  Heidi regarded Azure with a new expression, one that spoke of a sudden hesitation.

  “Sorry, I’m just passionate about witches and wizards. On Earth, we all want to be like them, hence the theme park devoted to Harry Potter,” Azure said, hoping she’d covered her blunder.

  “Well, we actually have witches and wizards here, but they’re filthy. More disgusting than Kilomeas,” Heidi said, strolling down the hallway to retrieve her keys. Azure followed behind her.

  “Have you ever met a witch?” Azure asked.

  “No, but the Consumer Party details them in their pamphlets.” Heidi pointed her finger in the direction of a piece of folded paper that was pinned to the large box that kept things cold. Azure had eaten something Toby called a Popsicle from there when she was waiting for her clothes to cycle through the washer.

  The front of the pamphlet read, What You Need to Know. This Consumer Party was telling the people of Terran how to act and what to believe. These people were really brainwashed.

  “You ready to go?” Heidi asked.

  “Yes, but tell me, is it possible that I’ll have the opportunity to meet the Emperor at this celebration, or anyone connected to him?” Azure asked and then added, “I’m obsessed with the royal house.”

  Heidi seemed to believe this and nodded. “I totally get it. Frederick, the Emperor’s son, is so sizzling.”

  “Sizzling? Like on fire?” Azure asked.

  “Like fine. He’s drop-dead gorgeous. And no, we won’t have a chance to flirt with him at the Harvest Celebration because the royal family is holding a press conference at the palace. Who knows what it’s about, but we can check it out on the television later,” she said, pointing to a flat screen on the far side of the living room.

  “But if the Emperor and his family aren’t at the Harvest Celebration, how do they restore their magic?”

  Heidi gestured for Azure to follow her as she set off for the door. “The royal family has a greenhouse where they leech their magic. That’s how the maintenance workers fill their reserves, which fuel our electricity. It’s actually a pretty smart idea, and they’ve talked about installing more greenhouses around the city. However, we are still learning how to grow plants. Maybe you could lend some of your knowledge from Earth!”

  Azure followed Heidi out of the house, again noting the fake grass in the manicured yard. “Wait, don’t you grow your own food? How do you get fruits and vegetables?”

  Heidi turned around, her forehead creased with confusion. “Why would we eat fruits and vegetables?”

  “Because they’re part of a healthy diet,” Azure said, speaking slowly, as if Heidi were hard of hearing.

  Heidi laughed. “That’s funny. You’re telling me humans on Earth eat things that grow? That’s so wasteful. They could be leeching magical energy from a carrot rather than wasting it by consuming it.”

  “Well, then it would surprise you to find out that on Earth humans don’t have magic,” Azure informed her, walking next to Heidi on the pavement. Small cars and bikes passed on the road, many of them angrily honking their horns.

  “No way! Those poor humans. No wonder you came here,” Heidi said. “And the poor things have had to resort to eating vegetables? That’s even sadder.”

  Now that Azure thought about it, there hadn’t been any fruits and vegetables in Heidi’s kitchen. It was all packaged stuff, and most of it contained sugar.

  “If you don’t grow your food, then where does it come from?” Azure asked, noticing that they were in a tract of duplicate houses, all with the same straight lines and no individuating details. In Virgo, each cottage resembled the witch or wizard who inhabited it, and was accented with bright colors and artwork. These houses were mostly brown and tan.

  “We create it using magic,” Heidi explained, not moving over on the sidewalk as a group heading in the opposite direction approached. Azure finally veered into the road to make way for them. It was like everyone was out for themselves here, and had no couth.

  “You start with supplies, correct?” she asked.

  “Yes. You want a Twinkie, start with some sugar. We buy that stuff in huge crates from the black market. You can make anything with just a teaspoon of sugar. It’s like gold,” Heidi said.

  “And also like poison,” Azure added, remembering the donut she had eaten earlier. It was now making her stomach churn.

  Azure veered back off the sidewalk as another group of humans passed them.

  “You know, you’re going to have to learn to stand up for yourself,” Heidi told her.

  “Is that why the citizens here don’t pause and allow the other person to go first? It’s like they have no manners,” Azure said.

  “Oh, we are plenty polite,” she said, waving at someone approaching and offering a giant smile. The guy smiled back widely, but neither of them moved over on the sidewalk as they passed, and they knocked into each other’s shoulders.

  “That’s fake niceness,” Azure said when the stranger had passed.

  “Well, the Consumer Party says we have to look out for ourselves first, but to smile as you do it,” Heidi said, turning down a new street.

  There was a large crowd in the distance. It gave Azure hope, that there were so many people here. She wouldn’t stick out, and would be that much closer to finding both her father and her mother’s soul stone. She was aware that time was running out. Monet would be worried and have Ever come after her if she didn’t return soon.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The crowd, to Azure’s surprise, was only the line to get into the Harvest Celebration.

 
“It’s in there,” Heidi said, pointing to the largest structure Azure had ever seen.

  “What happens in there?” Azure asked, taking her place in the slow-moving line beside Heidi.

  She turned and regarded Azure like she had suddenly turned into a pixie. “Are you serious? You’re the Earthling. I would have thought you’d be the first to recognize a football stadium.”

  “Oh,” Azure said, holding her breath momentarily while she constructed an answer. “Well, this one looks different than the ones I’m used to. Ours are…bigger.”

  Heidi’s eyes widened. “I cannot wait to go to Earth one day. You have to smuggle me through an illegal portal.”

  “The celebration is in this stadium?” Azure changed the subject, trying to peer around the people in front of her. They were almost to the entrance.

  “It’s the only place big enough. And what’s awesome is that we get to go down onto the field for the whole thing, instead of sitting in the stands like if we were watching a game,” Heidi said.

  Azure had absolutely no idea what Heidi meant, but she nodded and pretended it made perfect sense.

  “Hey, will you teach me how to leech and use human magic when we get inside?” Azure asked, her voice a whisper.

  “Absolutely, if you’ll answer a quick question for me. Is it true that Earthlings celebrate the day they were born each year and get presents just for existing?”

  That did seem like a bizarre thing to celebrate. If Gran got presents for each year she had been alive, the House of Enchanted would be exploding with cauldrons and strange potions.

  “Yes,” Azure affirmed, knowing she shouldn’t deliberate on it too long. “They’re called arrival parties. There’s a big feast, and people sing songs to the person.”

  “Wow, that’s crazy. If we did that then I’d be at an arrival party every single day,” Heidi said, striding forward through a hallway.

  Azure followed and squinted in the bright light as they stepped out of the corridor onto a green field that had been carpeted with the fake grass. She spun around, taking in the metal seats that surrounded the pretty green field. There were large fork-like structures at either side of the field, which were flanked by security guards. She lowered her chin and brought her eyes down.

  “It’s coming!” Heidi exclaimed, nearly jumping up and down in place as excitement spilled from her.

  “What is it?” Azure asked, trying to see what was being dragged in from the opposite side of the field.

  “Maybe it will be a boulder like last time, although they don’t have as much energy as a plant, so I hope not,” Heidi said, gripping Azure’s hand and pulling her through the crowd. “We want to be close so we have a good spot. Once the energy is all leeched, it’s done. There was one time that I didn’t even get any energy because I was at the back. Talk about a long time without magic!”

  Azure nodded, not understanding at all. It seemed so strange that humans had to rely on a source. She was intensely grateful for the ancestry that gave her internal magic. As she placed her fingers on her soul stone, she felt the object warm. It was formed from the accumulation of the power she hadn’t been able express because she’d been too young. The unused power had created the stone, and now that magical object was her insurance for the rest of her life. The witches and wizards of Virgo were amazing. Simply incredible.

  Deafening applause broke out from the crowd around Azure as something was brought in from the other side of the field. She craned her neck, grateful for the first time that the wedge heels made her a few inches taller. Chains had been attached to something large, and a few dozen men had lined up to pull it forward. Heidi made her step back as the men moved past her, all of them grunting as if whatever they were pulling weighed a few thousand tons. The chains dropped with a clatter and Azure, dragged by Heidi, clambered to the front. When she saw the object she was meant to leech, her heart sank to her knees.

  Before Azure, lying on its side, was a tall reddish tree like the one she’d passed to enter the Dark Forest. She hiccupped on a tear trying to escape her eye as she stared at the ancient tree that had towered higher than any structure she’d ever seen. The trunk was over thirty feet in diameter, and its length took up the entire field. How could the humans have cut down this tree? How had they not been caught by the rogue dryads? Or maybe they had been caught, and had killed the dryads who had taken it upon themselves to protect the forest.

  “Hold your hand up,” Heidi ordered, nudging Azure in the side. She copied her movements, lifting her shaking hand into the air and directing it at the fallen tree. “Now, draw in energy from the tree like you’re sucking something through a straw. Continue to do that until your ears pop. That’s how you know your reserves are full. And if you hear a high-pitched buzzing sound, you’ve overfilled your reserves, which can be dangerous and backfire on you.”

  Azure nodded. She didn’t need to fill her reserves all the way. All she needed this disgusting human magic for was to enchant her soul stone so that it would lead her to her father. She wasn’t going to take too much from this tree. If the humans subscribed to that idea, then the forest around them wouldn’t be dying. Cutting down a tree for this purpose made no sense to Azure. The humans of Terran had gone too far.

  Drawing in a breath, Azure pulled energy from the tree, feeling guilt and power simultaneously fill her being. The magic did feel extremely different than the witches’ magic she’d known all her life. Her magic felt like a pulse that was akin to the beating of her heart. However, she felt human magic in her head, like a drum that softly beat across her temples. It didn’t feel wrong, but rather infected her with a new power, making her feel like she was invincible. She was suddenly hungry, not for food, but for something she could create.

  “It’s addictive, isn’t it?” Heidi said at her side, and Azure realized she was still leeching the tree. She pulled her hand down, breaking the connection to the elemental power source. She noticed the crowd of people around her now. They all had their hands raised, and their faces glowed with satisfaction as they drew in the magical energy from the centuries-old tree.

  “How do I use the magic?” Azure whispered from next to Heidi’s shoulder. The other girl still had her hand raised, her focus on the tree.

  “You can’t be full yet. Keep drawing from the tree. It won’t last long,” Heidi cautioned, and just then Azure understood what she meant. The red bark of the tree had faded to a pale color, and it started to take on the look of the trees she’d seen in the forest along the Terran border. It was slowly turning to ash.

  “I’m good. I don’t want to overdo it on my first time,” Azure lied.

  “Okay, well, you probably aren’t ready for charms anyway. They rely on intention. But I’ll teach you how to do manifestations in a second when I’m done,” Heidi told her, her hand still leeching.

  Maybe a human from Earth couldn’t do charms yet, but a witch from Virgo was already a master at enchantments. Azure drew on what her gran had taught her growing up. Magic was about focus and infusing the right idea with the power inside of her. She clutched her soul stone, closing her eyes for a moment. Not that she felt safe closing down her senses with so many people around, but she knew she needed to block out intrusions. She fed the magical energy in her head into the stone and directed a single intention to it.

  Draw me to my father. Show me who he is.

  Azure opened her eyes, not because she was done creating the charm but because the tree was moving. It slid in the opposite direction, the chains rattling again.

  “I told you it wouldn’t last long,” Heidi said and Azure just noticed the grayish trunk crumbling to bits as they hauled it away. “This is my favorite part, though.”

  At the back of the tree, Azure saw carts being brought in. They looked to be filled with trash, but when one was wheeled in front of Azure she saw that there were various items in them. Broken devices. Things with protruding wires. Items with wheels and screws.

  “What is all this?”
Azure asked Heidi.

  “This is a perk of living in Terran. At the Harvest Celebration they offer us supplies to use our magic on. And you know what, I’ve been dying to have a microwave,” she said, diving forward and fighting a guy for a black and gray box. It looked like the guy was going to win the battle until Heidi stamped her foot on his toe, making him hop backward. She pulled the broken device to her chest and sped off like he might still try and take it.

  “So you can use your magic on that to make a microripple?” Azure asked.

  “Microwave,” Heidi corrected. “How haven’t you heard of those? They are supposedly huge on Earth.”

  “I live off the grid,” Azure said, thinking of the term that was synonymous with Virgo. Witches’ and wizards’ lifestyles were sustainable, and they considered themselves off the grid.

  “Oh. Well, microwaves are supposed to be brilliant. You can heat up food in no time, and unlike a toaster, you don’t have to throw it out after only one use. Very wasteful, toasters are.”

  “What’s a toast—” Azure started, but was cut off by something licking her toe. She turned her eyes down to find a dog, its tongue generously slathering her wedge’s heel with saliva.

  “Get off,” Azure said, stepping back. Dogs were strange animals, not at all as civilized as cats.

  “OM gods,” Heidi said, reaching down and petting the wiry-haired monster. “That’s the Duke’s poodle. She’s so cute.”

  “What did you say?” Azure asked, her heart rising into to her throat.

  “The Duke. He apparently got the poodle from Earth,” Heidi explained, now kneeling down and allowing the filthy animal to lick her on the mouth.

  “I thought you said that no one from the royal family was going to be here.” Azure said, scanning the crowd, which was thick with excited humans.

  “I decided to stop by, since I believed there might be a witch in our midst,” a voice said behind Azure.