The End of Magic (Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy)

by GM Gambrell

  Five

  he next morning Duncan made it a point of being at the breakfast table in the main house with his mother and father. They both looked at him suspiciously, suspecting the barrage of questions he was about to bring forth. He sat down at the table calmly and began eating his breakfast in silence. There was so much he wanted to ask, so many implications just from his few minutes of speaking with Diamond Jim.

  “I’m sorry, Duncan,” his father told him. “I didn’t mean to launch that fireball at you. I was just so worried.”

  “I understand, Dad. Don’t worry about it.”

  “We should have told you about Diamond Jim years ago,” his mother began. “I guess I just always hoped that he wouldn’t come looking for you. You see, son, Jim is like you. He doesn’t have the ability to perform magic. Also, like you, he grew up in a Magician city. He was so much like you when he was young. He was a good boy, then, with the potential to be a fine young man, just like you.”

  “I understand that. He doesn’t live in a city now, though, does he?” His mind raced with what that meant. Were there habitable places in the Wastes? He could only have come from out there. Duncan knew he’d have heard of another like himself if he lived in the cities. People would gossip. Diamond Jim had to be from the Wastes, even if he was from one of the cities originally.

  “No one knows for sure,” Albert told him, “and it’s lucky for him that they don’t. He is a wanted man, Duncan. There is a warrant for his arrest in every city and in New Atlantis. He is, without a doubt, the most wanted man in the world.” He sighed. “I expect a visit from the Lord Probate’s Magistrates as soon as word of his visit leaks out. People would have seen that thing he rode in on. They would have heard.”

  “What has he done that he’s wanted for?” Duncan asked, the concept of a criminal being wanted by the authorities a bit strange for him. There simply weren’t any criminals. Why would someone steal when they could just conjure what they wanted?

  “It’s complicated, Duncan.” Helen said. “He was a good boy, once upon a time.”

  His mother seemed to be stuck on that, and Duncan half suspected that she’d known Diamond Jim more than she was letting on.

  “He has to live out in the Wastes, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “And how does he know me?”

  “Son, your lack of magical ability is no secret, and Jim has, in the past, hunted for people like you to join him in his crusade. We knew it was a matter of time before he came looking. We just hoped that maybe, just maybe, one day your abilities would kick in and it would all be a moot point. Sadly, that just hasn’t been the case.”

  Duncan just knew he was lying. There was more to whatever was going on than Albert Cade was letting on.

  “And he wants to destroy magic? How is that even possible?”

  “It isn’t,” Helen agreed. “There is no way to strip the magical abilities that reside within us. It’s a fool’s errand, at best. He remains bitter at the destruction of his people, refusing to see that, in their destruction, an entire world was saved. He is a very sad man. He claims that there is a Source of Magic, brought into the world by Jeremiah Fredrick. That’s simply not the case, as our histories tell us. Magic has always been around, hiding in the shadows.”

  Duncan had reached the same conclusion Jim had just from reading Mr. Falcon’s small collection of Magician Histories. He knew, deep down, there was a Source of Magic. It was the only thing that explained the sudden surge of Magic in the world. But his mother was towing the official line from the Magicians, and there wasn’t any point in arguing it with her. “And you know him, don’t you?”

  His parents were silent, telling him all he needs to know.

  “Well, I just wanted to thank you for protecting me from him,” he said, feeling bad about lying to his parents. “I didn’t get a chance to last night when, well, when everyone was so upset. I don’t want to be taken into the Wastes,” he lied again. “And I don’t want to leave my family. I’m happy here, with you.”

  His mother beamed at him, her smile bright enough to light the entire city, and his heart sank. He really did want to be in the Wastes, adventuring and discovering things like the ancient helicopter Jim flew. He wanted to explore those ancient places only whispered about, wanted to see the destruction for himself that the Last War had caused. He wanted to know things, but he also knew he wasn’t ready. He honestly wasn’t sure if he believed his parent’s description of Jim or not, and felt even worse for doubting them, but doubt them he did. He’d looked into Jim’s eyes and he simply hadn’t seen the hatred there that his parents had described. He wasn’t saying that it wasn’t possible, but he wanted to learn for himself. He wanted to know everything, and he suspected that his parents were not telling him the whole story about what was out there in the world.

  He knew that, until the man Diamond Jim showed back up and he could ask more questions of someone who would answer them, he’d just have to learn on his own. And there was only one place he knew of in the city where he might find information he could use. The Magic School’s library was the city’s repository of ancient knowledge and he’d heard it stretched a full eighteen stories below ground, matching the height of the school. It was said that the magic in the library was so powerful that only those who’d completed the school, and understood the serious nature of it, would be allowed anywhere near it.

  Dr. Felix had fixed that for him, now, with his deal and Duncan becoming a Golem for the class, at least temporarily. He was shocked he hadn’t thought of it sooner. He was now an official graduate. He could go to the library whenever he pleased.

  “I’m glad to hear that, son,” Albert Cade told him, “as I’m sure your mother is. You gave us quite the scare, last night.”

  “I can’t lose you, Duncan,” his mother said. “You’re my baby.”

  “Well…” his father continued, “have you thought of what you might like to do? What are your plans for the future, Duncan? Don’t get me wrong, your mother and I don’t mind you living under our house, and we never will. I’m sure Helen wishes you’d move back inside, but I understand your need for privacy. And with real estate being in such short supply here in the city, it’s not likely that you’ll find a place of your own anyway.”

  He was just a kid, but his father was already talking as if he were a full-fledged graduate of the Magic School, ready to light out on his own and create his own destiny in the city, maybe even becoming a great enough magician to immigrate to New Atlantis. It was a silly notion, sillier even coming from his dad.

  “I’d like to return to school, believe or not. I’m a graduate now, thanks to Dr. Felix.”

  His mother interrupted. “I wish you wouldn’t mention that vile man’s name in our house.”

  “Anyway, I’m a graduate now. I’d like to begin my own studies in the library, hopefully preparing for the day that maybe my magical abilities will start.” He felt horrible lying to his parents, but if he told them the real reason for his desire to go to the library—to learn about the Wastes in order to maybe go there and find Jim himself—they’d never stand for it. The Magic School wouldn’t stand for it. He didn’t believe for a moment that he’d ever gain magical abilities and, honestly, he didn’t want them. He saw what they did to most people, how they made them not appreciate anything. When he grew his own food, he thanked the plants. He understood the relationship he had with them and how they were valuable. People who could create what they wanted, even Marissa, had no real appreciation for the world around them.

  “That’s…well that’s interesting,” his father began hesitantly. “I don’t know how Dr. Felix will feel about that.”

  “Oh what harm could it do, Albert?” his mother asked. “He won’t be in Dr. Felix’s class and he’s right. What if his magic manifests one day? It would be like trying to learn everything from scratch.”

  Albert Cade rubbed at his chin. “Still…I don’t know if they will allow it. To be honest,
son, they only graduated you so that they wouldn’t have to deal with you anymore. You know, as well as I do, that you just didn’t fit into that place. It wasn’t for you. Your garden…your shop, now that’s you. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “More than anything else.” And it was what he wanted more than anything else, though he wasn’t going to tell them his true motivations.

  “Well, if that’s what you want, we’ll see that we make happen, son,” Albert said, standing and slapping him on the shoulder.

  His mother was so happy she was nearly on the verge of tears. “Your magic will come, one day,” she said. “I just know it will.”

  He knew leaving would break his mother’s heart. He’d have to deal with that one day, he knew. He just didn’t know how he’d manage it.