The Stroke of Eleven

by Kyle Robert Shultz

  The evening sky overhead was filled with airships. Ladders dangled down from each one of them, all the way down to the courtyard. A steady stream of people in crisp uniforms climbed down these. Once on the ground, they took up a defensive stance. Rune-shaped insignias glinted on their chests, and magic crackled around their fingers. The entire courtyard was rapidly filling up with them.

  Cordelia’s face had gone pale. “We can’t fight that many Charmbloods.”

  Levesque smirked at me. “Would you like me to accept your surrender now?”

  I hooked an arm around her throat. “Stay back, all of you!” I told the soldiers. “If even one of you tries anything, you can say goodbye to your leader.”

  “Ma’am?” a man at the front of the company called to Levesque. “What are your orders?”

  “Stand down. For the moment.” Before I could stop her, she wrenched free from my grasp and turned her haughty gaze on me.

  “Mr. Beasley,” she said, in a condescending tone, “the fact is, you don’t have it in you to kill me in cold blood.”

  “Don’t be so sure. Given what you were about to put my brother through, perhaps I do have it in me.”

  “Perhaps. But I very much doubt it. What example would you be setting for him, after all? Murdering me right in front of him?”

  Naturally, I’d never intended to kill Levesque, but I’d hoped she wouldn’t push me far enough to find that out. Now, she was taking away my one last scrap of bargaining power.

  “So,” she continued, “here is what will happen now. I’m going to walk away, and you’re not going to stop me. Then you’ll all be arrested, and I can finally rid my life of a few stubborn pests.”

  “And then you’ll go back to your usual pursuits. Hoarding magic and ruling the Afterlands via shadow government.”

  “That’s one way of describing it, I suppose.”

  I seethed. “You know what? I used to think it was a good thing that the general public doesn’t know about magic. Sure, they also don’t realize they’re being manipulated by you, but at least they’re spared the burden of knowing that magic and monsters are real.”

  “A sensible conclusion,” said Levesque.

  “Except that it’s wrong,” I snapped. “You’re profiting from their ignorance. It’s pretty much the source of your power. So long as people don’t know you exist, they won’t bother fighting back against you. They’re not better off that way.”

  “Is there a point to any of this?”

  I growled. “Yeah, there’s a point. Your secret reign ends today, Madame Levesque. I’m putting a stop to it.”

  She laughed. “Oh, really? And how do you intend to do that?”

  “With my brother’s help.” I turned to him. “Crispin, take us to Talesend. Right in the middle of Challenger Square.”

  Crispin gaped at me. “What are you talking about? I can’t just…”

  “Yes, you can.” I grabbed his hands. “Crispin, you need to trust me. You have an amazing power you haven’t even tapped into yet—and instead of stifling it, I think you should learn to control it. Starting right now.” I pointed to the ground. “Open a rabbit hole.”

  He leaned over to Molly. “Okay. He’s lost his mind. I knew this would happen eventually.”

  “Crispin, trust me. Think about Challenger Square, and take us there.”

  “Really, Mr. Beasley,” said Levesque. “Don’t be ridiculous. Teleportation magic is mmmph…”

  Her voice gave out as runes swirled around her throat. They had been cast by Cordelia, who smiled in triumph. “Silencing spell. Carry on.”

  Crispin looked into my eyes. Something in his expression changed. Maybe he’d had a sudden glimmer of memory from the time loops. Or maybe he’d decided it was better to play along with my delusions. In any case, he squeezed his eyes shut and appeared to concentrate very hard.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then a rabbit hole opened beneath us and swallowed us up.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Beaumont and Beasley

  Challenger Square is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Talesend, thanks to its famous fountains surrounded by four bronze statues of sphinxes. It’s never without a crowd, which is why I selected it. The rabbit hole deposited us in the center of the square, near the fountains. The opening of the magic portal was difficult to ignore—not to mention the people emerging from it. Crispin had succeeded in transporting me, Cordelia, Levesque, Molly, the Mythfits, and Malcolm. The net binding Malcolm had been left behind. He spread his wings gratefully…until he saw that there were quite a lot of non-magical humans gaping at us in astonishment.

  “Beasley,” he said. “What. Have. You. Done?”

  Everyone was shouting and pointing. A few women had fainted—possibly a few men as well. I’d heard some screams when we first arrived, but these now died down to whispers and murmurs.

  “We—we can fix this,” Levesque’s face was as pale as chalk, and she seemed to be talking to herself. “We’ve dealt with situations like this before. We’ll summon the Neverwolves, like we did after the Clawthorn Incident. They can made sure everyone remembers this as an odd dream or an urban legend.”

  “Citizens of Talesend!” I boomed. “My name is Nick Beasley!”

  Cordelia tapped me on the shoulder. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Nick?”

  I smiled at her. “Not really, but I’m doing it anyway.”

  She cast an apprehensive look at the crowd, but in the end, she returned the smile. “Go ahead, then.”

  “Many of you may remember me,” I called out. “Not by sight, but at least by my name. I used to be a private investigator.” I paused. “Come to think of it, I still am, pretty much. I’ve just changed my focus a little.” I pointed to myself. “As you can see, I’m a monster. As a friend of mine is fond of saying—long story.”

  Alan hobbled up on three legs, supported by the currently-human Bryn. He grinned at me.

  “This is Lady Cordelia Beaumont,” I said, pointing to her. “She’s an enchantress. And she cast a spell on me. It wasn’t entirely her fault, and we’ve moved past it.” I slapped Crispin on the back. “This is my brother Crispin, who’s responsible for our dramatic entrance. Molly here is actually a mermaid. Then you’ve got Gareth the faun, Alan the centaur, Sylvia the dryad, and Bryn the pooka.”

  The Mythfits waved, looking shy.

  “And, finally, there’s Malcolm. Dragon. Obviously.”

  Malcolm bowed his head to the crowd. “Charmed.” He cut his eyes in my direction. “You’re a complete lunatic.”

  “Oh, and this old battle-axe is Madame Levesque.” I shoved her out of our little circle. “She’s evil. And she’s been keeping magic secret from all of you for a long time. Not to protect you, but to enslave you. She thinks of the Afterlands as her own personal empire.”

  “You’re a fool!” she hissed at me. “Do you have any idea what you’re setting into motion here?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “A revolution.” I turned my attention back to the crowd. “Magic can be used for good or for evil. Magical creatures can be heroes or villains. It’s the same as everything else in this world.”

  The press had already begin to arrive. Flashbulbs popped and bowler-hatted men brandished notepads. They shouted questions, but I ignored them. There would be time for that later.

  “We,” I said, “are not evil. We’re Beaumont and Beasley.”

  Gareth looked confused. “We are? All of us?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Malcolm snorted. “Not me. Never mind what I said earlier. I’m Malcolm Blackfire. I work alone.”

  “All right, fine,” I said. “We’re Beaumont and Beasley, except for the grumpy dragon, who is merely a consultant.” I gazed out at the sea of faces. Some of them were amazed, others were terrified. For a moment, I was seized with fear that I’d done the wrong thing, but I pushed on anyway.

  “I know this is going to change everything. Believe me
, it changed my life—in more ways than one. It’s scary, finding out that the world is more complicated than you realized. It won’t be easy for all of you. But I had to stop Madame Levesque, and this was the best way. It’s time people like her were brought out into the light.”

  “I’ll kill you!” she screamed. “The Council of Scions will—”

  “The Council of Scions,” I declared, “the organization of evil enchanters that Madame Levesque leads—is finished. We’re not going to let them rule over us anymore. I know it’s going to take some time for the Afterlands to adjust, now that the secret is out about magic, but I believe it’s for the best. Because the alternative—letting the Council control us forever from behind the scenes—is unthinkable.”

  I waited a few moments for all this to sink in. Granted, it would take quite a bit more time than that. I wasn’t even certain that the general population was going to accept that magic was real. A magical portal regurgitating a bunch of mythological creatures in the middle of Talesend might not even be enough to ensure that.

  “Whatever happens now,” I said, “my friends and I are here to help. If you’re having a magical problem, call for Beaumont and Beasley. We don’t have a phone number yet, but I’ll remedy that as soon as possible.” I pushed Levesque toward the crowd. “And now, we have to be going. If you’ve got any questions, Madame Levesque will be more than happy to answer them. Just be sure not to take that collar off of her; it suppresses her magic.”

  “You can’t leave me here!” cried Levesque.

  “Can’t we?” I waved to her. “Have fun, Madame. Take us away, Crispin.”

  “Where?” he asked.

  “You pick.”

  He shrugged. “All right, then.”

  The last thing I saw as the rabbit hole swallowed us up was Levesque’s haggard face. She gave me a wild-eyed look as the reporters closed around her. She threw up her hands, but no runes appeared to curse the people around her.

  I knew I’d taken a powerful enemy and given her a great deal of added motivation. But after everything I’d seen in that future world—the carnage she’d wrought, the people she’d hurt—I couldn’t help but think that Madame Levesque had gotten exactly what she deserved.

  The place Crispin chose was a moor in Fionn that we’d visited once as kids, when Dad was touring the area with a circus. The plain had been used as the circus grounds, but now it was perfectly quiet and devoid of anything except a lush carpet of green grass. I recognized it thanks to a single landmark—an abandoned farmhouse at the edge of the field, still as run-down as the last time I’d seen it.

  “Did that just happen?” Gareth wobbled a little and collapsed onto the grass. “Did you honestly tell everyone in Talesend about magic?”

  “I tried. It remains to be seen whether they’ll believe it or try to explain it away.”

  Malcolm turned his blazing eyes on me. “You cretin.”

  “It was the best way to deal with Levesque,” I insisted.

  “Do you honestly think that little press conference is going to stop her? If it were that simple, she’d have been removed from power a long time ago.”

  “But maybe it’ll inspire other people to fight back against her too,” I argued. “Like I said, this is a revolution. I don’t expect it to be finished in a day. I’m only trying to get it started.”

  “It’s going to make things a little difficult if humans get spooked and start hunting down all the magical creatures.” Alan was tinkering with his smashed mechanical leg. “Maybe you should have given this a little more thought.”

  “There are too many of you for them to hunt down. You’re spread all across the Afterlands, sometimes hiding in plain sight. Besides, I get the impression that there were already plenty of people who knew about magic and monsters to begin with. They just didn’t talk openly about it because they didn’t want to be called crazy. Not everyone is as skeptical about magic as I used to be.”

  “So…you’re saying they’ll just be okay with it?” said Molly. “That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t mean that it won’t be difficult. But I think this day had to come, sooner or later.” I looked at Malcolm. “And I believe, deep down, you’ve always known that.”

  He made no reply. His scaly face was unreadable.

  Cordelia had kept silent through all these exchanges, looking pensive. “What do you think?” I asked her. “Did I do the right thing?”

  “I think…time will tell.”

  “That’s not much of an opinion.”

  “I’ll admit, there are many ways it could go wrong. But in the end, I believe you’re right. Levesque has a stranglehold on the Afterlands. It needs to be broken. And doing that was always going to be messy. All we can do now is try to make sure innocent people don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

  “They will,” said Malcolm. “Count on it.”

  “Then we’ll be there to help them,” I countered.

  “Who’s ‘we?’” Sylvia crossed her arms. “I don’t remember signing up for anything.”

  “You talked as if Beaumont and Beasley was going to be some big organization,” said Crispin. “Is that what you have in mind?”

  “Why not? We can set up an office, take in clients—what better way to help the public adapt to the new state of affairs? A beast, and enchantress, and…et cetera, taking on cases of magical phenomena.”

  There was a murmur of interest from the group.

  “Show of hands.” I raised a paw. “Who wants a job with Beaumont and Beasley?”

  After a few seconds’ hesitation, everyone lifted their hands—except Malcolm. He didn’t have any hands at the moment, of course, but he didn’t raise anything else either.

  “Count me out,” he said. “I have a school to run—which is going to be a lot harder if the entire political structure of the Afterlands collapses. If you need me, I’ll be trying to calm down a horde of panicking students and teachers.” He spread his wings and walked a few yards away so he could take off.

  “Malcolm, wait.” I hurried after him.

  He craned his neck to give me a baleful look. “If you’re going to apologize, don’t bother.”

  “No—that’s not it.” I dropped my voice so the others wouldn’t hear. “I was wondering—what did happen to Melody?”

  He was silent for a long moment. “I know why you really did it, Nick.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  “Oh, I’m sure an altruistic desire to liberate the Afterlands from Levesque was part of it,” he continued. “But that wasn’t the only reason, was it? Levesque tried to hurt someone you cared about, and you wanted to punish her.”

  “No! No, of course not. If it had been about revenge, I would have killed her. And I didn’t want to go that far.”

  “You make it sound as if killing her would have been worse.”

  “Wouldn’t it?”

  “Killing people is a very unsatisfying form of revenge,” said Malcolm. “Take it from one who knows. After all, once a person’s dead, they’re dead.”

  I blinked. “Er…well…obviously.”

  “What I mean is, once you’ve killed the subject of your vengeance, you’ve lost control of the situation. That person has gone on to whatever judgment awaits them in the next life, and you no longer have anything to do with it. But if you can come up with a way to make them suffer in this world—a fitting punishment rather than a simple execution—that keeps you in command.” His eyes narrowed. “It also darkens your soul.”

  “You don’t understand,” I shot back. “You want to talk about darkness? She would have put both Crispin and Molly on a darker path than you could imagine!”

  “So you’ve protected them. By destroying Levesque and possibly changing the world forever, you’ve shielded their innocence. Or so you hope. But tell me, Nick…what have you done to yourself?”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but couldn’t think of a good answer to the question. I finally settl
ed on “I did what I had to.” But I knew it wasn’t enough.

  “We all have people we want to shelter from the cruelty of the world,” said Malcolm. “The people we love help to keep us human.” He glanced down at his claws. “Or, at the very least, they keep us from becoming complete and utter monsters. But not if we use them as excuses to make morally questionable decisions. Do you understand?”

  I hesitated. “I…think I do. But you never answered my question about Melody.”

  The light in his eyes burned brighter. “Quite correct. Because if I did answer any questions about Melody, I would have to turn you into grilled steaks immediately afterward.”

  I gulped. “Oh.”

  Malcolm unfurled his wings. “Good luck in your future endeavors, Mr. Beasley. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get home.” He beat the air and rose from the ground. “To my wife,” he added, as he soared above my head.

  “Wait…what? How…”

  “Grilled steaks, remember?” he shouted from the sky.

  I flinched. “Right. Sorry.”

  Crispin walked over to me. “What was all that about?”

  “Nothing,” I said quickly. I cast a surreptitious glance at his white hair.

  “I know what you’re looking at.” He pointed to the top of his head. “Look, are you ever going to tell me me what you know about this? And the whole…rabbit thing?”

  “Eventually,” I lied. “For now, I think we all need a rest. We’ll use the farmhouse. It’ll be rough accommodations, but we can get by.”

  “I still don’t understand what I did. I didn’t even cast a spell, I just…made it happen.” He wiggled his fingers. “I can’t quite explain it, but…it’s like there’s something else inside me now besides the runes. A different kind of magic. I think I felt it once before, when I gave Molly back her voice. It was weird. In that moment, it was like I wasn’t quite…me.”