The Uncommoners #3

by Jennifer Bell

  Alexander snorted with laughter. “Brilliant!” he cried gleefully. He was clutching the tin music box in his hand. “You look ridiculous!”

  Terror squeezed at Ivy’s chest, but she breathed through her nose, trying not to panic. Her internal organs seemed to be functioning fine: it was just the rest of her body that felt like wet clay.

  “I’ve named this formula ‘Statue Salt,’ ” Alexander announced boastfully. “After much experimentation, I discovered that the tune from an uncommon music box activates the liquid, which solidifies into a powder that invades people’s lungs. The genius thing is that the paralysis is instantly reversed if you listen to an uncommon music box played backward—and as I’ve already heard this one in reverse, I’m immune!” He tucked the music box inside a battered leather doctor’s bag, which lay open on the bed. Inside, Ivy could see test tubes containing various substances, some with what looked like more of the same transparent fluid. One was labeled DAYLIGHT BURST, and below it was scribbled Blackclaw. Ivy guessed Octavius Wrench had made use of that particular potion in order to briefly appear in Nubrook two days ago.

  When he turned around again, Alexander was still smiling smugly. Ivy growled at him—her vocal cords were still working, it was just that she couldn’t get any words out—and the joy dissolved from Alexander’s face. “You’re back earlier than I anticipated,” he snapped. “You can wait there while I continue searching.” From the state of the bedroom, Ivy reckoned Alexander had been there awhile. The pillows had been slit open, and the wardrobe drawers tipped out. A soft mulch of feathers covered the floor.

  “But wait…” Alexander smiled greedily as he noticed the satchel hanging across Ivy’s shoulders. “What have we here?” Stepping closer, he easily slid the bag over Ivy’s head and opened it up. “Useless, useless,” he muttered, throwing Scratch and Ivy’s yo-yo away and into the next room. Finally he came upon Amos’s journal. “Aha!” he exclaimed. “Just where you kept it last time! I only got a peek before.”

  There was nothing Ivy could do except watch. With Amos’s journal in his grasp, Alexander drew so close to Ivy that she could feel his breath against her face. He smelled foul, as if he hadn’t washed for weeks. Ivy weighed their options. She couldn’t shout for help from Curtis, and Scratch was too far away to whisper to for aid. Perhaps she could try communicating with an object that was closer?

  Alexander’s eyes flashed hungrily. “The information inside this will help me build my own guild, far more powerful than the Dirge.” He said the name like it belonged to an idiotic rival. “In exchange for a few formulas of mine, they’ve been telling me their secrets. Their only strength is their leader. He manipulates all the other members, getting them to do his bidding so that he can take all the glory for New Dawn. But I will be a greater leader than even Blackclaw….”

  Listening to him gloat, Ivy filled with anger. Alexander hadn’t seemed as unhinged as this the last time they’d met. She reckoned that spending time with the Dirge had been a destabilizing experience for him. She scanned the room with her whispering, searching for an object that could help them escape.

  “Good leaders set an example to their supporters,” Alexander continued. “You and your family must be punished for destroying mine, and for making a fool of me in front of the whole of Lundinor!”

  There was a rustle by the door, and a figure in long dark robes glided into the room. Alexander hastily hid Amos’s journal behind his back. “You’re late,” he snapped, glaring at the sunburst clock on the wall.

  The stranger turned to face Ivy. His head was covered by a hood and a scaly mask with slits for nostrils. All Ivy could see were his black lips and emaciated neck, as if his body was made only of skin and bone. She had no idea what race of the dead he was. “What’s this?” the stranger demanded. “I thought we were leaving Nubrook to meet Blackclaw.”

  Ivy recognized his hoarse voice immediately: Monkshood. Curious, she searched him with her senses. He was carrying several uncommon items. Imprisoned inside one was a broken soul with an old, croaky voice. She thought it might be speaking Japanese, since it sounded like the characters in the anime movies Seb watched. Her heart stirred strangely as she listened to its weary muttering. Ivy had been in the presence of three of the Great Uncommon Good before—the Sack of Stars, the Jar of Shadows and the Stone of Dreams—and she knew what they sounded like. They all had strange, penetrating voices that filled her with emotion. This voice sounded like it had been around for a very long time. It had to be the Sword of Wills…

  …which meant Blackclaw didn’t have it yet.

  “You should have stuck to our original plan,” Alexander retorted.

  “The only plan that matters is the one that brings about New Dawn,” Monkshood said dismissively. Ivy noticed the fingers of his black gloves were creepily thin as pencils. “Have you found the journal? I have just received a message from Blackclaw: he has almost acquired the Sands of Change.”

  Rosie! Ivy tried struggling again, but it was no use.

  Alexander’s arm twitched behind his back. “You must use the sword on their friend first. That was our agreement.”

  The dark eyeholes of Monkshood’s mask fell upon Alexander’s elbow. Ivy had a feeling he had guessed what Alexander was holding. “Why are you wasting your time with these three uncommoners when New Dawn will change the lives of every uncommoner in the world?”

  “You know why!” Alexander barked. He removed another test tube from the leather doctor’s bag, this one labeled TELEPORT, and held it threateningly close to his own lips. “I suggest you cooperate before I disappear out of here. I’m the only one who’s read the journal. I can tell you Amos’s instructions for handling the sword in a way that maximizes its power.”

  Ivy had a strong suspicion that Alexander was bluffing. She’d been reading and translating the journal for months now and she hadn’t discovered any sword-operating guidelines. Alexander had only possessed the journal for a few minutes.

  “You might be able to use the sword for small tasks,” Alexander sneered, “but if you try wielding it to start New Dawn, you’ll cause another storm. You need me.”

  Monkshood made a hissing, snarling noise. His robes flickered.

  From what Alexander had said, Ivy realized she’d been right about a connection between Storm Sarah and the Sword of Wills. It had been responsible for the storm—but it had been an accident. Without Amos’s advice, Monkshood had lost control of the sword, and Storm Sarah had been the consequence.

  “So be it,” Monkshood replied. From within the folds of his dark cloak, he withdrew a long black sword with a single-edged, curved blade. The circular guard and grip were patterned with silver stars. It looked a lot like a Japanese katana that Ivy had seen on the cover of one of her dad’s books, Weapons from History.

  Monkshood held the blade horizontally in his nimble fingers, just as Seb had done when he’d been using the uncommon paper knife. After a moment’s concentration he released the sword. It hovered away from his gloved hands, the point toward Valian, and started spinning….

  Adrenaline shot through Ivy’s numb body. Her mind sharpened. She focused her whispering senses inside the Sword of Wills, desperately trying to communicate with the resident soul. After it failed to understand English, she tried sending it relaxing images, hoping to encourage it to slow down—a wave gently lapping the sand, a bird landing on water…

  …but the blade persisted.

  Eventually, Monkshood controlled the sword to a stop. There was a leather cord attached to the scabbard, which he slipped over his head so that the blade hung at his back. Except it wasn’t exactly “hanging”—Ivy could see the handle hovering above Monkshood’s shoulders, powered by some invisible force.

  Valian, no—! Ivy shouted inside as Valian stepped into her line of sight. His movements were stiff and robotic as he stood to attention before Monkshood. Valian’
s dark eyes had glazed over and his expression was blank, as if he’d been hypnotized. Ivy understood what had happened: the Sword of Wills had broken the effect of Alexander’s Statue Salt and taken control of Valian’s mind.

  “You will do exactly as I say,” Monkshood told Valian. “Climb to the top of Breath Falls and jump off.”

  Ivy’s heart flinched—No! She tried to wrestle her limbs free again, but it was no use.

  Valian nodded once and, with Monkshood—and the Sword of Wills—carefully accompanying him, he marched out of the room without looking back.

  A satisfied grin spread across Alexander’s face. Desperately, Ivy skimmed the room with her whispering senses. The soul within the lava lamp spoke with an American slow Southern drawl. Help me, she begged. I have to save my friend.

  Then, without waiting for a reply, she moved her senses on and reached for the tin music box in the old doctor’s bag. Please turn backward, she pleaded. My brother and I are trapped. We need to save our friend. You’ve got to help us.

  The lava lamp responded first, darkening the room with images of an erupting volcano. Fiery ash rained from the sky; the stink of sulfur filled Ivy’s nostrils. Alexander looked confusedly from the walls to the door like he didn’t know whether to run or applaud. Visions of pterodactyls roared through the black sky before dive-bombing him. He ducked and covered his head, knocking his doctor’s bag onto the carpet….

  And that was when Ivy saw the music box roll out and the handle rotate backward.

  The shrill tune sounded eerie played in reverse. As the melody penetrated Ivy’s ears, she felt her limbs loosen and her muscles rush with blood.

  “No!” Alexander blurted, hastily recovering the music box from the floor. He fumbled for the handle and yanked it, but by then it was too late.

  Ivy kicked with all her might and stumbled forward. Seb punched his arms free, as though he was breaking out of a block of ice. He grabbed the object nearest to him: Alexander’s leather doctor’s bag.

  “That’s for Valian, you loser!” he yelled, swinging it into Alexander’s side.

  Alexander thudded hard against the bed. Ivy heard the smash of glass, and a cloud of green vapor started rising out of the top of the bag.

  “Seb, we’ve got to save Valian!” Ivy gasped as Alexander wobbled to his feet, looking stunned. Collecting her satchel, she dragged her brother into the lounge and grabbed Scratch, who had rolled under a coffee table.

  “Ivy curtains yo-yo beside,” he told her helpfully.

  Dashing to the window, she collected her weapon from the floor. She stuffed the yo-yo in her right pocket and Scratch in her left. Glancing at the buildings opposite gave her an idea. “Help me open this. We need to get out onto the veranda.”

  Seb slid up the pane of glass so they could both squeeze out—

  Behind them there was a sudden loud clatter as Curtis burst through the door. She made a split-second assessment of the scene: the suite in ruins; Ivy and Seb about to escape through the window; Alexander Brewster on his feet hurtling through from the next room…

  …and she rugby-tackled him to the ground. “Go!” she cried to Ivy and Seb.

  With one hand on the railing, Ivy waved a thumb in the air, and a worn and dusty carpet appeared a moment later, hovering at the same level as the balcony.

  “Where you off to?” asked the woman with dark curly hair riding on top.

  “The summit of Breath Falls,” Ivy said, climbing over the railing. She heard Curtis and Alexander shouting as she and Seb sat down on the rug. “We need to be quick.”

  “You’ll have to pay extra for water damage,” the lady noted firmly.

  “We know!” Ivy insisted. “Please, hurry!”

  As they zoomed over Nubrook, Ivy and Seb tried to pick out Valian in the crowded streets below. Everywhere Ivy looked, Thanksgiving festivities were in full swing: troops of dancers paraded through the streets; music and confetti filled the air; and huge uncommon ribbons floated between buildings, writing messages of celebration.

  “Ivy, Alexander is after us!” Seb warned. “Something must have happened to Curtis.”

  She checked over her shoulder. Alexander was pursuing them on the back of a cylinder vacuum cleaner, the nozzle flapping in the wind.

  Ivy hoped Curtis was OK. “He’s still got Amos’s journal,” she observed, catching sight of it tucked under his arm. She was annoyed at herself for not grabbing it earlier. “We’ve got to slow him down. We can’t fight him and Monkshood.” She whipped out her yo-yo and, aiming it carefully, flicked her wrist. Twisting torrents of air formed on either side of the spinning toy and merged into a single whirlwind, which surged toward Alexander. Sucking clumps of confetti from the air, the cyclone quickly took on the appearance of a giant spool of rainbow cotton candy.

  Just as it was about to collide with Alexander, he managed to dodge aside…right into the path of an uncommon ribbon looped into a “Happy Thanksgiving!” message. Alexander tried to bat the ribbon away, but it got tangled around his arms, causing him to lose control of the vacuum cleaner. He went spinning across the road and landed on the awning of an Italian gelato stand. Two men wearing gelato-splattered aprons appeared below, shaking their fists and shouting furiously.

  Relief washed over Ivy as she turned back around. “Now we just need to rescue Valian,” she said. “Next stop, the Falls.”

  As the silver colossus came into sight, their sky driver soared toward Nubrook’s concrete ceiling and then swooped down to land on the statue’s head. Water gurgled over the surface from where the mist condensed into shallow streams. Up close, the structure was made of gray metallic rock that undulated with ripples, giving it the appearance of hair. The sky driver lowered them onto the surface.

  Here, the roar of the falls was so loud that Ivy couldn’t hear herself think. “Can you see Valian?” she hollered, searching for any solid form in the mist. Her coat and skin were soaked in seconds.

  Seb pointed toward the statue’s hairline, where two dark shapes hovered in the spray. “Over there!”

  The ground was slippery underfoot so Ivy trod carefully, grasping the peaks of the statue’s hair to steady herself. As they got closer, the outline of Monkshood’s dark robe became clear. His hood had been pushed off in the wind: a few straggly dark hairs clung to the rear of his skull; the skin on his scalp looked like bathroom mold. Ivy could see the Sword of Wills floating at his back. “How do we release Valian from the influence of the sword?”

  “I think we just have to force it away from Monkshood,” Seb said. “I only lost complete control of the paper knife when I wasn’t concentrating on it anymore. Perhaps we need to cause a distraction?”

  Ivy grasped her yo-yo. “We need to be careful not to make Valian topple over the edge by accident. He’ll be trying to leap off the whole time.”

  “Do you think you could use your whirlwinds,” Seb said, “to push him away from the edge, while I tackle Monkshood?”

  Ivy had never used her yo-yo to do that before, but they were low on options. “I’ll do my best,” she replied.

  They quickened their pace over the rest of the distance, concentrating hard to stay balanced—it was like running on selkie slime. Valian finally became visible when they were almost within reach of him. He stepped closer to the edge, his expression vacant.

  “Now!” Seb shouted, striking out with his drumsticks. Monkshood tumbled back, sliding across the floor.

  Aiming more carefully than she ever had before, Ivy generated a trio of tornadoes with her yo-yo. One by one, they lined up at the statue’s hairline and forced the mist back. The water under Ivy’s feet began to ripple in reverse and, slowly, Valian glided to safety. “It’s working!” she cried, although she could see Valian already leaning forward, trying to use his weight to resist.

  Monkshood pulled a steel can opener from his cloak a
nd pointed it at the ground, where a glittering pile of metal filings appeared. From out of the filings, six steel-bodied crabs the size of small dogs came to life and scuttled toward Seb. They had razor-sharp pincers and beady black eyes that wiggled around on silver stalks on their heads.

  “Ugh! Get away!” Seb yelled, trying to smash them with beats from his drumsticks.

  The glinting crabs gripped onto the wet rock as well as real crustaceans, dodging Seb’s blasts, snapping their pincers and drawing ever closer. Down through the mist, Ivy glimpsed a crowd looking up at them. Their presence hadn’t gone unnoticed; several people were already approaching on flying carpets.

  Too late, she heard the whirr of machinery—

  Alexander Brewster dropped from the sky and clattered to the ground. His vacuum cleaner smashed into several pieces and washed over the side. “You will not ruin this!” he shouted as he limped to his feet. His outfit and the journal tucked under his arm were smeared with several different colors of ice cream. “You and everyone you love will pay!”

  Ivy checked on Valian, who was wobbling a few feet from the edge, and sent another carefully positioned tornado to keep him in place. Seb was still trying to fend off Monkshood and the steel crabs.

  “I’m sorry that you lost your pa!” Ivy shouted to Alexander. “But it wasn’t us who killed him.”

  Alexander wiped his face dry, scowling. “You didn’t save him!” he spat.

  Just then, one of the steel crabs caught Alexander’s heel with a snip of its pincer. Alexander howled and hopped onto one leg. His foot slipped—

  —and, in a streak of shadow, he washed over the side of the waterfall. Ivy hurried to the edge. The nozzle of Alexander’s broken vacuum cleaner had become wrapped around one of the statue’s eyelashes; Alexander was hanging from it one-handed, his limbs flailing in the wind.