Halfway (Wizards and Faeries) Page 2

  “Why us? And why me?”

  “I don’t know! Temet, you shouldn’t have shown her that trick you did with the water!”

  “But… why not?”

  “I think that’s why the men are here!”

  Our mother called down to us from above, softly. “Be quiet! Come on, hurry!” She reached down from the ledge above us to pull us up.

  I grabbed one hand, Temet the other. Nessy pulled—and slipped, the rock under her tilting to the side.

  She fell.

  I leapt for her hand, but she had already tumbled down the slope.

  Temet’s scream of terror rang out as long as my own, and we scrambled down the slope to where she fell.

  Her eyes were closed, a bloody gash on the crown of her head, staining her ice-blond hair.

  “Nessy!” Temet shouted. “Nessy, wake up!”

  I held a finger under Nessy’s nostrils, feeling wamth. “She’s breathing, Temet. She’s not dead.” Though I tried to keep it steady, my voice quivered. I swallowed. I should be strong for him.

  “I’m sure she’s all right,” I said.

  “But Cemagna, she’s got a head wound! In the library, I read those can be… very bad!”

  “Maybe this one isn’t.” I looked up at the rocky slope behind us. It seemed as tall as a mountain itself.

  Temet looked, too. “Maybe… maybe she didn’t fall too far down. Maybe it just looks far to us.”

  “Trouble, young ones?” a deep voice said.

  I stifled a scream. The voice. It was the one I had heard speaking from Nessy’s mirror.

  Chapter 3

  Cemagna

  In front of us stood a tall man, a dark beard across the bottom half of his face. His arms were folded over a broad chest. Three other men stood behind him.

  “Who are you?” demanded Temet.

  “Aylward. You must be the boy I am to take.”

  “Take?” he demanded. “I’m not going anywhere. Besides, Nessy is hurt. I’m not leaving her. She’s my mother.”

  Aylward nodded to one of the men behind him, who approached us. I stood up. “Go away!” I yelled.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said the other man. “I just want to see how badly she is hurt.” I watched him closely as he bent over Nessy’s prone frame.

  Aylward spoke. “Yes, boy, you are going somewhere. Why? Because before you and your sister were born, I made an agreement with Nessy that if either of you were to manifest Magic and Talent, you were to be given to me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I helped her escape terrible things. She needs to repay her debt. Through you.”

  Temet stuck out his chin; I knew it as a gesture he made when he intended to be particularly obstinate.

  The man tending Nessy sprinkled something on her head and then stood up. “She will live,” he told us, then resumed his place by his fellows.

  “What did you do?” demanded Temet.

  “He healed her, though I doubt she will thank us for it,” said Aylward.

  “Thank you,” Temet said grudgingly.

  “If it hadn’t been for you, she wouldn’t have even gotten hurt,” I muttered.

  “So, Temet, are you going to come with me?” asked Aylward.

  “No.” Temet crossed his arms.

  “Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” Aylward’s voice was calm.

  “I’m not going. This is my home.”

  Aylward cocked his head, eyes narrowing slightly. “Very well.” In one smooth motion, he reached into a pouch at his belt and drew out a handful of white powder.

  The last thing I saw was Aylward tossing the powder in a wide arc over Temet, Nessy, and me. Then the world turned foggy and dark. Powerless to stop it, I felt myself slump to the ground.

  Chapter 4

  Cemagna

  I came to myself in the chill of early evening, my face pressed against the damp forest floor. Nessy lay beside me, still unconscious though her head wound was gone.

  Temet was gone.

  A wordless cry of grief escaping my lips, I bounded to my feet.

  Next to me, Nessy stirred and woke.

  “They took Temet!” I wailed.

  “Cemagna—“ Nessy began, but I had already started running.

  I ran through the forest, heedless of Nessy’s voice behind me or of anything else. They had taken Temet! They had stolen my brother!

  At last I broke through the trees into the dim light of the setting sun. I was on our cliff, overlooking the sea.

  And upon that sea, like a tiny smudge of ink, was the ship that bore Temet away from me. Already it was far away, but I could still see it there, taunting me from far out to sea. Nessy and I must have only been unconscious for a few hours.

  I stood there, shivering even though it was barely cold, staring at the terrible ship that took him away from me. There was nothing I could do. Just as I had been unable to stop him from leaving me, I couldn’t make him come back.

  I felt sobs rising up in my throat. My vision blurred with tears.

  I could barely see the rows and rows of weathered brown oars chopping up the water. Like that man, Aylward, chopping up my heart by taking my brother, my beloved playmate, away from me.

  A tear escaped my eye and rolled down my cheek.

  Raising my hand, I waved to Temet, wherever he was on that ship.

  Tears blinding me, I turned and ran down the path. I didn’t stop running until I reached the shore, that horrible shore where Temet had discovered his awful ability. Wild ideas of swimming to the ship popping into my head, I splashed violently through the water and tripped.

  Instead of putting my hands out to catch myself, let myself fall. As the clear water closed over my head, I closed my eyes. The waves flowed around me softly. So peaceful… the movement of the water pulled at my hair…

  I opened my eyes. Everything was a blurry blue-green. I reached out with both hands towards my dangling feet. If I could catch hold of my ankles, my body would be a circle. How nice that would be, to be a constant, slowly-spinning circle, never thinking, never feeling…

  As I reached, I felt the water around my ankles move.

  I stopped dead. It moved in the opposite direction as the waves were taking me, against the flow. Had I made it move? Could I do Temet’s trick?

  Distantly, I heard a voice. Shouting. Such a familiar voice…

  My world broke to pieces as I felt Nessy’s arm around my waist, pulling me up. I struggled against her in a half-hearted way…

  “Cemagna, no, no! Sweetie, no!” She was crying and holding me tightly. I was dripping wet, getting her wet, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Come on, sweetie, come back to the house. Oh, Heavens, what have I let them do? What have I done?”

  I let her carry me back up the cliff to our home. I didn’t look at the sea.

  I was quiet as she carried me, dried me with a towel, took away my wet clothes, and wrapped me in a long soft robe. Bringing me to my room, she placed me on my bed. I could feel my eyelids drooping; I yawned. She pushed my hair away from my face and started to leave.

  “No!” I screamed. “Don’t leave me! Not you, too! Don’t!”

  She turned. “All right. You’ll sleep in my room from now on.”

  As she led me down the hall to her bedroom, I felt myself wake up a bit.

  “Nessy, why did they take Temet? Please, you have to tell me.”

  “All right,” she said after a pause. “They came because I made a deal a long time ago.”

  “Why?” I climbed onto her bed and pulled the covers up to my neck.

  She sighed. “Cemagna, before you and Temet were born, I was trapped in a dangerous place. If the two of you had been born while I was there… it wouldn’t have been safe for you. So I needed to escape. Aylward helped me to escape to here, which is why we live in hiding. In return, he made me promise him that if either you or Temet could do… tricks, I had to give you to him.”

  “Why?”

  “There’
s a place called the Wizardly Order. Those tricks you saw Temet do… they’re a certain kind of Magic and Talent. Temet’s going there to learn to use his abilities.”

  “A school? That’s all it is?”

  “It’s not just a school; it’s an organization all wizards—those like Temet—are a part of. Aylward didn’t tell me much. He just made me promise, and I couldn’t say no without risking all our lives. He’d contact me often to question me about the two of you. Cemagna, the thing you saw with the mirror was real.”

  Chapter 5

  Temet

  The crash woke Temet from a dreamless sleep, and he wished it hadn’t. It was the second night at sea with Aylward in the moon-eye ship. As the ship heaved around him, the dim lantern by his bunk tossed about, making the shadows on the bulkhead dance. He looked over at the place where Aylward usually slept, near him; it was empty.

  He was angry at Aylward. Aylward had taken him away from his home and his family.

  Temet had fallen unconscious alongside Nessy and Cemagna when Aylward had thrown the white powder. He had awakened in the ship. No amount of screamed demands would make Aylward return him home—Temet had shouted until his throat felt raw—so he had decided to bide his time. For now. Until they reached land.

  Tossing back the blanket covering him, Temet stood, only to be hurled almost into the bulkhead from the motion of the ship. In his bare feet and large sleeping shirt from one the ship’s men, he scrambled towards the cabin door, pulling it open.

  “Aylward! What’s going on?”

  Aylward wasn’t in the darkness beyond, so Temet scrambled up the stairs to the deck and pushed open the hatch into a scene of night chaos.

  The heaving deck was awash with rain and seawater. Men ran about, shouting, all of them looking similarly indistinct through the rainstorm. Lightning flashed and he saw in the momentary brightness a man fighting the helm while others rushed up the ratlines to take in sail. One of the masts was gone. And he saw the dark rocks ahead of them.

  “Temet!” He saw Aylward scrambling towards him, his beard and long hair wet. The man reached him and threw himself over him as the deck heaved violently, throwing Temet onto the deck but under Aylward’s protecting arms. Temet shivered as the first splash of water soaked him.

  A man next to Aylward shouted an oath. “Why don’t they come?” he bellowed. “Why don’t they come?”

  “They can’t come this far out!” Aylward yelled back to him. “I doubt they can see us anyway!”

  The man swore again and shouted at a group of men on a yardarm, then ran towards the ratlines to join them.

  “Who? Who can’t see us?” shouted Temet into the rain.

  “The rescue boats. They’ll never be able to see us this far out in this storm! Temet, it’s not—”

  Another crash. Only this one wasn’t the same sound that had awoken him.

  “What was that?” cried Temet.

  “We’ve struck the rocks!” cried Aylward. “Hard! The ship won’t make it to land. Come with me!” Grabbing Temet’s arm, he pulled him along as he raced across the slippery deck.

  Lightning struck again—illuminating a row of jagged rocks jutting all around the ship like knives wanting to stab him. Temet screamed, shrinking back.

  “You’ll be dead if you don’t follow me!” screamed Aylward, pointing to a covered lifeboat.

  Beginning to shiver, Temet followed the man. Though the ship was no longer heaving, it sat on the rocks, being pummeled to death by the storm.

  Aylward threw back the cloth covering the lifeboat. “Get in.”

  Temet climbed into the lifeboat and Aylward threw the cloth back into place. Temet felt the lifeboat move. Rain pounded on the canvas covering it. Scared, Temet curled up at the bottom of the boat.

  The boat heaved beneath him and he felt himself falling. He screamed again. “Nessy!” His head banged into the wood of the boat and all went black.

  Temet awoke slowly, first noticing the cold wooden boards under him, then the gentle swaying he felt. He opened his eyes and saw gray canvas stretched above him. Memory came flooding back.

  There was a storm! Where’s Aylward?

  Frantically, he sat up, the boat rocking even more. He pushed the canvas aside and blinked.

  The boat was adrift in a sea of fog. Dimly he could make out dark shapes of the rocks the moon-eye ship had died on.

  Different shapes lay in the water—wooden shards of what had been the ship. But nothing else moved.

  “Hello?” he called out, timidly. “Hello?”

  Several hours later—maybe; he wasn’t sure, drifting in and out of sleep on the rough boards of the boat, he was still alone. The boat still drifted in the steel-gray water, with Temet curled up at the bottom, trying not to cry and shivering.

  He heard voices and bounded up. Through a thick fog, he could make out the huge bulk of—was it a ship?

  “Hello!” he cried, his voice cracked from thirst. “Help me! Do you see me?”

  The ship was still far off in the fog.

  Leaning forward against the tiller of the lifeboat, Temet pondered. If he could do with the fog what he’d done with the water…

  Pressing his lips together, he concentrated. The fog began to move… and so did the water below it. The ship was now clearly visible to him. He moved the water under it to bring it closer to him… closer… closer… they could see him now. Shouts issued from the deck.

  Releasing his hold on the water and the fog, Temet sagged forward, exhausted, his wet hair plastered to his forehead. “Help me,” he whispered. “All the others are dead.”

  Even though he was under several layers of wool blankets, the deck under him, a maze of yardarms and other ship’s rigging above his head, Temet shivered. The sky was still gray, filled with clouds. He heard the men on the ship talking in low voices. One of them pointed to the moon-eye on Temet’s lifeboat.

  “How do you feel?”

  A man was at his elbow, holding a steaming mug of broth out to him. “Drink this—it will warm you up fast enough. My name is Erril. You’re on the Golden Lily.” He smiled broadly, showing perfect white teeth. “I was the one who spotted your little boat out there.”

  “Thanks,” said Temet, trying to smile through cracked lips. “How did you know I’m cold?”

  “You’re shivering hard enough to throw us off course,” Erril said with a small laugh. A few other members of the ship’s crew had gathered to gawk at Temet.

  Temet lifted the mug to his lips and drank—the warmth that ran down his throat was like liquid comfort. He closed his eyes, drinking deeper—and the mug was empty.

  “You know, they are wondering what to do with you,” said Erril. “Where do you come from?”

  “I have a home on the cliff there—” Temet looked around. The sea stretched blankly on all sides of the ship, not a trace of his home. “I don’t know where I am,” he admitted, trying to keep the quiver from his voice. “I don’t know where home is.”

  Erril scratched his moustache. “Then how did you get out here?”

  “They—they were taking me somewhere.”

  “The Wizardly Order,” said Erril, pointing to the moon-eye. “They were taking you there.”

  A couple of the other men backed away slightly, an expression of wariness coming into their eyes.

  “Ah,” said Erril, unperturbed. “I suppose I’ll get the old man.”

  “He’s here,” said a soft, low voice from behind.

  Sitting up and turning his head, Temet saw a gray-haired man, taller than any of the others and with a well-trimmed beard. Around his neck was a black scarf, and pinned upon the scarf was a silver moon-eye.

  “My name is Moviye Gringwell. Where do you come from, child?” asked the man.

  “I… I’m Temet. I come from the house on the cliff. Aylward came and took me… he said he was taking me to the Wizardly Order.”

  Moviye Gringwell frowned. “That cannot be. You arrived in an Order boat, but none of the
ships have been sent out. And who is Aylward?”

  “He came to my house, forced me to come with him.” Temet described Aylward’s appearance to Gringwell.

  Gringwell’s frown deepened. “That does sound familiar. I knew an Aylward once… yes. He matched your description. But it couldn’t have been him.”

  “Why not? “

  “Because Aylward has been dead for years.”

  Now even Erril had backed away from him, and most of the other men had left. Were they scared of him? “The man who took me was very alive. And I really wish someone would explain to me exactly why I have to go to this Order of yours,” demanded Temet.

  “Gladly,” said Gringwell, sitting down next to Temet. “The Order is an organization for wizards, those who can do things with Magic and Talent beyond what most others can do. I will bring you there with me. We have to see if you are really a wizard. There are tests…”

  “I don’t need them,” said Temet quickly, standing. He didn’t need an Order to tell him how to do things he already knew. He concentrated, and with a flick of his wrist, a plume of water shot up next to the bow of the ship. Several men nearby swore.

  “See,” said Temet. “I already know how to use this Magic and Talent, as you call it. I don’t need this Order of yours. Now can I go home, please?”

  Gringwell’s frown transformed into a smile. “No tests will be needed for you. I see you are a wizard, a strong one at that. Most children don’t manifest until adolescence. But you misunderstand me. The Order isn’t just to help you explore your abilities. It exists to protect the rest of the world.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Order exists to identify wizards. All wizards are subject to the Order and the law of the Ten Ring. People can’t go about with such an advantage over their fellows uncontrolled, now can they? No, they can’t. So you have a choice, young Temet. Either join the Order, or…” He reached into his coat and drew forth a small green vial. “You will swallow one of these. It will kill you within five minutes.”

  He felt weak and sat down again. “I’ll go with you to the Order.”