The Revenge of Magic

by James Riley

  So in the past thirteen years, the government hadn’t managed to find out much more about the books than Dr. Opps had known the day they were found. That was interesting. Was it because people were working in secret, so they couldn’t be too obvious with their research? Or were the answers not to be found through science?

  Unfortunately, Fort didn’t know the answers any more than Dr. Opps did. “So how did you end up here?” he asked, changing the subject back to Jia.

  “Since we were already here, and I was born on the right day, they pulled me in immediately,” she said. “Helps when both your parents are already working on the project.”

  “Right,” Fort said quietly. “Would you go back to China if you could?”

  “I’d like to see it,” Jia said. “I probably wouldn’t remember anything, but it’d still be nice to visit. We just never traveled because my parents were so busy with the books. All I’ve known is our place outside D.C., and, well, now the school.”

  D.C.? Fort’s whole body seemed to tighten, like a rubber band pulled tightly. “So you were close to the attack?”

  Jia looked up in surprise. “I didn’t . . . what?”

  “You said you had a place outside D.C. Were you there during the attack?” He leaned forward, not sure why this was so important to him. Maybe it would help in some way if he wasn’t the only one here who’d gone through that.

  “No, I . . . I wasn’t on the Mall,” Jia said, shaking her head.

  “Were you close?”

  She seemed to be getting more tense with every question. “No. I was . . . I wasn’t around. I don’t really remember, okay?”

  This set Fort back. “You don’t remember? How could you not—”

  “I know what happened!” she shouted, and her sudden anger made him take a step back. “Why do I have to remember every single detail about my day? Is it so wrong that I’d rather forget, maybe?”

  “I’m sorry,” Fort said quietly, not sure what had just happened. “It’s not wrong at all. I would probably forget if I could. I was just curious.”

  “I wish we all could forget,” she told him. “I wish this could all just go back to normal, and we’d never heard of magic to begin with.” She stood up and motioned for him to follow. “C’mon. We have to get you to the officers’ mess for dinner. Don’t want to be late.”

  Fort watched as she walked out of the room, then checked his watch. Six p.m. If dinner was at 1900 hours, that was military time for seven o’clock. They still had an hour.

  I always knew you were great at making friends, his father said in his mind. Winning hearts left and right, that’s my Forsythe!

  - SIXTEEN -

  SO HOW HAS YOUR FIRST day been?” Dr. Opps asked Fort as they ate together in the officers’ mess hall. While several of the assembled military personnel gave them odd looks, at least no one was heating up Fort’s tray to molten-hot levels or making quiet snarky comments that only he could hear, so that was at least a step up from earlier. Also, the soldiers guarding them seemed noticeably more comfortable than the ones in the student mess.

  On the other hand, he was having dinner with a man who’d lied to him from the very first moment they met, and was looking for any excuse to send him back home to his aunt.

  Fort took a moment to think about Dr. Opps’s question, running through all the things he wanted to say but couldn’t, before finally settling on something that might not get him in trouble. “I like Colonel Charles. Do you think he’s happy I came to the school?”

  Dr. Opps’s fork froze midway to his mouth, then finished the journey. “We all are. Why did you ask about him in particular?”

  “He was just really nice during the testing earlier,” Fort said. “He told me that if I worked hard, I might be able to switch to Destruction.”

  “Dr. Ambrose told you about mastering the first three Healing spells, I take it?”

  “She did,” Fort said. “It sounds like it’s pretty challenging to do, though.” Almost like you’re giving me an impossible task so I’ll have to go home.

  “Are you not up for a challenge?” Dr. Opps asked, giving him a side glance. “I thought you wanted to be here.”

  “No, I’m definitely up for it,” Fort said, trying to casually eat his own food, only to have some potatoes drop off his fork. “Three days or not, I’ll master those spells. I’m not leaving, even if I have to work ten times as hard as anyone else. I guess I don’t understand why I have to learn them so quickly, when the other students take a week just to master one spell. That’s what Jia said, anyway.”

  “Maybe that’s why,” Dr. Opps said, taking another bite. “Maybe we need more hard workers around here.”

  “That doesn’t really answer the question,” Fort said, his annoyance starting to outweigh his caution.

  Dr. Opps gave him a look. “I’m the headmaster here, Forsythe. I don’t answer any question I don’t want to. Now, how are you and Jia getting along?”

  Given that she’d dropped him off at the officers’ mess almost an hour early, then walked off in silence, probably not great. “Really good,” Fort said. “She’s incredibly helpful.”

  “Good,” Dr. Opps said. “Stick with your studies, and do whatever Jia tells you to do. She’s one of the best healers we have, way ahead of the rest of the class.” He paused. “And while this certainly is going to be a difficult challenge for you, I intend to show the rest of the school that a birthday means nothing. I refuse to believe that you can’t be just as powerful as the other students. And you working hard and mastering the first three spells in a third of the time will prove that.”

  “I’ll catch up to them,” Fort said, not even paying attention to his food as he tried a different tactic. “Maybe if I do, I could join Colonel Charles’s class. I think he sees something in me—”

  Dr. Opps’s fork dropped to the plate loudly. “What did I just say? You’ll be in the Healing course, or you’ll be heading home. I don’t care if you master the entire book in twenty-four hours.”

  Anger rose in Fort’s chest, and he had to fight not to shout at the headmaster. “But you showed me that I could fight those creatures using Destruction magic, back at my aunt’s house,” he said quietly, trying to stay calm. “Why would you do that and then not let me learn how?”

  “You would never be allowed within ten miles of an attack, even if you did master Destruction,” Dr. Opps told him, turning back to his plate. “None of you students will be involved in any combat operations until you’re at least eighteen. Not as long as I have anything to say about it, at least.”

  Fort clenched his fists below the table. “But that’s not fair,” he snarled. “Don’t I deserve justice for what happened?”

  “You don’t want justice,” Dr. Opps told him, setting down his silverware. “You want revenge.”

  “Fine!” Fort said, his voice rising now. “Maybe I do! But don’t I deserve it? That thing killed my father!”

  Other uniformed officers started turning to look at him again, but Fort didn’t care. Dr. Opps didn’t seem to notice either. “Whether you deserve it or not,” the headmaster said, “it would only lead to further pain on your part, even if you were powerful enough to face one of those things, which you wouldn’t be. Given how little we know about the creatures, I’m not sure anyone here is.”

  “I could be!” Fort hissed, leaning in close. “Just give me the chance. My father is dead—”

  Dr. Opps dropped his head into his hands and sighed.

  “And you would be too, if not for Sierra.”

  Fort immediately went silent, staring with wide eyes at the headmaster, who glanced at him once, then turned back to his food. “What did you just say?” Fort whispered.

  Dr. Opps looked back up, then reached to take a bite. “I said, I’m not sure anyone here would be able to face one of those things.”

  “No,” Fort said, his voice low as he leaned in close. “After that. You said that I would be dead too, if not for Sierra.”
<
br />   Dr. Opps slowly put down his fork, staring at Fort. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Yes you did,” Fort said, not sure why Dr. Opps was lying again. “I heard you! What did you mean by that? Who’s Sierra?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Dr. Opps said, looking just as surprised as Fort felt. “I never said it. How could you have heard that?”

  “I know you said it. I heard it!” Fort shouted.

  This time, he was staring straight at the headmaster when he heard Dr. Opps’s voice again.

  The boy heard my thoughts. It has to be her. There’s no way he could do this. Sierra must be connected to him more than we even suspected. But how can she still use her magic?

  And the whole time, Dr. Opps’s lips never moved.

  - SEVENTEEN -

  FORT PUSHED BACKWARD IN ALARM, his chair tumbling to the floor. “How did I . . . what . . . I just heard you thinking. . . .”

  Dr. Opps leaped forward, grabbing for Fort’s uniform. “What did you hear?” he hissed, his face a mix of anger and fear. “What is she—”

  But other voices around the room were now rising, and not because of them. The silverware on the tables began to clink against the plates, and the temperature in the officers’ mess plummeted until Fort could see his own breath. The lights flickered just like they had in the Viewing Room during Fort’s test, and several of the officers started crying out in alarm. A few of the soldiers even raised their weapons, but they had nowhere to point them.

  What was going on? For some reason, even surrounded by armed guards, Fort suddenly felt very exposed and totally vulnerable.

  “Oppenheimer, what’s happening?” Colonel Charles said, rising from a nearby table and pulling Dr. Opps away from Fort.

  “I told you those worldwide reports were true,” Dr. Opps said, shouting over the general noise. “What did you think would happen if you brought the boy here?”

  Colonel Charles turned around to yell into his phone, something about increased activity of some kind, while Dr. Opps turned back toward Fort. “Get him back to the dorm,” he yelled at a soldier just behind Fort. “Charles, come with me!”

  Colonel Charles threw Dr. Opps an annoyed look but started to follow him out, even as the soldier dragged Fort toward a different door. “Wait!” Fort shouted. “What is this? What’s happening?”

  Before Dr. Opps could answer, someone screamed in the middle of the mess, and the rest of the room went deathly silent. The tables stopped shaking, and the lights stopped flickering, though they stayed low.

  And somehow, though he couldn’t have explained why, Fort knew that something had changed. Something was in the room with them.

  Something . . . inhuman.

  A high-pitched, wet squealing came from the center of the room, and terror passed through Fort’s veins like ice water. He wanted to yell or run or just close his eyes and curl up into a ball, anything to not see whatever it was that had just appeared out of nowhere. But his body refused to move, and he could only struggle to breathe in the freezing air.

  The soldier holding Fort was tall enough to see over the assembled crowd, and whatever he saw made his eyes widen and his mouth open and close without any words coming out. His hands went limp, dropping Fort’s arm.

  “Shoo-shoot it,” a man covered in medals whispered from Fort’s side. “For the love of all that’s holy, shoot it!”

  Fort heard the click of a gun safety being turned off and saw a soldier nearby raising his weapon toward whatever it was. But as he aimed, the soldier started to softly weep, and the gun soon tumbled to the ground, with the man right behind it. He curled into a ball there, slowly rocking and crying to himself.

  Through the assembled bodies, Fort caught a glimpse of something floating in midair, and his heart stopped. Whatever it was shimmered transparently, like a ghost or even a holographic projection. It wore some kind of opaque crystal armor, but beneath the armor, where a human being’s feet would have been, a multitude of tentacles squealed as they dragged across the floor. Behind each one, some sort of black goo singed the tile floor.

  Fort’s entire body screamed for him to run, to hide, anything. But even as he struggled just to breathe, part of him wondered if this thing was a ghost, how was it touching the ground?

  “It’s looking for the boy!” Fort heard Dr. Opps hiss at Colonel Charles, both of their faces deathly white. “I’ve got the medallion Sierra made. It might be our only chance of getting out of here alive”

  “Is it—” Colonel Charles whispered.

  “Yes,” Dr. Opps replied. “And you know what these things can do!”

  “Get Forsythe out of here,” Colonel Charles snapped at another soldier, who nodded, trying his best not to look at the thing in the center of the room. The man grabbed Fort and dragged him toward the door. Still too afraid to even take a step on his own, Fort couldn’t do anything but stare in the direction of the horror, not wanting to see it, but unable to look away, either.

  And then the creature turned to follow him.

  YOU USE THE THOUGHT MAGIC, said a voice ancient and all-powerful inside Fort’s head. The strength of the voice made his skull ache, and he cried out as he grabbed the sides of his head, trying frantically to keep himself together.

  “Oppenheimer?” Colonel Charles shouted, raising a shaking gun toward the creature. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!”

  The inhuman creature shuffled another step and was just about to appear fully in Fort’s line of sight when Dr. Opps stepped between them, holding the same medallion he’d used on Fort’s aunt in her apartment. He raised it up for the creature to see, and it began to glow brightly. “GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM,” Dr. Opps shouted, and light shot out from the medallion, some sort of magical burst.

  Fort saw another mass of tentacles rise, this time where its hand should have been, and the beam of light froze in midair. THIS ITEM WAS THE SOURCE OF THE THOUGHT MAGIC? came the voice in Fort’s head, and he shrieked in pain again. Several people around Fort grabbed their heads, so he knew he wasn’t the only one to hear it this time.

  “I command you!” Dr. Opps shouted, though he seemed to be in great pain as well. “Leave this place, and never return!”

  But the monster gestured with one of its tentacles and the medallion shattered into pieces, the light that had emerged from it disappearing into nothingness. IF THAT WAS THE SOURCE, WE HAVE BEEN MISLED. PRAY THAT WE DO NOT RETURN TO THIS PLACE.

  And with that, the inhuman horror disappeared, and Fort began to sob in relief, surprised to still be alive. What was that creature? He’d at least been able to move during the attack in D.C. But here, now, he couldn’t even face the thing!

  Dr. Opps fell to his knees in front of Fort, cradling his hand that had been holding the medallion. Colonel Charles came swiftly to check him over. “Get Jia here to heal him,” he ordered a nearby soldier, his voice still shaking. He turned to Fort and glared at the soldier still gripping him. “And what did I say about the boy? Get him out of here—now!”

  The temperature had now returned to normal, and the lights brightened to their usual setting as the soldier holding Fort resumed dragging him toward the door. For once, Fort was happy to let him. It had come here looking for him. Even just speaking, the thing had almost ruptured his mind.

  If that was how it communicated, what could it do if it wanted to hurt them?

  “Happy, Charles?” Fort heard Dr. Opps say. “Is this what you wanted? That thing could have killed us all if it wanted, and that was just a shadow of its power!”

  Colonel Charles glanced over at Fort. “This just proves the need for all of this. We must have the boy’s power. If this is what it takes to awaken it, then so be it.”

  “We need to see if Sierra . . . ,” Dr. Opps started, but Fort missed whatever else he said as the door to the mess hall slammed shut behind him, and he found himself out in the evening air.

  “What . . . what was that thing?” the soldier asked.

  Fort just
stared at him in silence, no idea how to answer.

  The soldier waited for a moment, then shook his head. “We should have set fire to those books when they first appeared. What we’re doing here, it’s wrong. You kids are messing with something we’ve got no business touching. And that thing is the result.”

  Fort wanted to argue but couldn’t honestly think of a thing to say in their defense, so he just followed along quietly back to the boys’ dorm.

  - EIGHTEEN -

  THE SOLDIER HURRIED FORT TO the dorm, then shoved him inside and slammed the door behind him. All the boys turned to look at Fort, but for once, he didn’t feel embarrassed by all the attention. Almost dying seemed to have put his priorities in order.

  “There was . . . something in the officers’ mess,” he said quietly. “Something from . . . I don’t know, another dimension or something. It wasn’t human, whatever it was. I think the school was just attacked.”

  “What are you talking about?” a boy Fort didn’t recognize asked. “There wasn’t an attack. There are alarms all over the base that would have gone off.”

  “I don’t know what it was,” Fort said, trying and failing to slow his heart back to a normal speed. “It was wearing some kind of armor, I think, but it had tentacles, and it spoke in our heads.”

  Someone snorted nearby, and Fort turned to find Bryce sitting on the bed next to his. Or was it Blaine? He couldn’t even begin to remember at this moment which was correct.