The Common King

by Brian Olsen

  “Exactly,” Mrs. Deng continues. “And if you had made us aware of the risks our children were taking earlier, maybe things wouldn’t have gotten to this point.”

  Mr. Liefer throws his hands up. “That’s outrageous!”

  They all start shouting over one another. It’s hard to make out what anyone is saying.

  Nate shakes his head. “Oh, brother. Welcome to the past couple weeks, buddy.”

  Alisa clears her throat. “Excuse me, everyone?” When they don’t respond, she takes a step forward and says a little louder, “Excuse me?”

  They shut up.

  Mrs. Green smiles at her. “What is it, honeybear?”

  Alisa rests her hands on the table. “If you want to argue about who should have done what when, fine. But maybe we should take a few minutes now to listen to whatever Chris has to tell us?”

  “We can’t trust—” Liefer protests.

  Mr. Montgomery cuts him off. “I’ve known Chris since he was born. Of course we can trust him.”

  “But this isn’t the Chris you knew. He—”

  Mrs. Green smacks the table again. “Mr. Liefer, you are working my last nerve, I swear. If you won’t trust Chris, then trust my daughter. She’ll know if anyone’s lying. Go ahead, Chris. Do you want to sit, sweetie?”

  Mr. Liefer stalks to the far end of the room in a huff. He folds his arms and glares at me.

  “Chris?” Alisa nudges me. “Go ahead.”

  I look at all of their expectant faces.

  “Go ahead what?”

  Alisa and her mother exchange a look.

  “Go ahead and tell us what the Common King is planning,” Mrs. Green explains.

  “It seemed like he was prepared for us,” Andy says. “Was that just good strategy on his part, or did he have some way to know we’d be there?”

  “Tell us everything he’s been doing in that hotel, Chris.” Mrs. Deng taps the table with a finger to punctuate. “Every last detail.”

  “I’m sure it’s painful to think about, sweetheart,” Mrs. Green adds. “But you never know what little bit of information might be useful.”

  I don’t say anything.

  “Chris?” Mr. Montgomery pushes his chair back, like he’s ready to get up and comfort me. “Is it too much right now? Do you want to do this later?”

  “Later won’t matter.” I shrug. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember anything.”

  The room goes silent, except for water rushing through pipes.

  “Nothing?” Lily drops down into a chair. “Nothing at all?”

  “I was in the floating room,” I explain. “I couldn’t see or hear anything in the real world. I don’t know what he’s been doing all this time. I’m sorry.”

  Liefer buries his face in one hand. “What was the point?” he mutters. “What was the point?”

  “That’s all right.” Despite her words, Mrs. Green looks as shocked as everyone else. “That’s all right, honey.”

  I scratch my chin. “I guess there’s one thing. Having me in his head might have been holding him back. Slowing down his plan, keeping him from hurting more people. I could be wrong. But I don’t think I am.”

  I’m tired. I think I do want to sleep again after all.

  I turn and head back down the hallway.

  “You probably should have left me there,” I call back. “You probably should have just left me.”

  Ten

  “Chris?”

  I take my arm down from over my eyes. I haven’t been able to sleep. Everybody’s still talking in the other room. Arguing.

  Mr. Montgomery comes in. Yasu was sleeping at the foot of my cot, but I give him a gentle nudge with my foot and he begrudgingly gets down to make room.

  Nate’s dad is a great guy. He’s Mohegan, like Nate, and they look a lot alike. More and more so over the past year, since Nate started taking testosterone. Mr. Montgomery went to college with my dad so they’re right about the same age, late forties, but if I didn’t know better I’d say Mr. Montgomery was younger. He’s got black hair over a slightly rounded face, and an expression that’s usually either extremely thoughtful or extremely joyful, with rarely much in between. Right now, he’s got his thoughtful face on.

  He sits on the end of the cot. “Thought I’d check in on you.”

  I sit up and swing my feet onto the floor. “I’m okay.”

  “Really? That’s a surprise.”

  I lean forward, my elbows on my knees. “I’m just tired.”

  “I’m very sorry about your father.”

  I don’t say anything.

  “He’s been one of my closest friends for twenty years,” he continues. “No, not ‘one of.’ My closest friend. I took care of the…the arrangements. You should know that. When your mother didn’t…well, she didn’t come forward. After. It was all so rushed, and confusing, but the ceremony…Eric would have liked it, I think. A lot of people loved him, you know. I’m sorry you couldn’t…and I’m sure your mother wanted to be there, but…” He sighs and rubs his hand across his face. He’s quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Since Nate told us the truth, I feel like I haven’t had time to properly mourn your father. It seems almost selfish to take a moment to myself, just to miss him. What with everything that’s happening. The whole world has changed. For all of us. Nothing will go back to the way it was. But I keep thinking about how he and I will never sit on my porch drinking beer again and that feels like a much bigger change to my world than learning magic is real.” He swallows. “He was a good man. A good father and husband. A good—” He swallows again. “A good friend. Oh, man.” He sniffs and rubs his eyes. “Oh, man. Oh, Eric.”

  I cover my face with my palms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” My stomach hurts and there’s a stone in my throat and I’m shaking. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  Mr. Montgomery puts his arm around my shoulders. I lean against his chest, still covering my face, and he puts his other arm around me. I keep saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  And he doesn’t tell me it’s all right, or that it’s not my fault. He just says, “I’m sorry too, Chris. I’m sorry too.”

  And we’re both crying, and it’s hard to get more words out but I say, “I want— I want my—” and he says, “I know, I know you do.”

  My stomach hurts a little less. My throat is sore but the stone in it is gone.

  I drop my hands from my face. Mr. Montgomery kisses the top of my head and I pull back from him. He keeps one arm around my shoulders.

  “You’re not alone,” he says. “You’re our family.”

  “My mom…” I can’t finish.

  “Neve’s a smart woman, a caring woman, and she’ll come to her senses eventually. Until she does, you have a home with us. Always. All right?”

  I wipe my face with my sleeve and nod.

  He sighs. “I was about to say you could stay in Nate’s brother’s room, but I guess for the time being our home is the Charlesville Historical Museum. I never liked this place. You know how many exhibits they have on the Native tribes of the region?”

  I smile. I can’t help it. I love when Mr. Montgomery goes off about Native history. “Zero?”

  “Zero!” He smacks his knee. “A couple of whitewashed mentions in the exhibit on the town’s founding. Like we’re supporting characters in our own story! No, not even supporting. Background. Extras! Gabrielle says she wants to fix that, says it’s a problem she inherited from the last head of the museum, but I don’t know. She’s been here three years already and I haven’t seen any progress.”

  “Well, you’re living here now,” I point out. “Why not sneak something in at night?”

  He laughs. “I should do that. Write up an insert for the guidebook.” He takes his arm from around my shoulders. “Hopefully we won’t be here that long. I’m sure this whole business will wrap up soon.”

  My smile falls. I’m not so sure.

  “I’m sorry everybody wasted
all that time on me,” I say.

  “What are you talking about? What do you mean, wasted?”

  “They took that big risk to get information about the Common King’s plan and it was all for nothing.”

  He puts his hand under my chin and turns my head to face him. “Chris, we didn’t do this for information. We did it because we love you and you needed help. When Nate and Alisa and Zane explained to us that your memories were different from everyone else’s, that you and this king are two completely different personalities, we started working right away on a plan to bring you back to us.” He drops his hand, chucking me under the chin. “And it worked. Here you are. So don’t say that was for nothing.”

  “Okay. Thanks. I still feel bad. It was a big risk to take, just for me.”

  “Not just for you. They were supposed to rescue the Pillmans too. And Shonda. Maybe those teachers of yours. Anybody who needed rescuing.” His expression turns thoughtful. “I don’t know Shonda well but I honestly never thought she’d go with them willingly. I know she was on the king’s side before, but she seemed so afraid of the few memories she’d recovered. I was sure she’d be with you when Liefer brought you back.” He sighs. “Shame. I wonder what she’s told her parents. They must be worried sick.”

  “Shonda’s with him?”

  “Oh, of course, you don’t know what’s been going on, do you? Yes, they’ve been taking people and restoring all their memories of the magic world. Your classmate Shonda Yeboah was the most recent.”

  Shonda. Right, I knew that, Alisa told me she was taken.

  There something about that…something important about Shonda…

  “Who else?” I ask.

  “Hm?”

  “Who else did the Common King take, Mr. Montgomery?”

  “Oh. Well, let’s see. Not many. Mrs. Kumar, your headmistress. Mr. Finlay, your biology teacher. And somebody else. A boy who doesn’t go to your school…I can’t remember the name…”

  “Dante?”

  He snaps his fingers. “Yes, that’s right. Dante. From those LGBTQ dances you boys go to. He can hide things, he’s the one who kept Alisa from finding them for so long.” He frowns. “How did you know it was him? I thought you didn’t remember anything…”

  I jump up from the cot. “Come on. I might know something useful after all.”

  I hurry back through the hall and into the other room, Mr. Montgomery hot on my heels. Yasu follows too, claws clacking on the floor.

  Everyone’s in their same spots around the table as before. They stop talking when I come in.

  “I do know something.” I take a breath. “The Common King talked to me sometimes.”

  “Talked to you?” Liefer comes forward from where he was lurking at the far side of the room. “What do you mean, talked to you?”

  “He would come to see me. In the floating room.”

  “Wait.” Mrs. Deng squints from behind her big glasses. “I thought the floating room was…I don’t know. A metaphor, or something. For your split personality.”

  “No, it’s a real place.” I tap my head. “I mean, it’s not ‘real’ real, but it’s real.”

  Mrs. Green stands and pulls out a chair for me. “Sit, sweetie, sit. Tell us what you remember.”

  I can’t sit. I pace back and forth in front of the table. “It’s all fading. Like a dream. There’s something important about Shonda but…I can’t remember…”

  Alisa steps in front of me, stopping my pacing. “Let me help?”

  I nod.

  She puts her fingers on my temples. “Remember everything you saw and heard while you were in the floating room. Every word the Common King said, fresh in your mind, like it just happened. Truth.”

  A burst of warmth tingles through my head and in a flash, it’s all there. Every visit from my double. I gasp. Alisa drops her fingers and I turn sharply to the table.

  “She’s the last,” I say. “She’s the last person he needs for his plan.”

  “What does that mean, Chris?” Mr. Montgomery asks. “That he’s not going to abduct anyone else?”

  “Yeah. I think he’s done with that, for now.”

  “But what is the plan?” Mr. Ambrose leans forward, his eyes wide with excitement. “What does he need those specific people for?”

  “Oh. I don’t know.” I slump down into the chair Mrs. Green offered me. “I tried to get it out of him but he never told me.”

  Mr. Liefer snorts with laughter. “Of course. Well, that’s helpful.”

  Lily glares at him. “More helpful than you’ve been, Mr. Liefer. We should have searched the hotel with Zane while you took on the king. Zane wouldn’t have left Kenny behind. Or the book.”

  “Book?” I say. “You were trying to get the book, too?”

  “Yes,” Alisa answers. “Zane volunteered to distract the Common King while we searched the hotel for the Pillmans and the book. Once we had them, we’d come for you.”

  Nate jerks a thumb towards Liefer. “Only somebody decided the Pillmans weren’t important, and he couldn’t hold onto the book.”

  Liefer waves him down. “Enough, Nate, enough. You weren’t there, so you’re in no position to judge me. The Pillmans weren’t in the hotel, but Kenny wouldn’t help us unless he believed they were safe. I made a difficult decision. An adult decision.” He scowls. “And yes, Shonda conjured the book out of my hands. But none of us expected her to help him so willingly.”

  Alisa glares at him. “You should have taken the book back here first, and then returned for us.”

  The former headmaster throws up his arms. “Oh, yes, stupid, thoughtless, mean Mr. Liefer. Not wanting to leave children alone to face a murderous madman and his flunkies! Next time I’ll know better.”

  Mrs. Deng starts to say something back, but I interrupt her. I’m sick of all their fighting. “Shonda conjured the book? What do you mean?”

  “That’s her power,” Alisa explains. “She can conjure objects.”

  “A lesser version of my ability,” Liefer continues. “She can bring objects to her, as long as she knows where they are.”

  I tap my fingers on the table. “What do you think the Common King is planning?”

  “To break the Moment,” Andy answers. “Same as Miller and Jasmine were trying to do.”

  “That makes sense. I know he wants to be king again, he told me that much.”

  “But we don’t know how he’ll break the Moment,” Alisa continues. “Miller and Jasmine used Kenny’s logomancy to amplify the fairies’ magic.”

  “And he can’t do that again?”

  She shakes her head. “Fairies are out of the game. They ran away to fairyland and haven’t been seen since.”

  “Smart,” Lily says. “If they’re in the fay, they can’t be pulled back into their artifact. If the Common King destroys the book, they’ll survive, unlike all the other magical creatures.”

  Mr. Montgomery sits back in his original seat. “Why hasn’t he destroyed the book already? That’s what I don’t understand. You said he hates all these fairies and elves and whatnot, right? He’s had this book for weeks. Could have been rid of them anytime he wanted.”

  “He doesn’t care about killing them,” I say.

  Mrs. Green frowns. “I don’t remember anything from that world myself, but from what I’ve heard, he was genocidal.”

  “Oh, he hates them,” I continue. “Always has, for sure, but he didn’t kill magical creatures for no reason, not at first. He started because it gained him support. He stirred up ordinary people’s hate and fear of anything different and used that to win the throne.”

  The mood in the room changes. Everybody’s a little uncomfortable. I guess they don’t like me talking like I have such a clear understanding of that monster’s motivations. Well, tough. I don’t like it either.

  Alisa clears her throat. “Whatever he’s planning, he needs the book to do it. He gave that much away.”

  “Should we go back?” Lily asks.


  “Should the adults go back, you mean,” Mr. Montgomery corrects. “I was never comfortable with Liefer taking you kids into danger.”

  Mrs. Green nods. “Amen to that.”

  “Doesn’t matter, we can’t go back.” Alisa taps her necklace. “My scrying only worked last night because I arranged with Kenny for him to stop amplifying Dante’s hiding power after sunset. I can’t break through again.”

  “But we know where the hotel is now,” Andy points out. “Can’t we just go there?”

  She shakes her head. “It’s as good as invisible to us because of Dante’s magic. We won’t find it again.”

  Mr. Ambrose leans over to scratch Yasu’s ears. “So the book is a big part of his plan. Is there a specific type of magical creature he wants to find? Something like the fairies, that would help him break the Moment?”

  “Maybe…” Something’s nagging at me. “Jasmine and Miller didn’t just depend on the fairies to break the Moment, though…”

  Alisa looks at me. “You mean how they let the minotaurs out?”

  “And the lightning bird. And Mrs. Wollard, with her wolves. They made sure people saw magic being used. A lot of people.”

  Liefer shakes his head. “That’s not enough. The Moment is too strong. It makes you forget or ignore magic after a little time passes. Most people aren’t logomancers and have no resistance to the amnesia effect. Without the fairies interfering, they’ll forget it all, or make up some ordinary explanation for it.”

  Mr. Montgomery grimaces. “That’s true enough.” He gestures to Mrs. Green and Mrs. Deng, the other non-magical adults. “Even surrounded by logomancy all day and night, I wake up every morning having forgotten half of what you’ve told us about it.”

  Mrs. Deng takes off her glasses and rubs her eyes. “Alisa’s tried to give me some memories back of my life before, but I can’t hold onto them.”

  “Exactly my point.” Liefer taps his chin thoughtfully. “The Common King must have another way to break the Moment. He won’t get anywhere by letting a couple of ogres or centaurs loose.”

  “Maybe not,” I acknowledge. “But what if he let them all loose?”

  “All the ogres?” Nate asks. “Or all the centaurs?”