Skerren winced at the sound. “The Secreteers are going to hear that.”
“Good,” DeMayne said, clearly eager to see them again. His eyes swept the land beyond the gate for threats. No one was there. Just more of the same trees that filled the rest of the forest. “It’s this way,” he said, redirecting everyone through the gate.
“Why?” Jack asked. “There’s nothing through there.”
DeMayne disagreed.
One by one, they all went through the gate. Nothing dramatic happened as a result of their passage. The group wasn’t transported anywhere, and there was no magical transformation of the forest. Gravenmurk Glen remained exactly as it was. At least, on the surface.
“Now what?” asked Allegra.
“Now we keep going,” DeMayne replied.
Jack, Skerren, and Allegra didn’t see it, but something had changed. It was a subtle shift, but the air felt different to Joey. As they hiked deeper into the woods, the fog lifted and the sun came out. Not just any sun either. The light felt alive and pleasant in a way that was hard for him to describe. Joey felt like he was viewing the world through a camera filter that made everything more attractive.
“You feel it too?” Leanora asked, noting his reaction.
Joey nodded as Jack fiddled with his broken smart watch, getting it to project a small holographic map in the air around his wrist. The map view drifted as the GPS tracker tried, and failed, to locate them. According to Jack’s busted instruments, the forest was suddenly way bigger than it was supposed to be. He chalked it up to malfunctioning equipment. Joey and his fellow magicians knew better.
“That’s not it,” Leanora told him. “We unlocked something here. We’re still in the Imagine Nation, but we’re somewhere else at the same time. A magical pocket in the forest. Trust me, we’ve done this before. Last time we used a map to do it. This time it was the gate.”
“How did we all do it, though?” Janelle looked around at the forest, which seemed to grow brighter with each step they took. “What about belief? Jack had doubts. He said so.”
“Maybe the bar is lower now,” Shazad said. “We took out the artifacts that were holding magic back. Old doors opening up all over the world. The gate’s probably one of them.”
Mr. Ivory frowned. It was obvious the idea of “magic doors opening up all over the world” didn’t sit well with him. He looked like he was about to say something when DeMayne called the group to attention.
“Everyone, on your guard,” he ordered. “We’re in their territory now. We should expect to encounter some resistance.”
“There were two of them before,” Joey said.
DeMayne scanned the trees, searching for the Secreteers. “The question is, where are they now?” There was no trace of fear or paranoia in his eyes. He was itching for a fight. “Ivory, we need the rat.”
Mr. Ivory reluctantly fished a fresh tooth out of his bag. At this point in the journey, no one batted an eye when he stuck it in his mouth and transformed into a large, golden-haired rodent that walked like a man.
“Why a rat?” Joey asked as Ivory sniffed the air, trying to pick up the scent of the Secreteers. “Why not a bloodhound?”
“African pouched rats actually have a better sense of smell than dogs,” Janelle explained. “They use them to sniff out land mines in Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania, and Cambodia.”
“That may be,” Mr. Ivory said. “But the fact is, I don’t have a bloodhound tooth. I have a rat tooth. We work with what we’ve got.” He stalked off into the forest and disappeared into the trees.
“I thought the rat was cute,” Janelle said after he was gone. “Like a prairie dog with a longer face.”
“It was definitely better than the crocodile,” Joey agreed.
A short while later, Mr. Ivory returned dragging the gray Secreteer behind him.
“He’s not dead, is he?” DeMayne asked.
Ivory shook his head. “Just unconscious. He tried to fend me off with a handful of dust. It didn’t do much besides make me sneeze.”
DeMayne gave Joey a nod, pleased to see that his memory protection had worked as advertised.
“The boy said there were two of them,” Mr. Clear said. “Where’s the other one?”
Mr. Ivory sniffed the air and pointed. The indigo Secreteer burst out from behind a large tree wielding his two machetes, but he didn’t get a chance to use them. Mr. Clear raised his hand, and before the Secreteer took a single step, his entire body was encased in a block of ice. Mr. Clear shuddered and rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them up. He didn’t look good.
“Are you all right?” Shazad asked him.
“He’s fine,” DeMayne said, answering before Mr. Clear could get a word out. “Let’s get our friend here up and around. I want to talk to him.”
Mr. Ivory propped the unconscious Secreteer up against a tree and slapped his face a few times. “Come on. Wakey wakey…”
The Secreteer’s eyes blinked open. He saw the frozen state of his comrade and instantly realized the position he was in.
“There you are,” DeMayne said, crouching down to the Secreteer’s eye level. “I’ve been looking forward to this.” He pulled down the piece of cloth covering the Secreteer’s nose and mouth, exposing his face.
The captive Secreteer scowled and looked up with defiant eyes. “You’re wasting your time. It doesn’t matter what you do to me. I won’t tell you anything.”
“Don’t be so sure,” DeMayne replied. “If I want you to talk, believe me, you’re going to talk.”
“No,” Skerren said. He put a hand on the hilt of one of his swords and drew it out an inch. “I don’t care what his people did to you. I draw the line at torture. I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t allow it?” DeMayne repeated, amused. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Not to worry, young man. I’m not a fan of torture either.”
“Since when?” Joey said. “You didn’t have any problem torturing me outside of Camelot last year.”
“I didn’t say I was above torture,” DeMayne clarified. “But it’s a lot of work, and not always the best way to obtain information.” As he spoke, he slid a black ring onto the pinkie finger of his right hand. Joey recognized it. The Ring of Ranguul was a magic artifact that allowed DeMayne to control the minds of anyone he shook hands with. Joey had seen him use it before, turning innocent people into puppets on a string. Mr. Ivory forced the Secreteer to take DeMayne’s hand. He grabbed DeMayne’s shirt, trying to resist, but it was no use. His eyes went black, and his body went limp. After that, the interrogation began.
It was more of an interview, really. An easy conversation with a hypnotized subject that yielded several valuable pieces of information. One fact that everyone was surprised to learn was that the two Secreteers Mr. Ivory and Mr. Clear had captured were the only ones patrolling the forest. It seemed the Secreteers had grown complacent about their defenses. Two guardians had always been enough to keep people out of Gravenmurk Glen in the past, and despite their failure to turn back Joey and the others, reinforcements were unlikely to arrive. There were many other Secreteers in the Clandestine Order who could have come, but they were busy. Apparently, the past twenty-four hours had seen an unprecedented outbreak in magical phenomena all around the world, including the reappearance of several ancient doors that led back to the Imagine Nation and other magical realms. The Secreteers preferred that such things stayed lost and forgotten. They were working hard to prevent their discovery, but they were fighting a losing battle.
“How do you like that?” Shazad said with a smile. “Sounds like what we did to set magic free helped clear a path to our destination.”
“When we tell this story later, let’s pretend that was the plan all along,” Joey said. “Speaking of our destination… where is it?”
Unfortunately, the entranced Secreteer couldn’t tell them which way to go next. He didn’t know the answer himself.
“He’s lying,” Jack Blank said.
“The Secreteers all share each other’s secrets. That’s how they work. That’s how they know everything.”
“Not this secret,” the gray Secreteer said in a dazed monotone. “Only the grand majestrix of our Order knows the location of the ancient temple. Only she is permitted to enter.”
“He’s not lying,” DeMayne said, twisting the Ring of Ranguul on his finger. “He can’t lie. Not to me. And it’s not a temple. It’s a castle,” he added to the Secreteer. “He really doesn’t know.” DeMayne chewed on the inside of his cheek, weighing his options. “I don’t suppose your majestrix would grant us access if we promised to spare your life?”
“Never,” the gray Secreteer replied. “The Order comes first. My life is nothing.”
“Less than nothing,” DeMayne said. “Not to worry. It’s almost over.”
“What?” Joey shook as DeMayne took out the Tempest Blade and raised it toward the Secreteer’s throat. “No!”
“Stop!” Jack exclaimed at the same time. He and Joey were standing the closest to DeMayne. They both went at him, knocking him off-balance before Mr. Ivory or Mr. Clear could move to protect their leader.
DeMayne fell backward from his crouched position, landing on his rear end. “Have you gone mad?” he asked, indignant.
“We could ask you the same thing,” Jack said. “What are you doing?”
DeMayne stood up and dusted himself off. “What do you think I’m doing? We’re done here. This man has outlived his usefulness.”
“So?” Jack shot back. “You’re just going to kill him?”
“Don’t be so squeamish,” DeMayne said. “This should come as no surprise. I told you I was going to destroy the Secreteers.”
“You do that by destroying their life’s work!” Joey said. “By defeating them. Not by killing them!”
DeMayne frowned. “That was never a condition of our deal.”
“Then I’m changing the deal,” Joey said. “I’m updating it. No killing. Unless you want to lose my protection, that’s part of it now. No killing.”
“Stop it. We both know you’re not going to waste a spell like that.”
“Something tells me it’ll take a lot less magic to remove those protections than it did to put them in place. Want to find out?”
Joey’s ultimatum created a staring contest between him and DeMayne.
“I don’t respond well to threats,” DeMayne said. His voice was calm and even but all the more menacing for his complete lack of emotion. “Maybe I don’t need your protection anymore. Have you considered that? We already know there won’t be any more guards from this point on.”
“There’s still one more Secreteer waiting in the castle,” Joey warned DeMayne. “We’ve seen Oblivia in action. I don’t care how many magical artifacts you’ve got hidden on your body. You won’t last five minutes against her without this.” Joey held up the wand.
DeMayne’s eyes narrowed.
“Speaking of hidden magical objects, what does that one do? I’ve never seen that stone before.” Leanora pointed out a black stone pendant that hung around DeMayne’s neck. It was like her firestone, only darker, and it had strange markings carved into its sides. The pendant had been exposed after the Secreteer clawed at DeMayne, popping buttons on his shirt. DeMayne ignored Leanora’s question and tucked the stone out of sight. “Fine. We’ll do it your way,” he grumbled. “No killing. But if you ever touch me again, that will change, starting with the lot of you.”
Jack Blank leaned back, making a hands-off gesture, but the expression on his face said, Bring it. Joey got the sense that he was used to having his life threatened by people like DeMayne.
“We’ll keep our hands to ourselves. You do the same,” Joey said, trying to match Jack’s casual toughness.
“Mr. Clear,” DeMayne called out while removing the Ring of Ranguul from his finger. “The ring’s effects will wear off when we leave here. I don’t want this man following us. Put him on ice.”
Mr. Clear nodded, still shivering. “I just need a few minutes to warm up.”
“Now,” DeMayne ordered. “I want to keep moving. We’re close. I can feel it.”
Clear sighed and raised his hand toward the gray Secreteer.
Once the opposition had been turned into ice cubes, the Fellowship of the Wand continued. It turned out that “close” was a relative term. The forest went on longer than anyone expected, continuing out over a body of water.
Joey didn’t realize until he stepped in it. The water was completely still, and a thick layer of pollen coated its surface. Oaks and evergreens went on as far as the eye could see, creating an optical illusion. What looked like solid ground was actually a strange sort of bayou. For all anyone knew, it was the size of Lake Michigan.
“We’re going to need a raft,” Skerren said, testing the water’s depth with a sword. Even at the edge it was deep. He looked around at the forest. “Plenty of material to work with here, but…”
“We can’t chop down these trees,” Allegra said, finishing his thought. “The Gravens might come back.”
DeMayne put up a hand. “Never mind the trees. We don’t need them.” He took out a thin metal case that looked like a business card holder. It contained several thin sheets of colored paper. He gave one to Joey and kept another for himself. “Take this and follow my instructions carefully.”
“What is this?” Joey asked.
“Origami paper,” DeMayne explained. “Special origami paper. I took it away from someone in Japan many years ago. I don’t remember who they were. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do exactly what I do.”
Joey listened as DeMayne guided him through a series of folds, telling him how to make a paper boat. It was a relatively simple process, but the result was extraordinary. When Joey and DeMayne reached the final step and unfolded their boats into their finished form, the paper expanded rapidly, growing too big and heavy to hold. Everyone jumped back as two full-size boats splashed down in the water, ready to be boarded.
“Are you kidding me?” Jack said. “I don’t believe this.”
“That’s why I had him do it,” DeMayne replied, nodding to Joey. “Magic requires belief.”
“But I don’t understand. They’re just paper!” Jack said, inspecting the boats. “Won’t they get soggy and sink?”
DeMayne nodded. “Yes, which means there’s no time to waste.”
Everyone stepped forward to get in the boats. Janelle tapped Jack’s shoulder as she passed him. “It’s best not to think about it too much. Just go with it.”
In a move that surprised no one, but annoyed everyone, DeMayne took one boat for himself and forced the rest of the group to cram into the other. “Typical,” Mr. Ivory muttered as they squeezed into place and shoved off. Using fallen branches as oars, they rowed out, floating between the trees and following DeMayne’s lead. It appeared that the farther they went, the more he remembered. That worried Joey, but as much as he didn’t trust DeMayne, there was no denying they needed him. There was a reason no one had ever gotten this close to the Secret Citadel before. Between DeMayne’s memories and Joey’s protection, they were the perfect team, even if they weren’t really on the same side. Turn by turn through the bayou, DeMayne called back to the group, telling them which way to go. Joey wondered what he wasn’t telling them. In their boat, Mr. Ivory had a few questions of his own.
“What did you mean before?” he asked Shazad. “When you said that you already set magic free? Set it free how?”
Shazad stopped rowing. The question took him by surprise. “Doesn’t your boss tell you anything?”
Mr. Ivory looked back over his shoulder toward the lead boat. DeMayne was out of earshot, but he lowered his voice just the same. “He’s never been one for sharing.”
Shazad nodded. “Fair enough.” Speaking quietly, he and Leanora explained how they broke the dark magic markers that had held magic back for centuries, releasing its energy back into the world.
Mr. Ivory couldn’
t believe his ears. “You did what? Are you out of your mind?”
Shazad and Leanora made no apologies. “The world needs magic,” Leanora said. “Maybe you noticed?”
“Magic is dangerous,” Mr. Ivory retorted. “Maybe you noticed? The world needs protecting from magic. If anyone knows that, I do.”
Joey rolled his eyes, following the conversation. “This guy really drank the Kool-Aid, huh?”
“What do you mean?” Jack asked him.
“Protecting the world from magic,” Joey explained. “DeMayne acts like he’s doing the world a favor. He says magic isn’t for everyone and he keeps dangerous power away from people who might abuse it. It’s all a front. He just wants it for himself.”
“I’m aware of that,” Mr. Ivory rasped, speaking to Joey out of the side of his mouth. “I’m not a fool. I know the Invisible Hand wasn’t formed out of any desire for public service, but we do keep magic out of other people’s hands where it might be a danger to them. I told you about my introduction to magic. How many kids you think that old witch ate before I stole her bag of teeth?” Mr. Ivory looked disgusted. He didn’t like to think about it. “How about Mr. Clear over there?” he asked, nodding to his frosty comrade. “He’s flat-out cursed by that bracelet on his wrist. Sure, he’s got incredible power, but he’s always cold. He can’t get warm. It gets worse when he uses his power, but he can’t take it off. It’s bound to him. There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t wish he could just get rid of that thing.”
Leanora looked at Mr. Clear, who was shivering next to Skerren and Allegra. “Did DeMayne ever try to help you?” she asked him.
Mr. Clear looked at her like she was hopelessly naive.
Mr. Ivory scoffed. “Please. Do you even hear yourself?”
“That’s the difference between us,” Leanora said. “We would have helped. Our families would have helped too. You just met the wrong people. Made the wrong friends.”
“No one ever said life was fair,” Mr. Ivory said bitterly. “Would have been nice if I ran into your folks back in the day instead of that old witch, but I can’t turn back time, can I? Mark my words, other kids are going to end up like I did because of what you did. Bringing magic back out into the open isn’t going to solve the world’s problems. It’s just going to create a whole bunch of new ones.”
The New World Page 18
