by L. S. Emory
“Now, then. That should do you,” the man said. “Now sit down,” he growled as he stuck his foot behind my ankle and pushed me. I fell on my butt, hard. I was furious now. It wasn’t that it hurt that bad. It was embarrassing. He just laughed at me. “Not so smart now, are you witch?”
“I’m not a witch, you jerk,” I said through clenched teeth. Obviously this guy wasn’t a wizard, or had any real dealings with the wizard community. Otherwise, he would not have called me that.
Wizards are born with a natural ability to do magic. It is in our DNA, literally. Some had more of a talent for it, but we all had the ability. Magic is a part of us, part of who we are in the world. It is something that we are very proud of.
Witches, on the other hand are very different. Witches and wizards have nothing in common, except for magic. The difference is that where we have the natural abilities, witches do not. They have to rely on what we call the Shadow. I didn’t fully understand how it worked, since it wasn’t covered in school until the final year in the Advanced Supernatural Cosmology class. But I did know that the Shadow was a force in the universe, an evil force. It was the power held by demons, warlocks, and other supernatural baddies. Witches used spells to try to siphon off that magic, and that kind of magic always had a price. Wizard kids are told scary stories to make sure we understand the difference between us and them. We don’t use the Shadow. We don’t have to. And even if we did, we wouldn’t. It goes against who we are.
“Wizard, witch, doesn’t matter. All the same to me,” he replied. “Oh, wait. I have to do this, all official like.” He straightened his back and cleared his throat. “Ahem, by the order of the Executive Committee for Magical Education Oversight of the Southeastern District of the Wizarding Authority, I place you, Annabeth Johnson, under arrest for violation of the Wizarding Education Code of Conduct. You will be handed over to local agents of the Wizarding Authority for trial and sentencing...blah, blah, blah.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “Arrest? You have got to be kidding me? For what?” I actually did know what for, but that just came out of mouth.
“Not my concern. Now shut up. And don't even think about running,” he barked at me. “And you, goblin, you come with me.” He grabbed Kirby by the back, and pushed him towards the other side of the camp. “Over by the tree.”
“Don’t worry Annabeth, it’s going to be ok,” Kirby said as he was pushed away.
“Shut up, goblin. The only thing that’s going to be ok is when I get paid for finding your little friend there. I’m just wondering what I can get for you. If there’s no bounty on your head, I might be able to sell you off to the Askar pirates. They always need someone to scrub their toilets.” The man then laughed.
I watched him closely. It only took him a couple of minutes to put Kirby in a cage near the tree in the back of the camp. He kept looking back at me, I guess making sure that I was still there and hadn’t tried to make a break for it. I hadn’t. I wasn’t going to leave Kirby behind. He may have not been a friend, but I couldn’t leave him like this. And besides, I wasn’t real sure where to go. Assuming I could even get my hands untied.
After he had Kirby secured, I saw the man take my sword and put it in the tent. If I could get to it, I could cut my hands free. Once they were free I could use my magic to stop him. There wasn’t anything magical about this guy, so he wouldn’t have any real defenses, as long as he didn’t get near me. I needed that sword.
He came back over towards me with a smug grin on his face. “Let’s go, witch. I don’t want you being all lonely over here by yourself. Your going over there with the other one.” He pointed to the other side of the camp where the girl was. He grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled me up. He then pushed me over to where he had pointed. I figured it was best to just go along without any trouble, at least for now.
When I got over to where the girl was, he pushed down alongside of her. Something felt familiar about her, like I had seen her somewhere before. She lifted up her head of red hair, slowly, like she was in pain. Then I realized I knew her.
“Hey, Annabeth,” she said with a weak voice.
Chapter 17
“Kyra?” I asked, feeling a little confused. I had talked to her in the headmaster’s office that morning. What was she doing here?
“Quiet! No talking,” the man yelled, kicking me hard in the leg. It felt like lightning going up the side of my body. “You two play nice. This will all be over soon.” He then turned around and walked toward the tent. He bent over and started digging around in there, like he was looking for something. He looked back at us, making sure we weren’t talking. Soon he pulled a box out of the tent. He opened it up, and started doing something. His back was turned toward us, so I couldn’t see what he was doing.
“What happened? What are you doing here?” I whispered to Kyra.
Her head had dropped back down again. She looked up at me. “That’s a long story, and we don’t have time to go through it all.” She looked over at the man. “You have to get out of here. Now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Sure, yeah, we have to get out of here. But how? We’re both kind of tied up.” I leaned back and looked at her hands. “And you’ve got some kind of weird metal cuffs on your wrists. Mine is just a rope.”
“Travis put the magic dampening cuffs on me. He thought I was you. He didn’t expect us to be out here.”
“Is Travis his name? How do you know that? And what do you mean ‘us’?” I asked.
“Annabeth, we don’t have time for this,” she said, looking into my eyes. She must have seen the confusion I was feeling. “Yeah, his name is Travis. I overheard him say it when he was using his communication device.” She pointed her nose toward where he was. “That’s what the box is. He’s probably talking to his contact at the Wizarding Authority now, telling him that he has the real you this time.”
“But..” I started to say. I had a lot of questions, and I needed answers.
“I know. But listen to me, and I’ll try to explain what is going on. Ok?”
I nodded my head. I didn’t want to waste time by speaking. I wasn’t sure how long Travis was going to be doing whatever he was doing.
“Here’s the deal. This isn’t a test. At least not anymore. I know you think it is, but it’s not. Cody gave you the map and sent you off. You were supposed to follow the map to the cave, retrieve whatever idiotic object he placed there this time, and then make a choice after he evaluated you. But the situation we are in now is not part of that test. This is real.”
My mouth dropped open at what she was saying. If I didn’t understand what was happening before, I really didn’t understand now. “How do you know about that? Do you know Cody?”
She nodded her head. “Cody sent us.”
“Who is us? Are there others out in the forest?”
She shook her head. “Just me and Kirby. We work for Cody. And we’ve all done the test. Except for Kirby. He was around long before any of the rest of us. He’s been with Cody for a couple of decades. Kirby was supposed to serve as your guide, to make sure you went through all the parts of the test, and to gauge your critical thinking skills. A few months ago, Cody sent me undercover to the school to check on you, after we found out about the problems you were having with your magic. That’s why I was in the Headmaster’s office. I was checking on you to see what was happening. After you met with Cody, my assignment was to follow you and Kirby, to make sure everything went smoothly. It’s protocol. But, as you can see, things didn't go as planned.”
“Wait,” I said. “You mean this was all some sort of plan? I didn’t just happen into Kirby’s trap?”
“No, you didn’t.” She looked over toward Travis again. “You have to let me finish, or none of us are going to get out of this alive.”
“Ok, ok,” I whispered back to her. “I’ll be quiet.”
“You have to get out of here. Everything’s changed the Wizarding Authority wants you brought in. We didn’t th
ink this would happen. It shouldn’t have happened. But something’s changed that we don’t know about. Even if they were coming after you, it’s highly unusual to send a hunter. There’s no way this can be official, at least not at the highest level. And don't underestimate this hunter. Travis may look like some dumb redneck bounty hunter, but he’s smart. The advantage we have is that I don’t think they told him how powerful you are. If they had, you would have been tied up with more than rope.”
I nodded, trying to show that I understood the gravity of the situation. But I really didn’t get much of what she was saying.
“You shouldn’t even be here. Kirby should have gotten you out of here when he realized I’d been captured. I bet he had some scheme to come in and rescue me, didn’t he?”
I nodded.
“Dumb goblin. He’s loyal like that. “‘We don’t leave our people behind.’ That’s what he always says. He gets that from Cody.”
I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t just Kirby. I wanted to come help Kyra too.
“You have to get out of here. Go back to the safehouse. Hide in the room in the back. It’s got protective wards around it, so Travis won’t be able to get you, if he even realizes you’re there. But by that time, we will have figured something out. Kirby and I will protect you, no matter what.”
“Safehouse? You mean the shack?”
“Yeah, the shack. It’s really more than what it looks like. Cody’s an Illusionist, one of the most powerful. Deception is part of who we are. Trust me, nothing is what it seems to be.”
Then I remembered Cody saying that to me. He told me to remember it. I guess he was giving me a hint.
“Travis has been over there a while. He won’t be for long. You have to run. Now.”
No way was I leaving them there. “I’m not going. Not without you and Kirby. You don’t have to protect me. I can take care of myself. And we can get out of here, all three of us.”
“I knew it.” She just shook her head. “You’re stubborn. But we already knew that. But this is no time to be like that. This isn’t an argument. Go!”
“Wait...what do you mean you knew that I’m stubborn?” I asked.
“I’m the one who built your profile.”
“I have a profile?”
“Yes, but forget that. It’s not important. Now get out of here before Travis comes back!”
“I’m not doing it. I told you. And remember, you said you don’t leave people behind. I may not be one of you, but I’m not leaving you or Kirby behind for Travis to do whatever to. It’s all three of us.” I meant it. I wasn’t going to leave them there.
Kyra sighed loudly. “You have to go.”
“No, we’ll figure this out. All three of us.”
“We don’t have time to argue about this. And, incidentally, it’s four, not three.”
I looked around. “Is there someone else?”
“Over there,” she nodded, toward where Travis was. “Behind the tent. You see that big thing covered up?”
I already knew what she was talking about. “We saw it before. It’s some kind of animal, right?”
She nodded. “His name is Wonder. He’s a pegasus. I was riding him, following overhead, from the air. We came down to get some water from a stream about fifty feet down that way. That’s when Travis got us. I’m not leaving without Wonder. Besides, Cody would kill me if anything happened to his pegasus.”
“Cody has a pegasus?” I asked.
“Well, not really ‘has’ him. Pegasi are incredibly smart creatures. It’s more like Wonder likes working with Cody, just like the rest of us. Anyway, he has to go with us.”
I forgot for a minute that we had been captured by a bounty hunter, tied up, without any plan of escape. I had never seen a pegasus before. I knew that they were very rare. I didn’t even know anyone that had ever seen one in person. Pegasi were creatures that we just read about in books. A real live pegasus.
“Annabeth?” Kyra said, bringing me back out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, sorry. I got distracted.” I looked over and saw Travis getting up. “I have an idea.”
“No, you are going to listen to me…”
“Kyra, trust me. I can do it. It will work.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking. Then we’ll see.”
She didn’t really sound convinced. But I knew it would work. “I need you to trust me. But I need to ask you a question first.”
Kyra narrowed her eyes. “What’s the question?”
“Have you ever watched professional wrestling?”
Chapter 18
“My leg! I think it’s broken!” Kyra cried out as she rolled around on the ground grabbing her calf muscle. Her face was red and tears ran down her cheeks. “Help!”
It didn’t take long for Travis to notice. Whatever he was doing, he stopped it and ran over to us. “What’s going on here? What’s wrong with you? What are you screaming about?”
“It’s my leg! She got mad and did some kind of kung-fu on me! Ow,” she whimpered, pointing directly at me. “That temper of yours is going to get you into real trouble!”
Travis turned toward me with a look on his face that would make a gargoyle shiver. “What is the matter with you? I can’t get a ransom for her if she’s damaged,” he said in a low guttural voice.
“The pain...it’s so intense. I need a splint or something,” she moaned to Travis, before turning to me. “I swear, when I get up, I’m going to kick your butt from one end of this forest to another. And then I’m going to take that stupid sword of yours and shove it straight up…”
“Hush up, girl!” Travis yelled at her. He then turned towards me. “You sit there and don’t try anything that you will wind up regretting, or I’ll uncuff her and let her beat the crap out of you.” He looked back at Kyra, clearly disgusted. “I swear, this is the last bounty I take on a witch. More trouble than it’s worth,” he muttered, spitting on the ground.
He leaned over and took her leg into his hand. “Where’s it hurt? Down here, or closer to the knee?”
Then it happened.
Kyra swung her other leg up, nailing Travis straight in the eye with the toe of her boot. ‘Run! Hurry!”
“You little…” Travis yelled, grabbing his face. But that was all he got out of his mouth before Kyra rolled over, using her legs to scissor around his neck.
“Annabeth, go! I’ve got this dirtbag,” Kyra grunted at me.
I was impressed. When I was little I used to watch professional wrestling with my Dad. “It’s not even a real sport,” my mother used to say. “It’s athletic theater,” my father would respond. I didn’t really understand what that meant. He explained that the outcomes of the matches were predetermined, and so it was like any other television show, just with a lot of physical action. “It’s not fake. You can’t fake a body slam.” But then he explained that the wrestlers knew how to make is look like they were hurt a lot worse than they actually were. They were acting like they were getting killed, when really they were just getting knocked down, like a tackle in a football game. It was acting.
Luckily, Kyra knew what I was talking about when I told her about my idea. And she played the role perfectly.
But I didn’t have time to be impressed any more. I got up and ran over to the other side of the camp. Behind the tent, I found Kirby locked in a cage that was way too big for a goblin. I ran up to it and tried to kick open the door, but it was locked.
“What happened?” Kirby asked, rushing over to the door.
“No time to explain. Kyra’s got Travis wrestled to the ground, at least for now. She told me everything. And that you were dumb for us not running when you saw she was captured.”
“It’s not dumb. It’s called loyalty,”
“She said that too. That you were dumb like that.”
“She’s right. About both. You have to get out of here.”
“You sound like Kyra.” I tried to kick the door open again, but it still wouldn't open.
“You’re not doing a really good job then.”
“I disagree,” Kirby replied.
I looked up at him. “You’re in a cage. Kyra is wrestling a bounty hunter that was sent to arrest me. And I’m about two seconds away from getting captured again.”
“Well, I’m not saying there isn’t room for improvement.”
“I’m not leaving without the two of you. Or Wonder. Where’s my sword?” I asked, looking around.
“He took it into the tent.”
I peered around from the back of the tent. Kyra still had Travis on the ground, but it looked like she wasn’t going to be able to keep him there for long. I had to hurry. I quietly stepped around to the front of the tent and stuck my head through the flap. There it was. I backed into the tent and bent down, grabbing the hilt of the sword with my still tied hands. I took another look outside the tent before darting back over to the cage.
I threw the sword through the bars of the cage. “Quick, cut me loose. I don’t know how much longer Kyra and keep Travis occupied.”
“Turn around,” Kirby said as he grabbed the sword. “And don’t worry about Kyra. She’ll do what she has to do. She’s scrappy. And pretty good at hand to hand combat, for someone so young.”
I could feel the stinging from Kirby cutting the ropes around my wrist. “Where did she learn that?”
“She had brothers.”
I felt the rope break free, and my hands along with it. I quickly turned around and got the sword from Kirby. Travis had Kyra on the ground, face first, and was trying to get to his feet.
I had to make a decision. I could take Travis. Maybe. But I would be taking a chance. “I’ll be back,” I whispered to Kirby as I headed past the cage.
“Annabeth, don’t come back. Go to the caves to the north. Hide out there,” he replied, with a concerned look in his eyes. “We can take care of ourselves.”
