There was more giggling, and most of the children turned to stare at Emily.
“Now, students, attend.” They all focused on the teacher, but Emily’s face was still a bright crimson.
“There was no need to give our classroom pet, Mr. Newt, a flying lesson, now was there?” She slowly walked to Emily’s seat, situated in the second or middle aisle, in the second row, putting her near the center of the room.
“No, Miss Siegel,” she uttered solemnly. Then, “Except it was fun.”
The child grinned brighter than sunshine, and once again the rest of the students erupted in uncontrollable fits of jocularity.
Siegel spied her three assistants also laughing and glared at them. Then she walked to her right and examined the salamander in its tank on top of the counter. The wee amphibian might just fit in the palm of her hand. It was graced with black, orange, and white twirls and looked up at her attentively from a moist, moss-covered rock, one of several arranged in his watery, glass container.
“Well,” she turned back to the children. “I see Mr. Newt is none the worse for wear. However, I charge you pupils against any unauthorized use of magic in the classroom, especially you, Emily.”
She watched the little girl cringe at her words. The other children puffed up with pride while feeling relief that their classmate was the sole focus of unwanted attention.
“Yes, Miss Siegel.” She thought how wrong Grandma was. Tamika Bendertwill was her only real friend. The other kids made fun of her every time she got into trouble, which was too often.
“Very well. We’ll speak no more of it.” Caressa walked back to the seated Emily and softly stroked one of her pigtails with lithe fingers.
“Time for group lessons. Assistants, assume your positions by your doors. Children, line up in front of your instructors.”
The windows facing the playground on the opposite side of the room transformed into three closed doors. Linza, Ziva, and Jett stood by one each, left to right. Their students, three for Linza, three for Ziva, and four for Jett, assembled by them.
“As usual, I will personally instruct Emily.” She looked down. “Stand, child.”
“Yes, Miss Siegel.”
Carresa had constructed everything so that Emily’s emotions were a turbulent mix of pride and foreboding. She knew the girl liked being treated as special, but Siegel’s actions were designed to make the other kids jealous of the preschooler. The instructor had warned Emily not to tell anyone, even her Mommy and Daddy, about her special lessons. It was supposed to be a surprise.
“Come with me.” As the doorways beside the other teachers opened into pocket universes, little realms where children could practice their nascent skills, Siegel guided Emily to the back of the room. A map of greater Enderwren vanished and was replaced by a doorway, wood of ebony, framed and veined in scarlet as if splattered in gore.
The door opened, and Caressa nudged Emily inside. She had good reason to give the youth her advanced instruction individually and in private. It was indeed supposed to be a secret and a surprise to everyone, to Mommy, Daddy, the other children, and the teachers. In fact, it would be an astounding bombshell to the entire school, to that ludicrous Grand Master Applegate, and most of all, to the hated Agatha Marchant Pye.
Three doors slammed shut on Agatha’s SUV, on the same side street where she parked every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when she dropped Emily off at preschool. The early autumn sun had still been warm on the child’s first day, but now in late November, the grandmother and her two passengers had to dress in their thick winter coats.
Agatha pressed the fob to lock her vehicle as her daughter Angelique and her husband Scott stepped onto the sidewalk.
“Her preschool is here?” Even in his designer winter coat, a tasteful sandstone color, trimmed in red, his unusually tall frame gave him the look of someone who needed a good, hearty meal. His complexion was average for someone whose grandparents were Scots-Irish. Brown hair was falling back into a classic male pattern baldness, which at age 34, he complained was a bit premature.
“I told you, it’s not really here, Scott. This is just the entrance.”
“But I don’t see…”
“After all you’ve seen, you still don’t believe.”
Agatha watched the two bicker. She knew that they loved each other dearly, sometimes even desperately, but this was the one point, the intersection between the mundane and the fantastic, that they couldn’t share, or rather, the one Scott refused to completely accept.
“Just come with us. You’ll see.” Angelique took Scott’s gloved hand in her bare one. Her hair was longer than Agatha’s and a pleasantly-tinted honey blonde. It draped over her shoulders, the jacket being black leather and thin. Her breasts were modest, which was another feature in direct contrast to her mother.
“This way, please,” Agatha instructed. “We want to get to the school while it is still a surprise to Emily.” The Grandma herself was clad in a black woolen coat that extended below her knees. The hem met the top of jet-black boots, with silver zippers up the sides. Like her daughter, her hands were bare. The cold didn’t affect her, and her outer attire was a matter of convention, not necessity. She did find it fitting to paint her lips a savory rose, just for the color.
“But there’s never been a school on this street. Angel, you said you went to this school.”
“Yes. So did mother.”
“But this was all vacant land when you were Emily’s age, and when Agatha was…”
“Enough of that, Scott,” Agatha called, a low, feline growl in the back of her throat.
“The doorway is hidden. You know that.”
“But, Emily…”
“I went with mother to the school before we enrolled her. I told you she’d be safe, and it’s the…the perfect place for her…”
“Special needs?” Scott regretted his words the instant they left his mouth, and both Agatha and Angelique stared at him hotly to make sure he got that point.
“She’s gifted,” Agatha added for emphasis. “I’ll have you remember that.” She had stopped on the sidewalk a few steps ahead of the couple, but then resumed her brisk pace.
Scott’s grip on his wife’s hand tightened painfully as the air surrounding them twisted like a sheet in the wind, and shimmered in, what to Agatha, were familiar colors.
“Just keep walking, Darling. It’ll be over in a few seconds.”
“But everyone…the people in those houses…”
“Won’t see a thing. That’s why they call it magic.”
Agatha didn’t have to look. She could hear the smile in her daughter’s voice. Angel had long since accepted a human existence, one with a husband and children in a world that was unaware sorcery existed, and even more rarely believed it when they saw it. She knew some small part of her daughter missed the life she might have had.
Of the limited number of non-magic using people who she had ushered to Enderwren or one of the other domains before, Agatha knew Scott was about to face what his mind might never accept.
“It’s just up this path and around the hill.”
“Come on, Scott. There’ll be plenty of time for sightseeing later.” Angel tugged on his arm and pulled him forward. He staggered the first several steps, still looking for the sidewalk and the quiet, older suburban neighborhood that had vanished into unreality. His stomach falling out into emptiness, he passively let his wife guide him after his mother-in-law. He had always found Agatha eccentric, but now she had become mystifying, enigmatic, and in all probability, dangerous.
“Grand Master Applegate!” Angelique’s first reaction upon seeing him at the preschool’s entrance was to run up and embrace him, but then she remembered being his student. Instead, she bowed and bent one knee in deference.
“Now, now, Miss Pye, or rather Mrs. Watson. You haven’t been in one of our classes in a good many years, and I have mellowed in that time. How about a hug?”
“Of course, Grand Master.” She
wrapped her arms around him as if he was a warm, stuffed animal.
Agatha was standing to the left of them, a satisfied smile crossing her face, while an embarrassed Scott purposely cleared his throat.
“Oh, excuse me,” Angel apologized. “Grand Master Titus Applegate, I’d like to introduce you to my husband, Scott Watson. Scott, Master Applegate was the Head of the school when I was a little girl.”
Scott awkwardly extended a hand. “Pleased to meet you, Sir.”
Titus had been practicing how not to reveal his prejudices regarding plebeians, and so his smile seemed genuine to everyone there except Aggie. “Likewise, young man. I remember Angelique fondly, though it has been a long time since she visited.” He nodded to Angel. “I still say it’s a shame you did not choose to continue your studies. By now, you would have been…”
Agatha put a hand on Applegate’s forearm and squeezed hard enough to make him wince. “Now, now, Titus. None of…” She looked past him toward the door to the classroom on the other side of the hall. “What was that?”
“What?” The Grand Master followed Aggie’s gaze, but with a look of profound puzzlement.
“So soon?” Emily felt Miss Siegel’s hand on her upper back as she gently guided her out of their private lesson area.
“The rest of the class will be joining us in a few moments.” Caressa closed the door behind them, cutting off the smell of burnt wood. She had been indulging the child’s love of fire, allowing her to ignite a small glade. It was now a lifeless wasteland. Next week, the teacher planned to introduce numerous animals to the scenario, perhaps including the irritating Mr. Newt. But it would be without the toddler’s knowledge, at least initially.
“Besides, it will be time to go home in…” Siegel paused. Then, “Something’s wrong.”
At that same moment, Agatha started walking toward the classroom door, slowly at first, then picking up the pace to a run. “Stay here.”
“But Agatha,” Applegate complained.
“I know what’s been bothering me. Titus, there’s going to be trouble.”
“In the preschool? But…”
Agatha Pye rushed into the schoolroom just as the auxiliary doorways to her left sparkled into existence, preparing to disgorge students and teachers back inside. What she found was the head teacher pressing Emily against her with both hands.
“Grandma!” The little girl grinned and tried to run to Agatha, only to be stopped by Siegel’s firm grip.
“No, child. Remember, she doesn’t love you like I do.” Seeing Scott and Angelique sprinting into the room, she added, “None of them do.”
“Miss Siegel,” the child wailed.
Scott tried to run to Emily, but Aggie motioned with her hand, sending him sailing backward to the open entrance.
“Don’t. You’d never survive.”
As Scott staggered to his feet, Angelique grabbed him. “No. We can’t protect her right now. Mom knows what she’s doing.”
“But Miss Siegel…”
“Emily, remember what I taught you.” Caressa glanced briefly to her right and saw each of the three teachers keeping their students from entering. “They sent you here to make you not use your magic. If they loved you, they’d let you do what you want.”
“Like you?” The girl looked up at her teacher’s face, seeing her eyes shining corpuscle red.
“That’s right. I’m the one who is teaching you to use your power.”
“Emily, love isn’t about doing everything you want…” Agatha began.
“Nonsense. Love is about being free,” the teacher cooed, with a sinister smile.
“It’s about keeping each other safe.”
“It’s about being able to spread your wings and fly.” The lights dimmed, and Miss Siegel’s dress changed from a faint apricot, to red, and then a seething black. Smoke began to swirl around her and the girl as Applegate’s voice sounded from behind Scott.
“Oh, my. I’ll summon the guards.”
He was already gone before hearing Agatha remark, “It’ll be too late by then.”
“It’s too late now. I’ll never forget what you did to my mother.”
“Kamalei Iyabo had a child?” Agatha accused.
“One who didn’t make the same mistakes as her mother. I didn’t come to build an empire on the power of children from a school of remarkable mystics. Just one extraordinary student, my protégé. Oh, and for revenge, of course.”
“What’s that mean?” Emily peeped up at Caressa and then back to her family. “I want to go home now, Miss Siegel.”
“You will, but it will be home with me. Sorry, child, but Dear Granny’s awareness of me pushed up my timetable.”
“Mommy?”
“I’m here, sweetheart.” Angelique knelt. “I love you, baby.”
“But you want me to stop using magic like you did.”
“I want you to be happy, but I also want you to be safe.”
“Miss Siegel says my magic is safe when I’m with her. She lets me do stuff you and Daddy won’t. She says Daddy’s just a pleb, and he doesn’t love me because he’s afraid.”
“That’s not true, darling.” Scott got down on the floor next to Angelique. “We love you very much.”
“But you’re scared of me.”
“Sometimes I don’t understand what you can do, but I’m not afraid of you.”
“Liar!” Caressa pointed an accusing hand at him. “You’re always afraid of what you don’t understand. I see you edging closer, Agatha Pye. Not one more step. Emily is still under my control.”
“Meaning you’ll hurt her if I come nearer.”
“Miss Siegel wouldn’t hurt me.” Then Emily gazed up questioningly at the teacher. “I want to go home now. Why haven’t the rest of the kids come back inside yet?”
“If you go now, Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma will never let you return. They’ll take you away from me forever. Do you really want that?”
“Emily, we’re your family. We love you,” Agatha implored.
“I love you, but I love my Miss Siegel, too.”
“I told you, Pye, not another step.” Siegel raised her hand again. This time, her gesture doubled over the older woman. Angelique started to get up, but her mother waved her back.
“Grandma!” Emily tried to jump forward as Caressa grasped her arm, holding her fast.
“No, you don’t. I said you were coming with me.” Looking past the trio, she saw a group of figures approaching. “Applegate, keep them back unless you don’t care what happens to Emily.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt me.” The smoke threatened to become an engulfing whirlwind.
“This is for your own good. Trust me.” The diabolical door behind Siegel opened, this time to a dark abyss. “I’ll take you someplace safe.”
“I want to go home.”
“Your home is with me.”
“No. I want Mommy and Daddy. I want them now.”
Agatha raised her head, this time her eyes inviting Emily to rebel.
The rapidly churning smoke exploded into a column of steam, breaking Caressa’s grip and casting Emily through the air away from her. At the same instant, Agatha waved her arm backward, pulling the sailing preschooler toward her. Siegel slipped her fingers inside one sleeve, but her older adversary had already drawn her wand. Esoteric energies of amethyst and jade shot forth from Mrs. Pye’s wand, in the form of electrifying bolts. She narrowly missed the evil witch, as she flew through the opening behind her and vanished into the gloom.
By the time Agatha managed to get there, the door had shut, and an instant later, it had disappeared into imagination. Pressing one palm on what was once again a map of Enderwren, she subtly sensed that Caressa Iyabo would one day come again as a menace.
“Emily, oh God, Emily,” her Daddy cried as he and her Mommy clutched her tightly.
“I love you, Emmy. Daddy and I love you so much. I was so afraid you’d be taken away from us.”
The family dissolved in
to tears of fear and joy as Agatha watched, noting that after her ordeal, the little girl remained amazingly unharmed.
Linza and the other two teachers let the students go into the classroom as the Grand Master escorted half a dozen senior sorcerers, who were no longer needed, to join everyone else.
“Are you hurt, Agatha?” Titus held out a hand.
“Only my pride.” She walked over to her old friend and accepted his hand as well as his kiss upon hers.
“But Mom, I saw…”
“You saw what I wanted you to see, or rather what I wanted Miss Iyabo to see. Me being helpless.”
“Are you okay, Grandma?” Emily swiveled and hugged her Grandma’s legs.
“I am now, dearest one.” She squatted down and cuddled the small child.
“Mom, I’m so sorry.”
“For what, Angelique?” She stood, holding Emily’s hand.
“If I hadn’t quit all those years ago…if I hadn’t been afraid…”
“You wanted to save your child. I know what that feels like.”
“But I…Scott, we can’t let Emily quit like I did.”
“Can’t we talk about this later?” He spoke between gritted teeth, and then saw the look on his daughter’s face. “I just want to protect you and our family.”
“We will talk about this later, but you and I need to have a serious conversation about what safe is for Emily.”
“Angel?”
“She’s right, Scott,” Agatha interrupted. “You’re right, too, at least about talking later.”
Applegate was still standing at the front of the room while the six security magicians were interviewing the other teachers and students. One of them, a short, hirsute man who looked as if he had more than one Dwarfish relative in his lineage, approached Agatha.
“Name’s Dowardo, Ma’am. Could I get a statement from you about this incident?”
“Later, young man,” Titus declared “Can’t you see she and her family have been through quite a bit?” Then to Agatha, “You called our Miss Siegel Iyabo. That’s a name I haven’t thought of since you last brought her up. Think we’ve seen the last of her?”
Fantastic Schools: Volume 2 Page 7
