by Rin Chupeco
“But…that’s terrible.”
Zoe shrugged. “The curse comes off so vague that I wonder. My mother doesn’t even wield the Ogmios, but she’s bad at relationships, and she thinks it’s because of the curse. I mean…it might also be my mom just being really bad at relationships.”
“I never realized there were so many words to mean the same thing for magic,” Tala said. “Segen, spells, agimat.”
Her father chuckled. “Aye, lass. A hundred names for magic in Tagalog alone, remember? Every place’s got their own names for it, and then even more where different cultures intersect.”
“I don’t have a segen,” West said cheerfully. “I’m not very good with weapons. I keep losing them.”
Zoe smiled at Tala. “You can argue that your ability to negate magic is a similar, albeit innate segen, except you don’t need to channel it through a weapon. Maria Makiling was an amazing spellforger in her own right. I can’t imagine what that curse cost her.”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” Alex offered quietly. Tala shot a worried glance at him and noted that Zoe and Loki were doing the same.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Alex stared out the window, watching the endless sand whiz by. “I’m fine.”
“If there’s anything you’d like us to do…” Zoe began.
“I don’t need your help,” Alex snapped, his voice unnaturally loud in the sudden silence of the car. “Leave me alone.”
Zoe drew back, looking hurt. Tala’s parents exchanged quick glances.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tala whispered angrily.
Alex didn’t respond. He only folded his arms and continued to stare out the window.
“Sorry,” Tala murmured to Zoe. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean that.”
Zoe managed a small smile. “That’s okay. Everyone’s on edge tonight.”
The car slowed to a crawl. “We’re nearing the checkpoint, folks,” Tala’s father announced. “But we won’t be going through the blockade. There’s another route tae the Casa Grande domes that they’re none the wiser about, but we won’t be going through a road tae do it. Be prepared to walk.”
“We are a suspicious-looking lot,” Loki murmured.
“The Casa Grande domes?” Tala asked.
“There’s a sanctuary within, with a looking glass we can use,” Zoe reminded her. “There’s a swath of complicated spells keeping it hidden.”
“Sanctuaries are illegal by Royal States law, which is why we keep quiet about the ones we know about,” Ken added. “They really have a bee up their ass when it comes to immigrants, and they don’t want them zipping in and out of the kingdom without their say-so.”
“Belay that; we have a new problem,” Tala’s mother said, concentrating. “Looks like they’ve expanded the blockade, moved it a mile or so closer than it used to be this morning. That trick you kids pulled might have made them suspicious. They’ve activated some kind of anti-magic barrier. I can feel it from here.”
She was right. The tips of Tala’s fingers and the hair on the back of her neck were already tingling with the pulses of unseen energy battering in.
“So, now what?” Ken asked. “We just sashay in and pretend we’re a family off to Disneyland?”
“I think I can shut it off,” Tala’s mother frowned. “But they’re using other equipment that amplifies the spell.”
“I can help you,” Tala offered quietly.
Her mother looked like she wanted to say no, but her shoulders finally slumped. “I want you to follow my lead. Don’t do anything else beyond what I tell you to, you understand?”
Already Tala could see the unmarked cars parked up ahead, people conversing with ICE agents as the latter took down their information. The tension was palpable.
“Lemme do most of the talking,” Tala’s father grunted. “If we do it quickly, we can—”
The window on the car’s passenger side abruptly shattered. Tala’s mother threw her hands up instinctively, protecting her face from most of the shards, but the door was yanked open moments later, and she was dragged out by several pairs of hands.
“Lumina!” Kay lunged for her, then froze when a gun was trained on his face from his side of the door. “Get out of the car with your hands up,” said a rather familiar voice. Agent Appleton, the man who’d led the search at Lola Urduja’s house, leaned down, smiling cruelly. “So good to see you again, Mr. Warnock. Please exit the vehicle slowly. You are under arrest for obstruction, malicious destruction of property, harboring a criminal, terrorism…”
He was still droning on as his fellow agents proceeded to drag her father out of the car, his heavy frame making it difficult. One went so far as to knee him in the stomach, making him groan.
“Dad!” Tala cried out.
“Don’t, Tala!” her father shouted through gritted teeth as they threw him down onto the ground, a couple of cops astride his back as they brought out handcuffs.
“What are we gonna do now?” Ken muttered. “Do we fight them? I wanna fight them. Or do we make for the sanctuary?”
“No, not yet. Don’t make it worse for the others because they’re definitely going to retaliate.” They could see the cops doing the same to the car behind them, forcing Lola Urduja and the others out.
“Your turn, kids,” Agent Appleton opened the back door. “I want you all to get out single file, one after the other. Don’t make any unnecessary moves, or we’re going to tase you all.”
Ken shot a sideways glance at Zoe, who nodded.
The agents still had both Tala’s parents on the ground. A female cop was strapping what looked to be headphones and a blindfold on her mother.
“They know she’s a Makiling,” Zoe muttered grimly. “I’ve seen those before. They’re used specifically to cancel out her curse.”
“Quiet!” one of the cops shouted at them. They’d already taken Ken’s swords off him. The boy grimaced but didn’t put up a fight.
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a whole mess of terrorists here,” Agent Appleton drawled. He turned to the passengers waiting in the other cars. “Tell them this is an ongoing police operation and that they’re free to go,” he told his colleagues. “We got what we’re looking for.”
They were neutralizing her mother, Tala thought, as the other cars were permitted to leave, but they weren’t neutralizing her. They didn’t know everything.
“Where were we?” Agent Appleton taunted. “Ah, yes. Harboring a criminal, illegal possession of magic, unlicensed use of classified magical creatures.”
“If you think we’re responsible for those bloody ogres, you’re insane,” Tala’s father growled.
“Shut him up,” Agent Appleton said, and a Taser was shoved in between Tala’s father’s ribs. The big man stiffened, his hands digging down into the dirt.
Tala jumped forward and was promptly restrained by a female cop. “Do you want to be hurt too?” she barked.
“Don’t antagonize them,” Loki said softly, from behind her.
Biting her lip, Tala backed down. Zoe met her eyes, then flicked her gaze back at the car.
The firebird was still inside. None of the agents had noticed it. It was staring out from an open car window, and it was hissing, glowing a bright fiery red. Whatever was being used to negate magic within range, Tala realized, wasn’t affecting it at all.
Still shining, the firebird gave a small, reassuring squawk, and then ducked out of view.
“We’ve got the Makiling woman,” Agent Appleton reported into his walkie-talkie. “And the Avalonians as well. Once we’re done reading them their rights, we’ll be bringing the adults down to the precinct and the children to the detention.”
“No.”
A glittering figure stepped out from behind one of the police vans, walking slowly toward them. Tala recognized those eyes
, that now-smooth face where a basketball had once destroyed it seemingly beyond repair.
From behind her, Alex made a low hissing sound.
The agent registered no surprise upon seeing the ice maiden. Neither did any of his fellow cops. “I have orders to bring them back to HQ, as we discussed,” he said tersely. “We told you to leave everything to us.”
The cold lips twisted. “I obey no one but my mistress. You promised me the boy.”
The large police van. Tala was willing to bet the pulses of negative energy were coming from inside that. She closed her eyes, trying to follow the source of those waves.
“So, hey,” Ken said. “You’re really gonna want to put that sword down on the ground and, you know, not touch it at all.”
“Shut up,” said one of the agents. He was holding Ken’s dark sword and tilting it from side to side, smiling and looking down at the blade.
“So ICE now works with the Snow Queen,” Lola Urduja said softly. “Or, to be more precise, ICE works for the Snow Queen. She’s succeeded in infiltrating your government. What did she offer? Untold spelltech to harness? The chance to become a powerful army in your own right, to deliver the same devastating abuses to your citizens the way she had done to her own kingdom?”
“Just because you’re an old woman doesn’t mean I’m not going to take action against you if you don’t shut that goddamn mouth up,” Appleton snapped.
But Lola Urduja was persistent. “You know what’s going to happen when word of this gets out, don’t you? Diyos ko, what a scandal. That this country now conspires with a known enemy of the state, a dictator that the United Nations has disavowed in every way.”
One of the agents arched an eyebrow. “Was that a threat I heard? I think that was definitely a threat, wouldn’t you say, Brian?”
“Where they’re all going, I doubt anyone’s going to hear them make threats,” another agent responded, smirking.
“They’ll die soon enough,” the agent still holding Ken’s sword murmured, running his hands along the hilt.
“Shut her up,” Appleton said calmly.
“I’ll do more than that,” The other agent was already moving toward Lola Urduja, hefting the wakizashi. His eyes had come alive with some terrible malice.
“What are you doing?” Another agent approached, then leaped back with a curse when the man pivoted to slash unexpectedly at him, cutting his arm. “What the hell, Wilson?”
“I don’t need any of you!” Wilson proclaimed, swinging the sword at his colleagues, who were attempting to wrest the blade away. He was laughing, a horrible, high-pitched sound. “All I need is this blade! I can kill you all, and they’ll make me king for it! I’ll start with you, Appleton! Fuck you for making me do this without overtime pay!”
That was all the distraction Lola Urduja needed. The snap of a fan was the only warning the agent holding her got before he caught it right in the midsection. As he stumbled and fell to his knees, Lola Urduja spun, whipping the fan out in a wide arc and catching Wilson right in the face, forcing him to drop the weapon.
The sudden gale that tore through the area knocked everyone off their feet. The agents were soon lying flat on the ground, but the other titos and titas were already on their feet, disposing of their own bonds. Lola Urduja, however, remained where she was. She was clutching her stomach, gasping quietly for breath. Blood dripped down her nose.
“She won’t be able to do that again,” Zoe muttered tersely. “West, protect her.” The boy was already rushing to the old woman’s side.
Tala’s father had sprung to his feet at the same instant, flinging the other agents off his back and rushing toward her mother. Ken and Loki had both jumped Wilson, the former reclaiming both his swords. But Zoe’s eyes were trained on the ice maiden, her whip singing through the air.
The girl creature smiled; icicles shot up from the ground before her, blocking the attack. Whatever spell blocks the agents had in place were not muting her magic. “You will not win, my dear,” she taunted. “Quite the struggle to summon so much as a whiff of lightning, isn’t it?”
“Go to hell.” But the strain was already showing on Zoe’s face even as another streak of light slammed against the ice barrier.
Ken hefted his swords, swore, then went on the offensive, hacking at the ice maiden. The creature was quick, ducking to avoid his slashes. The light from within his blade was sputtering, like a candle about to flicker out.
“I know this segen,” the creature purred. “You call it the Yawarakai-te—the sword that will cut no living thing—a useless weapon. But your other sword, the Juuchi Yosamu—that is the better prize. I have seen your ancestors die by their own hands, overcome in their madness by that magnificent blade. You choose the weakest of the Inoue clan’s artillery over its most powerful. Is Kazuhiko’s third son not strong enough?”
“Shut up!” Ken snarled. Light sparked faintly again from the ivory sword, but all too quickly it faded, overwhelmed by the anti-spells. The ice maiden only laughed, and Ken’s hands drifted over to his other sword, as if itching to prove her wrong.
Tala was still struggling. It felt like there was a wave of pure force that was pushing against her mind, preventing the dark fog that she had long associated with her curse from drawing close enough to the spell inside the police van and negate its effects. Every step was a struggle, and she, too, was tiring far more quickly than she wanted.
“The girl!” Appleton suddenly shouted. “She’s a Makiling!”
But Loki was blocking their path, the staff in their hand suddenly, impossibly, long. Tala heard the sound of an actual gun and gasped, but there was a heavy thudding as Loki caught the bullets easily with their stick, stopping the agents from hitting them both.
The taste of something acrid and acidic filled Tala’s mouth, like what she imagined a battery might taste like. But the spell was now there within reach, crackling against the fingertips of her mind. She pushed hard.
The police van’s windows shattered. Almost immediately, the pressure eased, and Tala sank back against the car, her strength exhausted.
Ken’s sword snapped and crackled back to life, light blazing forth. He battered it against the ice maiden’s shield, delivering sharp, thunderous cracks; for the first time since the fight began, the creature’s smile wavered as she was finally forced on the defensive. Zoe had recovered her breath and had rejoined the fight, whip flying and hammering lightning against the ice shields to break them further.
A large sphere the size of a basketball rose into the air, as bright as the moon. It smelled like soil after a long rain, and yet was also strangely bitter. Tala opened her mouth, trying to warn them, trying to scream, but she was too weak and only a croak registered.
With a sound much like the tinkling of chimes, the ball exploded.
Ice blanketed the area. It trapped Tala against the door of the car. It wrapped itself around a stunned Zoe and a startled Ken, pinning them to the ground and forcing them to drop their weapons. Loki let out a startled cry and dropped beside her, a spiderweb of frost covering their waists and imprisoning their arms. Everywhere else the same thing was happening. West in his tiger form growled and struggled against an ice net that had trapped him against a tree.
Breathing hard, the ice maiden lowered her arms. The agents paused, their guns still out, warily surveying the area.
“That your doing?” Appleton asked.
“No,” the ice maiden said shortly. “But this would not have been necessary had you done as I had instructed.”
“Deal’s a deal, but Fermanagh wants more answers than what you’re giving us. I’ll release the Avalon boy into your custody after we’re done with our interrogation. I don’t know what bargain your mistress struck with the people in my department, lady, but we still have our protocols to follow.”
“That will take far too long.”
“T
hat’s what we agreed upon. You don’t like it, have your boss take it up with my boss instead.”
“We can do that,” someone else said. It was a low, painfully familiar voice.
The boy walked into view from behind the police van. Shock pulsed through Tala.
Agent Appleton frowned. “Who’s this one?”
“You said her boss had to take it up with yours,” Ryker said. His fingers were still dusted with particles of ice from the ball he had hurled, and he brushed his hand against his pants to shake them off. His smile was just as cold. “That’s me. Let’s discuss our options right now.”
13
In Which Bad Bureaucratic Policies Have Consequences
It couldn’t be Ryker. It couldn’t. He had kissed her before the bonfire under the moonlight and made her feel real things. He had been nothing but attentive and kind.
And that wasn’t proof at all, spoke that part of her always keen on self-sabotage. Just because he’d been nice to you doesn’t mean you can trust him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be this stranger before you now. It was wishful thinking, wanting to hold on to that old idea of him for a little while longer.
This Ryker was different. This Ryker was smiling like before, but it was a cruel smile she’d never seen on him.
“Ryker,” she said, and, pathetically, it came out a whimper.
He ignored her. “This wasn’t part of the deal. You are to turn Alex Smith over to us immediately. You can do whatever you want with the rest.”
“The circumstances have changed,” Agent Appleton shot back. “These terrorists are far more dangerous than you first let on. I have carte blanche to make decisions here, and I think we should sort all this out at HQ before we agree to any releasing.”
“Punyetang mga traydor.” Blood ran down Lola Urduja’s lip as she struggled back to her feet, as proud as a warrior despite the agents cuffing her wrists. “You sold out your own country. Your own people!”
