by Jill Nojack
Morgan reluctantly dressed herself in Lizbet's ridiculous clothing but admired the way the style displayed the girl's athletic body to good effect. She tried to find suitable pieces in Lizbet's jewelry box, but none of the trinkets there were real gold and none contained precious stones. What status must this girl have if she owned nothing to flaunt her position?
She walked out the front door after hearing the signaling sound Tanji used to let Lizbet know she had arrived. She’d observed all of Lizbet's actions closely for over a month now, and she was sure that she could fool even Lizbet’s best friend if she chose her actions carefully, sticking close to the behaviors and patterns of speech she had observed.
"Hey Tanj. Like the new me?" Morgan turned so that Tanji could see her smooth, wingless back as she approached the car.
"Whoa! When did that happen?"
"Morgan integrated yesterday, like, all of a sudden, after school. It was weird. But suddenly, I had all of her memories, and that was it. She was just in there. And I had the magic, so I made the wings go away."
"Seriously? I'm so happy for you, girl."
"Thanks. I've wanted it so badly. It’s so hard to believe! I can get back to normal now. Although, of course, I had to hold court last night because Morgan is the fae’s queen, and they really need her back to lead them. So, I've got to make sure that I'm doing my duty. It's going to be so hard to do when I'm stuck here so far away from most of the other fae."
"Court? What does that mean?"
"You know that half-fae have been showing up here because their communities don't accept them, and I need to be able to provide them with assistance of some kind. I've also been advised that the elves are unhappy about the number of half-fae that have been seeking them out; they want to be left alone. Some of the elvin communities are even discussing arming themselves at their borders to keep the curious away. I need to help them understand that would be a bad idea. Morgan was a peacemaker. I need to be available to respond to all of my people so that things don’t go wrong."
"Most of the elves are in France, Germany, and the UK, right? I can’t really see those modern democracies being okay with armed fae states inside their borders. So you can really help with that?"
"Of course. Although I’m not present in Europe, Euphemia…,” Morgan paused and corrected herself, “…Mona, who is working for your father, is lending me her talents as a dryad to remain in communication with the fae court in Europe. I have Morgan's enormous body of wisdom in these things now, and I need to get involved again for the good of everyone."
Tanji wanted to roll her eyes at that, but instead she replied, "Yeah, I can see that. Good for you, girl."
Morgan exited the car after Tanji parked it in the parking lot of Lizbet's school and walked into the school next to Tanji, exactly as Lizbet did every day.
As they parted ways at the first hall, Tanji said, "Hey, good luck on that chemistry test today."
Morgan replied, "Thanks! Yeah, I guess I'll do okay."
Tanji turned right down the hall, out of sight of Lizbet. She grabbed her phone, pulled up the contact for Eamon, and hit the call button.
"Eamon? The chick I gave a ride to? Definitely not Lizbet...she almost has Lizbet down, but she's a real freaky version of her who doesn't think it's the least bit weird she's telling elves how to run their lives...yeah, no...she definitely has control of the magic because the wings are gone...it was like that was what she showed me to prove she was Lizbet and that instantly gives her cred. She hasn’t got a clue what Lizbet is really about."
Tanji listened for a minute. "No…yeah…I'm sure. I wished her good luck on a chemistry test and she didn't say a thing. She took chemistry last year. She's taking physics this year. Lizbet would have caught that mistake in a heartbeat...but I knew it wasn't her even before that. That was just to make sure my gut reaction was right."
Tanji stopped outside of her classroom. "Look, Eamon, I gotta go. Just catch up with me tonight, okay? We have to do something."
Morgan congratulated herself on how well she'd managed Lizbet's school day. She was gracious when the human children noticed her lack of wings, and she felt sure that she’d behaved in every way as the girl Lizbet would in the same circumstances.
As she walked down the hall, a boy slapped her on the behind as he walked past, then continued quickly on, turning around once to wink.
Morgan raised her hand and the boy fell to the floor, gasping for air. She walked up to him and looked down as he continued to fight for breath, eyes desperate, begging her to stop. "No one touches the Queen of the Fae unless she wills it."
Morgan then waved her hand, and the boy was able to breathe again.
"See that you stay very far away from me in the future."
"Moore!" a voice rang out behind her, as the boy scooted away from her across the floor, then stood up and hurried off.
Miss Armstrong stood in the middle of the hall, hands on her hips.
"Moore, we're going to the principal's office. Now."
Morgan had no intention of letting a human tell her what to do, but from previous encounters with this woman, she knew the woman had some kind of authority over the girl. She would need to comply if she meant to pass herself off as Lizbet. She fell into step behind the woman who stalked through the hall in front of her.
When Morgan spoke to the heavy set, bespectacled, middle-aged man whose nameplate identified him as Principal, she made a point not to be too compliant. She thought the girl had more bearing than to allow herself to be manhandled. She advised him that no one should be allowed to touch her that way without her explicit permission. The principal agreed, but he also advised her that she knew that violent behavior was never tolerated on school grounds. The boy would be punished with an out-of-school suspension, but she would be placed in after-school detention for the day to think about how she could have handled the situation differently.
Morgan fumed on the inside but accepted detention without an argument.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Stay With Me
Tanji sat in a lumpy, upholstered chair across from where James and Thomas filled the small couch in James's apartment.
"So...here's the thing...Lizbet's in detention for magically choking a boy who slapped her on the butt today. Which is too bad, because that kid needs to be choked once in a while, but that's also definitely not something Lizbet would do."
James nodded. "Yeah, I don't believe for a minute Lizbet would act like that, even if evil-Morgan integrated with her. I don't feel much influence from Myrddin's personality unless I'm actually seeking it out. It's been useful when I've had to deal with the elves, but I have to concentrate hard to get access to how to behave as Myrddin. Is that how it is with you and Langoureth?"
"Uhuh. Nail, meet head. I don't think it should be any different for Lizbet and Morgan. Morgan finally figured something out that let her get her way."
"Can you think of anything that Lizbet has been doing differently in the past few days?"
"She was trying to stay awake so that Morgan couldn't take her over again. She was really upset about Morgan coming on to you. Pretty much, it was, 'no way is that witch stealing my boyfriend!'." Tanji glanced to Thomas. "Thomas and I worked up a potion that helped her stay awake and she was taking that, but it only lasted a few hours at a time. She also tried to make sure that someone was with her when she was sleeping, like when you were there the day she had to come home from school."
"Yeah, but that didn't work, because that's the day Morgan got friendly with me. Was Lizbet taking the potion then?"
"No. We hadn't made it yet."
"Thomas, what potion did you make her? I don't remember telling you about any potions that would help someone stay awake."
Thomas shook his head, "No, it wasn't one you gave me. Lizbet gave me the potion. She'd written it down in Druidic and gave it to me to make for her. But I couldn’t really read it, so I asked Tanji to help. I assumed she got it from the human Morgan's memories
."
"This just doesn’t sound right—Thomas, when did she give it to you?" James asked.
"The other day, right after you called the lightning."
James and Tanji exchanged glances. "Oh great..." said James. "Okay, kids. First, Thomas—I'll need to know everything that was in that potion. Second, Tanji—go home, get Langoureth's book, and come right back. We may need it."
Bobby went out to the backyard after school and was surprised to find that the gnomes were arrayed in a circle, looking solemn rather than playing.
Gurrdenn, who wore the hollowed out head of a rat as a headpiece, walked out from the center of the circle and took his hand, pulling him to the center to sit on the small pile of furs where Gurrdenn had previously been sitting. One of the furs looked suspiciously like a stray cat that had been roaming the neighborhood last week. Bobby sat down, expecting whatever the gnomes were doing to soon turn into a game, but instead, the gnomes stood up and began to walk solemnly in a circle, chanting quietly.
Bobby knew what would happen—in a minute, they would start to act silly and noisy again, and, of course, they did. And then he expected them to break out dancing, and, of course, they did. He figured it was time for him to stand up and join in, and, of course, he did, starting out by spinning around and laughing loudly in the center of the circle.
It was only when he tried to leave the center and join the circle that he realized something was wrong.
Bobby ran into an invisible wall after walking three feet or so, just inside where the gnomes circled around him. He tried to move out into the circle on another side, and he was trapped there, too.
He put his hands up in front of him and felt along the invisible barrier. It went all the way around him, following the gnome's circle exactly. He was trapped. He didn't know what to think.
"Gurrdenn?"
"Bobby", the gnome answered back.
"What kind of game is this?"
"Bobby stay. Bobby no school. No father take away. Bobby stay."
Bobby looked down at him, wide-eyed, then he shouted as loud as he could, "Mom! Mom! Help, mom!"
His mother poked her head out into the back yard and said, "Bobby, what's wrong?"
"Mom, can you come out? Please. I...the gnomes..."
Bobby could see that mom look worried. She walked quickly out to the garden and came over to him. Bobby thought she’d run into the invisible wall, but she walked right up to him and kneeled down. "What's wrong, sweetie?"
Bobby felt stupid for letting the gnomes trick him with one of their games. He reached out and took her hand and said, "Nothing, mom. I just wanted to know if you would color with me. Let’s go in the house."
"Sure, I've got a little while before I need to start getting dinner ready. Maybe you can even help me with that."
It all would have been fine if his mom hadn't walked through the invisible wall without him.
Mom turned back to look at him as his hand pulled out of hers. From knee level, a small voice piped up to him, "Bobby stay."
James kept his voice down as he talked into the phone, "Eamon, we've got unintended consequences in spades...you better get over here to the Moores’."
James turned around and walked back to where Sheila Moore sat on the ground with her arm around her son, who lay his head on her shoulder and looked ready to burst into tears.
James crouched down so that he was near eye level with the boy, "Hey, buddy, no problem. Eamon's on his way over, and between the two of us, we'll take care of it. If the world's most powerful wizard and a short guy with the world's ugliest hair can't sort this out..."
He'd hoped Bobby might laugh at that. He didn't.
The gnomes had gone about their business for the most part now that their god wouldn't be taking off anytime soon. The majority of the huddle was trying to scare up a bird or two for dinner in the ferns at the back of the yard, but James could see Gurrdenn lurking behind the birdbath, keeping an eye on Bobby and Sheila.
James stood up and walked toward him, "Hey Gurrdenn, come on out here for a minute."
The gnome walked forward and stood looking up at James.
"Let Bobby go. He won't leave you, but he needs to be freed."
"No."
"Gurrdenn, you should be reasonable. Bobby’s just a little boy."
"No."
"Sheesh. Well, thanks for that productive talk."
From behind, James heard, "Dinnae I tell ye not to try being reasonable with a gnome? Stubbornest creatures alive. Mostly, they just don't have enough room in their tiny brains to reverse a decision. No, we'll need something more powerful. Something a bit dangerous perhaps."
Eamon walked forward and stood half a foot away from the gnome, looking down at him. They stood and stared at each for a moment, neither one looking away despite the intensity of their stares. Then Eamon spoke, "D'ye know, I'm thinking that we could have Lizbet ask her pet elf to bring one of those dragons over from Europe. Gurrdenn, you've heard the tales, haven't ye? Isn't that why the gnomes ended up crossing the seas on the ships anyway, to escape them? To be able to go above the ground again without fear of being dinner?"
Gurrdenn didn't flinch. "Bobby stay."
"Right, like I said...stubborn. Join me on the patio, lad? I think we'll need to think on this at greater length."
Eamon called out to Mrs. Moore, "Sheila, could you join us for a moment? I have a request."
When Sheila approached them, Eamon asked her to try to keep Lizbet away from the house for a while. Morgan would be of no use, and having her there might make the situation worse, as Morgan truly hated gnomes. Sheila went into the house to make the call.
"Sure, Mrs. M, I can do that. Good luck...I'm sure that it won't go on for much longer…I’m sure James can help...and I can handle the Queen. She thinks I've been taken in, so it's no biggie to keep up the charade."
Tanji grabbed her car keys out of her purse, picked up her phone, and typed a text to Lizbet as she waved to Thomas on her way out of the apartment:
“pk u up at skl and eat at mine 2nite - parents sd yes”
Tanji waited for a response. It came back quickly.
“ok I will be out front”
Tanji slid into the driver's seat of the car and turned the music on loud. She wasn't looking forward to pretending she was enjoying Morgan’s company.
Morgan waved her hand in front of Mr. Hill's face and he started moving again. She tried so very hard not to throw her head back and laugh as she said, "Five o’clock, Mr. Hill. Time for us to go." The teacher looked at the clock, disoriented.
The other kids, who’d stayed playing cards and having a fine time directly underneath the nose of the frozen teacher, snickered as they followed her out.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mama Come Get Your Baby Boy
Sheila and Bobby put up the pup tent, and Sheila handed the sleeping bags in to her son. If he was trapped here, she could at least try to make it seem fun while they waited for a solution.
"You know what? What we need to really make this fun is some snacks...I have just the thing. I'll be right back."
Sheila went to the house and returned with a bag of snack-size chocolate bars she kept for Bobby's daily lunch bag treat. She handed one to him and peeled the wrapper off her own. Then, she opened her laptop and accessed the family’s streaming movie account and started up Bobby's favorite movie.
"Thanks, mom!"
"Well, it's a special occasion, isn't it? How often do you get to camp out on a school night, right?" Sheila said to the now contented-looking boy. She looked up to where James and Eamon were talking animatedly on the porch. "Honey, I'm going to talk to James for a minute, and then I'll be back to watch the movie with you."
Sheila walked up to the porch and sat on the far side of the table between James and Eamon so that she could keep an eye on Bobby in the garden, not that he was going anywhere any time soon.
She listened for a while as the other two talked about possible solutions to t
he problem but broke in when Eamon said, "Well, if the gnomes that cast the spell die, then the spell is released..."
"You're going to kill the gnomes? I don't think so!"
"Sheila, I'm sorry. I wasn't suggestin' that we do away with them necessarily. I'm just layin' out all the options...the thing is, and I hate to say it, but James and I might have precipitated this problem. We were tryin' to prevent the gnomes following Bobby to school, as they seem to be very protective of him these days. There was a second scuffle with another child, one of Bobby's friends..."
"I didn't know about that."
"No, the child wasn't badly hurt, and the school didn't know that the gnomes were involved...but it was gettin' out of hand, so we tricked one of the gnomes into putting up a barrier so that they can't leave the yard. We thought that would take care of things, but as ye see, now they won't let Bobby leave, either.”
"Well, I might have had a part in that, too. Bobby's father came by last night, threatening to take him back to his place. I stopped that cold, but Gurrdenn's always looking in at the windows for Bobby—it's been creepy lately, really. He might have heard us talking...it got...heated."
"Aye, that makes sense. If they feared he'd be taken away, that might cause them to restrict the lad's range of movement."
"Eamon, I don't care why they did it. And all of us did what we thought was going to be best for Bobby, so let's just find a way to solve the problem and not worry about who to blame."
"Sheila, we've not hit on a solution yet. I'll talk to their elders, and perhaps we can strike a deal with them in time, but it's difficult to reason with a gnome. If they believe somethin', it's nearly impossible to get them to listen to the other side."
