Winged Pursuit

by Lucia Ashta

  Gertrude met Arianne’s upturned brows with a touch of defiance and said, “He was right behind me.”

  “I’m here.”

  I blinked a couple of times at the man who looked very much like a younger version of Marcelo. Was he his younger brother? Were they all family?

  The young man moved next to Gertrude and said, “Welcome, Isadora. I’m Brave.”

  Again, I nodded, not bothering to care much that I must seem far less intelligent than everyone in this room, even the talking animals. This was a lot to process. Too much.

  “Brave is Marcelo’s nephew,” Arianne clarified. Either she was oblivious that I was completely overwhelmed and no longer able to function normally, or she was too polite to point it out. “You and your brother are the first students of what we hope will be many. We have a very important job to do, and if Mordecai’s runes pointed to you, then you’re an important part of our mission.”

  “That’s right,” Mordecai chorused. “The runes never lie. Though I thought they wanted me to recruit her brother, clearly they included her. Perhaps she’s even more important than him.”

  “Oh, I doubt that,” I said automatically. “My brother is better than me at everything.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Mordecai’s light eyes pierced me from across the room. The old man was intense!

  Arianne patted my hand. “Welcome to our Magical Arts Academy, darling.”

  Words I never imagined I’d hear. Words that had already changed my life.

  Chapter 2

  I was supposed to wait for one of the servants to come fetch me from my room and lead me to the dining room, but I’d grown restless waiting, and I wasn’t about to ring a bell to summon someone. They’d expected me to nap before dinner, but despite an exhaustion that weighed on every part of me, I couldn’t sleep. Not yet anyway. There was far too much to figure out before my mind would settle.

  I waited outside of the double doors, which I assumed led to the dining hall, and debated how long I could stand there without getting caught. I didn’t want to be rude and eavesdrop, but neither did I want to miss out of the key pieces of information filtering through the door when no one realized I was here.

  “We have to start lessons immediately, even if we only have two students at the moment,” Arianne was saying. Her lilting accent was unmistakable. Not even her twin’s accent was as thick as hers. “While more students are recruited, we can begin to test how things work and get operational. We have to, Mordecai.”

  “I’m not in disagreement with you, I keep telling you that.”

  “You also keep telling me that you’re going to go look for your brother.”

  “Of course I am. I can’t leave him out there, alone, without my help. It’s bad enough that he’s dead and in so many ways unreachable. I can’t abandon him.”

  Arianne let out a sigh far louder than was usual in a lady. “I’d never tell you to abandon your brother, and you know that. Family is everything to me. I faked my own death to protect my family. I didn’t even see Clara and Gertrude for most of their lives because of it. I understand loyalty to family. But Albacus is already dead.”

  “That’s your reasoning?”

  “Let me finish. Albacus is already dead. As much as that pains all of us here, the SMS can’t kill him a second time. They can, however, kill all of us, and if they do, what happens to the world? Without us, and those we hope to train here, what happens to the people of the world?”

  Mordecai didn’t retort, which made me assume that whatever happened would be horrible.

  Gustave said, “She’s right. What we’ve decided to do here is of utmost importance... and urgency. We need to get this school going now. Albacus would want us to move forward, don’t you think?”

  “Don’t presume to know what my brother does or doesn’t want,” Mordecai snapped harshly. Then, “I’m sorry, Gustave. I’m just on edge. I won’t rest until my brother returns to us.”

  “We understand, we really do. Albacus is important to us too. We’ve all become family now. We’ll find him.”

  “But our focus will be the school.” He sounded bitter despite his agreement.

  “It has to be, don’t you agree?”

  Mordecai allowed a long pause to weigh on the conversation before answering. “Yes, I understand. But if they do anything to hurt my brother....” It was a threat, to whom, I wasn’t sure. The old man was angry, and I didn’t blame him. If someone had taken my brother, I’d be fighting anyone I had to in order to get him back.

  “I think we should be able to search for Albacus while we continue recruiting.” Marcelo’s firm voice slid beneath the door. “It’s not like we have much of an idea where he might be anyway. We can search while we fulfill the rest of our duties.”

  “Of course,” Arianne said. “I’d never suggest otherwise. Albacus is important to all of us, as I’ve pointed out so many times already. But only those with recruitment duties can search. The rest will need to begin lessons. We can’t have Isadora sitting around idly. She and her brother need to learn, and Gertrude and Brave need to continue their studies.”

  Clara added, “And let’s not forget that we have to figure out how those sorcerers knew what they did about our wards. They shouldn’t have been able to get close enough to Marcelo to extract any part of him. Even a hair should have been impossible. He’s so careful with that kind of thing.”

  Ahem.

  My heart hiccupped erratically, and dread pushed against my chest.

  Then the doors to the dining hall flew open inward, exposing my eavesdropping. Marcelo glared at me. His eyes announced his fury at being overheard. “How long have you been listening?”

  I blinked up at him, trying to figure out what to say, when Arianne whisked gracefully from her chair and walked over to us. “Oh let her be, cher. She heard what she heard.”

  “And she shouldn’t have.”

  Arianne looked at Marcelo with raised, groomed eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you have done the same if you were taken from your home, shown that magic was real while wicked sorcerers tried to kill you, and then told little of what was going on?” She didn’t wait for Marcelo’s answer. “Of course you would have. She’s inquisitive, that’s a good thing. We want inquisitive students.”

  Marcelo worked his jaw back and forth. His eyes never wavered from me. Finally he huffed and returned to his seat, where I noticed that Clara reached for his hand—to calm him, I presumed—immediately.

  Arianne spoke over my shoulder. “Good to see you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence.” Her words were biting, but her tone wasn’t.

  I turned to find Brave and Gertrude behind me. There was a wild edge to Gertrude, which I attributed to her also being a cat. I tried to read their expressions to discover what they thought of my snooping, but neither revealed a thing. At least they don’t look angry or mean. That’s something, I suppose.

  Beyond Nando, they were closest to me in age. I wouldn’t mind having friends here. I’d never had any real friends beyond my brothers.

  Gertrude looked at me, then smiled at her grandmother, and slipped past me and into the dining room. Brave trailed right behind her.

  Arianne reached for me. “Come, darling, let’s get you some food. After a belly full and a good night’s sleep, everything will seem much clearer tomorrow.”

  I wanted to believe her, I really did. But somehow I didn’t think a night’s rest would make things much clearer. I’d entered a world so foreign that I felt as if I were drifting on clouds instead of parquet.

  I allowed Arianne to lead me to my seat at the end of the long table.

  “Now, tell us. How did you find your brother?”

  Her question startled me, I wasn’t sure why. I looked up from the napkin I’d been busy settling in my lap and sputtered, “S-still asleep. I have no idea how he is.”

  “Oh, I have the feeling you do know how he is,” Clara said. Her expression was curious, as if she were suggesting she knew
far more about me than I did.

  “How would I know how Nando is? Lord Mordecai is the healer here, not me.”

  “Hmm,” was all Clara said, looking smug.

  “I don’t know how he is,” I insisted.

  “All right. So how is he, Mordecai?”

  I looked to Mordecai, who looked just as smug as Clara, only also very, very curious. His light eyes gleamed intelligence, and it was suddenly easy to forget he was old. He said, “Oh he’s well enough, but I fear he sleeps now only because he doesn’t want to wake. He’d rather avoid the responsibilities of life by sleeping, and who can blame him?”

  No, that isn’t like Nando, that isn’t like him at all.

  “He’s recovered from the kill spell, and he was very lucky to do that. But I think because he was hit by the spell indirectly, and through glass, he managed to avoid the majority of its effect. I believe that now he sleeps only because it’s easiest. He’ll only wake if he decides to since he feels he has no purpose.”

  “That’s not at all true,” I snapped. “Nando is well and only recovering his strength. He’ll be awake by morning.” As the words left my mouth, I listened to them, really listened to them, and I couldn’t help but feel that they’d caught me in some kind of trap. I tried hard not to pout. I was in a foreign world of magic, and they were playing me!

  Mordecai clapped his hands, delighted. “You were right, Clara! She did know. She was just too stubborn to admit it. But with a little push, she spoke from her knowing.”

  I glared at him and then Clara. When I saw how non-threatening Clara looked, I dropped the attitude. “How come I was able to do that? I’ve never known how Nando was before.”

  “Are you sure about that, child?”

  “Yes.” Maybe. No. I didn’t know anymore. My noodle was twisted into so many knots....

  Mordecai chuckled and shared a look with Arianne, then Gustave, and finally Marcelo.

  “It might be the sibling connection,” Gustave said. “Arianne and I have always been able to feel things about each other.”

  “Yes, but you’re twins,” Mordecai said. “That connection runs far deeper than that of normal siblings.”

  “Not if she and her brother are particularly close,” Marcelo said. “If he assumes the role of her protector, that might change things.”

  “That’s right, my son, it might. We’ll have to keep an eye on this development.”

  “It’s not that big a deal,” I said. “It’s just an impression I have, not a knowing. I might be wrong.”

  “Oh, I highly doubt that, child.” Mordecai looked entirely too pleased with himself.

  “So, Mordecai,” Arianne said, “would you like to be the one to teach Isadora and her brother about magical binds and connections?” She was pretending she wasn’t roping in the old magician intentionally. Her expression was imbued with a false innocence I saw right through.

  But the old man didn’t seem to. “I doubt there’s anyone better to do it, so yes. We have to maximize every advantage we have. We’ll start as soon as the boy is awake. According to the girl, that’s tomorrow.”

  “And what of the runes and new recruits?”

  “We’ll do that too. We’ll do it all.”

  “Very well.” Arianne looked down to conceal her look of triumph. “Now let’s eat,” she said as servants entered with the first entree.

  I didn’t think I’d be able to eat with everything that swirled around my head. I was clearly wrong. The food was beautiful and smelled just as good. I was able to forget that I was sitting at a table with self-professed magicians in a supposed magical arts academy.

  Everything else waited while I soothed the hunger rumblings of my belly. At least this was one problem easy enough to solve.

  Chapter 3

  I woke with a start. I sprang to sitting in the unfamiliar bed and struggled to get my bearings. The room was large to the point of feeling cavernous, and nothing like my uncle’s house.

  What woke me?

  My eyes began to adjust to the darkness and made out a roomful of bunk beds. I was in the top bunk of a bed near the window. The curtains were drawn, making it impossible to look out. To draw the curtains I’d have to get out of bed, and I didn’t want to.

  I didn’t feel safe, and I was alone in a big, dark, unfamiliar room.

  A rumble so strong that it shook the walls made me gasp. But it was nothing compared to the roar that followed.

  Is that...? Another furious roar vibrated through the walls. The windows shook behind the curtains. That’s a dragon. It had to be.

  I clutched the covers to my chest and panicked. Are we under attack? Should I run to help? But what can I do to help in a battle of magicians? I don’t even know where the dragon is!

  But my thoughts waged their own private war with my actions. I thought, Stay here where you’re safe! My hands flung the covers off of me. My legs extended toward the ladder attached to the side of the bunk. I clutched my nightgown in trembling hands and climbed down the ladder.

  Go back to bed. No one will find you here. I shushed the wise council of my thoughts and ran barefoot for the door.

  With my hand on the knob, I paused, listening. All I heard was the anxious thumping of my heart. I convinced myself to open the door before my courage faltered. Nando was the brave one, not me.

  I ran toward my brother’s room at the other end of the long hall. I flung the door open without knocking, blinking away the darkness as I made out a room nearly identical to mine. Rows of bunk beds lined the walls and formed rows in the middle of the large room.

  Nando was against a far wall, in a bottom bunk, where he could be easily attended. I sprinted toward him. I stilled long enough to confirm that his breathing was as steady as it’d been when I checked on him last, right before I obeyed Arianne’s urgings that I get some sleep for the night.

  I looked around the room. Dark, still, quiet. He was as safe here as he’d be anywhere. If anyone opened the door and peered in, they’d assume it was empty, with him tucked away here in the corner.

  Good enough. It’d have to be.

  I grabbed his sword, left on the bed above him, and ran back to the door. The sword was heavy and awkward in my hands, far larger than the throwing knives I used to play with. It had been a game to me—or at least that’s what I’d convinced myself of. I’d never intended to use them as weapons in a fight.

  But I hadn’t planned on being recruited to a magical arts academy either. And this was only my first night here....

  I stopped only to pull the door closed behind me softly and then padded down the hall back to the central staircase. I was ready to tear up or down them, when I realized I had no idea where to go.

  I figured I’d see or hear the others running around the manor in panic, but there was nothing.

  I stood perfectly still, waiting, feeling out of sorts and out of place, wondering if I was stupid for standing there in the middle of the manor in my nightgown and a sword I didn’t know how to use.

  For too long all I heard was the beating of my heart, whooshing annoyingly through my head, and my breathing, too heavy for just running down the hall.

  But then it came again, and my reason for panic was renewed.

  The paintings, in their gilded and ornate frames, rattled against the walls that lined the hall. The crystal chandelier that hung a level below shook with the sweet sound of bells.

  A roar filtered down from above, so ferocious that every one of my instincts begged me to crawl back in bed and hide beneath the sheets. It transmitted raw fury, and promised vengeance and death. It shook me to my core.

  “I must be crazy,” I muttered aloud to myself as I made my way up the spiraling staircase. I didn’t know what the floors above me held, other than that they surely held an angry and ferocious dragon.

  “Welcome to Magical Arts Academy,” I mumbled as I raced up the stairs, moving the sword back and forth between hands and positions to find one that was comfortable; there was non
e.

  The spiral staircase narrowed and became less ornate past the third floor. When I reached the fourth and the end of the stairway, the decorations along the hall were much plainer, the flooring bare of the expensive rugs that covered the other floors. Servant quarters? No, they’re usually apart from the main house. More guest rooms? Possibly.

  I looked to either end of the hall. Both ended in a single door. Both might lead to the roof. Either might take me to a dragon and deliver me to a situation I was undoubtedly unprepared to deal with.

  Left or right? I went left. There’s nothing like determining your fate at random, I thought as I ran.

  Yesterday I’d woken up in my uncle’s house. Depressed at the prospect of another day under his oppressive rule, maybe. But I’d also been safe, free of dragons and wicked sorcerers. My life had been ordinary to the point of tears, but safe, safe, safe.

  Did I want to go back to that? Heck, no.

  For a second I steeled myself for what was to come—it wasn’t nearly long enough—and pushed the door open. I took the simple wooden risers two at a time. The tip of Nando’s sword bumped the steps a couple of times. I didn’t even bother to look if I’d scratched the wood. I had the feeling Arianne and Gustave wouldn’t care if I had.

  I pushed open the door at the top of the stairwell, and walked onto the roof of the manor. It was crenelated as if it were a castle, a detail that was hidden by the slope and ornamental eaves of the roof.

  But the manor’s crenellation was the least of my surprises.

  I’d arrived at a battle scene.

  And it wasn’t clear who was winning.

  Chapter 4

  The door clanged shut behind me, but no one reacted to the sound, and no one turned to look for who’d exited onto the roof. Everyone I’d met earlier was there, all in their nightwear, and all engaged in resisting a fierce attack.

  I stumbled backward until my back pressed against the door, Nando’s sword a weight as useless as my determination to come here.