by Amy Neftzger
“Good work, Kelsey!” a deep voice exclaimed. It was the voice of someone who knew her, but she was certain that she had never heard the voice before. She wondered if it had been the sound of the monster or person who had been following her on her journey. She wondered if she had fallen into a trap and the monster had finally caught up with her. She tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. She was still too weak.
“Are you the creature who’s been chasing me since the city in the rocks?” she asked, attempting to sound braver than she felt.
“That monster is the will of the people,” the deep voice replied. “And it’s been chasing me, not you.”
“And you’ve been following me?” Kelsey asked as she started to sit up and looked around. The movement made her dizzy, and she had to steady herself.
“Yes,” the voice admitted, “I’ve been following you. But you invited me, even though you didn’t know it.”
Kelsey stared at the ground until it came into focus again. She knew that the fall had disoriented her, but she had to stand up so that she could check on Silence and face the person who had been following her. When she regained her feet, she looked around and knew she had seen her first miracle. The deep voice was coming from Silence. But he had changed.
Chapter Twenty-One
A Season of Change
It was snowing. Nicholas noticed it when he heard a very loud but muffled thump coming from the orphanage grounds. It sounded like a single, giant footstep, but it was coming from every direction. As soon as he heard it, he quickly stood up and ran to the window. The leaves had all fallen at once and hit the forest floor like a thick blanket of autumn. Then he noticed the snow drifting down over the barren trees.
“Look! Something’s changed,” he said aloud to his friends.
“Something good or bad?” Maggie asked as she stood up. She didn’t really care. She was ready for any change. They had been waiting for the Pontiffs ruling for several days, but there had been no word yet. In the meantime, they had been without jobs or structure because no one knew what to do with them.
“There’s white stuff falling out of the sky. It looks like cotton,” Nicholas remarked.
“It can’t be anything good,” Jovan replied without getting up. He was reading a book and didn’t bother to look up as he spoke. “It’s Monday. There are no miracles on Monday. So whatever this is, it’s a bad sign.” Nicholas turned around to look at Jovan.
“It’s not Monday everywhere,” he said. “What if this stuff is coming from a place where it’s not Monday? Or a place where Mondays don’t exist?”
“We’re in a place where it is Monday right now,” Jovan insisted. “Today is Monday. Monday is this very moment. Monday is now.”
“I don’t think miracles know what day of the week it is,” Maggie said as she stared out the window at the flakes. They had a gentle appearance about them that she liked. She admired the way they floated down and drifted in the gusts of wind. These things couldn't be dangerous. They were too peaceful looking.
“Mondays have the power to stop miracles because we give them that power,” Nicholas said with conviction. He stepped away from the window when he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approach outside the door.
“The enchantments have been broken!” Taro exclaimed as he burst into the room. “We need to find everyone. This is important! Go look for all the people you can find and tell them to get to the assembly hall right away.”
“Everyone?” Maggie exclaimed.
“Yes. The guardians want us to protect the miracles. They’re going to give us all instructions. There’s no time to waste!”
“What’s happened?”
“It’s not safe.” Taro spoke quickly. “The orphanage was protected by enchantments, but they’ve been broken. Anyone can get in now.”
“Who broke them?”
“We don’t know yet, but this has never happened before,” Taro shouted. “It could be the sorcerer. In fact, the Pontiffs believe that it is him. They think he’s come for the miracles.”
***
In the assembly hall, Maggie stood close to the tall windows and watched the flakes as they floated down to rest on the ground. Some of them disappeared as they landed, but a few were sticking to the blades of grass.
“They’re beautiful, don’t you think?” she asked Nicholas, who was sitting next to her.
“I suppose,” he replied noncommittally.
“They could be lethal,” Jovan interjected.
“How? How could they possibly be deadly?” Maggie said. “You’re too logical.”
“There’s no such thing as too logical. I just use logic and you don’t.”
“Not everything can be explained through logic.”
“Like what?”
“Miracles,” Maggie replied smugly. “All miracles defy logic. That’s what makes them different from ordinary things.”
Jovan was too surprised at the cleverness of her answer to respond, and he felt a bit foolish that he had not thought of an answer so obvious. Suddenly, Mr. and Mrs. Pontiff entered, and everyone became quiet, so Jovan had an excuse not to immediately reply.
Everyone watched as the guardians rapidly made their way to the front and stepped onto the speaking platform. Mr. Pontiff looked over the crowd carefully before speaking. Most of the time when they had meetings, the Pontiffs looked over the heads of the children in the audience. This was the first time that Nicholas noticed the Pontiffs making direct and prolonged eye contact with the children of the orphanage. It was an awkward silence, but then Mr. Pontiff spoke.
“We never trained any of you for battle,” Mr. Pontiff began, “because we never thought that any of you would need to fight.” He paused for another long period as he looked at the children. He appeared unsure of himself. “Some of you know that the enchanted forest has been protecting the orphanage as well as the miracles it contains. It does this by placing fear into anyone who approaches it. If anyone attempts to pass through the magical barrier we made, the enchantments judge the person. Only children are allowed to pass through the barrier because their hearts are young enough to be open to the possibility of miracles and pure motives for seeking them.”
He paused in his speaking again, but the audience remained attentive. Aside from a few coughs and sneezes, there was no other noise. Nicholas scooted forward in his seat as he waited for the address to continue.
Mrs. Pontiff picked up the story. “The magical barrier we constructed has been torn and someone has entered the orphanage grounds,” she explained. At this, the children began to mutter to one another. The noise reached a high level before Mr. Pontiff raised his hands high in the air for them to be quiet.
“What does this mean?” Taro asked loudly when the other voices had died down enough that he could be heard.
“It means that we’re under attack,” Mr. Pontiff replied. There was more murmuring and discussion among the children until he began to speak again. “Quiet, please.” The children sat uneasily and looked at one another as they waited for him to continue. “As I said, we never thought you would need to fight, so we never taught you how to do so. But the time has come when all of us will need to defend the miracles that we were given to protect.”
“That’s not right,” Nicholas said quietly to his friends. “I don’t think the miracles were meant to stay here.”
“So we should just let the sorcerer take them?” Jovan asked back in a whisper.
“We don’t know if it is the sorcerer,” Nicholas insisted. A nearby student turned to them and glared at them to be quiet.
“We’re going to have to do the best that we can,” Mr. Pontiff continued. “We don’t have many weapons, either. But we’ll use what we have.”
“How will weapons help us against the sorcerer?” one of the other mentors asked. “He has magic on his side.”
“And we have miracles,” Mr. Pontiff replied. “We’re going to make slingshots out of tree branches and try to overcome him.”
“This is silly,” Nicholas replied to his friends. “If this is the sorcerer, then we’re no match for him.”
“Besides,” Jovan added, “What if he catches the miracles we throw at him and uses them against us?”
“I don’t think he can,” said Maggie. “Remember how everyone felt when we opened the doors to the courtyard garden? It makes me believe that miracles can’t be used as a weapon. They don’t harm people.”
Nicholas thought about her statement for a few moments before responding. He didn’t know very much about miracles. They were mysterious things, but he did know that when he created one that he wasn’t thinking about harming anyone. He was thinking about helping someone in need.
“You’re right, Maggie,” Nicholas said after he thought for a long time. “Miracles don’t harm people. They help or heal, but they don’t destroy.” Then he stood up on his chair and shouted over the heads of the other children. “Mr. Pontiff, do you have any other plans?”
“What sort of other plans?” Mr. Pontiff asked. “We didn’t even have this plan until moments ago.”
“There’s a war going on,” Taro interjected. “That’s why we’re here. The orphanage is supposed to create miracles to help win the war, and you don’t know how we’re going to fight?”
“We weren’t designed for fighting,” Mrs. Pontiff answered. “Our job was to create miracles.”
“And what sort of miracles have you created?” Taro asked.
The room became very quiet once again as everyone waited for the Pontiffs to respond. No one had ever challenged the guardians. Those who had argued in the past were cast out of the orphanage and banished from the grounds. But now things were changing. In fact, there might not be an orphanage if the sorcerer took control of it.
“I’m asking because the purpose of these miracles was supposed to be to help win the war,” Taro continued. “So it stands to reason that these also must be designed to somehow defeat the sorcerer.” The Pontiffs remained quiet as they thought about how to respond, but they were unprepared. They weren’t used to having to give answers. “But it seems to me that the real orphans here are the miracles, themselves.”
“That’s not true!” Mrs. Pontiff cried.
“You don’t know what we’ve had to do to protect them,” Mr. Pontiff insisted.
“No, I don’t,” Taro replied. “But I’m not convinced that the miracles needed protecting. I think you used them as an excuse to protect yourselves.”
“Miracles need people as much as people need miracles,” Nicholas shouted.
“You don’t know that!” Mr. Pontiff shouted.
“You’re protecting something you don’t understand,” said Taro. “But your protection hasn’t helped the children, the miracles or the war. And so it makes me wonder if your protection is in the best interest of the king.”
“That’s blasphemy,” Mr. Pontiff warned as his face turned red.
“Truth often sounds like blasphemy when it makes people uncomfortable,” Jovan shouted. He blushed at his outburst, and he felt himself turn even redder as everyone looked at him. He wasn’t used to so many people looking at him.
“So how do you expect to defeat the sorcerer?” Mr. Pontiff challenged Taro.
“I didn’t say I had the answers.”
“We’re in a bind,” Mrs. Pontiff said curtly. “This is not the time to question our authority.”
“Any time someone talks about destroying miracles or using them for the wrong reasons is the proper time to question authority,” Taro answered. “In fact, I think that if more of us would have questioned you long ago, that maybe we’d be better prepared now.”
“That still doesn’t help us now,” Mr. Pontiff cried out, his face turning red with anger. “We don’t know what to do right now to survive this attack.”
“You don’t even know if this is an attack,” Taro shouted, his temper rising.
“The magic in that barrier was very powerful,” Mr. Pontiff said. “Who else could get through?”
“The king,” Nicholas said quietly as he stared out the window.
“Yes,” Taro agreed as he met Mr. Pontiff’s gaze with an equally challenging look. “What about the king? Doesn’t he have magic that he can use, also?”
“Of course he does,” Mrs. Pontiff replied dismissively, “Everyone knows that.”
“That point is irrelevant to our situation,” Mr. Pontiff added supporting his wife’s statement and looking at Taro as if he was a fool.
“But it is relevant,” Nicholas announced loudly as he looked out the window and pointed to a figure down at the edge of the woods. “It’s the king. He’s here at the orphanage.” He wasn’t sure how he knew, but Nicholas recognized him immediately by his flowing red hair. He was positive that he’d seen the king before, but he couldn’t remember where.
“It is the king!” Taro exclaimed once he looked out the window and studied the far-away image. “And it looks as if he’s the one who’s removed our defenses.”
“It’s the sorcerer!” Mr. Pontiff replied with a panicked expression. “He’s come in a disguise to look like the king. He’s trying to deceive us into allowing him entrance to the orphanage!”
“I think it’s really him,” Taro insisted.
“It could be a trap,” Mr. Pontiff announced as he ran down the steps of the platform. “This is no time to challenge my authority. We’re under attack and being invaded by hostile forces.” He rushed over to the window to look for himself before replying. “I’ll go outside and look into this,” he said as he sped out of the room. He ran down the long hallways and out the front door of the building, followed closely by Mrs. Pontiff, Nicholas, Jovan, and Maggie.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Arrival
“You’re the king,” Kelsey announced in an accusing tone as she studied his flowing red hair and green eyes. “But you’re Silence!”
“Yes,” he admitted with a friendly yet mischievous smile. “And I’ve been with you the whole time.” He had changed in so many ways, and yet Kelsey knew he was the same person. He was dressed in a completely different outfit, as well. The rags and tattered clothing were replaced by leather armor and a deep, blue velvet cloak. The gauntlets covering both of his hands were embossed with the royal crest.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were? We’ve traveled together for weeks.” Kelsey felt awkward and didn’t know if she should curtsy or bow or continue talking to him as she would to anyone else. It was uncomfortable enough to be meeting the king, but to be meeting him after she had spent so much time with him was even worse. She had cared about him. She had loved him as a friend or even a brother.
“I did tell you, but you wouldn’t listen. You couldn’t hear anything I said because you didn’t believe that I could talk.”
“No one believed you could talk. It wasn’t just me!”
“That’s not true. Sure, most people thought I was a mute, but I had some wonderful conversations with the birds.”
“Birds don’t count because I can’t talk with them, either. And you didn’t look this way at all. I would have recognized you if you looked like yourself!” she cried out. “It’s not fair to trick people!” She felt silly as she thought about all the things she had said to him and the way she had behaved. So many of the things she said and did weren’t meant for the king to witness.
“People trick themselves all the time,” he replied as he kicked a few rocks with his polished boots. “People often see what they want or what makes them feel better. I simply altered my form so that only those who wanted to see me as I truly am could do so.”
“Megan,” Kels
ey announced as she thought back to the way the leopard had met them and taken an instant liking to the boy - the boy who was king. “She works for you and she knew it was you the whole time, didn’t she?”
“Of course.”
“And the sisters. They knew who you were!”
“They’re the descendants of Wisdom,” the king said. “It’s difficult to hide any truth from them.”
“They gave you money. All of them liked you right away because they knew who you were. They could see through your disguise, and I think they despised me because I couldn’t. Do they belong to you? Or work for you?”
“No one owns wisdom. It exists for those who choose to see it. When I ask, the sisters help me. But you saw how their assistance can be harsh at times. It can also be embarrassing. But it’s always useful.” Kelsey knew what he was talking about. They had been ruthless with her during some of their meetings while at other times they had embarrassed her. Every meeting had left Kelsey feeling uncomfortable. Wisdom and truth had a lot in common, she thought. After considering her interactions with the sisters, Kelsey’s mind wandered to her other friend - the one she loved the most, the one the sisters treated with respect and the one with whom they didn’t argue.
“Roland!” she exclaimed.
“He works for me, too,” the king confessed. Then he laughed as he placed both of his hands behind his back. “I knew you would love Roland because he’s so much like you. He’s also a hunter, when you think about it.” The king smiled broadly, but it was a kind smile. Kelsey saw the resemblance to the small, happy boy in the ragged clothes. As she watched him, Kelsey tried to make sense of all the things that he was telling her, but there were too many pieces of information for her to process everything all at once. She felt overwhelmed and decided to start at the beginning.
